Creative Every Day

Videos to Inspire

February 5th, 2008, 2 Comments

First off, it's Super Tuesday. Have you voted? I watched this inspiring video on Marilyn's blog. It's a bit long, 25 minutes, but definitely worth watching. What an amazing story. Definitely inspirational.

Second, this video, which I first saw at 37 Days. Something about this just cracked me up and it goes along so well with my Subway Stories art series too.

And lastly, for a bit of humor combined with art, there's this video, which I saw on the Foxy Art Studio blog.

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More Inspiration

February 4th, 2008, 8 Comments

In a bit of synchronicity, shortly after I finished the previous post about Inpiration Treasure Hunts, I found out about (via the Scoop) a new ezine called "Inspiration" from the blog, "design for mankind." It's free to download and full of inspiring pictures and snippets of what inspires a wide variety of creative folks. Definitely worth checking out!!!

I shared my Inspiration board the other day, which is sort of a catching place for random things I want to keep in my line of sight. But there are plenty of things that don't make it to the board. Here are just some of those things that inspire me:

the fish tank in our home
the color combinations I see in the sky set off against the trees
shapes in the grain of wood, glass bottles, and puddles
poems
dreams
doodling
bookstores and libraries
chopping vedgetables
peeking into homes on real estate websites
teeny tiny boxes
beautiful handwriting
the sound of water
birds
greenhouses
blank paper

How about you? What inspires you? Where do you find unexpected bits of inspiration?

Patti has a great post on her blog about the everyday objects of her life. I was drawn in by the art which illustrates her essay and the beautiful poem by Billy Collins. After reading many of his poems on Patti's blog, 37 Days, I picked up a book of his poetry (Nine Horses), on Saturday at a little independent book store in Portsmouth. Poetry is a wonderful source of inspiration, which reminds me of this beautiful quote:

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks. - Plutarch

At the end of her post, Patti has a great suggestion for those of us on the Creative Every Day 2008 journey or anyone else really who wants to capture the everyday art in their lives. It's simple and beautiful and certainly manageable. Patti's challenge is:

Draw the outline of a small 2”x2” square on a piece of paper or on a roll of a child’s art paper. A manageable, consistent size. Each day, draw a new square. And create something on one of these squares every day to remind you of your day—it can be a portrait of a simple object you love. It can be a record of your day, how you felt, the color of that day for you—in collage or pencil or paints. It can be a short poem or a quote or a solid block of color. It can be anything you want it to be. It's a small size; you can do this. Perhaps it is a painting of an ambrosia apple every day for two weeks until you really see it. Create one every day for a year. That’s what life is.

What would your squares be filled with?

(pictures above: A damask wallpaper pattern that inspires me; 3 boxes painted with images of nightmares I've had, made for my Art Every Day Month project one year; bird drawings done for another year's Art Every Day Month; Recently finished piece, A Timely Message; butterflies on display at the Botanical Gardens in Montreal.)

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Inspiration Treasure Hunt

February 4th, 2008, 4 Comments

Yesterday I was feeling super tired and in need of some extra rest and I got it. Today, I'm feeling brighter and have art to share, which I think I'll spread out over a few posts. First off, the finished "Subway Stories" pieces. The first one above is "Park Street" and the one below is "Wollaston." Both are 8"x10" with collaged paper, acrylic and ink on panel. These were the last of ten pieces that I brought up to Nahcotta on Saturday.

I'd originally planned to head up to Nahcotta, which is in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Friday, but we were experiencing some yucky weather, so I put it off. It worked out well anyways because on Friday I needed to clean up a bit and then go pick up my youngest brother. My mom and step-dad had bought tickets to see Blue Man Group, but then my step-dad had to be at a conference out of town, so they asked if the hubster and I would take my brother. Of course I was more than happy to oblige! I've been to Blue Man Group twice before, but it was a long time ago, so I was excited to go again. And the hubster had never been. Our seats were awesome. I'd sat in the balcony both times I saw it before and this time we were on the floor. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we grabbed some dinner in the city and then got out just in time (on the way home there was a thunder and lightening storm and it poured!)

On Saturday, after dropping my brother off at home, I drove up to Portsmouth and dropped off my art at Nahcotta. And I really lucked out because it was such a gorgeous day. Especially after the nasty weather we'd had the day before, I was really grateful to be able to walk around outside and soak in some sunshine. Portsmouth has such a great downtown area and because the weather was perfect for strolling, I decided to do a little inspiration treasure hunting. It is easier to do this when you're alone and you can turn your awareness on fully. It's fun to do this in a place you don't visit often or somewhere you've never been before, but really it can be done anywhere. It simply requires that you shift your perception, open your eyes and soak in your surroundings. On my inspiration treasure hunt, I took in the sights and sounds of the bustling downtown area. I peeked in the windows of cafes, gift stores, a typewriter repair shop, and went inside some of them. I touched smooth ceramic bowls, handmade purses, and loads of books in an independent bookstore. I got lunch in a popular lunch spot and savored the tastes of a warm homemade sandwich. I smiled while watching kids (and kids at heart) get all wide-eyed in a funky toy store and scrunched up my nose at the bin of rubber cockroaches for sale. At the end of my treasure hunt, I was tired, but full of inspiration. A successful hunt!

And speaking of treasure, I received a lovely prize from Bridget over the weekend too! For a cartoon caption contest, Bridget sent me the sweetest collection of pins for my inspiration board and gorgeous magnets all featuring black and white drawings. I love them!

I hope that there was loads of inspiration to be found in your weekend adventures!

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Soooo sleepy

February 2nd, 2008, 4 Comments

I have art and other stuff to share, but at the moment I am so sleepy and all I want to do is curl up with the book I'm reading (Patry Francis's Liar's Diary). Tomorrow, I'll update with the weekend's adventures. I've been busy, busy. Well, busy for me anyways. I'll have some pictures to share tomorrow. Posts are more fun with pictures I think. Til then, I hope your weekend has been full of inspiration, laughter, and loads of creative moments!

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A Month of Inspiration

January 31st, 2008, 15 Comments

As promised, here are some views of my inspiration board:

Go to my the flickr pics (click on the pictures) to see all the notes about the individual items on it. Here are some details:

What I'd like to have is some bigger boards and a magnet strip to collect inspiration and hang art from. But in the meantime, I'm happy with the board I've got!

My space is filling up with "Subway Stories" art and it's just about ready to be packed up so that I can drive it up to Nahcotta tomorrow.

I spent some time this morning writing out my creative acts of the last month. Yes, it's been a month, which is wild! Great work to all you amazing creative folks out there. I really appreciate all that you are doing and sharing and trying. It's awesome. I think next month, I'll try and keep track of all my activities as I go, instead of looking back through to see what I blogged about and trying to remember the days when I didn't mention something. I know I did something every day, but trying to remember the details is not going to work. Hah. So, while I didn't record every single creative thing I did and the list doesn't account for all the fun inspiration, synchronicity, and connections; I tried to make note of what I where I focused most of my creativity on each day. Here's my list:

January 2008's Creatactivities:

painting in my art journal
doodling and drawing in my sketchbook
made an Amazon widget
made a painting/collage called "Memory Cycles"
drawing in oil pastels
drawing in sketchbook with suggestions by my mother-in-law
sketching, updating website
creative thank you notes
writing/designing newsletter, playing games with friend's kids
making up a recipe for the first time, collaging, writing book
painting with the power out
working on subway art
more subway art
and more subway art
even more subway art
opened Etsy shop, made best friend's baby laugh while best friend got her haircut
drawing in sketchbook, subway art, wandering in library and pulling inspiring books.
working on the subway art
same as above
doodling
took pictures of my sparkly shoes and my big fuzz ball, Tabbers
picking out flowers to decorate the house with, doodling over an old drawing
working on subway art
making soup and presenting it artistically. yum.
subway art
re-vamped my inspiration board
subway art, mini-collages, drew in sketchbook
subway art
worked on book
subway art
subway art, bird drawing

I just love focusing on the creativity in my everyday life. And I wanted to mention that it's not too late to join in the Creative Every Day 2008 challenge! I think joining in anytime is perfectly o.k. So, if you've been thinking about jumping in, leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

Having the weekly post where people can leave a link to their creativity posts seems to be working well. Next month, I'd also like to focus some posts on what others are up to. If you have any other suggestions/ideas, feel free to let me know! Back to work for me.

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A Place to Bark and Meow

January 31st, 2008, No Comments

I wanted to post about Bernie's cause one more time because the challenge her animal shelter is participating in ends today at 3 p.m. EST. So, if you haven't done so already and you can spare $10, please consider donating. The four charities with the most $10 donations at the end of this contest will win $50,000. Imagine how many beautiful dogs and cats could be saved with that kind of help!

Bernie Berlin, is a fellow artist with a huge heart and I really would love to see this kind of help go her way. You can use the button above to donate or go here. Right now, Bernie's shelter, A Place to Bark and Meow is in fifth place. Please help her get back into the top four!

Update: Unfortunately, Bernie's shelter didn't win the challenge, BUT they have still won big, and I mean big!! Claudine Hellmuth wrote on Bernie's blog that even though they didn't win the challenge they raised over $42,000 and they received a matching grant of $35,000, which means they raised $77,000! That's amazing!! Thanks to everyone who pitched in. I know it will go to good use. Bernie is currently on the road bringing 41 dogs and 1 kitten to new homes. That in itself is awe-inspiring. Congrats, Bernie!

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More Creativity Snapshots

January 30th, 2008, 11 Comments

Today was spent finishing up last touches on work that I'll take up to Nahcotta at the end of the week. You can see two of the latest pieces in process above. I've got some other ones in progress too, but I'm going to put them up at the coffee shop where I'll be hanging art at the end of February.

I was going to write about my inspiration board for Wellness Wednesday today, but my pictures came out too dark. So, I'm going to wait and get some daylight shots of it. Last Wednesday, the hubster said to me, "Isn't it Wellness Wednesday or something?" Haha, too funny. That cracked me up.

Yesterday was spent working on my book about creativity. As the Creative Every Day challenge has been developing, it has been giving me all kinds of ideas, which shifts around the direction of the book. I recently picked up Eric Maisel's The Art of the Book Proposal which has been helpful in getting me to think about the focus and framework of the book.

Ideas, the wording of a sentence for example, often come to me soon after I turn off the light and put my head to the pillow. Fortunately, I have a collection of pens, sticky notes and a blank journal, so I can pop up, turn on the light and scribble out my ideas. I'm always glad I write it or draw a little sketch because most of the time I won't be able to remember exactly what came in a flash right before I fell asleep the night before. I didn't realize this time between sleep and wakefulness had a name until recently. I was listening to NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and their guest for the game "Not My Job" was James Lipton of "Inside the Actor's Studio." The hosts kind of made fun of his use of the word in the first chapter of his book, Inside Inside, but I thought it was really cool! The term used for this in between time is called "the hypnagogic state." Lipton suggested that creative artists, musicians, and writers were familiar with this "dream-like and sometimes fruitful state between wakefulness and sleep." Is everyone aware of this state? Does everyone experience it? I think the hubster, who is a musician and very creative, may fall asleep far too quickly to have any ideas come. But maybe he experiences that state when he wakes (between sleep and waking, it's called the hypnopompic state.) I'll have to ask him.

So, I'll make that my Wellness Wednesday tip for this week. Pay attention and see if ideas, answers to questions, or art compositions come to you in this hypnagogic state. And be sure to have some paper and writing tools tools by your bedside. If you can't turn on the light in the middle of the night, try keeping a flashlight or booklight that you can use without disturbing your bedmate. Or just write in the dark, which I do sometimes.

That's it for tonight. See you tomorrow. And happy creating!

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The Liar’s Diary Blog Day

January 29th, 2008, 6 Comments

Today is a special day in the blogoshpere because loads of bloggers are getting together to celebrate the release of Patry Francis's The Liar's Diary into paperback. I've known Patry through the blogosphere for a couple years because she joined in my annual "Art Every Day Month" back in November 2006. Last year her novel got published, which was wonderfully exciting to those of us who had been reading her blog. We all cheered for her. And then more recently, Patry shared on her blog that she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. And we've rallied around her to support her in her battle with cancer as well as helping to further boost the success of her book as it becomes a paperback.

So, go support Patry and pick up her excellent book, The Liar's Diary. (It's 20% off at Amazon!) You can read about other bloggers who are writing about Patry's book today here.

You've got to love the creative ways bloggers find to support one another. It's a wonderful thing.

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Creativity Snapshot

January 28th, 2008, 13 Comments

Here's a look at the table I was working on today. You can see some of the "Subway Stories" pieces that I've been varnishing and painting the sides of, my sketchbook that contains a poem by Hafiz that has inspired two ideas for artwork, and a bunch of quickie collages done on gessoed postcards. I think I was starving for color after doing so many black and white pieces "Subway Stories" pieces in a row.

For the mini collages, I used scrap papers I had in my collection of random stuffs plus pieces of prints oopses. A print oops, is simply a printing mistake or experiment that happened when making my prints. Instead of just tossing the paper (which is expensive), I've saved it and today I put some into these little collages, which are 4"x6". I will probably paint, write, and or work on these collages some more, but I thought you might enjoy a little peek into what I've been up to today. I've felt in great creative spirits which is always nice.

And now, I've gotta go off and do some house chores...not exactly the most fun part of the day, but it's gotta get done. So, in the spirit of CED, I'm going to approach it with some fun and creativity in mind. It's funny how such a small shift in perspective can make it all seem like less of a chore and more of an experience. For example, I need to do some dishes. Not so exciting, I know. But if I shift my thinking, I remember my apple green dish washing gloves from Williams and Sonoma that make me smile, I consider lighting a candle, enjoying the tulips in the kitchen, listening to Yo Yo Ma as I work, and the yummy smell of soap bubbling up in warm water. Sounds lovely to me now. Ahh. Happy creating all y'alls!

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