Come on Ride the Train
January 12th, 2008, 13 Comments
These are the pieces I showed below after I drew in and painted the figures over the collage. I worked on them at different points during the day and finished up last night while the hubster played guitar on the couch. I love when he plays music while I paint. The creative energy in the room makes my heart feel so big.
They're not done yet. Next step will be writing inside their bodies what these figures are thinking as they ride the subway. Funny sychronicity...as I was thinking about putting this post up, I was perusing the newspaper and saw that today is the day of the 7th annual No Pants Subway Ride. Yes, you heard me right (or read me right rather.) The event is organized by an Improv Everywhere, which is based in NYC, but the event happens in cities all over the world. So, if you're feeling brave or voyeuristic, go check it out in your city! Heh. After looking around IE's site a little more I came upon this story of a mass de-shirting in Abercrombie & Fitch, which totally cracked me up. I love a good sense of humor. 
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner
January 11th, 2008, 10 Comments
I don't know. It rhymes.
The power was out all day. I had to wait around for it to be fixed because the guys from the electric company needed to check in with someone, plus their trucks were blocking my driveway, so I stayed put. It worked out o.k. because I was up in the middle of the night feeling sick (more tummy trouble. I must have a bug) and so I slept late. But then all afternoon, it was dark and cold in the apartment. I bundled up and made the most of it though. I worked on some art. I brought it out to the front room to work in front of our sliding glass doors. Even though it was gray out, sitting there gave me enough light to work by. In some ways, it was nice to have some enforced non-computer time. I would have appreciated some light to work by, but, as Tim Gunn would say, I made it work. I tend to let the computer suck me in for far too long. The internet is a wonderful resource. I love the blogging world and all the inspiration there is to discover. But there's a point where I'm just distracting myself or procrastinating or mindlessly clicking. And I need to stop myself before that point.
Anyways, last night was creativity central in my house. There was art and cooking and writing, oh my! I made dinner for the hubster and I did something fairly unusual for me - I didn't follow a recipe. The hubster enjoys cooking far more than I do and he loves to experiment. No two meals are exactly the same. Ever. This can be good and bad. Sometimes the experiments go horribly wrong, but usually they're fun and interesting and delicious. I've always been a "follow directions" kind of girl, believe it or not. I like having a road-map for my food, so I know it will come out decently. And once I find a recipe I like, I'll repeat it over and over. I'm not comfortable enough with food to just make it up or so I thought. Well, last night, I was looking online for a recipe and I found one that sounded good except that I had none of the ingredients. Heh. So, I took the oven settings and idea behind it and made up the rest. And I have to tell you, it was delicious! I had already marinated two chicken breasts in a creole marinade. I then melted a few tablespoons of butter in a bowl and added about a teaspoon or two of chili powder. In another bowl I combined about a half cup of grated parmesan cheese with a cup of breadcrumbs. I dipped the chicken in the butter/chili powder mixture, rolled it in the breadcrumb/cheese mix and then put it in a buttered pan at 350 for about 35 minutes. I served it with brown rice and corn and it was so good! I was so pleased (and really relieved) that it came together. Phew!
Earlier in the night, I worked on these two panels. I had already gessoed them, so I simply tore and glued the paper in place. Today I worked on them more, drawing in the scene and then starting to paint in acrylics. I'll show pictures of them in progress and finished as I go along. After dinner, I sat in bed and did some writing for my book. Sometimes, I like to hand-write things out and then type them up later. There's something freeing about writing by hand in a journal. So, that's what I did. It was fun and productive.
This weekend, all the evenings this week, and next weekend, I'm helping out my old boss and working for them (by keeping an eye on their teenage daughter and their 2 dogs.) I'll still be posting though and creating though!
I hope your weekend is a wildly creative one!
On a Roll of Creative Goodness
January 9th, 2008, 11 Comments
Oo, I've got a tummy ache! So, why am I here? Well, call me obsessed, but I'm on a roll today, feeling good and want to share. And immediately after I write this post, I'll be getting into cozy pajamas and curling up with my journal and maybe going to bed early.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm working on a book about creativity and in the comments of that post, I got a generous offer of editing help from Sarah. It was scary to email the drafts of the introduction and first chapter off to Sarah, but I did (and I survived.) I got her comments back today and already her feedback has been so helpful.
Before I got her comments back, I was thinking about the intro and wondered how some of my favorite authors did it. I pulled out a few books from my bookshelf and flipped through the pages. One of the books was SARK's Succulent Wild Woman
I closed SARK's book and flipped open to a random page in Jan Phillips' Marry Your Muse
Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us. To create means to relate. The root meaning of the word art is "to fit together" and we all do this every day. Not all of us are painters but we are all artists. Each time we fit things together we are creating - whether it is to make a loaf of bread, a child, a day.
How perfect is that? That seems to encapsulate the essence of what I want to encourage in others in the Creative Every Day 2008 project.
My creativity activities today ran the gamut of playing silly games with young children of my friends to writing and designing the monthly newsletter for my art website. By the way, subscribers to the newsletter are automatically entered into a monthly drawing for a free print! You can sign up in the lower left corner of the website.
How bout some more fun linkage? I can't help myself.
- This is a video by Creative Every Day 2008 participant, Kris Cahill. Kris makes these amazing paintings in reverse on vinyl. Go watch and be amazed!
- I love this challenge posted on JustBeConnected today. Hostess for the week, Patti has posted a fun (and creative!) way to beat those pesky winter blues. Her challenge is another example of how being creative every day often involves changing your perspective a bit.
- Karen posted this hilarious list (a kids say the darndest things kind of list) the other day and it totally cracked me up. Check it out if you need a giggle.
- Need more laughs? This blog is sure to crack you up. Go check out: Tiny Art Director
TTFN, Ta-ta-for-now
Creative Link-a-Roos From Me to You
January 9th, 2008, 9 Comments
Today's (Tuesday's) creativity was mainly found in trying to make thank you note writing an enjoyable experience. I'm down to the last of my wedding thank you notes and as I finished them up, I exclaimed to the hubster, "I'm never getting married again!"
I made the cards fun by using sparkly pens and pretty stamps and writing addresses with silver metallic ink on pretty brown paper and using cool postage stamps. Sure, I probably could have finished them quicker with less embellishing, but what fun would that be? I'm too pooped to photograph the notes, but I'm sure there'll be a couple more to write along the way, so perhaps I'll snap a shot then...or not! The stamps and paper and pens were all picked up at Paper Source a good place to make card making of all kinds more enjoyable. Plus, I just love their motto: "Do Something Creative Every Day." I may have to get one of their mugs that say that on it!
I've been seeing so many cool links recently, that I need to share some of them before my mind overflows and I forget to post them!
First, a super cool blog called Today's Creative Blog, from Kim of Scrap To My Lu which features loads of amazing creative blogs. Seriously, inspiration overload here.
Second, I got the latest astrology email from Rob Brezsny today and haven't even read it as I went off on a tangent from his link to Jonathan Zap. The site features a tool called the Zap Oracle which is something like a tarot reading, which you can try for free there. He has a lot of interesting writing, one article in particular got my attention. It was linked to one of the images in a reading on Zap's Oracle Page which was called "The Fire of Now." I felt a bit of synchronicity there since the word I chose for this year is "Now." The quote the accompanied the image was:
Yesterday is ashes, tomorrow wood, only today the fire burns brightly.
— Native American saying
Anyways, the article, which is called, "Kill the Time Grid and Fire Up Your Life," sounds quite odd I'll admit. But it's all about living in the now and I could relate to and appreciate much of what Zap has to say here about the suffering that is caused by living in some imagined future instead of being in the present. I get too easily hyped up and anxious and I've been getting the strong sense that in some areas of my life, I really need to slow down and be still. It feels like there's a sort of paradox between being more active and being more still, but I also feel like these things are connected. I'm not able to be articulate about this quite yet, which is one reason why I love making art! So much easier for me to express myself that way.
Well, other links will have to be shared later as it's suddenly very late. Hope you're all finding creativity in your everyday lives! It has been fun so far to think over all the ways I infuse creativity into my everyday life. I often share the visual art, but I notice the creativity in all sorts of things, from the thank you note writing I mentioned today, to the swirling of honey into a cup of tea this afternoon and the website work this morning. Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Fort Building 101
January 8th, 2008, 10 Comments
Last night, I was feeling a bit cranky, so I took my laptop and sketchbook into bed and camped out there for awhile. I did some work on my website, adding some of my latest art pieces to the store and then I did some sketching for some pieces I'm working on for the upcoming "Tiny Enormous Show" at Nahcotta next month.
Sketching and working while surrounded by cozy pillows and kitties was a nice change of scenery. It reminded me of staying home sick when I was little and making a fort of blankets and pillows under the kitchen table. I'd lay under there with my jammies on and draw. Sometimes I'd pull the phone in there with me and call up my grandparents to say hello.
I love forts made of big fuzzy blankets still. Like a snow fort, but without the cold or a fort we'd make in the woods, but without the bugs, a cozy indoor fort is a fantastic place to re-connect with your childlike self, imagine, day-dream, draw, nap, journal, meditate, listen to music or just plain relax.
It can be hard for us adults to find excuses for fort making. We figure, why make such a mess? What will my husband think? What will my kids think? Well, they may think you're weird, but that's not such a bad thing.
Tell me, if you were to make a fort, what would you make it with? Where would it be? What would you bring into it with you?
The places that doodles and play lead to…
January 7th, 2008, 8 Comments
Holy moly, creative kids! The list of CED2008 participants has grown quite a bit. So, forgive me for not getting around to see you all as often as I'd like to. However, I've been blown away by all the inspiration and creativity that has been shared thus far. I'm glad that this gentle challenge has inspired so many people to join in. The group energy is sparkly and wonderful. Which reminds me, I wanted to share the lovely new blog of Christine Mason Miller called, Sparkletopia. It is full of daily creative sparks, inspiring links and lots of color. Love it!
The hubster and I spent a quick weekend with his family celebrating a late Christmas and we had such a nice time. It was relaxing and silly and I was so glad I was feeling good. Sometimes travel and people and being "on" all the time is totally exhausting for me. But I managed to feel good (getting good sleep helped a lot) for the entire trip. For creativity, I started a doodle on Saturday and used water soluble pastels to color it in. I started this doodle in a fun way that I recommend trying out. I simply put my hand (with pen) to paper and made a quick squiggly swirl. Then I looked at it and it suggested the figure that I created. The first time I ever tried this was in a cartooning class I took as a kid. The teacher would make a scribble on a piece of paper for all the students and then we'd turn the scribble into something. I still do this for myself sometimes and it's loads of fun!
On Sunday, the hubster wanted to watch a football game with his dad, so I sat down with them and started doodling in my sketchbook. My mother-in-law was talking to me about art while I drew and told me what she thought the doodles could be. It was fun following her suggestions and combining her ideas with my own to create the drawing. I had drawn the tree on the left first and then she suggested drawing a second tree that faced away from it so that they were like male and female trees dancing in the breeze. She also suggested the musical notes in the breeze.
Doodling also leads to some fun happy accidents. I drew the above tree doodle on the back of the page that I drew the woman in pastels, so when drawing the pattern at the top of the tree doodle, it pressed the pastels onto the page underneath it (which had little sketches for the cycles painting on it) in the pattern shape. So cool! I may have to play with that in other ways. This is a good example of the fun places that playing leads to!
Cycles
January 5th, 2008, 26 Comments
I made the above piece yesterday, I spent a long time fussing over the final details and I probably could have kept picking at it, but for now, I'll leave it be. Perhaps after I return home at the end of the weekend, I'll look at it with fresh eyes and know if it's done for me or if I want to work it more. I'm calling it, "Memory Cycles" and it's about 10"x14" with collaged paper and acrylic paint on watercolor paper. I worked with collage items, mainly given to me from a friend. The bicycle guys really caught my eye and it went from there. I had all different ideas of where to go with the collage when it was done, but the female figure seemed to be the one that wanted to be painted the most. So, I painted here and the circles in, along with the bicycle in her skirt. Then I painted in the writing in the middle of the page and added various touches with paint. The hubster joked, "Man, that girl hates bicycles." Very funny, hubster! Actually, I think it has to do with memory, the woman is thinking back over her life, lost in thought, and her mind is focusing on the cycles her life seems to go in. The bicycles are just a common, repeating theme in her life. I think everyone has those things that pop up at every stage.
Anyways, it was fun to make. I was feeling very productive yesterday as I had some deadlines. Deadlines seem to help get me going sometimes, so I need to figure out how to make them for myself in a way that's real and effective. I don't want to stress myself out, but a little pressure or push to move forward would be good. I used to push myself out of fear. I would push myself to exercise like a mad woman out of fear that I'd gain weight. Well, I've moved past that and into a space where I'm exercising to be healthy, but I'm not fitting it into my life as much as I'd like. This has been the tricky part...finding ways to do what's best for myself without the fear factor in there. The creativity challenges I've made for myself and others have been a good example of working with a challenge that doesn't involve fear. In the Art Every Day Month Challenge and the Creative Every Day 2008 challenge, I really emphasized a gentle, low pressure approach because I want to encourage creativity, not add stress to my life or anyone else's life. And for me, these challenges work. I did a post recently for Wellness Wednesday about how to challenge yourself and I laid out what works for me. So, now I need to find ways to apply this in other areas of my life...Well, I think I'll work on that 5% rule and see if I can add just 5% more of this gentle push in other areas of my life and see what happens.
Hope your weekend is a creative one! I'll be doing creative things while I'm away, but I probably won't post about them until I get back (Monday.) I may not be able to get back to you right away if you comment or email this weekend. But I will get back to you on Monday. Also, I believe the list of CED participants is up to date as of Friday evening. So, if you don't see your blog up there and it should be (or if you'd like it to be), then pop me an email or leave a comment. I'm human and mix things up sometimes, so please let me know if I've made an error!
Widget Me This!
January 3rd, 2008, 18 Comments
So, my creative activity today involved creating an Amazon widget and store. You can see the new widget which links to the store over to the right. The widget will show a random selection of books that I hand-picked. Each of these books has provided me with inspiration along the way. Since I love to read, this is a fun way to share the books I love and potentially make some money from the referrals. I added a column where I've now got this new Amazon widget, along with information about the Creative Every Day challenge and participants.
It was fun to make the store, using some of my art as a banner and thinking about some of my favorite inspirational books. I'll be adding categories soon too, so let me know if you'd like book advice on any particular subject.
I currently work for myself as a full-time artist and writer. Finding ways (small and large) to supplement my income is a wonderful thing, but don't worry, it won't become ad central around here! I never want to lose the integrity of this blog. I do want to try some of the new options out there for making money, so bear with me while I do a little experimenting in the next few months.
Money can be such an uncomfortable topic. I have never enjoyed making decisions on pricing, asking for money, or just about any of the business aspects of selling or marketing myself. But it's necessary for me to learn how to do it with confidence and grace. Even if it's just 5% more confidence and grace. In that spirit, I'm going to put up a paypal link soon that will allow anyone who reads and enjoys this blog, to make a donation and help support my creating. I never want anyone to feel pressured to donate here (it is not required!), but I want to put it out there as an option. Of course, feel free to check out my art website as well, where I sell original art and prints and stay tuned for new artwork and products to come this winter!
I'm going to be away this weekend with little time to be online, so it might take me a bit longer to get back to you if you email or want to be added to the list of CED participants. The list has grown quite big and I've loved being introduced to so many new creative people. So, welcome and happy creating!
Doodle-bug
January 3rd, 2008, 14 Comments
I love to doodle. The margins of most paper I get a hold of seems to always get covered in some little drawing, pattern, scribble or list.
Last night, I had the pleasure of listening in on a free coaching call with Jill Badonsky, author of The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard). I get Jill's newsletter (which I totally love for its creative ideas and sense of humor) and that's how I found out about this somewhat last minute call involving guided visualization and writing around starting your New Year with creative magic. I signed up for it on a whim not really knowing what to expect and I'm so glad I did! Jill has a very soothing voice and a lot to share. She was open and humble, funny and sweet and I enjoyed her method of visualization. I took some notes while listening in and I particularly enjoyed her way of looking at what had worked in the last year, how to continue that and how to appreciate and acknowledge where the good was already occurring. She also had a cool method of looking at making changes which she called the "5% rule." When looking to change something she suggests that instead of demanding a 100% turn around we can ask ourselves to make a 5% change. So, for example, if we don't like that we're not getting enough exercise in our life, we can look to include 5% more movement in our life. Much more manageable than a complete change, much more doable, and far easier to succeed. And it's so much easier to build upon success than it is to pull yourself up after failing to meet your high expectations. (I just noticed that the number 5 and the percent symbol (%) are the same key on the computer keyboard. Kinda cool, eh?) So, perhaps you can apply this method to creativity. If you're having trouble adding consistent art-making and creativity in your life, see if you can infuse your life with 5 percent more creativity or 5% more art. I like this idea along with the CED challenge because I don't want the challenge to be a source of stress. I'd like to be a source of fun and inspiration. So, if it's causing you stress, try out Jill's 5% rule.
During Jill's visualization in which we imagined ourselves in a meadow with a path in front of us, I saw these little birds carrying letters and keys at the bottom of long strings. I doodled them in the margins of my notes while I listened and after the call, I doodled in my life binder (keeper of lists) with colored pencils and made this:
I think it's super sweet. That's a bunny at the bottom in case it isn't clear in the image. Perhaps it will become a collage or painting later on. We shall see. In the meantime, I've got much to get to today, so I'm off!
Quick notes: in order to use the Creative Every Day button located in the sidebar (and below), simply right-click on the image and save it to your computer. Different blogging applications have different ways of adding images to your blog, but all have help sections which should be able to direct you to instructions on how to do it.
If you use typepad, I wrote a quickie tutorial for posting blog buttons for a different group here. And here's a tutorial from another blogger on adding a picture to your sidebar.
I'll be adding this info to the main Creative Every Day 2008 page, so you can find it if you need it! Happy creating!
Creative Every Day 2008 has begun!
January 2nd, 2008, 19 Comments
Aurora asked about how to communicate with other members of the group when you've posted about your daily creativity on your blog. Good question! You can post a comment here on the blog if you want, although it's not required. I hope that participants will check in on each other here and there (check out the list of participants in the sidebar.) Also, I've just set up a flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/creativeeveryday2008/, so feel free to use that to post images of any of your daily creations there (you can provide links back to your blog posts in your image description.)
I don't plan to post my creative activities every single day, but I will be keeping track of all of them and posting about all of them. There may be times I'm posting every day and other times I may post a few times in a week. Whatever your creative action is, record it in a way that feels right for you, keep your eyes open for creative opportunities, and have fun with it! If you aren't posting about what you're doing every day, then you may want to keep track in a journal or on your calendar. It'll be fun to look back over what you're doing and I think others will enjoy seeing the creative ways you take on this challenge too!
Last night, I sat down to work on my something creative and I thought I wanted to do a collage with images and words representing my goals. I looked through several magazines and wasn't finding the imagery I wanted. After 20 minutes, I'd only ripped out the word "magical" and a picture of a hand holding money. So, I took a different approach.
Here you can see my art journal opened up. I just started painting on it and the symbols came bit by bit. I wasn't really sure what it all meant until after I finished it. I painted the houses gold with red over it which represents good fortune, abundance, and wealth. And the houses themselves represent home, family and community. In the sky, the swirls represent creativity and action. And at the top of the page, I've written "creative everyday" to represent my intention for the year and the projects I have going on. It was kind of a shiny piece (and hard to capture with my camera) with the gold paint and mica flakes, but I think you get the idea and you get a little peek at the top two shelves of my bookcase!
O.k., back to work for me. I hope your day is a delicious one!
