I’ve been busy in June making index card art for the Index Card A Day Challenge (ICAD) hosted by Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow Art. The challenge runs for 61 days—June and July—and I’ve been sharing cards daily on Instagram—but this is a good midway point to stop and reflect a moment.
Here are the first 30 cards, close up and more orderly than the above photo:
Read MoreThis year I’m challenging myself to read at least one book a month and I invite you to challenge yourself, too! Here is our book list for July through December!
If there’s anything I love as much as I love art it is reading, but by the end of 2021 I felt like I was slacking off on my reading life in these distracted times. So I thought about what would get me to read more books?
First, a book list would help so I wouldn’t have to think about what to read next.
Second, I’m more like to do the reading with a public commitment. One book a month seemed very do-able, a minimum target I knew I could hit. (in good months I read two or three more).
Finally,
Read MoreSlowly, in life and art I feel shift going on. Am I shape shifting myself? It’s hard to tell, but shapeshifting felt like the best way to represent my week for my 52 Cards Project. Also, I’m really into shapes lately and I’ve gained a new respect for what shapes can do. It’s an interesting spiral to explore!
Read MoreGreetings! I’ve wandered away from the blog a bit, but now I’ve come back. Blogging is one of those items on my “all the things” list from #4 below that I am prioritizing. It’s something I want to do consistently, reliably and meaningfully.
Why? Well, because writing helps me think clearly and I like to read blogs. But I think what keeps the flame burning is that it simply feels important to share what moves through me. There’s something to share.
Yep, that is why. So this blog continues and I hope you will find it interesting and useful and that you will subscribe. It’s free and you can get new posts by Email or RSS Reader.
So - to bring you up to date, here’s a list of 10 things I’m doing lately:
Read MoreThe 24th card of the year—getting close to the halfway mark of my 52 Cards Project where I create one card each week to capture something that’s going on for me—a theme. This week, I spent a good amount of time drawing to prompts for the Index Card A Day Challenge, and also working in my sketchbook. I find that more and more I’m focusing not just on “how to draw” a thing—but how to draw what I see with my mind’s eye. Each time I make that shift from what I see with my eyes and what I see with that still place inside, I get this jolt of…hmmm…neon orange, pink, and teal? Yep, that’s what it feels like! And an understanding that this is how I want to see—and draw. It’s been a good week and I’m excited to keep drawing!
Read MoreThis image captures my week quite well for my 52 Cards Project. In both life and art, I am working toward more connection and honesty with my own feelings. To allow myself to feel what I feel. To express how I feel—even if (and especially) if I think others might not be receptive. And to allow others their feelings too.
To recognize that no feelings are “bad”.
To stop stuffing, hiding, avoiding, justifying…
With last week’s card, as I release self judgement I am stepping out from behind my walls—and into—
truth.
Did you know that an ostrich feather is one symbol for truth? It goes back to the Egyptian belief that when each person dies their heart is set on a scale with an ostrich feather on the other end. Light as a feather? Heaven you go...or something like that. Surely, at least, heaven on earth. Where lots of star jasmine currently blossom all around me.
Read MoreThis week’s theme for my 52 Cards Project is a little hard to talk about because I’m going to have to explain it, to be understood, and that’s going to require some vulnerability—but here goes.
I’ve been feeling awful about my art lately.
Well, not about this project—I’m really happy with these weekly theme cards I’m making. I’m surprising myself and a week doesn’t go by that I’m not super pleased with the ideas and the expression that comes from this project. And I’m super grateful for this project because right now these cards are about all I’ve had to show for my creative self.
Besides this one card I make each week, though
Read MoreWhere I spill my heART and share my obsessions: art journaling, mixed media, and my creative life.
