Painting a Full Pink Moon Dreamboard
April 9th, 2009, 27 Comments
I am quite fond of the moon and it turns up quite a bit in my art. When I heard that this full moon is called the Full Pink Moon, I thought how perfect that I'd just painted a big pink painting in my Intuitve Painting class on Monday!
The lovely Jamie Ridler leads a full moon dreamboard challenge on her blog and I wanted to participate in this one. All the dreamboards (or vision boards) I've created in the past have been with magazine images, but I thought it might be fun to paint a dreamboard using the big pink painting I'd created as the base. First, I drew a little sketch intuitively, focusing on what I wanted to see bloom in my life. I drew a girl soaring, a girl peacefully sitting in a flower, and a house. At the bottom I wrote blossom and bloom with two more lotus-like flowers. And then I brought that sketch to the big pink painting (it's 18"x24") and used it as the background for the scene that unfurled. The clouds sort of came as I went along. I can't tell if the soaring girl is hanging on the clouds or pushing them up into the air. I may work on this further, but I wanted to get it up tonight.
detail
What is it that you are wanting to blossom and bloom in your life? Could you use a colorful painting as the base for a dreamboard?
Intuitive Art and Committing to your Creativity
April 7th, 2009, 26 Comments
Last night I attended the first of a series of Intuitive Painting classes I signed up for. Before the class started, I received an email from the teacher saying that the first class was going to be all about color. I laughed at the synchronicity of it, considering this month's theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge is color!
The first class was a feast for the senses. Each student was given a packet with a scent in it and then we were asked to create a color based on that scent. Mine was a yummy spice and the color I created was a warm reddish-brown. We all shared our colors and then used our color, along with the color of a classmate, to simply play with paint. I let my paint drip and run at first. We painted very quickly, so each of these pieces could be developed with further (all except the one directly below are 18"x24") or used as the beginning of a painting later on. The idea in moving quickly is to kick out the inner-judge and get painting, to try new things, to experiment. The first piece (below), created something that looked a bit like a face.
In the next piece, we used the first two colors, plus one more. The result of that one is the first image in this post. It was fun to play, to splatter, spray, scrape, and smoosh paint and just see what happens. In the next piece, we added one more color, using something a little unusual for us. I don't use a lot of yellow, I tried adding that to the piece below.
We quickly moved on to the next, where the teacher encouraged us to paint with colors that we have a strong feeling for (like or dislike). I'm not a big fan of pink (I paint with it pretty rarely, so I just went nuts with the pink paint and added some yellow too.) As you can see, Emma especially liked that one.
It was a fun class and I'm looking forward to doing some more playing next week!
One thing that's great about signing up for a class like this, is that it gives you a set time each week, when rain or shine, you're going to honor your commitment to create. And yes, signing up and paying for it is helpful in getting me to actually show up at the specified time and place. How do you make commitments to your creativity? Here are some of the things I do:
*I participate in challenges (like the Creative Every Day Challenge) to help keep me focused.
*I get support (like my wonderful coach, Kathy who just started her own blog!).
*I take classes, online and in-person.
*I show up to create even when I'm not feeling inspired.
*I schedule time for creative projects I want to see fulfilled (literally picking days and times and putting them in my calendar!)
*I take time off to rest and re-fill the well. (We all have creative cycles.)
*I ask for help when I need it. (This one can be hard for me, but I'm working on it.)
*I find inspiration everywhere.
*I use a theme word for the year (Leap!) and keep it posted in front of my desk to remind me.
How do you commit to your creativity?
p.s. One of the reasons I started offering Art Picnic teleclasses was because I know that having a set time on your calendar to focus on creating is incredibly helpful in maintaining a creative practice. Want to make a date with your creativity? Join us on the 25th for the next Art Picnic workshop!
Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: April 6th – April 12th
April 6th, 2009, 14 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 4/6/09 - 4/12/09.
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, 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 April is color. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the theme here.
Happy Creating!!
I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.
~Joan Miro
Spanish Surrealist Painter and Sculptor, 1893-1983
p.s. Join me on a gremlin-busting, playful Art Picnic happening on Saturday, April 25th!
Celebrate Your Creativity
April 4th, 2009, 7 Comments
Yesterday, I participated in a super fun celebration call with many fabulously creative women. We gathered by phone to celebrate the end of Jamie Ridler's book club reading of The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women (great read, by the way!) and to launch the product Jamie put together, Your Creative Spark.
You can listen to the call here and I recommend listening to it as it's super fun and you get to hear about the wonderful topic of celebration. Many of us on the call, myself included, talked about how we have some trouble with celebrating. For me, it has been something I never really thought much about. When I finish something, my tendency is to dust myself off and move on to the next thing.
But there's something to be said for taking a moment to celebrate your successes, no matter how small. On the call, I mentioned how I've learned a lot about celebrating from the hubster. The way he celebrates a meal he's cooked is hilarious, but it's also fun! He oohs and ahhs over every bite and suddenly you find yourself laughing and appreciating every bite too.
Why not celebrate every bite? Life is delicious!
More recently, as I've recognized the importance of celebration, I've been taking time to celebrate, usually in the form of a happy dance. A little jig (done in your chair or around the room) can be so uplifting and a simple way to celebrate those little successes we experience every day. Why not give it a try?
I'm curious, what do you do to celebrate? How does it impact your creative process?
I hadn't thought much about how celebrating was affecting my creative process until Jamie asked the question, but when I considered it, I realized that celebration is about all self-care and valuing yourself. And you can always create from a stronger place when you're taking good care of you.
Your Creative Spark is now available for purchase from Jamie. It's jam-packed with loads of inspiration from incredibly creative women such as Jennifer Lee, Andrea Scher, Jessie Marianello, Melba, McMullin, Goddess Leonie, myself, and many others! The interviews Jamie did over the last 12 weeks are included in audio and transcript form and there's also some bonus articles from several of the interviewees. Through midnight on April 5th you can get $10 off the price by using the Discount code "celebrate," so if you're thinking about grabbing a copy, now's the time! Jamie did such a fabulous job putting this together (happy dance for Jamie!) and she's such a creative rock star. Thank you again, Jamie, for inviting me to be a part of this fantastic project!
Click here to view more details about Your Creative Spark.
Colorful Poems
April 3rd, 2009, 17 Comments
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...
Read the rest of this entry »What Do Your Color Choices Say?
April 2nd, 2009, 7 Comments
Spring is such a fantastic time to focus on delicious color! I hope you'll have fun playing with the Creative Every Day Challenge's totally optional theme of color this month!
mermaids
I took the first bit of playful color I painted for the theme's announcement and created this piece out of it. I was just playing with color when I started it, but as I do with so much of my art, I started to see things in it, in this case, a pair of mermaids. And I see something else in it, something maybe I'll play with in another piece. Do you see the bird? Here's it's face:
mermaids detail
What colors are you drawn to right now? Let your self play with them. If you're playing with paint, squirt the colors right on the canvas, move them around, let your intuition guide you in the strokes you use, the colors you choose, the places you stop and start.
Let the paint dry and then step back and see if you're seeing anything there. Are you seeing a figure? A face? An animal? A tree? Start to emphasize the image you see. Bring some areas forward and let others fade into the background. Is there a story developing?
What's the feeling your color choices are evoking? Does it express something that you are feeling in your everyday life? What are your color choices trying to tell you?
I'd love to hear about what colors you're feeling especially drawn to right now!
p.s. The free Dream Call with Lianne Raymond is happening tonight! Sign up here if you'd like to join in!
Featured Creative Every Day Challenge Participants!
March 31st, 2009, 14 Comments
I'm super excited to share with you some of the amazing things that Creative Every Day Challenge participants are up to! I'm not sure how often I'll be doing these posts yet, but they will be a regular thing. I plan to email some participants to get permission to share an image or piece of writing from their blog. And in the case of Flickr, I will use the images from flickr that automatically link back to the account of the owner. I hope this will introduce you to some new Creative Every Day people and provide you with inspiration as well! So let's start (click on the images to make them bigger):
Kathryn of Collage Diva has a beautiful blog and magical, inspiring posts. I loved her recent piece below, a character map.
Kathryn, Collage Diva
Terri of Tinker Art is someone I've known a long time through blogging and I adore her art and her sense of humor (go see her blog and you'll see what I mean!) This piece was based on a dream she had. One of those dreams where you're in your pajamas in school and forgot to do your homework. Eep!
Terri, Tinker Art
The piece below, from Creative Kismet, I spotted on the Creative Every Day Challenge Flickr group. So sweet, love it!
This fabulous piece below is from Marie Patterson and I spotted it in the Flickr group too (so much inspiration there!)
Beautiful, beautiful work! I'm endlessly inspired by all the wonderful things that Creative Every Day Challenge participants are creating. Keep on creating, sharing and connecting!
Building Your Blog
March 31st, 2009, 4 Comments
I recently did a call with a group of coaches (including the lovely Jennifer Lee, Jamie Ridler and Cynthia Morris) about blogging. I've been blogging for nearly 8 years now and I loved talking about the process and inspiration I've found through having a blog as well as the way blogging has helped support my business.
Even though I have some scattered technological knowledge, it is not my specialty. Fortunately, there are people like Mynde and Wendy who are offering great services like their 6 Week class on Creating Your Own Web Presence (and the business behind it.) The class includes 6 hours of lecture and q&a (in audio and video formats, so you can participate live or listen later), handouts, and unlimited email support. Check out all the details and sign up here. The class starts on the 1st!
If you already have an art blog up and running, but it's in desperate need of medical attention, check out Alyson Stanfield and Cynthia Morris's Blog Triage class here. (I love the name of this class!) I've taken an online workshop with Alyson before and found it helpful.
There a number of Creative Every Day Challenge participants who do not have a blog, which is totally fine! Blogging is not for everyone. However, if you're hesitating out of fear, starting a blog is fairly easy if you're just wanting to dip your toes in and try it out. Buidling my own blog has been such a slow and organic process and it continues to grow and shift as I do. Remember it doesn't have to be perfect right off the bat.
And be sure to ask for help where you need it. Ask a friend who blogs for advice, take a class like the ones above, or hire something to help you get started. There's no need to tear your hair out in the process.
Is there anything you're itching to know about blogging? Anything that you find hard or something that holds you back? Let me know in the comments or email and I may write about it in a future post.
Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: March 30th – April 5th, 2009
March 30th, 2009, 21 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 3/30/09 - 4/5/09.
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, 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 March is dreams. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the theme here. The theme for April is color!
Happy Creating!!
I dream a lot. I do more painting when I'm not painting. It's in the subconscious.
~Andrew Wyeth
p.s. Learn more about the connection between creativity and dreams by signing up for the free dream call happening this Thursday, April 2nd!
p.p.s. Join me on a gremlin-busting, playful Art Picnic happening on Saturday, April 25th!
Free Dream Call! Thursday, April 2nd 8 pm EST
March 26th, 2009, 11 Comments
To celebrate wrapping up this month of dreams, I'm so excited to invite you to participate in this free call about dream interpretation with Lianne Raymond! Lianne is a Certified Martha Beck Life Coach and she has trained with Dr. Christopher Shelley in Adlerian Dream Interpretation.
On the call, we'll discuss:
*How you can begin to interpret your own dreams
*How to cultivate your creativity through dream analysis
*Lianne will do some one-on-one dream work (bring your dreams to the call if you're interested in sharing!)
*And we'll be giving away a special gift, a Martha Beck dream journal, to someone on the call!
Sign up for the call using the form below and I'll send you the call in information. The call will be recorded, but you need to sign up below to receive the recording.
I've always had vivid dreams, but never did much with analyzing them until I found the work of Robert Moss and Martha Beck. I truly love how Beck encourages you to see each part of your dream as a part of your wiser self that has something to teach you.
Here's what Lianne has to say about dream interpretation:
Many people treat dreams as some obscure secret with the thought that there is one correct interpretation and if only they can decipher them correctly, then all shall be revealed. I see this in my psychology students every year. When we start our dream unit it never fails that there is a flurry of questions along these lines:
"What does it mean when you dream about horses?"
"I always dream about falling - what does that mean?"
"If a cigar is not really a cigar in my dream, what is it?"
The Martha Beck approach (derived from the work of Carl Jung) treats the dream like a divination tool. Divination simply means an inspired (to be "in spirit") discovery of what is hidden. Many of us have done our own forms of divination - have you ever done the trick where you feel stuck in some way so you go open the dictionary to a random page and put down your finger? And the word you just happened to land on gives you a whole new perspective? Dream analysis is like that, but even more powerful as the new perspective is internally generated and custom made just for you from your imaginal world.
Martha Beck's method has the dreamer become each item in the dream and answer questions about it's purpose, intention and lesson for the dreamer. Sometimes this can be challenging to do alone without slipping back into cynical, rational left-brain land. That's when it can be helpful to have a friend, partner or coach to take you through the process. (Martha has a great breakdown of her dream analysis method in Chapter 5 of her book Steering by Starlight.)
I have used Martha's approach with numerous students in my psychology classes and also with many of my life coaching clients. I have noticed, though, that my students rarely state that they don't dream (in fact they have extremely vivid dreams) whereas the adults who come to me for coaching often have the "I don't dream" syndrome. Of course they do dream, it has just been relegated to the 'that's not important' part of their brain. Often along with their imagination. I believe dreaming is a vital sign for the creative life. Leah has demonstrated here how her dreams have become springboards for her artwork. That springboard can be come even more interesting after a dream analysis. This is a painting one of my students did that combines elements from her dream with insights she gained from the dream analysis.
If you feel like you don't dream it is just a matter of creating the space and intention to let your dreams become known to you again. A great way to do this is by keeping a dream journal beside your bed and making an intention every night that you will allow your subconscious to communicate with you through dreams. Or just simply request that you have a dream and remember it. Keep with the practice even if nothing seems to be happening at first - maintain the space and the intention and write down even the shimmeriest of dream memories whenever you have them. Over time you will find that your dreams with become more frequent and memorable.
The truth is all the answers are within you and they are not secret. What dream analysis does is take the left, rational brain out of the driver's seat for a time and allows the right brain to make itself known. It takes us to the deeper place of knowing that I call the arational. And of course the arational is also the spring of creativity. To cultivate dreams is to cultivate creativity and connection to our wisdom.
You will be amazed at the insights into your own life that you will uncover through dream analysis.
Sound interesting? Want to learn more? Come join us on the call on Thursday, April 2nd at 8 pm EST (find out what time this is in your time zone here). The call will be free, but long distance charges may apply. In the meantime, sweet dreams!
