Creative Every Day

Art Every Day Month Check-In: November 24th

November 24th, 2009, 15 Comments

Today is the 24th day of Art Every Day Month. Some days it's just one foot in front of the other, one tiny step at a time. Keep on taking those tiny steps forward. You're doing fabulously!

The box below is a widget that I provide each day as an optional place to share a direct link (blog post or flickr image) to that day's creation. If you don't have something to share today, don't worry about it! Share when you can. In the meantime, be sure to check out what other participants are creating! Check out the links from today's post and the links in the sidebar for instant inspiration. You can also see lots of great work in the AEDM flickr group. Feel free to share your work there too!

If you use the widget, please link to a specific blog post (or specific image if you're linking to a flickr page or other website) instead of your main blog page or website. If you want to share, but don't have a specific page to link to, feel free to use the comments section of this post to share what you're working on. If you're posting less than once a day, no problem! Simply use the latest one of these posts to share a link to your creation. For some, it's too much to keep up with posting every day, but don't let that get you down. Do it if you can and if you can't, just keep on creating, that's the most important part. If you get off track and miss a few days of creating, don't let that freeze you up either. Just pick up where you left off and keep moving forward. One foot in front of the other. You are making your life a more creative one with each step.

If you're new to Art Every Day Month, check out the AEDM info page for all the details, then send me an email to sign-up before you use the link widget to share your creations. (If that email link isn't working, you can email me at leah at bluetreeartgallery.com)

Instructions: Please see the Art Every Day Month Instructions post if you have any confusion about how to post your link or how to sign up.

Twitter: Are you participating in AEDM and you're on Twitter too? I'm on there as @leah_art and I've been using the hashtag #aedm to mark Art Every Day Month tweets. I also started a Twitter list for AEDM which can help you easily find Twitter folks who are participating. If you're not on the Twitter list yet and would like to be, send me a DM (Direct Message on Twitter.)

The best ideas come unexpectedly from a conversation or a common activity like watering the garden. These can get lost or slip away if not acted on when they occur. ~Ruth Asawa

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Sketches and Doodles

November 23rd, 2009, 20 Comments

Yesterday and today were consumed with working on a slideshow/movie for my Grandmother's wake tomorrow. Such a time consuming process, all the scanning and cropping and editing. But sorting through the old photos was fun. The picture above is of my Grandma and I. You can see she's working on a blanket in it. She was an amazing knitter and knit me everything from the coolest Christmas stocking you've ever seen, to beautiful sweaters (my favorite was blue with fuzzy white cats on it), to doll clothes.

My Grandma did have a beautiful life filled with 5 children and 15 grandchildren and a few great-grandchildren and a long, happy marraige. It was nice to go through these memories, remembering the better times before she got ill.

I'm exhausted, but I did manage to do a few little doodles in my moleskine-like sketchbook with watercolor pencils. They were fun to do and I appreciated the time to be playful.

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Art Every Day Month Check-In: November 23rd

November 23rd, 2009, 16 Comments

Today is the 23rd day of Art Every Day Month. What medium, color, or material is calling out to you today? Listen to that still, small, inner voice today and follow where it leads you.

Instructions: Please see the Art Every Day Month Instructions post if you have any confusion about how to post your link or how to sign up.

Be brave enough to bring your life and life experiences into your work. There is something only YOU can give to art! ~Mary Todd Beam

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Blue Tree

November 22nd, 2009, 22 Comments

This morning I played with blue ink, colored pencil, and a bit of paint to create this tree.

Thank you so much for all the love and support you all sent my way in response to losing my Grandma. I feel the love and so appreciate it.

I may not be able to get around to visit as many of you as I'd like this week, so if you could each visit a few of your fellow Art Every Day Month participants and send an encouraging word their way, that would be wonderful!

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Art Every Day Month Check-In: November 22nd

November 22nd, 2009, 14 Comments

Today is the 22nd day of Art Every Day Month. This has been a difficult month for me in many ways, but one of the things I've really appreciated about it is how making art each day has helped me to process the hard stuff. I kept showing up at the page and it helped me through. And so I'm super grateful that I had this support system of Art Every Day Month to help keep me on track, to keep me showing up for myself. It made a big difference. Thank you for your support and for showing up for yourself. How has showing up at the page helped you?

Instructions: Please see the Art Every Day Month Instructions post if you have any confusion about how to post your link or how to sign up.

Look at the earth crowded with growth, new and old bursting from their strong roots hidden in the silent, live ground, each seed according to its own kind… each one knowing what to do, each one demanding its own rights on the earth… So, artist, you too from the deeps of your soul… let your roots creep forth, gaining strength. ~Emily Carr

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For my Grandma

November 21st, 2009, 75 Comments

I'm grieving the loss of my Grandma, who passed away this morning. She has had Alzheimer's for years now and no longer recognized anyone, but other than that she was quite healthy. She woke up this morning, put on her shoes and socks and then passed away, just like that.

In many ways, as my Grandpa said, it's a blessing. She wasn't in any pain and she's been living in a nursing home for the last year and didn't like it there.

I'm still so sad. Especially for my mom who has been doing so much care-taking of her and my Grandpa through everything. And I'm sad for the losing the woman she was, even though it sort of felt like I lost her a long time ago. And I'm just sad.

Yesterday, I was playing with paint while the inkblots dried and I this little angel appeared, halo and everything. And I didn't want to paint it. I've never really painted angels, except when it was for someone else, so I let it sit, figuring I'd come back with fresh eyes later on. But now I feel like it was for her, my Irish Catholic Grandma. I think she would have liked it, so I worked on it a bit more today, a pretty purple angel just for her. Love you, Grandma. You will be missed.

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Art Every Day Month Check-In: November 21st

November 21st, 2009, 18 Comments

Today is the 21st day of Art Every Day Month. The final stretch! Keep on taking good care of yourself throughout this process. Self-care is so important when we take on a creative challenge like this. What is one small, kind thing could you do to take care of yourself today?

Instructions: Please see the Art Every Day Month Instructions post if you have any confusion about how to post your link or how to sign up.

Don't be afraid. Don't be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine cock-eyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed for just one moment, through your efforts, then olé! And if not, do your dance anyhow, and olé to you nonetheless. ~Elizabeth Gilbert in her fabulous TED talk on Nurturing Creativity.

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Inkblots

November 20th, 2009, 32 Comments

Today I got to meet with the super sweet Gretchen Wegner, who was in town for a conference. I took her to a nearby art supply store to pick up some goodies and show her some non-intimidating art supplies to play with. One of the things I shared was these little moleskine-like sketchbooks and Golden fluid acrylics, two things that I love to use when making inkblots. I simply squirt some paint on one page, mush it around, then close the sketchbook to make my inkblot. I usually do a bunch at once, then keep the book open so the pages can dry. Later, I come back and see what images I can find in the inkblots or just play with them until an image appears using pens and colored pencils. Below you can see what the above inkblot looked like when I started to draw on it.

A few people have mentioned feeling stressed by keeping up with the challenge. I totally understand, it is challenging, but you're all doing so great! I really want to make this a low-pressure and no-guilt experience, but I know that most of the guilt/stress comes from the pressure we put on ourselves. So I'll say this: if you need to take a break and come back, do that! Or if you need to do something lighter and easier for a few days, something like these inkblots or doodling, do that. Mix it up and make it fun for yourself. Mixing it up makes it easier to stay with it and the variety will inspire you too! Here are some more inkblots I played with today.

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Art Every Day Month Check-In: November 20th

November 20th, 2009, 17 Comments

Today is the 20th day of Art Every Day Month. Wowzers, time is flying by. I'm loving witnessing the journey you are all on. It's so beautiful to witness. I hope you all know how absolutely fabulous you are (yes, you!)

Instructions: Please see the Art Every Day Month Instructions post if you have any confusion about how to post your link or how to sign up.

All who are creative, in whatever way, are doing something very important to the well being of the world. ~Sandra Chantry

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Gray Skies

November 19th, 2009, 41 Comments

Today, in an attempt to clear up some majorly clogged ears, I took a decongestant and now I'm totally fuzzy headed and my ears are still clogged. Oy! lol. Perhaps the fuzzy headedness is where the gray came from today or perhaps it's the gray weather. I took a walk outside before I painted and the sky seemed so heavy with grayness.

I sat down with watercolor paper and a bottle of ink and began to play. I love dropping ink and drawing into little puddles of water on paper. The way the ink flows suggests shapes (today the trees, bird, and clouds.) It was relaxing.

Now, I'm off to take a hot shower, in another attempt to clear up my sinuses, before meeting up with some friends I met doing the Mondo Beyondo class this fall. We're to sit around, eat soup, and read to each other. How lovely is that? I only hope I'll be able to hear them.