Entries Tagged as: workshop

She Carried the Night in Her Hair

February 4th, 2012, Comments (14)

I started this piece at the Intuitive Ink workshop I taught last weekend at the wish studio (so fun!) Today, I went back into it and saw a woman with stars in her hair and began to draw that out. Annabelle saw me drawing and wanted to take a closer look.

And here's a snapshot of the workshop in action. I'm going to be teaching something else at the wish studio, so if you're in the area, stay tuned And if you're not in the area, I am creating an online version of the workshop to release sometime this Spring!

Intuitive Ink Prep

January 21st, 2012, Comments (12)

In a week from today I'm teaching Intuitive Ink at the Wish Studio in Newburyport, Massachusetts. If you're in the area, I'd love to see you there! You can get all the details and sign up here.

Earlier this week, I did some inkblots in prep for the class. Above, are some "before" inkblots which we'll play with and make creations from in class. I'm loving the way they look all lined up together though. A nice burst of color during these dark winter days.

And here's a couple example of some "after" inkblots. They're so fun to make!

I'm also planning to create an online version of this workshop, which I hope to have ready to offer in the Spring!

I hope you're all having a wonderfully creative weekend. I had the fun experience of letting my daughter play in the snow for the first time on Friday. She was having a blast until she realized that snow was very cold. heh.

Happy New Year and Intuitive Ink!

January 1st, 2012, Comments (8)

Happy New Year fellow creators! I hope you had a wonderful holiday and are ready to dive into a fresh, new year of creativity in 2012. I'm excited to share the journey with you!

If you're interested in joining in the 2012 Creative Every Day Challenge, you can read all about how to participate here and then sign up here. The totally optional theme for this month is New, which you can read all about here.

Intuitive Ink!

Are you doing anything new and exciting in 2012? I'm excited to be teaching a workshop at Mindy Tsonas's wonderful new Wish Studio space in Newburyport, MA on January 28th. If you're in the area, I would love to see you there! The workshop, Intuitive Ink, is for artists of all levels. We'll be loosening up, connecting with our intuition, and creating some of those super fun, very portable, wildly imaginative Inkblots that you may have seen me share here.

Here's an example of a before and after inkblot:

And here's one I did during Art Every Day Month this year:

Want to join in? You can sign up right here. Come play!

If you live in the area and are interested in joining the Wish Studio as a co-op member (and then you can take my class for free!), you can get all the info here.

Say “Yes, and!” to Inspiration: Guest Post by Jennifer Lee

September 24th, 2009, Comments (9)

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A few months ago while I was on the phone with Leah planning my Boston visit, I asked on a whim, "Hey, wanna do a workshop together while I'm out there?"

"Absolutely, that sounds like fun!" she quickly replied.

And just like that our Creative Play workshop was born. It was simple, easy and fun because we both came from an inspired and open place.

Nothing kills inspiration like a big, fat "but." No, I'm not talking about derrieres. I'm referring instead to all the "yes, buts..." we tell ourselves. "Yes, that's a great idea, BUT it won't work." "I would love to do that, BUT it doesn't make sense." "I've always wanted to, BUT I don't know how (or I'm scared!)."

Instead of saying "yes, but..." Leah and I said, "yes, AND." Yes to collaboration, to having fun and to trying something new together. From that inspired place we were able to co-create a joyful afternoon together. We built on each other's ideas and we got to share in a playful experience with 10 other fabulously, creative and inspiring women.

Inspiration is often contagious like that for me. It can start with the slightest whisper from my Inner Muse. The idea will germinate in my head until I speak it out loud and finally move into action. And that's when the inspiration factor snowballs. Sometimes it's like being on creativity crack! Ideas flood at me left and right and it's hard to keep up.

Other times, the inspiration well seems dry. The "yes, buts" seem to have more clout then. It's times like that when I just need to give myself time and space to nudge my Inner Muse. For example, this morning instead of saying to myself, "Yes, I'd love to play with the new ink and quill I bought in Boston, BUT I have too much stuff to catch up on so I better not," I chose to say, "Yes, I'll play with my new art supplies AND I'll do it first thing in the the morning to start my day creatively." By simply sitting down, opening up my journal and picking up my pen, I summoned my Inner Muse and became inspired to create.

What can you say "Yes, and" to today?

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Jennifer Lee is a certified coach, artist, writer and yogini who find inspiration everywhere. She is the creator of the Unfolding Your Life Vision Kit and the Right-Brain Business Plan. You can find her at Artizen Coaching, her Life Unfolds Blog and on Twitter.

A Day of Creative Play

September 23rd, 2009, Comments (5)

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picture by Mindy

I'm just beginning to unwind from the whirlwind of moving, unpacking, having the beautiful Jenn as our first house guest, and co-leading our fabulous Creative Play Workshop! Whew! I'm a bit pooped, but it was all so much fun! In the pic above, you can see me in the top left and then going clockwise, Jenn on my right, Kerry, Dana, Melba, Janet, Whitney, Carolyn, Julie, Margaret, and Judean. And Mindy got the shot (thanks, Mindy!)

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pictures above by Jenn

The workshop was a blast and I felt so honored to be able to share it with a group of such fabulous, creative women. It was great to meet some new folks, some people I only knew online, and some old friends as we played, laughed, and created with our intuition.

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Jenn and Leah

And can I just say what a pleasure Jenn is to work with? She's super sweet, creative, fun, and I just loved the way she let go with her own collage work in the class. Jenn and I are already talking about doing a Creative Play workshop in the Bay Area next year! You can check out Jenn's post about the workshop here and stay tuned for a guest post from her right here tomorrow!

After class, Jenn and I had a bit of a road trip with the lovely Mindy and Melba up to the Squam art fair. I'm so glad we went as a group (and that Mindy was driving!) because it was scary-dark up there! But I'm also so glad we went because we got to meet some awesome creative women and see some gorgeous art. It was great fun seeing so many faces you know online, in person!

So much inspiration here and so much more to share. In the meantime, I also want to mention that I've just scheduled the next Art Picnic teleclass for Thursday, October 22nd, from 8-10 pm EST. You can sign up for that right here.

What’s Inspiring You Lately?

September 3rd, 2009, Comments (15)

Yes, I'm curious. What's inspiring you at the moment? Are there any books or tunes or artists that are lighting your inner fire?

I'm constantly adding to the list of what juices me up and I plan on sharing some of those things throughout the month. I'm super excited about and inspired by the wonderful guest posters who will be sharing stories of inspiration here throughout the month. Jen's post yesterday was fabulous!

I've had a fairly quiet day today for the first time in a solid week and so I thought it'd be a great moment to share a few things that are inspiring me and ask you about your current inspiration!

Nature: I'm feeling inspired by and grateful for the gorgeous weather. I took a walk down to a nearby river where I ate my lunch and wrote for an hour. It was lovely. I'm always inspired by sitting in nature and near moving water.

Books: I'm currently reading: The Wishing Year: A House, A Man, My Soul A Memoir of Fulfilled Desire by Noelle Oxenhandler and absolutely loving it.

Music: Somehow I missed out on the music of Arcade Fire, but the song "Wake Up" in the trailer of Where the Wild Things Are (also very inspiring, check it out below) was haunting me, so I got the album the song came from and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Inspiration Journal: I keep a nifty inspiration journal by my bed. It's one of those thick, red, canvas-covered, blank journals you can get in book stores. I keep it to do very light, low-pressure, playful collages and doodles in whenever I feel like it. It's fun sometimes to tear through catalogs and magazines, ripping out images of whatever catches my eye. I glue them in in a pleasing fashion and sometimes write words alongside them. Looking back through it today, it felt like I had been writing a visual love letter to our first home. Sadie helped me flip to this page today. I like all the muted colors and textures here.

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Interview: I loved this video interview of Dirty Footprints Studio's Connie on Darrah's blog, artcetera. Connie is too cute! I loved when she said, searching for your artistic voice is like searching for your own nose, it's already there, you don't need to find it!! Ok, she said it better than that, so go over and listen for yourself. And if you'd like to hear more of Connie (and me!), tune into Connie's blogtalk radio show this Sunday, September 6th at 6pm EST when she'll be interviewing Jennifer Lee and I about our Creative Play workshop in Boston this month and lots of ways to add creative play to your everyday life. You can even call in and say hello!

Writing: I love Eileen's writing. This post about the times between our creative pushing and the meanings behind our obsession with Buffy (or whatever it is you're obsessed with) is saying about you, is a great example!

Podcasts: I love to listen to podcasts, so I'm super excited that the fabulous Jamie Ridler has started her own all about creative living! Check out her very first podcast here.

And the list could go on and on and on...But for now, I bid you adieu.

p.s. Please send some good kitty vibes to my kitty Sadie who is having an itty bitty lump removed tomorrow. Thank you!!

Links to Move You

August 26th, 2009, Comments (8)

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So many fun links to share. Hopefully some of them will move you!

-Jamie Ridler has this great video and post about dancing in response to Gretchen Wegner's Muse Cubes. So fun and fabulous!

-If you want to see some more wonderful movement in action, head on over to Creative Every Day Challenge participant, Shamsi's blog, where she talks about her own movement practice, her work, and she's also got some wonderful videos of her belly dancing!

-Another beautiful belly dancer, Tatty Franey has some gorgeous pictures of her dancing on her site as well. The costumes and colors are so gorgeous, especially as they move! Oh my, super inspiring to me!

-Tammy Vitale has a wonderful discussion on her blog with Molly Gordon about how artist/entrepreneurs can set goals vs. expectations as you move towards your big dreams. If you leave a comment, you'll be entered to win a gold membership to the Self-Employment Summit.

-Vicki of Faint Heart Art is celebrating her 200th post with giveaway of a lovely travel art set. Great for art while you're on the move!

-Pema Chodron has a new book available for pre-order called, Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears. This looks like it would be a great book to continue playing the move theme of this month!

-For a completely different kind of movement inspiration, check out this time-lapse video of NYC that was tweeted by the lovely Kirstin Butler (she's @kirstinbutler on Twitter.)

-There's less than a week left to take advantage of early bird pricing for the Creative Play Workshop, happening in the Boston area on September 19th. Jenn and I would love to see you there. Spots are filling up, so grab yours soon!

-The art above was something I played with during the Art Picnic Workshop on Saturday. We had such a great group participating in this class! One of the participants was actually having her picnic in the backseat of her car while her husband drove. So cool! You can also check out Beckie's experience of the workshop here. The next Picnic will be in October and I'll announce the date soon.

-As I mentioned earlier, this month's theme was especially poignant to me as the hubster and I just purchased our first home. Well, the closing happened today and we are officially homeowners!! I'm super excited to share next month's theme with you, so look out for that announcement tomorrow. In the meantime, keep on movin'!

Good Stuff Galore!

August 14th, 2009, Comments (6)

I've got other posts swimming around in my brain since I wrote the Swimming Lessons post, but I had to stop and share some of the good stuff going on!

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greeting cards

Firstly, I've got some gorgeous new greeting cards for sale in my art shop. They're lovely. Right now there are three to choose from and you can purchase one or save money by buying them in a set. Checkity, check them out right here.

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Secondly, time is absolutely flying by and it's nearly time for another Art Picnic Teleclass! The next one is happening Saturday, August 22nd from 1-3 pm Eastern time. This is a great opportunity to schedule in some creative time for yourself and learn some tips and tools to help you get going when you're feeling stuck with your art.

Third, I'm super excited about making my second appearance on the Connie's fabulous Creative Juicy Life radio show this Sunday at 6pm EST. I'll be on with my pal, Jennifer Lee to talk about living the creative life and our upcoming Creative Play Workshop, which is taking place in the Boston area on September 19th. If you can't listen into the call live, you'll be able to hear a recording of the call here. EDIT: Due to technical difficulties, the radio show was canceled and rescheduled for Sunday, September 6th at 6pm EST.

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The Creative Play Workshop is going to be a blast. Lots of giggling, creating, and mess-making will be happening and we'd love to see you there! There's an early bird price for this workshop through August 31st and space is limited, so be sure to scoop up your spot here.

Lastly, I've been doing lots of tedious, behind the scenes kind of work this week and haven't had as much time as to get around to see all your fabulous work. I plan on doing some blog-hopping on Sunday though! Tomorrow the hubster and I are going to do some measuring at the new house for things like curtains and blinds. Weird. We've been living in this bachelor pad type apartment for so long, it's going to be quite a switch to do things like actually decorate!

Hope you all have a wonderfully creative weekend!

Swimming Lessons for Moving Out of Your Comfort Zone

August 12th, 2009, Comments (17)

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work-in-progress where i'm practicing taking some risks!

The painting above is a work-in-progress, where I'm painting over part of a very old mixed-media piece. I do not know where it's going yet and it's in the stage where every step is a bit of a risk.

As I said at the start of August's move theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge, I also interpret "move" to mean taking risks. To me, risk taking means moving out of your comfort zone into the land of the scary, the exhilarating, the dangerous, and the empowering. I immediately thought of my pal Jessie's Be Brave Challenge and our recent discussion about how sometimes every movement we make as we create can be an act of bravery.

Earlier this week, I went into town to put up some flyers for the Creative Play Workshop I'm leading with my friend Jenn in September. I'm super excited about the workshop and have been happily talking about it online, but putting up flyers in person scares the crap out of me. Don't laugh. Heh. It sounds totally ridiculous when I write it out. I mean, what's so scary about hanging up flyers anyways?

The things is, it doesn't matter how ridiculous your fears seem to you (or to anyone else for that matter), they're your fears and you don't need to be ashamed of them. But once you've noticed them and acknowledged their existance, perhaps you'll want to nudge at those boundaries a bit.

Swimming Lessons

When I was little, I took swimming lessons at a local pond. I wasn't the greatest swimmer and as much as I loved splashing around in the water, sometimes the depths of it scared me. One day, the teachers told us we were going to learn how to dive. We were instructed to tuck our head, point our hands out in front of us, curl our back, and then kind of roll and drop into the water. The pond we swam in was a muddy one with teeny fish swimming around in it. When we stood at the far end of the dock, toes over the edge, all shivering in our little swimsuits, you couldn't see the sandy bottom. All you could see was dark, dark water.

One by one, kids dove off the dock. Some rolled in with grace, natural swimmers. Others belly-flopped. I stood frozen, with my toes curled tight over the wooden edge, staring at the sun reflecting off the water, breathing fast, and not wanting to dive. I didn't want to go into that dark water head first. Time passed. The teachers waited. I just couldn't get myself to step off the edge.

One teacher coaxed me. She then tried counting down, "1,2,3,...go!" I didn't dive. Eventually she pushed me in. That wench. I can laugh about it now, but how many times have you been rudely pushed through your fears? Some people would prefer the push. If that's you, then find someone to push you! You might like that bootcamp exercise class that I tried and despised this year. Heh.

But if you don't like being pushed, there's another more gentle approach.

Stick Your Toes In: You know how when the water's cold, some people will wade in bit by bit and others will just dive in to get the cold over with? Neither way is wrong. Try out both styles and see what works best for you. If the baby step approach works best for you, go with that. Slow steps forward is more than ok. Honor your style of approaching the scary stuff. What teeny-tiny step could you take with something that you're avoiding?

Splash Playfully: Before the swimming lessons, I used to play around in a neighbor's pool. I would never go underwater without plugging my nose because of a few times when I breathed in water and it stung like crazy. But one day, I was playing games with my friends and I ran straight into the water without plugging my nose first. I breathed out and came up for air with no troubles. And just like that I could swim underwater without plugging my nose. What playful or sideways approach could you take with something that's difficult for you?

Treat Yourself: At the pond where I went to swim lessons, there was always a visit from the ice cream truck. I love picking out a treat after a hard day of swimming. When I went to put up flyers this week, I stopped to get my favorite iced tea from Peet's. Sometimes knowing there's a treat at the end of your action, helps you get started. What are some ways you reward yourself?

Spread out Your Towel and Rest: A day of swim and sun would always leave me tuckered out. But I also realized recently that any kind of risk-taking, especially when done in bunches could leave me feeling exhausted. If that's the case for you, put in a little buffer time around activities that stretch your boundaries. Give yourself some space to rest and get rejuvenated. After hanging flyers, I gave myself some time to sit in the air conditioned bedroom and watch Project Runway Canada on youtube (don't tell me who won. I haven't seen the end yet!) Do you give yourself time to relax after you've moved forward on something big?

How's the Water?: After you've completed something that moved you out of your comfort zone, notice how you feel. I often feel super empowered after conquering a fear and it often energizes me to take it one step further or conquer a fear in another area. Other times, I just feel drained. How do you feel after you've taken a risk?

Dive at Your Own Pace: I did eventually learn how to dive gracefully, but not at the pond. I learned in a more comfortable environment (back at the neighbor's pool), without any pressure or pushing. Don't worry so much if you're not moving along with your art, business, or whatever as quickly as you think others around you are. Respect your pace, keep moving forward playfully, and have fun with it. You'll enjoy the journey much more.

Play with moving out of your comfort zone with your art, your writing, your movement this month and let me know how it goes for you!

Creative Play Workshop: Creating Time for Yourself

July 22nd, 2009, Comments (11)

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a timely message

I've been enjoying writing these posts on the theme of self for the Creative Every Day Challenge this month because they help to remind me about how to take good care of myself, how to celebrate, how to move past self-doubts, and how to meet myself where I'm at with my art. Taking excellent care of yourself isn't something that comes naturally to many of us, but it's a key part of living a creative life.

For many of us, things that we consider frivolous or unnecessary come last, so while we make time to do errands and clean and meet other obligations, we're less likely to schedule in time for pampering, art-making, rest, or play.

I believe that we are more present in our lives, more alive, and more available to those we love when we nurture ourselves and our creativity.

Sometimes that nurturing comes in the form of creating time just for you. If you find that despite your intention to make the time to play, you're just not getting to it, it might be time to make a creative date, the kind you schedule in on your calendar. You may need to ask a loved one or babysitter or pet sitter to help you out. Do that. It's ok to ask for some help making your creative date happen. I often use signing up for a class as a sure-fire way to show up for myself. (Something about paying for something guarantees that I'll show up!)

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If you're in the Boston-area and looking to schedule in some creative time for yourself, then I'd like to invite you to join Jennifer Lee and I for a live workshop: Creative Play: An Afternoon of Intuitive Art and Creating from the Heart, happening Saturday, September 19th, from 1-3 pm. Get all the details and sign up here.

Jenn and I are so thrilled to be sharing this class with you! We'll be getting playful, creating collage art from our intuition, and learning tools to infuse our daily lives with creativity. And there will be giggling, lots of of it.

We've got an early bird price of just $40 through August 31st, but space is limited, so do grab your spot if this creative playdate calls to you!