Entries from: February 2008

Creative Every Day: February 18th – February 24th

February 18th, 2008, Comments (23)

CED2008 participants! Feel free to leave a comment here with a link to post(s) about your creative activities during the week of 2/18/08 -2/24/08.

Happy creating!

One of These Is Not Like the Other

February 15th, 2008, Comments (16)

Seems I've got a Sesame Street theme going on here. I haven't watched the show in ages, but looking at these stamp images brought the song to mind.

Still feeling pretty awful unfortunately, but in the gaps between my fevers, I wanted to try out my hand carved stamp yesterday. I took a quick pic of it today to share. Cute, eh? I think I need a real carving tool next time I try this, but this was a super fun experiment.

Boohoo, I’ve got the flu.

February 13th, 2008, Comments (12)

Had a fever all day and I'm feeling pretty miserable. But not to worry. I'm sure I'll be on the mend soon. I may be a little quiet this week though. I finished carving out the stamp last night with a few small touches this morning and I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

That's all I got for now. I'm off to get some love from the kitty coalition.

Be well. And happy creating!

I’ve got a sick hubster!

February 12th, 2008, Comments (13)

So most of my creative time has been spent trying to bring a flu-stricken hubster back to health. (The kitty coalition above has been helping too of course.) Poor guy. I have been doodling, sketching and reading while cozying him up on the couch. And I'm working on a super cute stamp! I haven't made a stamp in probably ten years, but I bought a speedball block to try out a while back. Today, I drew in fresh pencil over the design I had in mind, put it face down on the speedball carving block, rubbed the back to transfer the design and then began to carve it out. I thought I had a stamp carver tucked away in old art supplies, but I couldn't find it. I did find some old clay tools, which I'm using instead. So, this may not be the cleanest stamp ever made, but I think it'll still be pretty darn cute. Hopefully, I'll have a first try at using it with ink to show you tomorrow!

In the meantime, hop over to Mother Henna's lovely online gallery of art related to peace. My piece, "Lotus Heart" is up there now.

If you're in need of some artistic inspiration, check out Jen Worden's wonderful "Stretch Yourself Challenge," which is a weekly art challenge with loads of cool ideas and techniques to try out.

Lastly, I want to be sure to remind all you CED-er's out there that the Creative Every Day challenge is meant to be a low-pressure/no-guilt challenge. Don't be knocking yourself for what you have or haven't done. It's not worth it and it may scare you away from getting back to your creative activities. So, be sure to be playful, open your mind to the creative opportunities around you (super tiny to large and wild), and have fun with it!

...without darkness
Nothing comes to birth,
As without light
Nothing flowers.
-May Sarton

Nahcotta’s Enormous Tiny Art III

February 11th, 2008, Comments (10)

Nahcotta's etaiii

Here are a couple pics from Friday night. I managed to snap a few shots of the evening which can be found in my Blue Tree flickr album here, although I didn't get any shots of myself there. Doh! I was feeling incredibly shy the night of the opening, but I did manage to meet two wonderfully sweet artists whose art I adore, Jennifer Judd-McGee and Betsy Thompson. Seems like there are so many cool chickadees in Maine, some I've had the pleasure of meeting in the last year (hello to Jes, Tammy, and Susan!), it makes me wish I lived there! But I don't know if I could take winters any chillier than down here and there are certainly some cool people in the Boston area. Speaking of cool Mass. folks, thank you Mindy for coming out to see the show and I'm so sorry I missed you! The picture below is from Jennifer Judd-McGee's flickr pics and you can see one of my paintings along with one of hers in it.

It was a cold night with a snow and a chilly breeze, but the opening was packed! I sold a couple pieces so far and the show runs til March 9th. If you're interested in purchasing any of the pieces, feel free to contact Nahcotta directly.

Updated to add: Nahcotta has a flickr album with all the pieces from the show (my pieces are on pages 1 and 4 of the album. The prices are listed there.

I've gotta hit the sack. The hubster and I are trying to fight off colds. Thankfully, we have a pile of fuzzy kitties to help us get better. :-)

Creative Every Day: February 11th – February 17th, 2008

February 11th, 2008, Comments (16)

CED2008 participants! Feel free to leave a comment here with a link to post(s) about your creative activities during the week of 2/11/08 -2/17/08.

Happy creating!

Sketches and Art for a Snowy Day

February 9th, 2008, Comments (16)

I've been feeling a little run down, but I'm here and I've got a build up of sketches and art that I've been keeping busy with in my quest for every day creativity! First a sweet little blue bird that I'd like to paint up or make into a bold graphic with ink.

And then here's a few pages of sketches from my trusty sketchbook.

And lastly, I mentioned this quote by Hafiz in an earlier post, and yesterday I brought it to life. It's 8"x10" with acrylic and ink on watercolor paper. I got so caught up in painting it, that I lost track of time and was running late when I headed up to the opening last night. I'll write more about the opening tomorrow. Hope your weekend has been wonderfully creative!

“Subway Stories” at Nahcotta

February 6th, 2008, Comments (10)

Friday is the opening of the Enormous Tiny Art III show at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The opening runs from 5 to 8 p.m., so if you're in the area, do stop by for a feast of delicious artwork! I've posted all ten pieces along with their sizes and prices on the Blue Tree Blog.

Eta3hanging1

Nahcotta also has a blog and today they posted pictures of the gallery in mid-installation. I spotted my art in this photo above (click to make bigger.) My art is in the third group. I see Amy Ruppel's beautiful encaustic pieces, then another artist (not sure who) with really cool looking circle pieces!, and then a group of my art. I'm looking forward to seeing all the beautiful artwork in person! And I'll be sure to take some pictures at the opening too.

The Monster at the End of Your To-Do List

February 6th, 2008, Comments (19)

I really loved this post from Christine Kane. All her posts are great, but this one I thought might be particularly relevant to all the Creative Every Day folks. The article is all about "Creative Procrastination."

If like me, you are already a procrastinator in general, you probably also procrastinate with your creative urges. I think I've experienced all the symptoms that Christine lists. And it's true that fear is behind them all. Coincidentally (or not), I'd just been talking to the hubster about this...this recognizing what holds me back. And most of it is that big monster, Fear (of rejection, failure, etc...).  I've found that the best way to deal with fears is to move straight through them with a dose of compassion and firmness. Beating yourself up over what you've procrastinated about isn't going to get you any closer to your goals, so how to help yourself along?

I try to tackle something that scares me daily, even if that something is super-duper-teeny-tiny. No one else can judge what scary means for me, except me, so I decide. Yesterday that teeny tiny thing, was writing a magazine to get the name of the managing editor, so that I could properly address a query. And the wonderful is, the feeling of getting past that fear, no matter how small, gives me a boost. And suddenly that big monster gets smaller. Heh, I just realized I was picturing the monster as blue which reminds me of a book I had as a kid. The book was called, There's a Monster at the End of this Book. Throughout the pages of the book, Grover (a blue, fuzzy monster), pleads with you not to turn another page. He's terrified of meeting the monster at the end of the story. He begs and even builds brick walls while trying to prevent you from getting to the end where he'll have to face this monster. I always felt a little badly for Grover as I turned the page, but I did keep turning. And then you get to the end of the book and it turns out the monster is him.

Monsterattheend

How perfect! Just like in the story, the monster we put up all these walls to hide from, is nothing to be afraid of. Whatever the negative voices and imagined stories you've created, swirl together to create this big, scary monster, when in reality, the monster is yourself. And with a little compassion, you can see that this "monster" isn't so bad after all. And maybe like Grover, it just needs a hug.

I love to keep lists. I have to-do lists on nearly any paper surface within reach. But I've noticed that to-do lists are never-ending and when they start to fill up with scary things, I start to avoid looking at them. In the past couple of days, I decided to keep an "Already Done" list. I realized that not everything I do and feel good about is on a list and it's really helpful at the end of the day to look back and see what I've actually done. A sense of accomplishment is a major boost and helps keep me motivated to tackle the next little monster on my list.

So, if you're finding yourself stuck with a monster on your list of to-do's or a monster sitting at your crafting table, try showing him or her your list of "Already Done" and see what happens. What happens if we keep turning the pages? Is there a loveable blue monster on the other side of your to-do list?

p.s. More fun synchronicity...I had to get in my car before I finished this post and a song came on the radio with the lyrics, "there are no monsters under your bed." :-)

Creative Every Day: February 4th – February 10th, 2008

February 5th, 2008, Comments (13)

CED2008 participants! Feel free to leave a comment here with a link to post(s) about your creative activities during the week of 2/4/08 - 2/10/08.

Happy creating!