Creative Every Day

Entries from: October 2008

Creative Every Day: October 20th – October 26th, 2008

October 20th, 2008, Comments (9)

Assorted Goods

October 17th, 2008, Comments (10)

Jenn has shared the link of my chat with the Co-Active coaches Creative Artists group and you can listen to it right here. I talk a bit about Art Every Day Month (AEDM), ways to get creative when you're feeling uninspired, and also lead an intuitive art exercise at the end of the call. I thoroughly enjoyed being on the call and chatting with like-minded souls about being creative every day.

One of the things that came up on the call was the difference between the Creative Every Day 2008 challenge (CED2008) and AEDM and I don't think I did a fabulous job at describing the difference then, so I wanted to address it quickly here.

CED2008 was born out of wanting to continue the sense of community and commitment to creativity that I felt with AEDM. Both challenges are very loose and flexible, so that anyone can feel good about joining in, so the two challenges really do overlap. If you're already doing CED2008, then technically you could be doing AEDM too. For me, because AEDM is a short-term challenge, just going for the month of November, I feel good about committing to creating and posting something every day (this is not required for folks doing AEDM, but it is what I commit to doing). I created CED2008 as a way to continue the commitment to creativity and for me that meant simply focusing in on my creativity and recognizing it without necessarily posting something every single day. That was how I approached the challenges, but I left it open for others to interpret however it felt good for them. Hopefully that makes the difference clear enough. Feel free to ask any questions though!

On to other things! I mentioned getting a sample of Golden's new Open Acrylics, three little tubes of titanium white, alazrin crimson, and blue. I'd turned off the Red Sox game because they were down 7-0 in the 7th and I just couldn't bear to watch anymore, well, go figure, they ended up coming back to with 8-7 in just two innings! I should know better than to count them out! So, I was all hyped up when I found out they won and decided to pull out those paints and just play while I watched highlights. I put out some red paint which turned into a mermaid (so many mermaids lately!) and later just started doodling what became two octopuses.

Open Acrylics are a new line of paints that are water-based, but have a much longer drying time. So, they're not like your typical acrylic paint. They stay open to manipulation longer, like oils. It was interesting to play with them. I'm used to the fast-dry of acrylic, so sometimes going back to paint over something was frustrating because the paint underneath wasn't totally dry. But being able to re-manipulate something with a bit of water was very cool. I'm kind of an impatient painter, so I'm not sure I'd use them on a regular basis, but I could see how they'd be very fun to play with.

Yesterday afternoon, I was feeling a bit rattled after reading far too many political articles about the weird and lame claims about voter fraud in Ohio and I needed some cheering up. This video totally did the trick for me. Thank you ninja cat!

Link-a-roni

October 16th, 2008, Comments (6)

I've got some links to share!

• First up, I've been getting emails and comments about Art Every Day Month (AEDM) and I'm so excited about it! It's going to be a great group of folks! Someone had asked about the AEDM button and it's there so that you can put it up on your blog to show that you're participating. If you need help figuring out how to post an icon, check out the tutorials I link to at the bottom of the AEDM info page.
• I've just set up the Flickr group for this year's AEDM which can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/aedm2008/. If you're unfamiliar with Flickr, it's free and easy to use and it's another place where you can share what you've been up to with AEDM. It's also a great option for those who don't have a blog, but want a way to share images of what they're doing!
• Nancy at Floating Ink shared a link to this you tube video of a "Font Conference." Whether or not you're a type geek, I bet you'll find this rather funny.
• The lovely Deb of Entertaining Infinity will be participating in a half-marathon in  January in order to raise funds for pancreatic cancer research, in memory of her mother. Go Deb! You can help out Deb's fund-raising efforts here.
• Christine of Paper and Cloth has a tutorial for an adorable bird mobile on her blog.
• Regina posted about her experience with trying out Golden's new Open Acrylic paints. I had received an email awhile back saying that I should have received a free sample (I think because I signed up for their newsletter? I don't remember.) I hadn't received any sample, so I just assumed I wouldn't be getting it. Well, last night after seeing Regina's post, I went looking online for some more information, wishing I had a sample to play with. And then today, I open my mailbox and there it is! I got three little tubes of paint to try out. Yay! I'll let you know what my impression of them is.

Mini Bites of This and That

October 14th, 2008, Comments (17)

Yesterday afternoon, the hubster and I celebrated our anniversary by heading into town and having lunch at the posh Four Seasons. We ate at the more casual lounge, the same place we ate dinner at the night after our wedding when we were on our mini-moon. The food we had that night was one of our favorite meals of all time and the highlight of it was the complimentary dessert they gave us as a sweet happy wedding gesture. We were SO full from dinner that night and had decided not to order dessert when this lovely little cake arrived at our table, presented to us on a plate with the word "Congrats!" written in chocolate. So we said to eachother, "Oh, we'll just have a couple bites." Forgetaboutit! The cake, in the shape of an over-sized candy bar, was the most glorious Boston cream pie I've ever tasted. So, we went back to the same restaurant for lunch to celebrate our anniversary and to hopefully have another taste of that magnificent cake. Thankfully, they had it. And oh, it was good. I should have taken a picture of it, but I was way to excited to think of that.

After lunch, we walked all over, visiting a book store (for me) and an antique coin shop (for the hubster) and we also took a peek at Ben Franklin's birth place which the hubster had read about while we were lounging around on our honeymoon last month. In the picture on the left, you can see a bust in the center building of Ben Franklin. It's across the street from the Old South Meeting House downtown. It was such a nice day and we saw people following the Freedom Trail and cooling down after a race that ran around the Commons.

I'm feeling a little off balance about the time. After being away for half of September, I missed a chunk of New England fall and so I'm a bit surprised by how far along we are in the season. It's like I looked up and all of the sudden it's full-on-fall! The trees are oh so pretty. It was fun just strolling around, holding hands, and marveling over the fact that a year has passed since our wedding.

The afternoon was full of sports watching. The Red Sox are in the playoffs and the Giants (the hubster is from NY) were on at night. And they both lost. That was a bummer. We managed to cheer ourselves up by taking the top tier of our wedding cake out of the freezer for a slice. That was kinda fun. A bit too much cake for one day though. lol.

Later in the evening, I played with paint on two different pieces, including this piece, "Underwater Tea Party." I had done the drawing earlier on a piece of watercolor paper and last night, after working on a larger painting, I used the leftover paint along with some ink to finish up this piece. I've been drawing little versions of this in my sketchbook and would like to do another piece along these lines. It was inspired by memories of underwater tea parties in the pools of my friends when we were kids. Did anyone else do that? We didn't take tea pots or dresses into the pool or anything, it was all imaginary, but we'd sit on the floor of the pool and pretend to pour tea and eat cookies. And later we'd pretend to be mermaids.

Gotta go figure out what's for dinner! Oh, but one more thing. I've created a couple new buttons for AEDM which will also live on the AEDM page. I've been using the same button for first 5 years with a change of color, so it felt like it was time to have something new. You can still use the old button or grab one of the new ones. It's up to you!

                                   

Art Every Day Month, November 2008, Coming Oh So Soon!

October 14th, 2008, Comments (18)

I just finished up a great call with the Co-Active Coaching Network's Creative Artist's group where I chatted about the Art Every Day Month project. And now, I'm even more excited for November to begin!

I have a blurb about Art Every Day Month (AEDM) and a logo in the sidebar, but I've also created a page (linked to here and in the sidebar) with the general details about the project including links to tutorials about how to post the logo. Here's a real quick summary for you:

• AEDM is a low-pressure, flexible challenge that runs every November in which I encourage folks to bring more creativity into their every day lives.
• I encourage doing something every day, but it's not required! If you do something once a week or once during the month, that's great! Make the challenge work for you.
• I will be posting something every day on my blog (and in a photo album in the sidebar).
• Art is meant in the broadest sense: paint, write, sculpt, photograph, decorate, doodle, cook, sew, knit, whatever!
• Join in by commenting or emailing me with your name and blog. If you don't have a blog, you can still join in!

Check out the page for more info. I'll post a link to a recording of the phone call when it's ready. I was super nervous about the call, but it was a lot of fun. Thanks to Jenn and Kathy, co-leaders of the Creative Aritst's Coaching group, for the great call!

First Anniversary

October 13th, 2008, Comments (23)

One year ago today, the hubster and I said, "I do." It was an absolutely beautiful day. The ceremony was one of my favorite parts, we wrote our own vows and they included a line about accepting an abundance of cat hair. Can hardly believe it's been a year, but at the same time, it feels almost like we've been married for ages. Happy anniversary to the love of my life!

Creative Every Day: October 13th – October 19th, 2008

October 13th, 2008, Comments (8)

The Weekend Update

October 11th, 2008, Comments (5)

So, I have some fun news to share! I'm going to be leading a discussion about "Art Every Day Month" (AEDM) on a call for a Creative Artists Coaching group on the Co-Active Network. It's a free call and if you're interested, you can register here. It's happening this Tuesday at 9 A.M. Pacific time. I'll be chatting about what I've learned through the past 5 years of doing AEDM, how powerful the group energy is, how the process aids self-discovery, and I'll be leading a fun exercise that can help you get started when you're feeling uninspired.

Jennifer Lee, coach, artist, and author extrordinaire invited me to lead the call. Jenn has participated in AEDM and one of the pieces she worked on during that process developed into the Right-Brain Business Plan e-book. Jenn was recently interviewed by Kimberly Wilson for her Hip Tranquil Chick Podcast (which you can listen to here) and she was kind enough to mention AEDM and the Creative Every Day website. Thanks so much for that Jenn!! What a lovely surprise that was. I love the idea behind the Right-Brain Business Plan (it's so up my alley!) and it was very inspirational to hear more about it.

I'm about to head into town for a lavish wedding. Last night I attended an over-the-top-fancy rehearsal dinner for 100, that probably cost more than my entire wedding. The groom is Indian and as we entered I was given a scarf and a bracelet and the hubster was given a red and gold turban. That was fun. We were on the roof of a hotel with spectacular views of the city and treated to an amazing dinner. At the end, all the women were given pearl necklaces. Holy moly! The wedding is tonight and we may stay in town. I'd love to check out the new parks that were opened up recently (part of the never-ending Big Dig) and even though we just got back from our honeymoon, our first wedding anniversary is Monday, so it would be nice to be in town to celebrate! With that, I'm off. Hope you're having a wonderfully creative weekend!

Peeking into my Sketchbook

October 8th, 2008, Comments (19)

I brought a blank sketchbook with me to Hawaii to draw and write in and since I got home I've continued to draw, sketch and doodle in its pages. I like how this one came out (above.) The blue color makes me happy. I'd been waiting to see where all the inspiration I took in in Hawaii would take me and I think I see some of it in these colors.

While I was in Hawaii, I was sitting in a chair and happened to notice the structure a mirror which made me think of a mermaid in this sort of stretch. Now, looking at these two drawings I'm seeing loads of curves. I've always been a fan of curves, but I'm sure the rolls of the ocean, the curved hills and mountains, the shape of fish swimming by, the half-circle of a turtle shell, the roundness of the sun and moon, all the curves, circles and swirls in nature brought that to the forefront of my mind.

I did some sketching on the plane too. I'm not a plane-sleeper, even though we flew first class (our first time doing that and it was lovely!). I have enough trouble falling asleep in a bed, never mind a chair. But I actually love flying, even at night because I love looking out the window, I get a thrill of traveling by air, and I like that time and space where I'm disconnected from the world and I can read and sketch, doodle and write to my heart's content. Here are two pages from my plane sketching below:

I've got some adorable, snuggly kitties next to me at the moment. I love how the cooler weather brings out the extra cute cuddles in them. Life is good and I've much more to share, but I've gotta fly for now!

Creative Every Day: October 6th – October 12th, 2008

October 6th, 2008, Comments (11)

 

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