Creative Every Day

Springy Inspiration

April 23rd, 2008, 3 Comments

Spring has sprung! The magnolia trees on our block are in their full glory this week and I just love them. Definitely gives a pep to my step. The birdy above seranaded me on my walk the other day.

Yesterday, in honor of Earth Day, lil bro and I walked to the grocery store instead of driving, brought our own bags, and bought food with less packaging. Last night, the hubster and I went to a Red Sox game with some friends and we sat up in the Monster seats (on top of the "green monster"...or monstah in Boston.) It was a really cool view. I'd never sat up there before. By the end of the night it got really chilly and windy, but it was a fun experience. For Earth Day, they had people walking the aisles like food vendors with big bags collecting bottles and cups to recycle.

It's definitely a little harder to get to the computer with my brother visiting, but that's not such a bad thing. We've been keeping busy and having less time has actually motivated me to get some things done that I'd been putting off.

I've gotta run. In the meantime, enjoy these links that I found fun and inspirational!

• ArtsCollab is a site where people can share inspiration, links to websites and such. I've just discovered it and haven't explored it fully, but so far it looks very cool!
• Over at The Boss of You blog, Lauren and Emira have posted a free download of a sample budget spreadsheet. I checked it out and found it to be very helpful.
• Heather, who I met at Artfest, introduced me to a site that's all about trading illustrated ATC's. You have to be juried in to this particular site, but anyone can join in sites like ATC's for All.
• I came upon the blog lotushaus recently and I love the look of it and the theme of sustainable design.

Looking for some ways to be creative?

• Try journaling in a new environment. Take your journal to the park, to the library, the local coffee shop, in your garden, on your front porch, or in bed. A change in perspective often sparks great ideas!
• Take care of the little things. Sew on those buttons that have fallen off, fix that whole in the wall, re-attach that door knob that fell off...tasks such as these can make you feel great after their done and in the process you may find inspiration popping into your head.
• Draw with something unusual. Dip a feather, stick, straw, or ribbon in ink or paint and try drawing with it. The unusual lines you create will be unique and fun to play with.
• Put on music and create art inspired by it.

Happy creating!

Drawing on the Sea

April 21st, 2008, 5 Comments

I've got my little brother here for the week, so it should be interesting to see what I'm able to get done. Today was pretty mellow, so there was a lot of relaxing going on and I spent some time drawing with my bro at the kitchen table. He drew a very cool tree (we must be related! ) and I did another intuitive drawing in my art journal starting with a big scribble that I made with my eyes closed and then I drew what I saw in it.

More mermaids and whales, fish and snails. Swirly, curly doodles seem to lend themselves well to creatures of the sea.

Feel like you're in a slump? Alyson Stanfield shared 10 ways to break out of one in her newsletter today. Check them out here.

Creative Every Day 2008: April 21st – April 27th

April 21st, 2008, 11 Comments

Blooming

April 18th, 2008, 13 Comments

Art journal pages. Another scribbled intuitive drawing and a collage with some writing on it that says, "everything outside is blooming. i want to bloom too." Speaking of blooming...here are those lovely ranunculus flowers I mentioned yesterday.

I worked on a small encaustic painting today. It was so gorgeous out that I brought my encaustic tools out onto the porch and put this together with wax, tissue paper, and textured paper for the two crows on a 6"x6" panel. It was inspired by a photo I took while at Artfest.

I started using an old iron with the encaustics and like it much better than the hot air gun. Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day and I plan to take advantage.

I hope you all have a wonderfully creative weekend!

If you needs some inspiration, check out what these Creative Every Day participants have been up to!

• Hanna has been making some beautiful stencils, one of them was one of the coolest happy accidents I've seen in awhile!
• Valerie has made a gorgeous box out of coasters.
• Cris has a lovely painting in progress of sheep in a field.
• Mrs. Pivec has a stunning mixed-media piece that sings spring.

And there's so much more to see. Go take a gander at what people are up to!

Good Laughs With Cats

April 18th, 2008, 7 Comments

So Jaime just posted this on her blog and it made me laugh so hard that I just had to share it. Even though I'm not an engineer, I was scaring my cats from laughing so loudly. This is a daily occurrence I'm afraid, especially when watching shows like 30 Rock or the Stephen Colbert Show.

I've got a big orange cat on my arm as I type, but he's purring away and oh so cute, so I'll let it slide.

Creating Space

April 17th, 2008, 7 Comments

I just took all these purty pictures of the ranunculus flowers in my office and my camera batteries died, so I'll have to share them another time. I just love those flowers though. I got a bunch of them and bunch of yellow tulips. Very spring-tastic. Been drawing away in my art journal, I think I'll go for the canvas or panel soon. Perhaps this weekend. My little brother (we're 16 years apart, so he's only 15 years old!) will be staying with me from Sunday through Friday, so it should be an interesting week. My mom says he's really loved his art classes this year, so perhaps we'll do some art-making together!

In cleaning and clearing my studio space which is also my office and storage space here (we have slim to no closet space), I decided something had to be done about my wedding dress which has stayed in it's bag, folded on a shelf that it doesn't quite fit on (so the cats won't get to it) since my wedding in October. I have no place to store it and I actually thought I'd be selling it from the start. I know some people hang on to their dress in the hopes that a future daughter or family member will wear it or just as an heirloom, but I know from seeing my mom's wedding dress (from her second wedding) that the tastes of mothers and daughters are often quite different!

As much as I'd love to wear my wedding gown around for kicks (I mean, I've never felt so pretty as I did in that dress!), I can't really wear it anywhere else. Plus taking it out would only cover it in cat hair within three seconds. So, I'm going to sell it online. I need to get it cleaned and pressed and then hopefully send it out into the world to a bride who will love it as much as I did. At first when I made the decision to sell it, I felt a little sad, but I know it's the right move.

Andrea asked what I looked like today and you can see the fanciest I've ever looked in some wedding shots (and my super cool wedding cake) that I posted here. And eventually I'll put up some more current (and ordinary) pictures of me sometime soon. It feels good to let go of things that are mentally and literally taking up space. Ahh. 

A Studio in Progress

April 16th, 2008, 6 Comments

The last couple days the spring cleaning bug hit my studio. Wee! I decided to get rid of some of my old crappy plastic drawer units, in which I stored paint and all manner of odds and ends, that were falling apart and replace them with sturdier pieces. The hubster had a small bookshelf that he was throwing out and I found an ikea rolling cart (above) that I've had my eye on on craigslist for half the price (and I so love it!).

Granted, I still have *a lot* of work to do for this space to come together, but it's already feeling more open and inspiring. I rearranged the furniture, so my desk is closer to the window and the center of the room is more open. Ahh, a change as simple as that can make such a difference. I'm totally enjoying my space again. Above you can see part of my bookshelf (which was all organized until I started moving things around again, but it's getting there), my desk, and my inspiration area (it's crept off the inspiration board onto the wall.) Below you can see my mega scanner and the where the light comes in.

The hubster and I are in a bit of weird limbo as to when we'll buy a house, so it's been hard to know how much we wanted to fix up a space that wasn't ours. But I think we've both been feeling that our space, while not our own, can be fixed up a bit to make it a more pleasant place to live. Just a little shift in thinking made a big difference there.

Oh, and I wanted to mention that I everyone at Artfest was super nice! I didn't want anyone to get the wrong impression from my post. My ugly feelings were all my own doing...it stemmed from all those insecurities that can pop up in large groups and such that can throw you for a massive loop. Plus, I just hadn't prepared myself for the intensity of the experience, the sense of overwhelm, and the exhaustion I'd feel. But, on a good note, I did come home full to the brim with inspiration and now that I'm getting my energy back, I can start to put that into practice. Speaking of retreats, this one with Kelly Rae Roberts and Mati Rose in Italy sounds amazing!

Abundance and Envelope Houses

April 15th, 2008, 11 Comments

Drinking in some abundance today...feeling grateful for warm spring air, cats in ridiculous sleeping positions, clown fish dancing in their anemones, the hubster cleaning off the porch, so we can make use of it again, a lovely art lesson with a family on Saturday, enjoying my creations from Artfest, a clean fridge, freshly washed pillow cases, new markers and the smooth way they move across paper, a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, bills paid, poetry on an envelope, laughter, wrapping my arm around the hubster late at night, finding a cat toy under the covers, quiet understanding, an invitation, a thunder and lightning storm, a couple good Red Sox games, socks with whales on them, silly text messages, Numi tea.

A big congratulations to Marilyn whose poetry is being published in Patti Digh's book, Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally which is available for pre-order from Amazon now!! All the artists who submitted work to Patti's project are also having their work published in the book! So cool! I submitted some work and I'm not sure which piece was chosen. However, you can see some of the art that was created around the essays that Patti wrote, here. I'm so thrilled to be a part of this project. Thank you, Patti!

From reading Marilyn and Patti's blogs, I know that it is National Poetry month, so I was thinking about poetry today and a line came to my head about envelopes being shaped like houses. I was looking for something to write it down on, when I realized, "Duh, I should write it on an envelope!" I had a stash of my neighbor's unused wedding invitation envelopes that I'd been saving for use in art and I pulled one out and wrote out a poem in white ink. Inspire Me Thursday's theme this week just happens to be "envelopes." I've used little envelopes before in art and I love them, but it was fun to use an envelope in this way. I've got some more envelope ideas floating around in my head, so perhaps I'll do something with those too. And here's the poem I wrote on the envelope above:

envelopes
shaped like houses
holding letters
and tucked away secrets.
hidden corners
and longing
make the floor boards creek.

to seal this letter,
this chapter,
this page
of your life
you must bring
the whole roof down.
destroy the illusion.
lick.
stamp.
send.

you let go here.

somehow,
magically,
your message arrives.
your messy wishes,
whispered words.

and just when
you've forgotten
or made yourself forget,
you receive a reply
in the license plate in front of you,
in the billboard on your commute home,
in the page you open to,
in the envelope
shaped like a house
with the roof torn down.

The Not So Pretty Underbelly

April 14th, 2008, 9 Comments

Art journal page from when I got home. Girl in boat looks over the edge at all the layers concealed in the depths.

I haven't completely processed my time at Artfest, but I'm beginning to digest the good, the bad, and the ugly and I feel like I've learned quite a bit about myself in the process. I was hesitant to talk about any of the ugly stuff because well, everything you hear about Artfest is so sunshiney and I didn't want to be a wet blanket or sound whiney. But I was inspired today by this post (from Sera Beak which was all about wanting to be liked) and this post from Michelle (about the icky side of Artfest), to just be honest about the totality of my experience. And for the record, it wasn't anything about Artfest in particular that made parts of it difficult for me. Ha, it sounds like I'm breaking up with someone. It isn't you, it's me! But it's true, the difficulties were my own doing.

Spread from my art journal.

One thing I realized pretty quick, is that I don't do well in crowds. I knew this about myself already and yet I wasn't quite prepared for the whirlwind that was part of this retreat (stimulation overload!) I have a way of getting wide-eyed and withdrawn in situations like this. Now, if anyone talked to me, I would chat back. That's the funny thing about introverts, I can perform and talk up a storm, but then later I pay the price by being mentally and physically drained.

Page inspired by the shapes created by the bleed through of markers from the previous page. At the bottom is written, "learning to swim with whales."

I was very glad to have the chance to meet and chat with Bridget a couple times (a super cool girl and fellow introvert), and I made a brief introduction with Liz and Kelly Rae (both super sweet), but in general I had trouble making any solid connections. Some have related the feeling to high school and it did feel somewhat like that, maybe more like junior high...being in this crowd of peers and wanting to be liked, feeling alone in a crowd of people who all seem to know each other. Perhaps if I'd braved having roommates in one of the dorms, I'd have felt more connected. But at the same time, I appreciated having a quiet and separate space off campus to decompress and stretch out. At any rate, I never quite found my footing and ended up feeling like a more quiet, serious version of myself...

Art journal page from after Artfest.

So, what have I learned?

• Well, I still care too much about what others think of me and I still seek approval. (Poo!)
• I'm a brave solo adventurer.
• Travel plus big groups can be especially exhausting.
• It's lovely to see things with fresh eyes.
• Exploring new cities and towns on foot is exhilarating.
• Simple kindnesses can make someone's day.
• And in the future, I'd probably enjoy a longer and smaller art retreat where I have more time to find my feet and sink in.

Those first bits are something I'm slowly, but steadily working on as I walk my path as a human being. And this all tied in quite well with A New Earth and occasionally, I was able to recognize my ego chattering away and get present, but it was no easy task.

Oh, and by the way, the mandala has grown on me a bit. I was surprised when the hubster really liked it. He liked all the details drawn in on top of everything. So, I'm glad I went through the trouble to cart it home and I think I've found a good spot for it.

At the end of my trip I used my rental car to drive from Port Townsend, Washington to Portland, Oregon...a 4 hour drive that was a bit long, but very pretty...but that's a story for another day.

p.s. I'm behind on email, so if you're waiting for an answer, I'm not ignoring you. I'm just slow.

Creative Every Day 2008: April 14th – April 20th

April 14th, 2008, 11 Comments

 

© 2024 Creative Every Day by Leah Piken Kolidas – Contact Leah
Design by Foliovision

Boston Web Design