Entries from: January 2009
Bits and Pieces
January 7th, 2009, Comments (7)
A few people have asked me about the calendars of my artwork that I put up for sale last month. I only printed a limited amount and they sold out fairly quickly. I wasn't planning to print another run, but if there are enough people interested, I will print another small batch. Check out details about the calendar here and if you're interested in purchasing one, email me at leah0776 at gmail dot com.
And I've got some other fun news to share!
- I'm going to be interviewed on Ananda Leeke's internet radio program, Go Green Sangha this Sunday, January 11th at 7 p.m. EST. It's going to be a great show with two other guests that I'm looking forward to hearing from! Check out the guest bios here and then call in or listen online here on Sunday night!
- I'll also be interviewed at the end of this month by the lovely Jamie Ridler as part of her amazing book group that is working through The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin. There is a great line up of creative bloggers being interviewed and I'm thrilled to be among them! If you're interested in signing up for the book group, check out the blog here. I've read this particular book many times and it's one of my favorites!
- My piece, The Key to Winter is featured on the Co-Active Coaches "Creative Artists" group page here.
Looking for some help:
- In the future, I'd love to transfer my blog (which is run on Typepad) to Wordpress, mainly because I love the wonderful templates out there and also because I'd like the flexibility to expand this site in new ways. If anyone has any experience with this process, I'd love to hear your tips/suggestions and I'd also be open to any help with the process. Thank you in advance!
Playful Resources
January 7th, 2009, Comments (19)
Rowena mentioned struggling with the theme because she really wanted to take her creativity seriously this year. And I totally loved that image because I've been there myself oh so many times. Imagine me pounding my fists on the table and shouting,
"It's time to get serious! I'm going to be creative now and it's going to be amazing! Seriously! No smiling!"
Sounds inspiring, right? No? I know for me, when I get too serious or when I feel restricted in some way around what I'm creating, I tend to get all stiff and what I create tends to lack a certain flow. When I create from this place of "have to" and "should", the creation tends to have an energy that you may not be able to name, but you can see something is not quite right. It looks a bit, well, uptight.
Play helps me return to the good stuff, the inspiration, the sheer joy of creating. So, if you're feeling any resistance to playing, I want to whisper in your ear,
"Go play! See what happens!"
I watched the movie Chocolat this weekend. What a gorgeous movie! (And not just because Johnny Depp is in it. Ahem.) The movie is full of magic, gorgeous color, and a wonderful story. It definitely made me feel more playful just watching it. Are there movies, books, music, or other resources that make you feel especially playful?
Here are some of my favorite playful resources, some meant to inspire you to play and others to make you laugh (because laughter often leads to playfulness!) I'd love to hear some of your resources for play too!!
Movies: Chocolat, Amelie, The Never Ending Story, The Princess Bride, The Goonies,
Books: Eat Mangoes Naked by SARK, the Harry Potter series, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life by Nina Wise,
Music: Weird Al, Bjork, They Might Be Giants
Silliness: Lazy Sunday, Laughing Baby, Ninja Cat
Other ideas: Crayons, coloring books, doodling, dancing in your pajamas, making a fort in your living room (or from a large box like I did with my Grammy in the picture above)...have fun!
Creative Every Day: January 5th – 11th, 2009
January 5th, 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 1/5/08 - 1/11/09.
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, let me know how you'd like to be listed in the sidebar (I can list you as your name or as a link to a blog if you have one, a blog is not required!)
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.
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.
Happy Creating!!
"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." ~ Ray Bradbury
Heartland Play
January 4th, 2009, Comments (12)
I hope you are enjoying being playful this month so far! Today, I did some playing by brushing a wet brush on a caran d'ache water soluble pastel and using that to paint intuitively. What came out was this woman holding flowers with her heart outside of her. I brought out the image a little more with ink and colored pencil and I'm calling it "Heartland." It felt good to play and just see what comes out.
If you having trouble getting started with your creativity this month, don't worry too much! We all tend to work in cycles, so instead of beating yourself up when your production level isn't up to where you'd like it, take the down time and play with it! Perhaps you'd like to simply play with no end product in mind! Perhaps you can get down on the floor and literally play with toys, or color a coloring book, or make home-made play-doh. I love seeing the ways you've all been embracing play. I could spend 24 hours per day visiting all of you, but since I need to do my own playing and do things like eat and shower, I can't visit as much as I'd like. But know that I'm cheering you all on and I'll visit as often as I can manage. Please be sure to check out your fellow CED participants (in the sidebar) and see for yourself what everyone is up to. Here's a small sampling of the ways we're getting playful:
- Collage Diva, Kathryn is playing with adult-style blocks! Love it!
- Dolly has made a simply gorgeous creativity log.
- Thalia has created these super cool Artist's blocks (get it? hehe, I love a good pun.)
- Shayla is getting playful in her art journal!
- Claire has been playing with photoshop among other things!
I hope you've had a wonderfully creative weekend. I've got some fun things lined up for this week, so I'll be "seeing" you soon!
Getting Playful
January 2nd, 2009, Comments (28)
I think it's a fairly simple connection to make, play and youth. And while we can aim to never lose our child-like nature, there are lots of ways to include play in our creative adventures without returning to childhood.
In my experience, bringing the feeling of play into creating is essential in keeping the feeling of joy and fun in the process. Sometimes, I get too stiff. If I start feeling stingy with my materials, afraid of ruining that big canvas, or wasting that new art supply, I can get anxious. And that comes through in whatever I'm working on. So, how do you return to that playfulness, when you're feeling anything but? I want to explore this a bit throughout the month here and share what has worked for me.
I've found that you don't need to wait for inspiration, you can simply show up at the page and begin. You may be surprised what comes out! Sometimes, I just start to doodle and the doodle will suggest an image that will lead to an idea for a future painting. And sometimes it's just a doodle. Either way, it's a great release.
This year, I've also been participating in a sketchbook swap and I've been using it as a place to play. In the sketch on the right, I was just doodling a swirl, which suggested an umbrella to me, and then became this rainy scene.
So, how do you return to playfulness when your creations are getting stiff? I'd love to hear about it!
We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. --George Bernard Shaw
Happy New Year and The Creativity Log!
January 1st, 2009, Comments (28)
Happy New Year, you Creative Wonders! I've been working on a series of pages for a "Creativity Log," a way to keep track of your daily creativity. You can fill in the dates, so you can start anywhere and write something like, "1/1/09: Got creative in the kitchen, tried some new spices in a chicken dish" or "1/3/09: doodled in my sketchbook" or "3/5/09: Finished tree painting." There may be days that what we've worked on isn't something that can be captured in a picture and sometimes you may not have time to blog about it. But it is fun to look back and remember all the ways in which you were creative.
As my New Year's gift to you, you can save the image above, which is a .jpg, or click on the download link below to download the image as a pdf. You can then print it out and use it as you wish! I've got it divided up for 7 days, so you could theoretically print out one for each week to record a year's worth of creativity! Or you could use this as a model to create your own creativity log. I started out last year keeping track of my daily creativity and then let it slide as the year went on. Well, I do believe that what you focus on expands, so I think a log is a great way to further focus my attention and intention on daily creativity. Feel free to use or ignore on your own creative journey!
Download Creativitylog
Creative Every Day: January 1st – January 4th, 2009
January 1st, 2009, Comments (67)
Normally, I have these CED posts every Monday, but since the New Year is starting on a Thursday, I've created this post to run you through til the first Monday of the month.
Feel free to leave a comment on this post or use the widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 1/1/08 - 1/4/09.
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.)
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!!
Conditions for creativity are: to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self. --Erich Fromm
