Entries Tagged as: linkage
Checkity Check It Out
August 18th, 2010, Comments (9)
Yesterday, I got a copy of Four Word Self Help, Patti Digh's new book. I got an early copy because I have a piece of art in it, along with many other wonderful artists from around the world. You can find my piece, "Let Others In" on page 3. What a beautiful little book this is!
I also wanted to share Jess Larsen's website. She has started offering doula services in the Northern New Jersey area. I'm a big believer in what she does and was thrilled to have some of my work, including Spring Thaw (above), featured on her site. You can learn more about what she does as a doula here.
Links to make you smile
June 29th, 2010, Comments (11)
I love a good laugh and this month of bliss has made me note where my laughter is coming from. I find it in the ridiculously cute antics of my cats (like this oldie, but goodie above, of two of our kitties, Tabs and Sadie, being very bad on top of the kitchen cabinets in our old apartment), the fun photobooth session I had with the hubster that had me laughing so hard, I nearly peed my pants, and in the funny pictures and websites I spot online. So here are a few links (some funny, some interesting, some just because) that I thought might make you smile. Enjoy!
*Catalog Living is a new to me site that totally cracks me up. I had a good laugh when I read this one.
*I've known about Cake Wrecks for awhile now, but it's always good for a giggle, as is one of my favorites, I Can Has Cheezburger.
*Andrea of ABCcreativity is offering a free Creativity 101 e-course, which you can sign up for here.
*For my fellow Harry Potter fans, The Deathly Hallows trailer is out and it looks awesome!! So excited!
*Lastly, I received an email this week from Liz Miller, who runs the Hope Notes project, which "invites anyone to create a card, write in a card, or simply donate a card that will be given to a client at Helpmate, a domestic violence agency serving Asheville, NC. The goal is to give each incoming client to the shelter and new support group members a card, a "Hope Note" that is empowering, encouraging and positive to keep them feeling supported and thought of while they transition."
The cards will be on display at a fundraising benefit on July 15th, and attendees will be invited to write their own hope notes. You can learn more about the project here.
To participate, simply mail your cards to:
The Hope Note Project
PO Box 2263
Asheville, NC 28802
I'll be mailing in some cards and I hope you will too. What a beautiful idea!
Do you have any sites, links, songs, or videos that make you smile? Feel free to share in the comments!
Intuitive Art Resources
May 26th, 2010, Comments (5)
What are some of your favorite intuitive art resources? I thought I'd share some of mine and see if you guys had any to share too.
Books:
Life, Paint, and Passion by Stewart Cubley and Michele Cassou
Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go Shaun McNiff
No More Secondhand Art by Peter London
Painting from the Source by Aviva Gold
Art from Intuition by Dean Nimmer
And there are loads more books to read, but that's a start. I've taken a lot of classes on intuitive art making, including one with Aviva Gold. Every teacher has a slightly different approach, but I generally enjoy the process and like learning from different folks. I'd love to take a class with the fabulous Chris Zydel!
Other intuitive art resources:
An old post about letting your art speak to you.
Another old post about my painting of Ophelia, that started with a dream and continued as I followed my intuition.
A video of artist, Jonas Gerard painting in an intuitive fashion:
I'll be announcing June's theme shortly (holy moly! I can't believe it's nearly June!!)
Featuring Fabulous Creative Every Day Participants
April 16th, 2010, Comments (15)
Every so often I feature the work of some of the amazing Creative Every Day Challenge participants. There's so much great work happening out there and we may not have time to get around to see it all, so I hope to share with you some work you might not have seen. I love the way you're all being inspired by the senses theme and I hope this work will inspire you to play with it even more this month!
Eva, of the blog, To be determined, created this super cool zentangle featuring the 5 senses:
Kim Mailhot from Queen of Arts, created this hilarious and creative "Spring Walkabout" post, which I encourage you to read. Here's just one of the beautiful photos from her post.
Julie Engelhardt, who blogs at She Dreams of the Sea, posted a picture of luscious berries along with this delicious poem. Yum.
Vicarious
the taste
of berries
cloudberries
blueberries
juneberries
sweet
smoky
velvet
on your tongue
not mine
Painting "Rocks and Mussels," Terrill Welch of Creativepotager's blog, found herself remembering the "smell of seaweed, the salt air, and the roar of the surf." I feel like I can taste the salty ocean air when I look at it too!
On her blog, Bobbi's Art, Bobbi Lewin has created gorgeous pelican images that are delighting her sense of sight (and mine too!)
Susan Loughrin, from the blog Organicsyes, has been doing a project she calls, "A Melody a Day" and recording these melodies on video. Here's her most recent one, called River Song. Beautiful!
So much beauty! Thank you all for sharing your creations with the world. You inspire me and so many others!
Lights. Camera. Collage.
April 13th, 2010, Comments (27)
Hey, everyone! I'm having fun with the senses theme and was inspired to make a little video, to play with the senses of sight and sound. In this video, I show a few details of how I begin a mixed-media piece, along with some of the techniques and materials I use. I was rambling on a bit and I don't know how interesting it will be to watch, but I know I get a kick out of seeing other artists at work, so perhaps you'll enjoy a peek into my creating world!
I've continued working on the collage since I finished the video, as you can see in the work-in-progress picture above, and will begin the painting part soon. I'm curious to see how much it will follow the original seed of an idea I had for it or if it will go in a new direction once I start painting!
Other items of note:
* Memory Walk: In November, I mentioned that my grandmother passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's (that's her and I a long time ago...gotta love the footie pajamas.) This fall, I'm going to be walking in her memory to raise funds for Alzheimer's Disease research. It's a terrible disease and I hope to make a difference. If you feel moved to sponsor me on my walk, you can do so here. As a thank you to those who donate, I will be randomly selecting one sponsor to receive a special piece of my artwork!
* Kitty Art: I've got a couple new items in the shop, including some adorable Itty Bitty Kitty art pieces and brand new Itty Bitty Kitty Greeting cards!
* Spring Sale: Through the month of April, you can use the coupon code spring2010 to receive 20% off your order of prints, cards, and original pieces in my shop.
* UPDATE: The collage in the tutorial above, later became Bee Memories.
Story-filled Linkyloos for you
March 9th, 2010, Comments (9)
I love the way the monthly theme worms its way into my brain and pops up everywhere. It may not always show up in my art, but it's always in my head. Just goes to show how the things we focus on really do expand in our lives. Which makes me wonder about what it is that I'm focusing on!
Today, I've got some fun links to share with you before I go off to enjoy the sunshine. I truly can't get enough of walking in the woods lately. After the long winter, I've been so excited about the warmer weather, the sun, and oh, the little yellow crocuses! So precious! Life! Woohoo! Um, yes, I get a little excited about spring. One thing I can say about living in New England, it makes you reallllly appreciate the Spring when it starts to stretch its wings.
On to the links:
- The lovely Lianne Raymond has complied this absolutely beautiful ebook, Dying to Be Born, filled with wisdom and art from inspiring women such as: Martha Beck, Pam Slim, Brené Brown, Patti Digh, Jan Phillips, and many more. I've got a piece of art in it too! It's beautiful and it's free! Go download a copy for yourself. If you leave a comment on Lianne's post here, you'll also be entered to win Jan Phillips' CD set, Creating Every Day (now that sounds cool!)
- Thinking of the old stories we tell ourselves, reminded me of this post I wrote a couple years ago called, Digging Into Defining Beliefs. It was something I needed to read again today.
- Martha Beck is one of my favorite authors on the topic of changing up your beliefs and this recent post from her blog is a great example of why. It's hilarious and super smart, great combo. I also loved her book Steering by Starlight
- Have you heard of Jen Lee? I've had the pleasure of listening to an audio of her telling a story, and oh, she has a way with words! You can download a copy of her ebook, "the story catcher" here.
- If you enjoy listening to stories, you'll love The Moth podcast!
Well, that's enough links to send you down a few rabbit holes. Enjoy the stories and keep telling yours!
p.s. The art above is titled, Fishing and is available here.
Other places to find my art
January 28th, 2010, Comments (12)
Over at Liv Lane's blog, Choosing Beauty, Liv is having a giveaway for a print of my mixed-media piece, Lantern. You can enter to win by leaving a comment on her blog by Friday 1/29 at midnight!
I also love the question Liv asks with the giveaway, "What lights your way on your darkest days?" I answered the question in the comments and have been enjoying reading the answers from others! Liv is a fellow Creative Every Day Challenge participant, who also co-hosts a fabulous weekly radio show in Minnesota called Get Real, which I got to be a guest on last month!
You can also be entered to win one of my prints every month by subscribing to my Blue Tree Art Gallery newsletter. The sign-up form for that is in the lower left corner of the site, where I offer original art, prints, greeting cards, and calendars featuring my work.
This month and next, you can also see my work on the beautiful online zine, All Things Girl. The theme this month is Through the Looking Glass and my pieces, Leap and Listening are featured.
A big, heartfelt thank you to everyone here for supporting my growth as an artist. It means the world to me!
Flowing out of 2009 and into 2010
December 31st, 2009, Comments (26)
What a magical day. It's a Full Blue Moon, it's New Year's Eve, we're on the cusp of another beautiful year of being Creative Every Day, and I feel like I'm inside a snow globe with these teeny, tiny flakes falling outside. I'm especially loving that it's a Blue Moon, since I'm such a moon girl and as you might imagine, my favorite color is blue (plus, I say that "once in a blue moon" expression quite a bit.)
I've just finished my full moon dreamboard for Jamie Ridler's dreamboard group and I'm using it to reflect what I want for myself in 2010: mainly more ease and flow. I have this image of a river in my mind. There's an ease to the movement of a river, but there is also motion, action, and continuous, steady flow. Perhaps the river is also in my mind because I find sitting near moving water incredibly soothing. I think I sometimes associate stillness with stagnation, but ease and movement are not so separate. I see that in the way that getting regular exercise helps me feel more calm, and how de-cluttering helps me feel more spacious and open. It's a funny little paradox that I'd like to have in my life in 2010: ease, flow, and movement. While I've been thinking I'd use the words "ease and flow" as my theme for 2010, I think I may use the image of a river as it captures more of what I'm going for. Why not?
The dreamboard above was based on a sketch from my sketchbook that I drew onto a larger sheet of watercolor paper. I created the river with gesso and bits of snowflake tissue paper to create texture. Once that dried, I painted over it with ink and acrylics. (By the way, this is a great way to recycle holiday tissue paper and make cool textures in your art!) I then drew in the figure and wrote in some words, such as: ease, flow, resonance, calm, and movement. When I mentioned wanting more ease and flow in my life earlier this month, Terri (@TerriFisher on Twitter) let me know that Rhea is the goddess of Ease and Flow. How cool! I'm sure I'll paint her at some point this year too.
The last few years, I've loved choosing a theme word for the year. I think I may have read about it first on Christine Kane's blog (by the way she's offering a free download about choosing a theme word for the year.) Last year, I chose the word "Leap" and it served me well. I made some huge leaps in my career and my life in general. I'm especially proud of having art on the cover and an article in Artful Blogging Magazine, being on the radio, creating my first online teleclass, in-person workshop with the fabulous Jennifer Lee, first e-course, growing my online challenges, buying our first home, and selling more art than ever before. I'm so very grateful for my wonderful family, friends, loving hubster, and our four fuzzy cats. I'm also thrilled with the amazing connections I've made with fabulous creative people this year, many I met through this blog. I feel so incredibly lucky to be part of such an amazingly supportive community.
It's been a challenging year in other ways. I lost my Grandma after a battle with Alzheimer's just before Thanksgiving, I had some behind-the-scenes technical issues and problems with boundaries, I had a health scare with my beloved cat, Sadie, and I found the whole process of moving to be exhausting. I also made the decision to come off anti-depressants after being on them for ten years (I did this over a long period of time with the help of a doctor.) It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done. It still feels like a bit of a journey for me, but I'm doing really well and I'm thrilled about that. Overall, life is good. So very good. And I'm so grateful for it all.
To help me close out 2009 and grow my vision of what 2010 will be, I've printed out Goddess Leonie's stunning Creating My Goddess Year Workbook & Planner. There are some pages in the workbook that go along so beautifully with next month's (totally optional) theme of Body for the Creative Every Day Challenge, so I'll share those here. And I'm going to be interviewing the lovely Leonie next month about loving up your body, so stay tuned for that too!
Actually, I've got so much goodness planned for next month, that I can hardly stand it! It's going to be an amazing year. I love the energy that's building already. I wish each and every one of you a beautiful close to your 2009. May 2010 be filled with wild creativity, uncontrollable laughter, quiet moments of delight, and loads of love. See you in 2010!
Happy Holidays!
December 25th, 2009, Comments (13)
Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it and Happy Holidays to those who celebrate in other ways! I just got back from festivities with part of my family and tomorrow we'll resume with another part of the family. On my mini tree, I have an ornament that I made back in pre-school, a reindeer made from clothespins. And I had to snap a picture of it because it fits so well with the recycling theme (and I still adore it after all these years.)
As an interesting side note, my mom tells me that when I was very small, before I knew any bad words, I'd call people clothespins when I got angry with them. As in, "You clothespin!" Hehe. Not sure why clothespins were bad...maybe because they pinched?
I hope that your holidays continue to be magical. And if you're feeling a bit stressed out, you might try listening to the recording I've linked below. I have one Catholic and one Jewish parent, so I got a kick out of Tama Kieves' hilarious impression of her Jewish mother doing a stress relief meditation. And even if you don't have Jewish family, you'll probably get a giggle out of it too.
I shall return as soon as the festivities end to share the totally optional theme for January for the Creative Every Day Challenge. Exciting!!
Creative Recycling Linkage
December 9th, 2009, Comments (4)
After an intense period of creating over the weekend, I've been taking some time to rest with the hubster who has the week off. We've been enjoying a lot of relaxing, movie-watching, and reading. It's been lovely.
I'll share some of what I've been up to soon, but in the meantime, I've collected some super fun ways to play with the totally optional theme of recycle this month for the Creative Every Day Challenge:
* I love the look of this plastic bag wreath seen on Vickie Howell's blog. So cute with Target bags. I also loved Vickie's instructions for turning greeting cards into tree ornaments!
* Recyclart might be the coolest recycling find I've discovered this month. It chock full of amazingly creative artwork and diy projects that utilize recycling to make super cool things like this vintage button rings, inner tube vases, and beach plastic artwork.
* This cool project shows how to make a wastepaper basket out of...waste paper!
* Here's a great interview with artist William Wagenaar, owner of Reclaim2Fame and creator of super fun recylced, sculptural creations.
* I enjoyed this Craft Sanity podcast interview with author and clothing designer Cal Patch, someone who strives to make all her own clothing and do as much repurposing as possible.
