Entries Tagged as: home
Creative Every Day Theme for February: Home
January 26th, 2010, Comments (35)
At the end of each month I will announce the totally optional theme for the following month. February 2010's theme will be: Home.
As always, the themes for the Creative Every Day Challenge are totally optional. Use it if it sparks you, continue being creative every day in your own way if it doesn't, or do something in between.
I think this theme may be less emotionally charged than the theme of body, but I also think it's an excellent transition from January's theme, as the body is our home too. I'm also thinking of this theme in terms of clearing clutter, creating in a space that inspires you, making art about the home, making art to decorate your home, and exploring what the concept of home means to you. There are endless ways you can play with the theme and I'm open to any interpretation.
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:
- *Write freely about what the idea of home means to you.
- *Make a vision board of your ideal home.
- *Focus on clearing a little bit of clutter each day.
- *Shift things in your space and see how it impacts your creativity.
- *Make art about the homes you've lived in.
- *Find your favorite nook in your home and draw it.
- *Sculpt houses out of clay, play-dough, or paper pulp.
- *Create a sacred space in your home.
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!
p.s. The art I adapted for this post is from my mixed-media piece titled, A Crowd of Sorrows, which is available as a print here.
Home is the nicest word there is. ~Laura Ingalls Wilder
Chairs in a Row
November 29th, 2009, Comments (24)
I traced the silhouette of this woman onto rice paper last night, but today I came back to it and traced a series of chairs, which got me all excited. Again, I collaged and painted on a 6"x6" clayboard surface, using bits from my collection, things I intuitively grabbed that seemed right in the moment. One scrap looked like it was the shape in the house, so I played with that. I had a piece of rice paper cut in the shape of a eucalyptus that I'd written on months ago, but not used in anything. It seemed like the right time to use it here. Stamps and stamped images of ferns came into play as well. Then I lay the rice paper image over it, using a soft gel medium to bring it together. I love the translucent quality of the rice paper and the way the drawings sit on top of it. I've always been a fan of layers, the way it mimics how layered things are in real life.
I'm so enjoying the rice paper at the moment. I love when a material thrills me and I know I'll be playing with it for awhile until the next medium makes me giddy. It's a good place to be, feeling the joy of materials, feeling in the flow.
I was feeling a big sluggish the last week, although I kept plodding through. Flow in creativity comes in cycles for me and I've come to accept that. Sometimes a down period means I do other things like reading or research, re-stocking the well as Julia Cameron puts it in The Artist's Way. And other times, like during Art Every Day Month, I keep plodding through, knowing that the spark will fire again, if I just keep patiently putting mark to paper. Often times, I don't think the spark has returned to me, until I've already begun, like last night, which makes me glad for those times when I kept plodding through. But other times, a break feels necessary. Neither way is wrong or right. Knowing that both ways of returning to my work can be fruitful helps me come back without judging myself in the process.
What helps you come back to your creativity after a slow period? Are there any sparks happening right now for you?
Connecting with My Inner Domestic Goddess
October 29th, 2009, Comments (13)
All the hustle and bustle of setting up in our new home has brought out my inner domestic goddess. Sometimes I'm not sure she exists. I've never been one for baking cookies or sewing curtains. I mean, I love cookies (mmm, cookies) and sewing appeals to me, but it's not been in my repertoire. The hubster enjoys cooking more than I do.
But I do have these sparks of domestic bliss. Like last week, when I pulled out this pretty blue dutch oven, found a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa, and spent an afternoon laboring over a pot of soup (it's a Mexican chicken soup.) I mean, really, look at this masterpiece! Hehe.
Shnazzy, right? I know Martha Stewart won't be calling anytime soon (even though I was cooking in one of her pots), but I was rather proud of myself.
We've been spending a lot of time setting up the house as well. You'd think with my art skills, I'd be a great decorator, but the two things do not necessarily overlap. I'm a bit spatially challenged and find all this arranging and selecting of furnishings to be mind-boggling. But we're slowly getting things together. It's beginning to feel more homey.
And ok, I'll admit it, it's been kinda fun embracing my inner Domestic Goddess. She's not so bad. I do love freshly cleaned sheets, the look of white bowls stacked in the cupboards, and my little collection of teapots. And I'm enjoying cooking in the new kitchen (sometimes.)
My studio space is starting to come together thankfully. Books are on the shelf, art supplies are unpacked. Closet shelves are installed. I'm ready to go for Art Every Day Month!
What have you been connecting with during this month of connection?
House Update
September 9th, 2009, Comments (7)
So the move is coming along and things are a bit hectic, but at the same time, very exciting. Most days last week, I was at the new house to meet contractors and delivery folks who often give 4 hour windows of time in which they might arrive. This meant I was spending a lot of time in an empty house, which was kind of fun and kind of odd.
When I wasn't working with someone in the house, or hanging temporary paper curtains on the windows, I spent much of the time sitting in an empty room on a lawn chair with my laptop and a tv tray. Over the weekend we got a larger fish tank to put our clown fish in, so now I can sit and look at the purty tank.
Ok, so, paper shades, people...who knew? Not me, apparently. For those who have not been introduced, there are these temporary paper shades out there for people like me with lots of windows and no curtains to put on them, who need something temporary besides sheets to get some privacy.
When I walked into a curtain store and said, "I've got a lot of windows and I'm overwhelmed!" The kindly older window shop owner said, "Focus on a few rooms at a time and here, take a few of these paper shades for your bedroom and bathrooms."
Paper shades? Hallelujah!
I then went out and got a bunch more and started hanging them up. And, seriously, they're so cute that I may just take my time properly covering the windows...until the cats realize they're made of paper and rip them to shreds. Hehe.
Speaking of kitties, Sadie had her little lump removed and is recovering nicely. She's been super snuggly with me and her pal, Emma. (That's Sadie in the back and Emma in front. You can see a corner of Sadie's shaved belly sticking out. She's got quite the stylish haircut at the moment.) We don't have the lab results yet, but I'm hopeful about it all.
I was planning to sit down and write a post about inspiration and synchronicity, but clearly I was wanting to share a house/kitty update more, so I'll get to that other post shortly. In the meantime, I hope you've been enjoying the amazing guest posts! I know I have! It makes me all giddy actually to be sharing these different perspectives on the topic of inspiration here. I hope the posts are inspiring you as much as they are me! I've got many more to share with you to keep you inspired throughout the month, so keep checking in!
p.s. I was on Connie's fabulous blog talk radio show, Creative Juicy Life with my friend and Creative Play workshop co-leader, Jennifer Lee, on Sunday and you can listen to the recording right here.
And if you're in the Boston area, we'd love to see you at the Creative Play Workshop on Saturday, September 19th! You can get all the details and sign up here.
