Creative Every Day Theme for December: Air

December 1st, 2010

At the end of each month I will announce the totally optional theme for the following month. Continuing with the elements theme, for the month of December, the theme will be the element of Air. As always, this month's theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge is totally optional. Use it if it inspires you, continue being creative every day in your own way if it doesn't, or do something in between.

I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month on the blog to help keep you inspired. You can use the posts here for jumping off points or interpret the theme in your own creative way. If you need some suggestions, here are a few ideas to get you started. You could:

  • *Get outside and take pictures of the sky at different times of day.
  • *Use hot air in your work. Try blowing wet media with a blower or try encaustic.
  • *Capture the movement of wind in drawing or painting.
  • *Make clouds out of fabric.
  • *Focus on the air or negative space in your work.
  • *Write a poem about the way air feels on your skin.
  • *Turn on a fan and take some fun wind-blown self-portraits.
  • *Create more airspace around you, by clearing out some clutter.

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. Feel free to focus on the theme in your creative activities for the entire month or as much as you'd like.

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.

And have fun with it!

The sky and the strong wind have moved the spirit inside me till I am carried away trembling with joy. -Uvavnuk

p.s. The art above is adapted from my Wind in my Hair piece, prints are available here.

p.p.s. I will have info about signing up for the 2011 Challenge later this week. In the meantime, I would love to hear some of your ideas for monthly themes for next year. Brainstorm away in the comments!

18 Responses

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Leah Piken Kolidas, Leah Piken Kolidas, Jennifer Lee, jaxb, Ana Gonçalves and others. Ana Gonçalves said: RT @leah_art: December's theme for the Creative Every Day Challenge is Air: http://bit.ly/eawsDO #ced2010 [...]

Hmm – your first suggestion for this month of taking pictures of the sky got me to thinking wouldn’t the overall theme of the Cosmos for 2011 be cool – it could break down into subthemes like: Sky, Star, Sun, Moon, Eclipse, Comet, Solstice, Aurora Borealis, Dawn, Dusk, Night, Constellation, Mythology, North Star, Heaven, Planets, Black Holes, etc..

maybe not concrete enough? – but it’s always fun to toss ideas around

I like the way objects seem to be flying in her hair – its fab! :-)

I’m still not quite over aedm2010 I still feel I need to be posting daily. But I thought today I should give myself a break. I’ve actually been doing Christmassy stuff with the kids today. Tomorrow I can start getting my head around the ‘air’ theme.

Kat Xx

Leah…excited to have made it through AEDM and continue on through the following months.

hmm…themes – well “whimsy” tends to always be on my mind

here are some others: time, maps, wonder, flibbertigibbet, food, animals, countries, furniture, zoo, culture, games, extinct, bohemian, emotion, travel, history, future, present…

Lianne, I love the cosmos idea!

dthaase, I’m liking the history and emotion ideas. Thanks for sharing.

Keep them coming, guys!

Air is a very appropriate theme this month since I am surrounded by the crisp, invigorating air of the North! Enjoying the creative process by your side.

Fun piece! I like the word play and attaching it to an image; poetic!

Love your suggestions for the December theme of air. Very creative.

ooohhh….themes…a certain color, a certain mood, a certain texture, a season, a holiday… I would love to see how the different artists interpret just “red” for instance!

Metamorphosis and/or Change. I certainly don’t think I’m the only one lately that feels something in the air.

Air is a lovely theme – something intangible but all around us. I’ve linked up my Tropical Angels to 1 Dec. Hope it’s not stretching things to say angels remind me of flight through the air. And mine have little feather wings which flutters when the air around them moves.

Very clever, the association with air and music. Your lady is vaguely baroque, so she fits the time period for classical airs OR she could be Celtic and be listening to airs, jigs, hornpipes, etc. I’m looking forward to this theme, to playing and wrestling with how to make a visual connection with something invisible yet absolutely essential to life.

I love the ideas about the cosmos! Maybe not a cosmic theme every month, but my husband is an astronomer looking for extra-solar planets and I’ve got ideas percolating for expressing my excitement about his search. (He’s not so excited right now; lots of grunt work at the moment)

In the spirit of air, I made a lemon meringue pie with very fluffy meringue. I love meringue — it’s like magic how it goes from egg whites to fluff.

Oh phew! I totally forgot that after November there was a creative life! November always burns me out, what with AEDM and NANOWRIMO and work and holidays and this year some freelance work. But I’ll be done with the last of it tomorrow and I can start breathing again.

Breathing. That’s another one for the air theme.

For new themes, how about house, or home. poetry. history. windows. round. order and chaos. (this is a theme I just used in one of my freelance curriculum pieces, so why not throw it in there?) ladders. animal. books. silence. song. kings and queens. power. dreaming. city. motion. dance.

I think I could go on like this forever.

Love the “collagey” aspect of this piece!

Those are some awesome ideas Leah! My head is spinning. :o )

xo
Mari

Sensory things…like Crunchy
or Silky, not necessarily simply the tactile either….

~Leah… All you ideas/suggestions rang true with my spirit. How do you do that, little Missy?? See why we love you~ Thanks so much!

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