My summer book tour schedule is up and I can’t wait to meet you if you live in or near these cities. I will be speaking in some wonderful book stores, quilting stores and maker spaces across the country. Save the date and check the events page for updates to the schedule as there may be additions.
Good mail day! Happy to see my Create Collage on the pages of Stitch Magazine today. I used my Collage line for Windham Fabrics to make this fun no-sew découpaged collage on canvas, but you can use any fabric you want! (Templates included.) Get your Spring 2014 issue–on stands now. There are lots of fun projects in this issue. See it here.
Day 9 of my Creativity Challenge! I hope you have been enjoying it and finding some freedom and space in yourself for creative expression.
Today, in honor of all you snowed-in people, you will find and make meaning right inside your own kitchen! Look in your junk drawer and pull out 8-10 items–most should have some form of writing although they don’t all need to. Use the writing or images as seeds for your creativity. Grow them by shining the light of your awareness on them. This is really quick and fun. The point is not to write a good poem (although you just might). The point is to exercise your mind and find meaning and magic in the ordinary. Let yourself fall into your poem. Be present with the objects you choose. See what you find. Make meaning from junk.
I have a thing for Rumi. He was a 12th century Sufi Mystic poet. His words ring so true today that it is almost shocking they are 800 years old. (Look for translations of his poems by Coleman Barks.) Here are a few Rumi quotes to inspire you:
“Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.”
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.”
“In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.”
Day 7 of my Creativity Challenge! All day, whether you are writing or drawing, USE YOUR LEFT HAND (or your non-dominant hand). This exercise challenges you to bypass your hard-wired default mode…which in turn opens up space for new possibilities, hence CREATIVITY! Creative thinking and doing can be born from breaking our own scripts and patterns so we can see the world in a slightly new or different way.
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.”
