Entries from: January 2009
Blogtalk Radio and Linkaroos
January 31st, 2009, Comments (5)
So, in the last interview of this week of interviews, tomorrow I'll be chatting with Connie of Dirty Footprints Studio on her brand-spankin-new blogtalk radio program. We'll be on at 11 am EST and you can listen in live, chat during the call, call in with questions, or listen to it later right here! Connie has a wonderful spirit and I'm really looking forward to our chat tomorrow. We may even talk about our mutual love for silly socks! And as a special bonus, you'll get to hear the radio lady with the British accent say, "Blogtalk radio." Heh.
I'm about to dive into some painting and play, but before I do, I want to share some linkaroos with yous:
- I highly recommend this blogtalk radio interview with the incredibly inspiring SARK. I believe part 2 of the interview is happening on Monday!
- Aurora of Foxy Art Studios pointed me in the direction of female surrealist artist, Remedios Varo and I fell in love! I'm picking up this book about her to learn more.
- Jennlui is starting an online Goddess Journey Women's Circle on March 1st. It sounds incredibly delicious!!
- The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks totally cracks me up.
Creative Tides and Art Picnics
January 30th, 2009, Comments (36)
...We also change like the weather, we ebb and flow like the tides, we wax and wane like the moon. We do that, and there's no reason to resist it. If we resist it, the reality and vitality of life become a misery, a hell. -Pema Chodron
Today, my interview with Jamie Ridler is up at The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women book group blog! I loved chatting with Jamie about creativity and surrendering to your creative cycles.
It took me some time to recognize and accept the creative cycles in my life. I'd get so frustrated when I was feeling uninspired. While waiting for my muse to return I'd end up feeling anxious, wondering if I'd ever feel inspired again, complaining about feeling stuck, sulking, and worrying. (All very unpleasant, by the way.)
But when I began to recognize that my creativity cycles in the same way my body, the moon, the tides, and the seasons cycle, I began to see the beauty in the down period, these winters of my creativity. Things get quieter and I tend to turn inward. There is usually some stuff going on internally, things that I'm processing that aren't quite ready to come out in the open yet. Instead of railing against this time and forcing myself to create when I'm not feeling called to, this an excellent time to collect, gather, play and moodle on things. It's a great time to wander the shelves of the library, watch great movies, doodle in my sketchbook, and take long walks. I've come to love these winter periods of my creativity as much as the up time!
What can you do to play with your creative down times?
One of my favorite ways to get playful with my creativity is to have an art picnic. All you need for an art picnic is whatever materials you have at hand, a comfy spot (I like to spread out on the floor with a blanket and pillows), and some dedicated time to play. I like to begin by giving myself permission to make "bad" art and then I jump in by selecting whatever material I'm drawn to in that moment.
I'd love to lead some virtual art picnics this year by phone! I'm thinking I'll do it in a similar style that Jennifer Hoffman does with her office spa days. Ideally we'd meet for about a half hour to check in, do some grounding, maybe do an intuitive art exercise, and then go off and have our own creative fun for an hour. Then we'd come back and check in again for a half hour at the end. I think it'd be a great way to plan for some pure creative fun with a great support system in place.
I'd love to play with you guys in a virtual art picnic!! I'll keep you all updated on my plans for them!
Switcheroo
January 28th, 2009, Comments (4)
Hey all! I'm in the middle of switching my blog over to wordpress, so things might be a little wonky here while I get settled. Thanks for your patience!
A Long Rambling Post about Interviews, Play, Money and Being Carded
January 27th, 2009, Comments (13)
Today, the lovely Sarah J. Bray of S.Joy Studios has interviewed me for her fabulous new blog, MaTweeps, where she features cool people (tweeps) who use Twitter! I jumped into the Twitter fray fairly recently and I have to say, I'm really enjoying it. You can see my MaTweeps interview with Sarah here and if you use Twitter, feel free to follow me where I go by @leah_art.
In her interview, Sarah called me an artist and creativity consultant, which totally tickled me. Now there's a label I can have some fun with! 
It just so happens that this is a week full of interviews! On Friday my 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women interview with Jamie will be up and Sunday at 11 am EST I'll be on blogtalk radio with the ever so sweet, Connie of Dirty Footprints!
Here's what I've been up to creatively:
This is the latest stage of my work-in-progress painting, which I'm calling "Listening" at the moment. More layers of paint, some waves at the bottom. It's coming along, slowly. I've been playing with a self-leveling gel which is fun, but a bit hard to capture in a photograph. I'm not sure where the next step is in this piece, so I'm going to continue to play with it and see what comes.
I've also been playing with my ideas of money. (So much to play with!! Seriously, I think I could spend the whole year with play as my focus!) I'm currently taking a class with the amazing Havi Brooks. I was on a call a couple days ago where the focus was on shifting your perception of money. It was suggested that we think of how we define money, the good and bad ways, and then try to find an idea or image that combines the two.
I wrote out some of my feelings about money: how it's something I want to hold on to, how it can be used for wonderful things, how it's scary, how it represents growth, how it's an energetic exchange. But an image wasn't coming to mind. Actually, the only image that came to mind was that of a sort of "money monster," but that wasn't quite right. So, I decided to sit down, write out some of the words, and then just start to draw to see what might come up. First I drew the scarier image on the left hand page. It ended up being a sort of "money monster tree" with tentacles that attached all octopus-like in my hair. And it was over me like a heavy, huge burden.
Then as I imagined how my more positive associations with money might tie into this tree image, I drew a different sort of tree, one that is light, resilient, growing, and energetically positive. It's fun to play with beliefs and perceptions through art and I highly recommend it to anyone feeling called to do so!
And since I'm rambling on and on, here's a funny story to close out this post. This morning, I heard a knock at the door. There was a delivery man with a package for the hubster that needed to be signed for. I told him the delivery was for my husband and I could sign for it. I put my hand out to sign, but he didn't move. He was giving me the strangest look, like he didn't believe me. I thought maybe he was thinking I wasn't married to my husband, like maybe I was a sneaky roommate trying to sign for his stuff, so I went in to get an id (and realized that I couldn't find my license anywhere. Doh!) I grabbed a bank card that had my married name on it, showed it to him, and then he finally hit me with his real concern,
"Are you over 21? Because you don't look it."
Oh! So, I laughed and told him that I was definitely over 21 (I'm 32) and then he let me sign for the package. Of course, I love being mistaken for 21 at this point. The only time I hated it was as a teenager when everyone thought my younger siblings were older than me. The most humiliating experience was when my parents took me out to celebrate the fact that I was going off to college that week and everyone (including my younger brother) was given an adult menu and they asked if I wanted a kid's menu. Ouch. Heh. I can laugh about it now! And I found my license this evening too. Phew! So all is well. Next time I get carded, I'll be prepared.
Creative Every Day: January 26th – February 1st, 2009
January 26th, 2009, Comments (40)
Feel free to leave a comment on this post or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 1/26/09 - 2/1/09.
The use of this widget is not required. It's an optional method of sharing your creativity that makes it easier for others to check out what you're up to. You can use it to link to a blog post or posts during the week listed. Or if you have a bunch of posts and don't want to link to all of them, you can link to your main blog page once. Do it in a way that makes sense and is fun for you! You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.
To find out more about Creative Every Day 2009, check out the details here and then if you want to sign up, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know (a link to my email is in the upper left sidebar.) When you contact me, please let me know how you'd like to be listed in the list of participants, which resides in the right sidebar (I can list you as your name or as a link to a blog if you have one. A blog is not required!) If you start posting links on the Mr. Linky widget without letting me know that you're participating, I may not see that you're new, so do let me know! Also, if you notice that your blog is not in the sidebar and you thought you had signed up, let me know, so I can get it up there as soon as possible.
There are some folks participating who do not have a blog and for some reason their names are linking to the CED info page. I'm not sure why that's happening, but I wanted you to know that when you click on a name that takes you to the CED page, it means that they don't have a blog at this time.
The totally optional theme for January is Play and February's theme is Words! I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the themes here and here.
Happy Creating!!
"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web" - Picasso
Intuitive Play
January 24th, 2009, Comments (16)
Over at the amazingly talented Tammy Vitale's blog, I saw a link to Susan Cornelis's gorgeous artwork. Susan has an incredible video about "contemplative sketchbooking" that connects so well to the theme of play, that I had to share it with you here.
Very cool.
This kind of play takes a certain amount of courage. There's risk-taking involved. There are lots of unknowns. This is the land of happy accidents, exploration, and yes...fun! There is a great sense of fun if we can let go enough to enjoy the process. Try playing with your chosen medium today, let one thing lead to the next. Turn off that over-thinking mind and see where your intuition leads you!
Leap and the Net Will Appear
January 23rd, 2009, Comments (20)
I'm loving re-reading Gail McMeekin's The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women. This week's chapter is all about taking risks. It made me think of the quote from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way,
Leap and the net will appear.
I've been thinking about doing this for awhile now and decided that with my year of leaping, now is the time! So....
I will be leading an online Artist's Way group this year, complete with a weekly teleclass and private blog. It would run for 12 weeks and I'd keep the groups fairly small, so that everyone would get plenty of personal attention. It will cost $300 for the 12 week session.
Having a group to help you through it is so helpful. Years ago, when I was getting back in touch with my creative side, I found an ad for a Artist's Way group that was led by a local yoga teacher. We met every week in her living room and discussed one of the chapters, the exercises, and our experiences with them. And in that small group of 5 women, I made huge shifts in the way I approached my creativity.
I've gone through the book many times now and a few years ago I led a large group of about 100 bloggers through the book. I loved the online group and met so many wonderful people, but there were times when I wished the group was smaller because it was tough to keep up with everyone. I've been interested in leading a group through the book for awhile and I think the online and teleclass forum provides a wonderful opportunity for us to connect and share this work even if we can't meet in person.
I'm thinking about starting up a group in late February or early March. If you're interested in joining me in a safe, supportive, ultra-creativity-boosting adventure, leave a comment or pop me an email and let me know, so I can keep you up to date!
CED February Theme: Words!
January 21st, 2009, Comments (33)
January isn't over yet, but I want to give you a little something to get excited about, the theme for Creative Every Day Challenge in February!
The *totally optional* February theme will be Words. There are SO many ways to approach this theme. You could:
- Play with writing (fiction, non-fiction, poetry.)
- Use words in your artwork.
- Combine writing and art in an art journal.
- Alter a book.
- Learn the definitions of words and see what it inspires.
- Pay attention to the words you use.
- Practice saying mantras.
- Write and send letters or postcards (to friends or yourself!)
- Bake letter shaped cookies.
How to use the themes:
- If you're feeling creatively stuck or blocked at any point during the month, use the theme as a source of inspiration to get you moving.
- In the case of words, explore how you can use words in your work, journal about what words means to you, or use one of the examples above!
- Using the theme is entirely optional for CED participants. Use it if it inspires you, ignore it if it doesn't.
- I'll be sharing posts throughout the month around the theme (among other things) to get you thinking about how to incorporate that particular theme into your life. Feel free to make suggestions or share how you use that theme in your creative worlds throughout the month.
- Feel free to focus on the theme in your creative activities for the entire month or as much as you'd like.
- Have fun with it!
Words are alive; cut them and they bleed. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Playing with Not Knowing and Winter
January 19th, 2009, Comments (23)
O.k., it's winter in New England, so I shouldn't be surprised by the snow we're getting whopped with here. But here I am, feeling surprised by all this snow. Why do I live here, again? Anyways, from inside my warm apartment, where the hubster has made delicious blueberry pancakes, the snow does look oh so pretty. As long as I never have to go outside...
Well, tomorrow I need to get myself to the post office to send off some artwork and calendars, so pretending I'm a hibernating bear won't work much longer.
I do appreciate the seasons, the cycles we have here, and no matter how many times I've gone through them, it still feels a bit new every time.
So I decide to play with the fun parts of winter, the child-like sense of wonder that manages to creep in when the world turns white. I play with winter by drawing fun snowmen with cats on their hats, wrapping up in colorful scarves, drinking hot chocolate...and maybe I need to find a sled.
In the Key to Winter painting, I worked out some of my feelings about the season. It seems like I work out so much of my innerworkings through my art. If I let myself just play, sketch, and wander with color, whatever is going on in my head eventually comes to the surface. (I just sent out the first print of this painting and I love the way it came out!)
I've drawn this image of smoke from upside-down houses a couple times now. One time the smoke seemed to come from the woman's heart and this time from her hair. What's that all about? Don't know. I might not ever know. It could be something I'm processing or something utterly absurd or a little of both. Heh.
Part of creating is embracing the not knowing.
While you're playing with your creativity this month, experiment with not knowing. You could try creating a piece of artwork with no plan, just taking pen to paper and see what happens. You could tear through some magazines and tear out any image that catches your eye (don't question, just tear). Perhaps put these images together in an art journal and then write a bit about what you see in the imagery.
Later this week, I'm going to write more about one of my favorite ways to play with not knowing...doodling! Til then, toodaloo!
Creative Every Day: January 19th – January 25th, 2009
January 19th, 2009, Comments (50)
Feel free to leave a comment on this post or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 1/19/09 - 1/25/09.
The use of this widget is not required. It's an optional method of sharing your creativity that makes it easier for others to check out what you're up to. You can use it to link to a blog post or posts during the week listed. Or if you have a bunch of posts and don't want to link to all of them, you can link to your main blog page once. Do it in a way that makes sense and is fun for you!
To find out more about Creative Every Day 2009, check out the details here and then if you want to sign up, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know (a link to my email is in the upper left sidebar.) When you contact me, please let me know how you'd like to be listed in the list of participants, which resides in the right sidebar (I can list you as your name or as a link to a blog if you have one. A blog is not required!) If you start posting links on the Mr. Linky widget without letting me know that you're participating, I may not see that you're new. Also, if you notice that your blog is not in the sidebar and you thought you had signed up, let me know, so I can get it up there asap.
There are some folks participating who do not have a blog and for some reason their names are linking to the CED info page. I'm not sure why that's happening, but I wanted you to know that when you click on a name that takes you to the CED page, it means that they don't have a blog at this time.
The totally optional theme for January is Play! I'll be posting about this theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the theme here.
Happy Creating!!
The world is your playground. Why aren't you playing? --Ellie Katz
