Entries Tagged as: energy
Honoring Your Inspiration
January 16th, 2009, Comments (38)
The second chapter of The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, which I'm reading with a book group here, is all about honoring your inspiration. This is so important and part of the reason why I keep sketchbooks within arm's reach at all times. It may drive the hubster a little nuts because of the excess of paper I have around me, but if I'm having lots of ideas, it's so helpful for me to get them down. For one, I feel better after releasing the ideas from my head and I also capture lots of bits and pieces that I might have forgotten had I not taken the time to sketch, write, or scribble some stuff out.
There's a lot packed into this particular chapter, it ranges from carving out a sacred space, to creative ritual, to play! Yes, according to author, Gail McMeekin, play is an important factor for us creative people! So for you Creative Every Day Challenge participants who have been resisting getting playful, now's the time to give it a go! I'm planning some posts for next week about how to get playful if you're feeling really stuck around it.
At the end of the chapter, there's a challenge about taking a "Creative Style Inventory." I'll share my answers with you here:
- When did your creative awakening or reawakening occur? I've always felt like I was a creative person, but there was a period, right after I graduated from art school where I felt a bit dead creatively, like my fire had been put out. It can be hard, especially for us sensitive folks, to go through something like art school and come out the other side feeling good about what we create. I left with the feeling that everything had to be a certain way, a "right" way and as a result, I felt little to no desire to create. Nothing felt good enough. It took me awhile to break free of the art teacher voices I heard in my head when creating. I had to get back to being playful (part of the reason I think play is so important) and I also got back to creating from my intuition (something I'd been discouraged from doing.) I literally got away from the easel and started creating while on the floor, I took classes in intuitive art making, and began to really enjoy the process again. I had to find my way back to the joy in creating, but in a way I'm glad I went through that process as I feel much more in touch with my creative side now than I did before.
- What talents do you have naturally? I think I'm a natural peacemaker, I tend to put people at ease. I'm an artist. I'm good at encouraging others. And I'm naturally silly.
- What elements (fire, water, wood, air) draw you toward them? I'm drawn to all of the elements at different times, but I'm drawn most strongly to water. It soothes me.
- Where and when do you create? Where and when do you wish to create? I create mostly in my home studio space, but I can create just about anywhere. I create usually in the afternoon and evening and I'm fine with that.
- What activates your creative energy, and what drains it? My creative energy is activated by inspiring reading, movement (like taking a walk or yoga), playing, journaling, and taking classes. What drains it is too much time in front of the computer or television, sleeping too long, and overwhelming messes (some mess is o.k., but it can get to a point where I can't handle it anymore.)
- Do you use creative rituals? Sometimes. I usually begin creating by closing my eyes, taking a breath, and giving myself permission to make "bad" art.
- Does nature influence your creativity? Absolutely! I'm constantly inspired by the forms of nature, the color combinations I see in the world, the cyclic patterns of life. It shows up in my work constantly.
- What has been your greatest creative hurdle so far? Probably the one I mentioned in answer to question number 1.
- What time of day are you most receptive to inspiration? I don't know that there's a particular time of day...A lot of my ideas seem to come in the evening when I'm feeling a little tired or in the hypnogogic state just before sleep. I think it's because my mind is tired enough to let subconscious imagery slip through which creates some fabulous images for me.
After looking over what I've written, I think what I most need to do is do a little cleaning and clearing in my studio space. I've been slowly tackling it throughout the week, but a more concentrated effort would be a good thing. Makes me want to do one of Jennifer Hofmann's office spa days!
2009 – The Year to Leap
December 30th, 2008, Comments (35)
For the past couple years, I've used Christine Kane's fabulous idea of selecting a theme word for the year. I've spent some time pondering and have chosen the word, "Leap" for 2009. I love this word! I noticed as I wrote it that if I turned the "p" upside down, I'd almost have my name there! But I didn't chose my word for that reason. I chose "leap" because in 2009, I want to be be courageous, I want to take risks and launch into my dreams. I want to leap into the unknown, to go for it! Leap as a word means many things to me, including taking action, movement, daring, and it is also playful and fun. There is an element of trust to it and the feeling of dancing with life.
Christine Kane's "Resolution Revolution" is a fabulous way to start your year with intention. Instead of listing off the regular resolutions that we try at (and often fail at) each year, we can choose a word to inspire and lead us through the year. During the month of December, Christine has been sharing stories of people, like artist, Lisa Call, who wrote about her word of the year, Courage. Be sure to check out the blog for some instant inspiration.
Earlier this year, I created a piece of art (below) with the title "Leap" and it makes me smile whenever I look at it. Prints of this piece are available here.
I drew the word "leap" last night in my sketchbook and today I played with it in Photoshop to make the image above. Here's the original (below), which I'll be putting up in my studio to remind me to keep leaping.
Have you chosen a word for 2009? I'd love to hear it. I don't usually make a list of resolutions at the New Year as I prefer to make goals as I go throughout the year. However, I do like to do some reflection around this time of year, to think back over the past 365 days, what I've accomplished and where I've struggled. I like this set of reflective questions from the "More in You" Life Leadership blog and plan to spend some time journaling on them before the year ends.
The Key to Winter
December 20th, 2008, Comments (44)
This is the painting I've been working on. It started out so very differently, based on an intuitively created sketch in my sketchbook. In the original sketch the key was attached to the heart of a person buried underground. It had a dark and Victorian feel to it that I decided to bring to life in a painting. But as I painted it, it became a little too dark for me. A little spooky even. I let it sit for awhile, tried playing with it in different ways and then at some point decided I needed to take it in a different direction. It takes a bit of courage to jump in a new direction sometimes, but I got a rush of energy and just began.
First, I put down collage elements from old architectural blueprints and then tore some of it off, I added some paint to make a snowy ground and some more collage elements, including maps of Lewis and Clark's path. I added circles and numbers in the sky and I knew I wanted the string hanging from the key to become like roots or an upside-down tree in the ground. It speaks to the potential that is hidden beneath the ground during winter. It speaks to tapping into that potential during the darker days when it's hard to see anything bright or inspiring. It's a reminder that even when everything seems cold and dead, there's magic happening underneath it all. It also reminds me of a quote I keep pinned to my bulletin board:
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer -Albert Camus
I could try and explain this painting to you more, why I chose this element or that. But I like it when people can find their own meaning.
The snow is still coming down outside. All of the sudden, winter is here in full force! O.k., I gotta run!
Holi-daze
December 16th, 2008, Comments (30)
The time leading up to Christmas tends to put me a little on edge. There are things that I love (the lights, cocoa, cookies, giving special gifts, quality time with family, decorating the tree), but there's a bit of stress in there that wipes me out. I do my best to stay healthy and upbeat. We've all got to remember how important self-care is during all the craziness!
Fortunately, this image that the hubster put together for our holiday cards is just the sort of thing to brighten my mood. Hehe. I used double stick tape to put this picture on our holiday cards. Last night, the hubster and I put them together, wrote out the addresses on envelopes, and messages inside, while listening to cheesey holiday tunes, and then I sent them off today. I'd love to send one out to all you, so consider this your holiday card from me, the hubster, and our four kitties.
The hubster and I were both raised by parents of different religions, so we incorporated a Jewish yarmulke on one of the kitties, so our Jewish relatives wouldn't feel left out by the Rudolf theme. I think he did a phenomenal job. Hopefully all our relatives will find it funny. Heh. We sent out a few non-picture cards to family members who are a little more old-fashioned just in case. Ha! I'm laughing again, looking at it!
Ahem, anyways, I'm getting very excited for Creative Every Day 2009. I'll be letting you in on the theme for January very soon. In the meantime, happy holidays to you and yours!
Notebook Pages and Other Bits
December 14th, 2008, Comments (12)
I just had the notebook pages I sent in as part of the Do Not Leave Unattended project posted on their blog. The project involves a series of notebooks that are sent out to the locations of participants all over the world who write, draw, or create whatever they like in some of the pages before passing it on. The first page I did is above. On the left is the pink paper that came in the book. On the right is an image I drew in ink on a vintage journal page that I then pasted into the notebook. I had the idea to octopus umbrellas. Cool looking, but not very practical. Here are the other pages I did:
On the last page spread, it's a bit hard to see, but there's a tree in silver ink coming out of the woman's mouth. The silhouette is cut from blue paper that I glued onto the page. It was fun making these pages. And I love the idea of them traveling all over. I sent the journal to Ontario, Canada next and from there who knows will it will go!
Tonight, I listened in on Ananda Leeke's monthly radio program, Go Green Sangha. This month's program was all about transforming your life, career and home into a sacred green space. And one of my favorite people, creative musepreneur, Jennifer Lee, was one of the guests on the call! You can listen to the show in its entirety here. I was trying to listen in, but got in a little late because of some technical difficulties (you can normally listen to the show live online through a chatroom, but that wasn't working tonight.) But I did call in later and ask a question of the panel which was, "Are you doing anything new or different in the coming year to create sacred space in your home?" I loved the answers I got too! If you have an answer to the question, I'd love to hear it in the comments! Oh! And I almost forgot to mention that I'm going to be a guest on Ananda's show next month. I hope you'll join in!
I have another fun link to share with you tonight, a newly discovered blog called Treasures Found :: Inspiration is Every Where. The author of this blog, Erin, let me know that she featured my blog recently in her "Check it Out" portion of her latest blog post which was all about the art of making mistakes. As Erin notes, so-called "mistakes" can lead to beautiful things!
We had a pretty mellow weekend here. Well, except for the Christmas shopping attempt which was a bit hairy. Heh. Overall, I've been a bit lazy, but that's just fine with me. I'm a very lucky girl because the hubster made the most fantastic minestrone soup for dinner tonight. Yum! Hope your weekend was a wonderful one!
5-A-Day
December 10th, 2008, Comments (13)
The lovely and incredibly sweet, Jenn has tagged me for a meme that asks what 5 things you do to stay mentally healthy. This is certainly a great thing to think about, especially during these darker days of winter and the stress that can come up for many around the holidays.
Here are my top five things to do every day (or every week) to stay mentally healthy:
- Creative Expression: Clearly this is an important one for me, as you can see by the projects I run here and the title of my blog! Daily creativity, in whatever form it takes (dancing, painting, collaging, writing, cooking, crafting, photographing doodling) is such an important part of my life. It helps ground me, helps me release the internal backlog, and helps me be a better person.
- Snuggle: I am especially fond of my 4 kitty cats and I get daily love from them in the form of face pushes, cat massage sessions, and sweet purrs that warm my soul. And at night, the hubster and I happily share a full-size bed where we (and usually at least one cat) can be found snuggling up.
- Laughter: Laughing is so important to mental health. The hubster has a great talent for making me (and everyone around him laugh), I also love listening to comedy on the radio, and watching shows like 30 Rock and the Office to give me a good, hearty laugh. My laugh is ridiculously loud and people can usually find me in a crowd because of it.
- Scent: I love showering with a good-smelling shampoo. I also love the smell of cocoa in the winter, of chicken noodle soup, candles, pomegranate lip balm, a home-cooked meal, lemon dish washing soap, etc...I think good smells can lift you up. It's a small, simple thing that's a part of my everyday life that I notice and love.
- Movement: Some kind of movement or exercise is important for my mental health. I've fallen out of doing daily yoga, but want to get back to that as soon as possible. But even if I'm not on a regular exercise regimen, I keep moving through doing chores around the house, moving and dancing while I create, taking walks with my ipod, and chasing the hubster around the apartment.
How bout you? What are your five a day?
I'm not always great at tagging or at responding to tags, so if I tag you, feel free to do it or ignore it. And if I don't tag you and you'd like to do it, by all means, go for it!
I'll tag:
1. Judean (who made the coolest wreath ever out of ribbon spools!!)
2. Tammy Vitale
3. Elena
4. Jul
5. Jim
Today, after running around to the post office, other little errands, and packaging up things to send out, I spent the late afternoon playing with tempera paint and charcoal on drawing paper just to play with some internal questions and see what might come up intuitively. I'm still working on them and may or may not share images here when I'm done. It's good to play with no end product in mind from time to time and I enjoyed the process. I played some good tunes in the background and let paint drip and pour. I smushed it around with brushes, sponges and spatulas and looked to see what came through in the colors. I brought out bits of what I saw with a stick of charcoal. It felt good. And then the hubster came home and I washed my hands so we could share a yummy dinner. All in all, a good day. Hope yours was a beauty!
p.s. My calendars are all sold out! Thanks so much! I'll be sure to print more next year and to get them ready a little earlier too. If you're looking for some gifts, I still have my free shipping offer going on at my art website through December 15th! All you need to do is enter holiday08 in the coupon section at checkout.
Link Love
December 9th, 2008, Comments (12)
My creativity over the past few days has centered on preparing calendars and some prints to ship off. You can see two of the large framed prints above. I've had fun personalizing the calendars with birthday art! I'm nearly out of calendars, so if you want one, now would be the time to scoop it up!
I'm feeling loads better than a couple days ago. Still feeling wiped out and moving a little slowwwwwly, but then again, I always feel like I move a little slowly, so maybe I'm just extra slow. Ahem...Yesterday, I tried out a new commenting system that Typepad (Typepad Connect) is offering and then promptly took it down. It's a cool idea that allows you to have threads (comment responses) in your comment section, but the email notification system they have at the moment doesn't work for me. I like receiving comments by email that allow me to respond to the commenter directly and this new system doesn't allow that. Phooey. Oh well. Perhaps in a future version that will be an option.
I've got some fun links for you, so let's get to the sharing:
- We had our first snowfall over the weekend. It didn't last, but I'm sure we'll have more soon enough. If you're feeling like bringing a little snow into your life, how about making some snowflakes? Tammy sent me a link to a virtual snowflake making site. So fun! Karen has made some amazing paper snowflakes (I love the one with bees!) and over at MayaMade, there is a great newspaper snowflake garland tutuorial.
- This Creative Goddess E-course with Leonie sounds like so much fun. I love her sparkly energy!
- Melissa's adorable kittens are getting bigger and cuter every day. I just want to cuddle em' up.
- Jennlui is doing a great new weekly challenge called Mantra Mondays. I love the mantra cards she makes!
- In January, Jamie is leading another online book group, this time with Gail McMeekin's book, The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women. I have read this book a few times already, but I'm planning to read along with Jamie's group too!
- I've been loving Martha Beck's recent blog posts. They start here. Something about her writing just rings true for me in a deep, authentic way. I can see that she might not be for everyone, but who is? Me? I love her.
- I had the pleasure of meeting Susan Tuttle a couple summers ago at a little art party in Maine. She's such a sweetheart and so creative! She recently authored a book, Exhibition 36: Mixed Media Demonstrations + Explorations that looks fabulous and she's giving away a copy of the book on her blog, here!
O.k., that's it from me for the moment. I recently got called out for being a bit of a night owl. It's true! But I'm trying to get to bed a decent hour, so that I'll hopefully get back to full health quicker. Hope you're all staying warm and healthy!
Sniffles and Holiday Craftiness
December 4th, 2008, Comments (13)
I managed to get out to the grocery store which was not so fun, but I had a craving for butternut squash and I needed tissues, so I went out and it was quite nice out. I also got some beautiful new art postcards in the mail and I'll be sending one out to everyone who orders a calendar. They feature the Lady of the Lake painting and have lovely rounded corners which I'm just loving at the moment.
I'm wishing I felt better because I'm bursting with ideas, just low on energy. Re-thinking the Creative Every Day Challenge has me super excited and I know it will be a great year, full of creativity and great connections, inspiration and lots of fun. And PLAY! Yes, play. More on that later.
Perhaps this cold is my body's way of telling me to take a little rest after the rush of AEDM. It can be hard to relax this time of year. Despite the fact that I feel like the holidays are about family and not the gifts, it can be stressful thinking about how to handle gifts, especially in a large family. And all the travel and family time, while wonderful, can be draining for my introverted self. How do you make the holidays a fun and relaxing time? I totally love this fabric advent calendar that my bff created. She had family members create items to put in the little pockets by having them draw on shrinky dink plastic. What a cool idea!! I love to see crafts that families can work on together. Although this isn't a holiday piece, how amazing is this family-decorated IKEA chair from Our Artful Life?! Love it! And if you're looking for something eco-friendly, check out this diy re-cycled shopping bag turned into a bow on Creature Comforts! The Tar-jay bag makes for a great Christmas-y decoration too.
There are so many great holiday crafts out there. I'm particularly drawn to garlands made from paper or felt at the moment. How bout you?
Links to Inspire
December 3rd, 2008, Comments (6)
Ugh. I haven't had a nasty cold in so long and oh boy, it sure does make you appreciate your health and general well-being when you feel like mud!
I'm currently in bed, but I just sent out my art website monthly newsletter to announce my calendar (see yesterday's post) and I've also added the calendar to my website here, so I feel like I did some good work today.
And I've got a build up of cool links to share, so here we go!
- Bernie Berlin at A Place to Bark and Meow is trying to get her rescue dog, Bean elected as the first dog to the white house! Go read Bean's story and comment to help get Bean noticed by the powers that be!
- Hanna has a great post with links and info about pens. I love reading about art supplies!
- The super sweet, Bridget Benton has a new etsy shop open selling her adorable buttons with messages like "Make Stuff!" Love em! Bridget also teaches awesome classes like "Printing with Junk" and she's shared some pics of that class on her blog here.
- Now this is right up my alley, this post on the blog, unobstructed creativity, is titled Inspiration Explosion: 14 Rousing Resources For Your Creative Explorations. There are some great ideas there and lots of links to get lost in.
- Aritst, Alicia Tormey, has a helpful blog post about how to get motivated as artist. Via Amy Crawley's twittering.
O.k., that'll do for now. Hope you are all well!
View from the Moon
November 30th, 2008, Comments (16)
"View from the Moon" is about 9"x12" with acrylic and ink on watercolor paper. I had drawn the basic idea for it in my sketchbook over the weekend, but the castle sort of appeared in the paint and I brought it out. I'm having fun with the moon images. I loved that the "Moon Visit" painting came intuitively on the night of the new moon and it looks like the new moon is in the window while the full moon visits the girl in her room. And I like that I did "Moon Walk" piece which makes the moon look like a balloon and I hadn't realized that the Illustration Friday theme this week was balloon. Fun synchronicities always make me smile.
Had such a busy weekend with family that by this afternoon I was spent and took a nap with my kitty Emma snuggled up under the covers.
I'm amazed at how quickly AEDM flew by! I've loved meeting so many new and wonderfully creative people in the process. I hope that if you participated, in whatever way you participated, that you found yourself more aware of creativity in your life. And I hope you'll be able to carry that forward through every month of the year. Thank you for creating with me!
