Entries from: August 2010

Creative Every Day Check-In: Aug. 30- Sept. 5

August 30th, 2010, Comments (17)

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 8/303/10 - 9/5/10.

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 August is the element of Fire. 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 August's theme here. The totally optional theme for September is the element of Water, which you can read more about here.

Happy Creating!


The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire. ~Pamela Hansford Johnson

Creative Every Day Theme for September: Water

August 29th, 2010, Comments (16)

At the end of each month I will announce the totally optional theme for the following month. Continuing with the elements theme, for the month of September, the theme will be the element of Water. As always, this month's theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge is totally optional. Use it if it inspires 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 exploring the idea of water in creative ways. You could play with water based media, go to sources of water for your inspiration, or play with the colors of water.

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:

  • *Play with watercolors or other water-based media.
  • *Take photos of water in still, moving, and/or frozen forms.
  • *Sit by a body of water and write (one of my favorite things to do!)
  • *Explore the colors of water in your art.
  • *Go for a swim, a float, or even a soak in a bath.
  • *Reflect on the fact that we are made up of up to 75% water!
  • *Paint creatures that live in the sea.
  • *Splash in some puddles!

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!

The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out. ~Annie Dillard

p.s. The art on the right is adapted from my Dive Deep piece, prints are available here.

Fire Underneath

August 26th, 2010, Comments (6)

I've been feeling a little fire-less this summer, but lately, I'm starting to feel an inner-fire kindling away beneath the surface. Sort of like in this painting that is all reds and oranges underneath, even though the top is all in blues. At the joining of sky and land, you can see a bit of the red poking through.

This weekend I'm heading north into the mountains for a wedding. Since it's a drive, we'll be staying at a B&B and I plan to soak up the sights and soak myself in the big bathtub in our room, the perfect place to start pondering next month's theme, which I'll be announcing soon!

Creative Every Day Check-In: August 23 – 29

August 23rd, 2010, Comments (23)

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 8/23/10 - 8/29/10.

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 August is the element of Fire. 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 August's theme here.

Happy Creating!


Playing to me, in those years, sounded like a house on fire. ~Leonard Rose

Playing with Fire

August 20th, 2010, Comments (14)

With the fire theme in mind, I had the inspiration to play with some red yarn on paper. I really didn't have a plan in mind, just wanted to play. I used some matte medium to hold the swirls and curls in place. After it dried, I thought I saw a few different images in it, which I brought out in paint until this tree emerged. Fun!

I enjoyed doing it although, I did not like the way the yarn felt on my fingers when coated in matte medium. Ick!

Hope you all have a magnificent weekend!

Checkity Check It Out

August 18th, 2010, Comments (10)


Yesterday, I got a copy of Four Word Self Help, Patti Digh's new book. I got an early copy because I have a piece of art in it, along with many other wonderful artists from around the world. You can find my piece, "Let Others In" on page 3. What a beautiful little book this is!

I also wanted to share Jess Larsen's website. She has started offering doula services in the Northern New Jersey area. I'm a big believer in what she does and was thrilled to have some of my work, including Spring Thaw (above), featured on her site. You can learn more about what she does as a doula here.

Creative Every Day Check-In: August 16 – 22

August 16th, 2010, Comments (25)

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 8/16/10 - 8/22/10.

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 August is the element of Fire. 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 August's theme here.

Happy Creating!


In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. ~Albert Schweitzer

Fire and Water

August 12th, 2010, Comments (14)

I'm a total water person. I'm soothed by the sounds of water, blue is my favorite color, and my sign is Cancer (a water sign), so it's an interesting challenge to focus on fire this month. As I was working on the piece above, a play between reds and blues, I received my weekly horoscope email from Rob Brezsny, which reads:

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Here's a thought from the Cancerian
philosopher Gaston Bachelard: "He who listens to the singing of the
stream cannot be expected to understand the one who hears the singing
of the flame: They do not speak the same language." While I mostly agree
with that poetic formulation, I think you're about to be a temporary
exception to the rule. Normally you are acutely attuned to the singing of
the stream; your skill at reading its nuances are supreme among the
zodiac. But I expect that in the coming days, you will not only have the
power to appreciate the song of the fire; you'll even be able to empathize
with and understand people who are entranced by the song of the fire.

How perfect is that?

When I read the horoscope, there was just blue below and red above. After reading it, I drew in the tree which intertwines the two. Are you resistant to firey natures? How do you bridge the gap?

Creative Every Day Check-In: August 9 – 15

August 9th, 2010, Comments (22)

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 8/9/10 - 8/15/10.

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 August is the element of Fire. 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 August's theme here.

Happy Creating!


Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow. ~Helen Keller

Fire Red Kayak

August 8th, 2010, Comments (6)

So much fun with the hubster yesterday out on the Charles River in a fire red double kayak (how perfect for the fire theme!) Man, what a workout! It was wild being out on the river, it felt like we were in another world, far from the hustle bustle. Everything but the tips of a tower were hidden by the greenery hugging the shore and our only company were birds and other kayakers.

I was inspired by the reflections and ripples in the water, the bits of flowers and trees that grew up in the middle of the river, and the birds sleeping peacefully while balanced on one foot. At the end of it all, I was quite cooked by the sun and paddling, but we had a great time. And the afternoon nap helped. :-)

My attempt to snap a picture of he and I in the kayak with my iphone didn't go so well, but you can see a bit of his hairy leg in there. Hehe. I hope you've all had a beautiful summer weekend!