Letting Your Art Speak
February 4th, 2009, 15 Comments
Rosa Murillo's Ilse
Recently, artist and blogger, Rosa Murillo, posted this image on her blog and wrote,
I have this old pocket calendar from 2008 that I decided to use as sketch paper, and this face showed up yesterday. Her expression makes me uneasy. Like she wants to say something, but somehow doesn't. I read somewhere that when you draw you are actually letting your subconscious speak. So what I am trying to say?
I left a comment suggesting that Rosa try putting a speech bubble on the adjacent page to let the woman speak. And I'm so glad she did because look what this wise voice (Rosa named her Ilse) had to say!
Rosa Murillo's Ilse speaks
I think our art often has messages in it for us. Sometimes these messages come from somewhere deep in our subconscious, sometimes they are bursting to get out. Giving them a voice in our artwork can be a lovely, gentle way to receive them. It might not always be a face, but since we can be playful in art, you could make any symbol speak if you wanted to.
For example, if birds are showing up a lot in your artwork, you could try drawing a bird in your sketchbook and then draw a speech bubble next to it. Give yourself permission to write whatever comes to mind, no matter how silly, weird, or outrageous it may seem.
You could ask your symbol:
- What do you represent?
- What message do you have for me?
- What is it that you are trying to teach me?
- How would you like to be expressed?
Then allow yourself to write in a stream of consciousness style. Your symbol may have just one word to share or a whole page. And if nothing comes, that's o.k. too! Just giving your artistic symbols room to speak to you, may open something up internally.
Sometimes I'm just not clear on what a symbol means to me until it's been around for a long time. Sometimes someone else will see the symbol in my art and say something that triggers the answer for me. It's fun to explore the imagery regardless of whether or not an answer comes. There's lots of juicy stuff to explore on this topic, but for now, I'll let you stir with this other way of playing with words and art if you feel called to do so.
Other ways to have fun with words:
- Dawn Doran of the Knitting Gnome Blog has shared another challenge that fits well with the words theme this month. This time it's an ATC (artist trading card) challenge for kids! Check out all the details here.
- Rowena of Warrior Girl shared a link to a group writing project at Burning Lines where the participants contribute to the writing parts of a story. Cool eh? If you're interested in participating, contact Rowena at rowena dot murillo at gmail dot com.
- I love the TED videos (if you've never seen one of them, you're in for a treat!) This one is of Jonathan Harris, an artist and computer scientist, who does things with art and words that just blows my mind!! Be sure to check out the very cool We Feel Fine project that Jonathan created.
Playing with Words in Art
February 3rd, 2009, 13 Comments
I decided to play with words in art last night as I watched some of the Super Bowl with the hubster.
I used a moleskine that I'm drawing in as part of a sketchbook swap and drew in a few pages just to see what might come up if I drew. The first drawing was inspired by the slouchy pose my husband was making at one point in the evening. I imagined the buzz of thoughts running through his head, all leaking out and landing neatly in a nearby fishbowl.
I sometimes enjoy writing what I imagine the figures are thinking about in my art, like I did in my "Subway Stories" paintings, in which I collaged Subway maps and train schedules, painted a subway scene over that in acrylic and then within the figures I drew what I imagined they were thinking about. "Subway Stories: Green Line" is below. (The original is sold, but you can buy prints of it here.) I'm doing a commissioned Subway Stories painting for someone who met their soon to be husband on the train. So sweet. I usually think of art as a way to express what I can't say verbally. I suppose words in art are just another way to tell the story.
Another page from my sketchbook swap moleskine. More words, this time just the action itself, "jump!" I seem to have a thing for striped tights at the moment.
Looking for more word inspiration? Well, I've got loads of it!
- Ms. Dawn Doran from The Knitting Gnome blog emailed to let me know about this cool art and writing collaboration called Spark, art from writing: writing from art. Here are the details from organizer, Amy Souza: The next artistic/literary exchange starts on Feb 13th; ends Feb 22nd. Again, pick 2 days (48 hours) in which to work. They don’t have to be contiguous. You send your inspiration piece to your partner (and Amy) by the 13th; send me finished work by the 22nd/23rd. The theme this time is “hope.” Not sure how it’ll work out, but if you have an inspiration piece that says “hope” to you, send that to your partner. If not, just send her whatever you want. But I’m asking everyone to look at their partner’s work through the lens of “hope.” Again, it’s so vague, you can define it how you want, and if nothing comes to you through that lens then forget it and just let the piece inspire you. You need to let Amy know if you're interested in participating by this Friday, February 6th, by contacting her at or get more info on her site here.
- Blogger, Writer, and Massage Therapist, Heidi Fischbach is offering A Month of Living Curiously, a month of inspiration and guidance via email sure to spark your creativity through the wonder of words. Check out all the details here!
- I loved reading the written responses to my painting at Pictures, Poetry, and Prose yesterday! Laura mentioned this in the comments, but I wanted to be sure that everyone knows that she is always accepting submissions from artists. What a wonderful way to collaborate and join the creative energies of visual art and the written word!
Pictures, Poetry, and Prose
February 2nd, 2009, 8 Comments
Write and you are a writer. - Laura Jayne
I came upon a fabulous site last month and immediately wrote to the blog owner, Laura Jayne, to tell her I'd love to feature her inspirational blog in February, when the Creative Every Day Challenge's (totally optional) theme is words. What a perfect fit!
Pictures, Poetry, and Prose is a blog that features a daily photo or piece of artwork as a writing prompt. Laura encourages leaving your written response to the artwork in the comments section. After a week, she selects one of the writing samples to feature beneath the artwork.
I love the way Laura encourages people to use the prompts in any way that is meaningful to them. She even has a neat little timer on the side of the blog which you can use to time your written response to just 5 minutes (only if you want to!) I like the idea of the timer because it limits the amount of time you spend on it and also breaks it down into a doable chunk of writing time. I've used time limits for writing exercises before and somehow it was helpful knowing there was an end and beginning to the free-form writing.
Today, Laura is featuring one of my pieces (thank you, Laura!) and I'd love to see what kind of written response it inspires in you!
Images are a great jumping off point for creative writing. Try the Pictures, Poetry and Prose challenge or if you'd rather do something more private, paste a picture into your journal and use it as a prompt for a bit of poetry, fictional, or autobiographical prose.
Creative Every Day Challenge: February 2nd – February 8th, 2009
February 2nd, 2009, 39 Comments
Feel free to 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 2/2/09 - 2/8/09.
The use of this widget is not required. It's 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.
To find out more about Creative Every Day 2009, check out the details here and then if you want to sign up, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know (a link to my email is in the upper left sidebar.) 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!) If you start posting links on the Mr. Linky widget without letting me know that you're participating, I may not see that you're new, so do let me know! Also, if you notice that your blog is not in the sidebar and you thought you had signed up, let me know, so I can get it up there as soon as possible.
The totally optional theme February is Words! I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the themes here.
Happy Creating!!
I learned...that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. --Brenda Ueland
**p.s. In the transition to my new server, I may have lost some of the Creative Every Day participant links. So, please check to see if your blog is still listed in the right sidebar. If you don't see it, let me know and I'll add it again. Thanks!**
Happy February!
February 1st, 2009, 17 Comments
I can hardly believe it's February already! So, we've moved into a new month and the totally optional theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge in February is Words! You can learn more about the theme here. There are so many ways to play with this theme and I hope you'll have fun playing with the possibilities. Personally, I think play can be a continued theme for each month as I want to encourage playfulness in everything we do!
One of the ways I use words in my art is in my sketchbook. On the page above, I was taking notes and doodling while listening to a podcast.
I've always been a doodler, I can't help myself. When I was in school, all of my notebooks would be covered in doodles and drawings in the margins. A few years ago, I learned that this doodling I was doing was actually helping me to pay attention! It turns out that for folks who aren't audio learners, doing something with your hands often helps you to soak in the information you're listening to. I had no idea! It made me feel much better about my constant doodling when I was attending a lecture, sitting in a class, or listening to a podcast. And it's so true for me! I noticed that when I'm able to doodle or write down what I'm hearing, I take in the information so much better than if I were just listening. Is this true for you?
While I'm not taking any lecture-type classes at the moment, I do enjoy listening to radio shows and podcasts and sometimes I like to take notes about what I'm listening to. I keep a sketchbook nearby for that purpose and the notes usually become a combination of doodles, drawings and words. If you're feeling nervous about putting words in your art, this may be a great place to start! Just play in your sketchbook and see if the words you write lead to images or if the images you draw lead to the written word. No one needs to see it. Just have fun with it!
If you're looking for something fun to listen to, check out the Craft Sanity podcast with Project Runway Contestant, Daniel Vosovic. I listened to it while painting last night and really enjoyed what he had to say.
Or you could check out my chat with Connie, of Dirty Footprints Studio, on her blogtalk radio program! I loved talking with Connie (she's such a sweetheart!) about everything from symbols in artwork, creating from your heart, and silly socks! Thank you for inviting me to talk on your radio show, Connie! You are a natural radio host! And I got such a kick out of the call from Karen!! Thanks for calling in, Karen!
I spent some time yesterday working on the "Listening" painting. I'm liking it more and more now, but it's not quite done yet.
Hopefully I'll have a little more time to work on it today before I sit down to watch the Superbowl with the hubster, who is cooking up quite a feast for the two of us.
Blogtalk Radio and Linkaroos
January 31st, 2009, 5 Comments
So, in the last interview of this week of interviews, tomorrow I'll be chatting with Connie of Dirty Footprints Studio on her brand-spankin-new blogtalk radio program. We'll be on at 11 am EST and you can listen in live, chat during the call, call in with questions, or listen to it later right here! Connie has a wonderful spirit and I'm really looking forward to our chat tomorrow. We may even talk about our mutual love for silly socks! And as a special bonus, you'll get to hear the radio lady with the British accent say, "Blogtalk radio." Heh.
I'm about to dive into some painting and play, but before I do, I want to share some linkaroos with yous:
- I highly recommend this blogtalk radio interview with the incredibly inspiring SARK. I believe part 2 of the interview is happening on Monday!
- Aurora of Foxy Art Studios pointed me in the direction of female surrealist artist, Remedios Varo and I fell in love! I'm picking up this book about her to learn more.
- Jennlui is starting an online Goddess Journey Women's Circle on March 1st. It sounds incredibly delicious!!
- The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks totally cracks me up.
Creative Tides and Art Picnics
January 30th, 2009, 36 Comments
...We also change like the weather, we ebb and flow like the tides, we wax and wane like the moon. We do that, and there's no reason to resist it. If we resist it, the reality and vitality of life become a misery, a hell. -Pema Chodron
Today, my interview with Jamie Ridler is up at The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women book group blog! I loved chatting with Jamie about creativity and surrendering to your creative cycles.
It took me some time to recognize and accept the creative cycles in my life. I'd get so frustrated when I was feeling uninspired. While waiting for my muse to return I'd end up feeling anxious, wondering if I'd ever feel inspired again, complaining about feeling stuck, sulking, and worrying. (All very unpleasant, by the way.)
But when I began to recognize that my creativity cycles in the same way my body, the moon, the tides, and the seasons cycle, I began to see the beauty in the down period, these winters of my creativity. Things get quieter and I tend to turn inward. There is usually some stuff going on internally, things that I'm processing that aren't quite ready to come out in the open yet. Instead of railing against this time and forcing myself to create when I'm not feeling called to, this an excellent time to collect, gather, play and moodle on things. It's a great time to wander the shelves of the library, watch great movies, doodle in my sketchbook, and take long walks. I've come to love these winter periods of my creativity as much as the up time!
What can you do to play with your creative down times?
One of my favorite ways to get playful with my creativity is to have an art picnic. All you need for an art picnic 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.
I'd love to lead some virtual art picnics this year by phone! I'm thinking I'll do it in a similar style that Jennifer Hoffman does with her office spa days. Ideally we'd meet for about a half hour to check in, do some grounding, maybe do an intuitive art exercise, 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. I think it'd be a great way to plan for some pure creative fun with a great support system in place.
I'd love to play with you guys in a virtual art picnic!! I'll keep you all updated on my plans for them!
Switcheroo
January 28th, 2009, 4 Comments
Hey all! I'm in the middle of switching my blog over to wordpress, so things might be a little wonky here while I get settled. Thanks for your patience!
A Long Rambling Post about Interviews, Play, Money and Being Carded
January 27th, 2009, 13 Comments
Today, the lovely Sarah J. Bray of S.Joy Studios has interviewed me for her fabulous new blog, MaTweeps, where she features cool people (tweeps) who use Twitter! I jumped into the Twitter fray fairly recently and I have to say, I'm really enjoying it. You can see my MaTweeps interview with Sarah here and if you use Twitter, feel free to follow me where I go by @leah_art.
In her interview, Sarah called me an artist and creativity consultant, which totally tickled me. Now there's a label I can have some fun with! 
It just so happens that this is a week full of interviews! On Friday my 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women interview with Jamie will be up and Sunday at 11 am EST I'll be on blogtalk radio with the ever so sweet, Connie of Dirty Footprints!
Here's what I've been up to creatively:
This is the latest stage of my work-in-progress painting, which I'm calling "Listening" at the moment. More layers of paint, some waves at the bottom. It's coming along, slowly. I've been playing with a self-leveling gel which is fun, but a bit hard to capture in a photograph. I'm not sure where the next step is in this piece, so I'm going to continue to play with it and see what comes.
I've also been playing with my ideas of money. (So much to play with!! Seriously, I think I could spend the whole year with play as my focus!) I'm currently taking a class with the amazing Havi Brooks. I was on a call a couple days ago where the focus was on shifting your perception of money. It was suggested that we think of how we define money, the good and bad ways, and then try to find an idea or image that combines the two.
I wrote out some of my feelings about money: how it's something I want to hold on to, how it can be used for wonderful things, how it's scary, how it represents growth, how it's an energetic exchange. But an image wasn't coming to mind. Actually, the only image that came to mind was that of a sort of "money monster," but that wasn't quite right. So, I decided to sit down, write out some of the words, and then just start to draw to see what might come up. First I drew the scarier image on the left hand page. It ended up being a sort of "money monster tree" with tentacles that attached all octopus-like in my hair. And it was over me like a heavy, huge burden.
Then as I imagined how my more positive associations with money might tie into this tree image, I drew a different sort of tree, one that is light, resilient, growing, and energetically positive. It's fun to play with beliefs and perceptions through art and I highly recommend it to anyone feeling called to do so!
And since I'm rambling on and on, here's a funny story to close out this post. This morning, I heard a knock at the door. There was a delivery man with a package for the hubster that needed to be signed for. I told him the delivery was for my husband and I could sign for it. I put my hand out to sign, but he didn't move. He was giving me the strangest look, like he didn't believe me. I thought maybe he was thinking I wasn't married to my husband, like maybe I was a sneaky roommate trying to sign for his stuff, so I went in to get an id (and realized that I couldn't find my license anywhere. Doh!) I grabbed a bank card that had my married name on it, showed it to him, and then he finally hit me with his real concern,
"Are you over 21? Because you don't look it."
Oh! So, I laughed and told him that I was definitely over 21 (I'm 32) and then he let me sign for the package. Of course, I love being mistaken for 21 at this point. The only time I hated it was as a teenager when everyone thought my younger siblings were older than me. The most humiliating experience was when my parents took me out to celebrate the fact that I was going off to college that week and everyone (including my younger brother) was given an adult menu and they asked if I wanted a kid's menu. Ouch. Heh. I can laugh about it now! And I found my license this evening too. Phew! So all is well. Next time I get carded, I'll be prepared.
Creative Every Day: January 26th – February 1st, 2009
January 26th, 2009, 40 Comments
Feel free to 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 1/26/09 - 2/1/09.
The use of this widget is not required. It's 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.
To find out more about Creative Every Day 2009, check out the details here and then if you want to sign up, leave a comment on this post or email me to let me know (a link to my email is in the upper left sidebar.) 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!) If you start posting links on the Mr. Linky widget without letting me know that you're participating, I may not see that you're new, so do let me know! Also, if you notice that your blog is not in the sidebar and you thought you had signed up, let me know, so I can get it up there as soon as possible.
There are some folks participating who do not have a blog and for some reason their names are linking to the CED info page. I'm not sure why that's happening, but I wanted you to know that when you click on a name that takes you to the CED page, it means that they don't have a blog at this time.
The totally optional theme for January is Play and February's theme is Words! I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month. You can find out more about how you can use the themes here and here.
Happy Creating!!
"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web" - Picasso
