the Creative Thursday blog

celebrate! "creative joy" oracle cards are here!

As soon as the oracle cards arrived back from the printer, I put together the deck and randomly chose my first card. The card was "celebrate".

For a moment I pondered? There's no "big" news to celebrate? So why this card? And then I remembered my conversation with a friend just last night where we talked about noticing how there's so much pressure to be "extraordinary" today, that we are losing sight of what it means to appreciate and celebrate all of the beautiful moments and accomplishments in life, both big and small, ordinary and extraordinary. 

I'm a believer in celebrating everything you want to highlight, and not waiting only for the "big" moments in your life. 

And then not long after I pulled the celebrate card (an hour to be exact)... as you know we've been fostering kittens!!...spontaneously we decided that the kitties are meant be with us. And that is definitely worth celebrating ;)

I now know why, for several reasons, this was the very first card I pulled from the "Creative Joy" deck. 

Not to mention - it's always exciting to share a new creation, especially one that combines a particularly special collection of my work painted over the past decade. More reason to celebrate!

Each word I included in the deck was carefully chosen, often correlating directly to the title of the original painting featured on the card. Since my art is so often a reflection of what I'm experiencing while I'm painting, each image contains the feeling expressed by the words. If you remember, the characters highlighted on the "celebrate" card are from a 2007 painting titled "the gang celebrates".  It was a time when my characters were developing, my art was just starting to sell consistently and my business as a full time artist was finally coming together.

I hope you will cherish this deck and share with me stories of how the words or the images spoke to you at just the right time, even if simply inspiring a theme for your creating that day.

You can order your deck here!

Life on Mars

A common question for artists;  "Where do you get your inspiration?" My standard answer is "everywhere". I honestly never know when it's going to strike but I'm always open and listening.

Last week I was introduced to this beautiful song by Aurora. It took my breath away. A remake of "Life on Mars" by David Bowie, I went searching and came across his original video. My newest music and video obsession inspired this painting series "Life on Mars".

Now I know it's highly unlikely there are flowers and gardens on Mars? But we can imagine, right? Because yes, that is also a tiny bear you see there, standing on Mars. ;)

Stay open for inspiration xo

documentaries :: a few new favorites

Do you know this about me? I'm obsessed with stories about creatives and entrepreneurs.

This means documentaries and I get along well.

Honestly, on the days when I doubt the life I've chosen {they still happen although less often than they used to} and I think about if I still want to keep going with this art buisness or simply on days when I feel misunderstood, there's nothing better than sitting down with Sean, a bowl of popcorn, my favorite white fuzzy blanket and watching a documentary like these. 

I keep telling friends about all the new ones I've come across lately so I thought I'd put together a list of a few of them here, to share with you and also make an easy link I can just email. Most, if not all, of these you can 'watch instantly' on Netflix. I've linked each to their trailers.

Cutie and the Boxer

20 Feet from Stardom

Searching for Sugarman

the Punk Singer

Somm

L'Amour Fou

Beauty is Embarrassing one of my all time favorites, I've posted it before but it needs posting again incase you missed it the first time .

Did I miss some? What are some of your favorites?

Mollie Makes

Creative Thursday was featured in the newest issue of Mollie Makes. {thank you Mollie Makes!}Such a treat, especially because this magazine is one of my favorites. I LOVE it! I also just discovered their home edition. Something about British style and sensibility, it's a comfort and inspiration to me. They seem to like warm, thoughtful, eclectic design and crafting, with bursts of color ~ as much as I do.

If you haven't picked up a copy yet, you should! A little tricky to track down in the states, I've seen issues at JoAnn and more recently I ordered a copy from another favorite, Fancy Tiger. If you just email or call Fancy Tiger, they stock the magazine and are happy to ship it to you. Oh and! you can get an electronic edition too! {thanks Delphine}

Beirut ~ Elephant Gun

 

Speaking of dance. This is my favorite song we've danced to so far, it's by Beirut called "Elephant Gun" I'm obsessed with it today. Can't stop listening. In case you migt be in need of some new music inspiration. Or just want to get up from in front of your computer and dance.

a return to dance

Dance has always been a part of my life, from being a tiny ballerina to dancing in front of my mirror as a tween to late night clubbing through college, to randomly breaking into dance as an adult. I took classes off and on, ballet, tap and jazz from the time I was 4- I even performed several times  - and then in my mid twenties, a Lyrical Jazz class I was taking in Boulder intimidated me and I stopped. This decision is also what lead me to find Iyengar Yoga, which I will be forever grateful for. Twelve years in, I plan to do yoga as long as I am alive.

But...I knew I always wanted to make a return to dance. {As was evidenced by the fact that even with my multiple bouts of de-cluttering and organzing, I could never let go of my ballet and jazz shoes.} If you live in L.A., a city filled with professional dancers, now we're talking intimidation. You know how it is with some classes. There's a lot of attitude from the other dancers, and sometimes even from the teachers. With any class you have to be willing to find the one that is the right fit for you. And don't be afraid to make a change if it isn't.

Also, while it felt like forever  that I put off taking dance again - sometimes in life we can only take on one scary thing at a time. For a good several year chunk of my thirties building an art business from scratch was all I had the energy and bravery for. While this post is ultimately in service of encouraging you to do those things that have been scaring you, it's important to note that we don't have to do everything all at once and being gentle with ourselves when we are already being brave in one area of life is a nice thing to do.

I think leaving my class in Boulder was really all in my head. I let myself get intimidated. Nobody did it to me. My teacher was excellent, a former Denver Bronco's cheerleader, she lead a class full of young competition students. Class was inspiring and pushed me to become better. I think if I remember correctly my teacher even asked me if I was going to audition for the team? But I ignored that, instead spending most classes feeling like I was nowhere as good as everyone else. Oh and in class,  I felt kind of old at 26. Hindsight. Seriously, why do we start doing that age thing to ourselves so early?

Not anymore. I realized that this fear I've had - time for it to go.  Several months before my 40th birthday I decided no more waiting. If you get one thing when you turn 40 and you're an entrpreneur , it's that there's just no more room for intimidation. Whey spend one more day of my life worrying about what others think, especially in a dance class. 

So I did it. I joined a beginning ballet class to rebuild my dance foundation and in the ten months I've been been back, I've also added on a contemporary jazz class. It feels so good to be back. I'm now going 3-4 times a week.

I'm really happy with my classes and my studio. I found one here in L.A. that is all about the love of dance. The dominant attitude of the teachers is supportive. What I also think is great is the range of ages and sexes of the students who come to class. Yes, there are professionals there and even in a beginning class I'm still surrounded by great students {who continue to make me want to be better} but this time I'm ok, especially with being a beginner again. When I'm the last one, the end of the line traveling across the floor and that old feeling of self judgment creeps up I remember that it doesn't exist in my life anymore. I let it go and I have fun. And not to mention I'm getting in some serious excercise - always good for the body and the overall mental state.

I wanted to share this with you here, because a while back when I instagram-ed these photos I had several people telling me they too wanted to make the return to dance. All I want to add is this: to any of you on the fence about making a return to or being a beginner again {at whatever you love or want to explore} -  DO IT!!

pg. 82 - when mistakes happen

Let me start this post by saying, the last few weeks for me have been exceptional. It's been so good that I made a list of everything that's happened just so I wouldn't miss it or let it be overshadowed by the one thing that might feel less than amazing.

Like the fact that a page in your book is missing. 

Like the fact that the first 5,000 of your printed books will also have that same page missing.

For a moment there, a mistake like this on years worth of work could easily overshadow all the other incredible things happening. It really could, right? But it shouldn't. And that simply comes down to a decision, a choice to see this experience in a different light.

If so many areas of my life are going well, and this happens right smack in the middle of all the amazing I choose to interpret it as something that's also going right.

Really.

And this is why. In life, have you noticed that the one negative remark stands out over all of the positive ones, or the one mistake trumps all of the other things that have gone right. Why do we do that to ourselves? Just like in the news, the tiny percent of bad news trumps all of the incredible good news that's happening on our planet everyday. We just take all of the good for granted and then when one thing seemingly goes wrong, everything else goes down with it. Or maybe I'm the only one that does this? 

I'm not doing it anymore. And honestly this experience with a missing page in my book is kind of what sealed the deal for me on that.

Don't get me wrong. It's a big mistake. A mistake that I don't think anyone thought could happen.  I was super disappointed when I found it, talked to my publisher about it and learned that for the first printing, nothing would be done to fix it. The perfectionist in me had a hard time with this, and so did the entrepreneur and person who wants everything her customer gets to be just right. And yet the business owner in me also understood, that a publisher probably wasn't going to just eat the cost of 5,000 books with one page missing, especially for a new, relatively unknown author. Because believe me, I asked if this would happen to John Grisham? or J.K. Rowling? :) Also because the rest of the book is all there and beautifully printed.

So I had a choice, I could take years with of work that I'm incredibly proud of and celebrate it or I could whine and carry on about how my first book had one page left out. I could let one page overshadow all of the other pages.

The irony {or perfect coincidence} is that I write about mistakes in the book. In fact I'm sure I've mentioned my philosopy of mistakes many times here on my blog.  In my chapter "Redefining the Role of Perfection" I talk about how 'mistakes' happen and how I've learned to embrace them because they always add to the piece, always making it better. This is harder to say on this one because I feel like part of my art is missing, and it is. So how does a missing page make this creation better?

I've been thinking for weeks now about the best way to share this with you and I thought this is it. This is the best example for me to walk the walk. Embracing the mistakes and celebrating all of the rest. A chance for me to make a new choice. If I genuinely approach this experience with understanding, honesty and grace then maybe it can set an example for all of us to do more of this in our lives. And if that happens, then the mistake in my book has just become something way more relevant than the page that is missing.

Because really do we want to spend all of our energy frustrated with what's not working or what's gone wrong or be serious about focusing on what is working and all that is right, and love our life more. I want to love my life more. As I've mentioned, I made a new commitment to myself at the beginning of 2012, and it has made all of the difference.

And without getting too carried away with the 'tragedy' of a missing a page, I say that with sarcasm. It's only a missing page, that's all. It's not the end of the world. And in light of what so many are experiencing on the east coast this past week, I mean really. Nothing's gone wrong at all. It's awkward to even write about this now, but my books are getting ready to ship soon and it feels right to share this with you today.

I did all I could do in this past year to get this book 'perfect' for you.  What I approved and sent back to my editor did not have a page missing. Yet, at the end of the day we are all human and mistakes happen. There may even be more tucked into this book that we haven't found yet?{shoot, there were at least 5 mistakes in this blog post when I went to publish it} And I say 'we' because clearly writing a published book is a collaboration. It's a huge collaboration, one that has many check points and many eyes overseeing the process, and everyone in that process {well almost everyone} is hoping to get the best product made and out in the world. Yet even with all of those check points in place, one person can accidentally upload the wrong page to the printer. So really, in all of our combined attempts to get it just right, what can you do? Nothing. Other than...

We can strive to do the best we can and then we have to let it go, so it can become what it needs to be in the world. This is applicable to so much in life and relating to today's topic, this is especially true of our art.

I'm sad that the first books you will receive are missing one of my favorite pages, another irony or {perfect coincidence} "Know Yourself". But beyond the momentary sadness, I am still so proud of this book and cannot wait for you to have it. I hope it will bring you joy and inspiration, in fact I know it will.

So here's how it works when a page is missing. {Actually you get page 92 twice. It seems that page 92 was uploaded a second time, where page 82 was supposed to be} Apparently mistakes in books, especially when it comes to the sewing and knitting pattern worlds are quite common? What a publisher does is put what's called an 'erratum' where they post the missing page online for you to download. And for those of you who have ordered your copy directly from me, I will be including an actual print out of the page in your order. If you happen to get one of the first 5,000 copies, you've actually got a limited edition ;)

I'm so sorry this has happened, and that is all.

Now let me close this post by remembering my original intention to writing a book. To add a little bit more joy to the world in the best way I know how, through my art and my words and encouragement for all of us to keep living a life we love. And be more creative {of course!}

Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals - A Giveaway!

Let me start by saying I don't usually contribute to books, mostly because of too much work for too little pay or none at all. For reasons I am sure publishers have that I just do not fully agree with and/or understand. With that said there are always exceptions, and Carla Sonheim's book is one. 

When I started daily painting Carla was one of my first original collectors, buying what I think might still be one of my favorite polar bears to date. When you are just beginning to find your way as a professional artist and barely knowing how you are going to cobble together your rent, let alone any other expenses - you never forget who your first customers were. All of them collectively are what kept me going in those early days, pulling me forward into a very specific painting style that evolved into business that is still going seven years later. 

So when one of those customers asks if you'd like to be a part of their book, you jump, because {you've always admired their illustration style} you still want to return support from those early days. Not to mention I also love Carla's first book 'Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists'. 

Carla does a fantastic job sharing fun, innovative and non-intimdating approaches to drawing. And her new book! is all about one of my favorite subjects 'Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals'. Flipping through my copy I cannot wait to try some of her techniques to inspire a new Imaginary Animal. Watercolor Blobimals, that's all I'm saying.

In celebration of the release of her book, Carla is generously offering to gift one of you with her new book!! woohoo! If you visit here regularly, and have a fondness for little animal characters like I do. I know you're going to LOVE this book. thank you Carla! for your early support and for inviting me and my polar bear to to be a part of your newest creation.

Just leave a comment below to be entered in the giveaway. At the end of the day on Creative Thursday, October 11, I will randomly choose a winner and announce it here on Friday morning.

***Edit 10-12-12***And our winner is #71 Jenny! Congratulations Jenny! Please send me an email with your mailing address and Carla will send a book right out to you.

To everyone who came over for a visit from Carla's blog, so good to meet you too!

I'm Fine, Thanks

 

This is a conversation that I am so thrilled is happening and one that needs to continue {forever}.

I've always hoped that my podcasts, blog and classes have been one small drop in the pond to encourage it as well. 

I have also already decided that there needs to be a sequel to this film, for those of us who have listened to our hearts followed our passions, and then what?! The conversation continues... It's not as if you decide to follow your dreams and the rest of your story is sorted out neatly from then on out.  The evolution of your passion never ends. {not that you want it to}

This was a self-funded and kickstarter funded project. One more time! This is me internet shouting to you: isn't it amazing what we can do with our voices and our art today???? Truly.

Liz supported the kickstarter and coincidentally while she and her husband Rob were here visiting with us, the premiere happened in Hollywood, so we went. It seriously moves me every time I see someone achieve a dream they set out to fulfill. Nothing better. And the premiere on Saturday was one of those nights. 

Fired-up by the moment, I insisted we record it with a self-portrait Iphone photo,  right outside of the theater on nothing better than a dirty, sticker laden, reflected window in Hollywood. Welcome to Hollywood - where everybody has a dream and the windows are a little dirty.  When I posted this to Instagram, the caption was: some epic shit is going down. If you see the film, then you'll know why that is one of the best lines from it.

This film, a must see, will be available for download online soon. Even if you've already asked yourself these questions, re-evaluated your life and headed out in a new direction, this will definitely re-ignite even more new thoughts and ideas about what's next.

How are you all doing out there? Are you feeling complacent or energized!!! or does it depend upon the day ;)

throwing a party

Tonight! In honor of Susannah and her beautiful new book. 

I've also had too much fun whipping up some party decor for the occassion ~ that might also be a sneak peek to something new that I'll be adding to the shop {soon}.