Entries from: July 2009

CED Challenge Check-In: July 13 – 19

July 13th, 2009, Comments (27)

Ced2009Welcome, Creative Every Day Challenge participants! 

This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.

Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 7/13/09 - 7/19/09.

The widget below is 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! (If you're reading this in a RSS reader or email subscription, you will not see the "Mr. Linky widget", so click on over to the blog to use it.)

You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.

Join in the Challenge: To find out more about the Creative Every Day Challenge check out the details here.

If you want to sign up to be a part of the challenge, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know. 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 to participate!) Please email or comment to let me know you're participating before you start posting links in the comments or on the "Mr. Linky" widget.

Theme: The (totally optional) theme for July theme is self. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the self theme here.

Happy Creating!

Update: The Mr. Linky widget disappeared for a bit (new server switch), but it should be all set now!


Each of us, even the least complicated of us, is a vastly complex, endlessly fascinating creature, and the secret to creating art is to gain access to that creature and all that it knows. It is my suspicion that what appears to be talent is really just a doorway to a larger consciousness. As artists, we want to keep the door wide open all the time. -Cay Lang in "Taking the Leap"

Weekend Linkage

July 10th, 2009, Comments (1)

fishingforthemoon
fishing for the moon

The sun! Hooray! We're finally getting a stretch of sun here in New England and oh my, I just love it. I've got a busy weekend ahead with some traveling and then some visitors at home, so I shall leave with you some lovely linkage to entertain you while I'm away.

First off, Jamie Ridler's beautiful new site is up and running. Yay! Congrats, Jamie! To celebrate, Jamie is offering a special on the Your Creative Spark package which is filled with 12 inspiring interviews from creatives including myself, Goddess Leonie, Jennifer Lee, Andrea Scher, Jessie Marianiello and many more plus some fabulous bonuses. Through midnight today, you can get $10 off Your Creative Spark by entering the coupon code: "champagne" at checkout. Click here to check it out and get your copy.

Secondly, I'm offering free shipping on my artwork through the end of July! Pick out art to fill your space with inspiration and then enter "freeship09" at checkout! Bingo-bango-easy.

Third, The next Art Picnic is scheduled for Saturday, August 22nd, from 1-3 pm EST and I'd love to play and create with you! Check out all the details and sign up here.

And I feel like there's more, but all the rest and my journal wrecking will have to wait til later because I need to get a move on!

Wishing you all a wonderfully creative weekend!

Seeing Yourself in the Moon

July 7th, 2009, Comments (27)

ifthemooncametodinner
If the Moon Came to Dinner

Tonight is the Full Buck Moon and I celebrated in my favorite way by painting the moon, one of my favorite subjects. I have a couple new moon related pieces up in my art shop, including the one above, If the Moon Came to Dinner.

During the day yesterday, I was thinking about the Full Buck Moon and the Full Moon Dreamboard group that the fabulous Jamie Ridler runs on her blog (p.s. Jamie is launching a new website tomorrow with give-aways!)

fullpinkmoon

Jamie's group does the Dreamboards in a collage style, which I totally love. But I've also been enjoying doing painted versions of these dreamboards lately. Above is what I did for the Full Pink Moon last month. As I pondered the Full Buck Moon this month, I started to doodle in my sketchbook and drew a woman with antlers. From the circles hanging from her antler prongs I drew circles containing the things I wanted to bring forth.

buck moon red

I took the little sketch I made yesterday and made the mixed media piece above in my art journal. The hubster fell in love with it before I finished it with the words in the circles, so I'll be handing it over to him. To finish the process, I did a second one in my art journal (below), this time writing in the words of things I want to bring into my life, expand upon, create, and grow during this full moon cycle.

buck moon blue

To play with this idea for the self theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge you could keep in mind what you want to bring into your life during this full moon cycle and then try one of these methods:

Do a collage version: Tear through magazines and pull out any image that catches your eye. Don't think about it, just go with your gut. After you've pulled a pile, look at your selections and place the images that really sing to you on a piece of paper. Arrange to your liking, glue down, and then hang your dreamboard somewhere you can see it daily.

Write it out: Sit quietly, breathe, and ponder what you'd like to bring into your life. Then pick up a pen and do 20 minutes of free writing. You could describe your ideal day as if all the things you're desiring are already in place or just write freely about all the things you're wanting to draw to you.

Mixed-media: If you do the collage version, you could take the collage you create and paint over it, letting some of it show through. You could paint additional images on top of your collaged dreamboard. You might add writing to the collage. You could collage your own painted, drawn, or hand written elements into the piece. You might simply put some writing in an envelope and attach it to your collage. Or you could create mini envelopes in the collage to place one word, such as "money", "health", or "inspiration."

Paint: With the ideas of what you want to draw to you held loosely in mind, allow yourself to paint intuitively. Let yourself go with whatever colors or images pop into your head without worry about what it means. Keep painting until you come to a natural stopping point, then step back, and see what has come up for you. Put your painted dreamboard somewhere where it can continue to inspire you throughout the month.

Make a book: Create a small book or keep a blank journal where you can paste, draw, and/or paint images of things you want to draw into your life. I keep something like this by my bed and enjoy tearing images from catalogues and magazines and pasting them in. It's very relaxing.

Make a box: Collage a box as your dreamboard with images and words. Use it to hold collage material or written bits to put in future dreamboards or art journal pages.

Have you ever used any of these ideas? What other ways can you play with the dreamboard idea?

What is that you want to bring into your life during this full moon cycle?

Sound Shifts Stuff:
An Interview with Fabeku Fatunmise

July 6th, 2009, Comments (10)

fabekufatunmise

I'm so thrilled to be sharing this audio interview with the wonderful musician, artist, and sound healer, Fabeku Fatunmise!

I had hoped to have this ready for the month of sound for the Creative Every Day Challenge, but because of some technical difficulties with the recording vanishing temporarily, I couldn't do it. But the recording survived (phew!) and I just know you'll love hearing about Fabeku's work with sound and how it connects with art and creativity. Magical stuff. (Click on the link below to listen right here or right-click to download.)

Click here to listen

Fabeku Creation
Creation, Fabeku Fatunmise

Cymatics: During the interview, Fabeku and I discuss the science of Cymatics, which is the study of visible sound and vibration. It's absolutely fascinating to see how sound can impact form. (Turn down the volume if you watch the video.)

There's a great video introduction to Cymatics here and above is a demonstration of how it works, with sand on an aluminum plate. What blew my mind was how sound vibrations move the sand into patterns that look like mandala shapes or turtle shells. It certainly gives me pause about the impact of sound on the body when I see it like this.

Fabeku's New Website: Fabeku has just launched his brand-spankin'-new website, Sankofa Sound and it is awesome. Really. Go check it out. The about page alone is killer! I love the music memories Fabeku shares there.

You can also learn more about sound healing and how it works, schedule a session with Fabeku (in person or distance), and purchase one of Fabeku's amazing cds or downloads. I was also quite enamored with the collection of singing bowls he has for sale, each one in the shop has a recording of the sound it makes. So cool. Oh, and there's a blog too! Fabeku is also on Twitter as @fabeku.

Free Download! Yay!: Also be sure to check out Fabeku's fabulous *free* sound healing download right here. There are ninjas involved. Yes, ninjas. Go see for yourself.

Fabeku BlueDeer
Blue Deer, Fabeku Fatunmise

 Thank you, Fabeku, for sharing your work with me and everyone here!

CED Challenge Check-In: July 6 – 12

July 6th, 2009, Comments (15)

Ced2009Welcome, Creative Every Day Challenge participants! 

This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.

Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 7/6/09 - 7/12/09.

The widget below is 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! (If you're reading this in a RSS reader or email subscription, you will not see the "Mr. Linky widget", so click on over to the blog to use it.)

You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.

Join in the Challenge: To find out more about the Creative Every Day Challenge check out the details here.

If you want to sign up to be a part of the challenge, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know. 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 to participate!) Please email or comment to let me know you're participating before you start posting links in the comments or on the "Mr. Linky" widget.

Theme: The (totally optional) theme for July theme is self. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the self theme here.

Happy Creating!


Painting is just another way of keeping a diary. ~Picasso

Wreck This Journal with Smooshy Paint!

July 3rd, 2009, Comments (32)

I've been having a blast playing with my copy of Keri Smith's Wreck this Journal for Jamie Ridler's book group. Fun! If you missed last week's update, I brought my journal in the shower and gave it a good scrub. And it did not want to dry, despite being wrapped sweetly in its own little towel, so I took Lisa's advice and put it in the dryer briefly. I didn't want to start a fire, so I only got it mostly dry in there. When I took it out, it looked like this:

wtj curledpages

Oh my. So, I spent some time uncurling all the edges and now the book looks like it had a perm, but it's mostly fizzled out. Hehe. It's still a little damp, but I've carried on with it. I actually like some of the effects that writing on a damp page has. In this week's video you can see my current favorite page and then you get to see me in action, squirting paint and ink onto the pages to make a print. So purty! I already see something in the print that was made, so I'd be curious to hear what you see there! If I end up playing with the ink/paint blot further, I'll post a picture.


Making a video could be another way to play with the self theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge this month! You could simply show yourself live, read something you've written, make silly movie, or just share something about yourself. I'd love to see you! I know the first video I did for Wreck this Journal was really scary, but it's become a lot less scary with each one I do. It might be a fun way to strech yourself!  In the meantime, I want to wish a happy 4th of July to everyone in the U.S.! Happy 4th! And to everyone, I wish a wonderful, creative, fun-filled weekend!

Meeting Yourself Where You’re At With Art

July 2nd, 2009, Comments (16)

elephant night
elephant night

Art is one of the most soothing things I can do when I'm feeling cruddy. And yet, I still forget or I putter around without picking up the paintbrushes. It's a fairly simple task to pick up your pen and write or pick up your paintbrush and paint, but the starting can be hard. Especially if you have any voices in your head saying, "I want to make something good."

Phooey, I say. Let go of the making-something-good or making-something-special voices and meet yourself where you are, right now, in this moment.

It's true, it might not be pretty. It might not be what you expect.

elephant night detail
detail

Allow yourself to be surprised.

Simply show up and begin. Begin with simple tools. A few colors, a piece of a paper, a pen. Leave your fears of failure at the door. For just this moment, it doesn't matter if what you create is "good" or "bad." Just let something flow out. A few brushstrokes. A few lines. Where does that take you?

Last night, I started with a scrap of paper that I'd done some playful marks on previously. I wet part of the paper and grabbed a bottle of ink that my cats had playfull rolled down the hall earlier. I squirted some ink on the wet paper and delighted in how it spread and curled and formed fantastic shapes. I then squirted blue paint directly onto the paper, shapes began to develop. Orange came next, a field. And ink spots looked like houses. A figure appeared on the right side. I stepped back, looked from a distance, then peered closer. One of the house shapes looked like an elephant, so I made it appear. The sky was lit with stars.

Before I started painting I was feeling some angst about a variety of things, including the weather. But afterwards, I felt light and alive and more free. That's some of what expressing yourself can do for you. When you allow yourself to create, not what you might wish you were creating, but what you need to create now, in this moment, you'll feel more alive, more connected, more at peace.

This is what I aim for when I'm creating, this connection to where I'm at in the moment. It's the way I found myself creating in the art picnics I developed and it continues to be a magical experience that I just adore having.

How can you meet yourself where you're at in your art?

p.s. The next Art Picnic workshop has been scheduled for Saturday, August 22nd, from 1-3 pm EST. You can get all the details and sign up here!