Creative Every Day Challenge Theme for October: Connect
September 26th, 2009, 22 Comments
The *totally optional* theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge in October will be Connect! I'm thinking of it in terms of exploring what finding connections in your art, making connections with community, connecting to yourself, to nature, etc..
I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can use the posts here for jumping off points or interpret the theme in your own creative way. If you need some suggestions, here are a few ideas to get you started. You could:
- *Join in and connect with others in online challenges like Illustration Friday.
- *Explore connections in your art.
- *Find ways to connect creatively with Nature, with your body, or with your home.
- *Connect with others through a swap (aceo's, journals, books, etc...)
- *Write about the way you connect with yourself and others.
- *Try connecting with new people through media like Twitter or visit some of the CED participants (see the sidebar.)
- *Leave art or fun messages in your neighborhood as a way to connect with your community .
- *Create your own in-person, creative group meet-up or have an art picnic with friends.
- *Take an online class to connect with like-minded souls.
How to use the CED themes:
If you're feeling creatively stuck or blocked at any point during the month, use the theme as a source of inspiration to get you moving.
Using the theme is entirely optional for CED participants. Use it if it inspires you, ignore it if it doesn't. I'll be sharing posts throughout the month around the theme (among other things) to get you thinking about how to incorporate it into your life. I'd love to hear how you use the theme in your creative world.
Feel free to focus on the theme in your creative activities for the entire month or as much as you'd like.
And have fun with it!
Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us. To create means to relate. The root meaning of the word art is "to fit together" and we all do this every day. ~Corita Kent
p.s. The art in this post is a cropped portion of my mixed-media painting, Ladders. The original of it sold, but you can purchase prints of it here.
Video Interview with the Gorgeous Goddess Leonie
September 25th, 2009, 8 Comments
CreativeEveryday.com interview with GoddessGuidebook.com from Goddess Leonie on Vimeo.
Oh my goodness!! Leonie is the bestest! I absolutely loved chatting with her in this video chat. I could hardly get over the fact that we were talking and seeing each other from opposite sides of the world!
Ok, so my video half was a little wacky with the light behind me (holy halo!), I was looking down to watch Leonie's face on my screen, and I kept leaning out of the picture even though Leonie gave me the tip to stay in the center. Doh! But those are teeny tiny things. The great part is there's lots of fabulous information about Leonie's amazing courses, a truly sublime visualization, and lots of laughter and smiles. Bliss!
You can check out Leonie's Goddess School here or check out the Goddess School HQ on Ning. Term 1 begins on September 28, and there's two luminous Goddess courses you can enroll in - a Creative Goddess e-course and the Making Space for your Goddess to Shine divine decluttering e-course.
Say “Yes, and!” to Inspiration: Guest Post by Jennifer Lee
September 24th, 2009, 9 Comments
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, 5 Comments
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!)
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.
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.
inspiration… what lights us up inside: a guest post by mindy tsonas, wishstudio
September 22nd, 2009, 2 Comments
hello. it’s such a wonderful treat to be a guest here in leah’s beautiful and dreamy space. i often find myself stopping by, just like you, in search of a little something to fill my creative well. wandering through the blogging universe is something i love to do especially when i have the time to lose myself in all the delicious images and words. opening door after door here, I always stumble upon inspiration around unexpected corners.
that’s the thing about inspiration… it most often takes me by surprise and sweeps me off my feet. it’s emotional, visceral, and romantic. it’s intoxicating, compelling, and passionate. it fills me up in ways that nothing else really can.
sometimes i’m inspired by colors or textures or tastes, or maybe it’s an idea or a desire or an emotion. sometimes it’s wanting to capture a moment and somehow make it permenant by wrapping it in words, fabric or paint as a way to try to hold on to it forever. always, i’m inspired by the things that make me feel most connected to living; my creativity, my motherhood, my self expression, and the little earthquakes of my everyday journey unfolding…the things that bring me real joy and ultimately mirror the truth of who i am. when i listen to what inspires me i hear my soul gently whispering, and in connecting with this part of myself it compels me to connect with others as well.
inspiration is resonant in this way. it wants to be expressed and shared and to persist. it makes a beautiful endless circle of giving and gathering. i love this quality and have found great fulfillment in inspiring others along my own path. there is something really special about connecting with like-minded souls who understand this unending search for what lights us up inside and allows us to shine our brightest on the world.
that is what truly inspires me.
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mindy tsonas is the hostess and creative curator of the wishstudio, an inspiring community for creative women. she also blogs at under a pink sky, sharing her own creative journey and everyday life.
Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: September 21 – 27
September 21st, 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 9/21/09 - 9/27/09.
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.
Happy Creating!
Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time…The wait is simply too long. ~Leonard Bernstein
Getting Unstuck – Finding Inspiration in Collage Making: Guest Post by Kathryn Antyr, True North Arts
September 18th, 2009, 14 Comments
I find inspiration in the simple act of cutting and gluing images together to create collages. The process of creating always pulls me out of a funk and stirs within me a sense of excitement and adventure. Pictured above is a collage I made in thirty minutes by shuffling through my paper scraps and collection of ephemera. I was feeling restless and unfocused on the day I made it. I had no plans for the collage; my only goal was to see what I could throw together.
Here is a look at my process for creating collages.
1. Select your background. I often make collages in a sketch book, journal, or on a piece of cardboard.
2. Flip through magazines and any collections that you have of images and ephemera. Move quickly and grab only those images that grab you. I work intuitively throughout the entire collage process and feel more like an observer than a creator. Don't worry about the meaning of the images.
3. Cut your images out -- you may want to include some of the background or cut out images close to the edges.
4. Play with the arrangement of your various pieces. Move them around before gluing them down. Consider how the images look above, below, next to, overlapping, or peeking through other images. Notice the colors, lines, shapes, and textures. Again, I don’t get distracted by placing meaning on my images but rather think of each piece as a design element.
5. Once you’ve settled on the placement of the images glue them down. I prefer UHU glue sticks and Golden gel matt medium. There are times when I glue as I go -- I felt so daring when I did this on the collage pictured above. It kept me moving and not spending too much time over thinking the process.
6. Time for reflection. This is one of my favorite parts of creating my collages. I prop up the collage on a stand or leave it next to my spot at the kitchen table. It may be days before I get the hidden meaning in my collages.
Intuition and Insights
When I created the collage pictured above, I was feeling restless and seeking that glorious feeling of passion. When I set out to make the collage I didn’t have a clear idea of where I was going, I just knew I needed a creative fix. What I discovered after making the collage was one answer on how to rekindle my passion. Here is a look at how I interpret the collage:
The empty boat in the still water will not move without passion. The angels or muses are blowing to encourage movement. It is by taking steady steps each day that I find my passion (depicted as the person walking toward the flower). The passion is represented by the sunny daffodil blossom. Under the figure's left foot is the word authentic in Italian. I know that each one of us has our own unique path. We share many of the same steps but we each have our own way. After interpreting the collage I felt comforted and ready to take simple, steady steps each day to nurture my passion.
Feeling restless? Try making a collage. The process of collage is accessible to everyone whether or not you believe you are creative or an artist. The wonderful thing about collage is that anything goes. There are no hard fast rules. The results are so personal and provide an opportunity to look within.
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Bio: Kathryn Antyr is a mixed media artist, educator, and Web professional. She regularly publishes creative prompts and online workshops on her blog www.TrueNorthArts.com. You can also connect with her at www.CollageDiva.com, on FaceBook and Twitter.
Inspiration: A Guest Post by Bridget Benton
September 17th, 2009, 8 Comments
There are a lot of things that inspire me in my art making – scanning blogs, going to museums and art galleries, checking out new materials, talking to people about art, even cleaning up the house. But the thing that inspires me most is working.
If I go a week or more without making art, I start to feel sluggish. I may check out a few blogs or buy a new pen, but if I've gone a while without actually making, I start to get intimidated by what I see on the blogs or even nervous about whether or not I'm up to the new pen. I also start to get cranky. Art making starts to seem, well, hard, and the couch starts to look, well, really good.
Remember what it's like when you're totally out of shape and the elevator's out of order and you have to climb six flights of stairs to get to a meeting you're late for? Ok, so maybe it's never happened to you exactly like that, but the point is, I'm sure you can imagine the wheezing, sweating, noodle-limbed creature that emerges on the sixth floor. I bring this up because the root of the word inspiration is "breath."
For me, inspiration isn’t usually a flash of lightning or a burst of insight – though it does feel like that every now and then. Most of the time, it’s just like breathing. It’s something automatic that I experience all the time, like noticing colors in a tablecloth or the shape of plant’s bloom or the interesting pattern in the stained concrete. Like breathing, it’s something that nourishes me and keeps me going.
Inspiration breathing is something I get better at the more I do it and the harder I work my cardio-art-vascular system. It’s diving into a piece and listening, knowing what the next thing to do is. It’s getting stuck in a piece, glancing around, and then seeing three things I could try. It’s trying all three of those things, having none of them work, and then turning the piece upside down and trying something else, only to have it work and take me running off in a completely different direction.
Even when I’m tired, or not feeling “in the mood,” doing a quick collage or doodling with watercolors or sketching from a bird book can perk me up. Inspiration is part of an ongoing connection with my art making, and it gets stronger and easier the more I do it.
So, I’ve got to keep making. Otherwise, I end up wheezing and sweating and noodle-limbed, looking for the elevator. Or the couch.
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Bridget Benton is an artist, writer, and teacher who loves to make things out of other things. Feel free to drop by her website, www.eyesaflame.com or her blog, http://eyesaflame.blogspot.com.
Inspiration as a Way of Being: Guest Post by Jessie Marianiello, Stray Dog Arts
September 15th, 2009, 10 Comments
Inspiration: it comes in the form of Endless. It is a sidewalk, an interaction, the color fuscia or turquoise or rusty metal. It's an old truck, a vintage sign, an intelligent dog. Inspiration is the bends and fold of fabric. It is the potential. It is life in action. Inspiration is the way the morning light lands on a jar full of paint brushes or a pear or even just the air. It swallows me whole on a daily basis. It's a double espresso, a long hot shower, a shifting of the heart. It is molecular. And, in each instance, I am changed.
Inspiration is liquid. How else to describe the feeling that sparks somewhere behind my eyeballs, then flashes and flows like a brilliant river towards my lungs and gut and then to my brain. Inspiration is light. It breaks me open. Sometimes I get so inspired that I fear I will fall apart.
OK, but let me reign myself in just a little bit. How to talk about inspiration in a rational way? Rational-smational. Never mind. It doesn't have to be rational! It doesn't need to make sense! Inspiration doesn't need to be anything more than it is, which is what makes it Everything. It is the bursts that propels us forward on our strange journeys--and the more open we are to these journeys, the more profound and frequent these bursts can be. Inspiration is our guide. It leads us to the succulent, good, passionate stuff. It invites an entire gamut of emotions, and then some. It leads us to an authentic life.
Inspiration can be tiring and energizing all at once. It causes our skin to become thin and our hair to grow quickly. We begin to experience life more fully. It causes us to become strong and determined in places where we didn't know we had it. We transform into a conduit for the world around us--sometimes causing surprising amounts of tears and laughter, all in one gulp. Inspiration makes us feel alive. It removes the veil between our highest self and what surrounds us. It puts us in direct contact with an energy so raw and pure that it's a miracle we don't simply burst into light.
To me, inspiration has the physical sensation of my heart expanding. It expands to the point of feeling squeezed. Overflowing. Most often, I feel inspiration in the form of an overwhelming sense of love or connection. It makes my heart feel like a balloon that might pop. When I am feeling most inspired, tears will spring to my eyes or my entire chest region will freeze and rise up with a feeling of giddiness or excitement. I'm starting to get used to this odd reaction. I'm even staring to appreciate it. In the past couple years, I have learned a lot about listening to these feelings. If I don't feel like I might jump out of my skin with delight, then something is off. I need to listen to that, no matter how good an opportunity or "idea" might be. Leave the head. Enter the heart. Listen to your body. I've learned to become more sensitive to these reactions or lack of reactions--and I am learning to make decisions that effect my life and livelihood on these feelings alone. It took me awhile to finally figure out that the more engaged, stimulated, and inspired I feel, the more successful my endeavors become. Quite frankly, it is exhilarating.
But wait. Wanna know a secret?
Inspiration isn't something reserved for only the lucky few. Just like anything else, it can be learned. What? Did I just say learned? Yes, I did! But not from a book and not necessarily even from someone else. We are each our own most qualified Professor of Inspiration, we are each our own best teacher.
Remember that.
And trust yourself.
You are, after all, your own greatest expert when it comes to knowing what inspires YOU the most!
Inspiration is often an unexpected surprise. Amazingly, it's also a habit, a pattern, a lifestyle. It is a way of working, a way of seeing. It is a way of saying yes or no to the things that matter the most. It is a way of making room for the flow of energy. Inspiration is a way of thinking and being. Like any habit, it is a mental groove in our brain patterns. Believe it or not, we all have the capacity and ability to get really good at getting inspired. The trick?
Listen.
Listen carefully to those glimmers and sparks. Don't question them. Instead, move in their direction. Over and over. Just keep doing it. Feel a spark? Follow it. Another spark? Act on it. Feeling a glimmer? Go for it! Let me say this again: Inspiration is a feeling and every time we learn to walk towards it, rather than away from it, we get better at figuring out how to find more of it.
So here's the deal...
* Don't get stuck in your head.
* Surround yourself with people who inspire you.
* Give yourself time to breathe.
* Eat beautifully. Vibrant foods create vibrant cells create vibrant living create vibrant insights.
* Follow your sparks.
* Don't get bogged down by activities and projects that lack the almighty spark.
* Give priority to INSPIRATION!
* Explore new roads--literally and metaphorically.
* Stand on your head. (ie. Look at the world in new ways.)
* Nudge yourself beyond limitations. Despite what we might tell ourselves, they are usually self-imposed anyway.
* Permit failure. After all, failure is what shows us the way towards something even better.
* Pay attention to what makes you smile.
* And laugh.
* And cry.
* Look underneath things.
* Climb to the tops of buildings and trees and mountians.
* Paint.
* Doodle.
* Dance.
* Do things you've never done before.
* Be bold.
* Be brave.
* Sometimes, just be quiet.
* And never-EVER underestimate your power.
Trust the sparks. Trust yourSelf. Trust the process. Inspiration has the power to change EVERTYHING. Just remember: We are magnificent beings--especially when we give ourselves permission to shine.
Inspiration is contagious.
Shine on, my creative friends!
Be Brave.
Be Inspired.
___
Jessie Marianiello is a full-time artist who lives and works on a vineyard in southern Minnesota with her three dogs, two cats, and one husband. She loves strong coffee, is the creator of the Be Brave Project, and believes in creating a life that fills you from the inside out.
Jessie specializes in urban contemporary pet portraiture. Her goal as an artist and animal lover is to create artwork that honors the unique life force within each of us. She paints to tell a story. But, even more so, she paints because it causes her to experience more love than she often knows what to do with.
You can visit Jessie on her website at Stray Dog Arts or her personal blog at Diary of a Self Portrait.
Creative Every Day Check-In: September 14th – 20th
September 14th, 2009, 16 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 9/14/09 - 9/20/09.
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. (update: oopsie daisy! I forgot to put the new Mr. Linky in, when I posted this, but it's up now!)
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.
Happy Creating!
Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working. ~Picasso
