AEDM: Day Twenty-Two!

It's been twenty-two days since this adventure began and I've made something new for each on of those days.  But, tonight, I head off out-of-state for the Thanksgiving Holiday and will not have access to the internet.  So, while I'll keep creating, I won't be able to post until I get back.

Until then, here's today's card.

I wanted to experiment with imprinting designs in thick gesso.  So, I layered the card and then let it dry a big before I pressed circles into it.  I decided to highlight the texture with a simple coat of iridescent lime green paint, trimmed the card in dark brown, and added an embellishment with the word "Imagine" on it.

It's a reminder to me of all the wonderful art I've seen this month, all coming from imaginative minds like yours!

Happy Creating!

AEDM: Day Twenty-One!

As I was going to paint over this playing card, I noticed the little smiling face of the Joker and decided that I liked it and wanted to incorporate him as the main figure in the design.


With that, I added multiple layers of black and shimmery blue/green paint, and then sanded down the layers in various degrees all over the card.

Lastly, I added the word “play,” trimmed the card in black to frame the image, and called it a day.

I liked how it turned out!

Happy Creating!

AEDM: Day Twenty

Where yesterday's card was more sophisticated, today's card is the complete opposite.

I gave myself the challenge of creating, from start to finish, in 10 minutes.

Normally I go back and forth on design and debate things, but not today.

I painted the card white to start with a literal blank canvas.  Grabbed the first embellishments I saw in my art closet which were these flower stickers and added black paint.

Lastly, I wrote the word "free" because that's how I felt--Complete freedom from judgment, like a child creating a masterpiece with crayons.

Happy Creating!

AEDM: Day Eighteen!

So, for yesterday’s card I had printed out a page of my NaNoWriMo novel to use as part of the basket weave. And I decided for today’s card to use some more of that text.

First, I painted the playing card a deep midnight blue. Then I cut out ovals from my novel page. I wasn’t sure if I was going to use them as heads and paint faces on them, or just as organic shapes, but in the end I decided to make them into flowers.

I attached them, added paint for the stems and yellow ascent, and then used a Sharpie to give them definition. Lastly, I “tied” them all together with a bow and Modge Podge’d the whole thing.

I think it turned out lovely!

It’s been such a challenge for me to come up with a new and different design each day. Some days are better than others, but I’m hanging in there.

I hope you are, too!  Happy creating!!

The Artist's Way: Week Seven, Post Two

Hi, my name is Liz, and I am a perfectionist.


I have always been a perfectionist.

In fact, if I feel that I can’t do something perfectly, I will not try it (or I will pretend I don’t care enough to try it).

I have always known that perfectionism was one of my flaws, but I thought it was a noble one. After all, why do something if you can’t do it well?

Here’s what Julia has to say about it:

“Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead” (p. 119).

“For the perfectionist, there are no first drafts, rough sketches, warm-up exercises. Every draft is meant to be final, perfect, set in stone” (p. 120).

Now, here’s the clincher:

“To the perfectionist, there is always room for improvement. The perfectionist calls this humility. In reality, it is egotism. It is pride that makes us want to write a perfect script, paint a perfect painting, perform a perfect audition monologue.

Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough—that we should try again.

No. We should not” (p. 120).

Perfectionism = Pride

Wow, right? This blew my mind!

I’ve been struggling with my perfectionism all month. Between the Art Every Day challenge and NaNoWriMo, I’ve had to face my fear of imperfection head on, and with occasional tears.

Some of the stuff I’ve written in my novel is horrible!

Some of the ATC’s I’ve created are, well, ugly/plain/weird!

But, I’ve kept at it. I’ve posted the picture no matter how I felt about the ATC. And I’ve kept every stupid, boring, and trite word I’ve written.

Is perfectionism behind me? Hardly. But, this month, I’ve been able to push it a little farther away from me. And that’s a start.

Now, two questions for you: Is perfectionism blocking the way to your creativity? And if so, will you let it go?



UP NEXT: Week Seven Exercises and why one made me cry…

The Artist's Way: Week Seven, Post One

This week is about “Recovering a Sense of Connection” and it has various layers of meaning (as does every chapter).


Julia talks about connecting to the Creator, to ourselves, and to others. And each connection requires a slightly different skill set.

Today, I want to highlight what she says about connecting to God/Creator, and, connecting to others.

First, God.

According to Julia, the key to connecting to our Creator, and therefore, creativity, is simply to listen. We are being spoken to, guided and directed constantly. But, usually, we’re too busy and keep our environment too loud, to hear anything. In a very real way, we avoid listening. (Think of how much silence you had today. 30 minutes? 10 minutes? 5 minutes?)

And if we listen, we realize that as artists we shouldn’t be trying to “think something up” but “get something down.” We are really the conduit for creativity, not the source. And if we really understand this, it’s a freeing and less stressful way to create!

Here’s an analogy that Julia uses that I love:

“Art is the act of tuning in and dropping down the well. It is as though all the stories, painting, music, performances in the world live just under the surface of our normal consciousness. Like an underground river, they flow through us as a stream of ideas that we can tap down into. As artists, we drop down the well into the stream. We hear what’s down there and we act on it—more like taking dictation than anything fancy having to do with art” (p. 118).

Think about this for a moment. It’s a powerful idea that all we have to do is take the time to listen, then drop our buckets down into the creative stream, bring up what we gather, and share it with the world. (Nothing says it has to be a perfect offering, just an offering. But, perfection is the topic for tomorrow.)

However, there is something that can stand in the way with the gathering and sharing, and that leads to the second type of connection I wanted to talk about: connecting with others.

The one thing that Julia discusses this week that can get in the way of connecting with others is jealousy.

Are you jealous of anyone? Come on, be honest. Because identifying where you are jealous is the key to your freedom!

“Jealousy is a map” (p. 123). It lets us know what we really want. For example, if I’m jealous of my sister because she has really great hair, what does that mean? It means I want great hair! See what I mean? Jealousy is a guide to show you your heart’s desire. And this can be a frightening, yet freeing thing if you can identify it and then let it go.

“Jealousy is always a mask for fear: fear that we aren’t able to get what we want; frustration that somebody else seems to be getting what is rightfully ours even if we are too frightened to reach for it” (p. 124). If I’m jealous of a friend because she has written a novel, this tells me what I really want (i.e. write a novel) and it shows me what I’ve been afraid to do (i.e. write a novel).

Julia continues with this powerful understanding, “At its root, jealousy is a stingy emotion. It doesn’t allow for the abundance and multiplicity of the universe. Jealousy tells us there is room for only one—one poet, one painter, one whatever you dream of being” (p. 124, emphasis added).

Wow, right?



On a personal note, this is a very timely chapter for me.

I’ve been dealing with jealousy as I have gotten farther and farther behind on my NaNoWriMo novel, and as I’ve been visiting other artists who are participating in the Art Every Day challenge and are creating art that is breathtakingly beautiful.

But, I have to remind myself that like on NaNo, where there is no limit to how many people can cross the 50,000 word finish line, and on AEDM , where there is no rule that what I paint has to be better than everyone else’s, the same can be said for every creative endeavor.

There really are no winners and losers. There are only those who listen and create, or those who watch and criticize.

There can be thousands of poets, thousands of painters, thousands of novelists, thousands of photographers, thousands of actors, thousands of playwrights, thousands and thousands and thousands of creative souls.

And you are one of them!

AEDM: Day Sixteen!

I decided to do a little experimentation with today’s card as well.

I really wanted to focus on texture, so I pulled out my super old coagulated gesso that I was going to toss, but decided to keep (just in case).

It has almost solidified, but was still smear-able.

I gooped some on a playing card and let it dry.

Then I got the card wet, and added four different shades of yellow paint.

I really liked how the paint settled in all the nooks and crannies. See:



This picture doesn't do it justice!



So, because I didn’t want to cover up all the texture, I only added one embellishment, trimmed it in a coordinating brown, and called it a day.

Simple, but beautiful.

Have a creative day!

AEDM: Day Fourteen!

I started with a weathered handwritten background on cream paper.

I added a rich red ribbon all around it.  Then I cut out three butterflies and added those.

I love the 3-D aspect of the card, and overall, it reminds me of a Victorian butterfly collection (even though I'm not a big fan of pinning actual butterflies to a board).

I'm really liking the cream and red color combo and I think I'm going to experiment some more with it!

AEDM: Day Thirteen!

Today, I decided to stick with three colors: yellow ochre, turquoise, and brown.

I started by painting the card turquoise.  Then applying a crackle paint in yellow ochre.

I added the central image (which reminds me of a mandala) and words, then edged the card in brown.

I really like this one!  It feels very peaceful and antique to me.

AEDM: Day Eleven!

You know, it's amazing how long being creative takes.

If you look at this piece, you would think it took all of 15 minutes to slap on some images, add a little paint, something sparkly and call it a day.

But, it wasn't so simple.  I first started with the background.  Then I started pulling images that seemed to match the color scheme.

But, when I found the lady's face, it seemed to float out of place, so then I decided to anchor it with a crown, wings and a make-shift body.

I added paint to her face, painted her dress and added the word "fly", then trimmed the whole card in dark brown paint.

It ended up taking me about an hour from start to finish.  No wonder my paintings take weeks!

I'm a slow artist.

Oh well, we use what we got, right?

I'm flying with inspiration fairy dust!

AEDM: Day Ten!

Boy, after an long and exhausting day at work, I totally did not want to be creative!

But, despite that, I pressed forward, sat down and made something.

I started with striped paper.  Then used an empty toilet paper roll and white paint to make the circles.

I had two decorative stamps that I added some paint to, and then embellished with a silver sticker and a fabric flower.

I like it!  Simple, colorful, graphic.

And now, a brief letter to the inspiration fairies:

Dear Inspiration Fairies,

Please don't abandon me!  I'm struggling to come up with new ideas, and I need your help.  I think you are really awesome, and I promise to heed your advice.  Just whisper it in my ear.  I'm listening...

Yours,
Liz

AEDM: Day Five!

So, full confession, I'm not a fan of this ATC.

I really struggled with it and was almost not going to post it at all.

But, I had promised myself that I would create something from start to finish every day this month.

They all can't be winners, right?

I decided to take an Asian theme with this one.  I started with gold paper, and then painted a Samuri-esque man on it with silver leaf paint. (It was my first time using that kind of paint.) I added a Chinese sticker I had, wrote a Haiku* poem on it, trimmed it with black paint, and then splattered it with red paint.

Again, not my favorite.  But a good learning experience!  I think I might give this another go tomorrow and see if I like it better.

* If you can't read the poem, it says:

I swim through lotus

waters slip against my skin

nestled in, I shine

AEDM: Day Four!

I didn't have a lot of time today to work on this, so I thought I'd keep it simple, but romantic.

I used a textured background, gold paint, a couple of paper pictures, and fabric flowers.

For only having 20 minutes, I'm please with how it turned out!

The butterfly is 3-D!

Have fun creating!

AEDM: Day Three!

For today's ATC, I decided I wanted to go more graphic and with clean colors: Red, White, and Black. 

No shading or fuzziness.  Just bold colors.

I used embossed paper for the background card, and embellished with paper images, paint, a jewel, and ribbon.

I like the way it turned out!  (It feels a little Art Deco to me.)

Can you tell I like France?

Have fun creating!

The Artist's Way: Week Six, Post Two

“For those of us who have become artistically anorectic—yearning to be creative and refusing to feed that hunger in ourselves so that we become more and more focus on our deprivation—a little authentic luxury can go a long way” (p. 108).


When I read this sentence, I had a few memories pop into my head: me, reading a book about living a literary life; me, buying art supplies for an online class I never attended; me, getting out my guitar to work on a new song, but only trying the first chord.

Memory after memory of ways I artistically stopped, and then starved myself. It’s like going to a bakery, hungry, and just standing outside, staring into the window.

Do you know what I’m talking about?

Julia goes on to talk about how luxury helps with this anorexic behavior: “Because art is born in expansion, in a belief in sufficient supply, it is critical that we pamper ourselves for the sense of abundance it brings to us” (p. 108).

Now, she’s not talking about a $1000 spa treatment (though, if you could afford that, go ahead!). She’s talking about little things that make you feel special. Some examples she gave were new clothes, flowers, and a magazine subscription. Small gifts that make a person feel pampered.

This got me thinking about myself (surprise, surprise).

Frankly, I feel like this whole Artist’s Way journey has been a way I’ve pampered myself. I’ve loved taking the time out of my week to go on an Artist’s Date.

But, I thought that maybe I could do something else specifically for the purpose of luxury. So, I made a list of things I love or would love to do. Most of the things on my list were far-fetched (like living in Ireland) or incredibly expensive (like, living in Ireland). But, I did find a theme, and that was: travel!

Now, I don’t know about you, but my travel budget is limited. That didn’t stop me from planting the travel seed of luxury though!

I decided to order a yearly subscription to the National Geographic Traveler magazine for $10! And I think that’s a pretty great deal: 10 bucks for a year of luxury!

So, what about you? How could you give your artist-self a little luxury?



UP NEXT: Week Six exercises! Thank you, Mr. Postman!

AEDM: Day Two

I decided to shift color palettes completely on this next ATC, and I like the different feel I get from it.

Isn’t it amazing how the change in colors can totally alter the vibe you get from an art piece? Amazing!

To create this, I used paper, Sharpie, black Ink, Acetate film, and sparkly stars!

Will you meet me in Paris?

 
 
I'm excited to see what I create tomorrow, and to be inspired by my fellow AEDM travellers!

The Artist's Way: Week Six, Post One

Week Six is about “recovering a sense of abundance” and Julia starts this chapter by talking about God and money.


To be honest, I’ve never really thought about God and money, except for the law of tithing. And it never occurred to me to think of it in terms of abundance (probably because I have very limited experience with financial abundance in my life).

I completely identified with this: “Maybe God would feed and clothe us, in a pinch, but painting supplies? A museum tour of Europe, dance classes? God’s not about to spring for those, we tell ourselves” (p. 106).

This is exactly how I see things.

Julia continues, “Most of us harbor a secret belief that work has to be work and not play, and that anything we really want to do—like write, act, dance—must be considered frivolous and be placed a distant second” (p. 106).

Yep, and yep. Exactly what I believe.

And then I read something that really shifted the way I view God. Seriously.

“On the one hand, we give lip service to the notion that God wants us to be happy, joyous, and free. On the other, we secretly think that God wants us to be broke if we are going to be so decadent as to want to be artists. Do we have any proof at all for these ideas about God? Looking at god’s creation, it is pretty clear that the creator itself did not know when to stop. There is not one pink flower, or even fifty pink flowers, but hundreds. Snowflakes, of course, are the ultimate exercise in sheer creative glee. No two alike. This creator looks suspiciously like someone who just might send us support for our creative ventures” (pgs. 106-107, emphasis added).

Wow, right?

So, let me ask you, if you could do anything creative, and I mean ANYTHING, and knew you would have the full support and assistance from God, what would you do?

It’s an exciting thought, isn’t it?



UP NEXT: Luxury, and how we need more of it!

Art Every Day Month: Day One

I know this is only the first day, way to soon to predict how this challenge is going to turn out for me, but I have to say, I'm having a blast!

It was fun to just spread out a bunch of stuff in the same color palette and see what happened!

On this ATC is used paper, paint, thread, dried flowers, and an acrylic gem.

The only thing I added after this picture was taken was a little rouge to her cheeks!

November: A Month of Creativity and Possible Nervous Breakdown

NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow (see Sidebar), and I am feeling a mixture of excitement and apprehension. I’ve done it before, so I know that it’s possible, but it’s still hard.

It’s hard on my imagination. (Coming up with scene after scene is a lot to ask a brain, especially one as lazy as mine.)

It’s hard on my time. (Now, all free time will be spent on writing (which reminds me of homework) (which makes me sad.))

It’s hard on my sensitive creative heart. (Nothing challenges the vision of yourself as a creative person like writing 50,000 words and realizing you’re a talentless hack—at least according to your inner critic.)

But, I’m doing it anyway!

And I’ll keep you posted with a weekly word count, which you can see on my handy dandy sidebar. That way, you can help hold me accountable. (Especially during week two, when I’ll want to pretend like I never had the idea to participate, and have no idea what you’re talking about.)

The good thing is that I’m actually excited about my book idea.

I’ve done a lot (and I mean A LOT) on my character development and plot. So, I know where I want to end up and how I want my main protagonist to transform. I don’t have it all figured out (as in scene by scene), but I’ve done more prep-work for this than any other thing I have ever attempted to write.

I won’t be posting excerpts because that would just freak me out and probably paralyze me. But, I may write about specific aspects of my characters. I’m starting to like them, and hear them speak to me. (Not in a creepy “I hear voices” kind of way, but in a writer-ly “I’ve developed three-dimensional characters and they’re taking on a life of their own” kind of way.)

Please send me a creative well-wishing thought every now and again. I could use the support!

Now, as if NaNoWriMo wasn’t enough, you’ll also recall that I’m doing the ArtEveryDay challenge (See Sidebar).

This is also making me incredibly nervous. I don’t feel as prepared, (mostly because I don’t like to pre-plan my artwork), and I still have to find a few more supplies, but I diving in anyway.

For this challenge, I WILL be posting every night in November, so, you’ll be able to see what I created.

Because I’m also doing NaNo, I decided that I would make a small piece of art each day, and that it would be an ATC (Artist Trading Cards).

I’ve done them in the past and have had a blast. I think they’ll be the right size to provide me with a challenge, and yet, not overwhelm me like something on canvas would (especially since I’m still working on my Artist’s Way painting and another project).

If you’d like to make an ATC, and then trade it with me, let me know! They can be made on actual playing cards, or anything that is playing-card sized (like fabric, wood, metal, etc.).



So, for November, this blog may have a multiple posts a day (since I’m still posting on The Artist’s Way).

And then I expect that in December, (after my nervous breakdown), it might take a brief hiatus to pick myself up off the floor.

It’s going to be a wild ride!

I hope you’ll join me!

The Artist's Way: Week Five, Post Four

First, let me do the weekly check-in…

1)   So, I only did Morning Pages 4 days this week.  I just didn’t have the energy to write for a half-hour.  I don’t really have an excuse, except to say “I didn’t wanna.”

2)   Yep, had an Artist’s Date.  You know the drill.  More down below…

3)   Synchronicity?  I don’t recall anything.  Well, now that I think about it, ever since I decided that my NaNoWriMo book was going to include zombies*, I have noticed a lot of zombie-related things popping up: articles, TV shows, comic books, etc.  It could be that I was surrounded by these things the whole time (most likely) and didn’t notice.  But, it’s interesting nonetheless.

4)   No issues that I can think of. Except, of course, my half-hearted attempt at Morning Pages.

Now, on to the Artist’s Date:

I decided to take a solo photographic tour of the architecture of my city.  I called it my “Backyard Beauty Bonanza,” because I wanted to see what beautiful things I could discover in my own familiar backyard, aka, city.

What I decided to do was get in my car, and drive around.  Simple enough, right? Anything that caught my eye, whether building, house, or street, I would investigate.  And every time I had to stop (law-abiding citizen that I am), I would look for something beautiful.

It was really quite enjoyable, and it opened up my city to me in a whole new way.  I would definitely recommend this to all of you!  But, I do have a few tips to make it more enjoyable (and less life-threatening):

1) It’s best to go in the early morning.  There’s less traffic, and therefore, you are less likely to be honked at when you swerve over to the curb to take a picture.

2) Know how to work your camera.  Driving is not the best time to figure out how to zoom, or how to add an old-timey patina to pictures.  Trust me.

3)   Don’t have something planned right after.  I thought giving myself an hour would be plenty of time, so I scheduled something directly following, and I was sad to have to leave an area of town that I would have liked to explore.  You never know what you’ll find that you’ll want to leave your car to investigate.  Give yourself the time to wander.

4)   Bring something to take notes with.  That way, you can jot down what street your dream home was on, or where was a little shop you wanted to visit at a later time.

5)   Have great music.  Something that invokes magic, mystery, adventure, and singing!  Nothing brings down your exploration mood like radio commercials. Bleh!

Okay, now, on to my “Backyard Beauty Bonanza”!

At my very first red light, I saw this scene out of the corner of my eye. Beautiful!

If you have one of these in your area, that's a great place to start!

Dream home, by chance?

"Liz, is that a horse and wagon?" Yep!

Old firehouse, anyone?

Don't you just love this old church!

"Liz, is that an Antebellum home from your trip to the South?"  Nope, a house right down the street from me!

Friends, I could go on and on, but you get the idea.  

So, here's a challenge for you, next Saturday morning, get your camera, notepad, and your favorite mix CD, and have a "Backyard Beauty Bonanza" of your own!

UP NEXT: Week Six!

And, here's a picture from the latest step on my painting!

*You might be wondering "Why, zombies?"  Good question.  The answer: I have no idea!  I've never read a book on zombies, seen a movie about zombies, or thought about zombies (except to avoid them).  But, I wanted to try something a little out of my comfort zone.  So, zombies it is!