Entries from: November 2008
Creative Every Day: November 17th – November 23rd, 2008
November 17th, 2008, Comments (7)
CED2008 participants! Feel free to leave a comment here with a link to post(s) about your creative activities during the week of 11/17/08 - 11/23/08.
Happy creating!
Assorted Business
November 16th, 2008, Comments (20)
Well, today's art-making was a frustrating experiencing. I was trying out a new material and it was going well until it suddenly went very wrong and the whole thing turned into a big gray mud puddle. Doh! I scraped it all down and started over, trying to just play at this point. And it was just one of those days where nothing was flowing. Somewhere along the way, I decided to let it go and ended up with this little elephant. He's cute, but the whole experience had me feeling a little cranky. Gotta let go. Experimenting is good, failure is even good and I did learn some things in the process. Here's my little elephant, which is acrylic on 6"x6" panel.
Ah well.
This week in Soul Coaching the theme is "Fire." And today's exercises have to do with facing your fears, listing them out and then imagining how you would survive the worst case scenarios. Some of my fears have to do with rejection, although these particular fears have lessened over time as I'm taking rejection less personally. It still bothers me, but not nearly as much. I hope to tackle some of my lingering rejection fears this week.
A big, huge thank you to Jamie for the Kreativ Blogger award!! Here are the rules:
-Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
-Post the rules on your blog.
-Write six random things about yourself.
-Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
-Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
-Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
6 Random Things About Me:
- I'm the shortest person in my family.
- I've dreamed about the sex of the baby (and been right) for all my siblings and a couple friends.
- I find slapstick humor (especially people falling down) incredibly (and stupidly) funny.
- I have a series of freckles on my face that if connected would make the shape of a lawn chair.
- I get all twitchy if someone repeats the same word over and over again.
O.k., so I'm supposed to tag some people. I've resisted doing it all together lately as I don't want anyone to feel left out. But I also know it's nice to receive an award now and again, so I'll pass this one on with the note that I'm overwhelmed by the multitudes of creative bloggers I've met through doing AEDM and CED. Seriously. You all deserve awards. For today, I'd like to nominate:
- Andrea of A Cat of Impossible Color, whose awesomely thrifted outfits make me wish she could manage my wardrobe.
- Jennifer of Life Unfolds for her incredible sweetness and boundless creative energy.
- Julia of Red Otter for her beautiful arrangements of inspiration.
- Shelley of Oiseaux for her stunning creations.
- Tammy of Women, Art, Life: Weaving it All Together for inspiring me with her gorgeous artwork and incredible energy.
- Judean (aka luf) of Sukeydookiedoo for being my bff and an endless source of support and creative inspiration.
Art Every Day Month, November 16th
November 16th, 2008, Comments (16)
Today is the 16th day of Art Every Day Month. You are doing beautifully. Keep on creating and also remember to celebrate what you've done instead of discounting what you haven't!
The box below is a widget that I provide each day as an optional place to share a direct link (blog post or flickr image) to that day's creation. If you don't have something to share today, don't worry about it! Share when you can. In the meantime, be sure to check out what other participants are creating! Check out the links from today's post, the previous day's posts and the links in the sidebar for instant inspiration. You can also see lots of great work in the AEDM flickr group. Feel free to share your work there too!
If you use the widget, please link to a specific blog post (or specific image if you're linking to a flickr page or other website) instead of your main blog page or website. If you want to share, but don't have a specific page to link to, feel free to use the comments section of this post to share what you're working on. If you're posting less than once a day, no problem! Simply use the latest one of these posts to share a link to your creation! For some, it's too much to keep up with posting every day, but don't let that get you down. Do it if you can and if you can't, just keep on creating, that's the most important part. If you get off track and miss a few days of creating, don't let that freeze you up either. Just pick up where you left off and keep moving forward. One foot in front of the other. You are making your life a more creative one with each step.
If you're new to Art Every Day Month, check out the before you use the link widget to share your creations.
"How does one become a butterfly?" she asked pensively
"You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."
-Trina Paulus
Wendy
November 15th, 2008, Comments (20)
I started playing with ink on wet watercolor paper, let it dry and then looked to see what I saw in the patterns. I saw a flying girl. When I began to draw her, she made me think of the story of Peter Pan when the children fly out the window. So, I'm calling her, "Wendy."
I spent the day with my dad and step-mom, having a delicious lunch and great conversation and now I'm rather zonked, so I'm going to leave it at that for tonight. More tomorrow!
Art Every Day Month, November 15th
November 15th, 2008, Comments (13)
Today is the 15th day of Art Every Day Month. We're halfway through the month! Crazy! I'm having so much fun creating along with all of you. Thank you for all your wonderful inspiration, creativity, and great energy!
The box below is a widget that I provide each day as an optional place to share a direct link (blog post or flickr image) to that day's creation. If you don't have something to share today, don't worry about it! Share when you can. In the meantime, be sure to check out what other participants are creating! Check out the links from today's post, the previous day's posts and the links in the sidebar for instant inspiration. You can also see lots of great work in the AEDM flickr group. Feel free to share your work there too!
If you use the widget, please link to a specific blog post (or specific image if you're linking to a flickr page or other website) instead of your main blog page or website. If you want to share, but don't have a specific page to link to, feel free to use the comments section of this post to share what you're working on. If you're posting less than once a day, no problem! Simply use the latest one of these posts to share a link to your creation! For some, it's too much to keep up with posting every day, but don't let that get you down. Do it if you can and if you can't, just keep on creating, that's the most important part. If you get off track and miss a few days of creating, don't let that freeze you up either. Just pick up where you left off and keep moving forward. One foot in front of the other. You are making your life a more creative one with each step.
If you're new to Art Every Day Month, check out the before you use the link widget to share your creations.
How do you respond when an inspiration beckons? Do you accept the invitation or disount it? By honoring a personal impulse and following where it leads, creativity is born.
-Gail McMeekin, The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women
Elsewhere
November 14th, 2008, Comments (24)
I came up for the general idea for this last night. I was moving between rooms and saw the remnants of a cut-out silhouette on my work table. I randomly picked it up and put it against a gessoed panel that I had out and liked the way it looked. I fiddled with it occasionally whenever I happened back in the room. And then before bed, I grabbed my sketchbook and was drawing and began to play with sketches that looked somewhat like this one. I was imagining a woman's thoughts being elsewhere, so I'm calling it "Elsewhere." It's about 6"x6" with acrylic, collage, and ink on a cradled wood panel.
Today in Soul Coaching was all about gratitude and I really enjoyed this focus. In the morning I woke up with a migraine. Denise Linn suggests turning around the things you don't feel grateful for and finding the parts that you are grateful for. So, I took my feeling of annoyance at my migraine and turned it around to feeling grateful that my migraine had woken me up early enough to get up and then come back to bed where I enjoyed an especially sweet snuggle with the hubster and my cat, Sadie. Then I turned around my feelings about the gloomy weather into a feeling of gratitude that I was inside, warm, cozy and dry. It's so good to remember the things we're grateful for and I am incredibly grateful for my life. I'm one blessed girl, I'll tell ya.
Well, the hubster is home from work, so I'm off for now. Hope you all have an amazingly creative weekend!
Art Every Day Month, November 14th
November 14th, 2008, Comments (13)
Today is the 14th day of Art Every Day Month. You're doing fabulously! Keep on keepin' on.
The box below is a widget that I provide each day as an optional place to share a direct link (blog post or flickr image) to that day's creation. If you don't have something to share today, don't worry about it! Share when you can. In the meantime, be sure to check out what other participants are creating! Check out the links from today's post, the previous day's posts and the links in the sidebar for instant inspiration. You can also see lots of great work in the AEDM flickr group. Feel free to share your work there too!
If you use the widget, please link to a specific blog post (or specific image if you're linking to a flickr page or other website) instead of your main blog page or website. If you want to share, but don't have a specific page to link to, feel free to use the comments section of this post to share what you're working on. If you're posting less than once a day, no problem! Simply use the latest one of these posts to share a link to your creation! For some, it's too much to keep up with posting every day, but don't let that get you down. Do it if you can and if you can't, just keep on creating, that's the most important part. If you get off track and miss a few days of creating, don't let that freeze you up either. Just pick up where you left off and keep moving forward. One foot in front of the other. You are making your life a more creative one with each step.
If you're new to Art Every Day Month, check out the before you use the link widget to share your creations.
I learned...that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.
-Brenda Ueland
At Sea
November 13th, 2008, Comments (26)
Ack! It's dark so early!! I was painting today and totally lost track of time. Isn't that a nice feeling? I believe I've finished up "At Sea" which is about 9"x12" on cradled wood panel with acrylic and ink and now I'm feeling a bit foggy. Time for a break.
For those of you curious about the Soul Coaching book I'm working through with a group, be sure to check out these great audio recordings from the author, Denise Linn. She reads a great meditation at the start of each one and then goes on to do a quick over view of the day's tasks. There was a bit of synchronicity in the meditation for today (day 12) which instructed the listener to imagine looking out over a stormy sea, which is just what I was working on in the painting above. And then outside the sky has been stormy all day. Is there a message in that? I tend to see synchronicities as a sort of wink from the Universe and a gentle affirmation that I'm headed in the right direction.
Hmm, I know there were other things I wanted to share with you today, but I'm at a total loss as to what they were! lol! I've been off in art-land a little too long and my brain has gotten as foggy as my painting. I'm off to have some tea and honey and hopefully wake up.
Art Every Day Month, November 13th
November 13th, 2008, Comments (18)
Today is the 13th day of Art Every Day Month! Do not worry about doing this perfectly! I wanted to say this to you today and so it was great timing when I saw in today's Soul Coaching entry, Denise Linn had written, "Once again, I would like to remind you to do what works for you. Enjoy the process, and celebrate what you have done." So, at this point in the month, celebrate what you have done! Throw perfection out the window and have fun with it.
The box below is a widget that I provide each day as an optional place to share a direct link (blog post or flickr image) about that day's creation. If you don't have something to share today, don't worry about it! Share when you can. In the meantime, be sure to check out what other participants are creating! Check out the links from today's post, the previous day's posts and the links in the sidebar for instant inspiration. You can also see lots of great work in the AEDM flickr group. Feel free to share your work there too!
If you use the widget, please link to a specific blog post (or specific image if you're linking to a flickr page or other website) instead of your main blog page or website. If you want to share, but don't have a specific page to link to, feel free to use the comments section of this post to share what you're working on. If you're posting less than once a day, no problem! Simply use the latest one of these posts to share a link to your creation! For some, it's too much to keep up with posting every day, but don't let that get you down. Do it if you can and if you can't, just keep on creating, that's the most important part. If you get off track and miss a few days of creating, don't let that freeze you up either. Just pick up where you left off and keep moving forward. One foot in front of the other. You are making your life a more creative one with each step.
If you're new to Art Every Day Month, check out the before you use the link widget to share your creations.
In order to have a real relationship with our creativity, we must take the time and care to cultivate it.
- Julia Cameron
p.s. If the link widget isn't showing up for some reason, just leave your link in the comments please! Thanks!
A Work In Progress – At Sea
November 12th, 2008, Comments (15)
Started this piece today, based on a drawing from my sketchbook. I rather like the way the sky is coming out so far. Right now, I'm letting it dry before I carry on with it. I'll do some more work on it tomorrow I suspect. There tend to be certain symbols that pop up in my work regularly. Right now, it seems that birds, water, ships, and women are coming up a lot. Trees and houses are also common, as are lanterns and the moon. I think of them as personal yet, universal symbols relating to my sense of spirituality. I try and explain a bit where my imagery comes from, but I love it when people are able to find their own story in the images.
Today in Soul Coaching we're looking at our relationships with others. I don't usually interact with many people during the day, but today I happened to be doing some errands and had an odd experience at the post office. When I walked in, the door you'd normally enter through was locked, but a woman was on her way out and opened it for me while saying she didn't know why it was locked. Once inside, I heard the postal worker behind the counter get annoyed with a man who asked politely for a zip code. The customer made a smart comment back and then softened it afterward. It was a little tense. I was next in line with a couple people behind me, but I could see a man with a pile of boxes in his arms trying to get in through the locked door. I left my place in line to open the door for him. The woman behind me decided I'd lost my place in line and moved ahead and started getting helped when the postal worker suddenly got steaming mad, shouting that the door was locked for a reason and then he rolled his eyes as he stormed out to put a box in front of the locked door.
I was a little taken aback by his reaction and at first I wanted to react defensively, apologizing for opening the door while explaining that the man's hands were full and he needed assistance. I also thought about suggesting that he might want to put a sign on the door saying "please use the other door," so that people would understand the regular entrance door was out of order. Having it locked with no further instruction was confusing. But when I got up to the front of the line, I didn't say anything. I acted polite and was conscious of trying to be kind to a man who looked very flustered and unhappy. I can't know what's going on in this man's life, but he always seems unhappy whenever I visit this particular post office branch. I decided being kind to him was the way I was going to react.
After the fact, I wondered if I had just wussed out of a confrontation, if it would have in fact been helpful to me and him if I'd made the suggestion about putting a note on the door. I wondered if I would have been able to say it without getting defensive (probably not without a few minutes to breathe and prepare) and I wondered whether or not it would have been welcomed advice when the man behind the counter seemed very perturbed. It felt o.k. to let it go and treat him with kindness, but I wonder if it would have been better to say something. What do you think?
This is such a small event, nothing major. But it is telling about my relationships with people. Denise Linn, the author of Soul Coaching suggests noticing how your interactions with others might reflect the way you were treated growing up, how it might mirror qualities you suppress, or how it might reflect your core values. Growing up, anger was not a welcome emotion. It's also in my nature to be a bit of a peace-keeper and considering the mood of the postal worker, it didn't seem like it was a good time to make a suggestion, even one that was practical. Interestingly, I also had a dream this week where I was so mad that I was yelling (something I rarely if ever do.) In this case, I think it was appropriate to let it go and move on, but I think it was also symbolic of pattern in which I say nothing under the guise of choosing my battles, not making waves, and being polite. It made me think about how in the future I might want to say, in a non-defensive way, what's on my mind.
I did pat myself on the back though for not taking it personally. The post office worker did yell at me and roll his eyes in my general direction. He didn't yell in my face, but to the room in general, but since I was the offending person opening the door, I knew that it was at least somewhat directed at me. In the past, I might have felt awful about that. I've always been sensitive to yelling, it just seems to set me off (usually into tears.) But today, I felt a little surprised, but calm and curious too. And I knew it wasn't about me, so it didn't feel like a personal attack.
Anyway, I thought it was interesting that this happened today with the focus being on relationships. I had a long chat with the hubster about it when he got home and I'm a bit talked out, so I'll end this here. See y'all tomorrow!
