Entries Tagged as 'poetry'
What the Full Flower Moon Can Teach You About Creativity
May 8th, 2009, Comments (11)
Today or tomorrow (depending on where you are in the world) marks the start of the Full Flower Moon (also known as the Full Planting Moon or the Milk Moon.) When I thought of the Creative Every Day Challenge's theme of Nature this month, one of the first things that sprang to mind was the moon.
moon under water
I'm a big fan of the moon. My astrological sign is cancer, but beyond that I'm just drawn to it. I love its rhythms and its beauty. The painting above is called "Moon Under Water" and can be purchased here. I dreamed of the moon under water one night, and when I first sketched the image of this painting, it inspired the following poem:
I dreamt last night
that the moon was under water,
not the whole of it,
just half,
as if she was too hot for this summer night
and decided to take a dip.
Finding it bracingly cold
and frighteningly vast in its darkness,
she kept her face dry and safe
above the water line.
But just the legs of the moon
were enough to give the ocean
an ethereal glow
that startled the fish from their slumber
which caused the waves to ripple and dance.
And when the stars moved in
for a better view
the surface lit up like a discoteque
and the air hummed
like a refridgerator late at night.
On a distant shore the waves lapped, lapped
on the rocks
marking the thumping heartbeat
of the skinny dipping moon,
shivering and alive.
Perhaps the glorious full moon will inspire some art in you this weekend, perhaps a poem will spring forth. The moon is also a constant reminder of the cycles of life which are much like the cycles of creativity. I spoke about these cycles with Jamie for the Your Creative Spark interview and I also wrote about them a bit here and here. It's important to remember that our creativity ebbs and flows and it's perfectly o.k. to experience downtimes. If we ride them like the waves, the whole experience is so much more smooth than if we fight them.
You could also play with the full moon by creating a Full Moon Dreamboard, which Jamie Ridler leads us through every month. These are similar to vision boards, but the idea is to create the vision of what you hope to bring into your life with each full moon. I painted a dreamboard for myself for the Full Pink Moon last month and it was a lovely experience.
Try this: When you reflect on the Full Flower Moon, what does it inspire in you? Perhaps some blossoming or blooming that is wanting to take place? Write, doodle, sketch, or paint whatever comes up.
I hope your weekend is full of inspiration and creativity and fun! In the meantime, go howl at the moon!
Color Inspired by Poetry
April 14th, 2009, Comments (18)
intuitive art detail
Last night I attended the second in a series of Intuitive Painting classes I'm taking (taught by the super sweet, Adria Arch.) We first focused on a series of small (5"x7") collages we'd made of color torn from magazines. Last week, one of the assignments was to paint in colors I normally avoid (for me those were pinks, yellows, oranges) and I used that painting for my Full Pink Moon dreamboard. Well, oddly enough, the color collage I liked best was full of rich pinks and oranges! Go figure. Try it out for yourself. Paint with colors you normally dislike or avoid and see what happens. It might just change your mind about them!
In last night's class we focused on working a few smaller pieces at the same time, using a poem we'd selected as our inspiration. We were asked not to get too literal with the poem (in other words we weren't going to illustrate it), but to let our general feeling about the poem guide us in our color choices and paint strokes.
I, along with a few other students in class chose a piece from Mary Oliver. I picked her poem Wild Geese and although I wasn't thinking about it at the time, I have a feeling my choice was guided by the mother goose I saw on a walk on Friday afternoon. I happened to peek over a bridge to look at the waterfall there and spotted her there on a cement barrier. At first I thought she was just sleeping, but then when I saw the sticks and fuzz surrounding her, I suspeced it must be a nest. I watched her for awhile and she noticed me watching. At one point she stood up and revealed 5 or 6 eggs. I snapped a picture of her with my iphone. Not the best picture in the world as I couldn't zoom in on her, but I love the tree and sky reflections it captured.
I thought it was so sweet, but then I started to worry about the baby geese (goslings). They're so close to this waterfall. Do you think they'll be able to swim away from it when they're old enough to swim? I was up last night worrying about the goslings and couldn't sleep, so eventually I just imagined them easily swimming into the river and that seemed to help. I'm going to have to trust that the Momma goose knew what she was doing nesting there.
Anyways, the Mary Oliver poem is lovely and I thought I'd share it with you in case it inspires some artwork for you! Poetry is so evocative. Try using a favorite piece of literature and imagine what colors it brings to mind for you. Use that as the start for your next piece of art.
Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
I ended up using different parts of the poem to inspire the three different pieces I was working on. Each piece below was inspired by the lines above it:
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes
They're all quite different! None of them feel complete really, but it was fun to play with color and layering and different ways of approaching a painting inspired by poetry.
I've got much to do and much more to share with you, but for now, do check out my interview at Pecannoot!! And a huge thank you to Jess for inviting me to be the first ever interviewee on Pecannoot! What a treat!
Colorful Poems
April 3rd, 2009, Comments (16)
Our way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
~Rumi
April is National Poetry month. I love the idea of playing with the Creative Every Day Challenge's theme of color and poetry. How could you mesh the two?
You could:
*Write about yourself as a color, as in "I am blue. I am soft, ethereal, just-woken."
*Write about how a color feels, how it smells, and tastes.
*Paint a wash of your favorite color in a journal and write the lines of your favorite poems over it.
*Play with writing a poem in color, mixing the words with what colors you imagine them to be.
*Turn your head to the right, what's the first color you see? Right a poem about it.
*Use a colorful photograph as the jumping off point for a piece of poetry.
*What is your least favorite color? What is it about that color that you dislike? Write free-form style about it.
*Read a favorite poem. Does it seem to reflect a certain color for you?
*What childhood memories does the color red bring up for you? Let that be a starting point. Red makes me think of my sister's stained t-shirts, popsicles in summer that turned our tongues red, the choke berries in the woods that made me wonder if they really did make a person choke, the red jumpsuit I was wearing the day I got my first period.
Color can hold so many associations, so many memories. Where do those color memories take you?
For more poetry goodness, check out:
*Resources for writing poetry with kids
Red bird came all winter
firing up the landscape
as nothing else could.
~Mary Oliver
And I couldn't resist sharing...more Mary Oliver below...
(more...)Weekend Update and Some Final Word Links
February 28th, 2009, Comments (2)
I've had such a fun weekend! The hubster and I went to the MGM Casino, where we had a complementary room. The hubster played in a poker tournament while I went to their fancy, shmancy gym to do a workout. They asked for my shoe size in the locker room and gave me a locker with a spa sandals in my size and a soft bathrobe (the gym is connected to a spa) and the shower had a heated towel rack. I had the hot tub entirely to myself (and I was totally giggling in there because it all felt so luxurious.) After the gym, I headed back to our room where I ordered room service and watched a movie (Vicky Christina Barcelona.) I felt totally pampered and exhausted by the end of the night. The hubster won big that night too (I'm not a gambler, but he enjoys poker and blackjack.) In the morning we got breakfast, took a long walk, played a little roulette, and did some window shopping before having a lovely drive home.
Today is the last day of February. I know it's only a couple days shorter, but this month is has just flown by. Swoosh!
Theme Transition:
I enjoyed the words theme and I know a lot of CED participants had fun with it as well. As we move into the Creative Every Day Challenge's (totally optional) dreams theme for March, you certainly don't need to abandon the themes of the previous months. Play can be incoporated into everything (in my humble opinion.) And there are endless ways to play with words.
Here are some more ways to have fun with and get inspired by words:
* Write for your life: Productivity tips for writers.
* Amano Books: Bridgette Guerzon Mills makes gorgeous journals and she now has a blog focusing on art journaling tips too.
* Beautiful book sculptures from artist, Georgia Russell.
* Awesome typographical assemblage from Lou Dorfsman.
* Listen to classic poetry out loud.
* Journal writing prompts.
* Read Write Poem: for those who love poetry
* Tomorrow, Connie of Dirty Footprints Studio Blogtalk Radio program will be interviewing Elena Rego at 12 pm EST. Elena creates absolutely stunning journey manuscripts.
Thank you for playing along with me this month, I look forward to all the wonderful creativity we'll share in March!
Poems to Make Your Heart Sing
February 11th, 2009, Comments (14)
Poetry is much like painting with words. It stirs in me a sense of wonder and sparks my imagination. Sometimes I have trouble sitting still long enough to linger in it, but when I do, I'm almost always happy that I did.
Today, my painting "Dreaming of the Seven Sisters" is featured in the sidebar of Breathing Poetry, a blog that features wonderful poems from a variety of poets.
What poems make your heart sing? We can all play with words and turn out poetry. It may not be perfect or beautiful, it may not rhyme or fit a particular style, but it will be your own unique expression.
I recently discovered the work of Billy Collins. Delicious use of words. Check out his Introduction to Poetry or you can listen to him read some of his poems here. Rumi is another eternal favorite and then there's Pablo Neruda, Mary Oliver, and Margaret Atwood.
I've used poems as the source of inspiration for artwork, sometimes just a line of poetry will spark a painting idea (in the piece above the line became a main feature.) There are so many ways art and poetry can blend together.
Has poetry impacted your work? If you're a poet, do you ever use your poetry in other mediums? Is there a way you can incorporate poetry into your creative life this month? Or could you use a poem as the jumping off point for your next creation?
I'll close with a bit of Rumi to inspire you today:
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.
What’s Up? The Sky.
August 5th, 2008, Comments (8)
I've been having some issues with my internet connection and haven't been at home much over the past few days, but I am alive! I'm helping out with some teenager-supervising/dog-watching/house-sitting at my old job which has been fun. I got to catch up with both the kids I used to care for as a nanny. One is nearly a senior in college and the other is about the be a freshman in college. Eep! When I met them they were just 10 and 13. Catching up with the two of them has been fun and I enjoy the doggy company too. I wouldn't want to go back, but these short bursts are nice on occasion. I've been all sorts of busy, making plans for our honeymoon, which is next month, oh my! We were given a travel agent gift certificate as a wedding gift and trying to use it over the last two months has been a nightmare. Normally, we'd just do our own travel planning and in the end, we had so much trouble with the agent not getting back to us, that after two months of back and forth, we complained and ended up just going through them for booking our hotel on one of the islands (which I did all the research for myself.) Oy. It sounded like a nice idea, having someone help us pick out the best location and activities for our needs, but it ended up being a major hassle. So, yeah, we'll never do that again.
Now that the headache of dealing with the travel agents is mostly over, we get to focus on the fun stuff, like taking a tour of the areas where LOST (the t.v. show) is filmed. We're both super excited about that. I was trying to find out which of the two companies that offer a tour would be better and came upon this youtube video (above), "top ten signs you're obsessed with LOST." The first one made me laugh so loud that my cat, Sadie jumped in the air.
Stopping home today, I was pleased to see several copies of the summer issue of Calyx, a journal of women's art and literature, which has 3 pieces of my art in it (two of which are above, Dreaming of the Seven Sisters and Lighthouse, and the third, not shown, is Memory Cycles.) The journal is lovely and I'm so happy to be a part of it. I've been pouring over some of the poems and enjoying them. It's interesting, what I like (and sometimes dislike, if I'm feeling fidgety) about poetry is the way that it requires you to be in the present moment. You can't skim over a poem, at least not if you want to get anything out of it. The way regular prose is written, we can zoom over the words because the structure and language is predictable. We usually know what's coming. With a poem, the turns of phrase are unexpected, the tempo is musical, you need to slow down and take it in, in order to understand what the author is trying to get across. Sometimes, if done well, a poem can express things that are very difficult to say any other way. Much like artwork.
In other news, the latest issue of the fantabulous Mankind Mag is now available (for free to view or download or for a small fee to purchase a paper copy). It's a great issue, all about...hair! Which reminds me, I need a haircut. But really, do check it out. I loved reading excerpts from Erin's "autohairography" and if at some point in your past you ever curled your bangs, I bet you will too. Oh, and I've got a little ad in there featuring my favorite whale art!
Wishing you a tubular Tueday! O dear, the hair issue, totally brought back all my goofy expressions from the 80's/early 90's. I used to begin all my cleverly folded notes (in square, triangle or rectangle shape) with the title of this post. Oh the memories. Heh.
small stones
July 11th, 2008, Comments (9)
Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Fiona Robyn, author of small stones: a year of moments, on her blogging book tour.
Fiona is a writer and blogger living in the UK with her partner, her cats Fatty and Silver, and her vegetable patch. Her new book, small stones, is based on the daily writing practice she's kept at her blog, a small stone, where she captures an ordinary/extraordinary moment from each day.
I can certainly relate to Fiona's need to have a daily creative practice and I love the way she captures these little treasures from her everyday moments. It's exactly this sort of thing that I've become more aware of in my own practice of being creative every day. Here are some questions that I put to Fiona about her book and writing practice:
L: How has writing these small stones daily changed you?
F: One important 'by-product' is that my commitment to small stone reminds me every day how important writing is to me. Even if I don't touch my novel or work on any poems, at least I string 7 words together. I also hope that that the practice of noticing stones makes me more mindful, which I typed before I read your next question ; )
L: Do you think the practice has made you more mindful?
F: Yes! For me, being mindful is easier said than done. Again, at least I manage a moment of mindfulness a day, when I'm thinking about what I'm seeing or experiencing and translating that into words for my stones.
L: Are you continuing on with this project or have you moved on to other things?
F: www.asmallstone.com continues daily. I did take a break a while ago, but I found myself missing the practice and so started again. Who knows how long it will continue?
L: The moments in your book have such a quiet, peaceful feel to them. They make me think of small meditations. Do you have a meditation practice?
F: I do have an intermittent meditation practice of 20 minutes in the morning, first thing - before I can come up with any excuses! I got interested in Buddhism and then more specifically Soto Zen a few years ago, and have done a lot of reading - Shunryu Suzuki is particularly important to me, and Natalie Goldberg's writings.
L: Have your small stones ever led to longer poems or stories?
F: I don't think they have - they appear as a 'snapshot', and poems usually come from an idea which is a little more substantial - maybe a whole scene, or two things that become linked together in my mind. My fiction always comes from the central character of the book who 'turns up' in my head, and then waits for me to write down their story. Us writers can be a little crazy - maybe we need to be!
Thanks so much, Fiona. I enjoyed reading your book and found your words to be a peaceful balm at the end of the day. If you're interested in picking up a copy of Fiona's book you can now find it at Amazon in the U.S.
Here are some of my favorite stones from her book:
Pushing water behind me
my muscles (who didn't
know they were tight) let go.
And let go. And let go.
He doesn't like cats because they never do what you tell
them to do. I like cats because they never do what you tell
them to do.
the moon is so transparent you could slip a thumb-nail
under the edge and peel it from the sky
I wasn't paying attention when I pegged out the clothes, but
now it looks like someone spent hours deciding what should
go where: chocolate brown, jade green, navy blue, jade
green, aquamarine, pale green, chocolate
I have something to tell you:
while it was raining, the sun rose
blackbird on bare branches, his beak a chip of flame
Abundance and Envelope Houses
April 15th, 2008, Comments (11)
Drinking in some abundance today...feeling grateful for warm spring air, cats in ridiculous sleeping positions, clown fish dancing in their anemones, the hubster cleaning off the porch, so we can make use of it again, a lovely art lesson with a family on Saturday, enjoying my creations from Artfest, a clean fridge, freshly washed pillow cases, new markers and the smooth way they move across paper, a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, bills paid, poetry on an envelope, laughter, wrapping my arm around the hubster late at night, finding a cat toy under the covers, quiet understanding, an invitation, a thunder and lightning storm, a couple good Red Sox games, socks with whales on them, silly text messages, Numi tea.
A big congratulations to Marilyn whose poetry is being published in Patti Digh's book, Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally which is available for pre-order from Amazon now!! All the artists who submitted work to Patti's project are also having their work published in the book! So cool! I submitted some work and I'm not sure which piece was chosen. However, you can see some of the art that was created around the essays that Patti wrote, here. I'm so thrilled to be a part of this project. Thank you, Patti!
From reading Marilyn and Patti's blogs, I know that it is National Poetry month, so I was thinking about poetry today and a line came to my head about envelopes being shaped like houses. I was looking for something to write it down on, when I realized, "Duh, I should write it on an envelope!" I had a stash of my neighbor's unused wedding invitation envelopes that I'd been saving for use in art and I pulled one out and wrote out a poem in white ink. Inspire Me Thursday's theme this week just happens to be "envelopes." I've used little envelopes before in art and I love them, but it was fun to use an envelope in this way. I've got some more envelope ideas floating around in my head, so perhaps I'll do something with those too. And here's the poem I wrote on the envelope above:
envelopes
shaped like houses
holding letters
and tucked away secrets.
hidden corners
and longing
make the floor boards creek.
to seal this letter,
this chapter,
this page
of your life
you must bring
the whole roof down.
destroy the illusion.
lick.
stamp.
send.
you let go here.
somehow,
magically,
your message arrives.
your messy wishes,
whispered words.
and just when
you've forgotten
or made yourself forget,
you receive a reply
in the license plate in front of you,
in the billboard on your commute home,
in the page you open to,
in the envelope
shaped like a house
with the roof torn down.
A Quick Share
March 10th, 2008, Comments (8)
I got home last night from working at my old job for the week and I was treated to the *best* welcome home ever! I came in carrying heavy bags, dropped them at the door where I was met by fuzzy kitties and then looked up to see the hubster smiling and carrying a plate of fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies. I mean, can you beat that? 
We shared a lovely night of snuggling, chatting and watching a movie and then went to bed. I stayed in bed a little later this morning to snuggle with the fuzzy kitties who were being exceptionally adorable.
I wanted to share a couple things with you before I get back to work. One, is that the sweet and talented Carla of Anonyrrie has started a blog about her coaching practice called Wings 4 You Coaching. As part of this new blog she is issuing a weekly challenge, Weekly Wings. The current challenge has to do with poetry. Go check it out! Speaking of poetry, my friend Betsy sent a link to this poem which I thought was wonderful. And speaking of words, today I'm loving the word, "exquisite." The word itself is exquisite.
Andrea of A Cat of Impossible Color (love the blog name by the way, Andrea!) asked if novel writing counts as part of the Creative Every Day 2008 Challenge. And the answer is, hell yeah! Anything creative counts, from gardening, to poem writing, to doodling, to cooking, to knitting, to re-arranging your bookshelf, and so on... Be creative in the ways in which you can be creative!
And I'm off...happy creating!
Soaring
December 29th, 2007, Comments (13)
When synchronicities start falling in my lap wherever I turn, I know I'm on the right track. And everywhere I go I'm seeing things relating to "Now." I've been on a fun little run of the internet this morning and keep thinking, "oh, i must link to that and that and that!" But then it gets a little out of hand and I need to let go of trying to remember it all. I think if I did remember it all this post would be a tad too long.
In a beautiful example of Julia Cameron's quote, "leap and the net will appear, " I received an amazing and generous offer in the comments of my last post, from Sarah of Today's Homemaker. Sarah has offered her services as a proofreader/copyeditor for my book! Thank you again, Sarah! And thank you to everyone for the chorus of "YES!" It means the world to me!
Above is something I did in my art journal this morning with pencil, colored pencil and pen. I'm going to use it for this week's Illustration Friday theme which is "soar." The theme seems to fit in so perfectly with all sorts of things coming up, such as the leaping rabbit in the post below and Marilyn's theme for 2008: "leap." The quote above is one that Patti left in the comments of the last post. I think it has to do with letting go of the baggage and restrictions we put on ourselves, so that the core of who we are is allowed to soar freely. The quote from Ginevee, an Australian aboriginal, says, "Inside each of us, there is a forgotten person." When I read it, I had this ghostly image in my head that needed to come out. I put that quote within the forgotten self who is being allowed to soar. Perhaps I'll do this drawing with paint at some point, but getting it out of my head is good for now.
While working on this image, I was listening to some podcasts and somehow ended up choosing an older podcast from Accidental Creative. This particular podcast is called "Moment" and it was so incredibly relevant to some of the things I've been talking about here, that I had to share. This may sound odd, but I actually listened to this podcast several times and I even took notes in my sketchbook! The podcast, by Todd Henry of Accidental Creative, is all about becoming "unbound" or how we can uncover and break down the artificial boundaries that limit our creativity. I wrote about something similar in my post on defining beliefs. And for many reasons this theme is particularly important to me right now. For one, one of my defining beliefs has been, "I'm not a writer." I could go on about where I came up with that belief, but it's really not that important. The important part is that it became part of my identity and I held onto it as a rule, when in reality it's an imaginary construct that is not serving me in any way, except to hold me back.
Henry shares a story from Neil Fiore's book, The Now Habit that illustrates really well how artificial boundaries can limit us. We are asked to imagine a board that is 1 foot wide and 30 feet long. Can you imagine walking on that board easily? Yes, it would be quite simple to do for most of us. Now, imagine that board is 100 feet in the air, balanced between two buildings. It would take the same skills to walk along that board, but we'd surely be terrified of falling. Just like moving the board high up in the air, our imagined boundaries keep us fearing the consequences instead of living in the moment and focusing on the actual skill it would take to do the job. My theme for the year is, "Now." So, if my boundaries keep me from living in the moment, that's just one more reason for me to unearth and release them.
I also really liked what Henry had to say about "the break between aspiration and action." Here, he was speaking about how when people have big dreams that they aren't acting on, there is usually some artificial wall in the way (or the aspirations they have are actually those of other people.) This was certainly true with my dreams of writing a book. I had all sorts of belief systems set up that were blocking the way. And it's also true as Henry says, that each belief that you uncover leads to others which can be daunting, but also so very freeing to discover! I'm definitely feeling a lot more freedom in releasing some of my defining beliefs this year and I'm sure the continued freedom I find in 2008 will lead to wonderful places.
I also loved the part of the podcast that talked about how you must step outside your comfort zone and explore your curiosities because being stuck in old ways of doing things and/or feeling any tension around moving forward is usually a sign that some boundary is in place. All of this relates so much to being in the now, to being open and willing to play, to releasing the fear of failure, to being confident and yet humble. These are all lessons I'm trying to absorb.
I'll leave you with this poem I found online today by DW Bender. The poem, which went with the beautiful woodcut she created for this week's Illustration Friday, touched my heart:
tonight when dreaming
may I turn into a bird
nameless and homeless
in my solitary flight
I'll forget I have no wings
