Connect with Those You Love
October 13th, 2009, 16 Comments
This weekend, the hubster and I got away to Disney World for a long weekend. There was a business meeting involved, so it wasn't all playtime, but a majority of the time was spent together, exploring 4 amusement parks, laughing and screaming on the rides, and enjoying each other's company. And it just so happens that today is our 2nd wedding anniversary! We've been together for 8 years now and we still adore each other. The weekend felt a bit like an annivesary celebration and it delights me how much we still enjoy spending time together. It also reminded me how important this kind of quality time is to connect with those you love.
I thought you guys might enjoy seeing a couple wedding pics from our big day two years ago (which was perfect in every way.) I can hardly believe 2 years has gone by already!
The whole wedding experience was filled with creative moments from both the hubster and I and seeing it come to life was so amazing. Walking down the aisle to a string quartet playing a composition that the hubster wrote for me, was one of the most romantic experiences of my life. Ack, I'm getting teary writing that! I added my touches in the invitations, programs, table cards, cake design, and other decorative touches. And then we both wrote our vows, which had everyone laughing. It just goes to show, that there are lots of ways to show your love, from words to art to kisses.
What are some creative ways you can connect with those you love?
p.s. The photos above were taken by the utterly amazing Tirados, a super sweet husband and wife team. We loved working with them!
Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: October 12 – 18
October 12th, 2009, 18 Comments
This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.
Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 10/12/09 - 10/18/09.
The widget below is an optional method of sharing your creativity that makes it easier for others to check out what you're up to. You can use it to link to a blog post (or posts) during the week listed. Or if you have a bunch of posts and don't want to link to all of them, you can link to your main blog page once. Do it in a way that makes sense and is fun for you! (If you're reading this in a RSS reader or email subscription, you will not see the "Mr. Linky widget", so click on over to the blog to use it.)
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.
Join in the Challenge: To find out more about the Creative Every Day Challenge check out the details here.
If you want to sign up to be a part of the challenge, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know. When you contact me, please let me know how you'd like to be listed in the list of participants, which resides in the right sidebar (I can list you as your name or as a link to a blog if you have one. A blog is not required to participate!) Please email or comment to let me know you're participating before you start posting links in the comments or on the "Mr. Linky" widget.
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for October is connect. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the inspiration theme here.
Happy Creating!
Art, in the first place, has to connect with yourself. ~Andrew Brown
Connecting to Your Longing
October 8th, 2009, 39 Comments
I have these pictures from a nature walk I took the other day and when I was thinking about posting them, I thought, "Oh, but you already did a post about connecting with nature for the connect theme! Write about something different!" But sometimes you've just gotta go with where your heart is tugging you.
It's kind of funny because of all the Joy Diet chapters (the book I'm reading with Jamie Ridler's book group), the one on Desire has been the most difficult for me. I'm not sure if it's because it gets harder as one chapter builds upon the next, if the exercises themselves are getting more difficult, if I'm losing steam, or if I have some kind of resistance to looking at what it is that I desire. I have a feeling it's the latter.
I've continued to get in my nothing time (mainly in the form of walks), I've done the truth exercises, but by the time I get to the desire piece, I've "run out of time" or "forgotten" or brushed it off. Hmm. And this is something I've been working on too, speaking up and saying what I want instead of being so easy-going to a fault all the time. Perhaps there's a fear underneath it all that something I want is too big, too grand, and the disappointment would be too great. Or perhaps I feel like I have enough and who am I to want more?
For now, I'm going to continue to practice Martha Beck's method of "picking a pebble" of any small desire and follow it where it leads. On my walks, I've been so thrilled with colors and shapes and have been so glad to have my iphone with me to capture snapshots of it all. I've been especially excited by reflections of sky in water and the shapes of leaves. Color and texture and beauty, oh my!
I feel like I've been successful in following my desires in terms of inspiration. It's something I'm more familiar with, allowing myself to be pulled by the inner nudges that lead me to mediums, subjects, and experiments in art. And perhaps this is enough for now and maybe if I continue to practice this, my desire skills will expand into other areas of my life.
I guess I did end up writing about a different sort of connection here. And in reality I could write about connecting with nature and all the things that come up from doing that all month long! (Although I doubt I will.) But isn't it interesting to see where following desire can lead?
Where are your inner nudges leading you in your art? Are you following them despite what you may "think" about it? What are you longing to do creatively? And if you don't know yet, how could you connect with that part of yourself?
Art Every Day Month Survival Guide
October 6th, 2009, 11 Comments
Art Every Day Month, a challenge I lead every November, is just around the corner! I will continue to offer the challenge to anyone who wants to join in this year, but I'm also going to be offering something extra for those who want to join in, but could use a little extra help along the way.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Art Every Day Month, it's a challenge I started about 7 years ago. I was interested in doing a month-long challenge, like Nanowrimo (in which participants write a novel in a month), but I wanted it to be about art. For the first year, I committed to creating art every day for the month of November and I posted it on my blog. The next year, a few people joined in with me, and it's grown from there. Last year there were over one hundred people playing along!
When I say art in this challenge, I mean it in the broadest sense, so your daily art could be a painting, a doodle, a photo, a poem, a meal, a scrapbook page, a piece of jewelry, a craft project, a quilt square, etc... It doesn't have to be a finished project every day either. For example, one day I might start a painting and the next day I might go back to that painting and finish it. And if you miss a day, or a week, you can just brush yourself off and jump back in. There's no guilt factor here, the challenge is all about adding more creativity into your life.
Having done this challenge for many years now, I know that even with the incredible support of doing this with a group, it can be hard to stay motivated for the whole month. That's where the Survival Guide comes in!
The Art Every Day Month Survival Guide will be delivered to you in a daily email, one for each day of the 30 day challenge. In the email you will receive a dose of inspiration, encouragement, tips, tricks, and prompts to keep you energized and flying through this creative adventure. I'll also include beautiful images and a weekly mp3 recording with a mix of visualizations, stories, and ideas to keep you creating from day 1 to day 30. And it's only $30!
You can get all the details and sign up here to start receiving your Survival Guide emails on November 1st.
Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: October 5 -11
October 5th, 2009, 15 Comments
This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.
Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 10/5/09 - 10/11/09.
The widget below is an optional method of sharing your creativity that makes it easier for others to check out what you're up to. You can use it to link to a blog post (or posts) during the week listed. Or if you have a bunch of posts and don't want to link to all of them, you can link to your main blog page once. Do it in a way that makes sense and is fun for you! (If you're reading this in a RSS reader or email subscription, you will not see the "Mr. Linky widget", so click on over to the blog to use it.)
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.
Join in the Challenge: To find out more about the Creative Every Day Challenge check out the details here.
If you want to sign up to be a part of the challenge, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know. When you contact me, please let me know how you'd like to be listed in the list of participants, which resides in the right sidebar (I can list you as your name or as a link to a blog if you have one. A blog is not required to participate!) Please email or comment to let me know you're participating before you start posting links in the comments or on the "Mr. Linky" widget.
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for October is connect. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the inspiration theme here.
Happy Creating!
Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. ~William Plomer
Connecting with Nature & with Myself
October 1st, 2009, 30 Comments
It is the month of connect for the Creative Every Day Challenge, which has me thinking of all the ways I connect in my world. One of the things I've been loving about the home I've moved to, is that it's close to nature trails. Since I'm reading The Joy Diet with Jamie Ridler's book group, I've been using my walks in the woods as a time to do nothing. It's a great practice in staying in the present moment, letting my thoughts march by as if they were in a parade, returning and returning and returning again to my breath, forward movement, step, step, step.
There's a lovely resting point at the end of a wooden pathway that trails right into a pond, filled with frogs. I'm already enjoying the ways the trees are changing all around it and the way they reflect in the water. So peaceful.
This week in The Joy Diet, the focus was on truth. At the end of your nothing practice, you ask yourself what you're feeling, what story you're telling yourself about it, and whether another story might work better. I've used this sort of practice before (it's similar to Byron Katie's The Work), but having the reminder to do it every day has been helpful. And I love the practice of asking these questions after the meditative time.
Although winter will make it hard to take these long walks, I plan to continue them as long as I can. When I'm out connecting with nature, I feel like I'm connecting with myself and my spirituality. And that fills me in a wonderful way.
What are some ways that you connect with yourself?
Inspired by Rumi
September 30th, 2009, 15 Comments
a crowd of sorrows, mixed media on panel, 12"x12"
I'm often inspired to create a painting when I read a poem, sometimes an image so powerfully hits me when I read a line that I just have to make it real. That happened this week with a poem by Rumi called "The Guest House."
I've read this poem many times before. I think I've even posted it here in the past, but sometimes a new reading will bring out new things. This time around, I read the poem in Martha Beck's The Joy Diet (which I'm reading with Jamie Ridler's book group.) I was sitting outside by a lake, reading the chapter on truth, when I read the poem again and I was struck by the line "a crowd of sorrows" which I immediately saw as a group of three black birds swirling in a red house.
As I wrote about yesterday, I rode the inspiration train to do some late night collaging one evening and then some late night painting after that. I felt so compelled to bring this piece to life and loved the whole process. So nice when things flow like that. The collage elements you see in the previous post are mostly covered up. I never know exactly what's going to stick around when I do a mixed-media piece, but you can see bits of it in the ground and up close the layers are lovely.
Have you been inspired by any poems lately? Have a grouping of words ever pulled you to create something tangible?
Here's the Rumi poem for your enjoyment. It's a beautiful poem that has touched me in many ways. Perhaps it will spark some creativity for you as well.
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
-- Jelaluddin Rumi,
translation by Coleman Barks
p.s. The original of this piece sold, but there are prints available here.
The Inspiration Train
September 29th, 2009, 7 Comments
I've loved reading all the fabulous guest posts about inspiration this month. Thank you a million times over to all the fabulous folks who shared their inspiration with us while I moved. And thank you to everyone participating in the Creative Every Day Challenge for continuing to inspire me and so many others!
As I've pondered the theme of inspiration this month, I've generally felt like you can't wait for inspiration to create. That's something that I learned through doing Art Every Day Month (a challenge I run every November.) Through keeping a daily practice, I learned that when I sat down and created every day, there were some days when I was feeling juiced up and full of inspiration, but there were just as many days that I just wasn't in the mood. But when I created anyways, I learned that being in the mood or feeling inspired were not requirements of creating. What a revelation that was for me!
I think too often we wait around for that bolt of lightening to strike and tell us what to do (and that does happen, but for most of us, it's just not often enough.) But the beautiful thing is, that when we sit down and begin, despite our mood, things begin to flow. We only need to put pen to paper or brush to canvas and start. I'm continuously surprised by what comes when I simply allow myself to begin. And as a nice bonus, my mood is often a million times better once I spend some time creating or writing.
Yes, there are those fabulous days when inspiration is beating down your door, when it will not let you rest until you get moving on the idea that has come knocking. I had one of those days yesterday. It was a busy day too and I didn't have time to play with my idea until the evening. I was tired and was considering just leaving it for later, but I felt so restless and jazzed up about it, that I had to at least start even if I couldn't finish the piece.
I was on a roll, happily pulling materials from still packed boxes, finding things easily, putting the beginnings of a piece together, and then I was totally surprised when I looked up and saw how time had just flown by. I tweeted about how I'd felt such a strong urge to create and was enjoying riding the art train. It felt great to have started to bring this idea to life and with gluey hands, my muse was satisfied and let me rest. (The work in progress is above, just the beginning layers here. I'll write more about it as it develops.)
So, there are two things I want to say about this. One is, when the inspiration train comes for you, ride it out. Enjoy it. Stick your head out the window and feel the breeze. Follow it where it leads you. The second is, on all the other days, when the train hasn't picked you up, don't wait around for it, twiddling your thumbs and biding your time. Make your own ticket. Create anyway.
Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: September 28 – October 4
September 28th, 2009, 18 Comments
This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.
Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 9/28/09 - 10/4/09.
The widget below is an optional method of sharing your creativity that makes it easier for others to check out what you're up to. You can use it to link to a blog post (or posts) during the week listed. Or if you have a bunch of posts and don't want to link to all of them, you can link to your main blog page once. Do it in a way that makes sense and is fun for you! (If you're reading this in a RSS reader or email subscription, you will not see the "Mr. Linky widget", so click on over to the blog to use it.)
You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to.
Join in the Challenge: To find out more about the Creative Every Day Challenge check out the details here.
If you want to sign up to be a part of the challenge, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know. When you contact me, please let me know how you'd like to be listed in the list of participants, which resides in the right sidebar (I can list you as your name or as a link to a blog if you have one. A blog is not required to participate!) Please email or comment to let me know you're participating before you start posting links in the comments or on the "Mr. Linky" widget.
Theme: The (totally optional) theme for September is inspiration. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the inspiration theme here. October's theme will be connect and you read more about that theme here.
Happy Creating!
Life is a big canvas, throw all the paint on it you can. ~Danny Kaye
The Joy Diet – Do Nothing
September 27th, 2009, 16 Comments
I'm currently reading Martha Beck's The Joy Diet along with Jamie Ridler's online book group. I love Martha Beck's writing, particularly her books Steering by Starlight and Expecting Adam (if you enjoy audio books, I highly recommend listening to Steering by Starlight, which Beck reads), so I was super excited to hear about this choice for Jamie's book group.
The book talks about different daily practices for living a joy-filled life, each one building upon the next. The first one is to do fifteen minutes of nothing every day, which could be done through traditional sitting meditation or moving meditation, anything where you focus on stillness of the mind. Surprisingly hard to do for someone whose mind works a million miles a minute like mine does. I did a mix of sitting meditation and walking meditation throughout the week and was so glad I did. No matter what method you choose, anything that stills the mind is a good practice.
I've found that in many cases, art making is a great way to still the mind, especially when I focus on creating intuitively. So, it made total sense to collage the cover of my newest sketchbook with images of joy. I pulled images intuitively with the intention of selecting colors, textures, and pictures that spoke of joy to me. I added a little bit of glitter and paint and voila, a joyful sketchbook to write in throughout the process of reading this book!
Sometimes just being still is fabulous, but I tend to prefer something that gets me moving physically too, like walking in nature or painting intuitively, but I'm going to keep playing with different methods and see what comes up.
