Finished this up a little late tonight, but I like the way it came out. Feels very dream like. I started it early in the morning with acrylic paint on watercolor paper and a bit of salt sprinkled on it. Then came back with some more paint and ink in the evening, bringing out the shape of a woman and trees that I saw there.

For quite some time now, I’ve referred to myself as a Bliss Follower, Big Dreamer, Mess Maker and lover of the words, “I’m so inspired right now!” So naturally, a blog like Creative Every Day and an artist like Leah would certainly draw me in. 

When my big dream of writing a book began to take shape, I knew I had to ask Leah to be a part of it.  I was absolutely elated when she said she would contribute!

Putting a little check-mark next to “write a book” on my Mondo Beyondo Big Dream List is a pretty surreal feeling.  I love Leah’s theme of “Big” this month and when she asked me to do a guest post, I knew I wanted to write about dreams.  It’s been a while since I’ve taken the time to share my Big Dreams, so I took a bit of a stroll through old blog posts and pulled out my journals to see where I’ve come on my list. 

It as almost a year ago that I shared my Big 3 and so much has changed since then, but what’s really cool is that although my circumstances have changed, the heart of my goals has not... talk about reassuring! 

My Big 3 last summer:

1. Develop and launch an empowering & inspiring, self-discovery, powerhouse course/seminar/extravaganza for creative dreamers.
2. Create a coaching/consulting/conspiring program for creative women and begin taking clients that are ready to get fired up & take action to rock their creative lives.
3. Start speaking to audiences of creative women.  The cheerleader in me gets all giddy at the thought of getting a crowd of creative women fired up!

Oh my gosh,  I still get all kinds of excited just thinking about these dreams.  Now that I'm working full time outside the home, instead of reaching for these goals individually, I want to combine the three and make them into one mega-big dream... an extra-messy, super-inspiring, blissed-out, art making, personal discovery workshop.  That one is a whopper.... scares the pants of me just thinking about it. 

My Big 3 now:

1.The workshop above.
2. Again.
3. And again. (to infinity!)

What are your big dreams?  What are you passionate about?  What gets you out of bed in the morning and tucks you in at night?  What makes your heart sing?  Dream Big - over and over and over again!

xo & belief in all things you,

Carmen
http://www.carmentorbus.com
Mixed Media Artist and Author of The Artist Unique, Inspiration and Techniques to Discover Your Creative Signature. 

p.s. from Leah: Congratulations, Carmen on the launch of your book, The Artist Unique! I'm thrilled to be a part of it!!

With tonight being the Full Wolf Moon, I sat down after dinner to make a dreamboard, something I used to do with collaged images, but in the last year or so I have enjoyed drawing or painting them. I thought it was a good thing to share during the month of cosmos! In this one, I intuitively drew a tree growing from a wolf, with the various branches holding things I want to manifest, such as a healthy body and baby. Have you made a dreamboard for the full moon before? You can find out more about them from the amazing, Jamie Ridler.

I've got a couple other goodies to share too!

1. The lovely and talented, Liv Lane is celebrating the one year anniversary of her Happy HeART giveaways and to help her celebrate, I'm giving away one of my prints! All you have to do is stop by and leave a comment here.

2. My calendar publisher offered me a great discount after the holidays, so I picked up some more, so I could pass the savings on to you! While they last, you can grab one of my 2011 calendars for half off! And if you'd like a drawing on your birthday in the calendar, simply order a second item (greeting card, print, or original art.)

3. The Soul Art TV series of interviews of Creative Revolutionaries has been so fun to watch! If you haven't checked them out yet,  you can sign up here (they're free) and get a whole bunch of free gifts in the process! I'll let you know when my interview is up.

This one's a little spooky! Reminds me of a Dementor (from Harry Potter.) Like yesterday, I worked intuitively on this one. The initial paint shapes took the form of a large hand on a woman's chest and a ghost-like figure. I brought them out more in paint and a bit of ink. I think this has to do with waking up with racing thoughts.

It was good to do my art first thing this morning. The hubster was even there for the beginning. He drew me his own version of a bear (a cartoon bear with a bowtie and a jar of honey.) Hehe.

We've got family visiting later today and I'm hosting a baby shower for my bff tomorrow, so I won't be online much, but I'll still be posting my art here and I wish you all a fabulously creative weekend!

Today, I worked on a full moon dreamboard, which I've been doing regularly with Jamie Ridler's online group. I enjoy making vision boards with magazine images, but for these full moon boards, I've been enjoying painting them. This month's moon has been called the Frost Moon and the Tree Moon, among other things, so I kept that in mind as I created this piece. When I had the tree painted, I drew circles hanging from the branches, each holding an image of something I want to bring into my life.

Again, I used a fun, new-to-me material: a masking fluid. I took some pictures of the work in progress as well. The first shot is above, where I'd put the masking fluid on the parts I wanted to say white. After I let it dry, I painted over it all with fluid acrylic paint in blues.

After the paint dried, I got to peel off the masking fluid. I wasn't sure how this was going to go, but oh, it was fun!

I thought about putting some glass bead gel, which I wrote about yesterday, on top of it all, but decided to leave it as is. Speaking of glass bead gel, a bunch of folks asked to see detail shots of yesterday's art, Pond Reflections, so they could better see the texture going on. I re-worked the clouds a bit to make them softer before taking these close-ups.

Cool texture, isn't it?

I'm having fun visiting everyone, trying to see as much as I can every day. So inspiring!!

The Divine Dreaming Meditation Kit is a downloadable kit with two Divine Dreaming meditation mp3s and a Goddess Guide to Sweet Slumber e-book. The kit was created to help you get to sleep easier and have more amazing dreams... perfect if you don't always get the sweet slumber you need, or some inspiring, healing dreams!

I've had the pleasure of listening to the mp3s and I highly recommend the Divine Dreaming Meditation for those who have busy thoughts when they’re trying to wind down before sleep. It really helped me set the right tone for an evening of beautiful dreams. Leonie’s voice is magic! Listening to the meditation, I felt softly held and supported, as I slipped smoothly into the dreamtime. I loved the meditation and will be using it again and again.

Update: The winner has been announced here. Thanks for playing everyone!

Tonight is the Full Buck Moon and I celebrated in my favorite way by painting the moon, one of my favorite subjects. I have a couple new moon related pieces up in my art shop, including the one above, If the Moon Came to Dinner.

During the day yesterday, I was thinking about the Full Buck Moon and the Full Moon Dreamboard group that the fabulous Jamie Ridler runs on her blog (p.s. Jamie is launching a new website tomorrow with give-aways!)

Jamie's group does the Dreamboards in a collage style, which I totally love. But I've also been enjoying doing painted versions of these dreamboards lately. Above is what I did for the Full Pink Moon last month. As I pondered the Full Buck Moon this month, I started to doodle in my sketchbook and drew a woman with antlers. From the circles hanging from her antler prongs I drew circles containing the things I wanted to bring forth.

I took the little sketch I made yesterday and made the mixed media piece above in my art journal. The hubster fell in love with it before I finished it with the words in the circles, so I'll be handing it over to him. To finish the process, I did a second one in my art journal (below), this time writing in the words of things I want to bring into my life, expand upon, create, and grow during this full moon cycle.

To play with this idea for the self theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge you could keep in mind what you want to bring into your life during this full moon cycle and then try one of these methods:

Do a collage version: Tear through magazines and pull out any image that catches your eye. Don't think about it, just go with your gut. After you've pulled a pile, look at your selections and place the images that really sing to you on a piece of paper. Arrange to your liking, glue down, and then hang your dreamboard somewhere you can see it daily.

Write it out: Sit quietly, breathe, and ponder what you'd like to bring into your life. Then pick up a pen and do 20 minutes of free writing. You could describe your ideal day as if all the things you're desiring are already in place or just write freely about all the things you're wanting to draw to you.

Mixed-media: If you do the collage version, you could take the collage you create and paint over it, letting some of it show through. You could paint additional images on top of your collaged dreamboard. You might add writing to the collage. You could collage your own painted, drawn, or hand written elements into the piece. You might simply put some writing in an envelope and attach it to your collage. Or you could create mini envelopes in the collage to place one word, such as "money", "health", or "inspiration."

Paint: With the ideas of what you want to draw to you held loosely in mind, allow yourself to paint intuitively. Let yourself go with whatever colors or images pop into your head without worry about what it means. Keep painting until you come to a natural stopping point, then step back, and see what has come up for you. Put your painted dreamboard somewhere where it can continue to inspire you throughout the month.

Make a book: Create a small book or keep a blank journal where you can paste, draw, and/or paint images of things you want to draw into your life. I keep something like this by my bed and enjoy tearing images from catalogues and magazines and pasting them in. It's very relaxing.

Make a box: Collage a box as your dreamboard with images and words. Use it to hold collage material or written bits to put in future dreamboards or art journal pages.

Have you ever used any of these ideas? What other ways can you play with the dreamboard idea?

What is that you want to bring into your life during this full moon cycle?

I'm so thrilled to be sharing an interview with artist, Bridgette Guerzon Mills. I absolutely love her creations! Her work fits so well with the Creative Every Day Challenge theme of nature this month. I know you'll be inspired by Bridgette's gorgeous art, the ways she connects with nature, and how that comes through in her work. Enjoy!

LPK: Please tell us a bit about yourself.

BGM: I am a self-taught mixed-media artist living in Chicago, Illinois with my husband, our 2-year-old son, and our dog.  I incorporate a variety of materials into my artwork, including photographs, oil paint, acrylic paint, and encaustics (wax-based pigments). I have always been drawn to the beauty and spirit of the natural world.  Through both imagery and medium, I create organic pieces that speak to the cycles of life, memory, and the passage of time. I layer paint and photo transfers, papers or fibers to create depth in both form and meaning.

LPK: How does nature inspire your artwork?

where memory resides

BGM: I think nature has a strong hold on my psyche. I grew up roaming around outside, climbing trees and playing in mud. The imagery in my paintings always include something of the natural world - a tree, a plant, a bird.  The patterns and backgrounds that  I create are attempts to mimic nature's effect on surfaces through the passage of time and the elements. 

On a conscious level, I am always looking for and searching out the details of what is around me.  I think of myself as a sponge, absorbing the colors, surfaces, and emotions of what is around me - even when I am not aware of it. For example, when I lived in the Pacific Northwest my palette was very moody with different tones of grays and blues, reflecting the clouds and the water around me.  I have recently moved to Chicago and my palette has shifted to more earthy tones that include the rust and patina of the urban cityscape of my new environment.

LPK: I've noticed that like me, you seem to be drawn to trees and birds.  Can you tell me what these elements mean to you?

origins

BGM: Ever since I was young, trees were my playmates, my sanctuary.  If my mom couldn't find me in the house, she would send my sisters to look for me in the branches of an ancient Magnolia tree!  As such, it is only natural that trees appear in my artwork.  Trees symbolize growth, life, roots and strength. 

It is interesting, though, that most of my trees are bare winter trees.  I think that I am attracted to bare trees because a bare tree is the essence of a tree pared down. To me, a bare tree represents the idea of strength being found in the bare bones. Trees have the ability to withstand anything that life and nature throw at them.  A tree often works metaphorically as a self-portrait in my work.

Birds are creatures of both earth and sky. Because of this, they often represent to me the go-between of the two realms.  Crows in particular appear in my work when I am speaking of dreams and/or visions.

LPK: Do you have any special places you go to gather inspiration?

beneath the prairie

BGM: Anywhere!  Inspiration is about keeping your heart and eyes open to the beauty and the messages that surround us.  As a mother of a very active 2-year-old I am no longer in the studio full time as I used to be.  It is challenging because I do believe that inspiration is not something that appears out of nowhere, but rather in coming to work at your table or easel everyday.

However, I have found that in the moments between, I am constantly gathering information, experiences, inspiration from my everyday life.  I always try to have my camera with me at all times. When I do get concentrated studio time, it is like an eruption!

LPK: Are there any natural symbols that are especially powerful to you  right now?

BGM: Right now I am working on a series about prairie life and plants.  Working on this series has been instrumental in helping me adjust to my new home in the Midwest.  My work with this series has helped with both accepting where I am and embracing what is around me.

LPK: You create gorgeous journals for sale at amanobooks. What role does journaling play in your creative process?

heartland

BGM: Journaling plays a huge role in my creative process.  When I first began to paint, I dedicated myself to journaling about each painting that I created, as well as studio notes for myself so I wouldn't forget the painting lessons I was giving myself! 

Little did I know when I started that process that I was essentially creating a dialogue with myself - putting words to what I was doing on canvas.  This dialogue helped me figure out my symbols and what I was trying to say with my paintings.  I believe that the process of journaling empowers my work and helps me hone in on my objectives.

LPK: Do you have a favorite quote you'd like to share?

BGM: I love quotes!  Here are some favorites:
"Art is not living. It is a use of living. The artist has the ability to take that living and use it in a certain way, and produce art."
~Audre Lorde

"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." ~Pablo Picasso

"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the Beautiful Stuff out." ~Ray Bradbury

Thank you, Bridgette, for all the inspiration! If you'd like to see more of Bridgette's work visit her at her blog, art website, or her art journal shop, amanobooks.

I am quite fond of the moon and it turns up quite a bit in my art. When I heard that this full moon is called the Full Pink Moon, I thought how perfect that I'd just painted a big pink painting in my Intuitve Painting class on Monday! 

The lovely Jamie Ridler leads a full moon dreamboard challenge on her blog and I wanted to participate in this one. All the dreamboards (or vision boards) I've created in the past have been with magazine images, but I thought it might be fun to paint a dreamboard using the big pink painting I'd created as the base. First, I drew a little sketch intuitively, focusing on what I wanted to see bloom in my life. I drew a girl soaring, a girl peacefully sitting in a flower, and a house. At the bottom I wrote blossom and bloom with two more lotus-like flowers. And then I brought that sketch to the big pink painting (it's 18"x24") and used it as the background for the scene that unfurled. The clouds sort of came as I went along. I can't tell if the soaring girl is hanging on the clouds or pushing them up into the air. I may work on this further, but I wanted to get it up tonight.

detail

What is it that you are wanting to blossom and bloom in your life? Could you use a colorful painting as the base for a dreamboard?

On the call, we'll discuss:

*How you can begin to interpret your own dreams
*How to cultivate your creativity through dream analysis
*Lianne will do some one-on-one dream work (bring your dreams to the call if you're interested in sharing!)
*And we'll be giving away a special gift, a Martha Beck dream journal, to someone on the call!

Sign up for the call using the form below and I'll send you the call in information. The call will be recorded, but you need to sign up below to receive the recording.

I've always had vivid dreams, but never did much with analyzing them until I found the work of Robert Moss and Martha Beck. I truly love how Beck encourages you to see each part of your dream as a part of your wiser self that has something to teach you.

Here's what Lianne has to say about dream interpretation:

Many people treat dreams as some obscure secret with the thought that there is one correct interpretation and if only they can decipher them correctly, then all shall be revealed. I see this in my psychology students every year. When we start our dream unit it never fails that there is a flurry of questions along these lines:

"What does it mean when you dream about horses?"

"I always dream about falling - what does that mean?"

"If a cigar is not really a cigar in my dream, what is it?"

The Martha Beck approach (derived from the work of Carl Jung)  treats the dream like a divination tool.  Divination simply means an inspired (to be "in spirit") discovery of what is hidden. Many of us have done our own forms of divination - have you ever done the trick where you feel stuck in some way so you go open the dictionary to a random page and put down your finger? And the word you just happened to land on gives you a whole new perspective? Dream analysis is like that, but even more powerful as the new perspective is internally generated and custom made just for you from your imaginal world.

Martha Beck's method has the dreamer become each item in the dream and answer questions about it's purpose, intention and lesson for the dreamer. Sometimes this can be challenging to do alone without slipping back into cynical, rational left-brain land.  That's when it can be helpful to have a friend, partner or coach to take you through the process.  (Martha has a great breakdown of her dream analysis method in Chapter 5 of her book Steering by Starlight.)

I have used Martha's approach with numerous students in my psychology classes and also with many of my life coaching clients.  I have noticed, though, that my students rarely state that they don't dream (in fact they have extremely vivid dreams) whereas the adults who come to me for coaching often have the "I don't dream" syndrome.  Of course they do dream, it has just been relegated to the 'that's not important' part of their brain. Often along with their imagination. I believe dreaming is a vital sign for the creative life. Leah has demonstrated here how her dreams have become springboards for her artwork. That springboard can be come even more interesting after a dream analysis.  This is a painting one of my students did that combines elements from her dream with insights she gained from the dream analysis.

If you feel like you don't dream it is just a matter of creating the space and intention to let your dreams become known to you again. A great way to do this is by keeping a dream journal beside your bed and making an intention every night that you will allow your subconscious to communicate with you through dreams. Or just simply request that you have a dream and remember it.  Keep with the practice even if nothing seems to be happening at first - maintain the space and the intention and write down even the shimmeriest of dream memories whenever you have them. Over time you will find that your dreams with become more frequent and memorable.

The truth is all the answers are within you and they are not secret. What dream analysis does is take the left, rational brain out of the driver's seat for a time and allows the right brain to make itself known.  It takes us to the deeper place of knowing that I call the arational. And of course the arational is also the spring of creativity. To cultivate dreams is to cultivate creativity and connection to our wisdom.

You will be amazed at the insights into your own life that you will uncover through dream analysis.

Sound interesting? Want to learn more? Come join us on the call on Thursday, April 2nd at 8 pm EST (find out what time this is in your time zone here). The call will be free, but long distance charges may apply. In the meantime, sweet dreams!