Keeping You Accountable and Motivated

Art is solitary work. And you like it that way. Often, though, you might want another creative to bounce off an idea, get feedback on a direction for a work in process, or celebrate a finished artwork or project. The Enso Circle provides that kind of community.

When you enter The Enso Circle Artist Residency, you are joining a small curated community of creatives who, like you, are excited about what they are doing and are engaged in the creative process. As a world community, someone is always online to answer that burning question about the materials or process. Do you need help? In the Circle, you can upload an image and get next-step feedback from artists you respect. It is as easy as jumping online and posting your question to the Help Channel.

We all have used social media to connect to art communities. Still, even when they are private, it is too easy to get sidetracked by interruptions with information and advertising on our feed. In the Enso Circle, we wanted a genuinely private community space where we could be ourselves and show our work. We found it in a user- friendly platform called Slack. Only some people like social media. Slack feels like something other than social media because the community consists of twelve artists/colleagues you meet repeatedly in weekly Zooms, in creative conversation, and sometimes even in person. Before long, Slack becomes a home away from home.

A community offers accountability. When we share our struggles and successes in the creative process, the residents help us do what we came here to do. To help us all stay accountable, focused, and self-aware, we've developed a weekly check sheet for our Enso Circle Residents (and ourselves) to fill out and share with the group. It is a shortcut summary of our progress, concerns, roadblocks, and solutions.

The Enso Weekly Check Sheet takes very little time but makes a huge difference in individual accountability. Lyn and I are attaching our version for you to try in your studio practice. Our residents love it and use it faithfully. And if you decide to join us, you'll be one step ahead already with your own Friday Check Sheet ritual. We'd love to know if you used this Check Sheet or something similar you developed. We'd love to hear about your take on accountability.

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