Entries from: March 2010
An Elizabethan Thyme Piece
March 30th, 2010, Comments (7)
I had the pleasure of collaborating with Janice of Postcards from Wildwood this month. Janice wrote the delightful story below and I created the illustration to go along with it. It fit so beautifully with the story theme, so I'm glad we were able to do it before March came to a close. Thank you, Janice for this fun experience! Enjoy the story everyone!
An Elizabethan Thyme Piece by Janice Heppenstall
Come, come! Over here in the bright sunshine! No, do not fear the bees. They are busy about their work, collecting pollen that will become one of the most prized of all honeys. Oh, I see you stop to admire my more extrovert companions, the delicious perfume of the purple-flowered lavender and the abundant pink and white striped blossoms of the Rosa Mundi. Of course they attract your attention; and I live constantly in their shade. My short, woody stalks and small oval leaves – even my summer cloak of tiny, lilac flowers – cannot compete in appearance. Yet – stay awhile: I am more than I seem.
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Thymus Vulgaris; but since we are to be friends you may call me Common Thyme. ‘Common’, yes. I have never entirely understood that. My Latin family name Thymus proceeds from the Greek thymon, meaning ‘courage’; and for those fine people nothing could have been less common than the meaning they attributed to my ancestors. The very expression ‘to smell of thyme’ indicated high praise for a person’s stylish and elegant demeanour.
Yes, indeed: I have a Greek root! I sometimes amuse myself wondering that all the thyme plants in the world must have roots reaching all the way back to Delphi. This would be bad news indeed for gardeners – except of course for those living and tending their plots alongside the great Oracle. And surely, then, thyme would have the reputation of being a dreadful pest to have in the garden – the mother of all bindweeds! And of course this is not the case.
Do you see the stone plinth beside me, and sitting atop the plinth a brass sundial? – Another joke, dreamed up by one, now long gone, who used to tend this garden: Thyme flies.
Yet, suppose thyme really could fly, as does our assonant twin in times of merriment – where would we take you on our fragrant wings? Back to the sun-baked Aegean hillsides of our youth? Perhaps. But it’s also true that Thyme is a great healer, and with this in mind I can think of no better spot than right here in the courtyard of this rambling house where I first put down roots during the reign of Good Queen Bess. It has not always been so peaceful, mind you. Such things I have witnessed! No less than 14 proposals of marriage (11 of them accepted); whispered plots against the Virgin Queen; first steps; and indeed, last ones. You see over by the Madonna lily? A dagger through the heart, it was. I never did trust those ostentatious white blooms...
But all that is in the past. Today, tranquillity reigns amongst these dependable red-brick walls. Here, at any rate, Thyme has stood still. Here, thanks to my good companion marjoram and myself, all the sorrows and ills of the past are cleansed. And to me, right here, you too have been drawn so as to benefit from my healing energy.
Here, take this sprig. Yes, break it off! It will bring you courage and energy. Place it beneath your pillow this evening and you will sleep the delicious restful sleep of the angels. But for now, just rest awhile. Feel your body become as one with the Earth, and breathe in deeply the scents, the beauty and the stillness that is your gift from this most delightful present.
(END)
Creative Every Day Check-In: March 29th – April 4th
March 29th, 2010, Comments (27)
This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
Join in the Challenge: You can sign up for the 2010 Creative Every Day Challenge anytime! Find out more and fill out the sign-up form here to join in!
Ways to share: Once you've signed up, you can leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a blog post(s) about your creative activities during the days of 3/29/10 - 4/4/10.
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) or flickr image 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 unsure about how to use the widget, check out the "How to use the Mr. Linky widget" section on the Creative Every Day Challenge page. (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.) If the Mr. Linky widget is missing from this blog post, it's probably a problem with their server and it will come back as soon as it's fixed. You can always leave your link in the comments.
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to. If you're on Twitter, there's a growing Twitter list of CED participants and you can use the hashtag #CED2010 to help others find your Creative Every Day tweets!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for March is Stories. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month and you can feel free to use it to inspire your creations, follow your own muse, or do some combination. You can find out more about this month's theme and some prompts to get you started with it here. April's theme is: The 5 Senses, which you can read more about here.
Happy Creating!
To be a person is to have a story to tell. —Isak Dinesen
Creative Every Day Theme for April: 5 Senses
March 27th, 2010, Comments (17)
At the end of each month I will announce the totally optional theme for the following month. April 2010's theme will be: The 5 Senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.)
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 exploring with our 5 senses, making art about them, creating art with them, and noticing how we use our senses to create. 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:
- *Create a poem from the perspective of one of your senses.
- *Capture a representation of each sense in a photograph.
- *Choose a favorite scent, and paint with a color that represents it.
- *Make sculptural or textured art that's fun to touch.
- *Get quiet to notice all the sounds around you, capture what you hear in writing or art.
- *Create delicious food art!
- *Train your power of observation with contour line drawings.
- *Collage an homage to your senses.
- *Try new flavors of teas, different spices, a new kind of chocolate: inspire your taste buds!
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!
I think this is true for all artists. My senses are very important to me. ~Sharon Olds
Stories in Expressive Arts: a chat with Silky Hart
March 24th, 2010, Comments (7)
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Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking with the lovely, Silky Hart, an Expressive Arts therapist who I've come to know (and adore!) through blogging. You can listen to our chat here by clicking on the link below or right-click (ctrl-click on a Mac) to save to your computer.
I was curious about some of the ways you might use Expressive Arts to explore the theme of stories and Silky had some fabulous examples of how it could be utilized, using work such as Playback Theater and the Five Rhythms. As another example of using her work to explore stories, Silky is generously offering a gorgeous, free pdf workbook, "Writing the New Story of Your Life: A story writing playbook to awaken who you really are." Wow, I've taken a look at it, and it's awesome! Definitely a fabulously creative way to play with your stories and work on creating new ones.
Click here to download Silky Hart's "Writing the New Story of Your Life" playbook.
Silky is leading an Expressive Arts and yoga retreat in Costa Rica from April 24 - May 1, 2010. And it sounds simply amazing. You can get all the details and sign up for it here.
You can find Silky online at her website and blog, Expressive Hart and on Twitter, @ExpressiveHart. Thank you again, Silky for sharing your fabulous self, your creative energy, and your gorgeous playbook!
Creative Every Day Check-In: March 22 – 28
March 22nd, 2010, Comments (20)
This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
Join in the Challenge: You can sign up for the 2010 Creative Every Day Challenge anytime! Find out more and fill out the sign-up form here to join in!
Ways to share: Once you've signed up, you can leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a blog post(s) about your creative activities during the days of 3/22/10 - 3/28/10.
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) or flickr image 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 unsure about how to use the widget, check out the "How to use the Mr. Linky widget" section on the Creative Every Day Challenge page. (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.) If the Mr. Linky widget is missing from this blog post, it's probably a problem with their server and it will come back as soon as it's fixed. You can always leave your link in the comments.
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to. If you're on Twitter, there's a growing Twitter list of CED participants and you can use the hashtag #CED2010 to help others find your Creative Every Day tweets!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for March is Stories. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month and you can feel free to use it to inspire your creations, follow your own muse, or do some combination. You can find out more about this month's theme and some prompts to get you started with it here.
Winner: A big congrats to Angie J. who won the spot in Kathryn's workshop! Kathryn will be in touch shortly with the details.
Happy Creating!
I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and your laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom. -Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves
A Story Experiment
March 20th, 2010, Comments (48)
To go along with the story theme this month, I had this idea to start a story and let you continue it in the comments. It could be like one of those campfire tales, where one person starts, tells a bit (a sentence or two or three) and then the next person picks up where the last person left off.
Let's give it a try! I'll share a piece of art (Leap) as a jumping off point, but feel free to take the tale in any direction you'd like. I'll start the first sentence in the comments and then whoever comes along next, feel free to write the next bit and so on. Have fun!
Storytelling & Collage: A chat with Kathryn Antyr
March 17th, 2010, Comments (53)
I'm so excited to be able to share this chat with the super sweet and creative, Kathryn Antyr! I've known Kathryn through the world of blogging for some time now, but this was the first time we'd had a chance to speak. And oh, was it fun! Kathryn is bursting with wisdom and insights about the creative process and the magic of telling stories through art.
I could relate so much to her collage-making process of letting go and allowing intuitive feelings to guide the process. I loved the way she talked about using art to re-tell our stories and I also loved how Kathryn is using the Hero's Journey as a framework in her Storytelling + Collage online workshop, What a beautiful idea!
Learn more about Kathryn's beautiful process by listening in to the interview below. Click the link below to listen or right-click (ctrl-click on a Mac) to save it to your computer and listen to later.
*Giveaway!* Kathryn has generously offered to give away one spot in her upcoming Storytelling + Collage online workshop! Leave a comment on this post by Sunday March 21st at noon EDT to enter and I'll announce the winner on Monday the 22nd. Good luck!
You can learn more about Kathryn on her blogs Collage Diva and True North Arts.You can also follow Kathryn on Twitter, @truenortharts. The collages in this post are all by Kathryn Antyr.
Thank you, Kathryn!
The giveaway is now closed! Thank you for entering! I will announce the winner tomorrow (Monday, the 22nd.)
Guest Post by Bridget Pilloud
March 16th, 2010, Comments (8)
Found Art Story
As long as I can remember, my dad has been making found art. My dad finds bits of metal and old things in dumpsters, junkyards and garage sales, and then he turns them into art.
When I was a kid, my nightlight was a 3-foot tall robot whose previous incarnation was as a parking meter. The only signs of his past life were the dome of his head, and a tell tale “Duncan Meter” embossed on his chest.
I like that my dad does this, because he takes things with stories that are seemingly over and turns them into things with new stories to tell.
Take his "Pig on a Pedestal," for example.It's a pig now. But prior to its porcine days, it was a faucet and a pipe.
I asked my dad, Earl about his process. He told me that he keeps his eye out for things, but he has no preconceived notion about what he wants to build next. Something interesting catches his eye and then he turns it over in his hand, and the next thing you know, he's turned it into a woman, or a pair of dancing figures or the six-foot-long steel earthworm that graces my mother's garden.
Perhaps this is how life is. When a story has played out in our lives, we have no idea, we have no preconceived notion about how something once functional, perhaps something we've thrown away can become new, can become a new story for us. We can be our own trash to treasure. We are mutable and transcendent.
***
Bridget Pilloud is the woo-woo badass intuitive guidance counselor over at http://www.bridgetpilloud.com. She teaches people how to tap into their intuition. Her first book, the little book of Bridget is in the works. Follow her on twitter here: @intuitivebridge. You can follow Bridget's dad on twitter too: @earldepearl . Perhaps someday he will tweet something.
Creative Every Day Check-In: March 15 – 21
March 15th, 2010, Comments (16)
This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
Join in the Challenge: You can sign up for the 2010 Creative Every Day Challenge anytime! Find out more and fill out the sign-up form here to join in!
Ways to share: Once you've signed up, you can leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a blog post(s) about your creative activities during the days of 3/15/10 - 3/21/10.
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) or flickr image 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 unsure about how to use the widget, check out the "How to use the Mr. Linky widget" section on the Creative Every Day Challenge page. (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.) If the Mr. Linky widget is missing from this blog post, it's probably a problem with their server and it will come back as soon as it's fixed. You can always leave your link in the comments.
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to. If you're on Twitter, there's a growing Twitter list of CED participants and you can use the hashtag #CED2010 to help others find your Creative Every Day tweets!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for March is Stories. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month and you can feel free to use it to inspire your creations, follow your own muse, or do some combination. You can find out more about this month's theme and some prompts to get you started with it here.
Happy Creating!
If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.
—Barry Lopez in Crow and Weasel
Itty Bitty Kitty Stories
March 13th, 2010, Comments (17)
I'm working on a new series of itty bitty kitties for my shop and these are the latest, "First signs of Spring" and "The Yarn Basket." As I create these little kitties, I'm always thinking about the little stories that go along with them. The Spring cat was inspired by a neighborhood cat with the same spots that I saw on a walk the other day. He was proudly carrying a mouse as he trotted down the sidewalk towards his house. I saw him again today, standing guard in front of his owner's garage. All cats have such distinct personalities once you get to know them, so I imagine that each itty bitty kitty painting has it's own personality too. I'll have them up in the shop soon.
In the meantime, some more links for you!
- I was interviewed this week by the fabulous Jennifer Hofmann of Inspired Home Office. She's doing a series about the everyday organizing habits of creative entrepreneurs. And while I would never think to interview me about organizing (ha!), I did have a fun tidbit to share that makes keeping track of my to-do list a lot more fun. You can listen to the interview and read Jen's post about it here.
- To celebrate the launch of Red Dress Studios, Ana Ottman is offering a fabulous (and free) ebook of advice from female entrepreneurs about how to build your confidence muscles. You can grab yourself a copy here.
