CED April Theme: Color
March 25th, 2009, 34 Comments
ced color
The *totally optional* theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge in April will be Color!
How can you use this theme in your creations? Well, you could use the previous themes to help you brainstorm by getting playful and writing all the ways you could intepret the theme. Or perhaps you will dream something up?
If you need some suggestions, I will be posting about the theme throughout the month. Here are a few ideas to get you started. You could:
- *Capture the color around you in photographs.
- *Limit the color schemes in an art piece.
- *Try using a color you don't usually use.
- *Add a splash of color to your wardrobe.
- *Bring color into your space with flowers or artwork.
- *Learn about the psychology of color.
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!
“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. I jumped into playing with the theme a bit early in the painting above. I loved playing around with bold, rich colors in an abstract way. This is only a snippit of it, but I think I see a mermaid in it (can't help myself!), so perhaps I'll bring her out later.
Moon Collector
March 24th, 2009, 12 Comments
Moon Collector, 9"x12", acrylic on paper
More moon art and more blue. Two of my favorite things at the moment. This piece, Moon Collector, came together intuitively. I was about to add the red strings attaching the moons to the bucket, but found myself hesitating. After stepping back from it a bit, I got the sense that it was about something rather personal and I wasn't sure I wanted to reveal it in the paint, but I went ahead and put them in there.
So what's up with the moons here? Can you guess? Perhaps you could make up your own story about what they mean.
I think my internal dialogue about becoming a mother sometime in the near future is coming out here. The moons with their red strings make me think of ovaries. Not all my art is so deeply personal, but letting your intuition guide you, often leads to artwork that expresses what's going on underneath all the layers. It can be scary sometimes, but it's always fascinating when approached with a bit of curiosity.
One of the places I first learned to play with my intuition is through Art Picnics. Feel free to join me on my first Virtual Art Picnic this Thursday from 1 - 3 p.m. Eastern time for $25! We'll be talking about how to get playful in your art, how this playful attitude can help connect you to your intuition, and we'll be spending a whole hour creating joyfully! You can sign up for the class or get on the Virtual Art Picnic mailing list here. I plan on doing a Saturday workshop next month for those who can't make it on a weekday. And I'm planning to offer an Art-Picnic-To-Go kit in the near future!
Tomorrow, I'll be sharing what the totally optional monthly theme will be for the Creative Every Day Challenge in April! Wee! I love sharing these themes with you and I think you'll love this one!
Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: March 23rd – March 29th
March 23rd, 2009, 28 Comments
This weekly post is a place for CED participants to share their creative activities.
Ways to share: Leave a comment on this post or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 3/23/09 - 3/29/09.
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!
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 "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.
Happy Creating!!
I dream my painting, and I then paint my dream.
~Vincent Van Gogh
De-Cluttering to Find Your Flow
March 20th, 2009, 19 Comments
Today is the first day of Spring. Aaaaaah! (That was me singing angelically.) Just writing that puts in a little skip in my step. Longer days, warmer weather, and soon things will start sprouting green everywhere. Hooray! One thing I can say about winter in New England, it makes you really, really appreciate when Spring comes around. Granted, it is New England, so we could get whopped with a snow storm tomorrow, but still, Spring is here.
Spring and cleaning seem to go together. It's a time to shed the winter skin, the many layers, and all the accumulated dust and clutter that built up over the colder months.
I have to admit that I'm not a fan of cleaning. Neither is the hubster. We're both messy. Years ago, instead of continuing to argue about how he never took his turn cleaning the bathroom, we decided to hire someone to come twice a month to do the hardcore cleaning for us. Best decision we ever made. O.k., that may be exaggerating a tad, but seriously, it was a great decision. I knew the woman who does the cleaning for us already because she cleaned the house of the family I used to nanny for. I knew she was trustworthy, kind, and did a great job. I also knew that she sent most of her money to her mom in Columbia. So, it works out great for all parties.
Sometimes, even though you CAN do something (of course, I'm fully capable of cleaning), that doesn't mean you shouldn't hire someone to do it for you. It's all about setting priorities and knowing how you want to spend your time and money.
So, while I'm not about cleaning right now, I am all about de-cluttering...a different sort of cleaning that may seem like a boring task, but is actually all about creating space for the things you want in your life: your business, your projects, your art, your creativity, etc...
It's perfect timing (again) that this week's chapter in The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, which I'm reading with Jamie Ridler's fabulous book group, is all about the Power of Subtraction. I loved this quote at the beginning of the chapter:
The first step in starting an enterprise is to clear the space for it, or till the ground. This clearing process is a must....We like to think just forging ahead is going to be enough to start, but when you run into gnarled old roots where your new plants need to grow, you've got problems. - Barrie Dolnick, Simple Spells for Success
Author Gail McMeekin talks about the Power of Subtraction in this way:
Here I encourage you to get rid of everything you neither need nor want in your life. This includes anything from old sneakers to outmoded dreams. To create a life of positive choices, you must let go of whatever blocks your creative zest.
This is a great continuation of the idea of positive priorities that I wrote about last week. And I think it also relates to allowing a sense of flow in your life. What blocks your creative flow? How can you remove those blocks in a way that is managable for you?
If clutter is a block for you, what one small step can you take? What teeny tiny step will give you a increased sense of ease in your life?
I like to imagine my clutter clearing is like this fence and I'm slowly opening more and more bars to uncover the river underneath.
I seem to be all about water lately. Wednesday I took a long walk and did some journaling by a river. Water seems to be such a great source of calm and inspiration for me. And today, my piece Lady of the Lake (below) is up at artist, Cathy Nichol's blog for her Found Art Friday project! I just added prints of this piece to my shop, which you can read more about and purchase here.
p.s.
- Be sure to check out Jamie's latest interview with professional organizer, author, and mentor, Sunny Schlenger.
- You can also sign up for the free book group celebration call that's happening, Friday, April 3rd, here.
Upcoming Virtual Art Picnics
March 19th, 2009, 4 Comments
The Virtual Art Picnic Intro call went great today! I hope that if you were listening in or if you got the recording that you enjoyed it. I loved talking about the process, although, I definitely need to watch ums. Um, oy! Lesson learned.
The first actual Virtual Art Picnic will take place next Thursday, March 26th from 1 - 3 p.m. EST. And you can sign up for that here.
I think I'll do another intro call next month before the Saturday, April 25th Virtual Art Picnic teleclass. If you'd like to be on the mailing list for that, go on over to the Virtual At Picnic info page and fill out the form at the bottom. I know weekdays don't work for everyone, so do let me know (in the comments or by email) what days and times work best for you. Next month's call is on a Saturday and I plan on doing an evening class in the future as well.
Chatting about it with the hubster last night, I realized I'd really like to put together some kind of Art Picnic to-go package that you could buy and download from the site. Something with an audio component (mp3 recording) and a pdf ebook. And possibly also an Art Picnic basket that you could buy and hold in your hands that would include a cd and mini book.
I love it when ideas are flowing. I hope your creativity is flowing wherever you are. I'll be checking in again tomorrow. Until then, sweet dreams!
Dream Boxes and Finding the Light in Your Darkness
March 18th, 2009, 13 Comments
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
~Charles Austin Beard
A few years ago, during Art Every Day Month, I used dreams as the inspiration for a series of 3 boxes. I wanted to share them again since they fit so nicely with the dream theme this month for CED!
I made them to be a set of 3 nesting boxes. The sides and tops of the first two boxes are covered with images of vivid dreams I remembered, some recent, some from childhood. The smallest box is painted in black paint, covered with words of warning and closed with a latch. But inside it's all glittery and gold.
A lot of the dream images I collected were nightmares. They span from a recent dream of trying to hold all four kitties as I escape a burning house...
...to the first dream I can remember having, at about age 3. In that dream, I went to a friend's house and saw a large clay alligator on the couch. I sat on it and it came to life, chasing me out the door. As I ran down the street, more and more animals came out the woods chasing me. And then I crossed the finish line to a race and realized they hadn't been chasing me at all, they were just racing, but I won! I woke up scared anyways.
Other dreams on that box include being on a ship with insanely large spiders that could grab you through the wall and swim after you in the ocean. And another dream was about getting a cookie and thinking it was chocolate chip but on closer inspection it was oatmeal raisin...ok, that wasn't a scary dream, but it was funny cause the morning after I had that dream a friend offered me a granola bar that I thought was chocolate chip and turned out to be full of raisins. The dream helped me take a closer look and saved me a from a big bit of raisins! (I hate raisins if you hadn't gathered that.)
In the second box, the dreams get a little darker. There's a nightmare about my former boss asking me to cut open her dog to make dinner and then sew him up again, another dream about a wolf, and a particularly spooky dream of pulling a large slug from my body.
Then box 3 is very dark, enscribed with words of caution to stay away, and other words of hurt, sadness, loss, and so forth. But inside, if you peel back all the layers, if you take the time, pass through the distractions and don't listen to the negativity, inside all of that is something golden, something hopeful.
I think the general essence of the golden interior is true for so many things in our lives. Inside our darkness, is often our brightest light. If we can open up to the possiblity of this and not be so quick to push away, avoid, and stuff our seemingly scary, dark visions out of sight, perhaps we can gently invite them to open and see what glitters beneath the layers?
Have you had the experience of finding your light tucked inside your darkness?
Virtual Art Picnic Update!
March 17th, 2009, No Comments
With the help of a Tweet from Jamie, I noticed that I'd written the wrong date for the free Intro to Virtual Art Picnic call. Doh! Just in case you were wondering whether I was human or robot, now you know I'm definitely human.
I'd written that the call was Thursday, March 18th, when it is actually, Thursday, March 19th at 1 p.m. EST (I put the right day of the week, wrong date.) I hope this isn't an inconvenience for anyone signed up for the call! Fortunately, I will be recording it, so you can always listen to it later. There is still time to sign up for the free call here.
I've just finished the Virtual Art Picnic info page, where you can sign up for the first Virtual Art Picnic teleclass! The first class will be held on Thursday, March 26th from 1-3 p.m. EST.
I'm planning a Saturday call next month. Is there a time or day of the week that works better for you? Feel free to let me know and I'll see if I can work in those times in the future.
Creative Every Day Challenge Check-In: March 16th – 22nd
March 16th, 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 or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a post (or posts) about your creative activities during the days of 3/2/09 - 3/8/09.
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!
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 "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.
Happy Creating!!
The creative act is not hanging on, but yielding to a new creative movement. Awe is what moves us forward.
~Joseph Campbell
Positive Priorities
March 13th, 2009, 17 Comments
The creative process gives back tenfold. It is by definition abundant and unending.
~ Cathleen Rountree
I really love the latest chapter in The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, which I'm reading with Jamie Ridler's wonderful book group. The chapter is all about living in abundance and that is what I'm all about right now.
Abundance is one of the things we talked about a lot at the retreat I attended last weekend. While I don't agree with all the Law of Attraction stuff out there, I think some of it is valid. I believe in a mix of articulating your vision for your life, calling it out (in the form of writing or vision boards or whatever works for you), and then taking action. The action piece is important.
Since leaving the retreat, I've been spending a half-hour every day clearing clutter in my studio/office space. I know a lot of artists are clutter collectors and I am definitely one of those people who has trouble throwing things away. But I also know that when I'm able to release clutter, I feel more clear and more open to bringing good things into my life.
I tend to get overwhelmed easily, so the idea of clearing all my clutter tends to just freeze me up and I do nothing, but doing it at a set time (I chose 11-11:30 a.m.) and for just a half hour (set a timer), really helps me out. It's along the same lines as SARK's micromovements, but having the exact time set up helps too. Accountability also helps me, so knowing that I was going to check in with my fellow retreat participants helped keep me on track too.
I love 12 Secrets' author, Gail McMeekin's explanation of abundance,
When we are in touch with true abundance it permeates the fabric of our lives. It includes passion, both romantic and creative; positive relationships with people, animals, and nature; life experiences you crave and enjoy; personal and professional challenges and growth; and individual moments to savor. Abundance invites us to live the life we desire instead of settling for less.
Yes! Part of inviting abundance also includes getting rid of "scarcity thinking," releasing things we no longer use, no longer fit, or no longer love (or maybe never loved, but held onto out of guilt!) Christine Kane has a great post about the reasons we cling to clutter and how to let go. I recently took Jennifer Hofmann's office spa day workshop and one of the things she talked about asking yourself, with each item in your space, "do you love this and does it support you?" This is such a beautiful, gentle way of making choices for the stuff in your space.
I also loved what Gail McMeekin had to say about Positive Priorities,
...a life of Positive Priorities - life choices that express who we are and what we want for ourselves - is in itself a creating act....own up to what it is that truly nourishes you.
Indeed. So, for me and my de-cluttering escapade, that has meant getting rid of the cheap-o plasticy shoes I bought at Tar-jay that feel awful on my feet. It also means, replacing the office chair that is literally falling apart (anyone have any recommendations for an awesome office chair?) It also means, surrounding myself with things that bring me delight, burning delicious smelling candles (I love the ones from Zena Moon!), and wearing clothes that fit, feel great, and that I love.
What are the positive priorities in your life? What makes you come alive? For me, daily creative expression is huge. Laughter is essential, as is movement (getting to the gym, doing yoga, dancing in my pajamas, etc...). Other priorities include time to myself, connection with people I love, learning, and time in nature. I'm also learning that my physical environment is something I want to make a priority and bit by bit, I'm making changes to reflect that.
::::
Hey, there's going to be a super fun celebration call with the 12 Secrets book club and I'm going to be on it with lots of inspiring women! You can sign up for that here.
Also, be sure to sign up for my free Intro to Virtual Art Picnics call right here!
Virtual Art Picnics – Free Intro Call, March 19th!
March 12th, 2009, 5 Comments
The first Virtual Art Picnic will be taking place this month and I'm so thrilled to share this experience with you! This workshop will help you ground yourself, get unstuck, and find the joy in your creativity.
A quick overview of art picnics: One of my favorite ways to get playful with my creativity is to have an art picnic. All you need is whatever materials you have at hand, a comfy spot (I like to spread out on the floor with a blanket and pillows), and some dedicated time to play. I like to begin by giving myself permission to make "bad" art and then I jump in by selecting whatever material I'm drawn to in that moment.
The class will meet for about a half hour to check in, do some grounding, and then go off and have our own creative fun for an hour. Then we'd come back and check in again for a half hour at the end. Doing it in this class format is a great way to plan for some pure creative fun in your life with a great support system in place.
The date of first teleclass is Thursday, March 26th, from 1 - 3 p.m. EST and it's only $25! I will describe the process more thoroughly in the coming week, but there will also be a Free Intro to Virtual Art Picnics call on Thursday, March 19th at 1 p.m. EST. (Use this time zone converter to find out what time that will be in your area.) The call will be approximately 40 minutes and we'll cover:
- What is an art picnic, anyway?
- What will the Virtual Art Picnic workshop will be like?
- How can you use art picnics to kick-start your creativity?
Simply fill out the form below and I will send you the call-in information when the call gets closer. I will be recording this call, but you will need to sign up in order to receive the recording.
*Update: This call has already happened, but you can sign up below if you'd like to receive information about future Virtual Art Picnics and free Intro calls.
The call is free, but long distance charges may apply. I look forward to speaking with you on the call!
