Entries Tagged as: blogs
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!
Cup of Cocoa with the Blahs
February 17th, 2009, Comments (30)
you are so loved, mixed media on watercolor paper
I created this piece intuitively, just let it flow out of me. The trees and roots, houses and circles, continue to appear. I was inspired by Jessica's Pecannoot project to add this message to it, "you are so loved." It seemed to fit. I think the art came from the place of the blahs I've been feeling the past few days, while I've also been ruminating on self-love and self-care.
So, yes, the blahs have been making me feel a bit heavy, slow, and sleepy, but I know it will pass. Well, as much as I know that the blahs come and go, sometimes it's harder to know they're going to pass when you're in the middle of them, so it's been a draggy few days.
In the meantime, I've been trying, with varied success, to treat myself kindly and do what usually helps me resurface. I exercised, snuggled my cats, took a nap, and made some art. The grays still linger, and even though they seem to be detaching their tendrils from around my ankles, I have decided that instead of getting impatient and fighting them (and beating myself up for not getting over them quicker), I'm going to invite my grays for a cup of cocoa and just slow down a bit.
Slow Down and Baby-Step It
Things do not need to get done all at once (in fact, that's the quickest train to make-yourself-crazy-town.) If you're feeling a bit slow (which is quite common in the month of February), let it be o.k. to slow down. You can still make progress, while being gentle and taking baby steps.
Perhaps you want to make more art. So, today, you could just take out your supplies and get them ready or you could make one big scribble across the page. You could try doing 5 seconds of art (hee! That could be interesting!), 5 minutes of writing, or 30 seconds of doodling. Great satisfaction can come from taking a step forward, no matter how tiny.
SARK calls baby steps "micromovements" and she claims to have written all her books this way, in just 5 minute increments! That totally blows my mind considering how prolific she has been. You can download a Micromovements worksheet from SARK here. And you can listen to SARK talk about her writing practice on this wonderful Craftcast podcast. Good stuff. Truly.
Wordy Links
February 17th, 2009, Comments (7)
More ways to get playful with words!
* I just got an email from Clive of Pixton.com, a site where you can make your own comics without having to draw! It looks like fun! Check out the site here and there's a trailer here that shows some of the features. I like how you can easily translate the comics into different languages.
* I absolutely love the theme of the new blog, Pecannoot, from the ever-so-talented, Jessica Gonacha. The idea behind the blog is to turn our focus on abundance through art! And this site fits so perfectly with the word theme for CED because the art on this blog combines messages of abundance with beautiful imagery. Jess is looking for creative people to submit their own abundant artwork, so check out her description of the project here, the new blog here, and send in your work!
* I enjoyed this post from Felicia Day about how she started writing. It's chock-full of delicious links to help get your writing cap spinning.
* Patti Digh has a video about the literary and artist barnraising of her incredible book, "Life is a Verb" on her blog here. (the "Bust Your Toast Rules" art in the video is from me!)
I've been painting away this weekend and will have some art to share soon. Hope your weekend was a wonderfully creative one!
I love you
February 14th, 2009, Comments (20)
I've been thinking a lot about self-love lately. And with today being Valentine's Day, it seemed like a great time to bring it up.
Last week, I was listening in to a free teleclass with the lovely, Havi Brooks, and she was discussing being a "Habits Detective." During the call we were invited to take a closer look at a habit in our lives that we want to change. For me, this habit revolved around self-care and taking care of my body.
When I went inside, I realized that part of the reason I'm not taking excellent care of myself is that I fear getting obsessive about it.
About ten years ago, I got so obsessive about my body that I was weighing and measuring every morsel I ate, I barely ate any fat, and I worked out six days per week. For some people this may work beautifully, but I was absolutely miserable. All I thought about was food. If I didn't get in a workout, I would get extremely irritable. And on top of that, it was never, ever enough. Sounds like hell, right? It was. Well, eventually, I got to a point where I was looking ill and when a doctor recommended adding some fat (like peanut butter) to my diet, I went to the complete opposite extreme and ate every "bad" food in sight.
Fortunately, I'm not in that obsessive place any more. But I didn't realize how much fear of going back to that place was holding me back. I've been afraid of going back to that miserable place of "it's never good enough." And increased body awareness has a tendency to lead me to feeling bad about myself, no matter where I'm at.
I'm realizing that I need to love my body where I am in this moment and the next and the next. I know that movement and exercises is part of what keeps me feeling healthy, vital, energetic, and creative.
This week after doing some yoga, I was lying in savasana and had another realization. I've been feeling somewhat icky about "self-love." No matter what I know logically, it sounds selfish and self-absorbed. In my head, I heard the "not good enough gremlin" saying, "Who do you think you are?"
And my answer? "I am special enough to be loved."
Confidence begins in that place of knowing that you are loved, first and foremost, by yourself.
I cringe a bit around this stuff. I still feel funny about it. But I can play with the idea of self-love. I can practice it. So far the practice has made me feel wonderful. Below, is something I did spontaneously and was helpful. If you'd like to practice some self-love, give it a go!
Try this: Get in a comfortable position. Savasana (copse pose in yoga) works well, but you could find a cozy spot in your favorite chair, prop yourself with pillows in bed, or just ground yourself whereever you are right now. Imagine a tree root growing from the base of your spine. Imagine its roots stretching through the floors of wherever you are into the deep, dark earth beneath. These roots are grounding you. Now consciously relax every part of your body, starting at the tips of your toes, to your feet, your ankles, your legs, your pelvis, your stomach, your chest, your arms, your hands, your neck, your back, your jaw, your face, your scalp. Let your whole body melt into the floor, chair, or bed. When you are completely relaxed, imagine your body being filled with the light of your own love. Let it start small and grow. Let that love expand to include every cell of your body and then let it grow to fill the room you're in, then perhaps your neighborhood, your town, your state, your country, the world. Then if you're able, say to yourself, "I love you, I love you, I love you."
p.s.
- - The art above was my Valentine's Day card to the Hubster. I was inspired by the Inspire Me Thursday theme of "fold" and it also fits so nicely with this months word theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge!
- - Speaking of art and words, The Creative Type scrapbooking blog is hosting a special Valentine's Day prompt of "Love Letters" and I'm sponsoring it! You can submit your own layout before March 1st and the winner will receive one of my Subway Stories prints! Check out all the details here.
- - Make your own candy heart like the one above at ACME Heart Maker. I don't know about you, but I think those candies taste awful. But they sure are cute.
Poems to Make Your Heart Sing
February 11th, 2009, Comments (15)
Poetry is much like painting with words. It stirs in me a sense of wonder and sparks my imagination. Sometimes I have trouble sitting still long enough to linger in it, but when I do, I'm almost always happy that I did.
Today, my painting "Dreaming of the Seven Sisters" is featured in the sidebar of Breathing Poetry, a blog that features wonderful poems from a variety of poets.
What poems make your heart sing? We can all play with words and turn out poetry. It may not be perfect or beautiful, it may not rhyme or fit a particular style, but it will be your own unique expression.
I recently discovered the work of Billy Collins. Delicious use of words. Check out his Introduction to Poetry or you can listen to him read some of his poems here. Rumi is another eternal favorite and then there's Pablo Neruda, Mary Oliver, and Margaret Atwood.
I've used poems as the source of inspiration for artwork, sometimes just a line of poetry will spark a painting idea (in the piece above the line became a main feature.) There are so many ways art and poetry can blend together.
Has poetry impacted your work? If you're a poet, do you ever use your poetry in other mediums? Is there a way you can incorporate poetry into your creative life this month? Or could you use a poem as the jumping off point for your next creation?
I'll close with a bit of Rumi to inspire you today:
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.
The Cat Craziness Continues
February 10th, 2009, Comments (8)
I can't help myself. These cute kitty videos just kill me! The one above gave me a good laugh (don't you wish you knew what they were thinking sometimes?) And then the animated feature below is basically a snapshot of my husband's life. I saw it on Jamie's blog yesterday and sent it immediately to the hubster. We both got a good kick out of it. 
Full Snow Moon
February 9th, 2009, Comments (12)
full snow moon
I have this funny habit of painting the moon right around the time of the full moon (without realizing the timing of it until after the fact.) Something in me seems to be quite tuned in to the moon's cycles.
When I sat down to paint this image late last night, I wasn't intending it to have the moon in it, but it came out anyways. Today, I read that tonight is the Full Snow Moon. Something about the name just tickles me. It sounds soft and romantic and makes me think of rabbits hopping across icy moonlit fields.
What I'd sat down to paint originally was the tree-like formations within the lungs of a woman with a bird nesting in them. I'd had this image come to mind while I was lying in savasana one afternoon last week. I'd like to paint this image in a few different formats.
In another bit of synchronicity, it turns out that today is the Jewish holiday, Tu B'Shvat, also known as the Birthday of the Trees, which falls on the fifteenth full moon of the Jewish month of Shvat. What a cool holiday! I just learned about Tu B'Shvat last year when I was going to a gym that was part of a Jewish recreational center. They had signs up about the holiday, but I also took a Nia class that day and the teacher talked it and had us moving like trees in the wind. I was just thrilled knowing that trees have their own special celebration.
It's interesting what will bubble up from our subconscious mind when we allow it to create. I love that my subconscious brought up the trees and moon images today.
Jamie Ridler hosts a Dreamboard challenge on her blog at every full moon. The dreamboards are a collection of images and words of something you want to manifest in your life. What a lovely practice to have around the full moon and a wonderful way to play with words!
The image above was made with acrylic and ink on a 6"x6" Aquaboard (clayboard with a texture similar to watercolor paper) and I'm calling it "Full Snow Moon."
Wordles
February 9th, 2009, Comments (8)
My bestest bud, Judean, sent me a bunch of fun sites that focus on word-play. Goodness gracious, there are so many ways to create with words! On the Wordle website, you can enter your blog address (or any web page) and it will pull words from it to create word art. You can then change the font, the color scheme, and the arrangement style to your liking. In the one above, I thought it looked a bit like a dress if I turned it on its side. Here a few more creations from the site:
Good fun! Judean also sent me links to a Random word generator and an incredibly cool site which helps you create your own fonts. I'm definitely going to try out that font creator.
Art and Word Collaboration
February 6th, 2009, Comments (13)
Lighthouse
I love the many ways there are out there on the internet for collaborating between art and writing! Nancy, of Every Photo Tells a Story, contacted me recently to see if I'd be interested in submitting my art for her site. Another instance of perfect timing, considering the (totally optional) theme of words this month for the Creative Every Day Challenge!
The purpose of Every Photo Tells a Story is to provide photography or artwork as a prompt for writing (or other creative explorations.) You could use it to inspire a bit of fiction, poetry, or even another piece of artwork! The piece on Nancy chose for her site today is "Lighthouse" (one of my favorites), and while the original has sold, there are still prints available here.
I use a lot of material with words on it in my mixed-media artwork. Sometimes it's my own hand-writing, like I did in parts of Memory Cycles and sometimes printed material. Sometimes it has meaning related to the piece I'm working on and sometimes I'm just using it because I like the texture.
I love the way simple drawings look on an antique book page. Altering an old book is a great way to play with words. You could pick out words from the page that stand out to you, circle them, and paint out the rest. You could make your own pop-up book within the pages, cut windows into one page that leads to the next, cut out individual words from the pages to use in art (like my friend Jes does in some of her jewelry pieces), or paint a thin glaze over the page so that the words show through just slightly. Flea markets are a great place to hunt for old books that are just crying out for new life. Or you could re-purpose something like an old calendar like Rosa did!
p.s. I've been experiencing loads of synchronicity in the last 24 hours. I love it when that happens!
And I've got a link for you! The lovely Jennifer Lee is hosting a giveaway of the book, The Vision Board: The Secret to an Extraordinary Life on her blog! All you have to do is leave a comment sharing "What do you love about you?" It looks like a great book. I know I'll be entering the giveaway!
More Fun with Words
February 5th, 2009, Comments (5)
Caroline from Caro's Lines posted a link to this neat site where you can spell words with flickr photos. How fun! I used it to spell out my word for 2009:
Caroline also linked to a great challenge for all you shutterbugs out there. I think it's also another fun way to play with words and creativity! The One Word Project is being put on by the Shutter Sisters blog. Once a month, participants will be given one word to use as the inspiration for a photograph (which you can then post to the group on flickr.) For February, participants are invited to choose their own word. Very cool, eh?
And now for something completely different...Another way to have good creative fun with words is certainly in a good joke. And I love to laugh. Despite my short stature (I'm 5 feet and a half inch), my laugh is outrageously loud.
Today, a link from A Cup of Jo brought me to this ridiculously funny site, Old Jews Telling Jokes, which I noticed was designed by fellow Creative Every Day Challenge participant, Leah from LeahCreates.com! The Old Jews Telling Jokes site is hilarious (warning, the jokes are all dirty!) perhaps because it reminds me of my joke-loving dad (who is just old enough to qualify for an "old" Jew according to this site...I don't think he'd appreciate that) my dad's brother, and a little bit of the hubster's grandmother (the hubster and I both have one Jewish parent.) I particularly like the joke from the website owner's mom.
