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Your Message

Now is the time to harvest. You have spent three weeks finding words that best expressed what is at the core of your artistic self: your verb, what you liked about other artist's journeys and the things that fascinate you.

This was not just a theoretical word exercise. You may have found it hard to choose among the many things that fascinate, the few that mattered above all. Picking these words, involved decisions, the beginning of a commitment.

When you pursue your journey in the remaining modules of this course and look at Design, Technique, Craftmanship, Fit-for-purpose, and Uniqueness, you will also use these words to help interpret and shape these voices.

Think of these words as both fellow travellers and teachers, road signs and destinations on your artistic journey. Because they have special meaning to you, they have the power to motivate you, to send you into the studio, to prompt you to do research, to haunt you when you wash the dishes.

Now is the time to open your bottle and review the words and phrases within. Assignment 1 identifies the words that define your message. Assignment 2 helps you create a visual representation of your message.

Defining your message

Clear your desk, and place a large sheet of paper on it. Write at the top of the sheet “Highly Motivating” and at the bottom of the sheet: “Less Motivating”.

Cut the top of your bottle and dump the strips on the sheet of paper. Move them around towards the top or bottom of the sheet depending on how you assess the strength of their motivation. By motivating I mean the extent to which the word energises you, makes you want to go into the studio and create, generate new ideas, prompt you to do research, explore.

Once you have completed this process, look at the distribution of words/phrases on the paper. Do you see new connections emerging? Move the strips around if you like, cluster them. Is the rearrangement creating new connections, new avenues of exploration? If you come up with new ideas, write them on a strip of paper, and put each where it goes.

These words and phrases have become part of your vocabulary for describing and explaining to others what you do and why, convincing yourself of the worth of what you are doing. In other words this is the context through which you can express the message of your work. Store your words in your treasury in the order you have put them on the sheet. We will use them again later in the course.

You can if you wish post your words as a comment under your baseline.

Leave a comment on my E-studio titled: MODULE 2 - Week8: Defining your message - Assignment 1 - to let me know you have completed the assignment. If you have trouble with the question, say so in the comment. Any feedback is welcome.

Visualizing your message

Create a visual representation of your words as I have done for my own words. See the article in the central column.

This is done with a free program on the internet at www.wordle.net/create. Wordle takes a bunch of text as input and represents repeated words in larger character size. Open a word file on your computer and create the Wordle text like this:

• enter each word or phrase. Repeat it as many times as you want to represent its importance to you;

• copy the text and paste it in the Wordle's window under the caption: “Paste in a bunch of text” then click on “Go”. Your wordle will appear;

• play with the “Font”, “Layout” and “Colour” tabs to change the look of your wordle;

• to readjust the word frequency if you like, click the back arrow, then the forward arrow in your browser. This takes you back to the input screen;

• when you are happy with your wordle, click on “Save to public gallery”;

• post this image in the Photo Gallery. To do this, you will need to save the image as a jpg. Click on “Open in Window”, obtain a screen shot (Shift + PrtSc) and save it in an image processing program. If you have trouble with this part, send me the link to your wordle in the public gallery, and I will save it and email it to you.

To participate in the discussions:

• Scroll down to My E-studio and click the Post titled: How to Become a Better Artist by Saxoflora (aka Christine Dumont). Note this is only visible if you are logged in
  

• Post comments or replies to comments.
  

Change the description in your Profile:

• Login

• Click on "My Profile" in the top right corner of any screen

• Click on "Edit Profile"

• Enter or change your description.

Upload images in the Photo Gallery:

• Login;

• Go to "My E-Studio" and click on "Upload Photos"

• Using the "Browse" function, locate a picture on your disk drive, then click on "Upload File"

• Make sure to enter a Title

• Keep your images to less than 1000 x 1000 pixels, otherwise you might encounter posting problems

• Make sure your image shows up in the Box titled "Photo Gallery" on the Homepage.

Post in your E-Studio:

• Login;

• Click on "My E-Studio" and click on "Add Post"

• Enter a Title in the Field "Post Caption"

• Below the line that says: "Post Text", you will see three lines of icons. Find the middle line and click on the little tree (6th icon from the left). Enter the URL of the image.
  

• Add text and follow the instructions.

• Don't forget to click on "Add Post" at the end.