Entries Tagged as: creative every day 2009

Flowing out of 2009 and into 2010

December 31st, 2009, Comments (26)

What a magical day. It's a Full Blue Moon, it's New Year's Eve, we're on the cusp of another beautiful year of being Creative Every Day, and I feel like I'm inside a snow globe with these teeny, tiny flakes falling outside. I'm especially loving that it's a Blue Moon, since I'm such a moon girl and as you might imagine, my favorite color is blue (plus, I say that "once in a blue moon" expression quite a bit.)

I've just finished my full moon dreamboard for Jamie Ridler's dreamboard group and I'm using it to reflect what I want for myself in 2010: mainly more ease and flow. I have this image of a river in my mind. There's an ease to the movement of a river, but there is also motion, action, and continuous, steady flow. Perhaps the river is also in my mind because I find sitting near moving water incredibly soothing. I think I sometimes associate stillness with stagnation, but ease and movement are not so separate. I see that in the way that getting regular exercise helps me feel more calm, and how de-cluttering helps me feel more spacious and open. It's a funny little paradox that I'd like to have in my life in 2010: ease, flow, and movement. While I've been thinking I'd use the words "ease and flow" as my theme for 2010, I think I may use the image of a river as it captures more of what I'm going for. Why not?

The dreamboard above was based on a sketch from my sketchbook that I drew onto a larger sheet of watercolor paper. I created the river with gesso and bits of snowflake tissue paper to create texture. Once that dried, I painted over it with ink and acrylics. (By the way, this is a great way to recycle holiday tissue paper and make cool textures in your art!) I then drew in the figure and wrote in some words, such as: ease, flow, resonance, calm, and movement. When I mentioned wanting more ease and flow in my life earlier this month, Terri (@TerriFisher on Twitter) let me know that Rhea is the goddess of Ease and Flow. How cool! I'm sure I'll paint her at some point this year too.

The last few years, I've loved choosing a theme word for the year. I think I may have read about it first on Christine Kane's blog (by the way she's offering a free download about choosing a theme word for the year.) Last year, I chose the word "Leap" and it served me well. I made some huge leaps in my career and my life in general. I'm especially proud of having art on the cover and an article in Artful Blogging Magazine, being on the radio, creating my first online teleclass, in-person workshop with the fabulous Jennifer Lee, first e-course, growing my online challenges, buying our first home, and selling more art than ever before. I'm so very grateful for my wonderful family, friends, loving hubster, and our four fuzzy cats. I'm also thrilled with the amazing connections I've made with fabulous creative people this year, many I met through this blog. I feel so incredibly lucky to be part of such an amazingly supportive community.

It's been a challenging year in other ways. I lost my Grandma after a battle with Alzheimer's just before Thanksgiving, I had some behind-the-scenes technical issues and problems with boundaries, I had a health scare with my beloved cat, Sadie, and I found the whole process of moving to be exhausting. I also made the decision to come off anti-depressants after being on them for ten years (I did this over a long period of time with the help of a doctor.) It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done. It still feels like a bit of a journey for me, but I'm doing really well and I'm thrilled about that. Overall, life is good. So very good. And I'm so grateful for it all.

To help me close out 2009 and grow my vision of what 2010 will be, I've printed out Goddess Leonie's stunning Creating My Goddess Year Workbook & Planner. There are some pages in the workbook that go along so beautifully with next month's (totally optional) theme of Body for the Creative Every Day Challenge, so I'll share those here. And I'm going to be interviewing the lovely Leonie next month about loving up your body, so stay tuned for that too!

Actually, I've got so much goodness planned for next month, that I can hardly stand it! It's going to be an amazing year. I love the energy that's building already. I wish each and every one of you a beautiful close to your 2009. May 2010 be filled with wild creativity, uncontrollable laughter, quiet moments of delight, and loads of love. See you in 2010!

Creative Every Day Check-In: December 28 – January 3

December 28th, 2009, Comments (25)

Ced2009
Welcome, Creative Every Day Challenge participants! 

This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.

Ways to share: 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 12/28/09 - 1/3/10.

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) 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.)

You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.

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!

Theme: The (totally optional) theme for December is recycle. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the inspiration theme here. The (totally optional) theme for January will be Body.

Happy Creating!

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist. ~Albert Einstein

Honoring the Dark, Welcoming the Light

December 21st, 2009, Comments (17)

A Happy Solstice to you! Today is our shortest day of the year. And even though we're just starting winter, I always feel a hit of joy knowing that the days are beginning to get longer now. This week I attended a sweet little Solstice celebration with some friends. Gem, who led the festivities, selected some beautiful pieces to read out loud and one to listen to. The one I got to read was so beautiful, I wanted to share a piece of it with you. It's by Chris Heeter:

What if darkness has nothing to do with fear?
Or sadness.
Or all the weight we attach to the night.
What if these dark days...
were seen as precious,
sacred even, for the very lack of light...

This really touched me. How lovely to think of this time as a sacred time to go within. I tend to think of the dark as a negative. Partly because the lack of sun has me dragging a bit and I long for the days when I can be outside more, feeling lighter and more energetic. I have to work a bit harder during this time of year to stay active and creative and joyful. But I like this idea of releasing the darkness from fear and sadness and seeing it as a special time. How can you honor the dark, the unknown, and the unseen in your life? What ideas might you want to let go of? What art could be created from it?

I often feel like art-making is a reaching into the unknown. I didn't know what was going to come of my experiments with art today. With the recycling theme in mind, I used a cardboard shape I found while unpacking some glass bowls this week. I had saved one, not knowing how I'd use it, but knowing it was a cool shape and I could do something with it. I ended up using a scrap piece of mat board, putting the cardboard shape on it, and then using a glimmer spray (which is very sparkly in person) that was given to me by my bff ages ago, to create a stencil.

I then played with ink to create the solstice image above, a winter scene with a woman carrying a lantern in the forest. Another little glimmer.

And speaking of glimmers, I had an incredible light added to my day by the arrival of this spectacular, art-filled thank you card created by a group of Art Every Day Month participants that were brought together by Laura Duldner. Thank you so much, Laura for organizing and creating this beautiful piece. And thank you to everyone who added their sweet words and art to it! It brought tears to my eyes and I'm so very grateful for all the kind words and seeing all the little pictures of people's work. So cool!!! I've propped it up on my easel for now and will be putting it up on the wall soon.

I wish you all a beautiful Solstice. May you find loads of glimmers in the darkness.

Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: December 21 – 27

December 21st, 2009, Comments (13)

Ced2009Welcome, Creative Every Day Challenge participants! 

This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.

Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 12/21/09 - 12/27/09.

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) 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 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.)

You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.

Join in the Challenge: To find out more about the Creative Every Day Challenge check out the details here. The 2010 Creative Every Day Challenge is starting up soon! Find out more and fill out the sign-up form here to join in!

Theme: The (totally optional) theme for December is recycle. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the inspiration theme here.

Happy Creating!

Do something. If it doesn't work, do something else. No idea is too crazy. ~Jim Hightower

Recycled Ornaments

December 15th, 2009, Comments (6)

I've been enjoying what the Creative Every Day Challenge participants have been doing with the recycling theme! A few people have recycled items to make super cool Christmas ornaments. Seeing them reminded me of the clothes-pin reindeer I made as a kid (which I still own and love!) Those handmade ornaments are the best kind I think. :-)

Regina, at Creative Kismet, used old paper rolls, to make these adorable hand-painted ornaments. She's got a great tutorial on how to make them too!

And Melissa, at Dandelion seed on the updraft, embossed the lid from a tin of raisins to make a fabulous ornament. So creative!

Do you have any favorite ornaments made from recycled items?

Glimmer

December 14th, 2009, Comments (20)

I love how sparks come and tap you on the shoulder sometimes.

The days are getting darker and darker and colder and colder. I'm doing fine, but still, this time of year is more difficult and I feel more blah. But here and there are these glimmers, which is what inspired this painting tonight. The blue lines on either side of the figure were inspired by these little bare-branched tree vignettes that I saw on a walk through the woods this afternoon. Walks in the woods are glimmers. Feeling an idea come rushing in is another glimmer. A dash of hope and possibility is another. Sometimes glimmers are teeny-tiny, but just one can be brilliant.

So if you get blue this time of year and I know many of us do, hold onto those little glimmers, wherever they come from. The shortest day is right around the corner and then the days will begin to get longer and longer again soon.

I can't say this is connected to the recycle theme really, but that's ok. I'll have a fun recycling post up tomorrow! In the meantime, happy glimmering! 

Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: December 14-20

December 14th, 2009, Comments (13)

Ced2009Welcome, Creative Every Day Challenge participants! 

This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.

Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 12/14/09 - 12/20/09.

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) 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 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.)

You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.

Join in the Challenge: To find out more about the Creative Every Day Challenge check out the details here. The 2010 Creative Every Day Challenge is starting up soon! Find out more and fill out the sign-up form here to join in!

Theme: The (totally optional) theme for December is recycle. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the inspiration theme here.

Happy Creating!

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. — Joseph Chilton Pierce

Recycled Bits and Pieces in Art

December 11th, 2009, Comments (12)

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!

Creative Recycling Linkage

December 9th, 2009, Comments (4)

After an intense period of creating over the weekend, I've been taking some time to rest with the hubster who has the week off. We've been enjoying a lot of relaxing, movie-watching, and reading. It's been lovely.

I'll share some of what I've been up to soon, but in the meantime, I've collected some super fun ways to play with the totally optional theme of recycle this month for the Creative Every Day Challenge:

* I love the look of this plastic bag wreath seen on Vickie Howell's blog. So cute with Target bags. I also loved Vickie's instructions for turning greeting cards into tree ornaments!

* Recyclart might be the coolest recycling find I've discovered this month. It chock full of amazingly creative artwork and diy projects that utilize recycling to make super cool things like this vintage button rings, inner tube vases, and beach plastic artwork.

* This cool project shows how to make a wastepaper basket out of...waste paper!

* Here's a great interview with artist William Wagenaar, owner of Reclaim2Fame and creator of super fun recylced, sculptural creations.

* I enjoyed this Craft Sanity podcast interview with author and clothing designer Cal Patch, someone who strives to make all her own clothing and do as much repurposing as possible.

Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: December 1 – 13

December 7th, 2009, Comments (20)

Ced2009Welcome, Creative Every Day Challenge participants! 

This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.

Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 12/1/09 - 12/13/09. Normally, this would be a check-in for one week, but because of Art Every Day Month ending on a Monday, this is the first check-in post, I've put up in December. Feel free to post links to posts from last week and this week here or you can just post blog address once.

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) 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 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.)

You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.

Join in the Challenge: To find out more about the Creative Every Day Challenge check out the details here. The 2010 Creative Every Day Challenge is starting up soon! Find out more and fill out the sign-up form here to join in!

Theme: The (totally optional) theme for December is recycle. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the inspiration theme here.

Happy Creating!

The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place; from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web. -Picasso