Top 10 Signs You Need an Artist's Retreat Day

Borrowed from the Mad About Molds newsletter:

Here are the top 10 signs YOU might need an Artist Retreat Day.
1. You feel resentful about the success that other artists are enjoying.
2. You can't remember the last time you created something new.
3. You're bubbling over with new ideas and haven't had the time to develop any of them.
4. You've been staring at the same unfinished piece for longer than you can remember or care to admit.
5. You want to learn or improve a specific skill.
6. You have an approaching deadline for a contest entry, gallery submission or festival application.
7. You made a New Year's resolution about making more time for your creative work.
8. You feel like your flow of creativity is blocked.
9. You start to work on your creative projects but end up distracted by everyday life.
10. You always put yourself and your creativity LAST on the to do list.

(c)Linda Dessau 2005
Check out Linda's site here!

Sound familiar?

A couple of years ago I was scheduled to go to a weekend polymer clay retreat with the guild I belong to, but my car went on the fritz at the very last minute. At first I was just devastated, because I'd so been looking forward to the experience, but then I decided there was no reason why I couldn't just do the same thing at home. So for 3 days I mostly hung around in my jammies playing in clay, learning new things and polishing existing skills. It was a terrific weekend, and I have no excuse why I have not regularly repeated it. Come to think of it, I think that's what I'm going to do right now: sit down with my calendar and schedule some retreat time.