Today is day 6 of my Creativity Challenge and today we are going to draw BIG! Grab some chalk and draw something bigger than you–on your driveway, patio…anywhere. You might use small repeated forms to make something huge–move your body as you work. Don’t think just doodle. Be free as you work. Be present with the drawing…let it draw you.
Day 5 of my creativity challenge! I’m going to jump ten thousand steps ahead and tell you the real truth about creativity. Some of you will find it whacky or “out there” and others will resonate deeply with it. But either way, it is my truth. And I do believe it is the truth:
So, it’s day 4 of my creativity challenge! Today you’ll do a simple exercise to see the color around you by using an online color palette generating tool. Breaking color down into fundamental blocks this way is really interesting because it gets you beyond your expectations. For example, in the image of my daughter’s ballet class (below), I knew I’d get a palette of greys and blacks because I know the floor of the dance studio is almost black. But not so! My mind knows the color of the floor, but the camera captured shades of browns because of the reflected light. So it is with our eyes…we learn to see color more clearly when we remove our ingrained patterns of seeing our “ideas” of color and actually looking at what is there. I used PaletteGenerator.com. It takes just a few seconds! Simply upload an image and drag across it to select the area of the picture you want to match. Click “submit the selection” at the bottom. You can take screen shots to save your palettes. (On a mac, use command + shift + 4 … then use the cursor to select your image).
Today’s creativity challenge: Make a self-portrait or a picture of a loved one using nothing but coffee or wine (or any staining juice like beet or blueberry) and the eraser end of a pencil. Follow along–share your creations on instagram and hashtag #yourcreativitychallenge to share. You can even post them on my Facebook page. Remember to play, have fun and be a kid. Art supplies, schmart supplies! You can make art anywhere you are with whatever you have. Go beyond your own ideas and limitations of what creating means. Go beyond your ideas of perfection and what “looks good.”
Phew. I’m back! Happy belated new year. It seems I took a break from blogging for a while–what with all the celebrating and enjoying my family and winter break (my favorite) and…oh, yeah….finishing my book in December. Woohoo! The editors and designers over at Stash Books are busy bees now. They are working on it and I will be able to share much more this summer. But I can say that I love what I created and I know you will too. It will be out in November 2014!
In honor of so much bounty and general creative goodness, join me in my 10 day creativity challenge over on instagram. Every day I’ll give you a simple challenge to help loosen you up, inspire, remove perfectionism, promote your unique creativity and express yourself. Use hashtag #yourcreativitychallenge and share what you create. It will be fun. You don’t need to be an artist to do this…you just need to be willing, open-hearted and ready to be inspired.
All too often we begin to think inside of our own boxes…these simple exercises will get your juices flowing. Share, tag, invite your friends and join me! Here is the first exercise: go outside on a short walk or hike…take a bag with you…collect stuff as you walk… make something simple on the ground with what you gathered. Make it as a love gift to life and the earth! Use trash, flowers, rocks…anything you find. I used quartz and creosote flowers. It doesn’t need to be perfect…or even good…or even art!
You can make art everywhere, with anything you find. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Lately, I am in love with the flower petal art Kathy Klein creates over at Danmala. (You can buy her beautiful hexagonal calendar–see below.)
| Today at our last visit with Dr. Henry |
For months I have been preparing for a milestone. I knew it was coming and I have been shocked by my intense emotions about it.
Most of you don’t know the story, but I will share it with you here, because I want you to join my family in this celebration.
Feeling grateful today.
I hope you had a peaceful Thanksgiving.
I am grateful if you are reading this–
or have read any of my posts–
or bought my products or fabrics–
for the past few years.
This morning our house was quiet-
a rare morning with the kids away-
we laid in bed and drank our coffee-
and we watched a feelgood movie-
The Wedding Date–
remembered what it felt like when we had nothing but time
to watch the shadows in the corners of our wakening room–
then I grabbed the book of Billy Collins poetry from the nightstand-
and found this one-
with a dogeared page-
the one that had been my favorite nearly 8 years ago–
when this book was given to us as a baby gift–
and read it aloud.
If you are a mom-
or have one-
you will cry.
We did.
| A painting of mine from this year called The Ecstatic Beauty of It All (Carrie Bloomston) |
I wrote in the last post here about the “idea” of colors. I also wrote about how we are instructed early by painting teachers to never use paint right out of the tube. This is such an important point and I want to explain it further here as it applies to every area of art, design, sewing, crafting, etc.
Since we have been discussing color this month, I’d like to talk about the particularly polarizing polar-opposite duo: black and white. We all know them. We all use them. We all wear them. I wear black yoga pants almost every day! But my love of black ends with my Lululemon leggings.