Entries Tagged as: creative every day 2011
Winter Guest Post by Tara Leaver
December 13th, 2011, Comments (24)
What to do when your creativity succumbs to winter
As winter starts to make its presence felt round here, I’ve been thinking a lot about cycles. About listening to my body and honouring its needs and what that really means. This is something relatively new to my Western monkey mind, for whom achievement is paramount, and only a certain amount of rest is permitted!
I’m a summer girl with a history of depression. Traditionally winter {which can be a long, chilly, dark and wet affair here in England} would take its toll on my well-being before it had even begun. I rejected the darkness and of course winter became something to dread and struggle through. I gotta tell you, I’m really tired of the concept of resigning myself to the belief that some things are ‘just like that’.
My teacher has been showing me another way to approach winter. We all know about cycles – the seasons, women’s monthly cycles, Saturn Returns, to name just a few - but I’m not sure how often we really notice or accept them, let alone embrace them. We often seem to ignore or resist our personal cycles, because of commitments and jobs and things that Must Be Done. There is no time sculpted into our lives for honouring the quiet, ‘winter’ parts of our cycles. Winter is about resting, seeds waiting underground, animals hibernating. Nature knows and allows this; we can too, if we choose.
We creative types have our own cycles. Sometimes the inspiration is flowing fast and furious, and it’s all you can do to ‘get it all down’ quick enough; other times we feel stagnant or dry – nothing inspires us and efforts to force it result in frustration.
I learned the hard way that I must honour my creative cycle. Since I made the decision to just let it be what it is, to stop labelling it, judging myself, feeling disappointed or guilty or antsy or impatient about it, I’ve come to see my own personal cycle as something, well, beautiful actually.
We are often so unaccustomed to being gentle with ourselves. While I learn to apply this self- kindness to all the other areas of my life and leave the internal dark days far behind, at least when it comes to my creativity I have learned to give myself the ease of knowing that when it’s quiet and I haven’t been into my studio for days {weeks, sometimes}, the cycle will come round again. And in the meantime, if I let it, my creativity will reveal itself in other ways. Even if it doesn’t, the focus here is honouring all parts of the cycle, not just the bits I may find easier or more comfortable.
Here are a few things I do when my creative cycle is in ‘winter’. They have evolved from trial and error, and are about giving myself over to it rather than trying to override or kick start it; perhaps they will help you too.
*Stop trying! Let the whole thing go like you just don’t care. Quite a challenge when your creativity is such a huge part of who you are, I know, but just trust me on this. What we resist persists, right? The more we poke at it and try to change it and don’t allow ourselves to accept it as it is, the more we are blocking the cycle from turning in its own time.
*Do something else. If you’re not yet ready to just not do, then redirect. If your thing is painting, try cooking {works for me!}. If it’s sewing, try drawing. If it’s photography, try writing. You get the idea. Sometimes our creativity needs new avenues to run down.
*Go outside. For me it’s the beach, every time. I started by just going there to sit; that has now evolved into me taking my sketchbook with absolutely no plan or pressure to use it. Sometimes I actually do use it. Sometimes I don’t. It’s all good. I have a friend who needs green; when she’s feeling uninspired or drained or stuck she goes out into the countryside, or even just the park, to get some chlorophyll and hug some trees.
*Distract your brain. If you’re giving yourself a hard time about how you haven’t done anything creative for ages, do something that gives you some respite from the chat in your head. Box sets often do the trick for me. You can’t get much less creative than lying under blankets passively watching images on a screen and sipping hot chocolate! I’ve worked my way through the entire seven series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer doing this. {I know.} I lay on the sofa and watched Buffy kick vampire ass until that familiar tickle inside drew me back into the studio without any decision making on my part. All I needed was to let myself have a time out, and for the cycle to bring itself round again.
What do you to do honour and embrace your personal creative winters? I’ve only touched on four of an infinite number of possibilities. Let’s put our heads together and lay out everything we’ve got. Let’s give ourselves and each other permission to honour all the parts of the cycle, even and especially the arctic wasteland parts. Share your wisdom
:::::::
Bio
I am an energy healer and artist living in Brighton in the UK. I paint with acrylics and mixed media, and my work is mostly bold and vibrant. I’m fascinated by symbolism and meaning, and love to bring my energy work together with my art to produce paintings that have infinite possible interpretations. And sometimes I just like to paint in pretty colours. :-)
Links
Website: www.taraleaver.com
Blog: www.taraleaver.com/blog
Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/AquamarineArt
Facebook: Aquamarine Art: Mixed Media Paintings by Tara Leaver
Creative Every Day Check-In: December 12 – 18
December 12th, 2011, Comments (19)
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 now sign-up for the 2012 Challenge here!
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 12/12/11 - 12/18/11.
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, you can use the hashtag #CED2011 to help others find your Creative Every Day tweets!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for December is Winter, which you can read more about and get ideas for here.
Happy Creating!
I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show. ~Andrew Wyeth
Winter Guest Post by Joanna Paterson
December 9th, 2011, Comments (10)
Creating with Darkness and Light
Creativity - like life itself - begins in darkness ~ Julia Cameron
The natural world reveals so many beautiful creativity lessons at this time of year.
Yes: the days are short, the earth is cold, the fields are a colourless dull-mud brown.
And yet, and yet:
Through the darkness we see a sudden splash of a rainbow cutting through a rain laden sky; a burst of sunlight illuminating that dull brown lifeless field; the pale wintry sun creating wild silhouettes with the bare bone trees, dancing like creatures of our deepest darkest imagination against the barren lines of the horizon.
It is all light revealed through darkness, pattern against the emptiness, life irrepressible through the shortest, darkest days.
And it is not just a light show.
It is a call to create: to make our own wildly dancing silhouettes, to illuminate with shafts of poetry, to paint a rainbow in shades of enchantment, to carve our words in pens dipped in the blackest of ink, dripping with colour and light.
To sing our songs of life, irrepressible, through the shortest, darkest days.
Heeding the call, and creating with darkness and light.
~~~
Joanna is a writer, poet and photographer who explores themes of creativity and connectedness with the natural world. She has recently published Earthflow: a book of photo-poetry inspired by places that call us home. You can find her blogging on landscapes, writing, poetry and practice at The Art of Everyday Wonder.
Winter Guest Post by Jamie Ridler
December 7th, 2011, Comments (3)
Step into this magical meditation from creative living coach Jamie Ridler and connect to the spirit of the season. Discover the gifts Winter has in store for you.
Jamie Ridler is a creative living coach and the founder of Jamie Ridler Studios. From coaching to workshops, from podcasting to blogging, Jamieís work helps women find the confidence and courage to discover and express their creative selves so they can be the star they are. Website & Blog: Jamie Ridler Studios Facebook: Jamie Ridler Studios Twitter: @starshyne Podcast: Creative Living with Jamie and on iTunes.
p.s. From Leah: A special shout out to Jamie, who's celebrating a birthday today. Happy birthday, Jamie! You're a shining star in the world!
Creative Every Day Check-In: December 5 – 11
December 5th, 2011, Comments (20)
This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
Sign-ups for the 2012 Challenge will open soon!
Join in the Challenge: Read all the details and sign up for the 2011 Creative Every Day Challenge here!
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 12/5/11 - 12/11/11.
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, you can use the hashtag #CED2011 to help others find your Creative Every Day tweets!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for December is Winter, which you can read more about and get ideas for here.
Happy Creating!
Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments,embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour. ~John Boswell
Creative Every Day Check-In: Dec 1 – 4
December 1st, 2011, Comments (13)
This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.
This week's check-in is short to cover us until Monday's regular weekly check-in. Regular check-ins will resume next week! Sign-ups for the 2012 Challenge will open soon!
Join in the Challenge: Read all the details and sign up for the 2011 Creative Every Day Challenge here!
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 10/24/11 - 10/31/11.
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, you can use the hashtag #CED2011 to help others find your Creative Every Day tweets!
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for December is Winter, which you can read more about and get ideas for here.
Happy Creating!
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~Albert Camus
Creative Every Day Theme for December: Winter
November 28th, 2011, Comments (3)
At the end of each month I will announce the totally optional theme for the following month. For the month of December 2011, the theme will be Winter.
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. You can sign up for the 2011 Creative Every Day Challenge anytime. More info can be found here and the sign-up page is here.
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:
- *Paint in the colors of winter.
- *Go out into nature and take pictures of the snow or the bare branches against the sky.
- *Cook cozy comfort foods.
- *Create an environment that warms you up and inspires you. (candles, cocoa, and blanket forts?)
- *Write a poem about the darker months of the year.
- *As this year comes to its conclusion, take some time to reflect on what the last 12 months has held for you.
- *Create art that plays with idea of hibernation.
- *Dream up ways to bring more color into your life this season.
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!
I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show. ~Andrew Wyeth
p.s. The art above is adapted from my piece, Key to Winter, available here.
p.p.s. I'll soon have info about signing up for the 2012 Creative Every Day Challenge!
Day 27: Mermaid Night
November 27th, 2011, Comments (12)
Sometimes, when working intuitively, I like to crop the page to a size that suits what I end up working on, which is part of why I like working on paper. It allows for easy cropping! This piece is an example of that. I liked the way the mermaid looked in a long strip instead of the wider page that I used.
Day 24: Bring Love Onesie
November 24th, 2011, Comments (9)
I've been wanting to make some fun onesies for Annabelle and AEDM seemed like the perfect opportunity to dive in! I picked up some Sharpie fabric markers and drew on a plain pink onesie. The bird is loosely based off the birds in my Bring Love painting. I want to try some freezer paper stencils too, so maybe I'll do that tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Day 19: Inkblot Swan Garden
November 19th, 2011, Comments (6)
Today was busy! We had visitors, who brought their 6 week old baby. He weighs nearly as much as 6 month old Annabelle (he's big and she's little), but he had that sweet 6 week old smushiness that Annabelle has long left behind. Makes us realize how big she's become, sitting up all on her own now, taking off her daddy's glasses, and talking to her toys.
With little time, I turned to my sketchbook inkblots and use them to make this image. And now, it's time to crash. Happy weekend, all!
