Entries Tagged as: animals
Elephant Love
November 5th, 2009, Comments (20)
Well, hello little blue elephant! Isn't he cute?
I drew this guy in my sketchbook a couple months ago and today felt like the right time to bring him to life in collage, paint, and ink. I went back and forth about whether or not to paint the elephant or the sky behind him in a warm color, like the bottom. But I like that the elephant is blue. I went back and forth, putting little pieces of paper on the piece to see how a different color might look and then putting the painting in different parts of the room to see it from different perspectives. And then I realized I like it for now and I can always re-visit it.
I work fairly quickly when I make art, but when it comes to processing things, I move slow. It's helpful when I get in that processing phase to let the art sit for a day, leaving it somewhere where I'll see it as I go about my work. After a day or so of doing this, I usually know what the next step is or if it's done.
If you're feeling stuck or unsure about something you're working on, give yourself permission to stop. Either move on to something else for awhile or just stop for the day and come back with fresh eyes the next day.
Happy creating, everyone!
Inspiration as a Way of Being: Guest Post by Jessie Marianiello, Stray Dog Arts
September 15th, 2009, Comments (10)
Inspiration: it comes in the form of Endless. It is a sidewalk, an interaction, the color fuscia or turquoise or rusty metal. It's an old truck, a vintage sign, an intelligent dog. Inspiration is the bends and fold of fabric. It is the potential. It is life in action. Inspiration is the way the morning light lands on a jar full of paint brushes or a pear or even just the air. It swallows me whole on a daily basis. It's a double espresso, a long hot shower, a shifting of the heart. It is molecular. And, in each instance, I am changed.
Inspiration is liquid. How else to describe the feeling that sparks somewhere behind my eyeballs, then flashes and flows like a brilliant river towards my lungs and gut and then to my brain. Inspiration is light. It breaks me open. Sometimes I get so inspired that I fear I will fall apart.
OK, but let me reign myself in just a little bit. How to talk about inspiration in a rational way? Rational-smational. Never mind. It doesn't have to be rational! It doesn't need to make sense! Inspiration doesn't need to be anything more than it is, which is what makes it Everything. It is the bursts that propels us forward on our strange journeys--and the more open we are to these journeys, the more profound and frequent these bursts can be. Inspiration is our guide. It leads us to the succulent, good, passionate stuff. It invites an entire gamut of emotions, and then some. It leads us to an authentic life.
Inspiration can be tiring and energizing all at once. It causes our skin to become thin and our hair to grow quickly. We begin to experience life more fully. It causes us to become strong and determined in places where we didn't know we had it. We transform into a conduit for the world around us--sometimes causing surprising amounts of tears and laughter, all in one gulp. Inspiration makes us feel alive. It removes the veil between our highest self and what surrounds us. It puts us in direct contact with an energy so raw and pure that it's a miracle we don't simply burst into light.
To me, inspiration has the physical sensation of my heart expanding. It expands to the point of feeling squeezed. Overflowing. Most often, I feel inspiration in the form of an overwhelming sense of love or connection. It makes my heart feel like a balloon that might pop. When I am feeling most inspired, tears will spring to my eyes or my entire chest region will freeze and rise up with a feeling of giddiness or excitement. I'm starting to get used to this odd reaction. I'm even staring to appreciate it. In the past couple years, I have learned a lot about listening to these feelings. If I don't feel like I might jump out of my skin with delight, then something is off. I need to listen to that, no matter how good an opportunity or "idea" might be. Leave the head. Enter the heart. Listen to your body. I've learned to become more sensitive to these reactions or lack of reactions--and I am learning to make decisions that effect my life and livelihood on these feelings alone. It took me awhile to finally figure out that the more engaged, stimulated, and inspired I feel, the more successful my endeavors become. Quite frankly, it is exhilarating.
But wait. Wanna know a secret?
Inspiration isn't something reserved for only the lucky few. Just like anything else, it can be learned. What? Did I just say learned? Yes, I did! But not from a book and not necessarily even from someone else. We are each our own most qualified Professor of Inspiration, we are each our own best teacher.
Remember that.
And trust yourself.
You are, after all, your own greatest expert when it comes to knowing what inspires YOU the most!
Inspiration is often an unexpected surprise. Amazingly, it's also a habit, a pattern, a lifestyle. It is a way of working, a way of seeing. It is a way of saying yes or no to the things that matter the most. It is a way of making room for the flow of energy. Inspiration is a way of thinking and being. Like any habit, it is a mental groove in our brain patterns. Believe it or not, we all have the capacity and ability to get really good at getting inspired. The trick?
Listen.
Listen carefully to those glimmers and sparks. Don't question them. Instead, move in their direction. Over and over. Just keep doing it. Feel a spark? Follow it. Another spark? Act on it. Feeling a glimmer? Go for it! Let me say this again: Inspiration is a feeling and every time we learn to walk towards it, rather than away from it, we get better at figuring out how to find more of it.
So here's the deal...
* Don't get stuck in your head.
* Surround yourself with people who inspire you.
* Give yourself time to breathe.
* Eat beautifully. Vibrant foods create vibrant cells create vibrant living create vibrant insights.
* Follow your sparks.
* Don't get bogged down by activities and projects that lack the almighty spark.
* Give priority to INSPIRATION!
* Explore new roads--literally and metaphorically.
* Stand on your head. (ie. Look at the world in new ways.)
* Nudge yourself beyond limitations. Despite what we might tell ourselves, they are usually self-imposed anyway.
* Permit failure. After all, failure is what shows us the way towards something even better.
* Pay attention to what makes you smile.
* And laugh.
* And cry.
* Look underneath things.
* Climb to the tops of buildings and trees and mountians.
* Paint.
* Doodle.
* Dance.
* Do things you've never done before.
* Be bold.
* Be brave.
* Sometimes, just be quiet.
* And never-EVER underestimate your power.
Trust the sparks. Trust yourSelf. Trust the process. Inspiration has the power to change EVERTYHING. Just remember: We are magnificent beings--especially when we give ourselves permission to shine.
Inspiration is contagious.
Shine on, my creative friends!
Be Brave.
Be Inspired.
___
Jessie Marianiello is a full-time artist who lives and works on a vineyard in southern Minnesota with her three dogs, two cats, and one husband. She loves strong coffee, is the creator of the Be Brave Project, and believes in creating a life that fills you from the inside out.
Jessie specializes in urban contemporary pet portraiture. Her goal as an artist and animal lover is to create artwork that honors the unique life force within each of us. She paints to tell a story. But, even more so, she paints because it causes her to experience more love than she often knows what to do with.
You can visit Jessie on her website at Stray Dog Arts or her personal blog at Diary of a Self Portrait.
What Inspires Me: A Guest Post by Goddess Leonie
September 4th, 2009, Comments (16)
I am slowly learning
not to look to others
for inspiration
but to find it instead
in the way the wind blows against my face
and how the earth feels beneath me when I walk it
and how my guides reveal themselves to me, wrapping me in their horse-scented
love.
Inspiration is how life looks and feels when Iʼm not worrying about
how I should change, or it should change...
and instead just trusting that who and where I am is just perfect.
Inspiration is my path,
with its luscious valleys and heart-opening mountains,
with the gentle weave of a river
bringing new blessings and lessons in my life.
And the truest inspiration of mine:
is discovering the Goddess inside me:
her story, her wisdom, her joy, her creativity,
that needs and wants to be shared.
___
Goddess Leonie is a Goddess Guide who helps women discover the wise, creative, joyful
Goddess inside them through art, e-courses & coaching. She lives in the alpine mountains
of Canberra, Australia in a rose-hewn cottage with her love Chris & their two hilarious puppies.
Visit her blog + website is www.goddessguidebook.com for more goddess joys + inspiration.
Check out her Goddess School to discover the spirited and creative e-courses she runs for women.
Seeing Yourself in the Moon
July 7th, 2009, Comments (27)
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!)
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.
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.
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?
Whale Tales
May 30th, 2009, Comments (16)
fishing
After writing the other day about the "Dive Deep" painting and the synchronicity with the whale tail in it, I was lying in bed pondering what whales mean to me and thought back to other times I've painted whales. I had an "Oh!" moment when I thought about the piece, "Fishing." This piece consists of a woman in a boat on the ocean in front of a full moon. Beneath her a whale is swimming and its tail has come up out of the water. I describe it in my shop like this:
In this image, a woman is casting out, reaching out for support and the whale's tail shows up to let her know that even though she can't always see it, she is supported always.
This is a spiritual image for me. The whale represents the unseen, the divine, the Universe, whatever you want to call it. I didn't write this in the description, but I thought of the whale's tail as symbolizing those moments I call "winks from the Universe." Winks often take the form of synchronicity or moments that are just too juicy to be coincidental.
If I see the whale's tail as a personal symbol of a divine wink or synchronicity, then the tail in "Dive Deep" makes even more sense. When I start experiencing a lot of synchronicities, I get this sense that I'm headed in the right direction. So in the "Dive Deep" painting I can see the tail as a sign to the woman diving that she need not worry, she's right on course.
Speaking of synchronicity, when I was working on the "Dive Deep" painting, I mentioned that I'd was painting a whale on Twitter and Jennifer Louden kindly recommended I read, People of the Whale by Linda Hogan. I haven't been reading a lot of fiction lately, but I couldn't resist a title like that, so I requested it at my local library. Well, it arrived on the day I finished painting "Dive Deep," but I wasn't able to pick it up right away. I hadn't painted the octopus into the painting when Jennifer recommended the book. It appeared after the whale.
I was finally able to pick up the book this afternoon, opened it up, and the first chapter is titled, "Octopus." I grinned reading it. The first paragraph tells the story of an octopus that "left the water and walked on all eight legs across land and into Seal Cave." Oh yes, and on the cover of the book there's a painting that includes a whale's tail jutting out of the ocean.
As an interesting aside, my great-great-great (not sure how many greats) grandfather was a whaling captain in Maine. Makes the whole whale connection even more interesting and significant to me. Oh and there's more sound synchronicity: Hogan's book is also mentioning songs: Songs to the ocean, songs to the whales. In the Native American tribe the author writes of, women used to sing the whales toward them.
Tonight, I'm feeling frustrated with myself for taking a bootcamp exercise class this week. I was sampling it, hoping to use it to kickstart a workout routine this summer, but oh my, bootcamp classes are SO not me. Fortunately, I'm listening to my inner voice that's telling me not to continue with that class. Yes, I'm feeling a bit sad about the damage I did to my feet in the process (old plantar fascitis cropping up. ugh.) But even though I'm feeling a bit bummed out about how my body is aching, I'm happy for the way I'm learning to listen to my intuition more and more quickly. (In the past, I might have continued on with the class despite knowing it wasn't a good fit.) And tonight, I'll be kicking up my sore feet and and diving deep into this new book.
Wishing you many winks from the Universe!
Wild and Wacky Nature Printing
May 19th, 2009, Comments (5)
There are so many ways to play with nature elements in your art. If you're looking for some inspiration, here are some fabulous tutorials to get you started:
- Hammered flower and leaf prints: Super clever way to get the color of flowers and leaves into your art while simultaneously pounding out your frustrations. (I should have done this after the Celtics game on Sunday. Blarg!)
- Gyotaku: We all know about leaf rubbings, but what about fish rubbings? This tutorial will walk you through the finer points of Gyotaku. My cats would go out of their minds if I ever did this at home, so I won't be doing this anytime soon!
- Leaf Rubbings: For a different look with botanical rubbings, try doing them on rice paper. I love the way they look in this Martha Stewart calendar and I bet they'd look gorgeous incorportated into a collage.
- Gelatin Printing: I've done some gelatin printing before and it's a blast! It's also a great tool to use with natural elements to make gorgeous monoprints. Here's a tutorial on setting up your own gelatin printing station: This one is from Art Esprit and here are written instructions along with a video from Linda Germain (check out all her gelatin printing videos on youtube!)
I did all the images in this post with gelatin printing. They're fun to make and they're also great to use as collage materials.
Hopefully this will fill your head with ideas and send you off to buy gelatin. Or maybe it will just inspire you to hammer the heck out of some plants. Or perhaps you'll paint a fish. Hehe. This post could get you into trouble! No matter what, keep having fun with it!
Dialoguing with Your Inner Critic
April 30th, 2009, Comments (20)
A few weeks ago, I had a Couching session (sort of like coaching) with Sark (completely awesome by the way.) One of the things we discussed was talking with your inner critic. She recommended the book, Embracing Your Inner Critic by Hal and Sidra Stone, which I've just started reading. The idea of dialoguing with a part of yourself reminds me of the work that Havi talks about on her blog quite a bit. It's new to me and I admit, it feels a bit strange to try, but it can be incredibly effective.
It's amazing how much wisdom we hold, if we just give ourselves the chance to answer.
Within the same week, I took an art journal class with the lovely, Lisa Sonora Beam, and dialoguing with your inner critic came up again. I told Lisa about the discussion I'd had and she gave me a few questions to start with.
Later on, I drew my inner critic in my art journal, which intuitively came to me as a bird/human with winged/clawed hands, I wrote the questions next to my inner critic creature, and then drew speech bubbles to allow it to answer. This is the page:
What kind of surprised me about the process was the realization that my inner critic is not out to get me. Yes, it causes a lot damage. Yes, it can create a lot of self-inflicted pain. But I felt some tenderness for my inner critic when I saw some of the reasons behind its behavior.
I asked my inner critic, "What are you here to teach me?" and it answered, "I am here to teach you how to dig deep and let go. If you persevere past the initial fear, you'll get there."
Hmm, apparently my inner critic likes to rhyme! Ha!
I then asked, "What are the next steps?" and the answer came, "Be still. Listen to your intuition. Write."
Next, I asked, "What would support me?" and my inner critic responded, "Less clutter. Walks. Journaling. joy - laughter - silliness - light-heartedness - play."
Lastly I asked, "What do you need me to know?" And it replied, "I am your inner critic, yes, but I love you and want you to succeed."
Wow. O.k. Good to know.
Give this a try: Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and imagine what your inner critic looks like. Without thinking too much about it, draw your inner critic on a piece of paper or in your art journal (you don't need to be an artist to do this. Stick figures can do the job. Or you could pull magazine images that represent what your inner critic looks like and glue them to the page.)
Write the questions you want to ask your inner critic and then draw speech bubbles. Let your pen move across the page and answer in the voice of your inner critic. Don't worry too much about whether this is silly or not what your inner critic would say. Just write down the first thing that comes to mind. What comes up for you? What does your inner critic need you to know?
Color Inspired by Poetry
April 14th, 2009, Comments (19)
intuitive art detail
Last night I attended the second in a series of Intuitive Painting classes I'm taking (taught by the super sweet, Adria Arch.) We first focused on a series of small (5"x7") collages we'd made of color torn from magazines. Last week, one of the assignments was to paint in colors I normally avoid (for me those were pinks, yellows, oranges) and I used that painting for my Full Pink Moon dreamboard. Well, oddly enough, the color collage I liked best was full of rich pinks and oranges! Go figure. Try it out for yourself. Paint with colors you normally dislike or avoid and see what happens. It might just change your mind about them!
In last night's class we focused on working a few smaller pieces at the same time, using a poem we'd selected as our inspiration. We were asked not to get too literal with the poem (in other words we weren't going to illustrate it), but to let our general feeling about the poem guide us in our color choices and paint strokes.
I, along with a few other students in class chose a piece from Mary Oliver. I picked her poem Wild Geese and although I wasn't thinking about it at the time, I have a feeling my choice was guided by the mother goose I saw on a walk on Friday afternoon. I happened to peek over a bridge to look at the waterfall there and spotted her there on a cement barrier. At first I thought she was just sleeping, but then when I saw the sticks and fuzz surrounding her, I suspeced it must be a nest. I watched her for awhile and she noticed me watching. At one point she stood up and revealed 5 or 6 eggs. I snapped a picture of her with my iphone. Not the best picture in the world as I couldn't zoom in on her, but I love the tree and sky reflections it captured.
I thought it was so sweet, but then I started to worry about the baby geese (goslings). They're so close to this waterfall. Do you think they'll be able to swim away from it when they're old enough to swim? I was up last night worrying about the goslings and couldn't sleep, so eventually I just imagined them easily swimming into the river and that seemed to help. I'm going to have to trust that the Momma goose knew what she was doing nesting there.
Anyways, the Mary Oliver poem is lovely and I thought I'd share it with you in case it inspires some artwork for you! Poetry is so evocative. Try using a favorite piece of literature and imagine what colors it brings to mind for you. Use that as the start for your next piece of art.
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
I ended up using different parts of the poem to inspire the three different pieces I was working on. Each piece below was inspired by the lines above it:
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes
They're all quite different! None of them feel complete really, but it was fun to play with color and layering and different ways of approaching a painting inspired by poetry.
I've got much to do and much more to share with you, but for now, do check out my interview at Pecannoot!! And a huge thank you to Jess for inviting me to be the first ever interviewee on Pecannoot! What a treat!
Dreaming of Bears
March 11th, 2009, Comments (7)
The retreat was great. A wonderful combination of relaxing and inspiring. I got there the day before the retreat began to do a little unwinding and getting centered. I'm glad I did because all the travel exhausted me. I stayed the cutest little loft room (that I had to climb a sort of ladder to get into.) Fortunately I'm super short, so I could just stand up in it. It felt like I was tucked in a treehouse and I loved that.
I spotted Animal Speak on a bookshelf in the hall and took it up to the loft with me to look at. I'd just been talking about the book with my coach, so it was funny to see it there. And I'd been wanting to read over the part about spiders after I had that spider dream recently. I rested in bed, reading and journaling, and drifted off into a lovely nap.
I dreamed that the hubster showed up at the retreat and I had to tell him that it was an all-women retreat, so he couldn't go inside. We pitched a tent together outside the house and we were sitting in it, when I looked down the road and saw a huge bear coming down the road towards us. There was an old man under a tree near us. I turned to him and asked if we should be running into the house. But he said not to worry, that we didn't have any food, so the bear wouldn't bother us. Then a drunk man came out of the woods and started harrassing the bear. The bear was pushing him away, trying to ignore him, but the man kept coming after the bear and eventually punched the bear in the face. The bear then lost its temper and bit the man. It was a very vivid dream and I woke up remembering it fully.
Later that night, I turned to Animal Speak to read about what bears symbolize. I learned that the bear has ties to the subconscious and unconscious mind. It is associated with Diana, goddess of the moon. It teaches you to use your inner resources to find your answers within. It teaches you to make choices from a position of power. Bears are often associated with trees, an ancient symbol that is like an antenna connecting heaven and earth. Trees remind us bring what we awaken into the world and to make our marks with it.
The things I read about the bear, it's connection with trees and the moon, and the bits about what it has to teach, were so relevant to me. I did some writing about the dream, which I think I'll share later on. It's interesting how focusing on dreams this month for the Creative Every Day Challenge, has brought such powerful dreams! It just goes to show you that what you focus on expands.
The next day, I had an amazing massage in a cute little boathouse (above) with an incredibly talented, nurturing therapist. While my face was down and looking through the head-rest, I opened my eyes and laughed to myself because within the rug pattern below, the shapes looked like a bear standing in a river with a crescent moon and birds flying by. That's where the image I painted above came from. After the massage, I drew a little sketch of what I saw and knew that I wanted to paint the bear in this way. I painted it today in acrylic and ink on watercolor paper.
I have more to share on the weekend later, but in the meantime, some fun links to check out:
- Spark, art from writing: writing from art is now online sharing the paired up artists and writers and what they created in response to eachother's work. Mine is here!
- Rainn Wilson (Dwight on The Office) has a new website called SoulPancake that is all about creativity and spirituality. Very cool!
- Need a pat on the back? A boost? A job well done? Check out my pal Jim Doran's new website, Hey Good Job. Love it.
Art From Writing
February 22nd, 2009, Comments (14)
Albatross
This month, I participated in Amy Souza's Art from Writing: Writing from Art project, where artists and writers were paired up to share a piece of writing or art, with the theme of "hope," as the jumping point to inspire a new creation. I was paired up with a writer, Melian, who sent me a poem to work from, and I sent her a picture of my painting, Lighthouse which speaks to the idea of hope to me.
I often get inspiration from the written word, so I was excited to dive in. I did get a bit frustrated when I got stuck about mid-way through the process. I was fighting the direction the piece was going and things never go well when I push against the flow. But after letting it sit overnight, I was able to come back to it with new perspective. I made some adjustments, cut some parts away, went with the flow, and found the finished piece. I'm calling it "Albatross" and it's about 12"x12" with collage, ink, and acrylic paint on watercolor paper.
I think the word "often" that showed up in the bird's belly has to do with seeing signs, little winks from the Universe, and the feeling I get that I'm headed in the right direction when I start to see a lot of them in a short span of time.
Tomorrow I'll be posting about the Creative Every Day Challenge's (totally optional) theme for March and I'm so excited to share this one with you! It's one of my favorite sources of inspiration.
I hope your weekend was a wonderfully creative one!
