Art Every Day Month Check-In: November 22nd
November 22nd, 2009
Today is the 22nd day of Art Every Day Month. This has been a difficult month for me in many ways, but one of the things I've really appreciated about it is how making art each day has helped me to process the hard stuff. I kept showing up at the page and it helped me through. And so I'm super grateful that I had this support system of Art Every Day Month to help keep me on track, to keep me showing up for myself. It made a big difference. Thank you for your support and for showing up for yourself. How has showing up at the page helped you?
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 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 AEDM info page for all the details, then send me an email to sign-up before you use the link widget to share your creations. (If that email link isn't working, you can email me at leah at bluetreeartgallery.com)
Instructions: Please see the Art Every Day Month Instructions post if you have any confusion about how to post your link or how to sign up.
Twitter: Are you participating in AEDM and you're on Twitter too? I'm on there as @leah_art and I've been using the hashtag #aedm to mark Art Every Day Month tweets. I also started a Twitter list for AEDM which can help you easily find Twitter folks who are participating. If you're not on the Twitter list yet and would like to be, send me a DM (Direct Message on Twitter.)
Look at the earth crowded with growth, new and old bursting from their strong roots hidden in the silent, live ground, each seed according to its own kind… each one knowing what to do, each one demanding its own rights on the earth… So, artist, you too from the deeps of your soul… let your roots creep forth, gaining strength. ~Emily Carr
14 Responses
Olympic mittens found small hands to model them at a LEGO robotics tournament. Pattern will be available tomorrow if all goes well.
Posted by: Rachel | Nov 22, 2009 at 1:10 am |
Hi Leah!
Your wonderful challenge has helped me meet so very many extraordinaty artist from all over the world. Thank you!
As I mentioned before, my challenge is to make the time to document my creations and post them, but I’m getting addicted to this challenge, what will happen in December :O
x
Posted by: Carmen | Nov 22, 2009 at 1:25 am |
it has been a tough week, and it’s been nice to have the challenge to give myself something to do for me in the midst of the other stuff. it’s also really nice to see the supportive comments from everyone- this has been great, thanks for hosting!
Posted by: marianne | Nov 22, 2009 at 1:35 am |
Showing up at the page every day has accomplished just that—made me show up every day and work on my art whether I really wanted to or not. I have a great tendency to put things off {boy, is that an understatement!!!} and I get side-tracked very easily.
This month I kept thinking every day that I better at least get a few beads wired on, take a photo…something to show for the day.
Except for today. I kinda took the day off……….
Posted by: pamq | Nov 22, 2009 at 2:09 am |
I love your post for today. My “mentor” told me that I should not worry if someone else lokks at a piece I did and says “anyone could do that”…she said..yes, perhaps they could copy that… but YOU are the one who thought of it, you are the one who gave it life to share with the world…
Posted by: Maron | Nov 22, 2009 at 8:29 am |
What a nice thought from your mentor, Maron. Thanks for sharing it with us – and thanks as always to Leah, for her encouragement and enthusiasm. It seems every time I’ve been disappointed in myself this month, a blog from Leah has popped up, saying in essence, “It’s ok! Do what you can and keep trying!” Very helpful and inspiring.
Posted by: Patty DiSandro | Nov 22, 2009 at 9:48 am |
Showing up on the page has taught me to trust in Serendipity.
Before I came to your page today, I wrote my post about how I have changed and grown as an artist. Last year this challenge got me back into regular creating. In the last two years I have gone from being almost completely blocked to participating in a cooperative gallery. This years challenge has just been a joy to me. A lot of days it has been hard to come to the page, but it has helped me get there. The support of this community has made me feel safe enough to share in public my writing as well as my art. I can not thank you enough for this challenge and what you do here.
Rennata
Posted by: Rennata | Nov 22, 2009 at 11:43 am |
Where to begin to list the ways in which AEDM has helped me? Mainly it has helped me get back into the habit of creating after over 20 years of doing almost no art. But it has also helped me to increase spontaneity, confront fears, let myself play more often, accept imperfection, appreciate error, gain confidence, have patience with the process of learning, and embrace and honor my self. And it brought me into this amazing art community of positive, supportive, and beautiful people. AEDM has been life changing in a huge way for me!
Posted by: Cheryl | Nov 22, 2009 at 12:07 pm |
i love that…keep “showing up” no matter how hard it feels. i’m feeling that in so many ways in my life. showing up, being in that difficult space, is where the magic really happens. so i stay there. i wait. i listen. i struggle. i practice. i breathe.
thanks for sharing!
Posted by: shannon | Nov 22, 2009 at 12:09 pm |
I am new to AEDM… today is my first day! I joined with just a week left in the month, but I plan on doing every day that’s left.
I won NaNoWriMo in 2007 and 2008 and this year life has me juggling too much to make another win possible, but I intend to reach 25k and will be happy with that. AEDM, however, is exciting because there are so many possibilities. Paint, colored pencils, crayons, collage… I can try a new medium every day and never get bored. And it’s self-contained, I don’t have to keep building on one idea like I do with NaNo. I will still try to do NaNoWriMo again next year, but I will also be doing AEDM.
Posted by: Michelle Halpern | Nov 22, 2009 at 8:12 pm |
Posting late but better than not at all, right? My offering today includes a link for downloading a set of high resolution Photoshop brushes that I made.
Posted by: Sue O’Kieffe | Nov 22, 2009 at 8:14 pm |
i love the power of the blue
Posted by: lilas | Nov 22, 2009 at 10:58 pm |
This AEDM has really helped me to meet some new artist friends and it has challenged me to try and be a little more creative each day and I have tried a few new things along the way. Showing up is half the battle as you say, but I find that it is even harder to just post some things that I might not be as happy with as I would like to be and just see what kind of reaction you get. Sometimes other seem to like the things I don’t care for as much. It’s interesting.
My Day #21 is up now. I took a “soul feeding” diversion trip instead of creating art.
Posted by: Diane M. McKnight | Nov 23, 2009 at 1:41 am |
Challenged myself with tiny portraits. It actually looked good when I was finished and then I had ice cream in celebration.
Thank you so much for this. It has helped me to find that part of my life that was missing. I don’t know why I always put art on the bottom of my list. It makes me happy and I should do more things that make me happy.
Posted by: Chelle | Nov 23, 2009 at 2:56 am |