Creative Every Day

Entries Tagged as: creative every day 08

Transform

November 10th, 2008, Comments (17)

Today, I decided to play on a piece of watercolor paper. I had cut out a few silhouettes of people from magazines that I thought I might use as stencils, but then the back of one figure had these neat green swirls (I think part of a landscape) on it, so I decided to glue it to the paper, back-side up. I put down some texture with gel medium, let it dry and then came back into it with some fluid acrylic paint and an image started to suggest itself. A bird-like shape was over the woman. The silhouette I had cut out was only a torso and head, so I added black and some gold-green to it to make a dress. I ended up trimming away part of the paper to make this long shape, which I'm liking. The image seemed to be a sort of transformation, as if the woman was becoming a bird. I also saw butterflies in some of the brush strokes, so I'm calling it, "Transform." It's about 6"x11.5" on watercolor paper.

For Soul Coaching today, the exercises involved some cleansing, so I cleaned some areas of my apartment. I especially loved the effect of wiping down our coffee table with some wood cleaner and a rag. Oddly satisfying. And then I took a shower, concentrating on washing away the negative and making room for the positive in my life. The next exercise was about choosing the meaning you give to difficult moments in your life. I feel like I've done a lot of that over the last 10 years, it's what's helped me most when it comes to living a happier life. Not that I don't ever complain or wish certain things hadn't happened in my life. But I understand now, that those difficulties, such as the experience of being molested or the trauma I experienced receiving medical testing for a disease I had as a child or the tendency towards depression, all these things made me who I am today. They brought me to where I am. They made me a stronger and better person. They've made me a kinder, gentler person with more compassion and understanding towards the difficulties others face. They've given me a certain depth of character and perhaps a certain depth to my artwork that other people can relate to. I used to think, "why me?" a lot. But now, not so much. I'm grateful for all the experiences which led me to where I am today and that includes the difficult ones.

Sometimes it seems easier to do this with the most difficult experiences and it's certainly easier with things that have long since passed. For me, it can be harder to do with the smaller things, like not taking someone's actions or words personally or in dealing with a rejection. I might obsess for a day over a harsh word or cool glance before I can let it go. But I do try and see all those little things as part of my path, and not turn them negative. And I try to remember that it's not about me all the time.

And now, I'm off to relax a bit. Hope you're all having a wonderful start to the week!

Creative Every Day: November 10th – November 16th, 2008

November 10th, 2008, Comments (9)

A Golden Thought

November 9th, 2008, Comments (27)

I drew an image like this one in my sketchbook and someone suggested I make it into a painting, so I saved it for AEDM. And today, using a 6"x6" wood panel that I'd prepped with gesso last week, I painted the image in acrylic and used ink for the gold accents. When I drew the image it was spontaneous. It made me think of a person having an idea that formed the shape of a bird. I'd forgotten about that interpretation until I finished the painting today and the title popped into my head "A Golden Thought." I love how the most random things can pop into your mind at any moment. Well, sometimes it's annoying and distracting.

In Soul Coaching, Denise Linn talks about how the mental clutter can weigh us down. There's something different though, it's not quite mental clutter when ideas pop in. Perhaps it's the clutter that keeps the ideas from appearing. When I'm able to clear my mind and let it wander freely, that is when ideas come. And it seems that art is my way in. When I doodle in sketchbooks or play with paint, the part of my mind that is cluttered gets distracted. It seems I can only do so many things at once, no matter how good I am at multi-tasking. So, when I'm creating, the volume turns down on the unimportant buzzing which gives room for the little golden thought birds to fly into my line of sight.

Yesterday in Soul Coaching, we were asked to begin defining our life's mission statement. Well, that's no easy task, is it? How do you know? She suggested we just start writing and see what comes up. I started writing about how my mission in life is to inspire, to infuse my life and the lives of others with creativity, love, and light. And then I just started writing words: be creative, be, create, inspire. Then on the following page I drew a woman with a big speaking bubble, like in a cartoon, and in the bubble I wrote, "My purpose in life is to create, inspire, support, love, and encourage. My purpose is to grow, to be gentle, to be joyous, to wonder at all the beauty around me and express it in my own voice, to follow my intuition and dreams, to live and just be." Another task involved creating a life statement collage, but since I've recently created a vision board, I just took it out and put it in a prominent place. It already contains images of many of the values I pin-pointed in one of the exercises from last week.

This week's theme is water, so my mostly blue painting seems very fitting. There is also a focus on emotion and we were asked to think about the turning points in my life. My turning points are fairly clear to me. Many times they were brought about by something tragic or difficult and other times they were brought about by something exciting and wonderful. But in every case, I learned a lot about myself in the process, in each case I found that I was capable of more than I realized, and stronger too.

A few random notes to share:

• A few people have asked where I'm getting the quotes that I'm sharing at the bottom of each day's AEDM post. I make those posts the night before and I find my quotes in a variety of places. In some cases I've just typed "creativity quotes" into google and looked around until I found one that I liked, in other cases I used quotes that I have tucked away (I love inspiring quotes!), and other times I've pulled down a random book from my bookshelf and found a quote there. Today's quote was found in "The Nine Modern Day Muses" by Jill Badonsky.
• Julia at Red Otter, had the great idea of sharing self-portraits created by taking photos of 5-10 of your most treasured possessions. How cool! Julia is going to share hers this week and has invited others to share there's by contacting her through her blog.
• Journals with kitty faces on the cover are irresistible. 

Red’s Intuition

November 8th, 2008, Comments (11)

Busy, busy day. Spent much of the day helping my sister move, came home to take our neighbor's dog for a walk and then crashed for a brief nap before doing a little painting. I decided to work on a painting that sat unfinished and was frustrating me. Honestly, I'm still not loving the result, but that's o.k. It was good to play with it some more. I'm calling it "Red's Intuition" and it's about 12"x6" on canvas. I had the idea for it ages ago when I was thinking about the signs and symbols that pop into our lives and give us those little nudges that come across as a gut feeling. I imagined what would have happened if in the story of "Little Red Riding Hood," the girl had seen the smoke curling from her grandmother's chimney taking the form of a wolf. I imagined she could have noticed this from a distance and prepared herself for what she was going to meet. I still like the idea of it, but maybe I need to play with it in a different format. And maybe it will grow on me more if I let it sit.

One of the things I enjoyed most about working on it was playing with the uttlerly luscious new tube of Phthalo Blue paint that got worked into the shadows and also over a layer of brown that I painted the sides of the canvas with. Yum. Such a gorgeous color.

Tomorrow's looking like a quiet day and I should be able to catch up with some emails and such. I've worked on my Soul Coaching assignment too, but I think I'll write about that tomorrow. I hope you're all having a beautifully creative weekend!

De-clutter and Dance

November 7th, 2008, Comments (15)

I finished up "Walking in Circles" today. It's about 9"x11" with acrylic paint, ink, gel medium, and a bit of collage on watercolor paper.

It was rather gray out today, but I didn't mind one bit as I spent the day doing some more de-cluttering. Boy oh boy, was I overdo for some clutter clearing! I'm not going to beat myself up about it because, well, I'm making progress, bit by bit. I focused on my desk today, filing my to-be-filed pile and sweeping away the build up of dust around my desk chair. One little corner at a time. Progress feels slow, but excellent. Soul Coaching focused a bit more on de-cluttering today along with a look at how you relax and have fun. I often feel lazy, but I have a lot of trouble doing nothing. Something to look at. I put another ipod session to good use while folding laundry today. Good, loud music can make chores so much more enjoyable! What do you like to listen to when you're cleaning? Do you listen to anything while you create?

I sometimes do and sometimes don't. In the last few months, I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to the audio versions of the Harry Potter series read by Jim Dale (who is simply awesome.) I loved the books and never really thought about listening to books until recently. I was introduced to the wonders of audio books when a post at Christine Kane's blog convinced me to check out the audio version of Martha Beck's Steering by Starlight (Beck reads her books for the audio versions and she's so funny!) and then branched into the Harry Potter series on the recommendation of Jim Doran, which has been great fun. I find these audio books great company when doing my least favorite chores (like dishes), when I need some convincing to go on a walk, and sometimes when I'm painting and want to shut out the world. I laugh out loud while I listen.

As for music... well, for cleaning purposes I generally want music that's upbeat and fun, sometimes funny and always great to dance to (dancing while you clean is highly recommended.) Today's listening included Weird Al's "Trash Day" (very appropriate), George Michael's "Freedom 90," Supertramp's "Dreamer," Beck's "E-Pro," Destiny's Child's "Lose My Breath," Scissor Sisters' "Music is the Victim," and Prince's "Kiss." Other good ones for shakin' your tush: Missy Elliot's "Work It," Liz Phair's "Whip Smart," Cake's "The Distance," and Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." Well, that gave me an idea...here's a little treat for you. I put together a mix-tape of the songs I just mentioned. Feel free to use while you make art, clean up the house, or dance around in your underwear. Enjoy!

Celebrate Every Advance!

November 6th, 2008, Comments (18)

Ah, my migraine left and today felt productive. I did some serious de-cluttering as part of my work with Soul Coaching, choosing a corner of my bedroom that has been bugging me for ages. I put my favorite cleaning mix on my ipod, blasted it loud and got to work, sweeping up the cobwebs and dust, separating out the trash, putting things away, and cleaning the surfaces. It kind of amazed me how much time and energy it took to do this one corner and it was overwhelming if I thought about doing the whole room. But I didn't think about the whole room. Baby steps, baby steps!!! As author Denise Linn suggests, "Celebrate every advance!" Woohoo! I'm celebrating my clean bedroom corner! While cleaning, there were a few funny little synchronicities in the things I came upon, including a list of values I'd written out over a year ago. I need to check that list against the one I wrote this week and see how they match up!

I had fun with some art-making time this evening. I did a small piece on a 4"x4" canvas in acrylics based on a sketch from my sketchbook. I don't always bring my sketches to fruition, so it's nice when a little push gets them done. I'm calling it, "By the Light of the Silvery Moon."

This piece was all play and experimentation. It's not quite done, but I'm liking it. I put two leaves on the image at the end, but they're not attached. I really love the way it's come together. I'm calling it, "Walking in Circles."

In need of some inspiration? Check out Design for Mankind's latest zine! This month, the theme is the handmade market. You can view it for free online or purchase a print copy. If you're looking for something to listen to while you create, check out the latest Craftcast podcast which features an interview with Daniel Vosovic (from season 2 of Project Runway!) who has a new book out called, Fashion Inside Out: Daniel V's Guide to How Style Happens from Inspiration to Runway and Beyond. It sounds like a great read with lots of discussion about the creative process. And I'm sure it's visually inspiring too!

p.s. I love Ugly Betty!

Stripe-scape

November 5th, 2008, Comments (17)

Quickie post from me today. I had a monster migraine all day. It's just subsiding and I'm wiped out! I started this one in the morning, doodling in brown ink and using a spray bottle to make the ink swirl in interesting ways. I let it dry and then tonight I went back into it with Pitt brush pens. The ink scribbles reminded me of a Dr. Seuss-like landscape with wild trees and rolling, striped hills. So, this is what came from it. I'm going to rest my head this evening. I have some emails to respond to, but they'll have to wait til tomorrow. See you then!

Two if By Sea

November 4th, 2008, Comments (15)

Another spontaneous, intuition-directed piece tonight.  I prepped a few wood panels with gesso last night and today I pulled some materials for collage. I arranged different pieces together including some scraps from experiments on paper and a drawing I did last week. I brought some acrylic paint into it and some ink and here it is. I wrote on the left side, "One if by land" and I'm calling this painting, "Two if By Sea." It's 6"x6" on a cradled wooden panel. I think it's super sweet.

Hope you're all enjoying the evening! I am!

Fall Forest Muses

November 3rd, 2008, Comments (17)

I'm so pumped up by all the wonderful creative energy around AEDM! Perhaps some of that is coming through in today's spontaneous piece of artwork. I used some paint, a bottle of sprayed water, a little container of water with a few drops of paint that had a tip (like a cake frosting tip) on it, and a bit of sparkly fabric paint while playing today on a piece of watercolor paper. I didn't have a plan in mind, just wanted to play and this is what came out. I believe I was also inspired by this podcast from Lori-Lyn in which she shares a meditation about meeting your muse. In my visualization, my muse was totally blue, go figure, so that's partly where these figures came from. I'm calling them the "Fall Forest Muses" and they seem to be having a fantabulous time.

I've just updated the Art Every Day Month info page, to hopefully make the workings of the challenge more clear. It's tricky sometimes to make it super clear, when I want the challenge to be open to interpretation by anyone wanting to join in, but hopefully, the info page lays out the way it works as clearly as possible. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask! I think the widget (that little box below, where you can enter the url of your postings) is working well, so I'm planning to post a new one each day available for you to share your creations. It's not required, but it is fun and it's great for others to have an easy way to find your latest post!

As I've mentioned, I'm also doing the Soul Coaching group and today's work was around determining your values, examining what you've been putting off, and looking at your commitments. The author, Denise Linn, challenges the reader to commit to something for the next month, and well, that's quite simple since I've committed to making art for AEDM! I thought about adding something to that and then realized I might go bonkers trying to do too much, so I'm going to keep it at that. Committing to the book and the artwork and running this challenge is more than enough to keep me busy. For the part about values, I wrote out my values on a couple pieces of paper, cut them out and arranged them.

I wrote out values that came to mind, borrowing a bit from the author's list of suggestions and from Jenn's fabulous list that I've seen through her awesome value card creations that she's done for AEDM! Speaking of Jenn, you must check out her appearance on television talking about balance and her unique vision boards!! She talks about them in the context of being a busy mom, but this could easily apply to anyone. It was great making this list of my own values. Writing them out and making them into a visual statement gave me a better sense of where I'm living my values and where I could use some extra oomph.

Lastly, I looked at what I've been putting off. Oh so many things. I'm a big-time procrastinator I'm afraid. So I made a list and tackled one of them. I backed up my computer! Woohoo! It does feel good to do the things you've been putting off. I've got a whole lot more to tackle and hopefully, I'll be able to tick them off or at least get started on them all over the next month.

I'm getting very excited for the election tomorrow. I had to stop watching the coverage for awhile because I realized it was making me an anxious mess and that wasn't helping anything or anyone. I've avoided talking about politics directly on my blog as I want this space to be about creativity. But I want to encourage everyone (if you live in the U.S. or are a U.S. citizen) to vote tomorrow.

I am voting for Barack Obama. I think this post from Lori-Lyn describes much of my feelings behind the election. She says it in eloquent words that I haven't been able to find. I don't expect or want everyone who visits or participates in challenges here to agree with me or vote the same as I do. I want this space to be open to anyone without judgement. I mention that I'm voting for Obama because I'm proud to say that I am and I'm feeling oh so hopeful. O.k., now that I got that off my chest, I hope you all have a wonderfully creative evening. Sweet dreams!

Creative Every Day: November 3rd – November 9th, 2008

November 3rd, 2008, Comments (7)

 

© 2024 Creative Every Day by Leah Piken Kolidas – Contact Leah
Design by Foliovision

Boston Web Design