For day one, I had my husband helping me out a bit during the day and was able to spend a little extra time painting. How nice! I had already completed the collage background for this piece, but I'm SO happy to have started painting the image I've had in my head since Annabelle was about a month old.

It has to do with the strange time that is the middle of the night when you're up constantly, nursing a newborn baby. It's like this whole other world. Kind of lonely, but kind of sacred.

I've still got more to do on this piece, but I really like the way it's going so far! I know that many days this month, all I'll be able to do is part of a piece, but as long as I'm creating every day, I'll be happy with that.

I hope everyone has had a beautiful start to Art Every Day Month! And even if you haven't, keep at it. It's a long month and every day is a new beginning.

There's something really fabulous about using items that have a history to them in your work. I feel like it gives a certain depth to a piece of art, a layering of stories. Sometimes the stories are so juicy that I have trouble covering them up! In Roots (above), I made use of a fun "Today's Woman" magazine from the 50's. The ads from that magazine were pretty interesting!

I've found collage items at flea markets, bought them from people online, and found them amongst my own stash of papers. They may be blueprints, dress patterns, handwritten recipes, maps, or old photos. Collaged together, their stories combine to tell a new tale, one which I might not expect when I start putting them together. In What's Behind (above), it felt like the story created was one the woman in the painting is trying to leave behind her.

I drew a little bird in my sketchbook last night, so I decided to bring it to life today for Art Every Day Month, with collage, paint, and ink. It's about 6"x7" on paper. More birdfeeder inspiration I think. Although there are mothering images in the collage, that got entirely painted over, so I think it's a mother bird as well.

Day 17 of Art Every Day Month. Another intuitive piece. I did the collage elements first and saw the figure so clearly! I like how the dress came together, however, I feel like I want to change the background, but for now this is where I'll stop.

For day 11 of Art Every Day Month, I had the urge to play with collage. I put the elements together first, glued them down, and then let it sit for awhile. Eventually, a curve stood out to me that made me think of the curve of a shoulder, so I started sketching and this image came out. I was going to develope it a bit more, but decided to leave it simple. It's about 9"x12".

Today for day 5 of Art Every Day Month, I felt the urge to work in collage. I had no idea where I was going, but this image came along as I worked. At first I thought I'd put more color into it, striped socks, colorful boots, and such. But after I painted in the figure, she seemed to want to stay this way. A little more somber. So for now, she'll stay as is, more quiet. This piece is about 4"x4" with collage and acrylic on panel. Hope you all have a beautifully creative weekend!

I did this piece recently to submit for one of Patti Digh's latest books. It was inspired by an essay she'd written about dealing with uncertainty and stepping bravely into the unknown, something I find quite difficult in some ways and quite exhilarating in others. Just now, this piece makes me think of the daring decision I made at the age of 15 to be an exchange student and live with a family in Madrid for a month. What a scary and mind-opening experience it was! It certainly took a leap of faith to do, but I have no regrets about it.

And then thinking about the earth theme, I'm curious about the places you've traveled to, whether that be to a new part of town or an exotic location. What brave steps did you take to go somewhere new and what effect did it have on you? What kind of art might that inspire in you?

By the way, I received Patti Digh's Creative is a Verb in the mail and it's beautiful! Chock full of gorgeous art and inspiring words. Patti is amazing. I've got a piece in the book as well, it's this piece and it's on page x. I love that's it's opposite this quote: "Don't apologize for who you are or the art you create" - C.J. Rider

p.s. I'm working on the Art Every Day Month sign-up page and hope to have it ready to go shortly!

p.p.s. The piece above, "The Unknown," is 11"x14" with collage and acrylic on wood.

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.

Listen here

*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.)

A little sneak peek of something I've been working on for a book by arist, writer and teacher extraordinaire, Carmen Torbus, that I'll be featured in along with an amazing group of artists. So exciting! And it's so hard not to share the whole thing because I love the way it came together! But soon enough.

I share this little snippet because it fits well with the recycle theme going on this month for the Creative Every Day Challenge. In this piece and in a lot of my art, I recycle bits and pieces of paper to create the collage backgrounds for my paintings. In this small section, is a bit of to-do list stationery and some sheet music.

Where do these bits and pieces of paper come from? Well, like many creative folks, I'm a collector. I see interesting pieces of paper and I have trouble throwing them away. So, they get stored in boxes and eventually used in artwork. Sometimes I buy the scraps at fairs that sell antique goods in the summer, sometimes I trade with other artists for scraps (I loved doing this for a 6x6 collage project), and sometimes I find the bits myself in everything from my own scribbled notes, junk mail, and doodles on rice paper. My sister-in-law recently gave me a great stack of old blueprints that I adore using and my bff recently gifted me an old book of design forms. I like having the variety, so when I sit down to collage, I can pick through my supplies intuitively and use what works for me in the moment.

Sometimes it's easy to forget what we have, so it's good every so often to sort through it all. Whenever I do this, I'm always inspired by what I find and re-discover amongst the boxes. What are some of your favorite recycled goodies that you use in your artwork?

p.s. I was recently interviewed as part of the "Inspiring Women" series on the All Things Girl blog. All Things Girl is a fabulous zine filled with great articles, art, and interviews (and you can submit your artwork too!) that I highly recommend checking out!

I traced the silhouette of this woman onto rice paper last night, but today I came back to it and traced a series of chairs, which got me all excited. Again, I collaged and painted on a 6"x6" clayboard surface, using bits from my collection, things I intuitively grabbed that seemed right in the moment. One scrap looked like it was the shape in the house, so I played with that. I had a piece of rice paper cut in the shape of a eucalyptus that I'd written on months ago, but not used in anything. It seemed like the right time to use it here. Stamps and stamped images of ferns came into play as well. Then I lay the rice paper image over it, using a soft gel medium to bring it together. I love the translucent quality of the rice paper and the way the drawings sit on top of it. I've always been a fan of layers, the way it mimics how layered things are in real life.

I'm so enjoying the rice paper at the moment. I love when a material thrills me and I know I'll be playing with it for awhile until the next medium makes me giddy. It's a good place to be, feeling the joy of materials, feeling in the flow.

I was feeling a big sluggish the last week, although I kept plodding through. Flow in creativity comes in cycles for me and I've come to accept that. Sometimes a down period means I do other things like reading or research, re-stocking the well as Julia Cameron puts it in The Artist's Way. And other times, like during Art Every Day Month, I keep plodding through, knowing that the spark will fire again, if I just keep patiently putting mark to paper. Often times, I don't think the spark has returned to me, until I've already begun, like last night, which makes me glad for those times when I kept plodding through. But other times, a break feels necessary. Neither way is wrong or right. Knowing that both ways of returning to my work can be fruitful helps me come back without judging myself in the process.

What helps you come back to your creativity after a slow period? Are there any sparks happening right now for you?