Creative Every Day Theme for March: Stories

February 23rd, 2010

At the end of each month I will announce the totally optional theme for the following month. March 2010's theme will be: Stories.

As always, the themes for the Creative Every Day Challenge are totally optional. Use it if it sparks you, continue being creative every day in your own way if it doesn't, or do something in between.

I'm thinking of this theme in terms of telling stories, making art about our favorite stories, and examining the stories we tell ourselves. There are endless ways you can play with the theme and I'm open to any interpretation.

I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month on the blog to help keep you inspired. You can use the posts here for jumping off points or interpret the theme in your own creative way. If you need some suggestions, here are a few ideas to get you started. You could:

  • *Tell a story in a piece of art
  • *Illustrate your favorite story.
  • *Write a story of your own.
  • *Take a look at the old stories you tell yourself and make new ones.
  • *Make story books.
  • *Read stories out loud to your loved ones.
  • *Tell a story through dance.
  • *Re-imagine an old story and empower the characters to create better endings.
  • *Create a comic-strip.

How to use the CED 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. Feel free to focus on the theme in your creative activities for the entire month or as much as you'd like.

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 it into your life. I'd love to hear how you use the theme in your creative world.

And have fun with it!

p.s. The art I adapted for this post is from my mixed-media piece titled, Storyteller.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. ~Maya Angelou

24 Responses

Another great theme…. has my mind spinning with ideas!

This has so many possibilities! You always come up with wonderful themes that inspire us. Thank you.

Love this piece of artwork!
Great theme for March.

I have a writing/book project that is all about telling stories. Your theme is going to assist me in focusing in on “Mona’s Work” I’m looking forward to it! Thanks Leah

ohh Leah! I love your storyteller piece…its beautiful! I think this month’s theme is going to be a lot of fun! Thank you also for featuring me along with the other incredible creatives on last Friday’s post!

I love the piece of art above! Great theme and I already have some ideas kicking around!

Exciting! Love the stories theme!
Thought I’d share here that I went out on a limb today and posted one of my own doodles on my blog. I’m not a “real” artist – I just take pictures and write stuff that people seem to like. And I love to celebrate the art around me. What Leah does and most of you do day in and day out just floors me. It’s like singers who can open their mouth and just have beauty flow right out of them.
But I do love to doodle in private and have picked it up again lately…even bought my own sketch pad the other day…and decided to let the world in on my little secret. So, if you feel like it, take a look @ http://www.choosingbeauty.com.

Yay – now that’s one I can do. Story telling is sooooo much fun. Looking forward to seeing what stories others have to tell too ;-)

Oh, this one will be a tough one for me. I don’t think I have any ideas….Strange, considering that I’m a professional writer. Well, I can’t wait to see what others create around this theme. Hopefully something will come to me. Art is all about stretching and growing. So I’ll put on my sweatpants and await the stretching. I love this beautiful, mysterious piece, Leah, as usual. :-0)

Yay! Glad the ideas are already bubbling up for many of you!

Liv, so glad you’re putting your beautiful work out into the world!!

Sandy (and anyone else having trouble with the theme), let it percolate for the rest of February. I bet some ideas will come when you least expect it! And if not, the theme is always optional, so you can continue playing with an old theme or go in your own direction. Also, as people start to play with the theme, you may get inspired!

ooohhh! I love this theme since most of my work makes a story pop into my mind while I’m producing it!! This will be a fun month Leah =)

love your ideas for the “home”. will be really fun to experiment with. as always, thanks for your inspiration, leah!

This is such a magical piece, it’s another one of my favorites. I love the theme for March.

Leah your painting is perfect for this theme.Can’t wait to see all the stories.

Hmmmm….thinking…thinking…thanks for doing this Leah!!

I am so excited by this! Love love love it!

(Stories too often get a bad rap.. so I intend to put the good back into the stories I tell with my art!)

I am so excited about this theme! You are such an inspiration, Leah.

This theme, stories, really resonates with me. I have already begun…with mini-stories. I have given myself a challenge: A Melody a Day Little stories of my day-to-day put to music, recorded and put up on my blog:)

I am EXCITED!

Thank you, Leah, for such wonderful inspiration:)
Susan

Wonderful theme! I love your story image and love your style! Very cute, artsy, and inspiring. Thanks for adding me to the group! I look forward to being inspired alot!

I’m a little uncleat about adding the widget, though.

One of my stories is Angels among Us ~ which a tribute to my dog,Punky, who died February 26th ~ It is on my blog & I did manage to continue to create and now there is another story about “Repetition ~ patience?????” ~

So time has gotten away with me & I have not posted here.Enjoy ~ Namaste,Carol http://artmusedog.blogspot.com

Hi Leah,
Great idea as usual! Thanks for the challenge.

This has been a wonderful challenge this month. I am currently working on a book that uses the memoir my mother has written about living in and around Washington, DC during the Depression–and photographs of her that I’m both incorporating as is–and as montage illustrations.
This has not only captured my creative self–but given me a very special person to come to know better–my mother.
An added benefit is that my own oldest daughter is an active participant.
Lots of loving stories!

[...] the theme of the month for Leah Piken Kolidas’ Creative Every Day Challenge is stories.  I find that it has really helped my selection of subject matter when I ask myself, [...]

I loved this theme! It reminded me of all the positive changes I have made to my story. Thanks for suggesting it.

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