Creative Being

Making Cards

One of my hobbies lately has been making note-cards. They are cut out of magazines. They look much better than I photograph them, that's for sure. After making about fifteen of them I also realized that they are all affirmations. Bright beautiful affirmations.

In the making, I connect with my loving creative self. Even if there was no other pay-off, that would certainly be a great one.

Most people will tell me that they aren't creative. I don't believe anyone that says that because everyone has ways of creating. I think most people get caught up in measuring their talent in art as a measurement of their creativity. And they aren't the same thing at all.

I think playing with creativity and acting on it allow it to flow into other areas of my life. While doing these cards the past few weeks, I have definitely noticed that I have better ideas at work. It doesn't make sense in a linear way. I also feel more confident about just about everything. I am discovering that for me, creating in a way that is pleasant, increases satisfaction in other areas of my life.

Bursting

I don't know if other people get like this, but I feel fairly bursting with ideas right now. I have two new projects going.

Artist Dates

About ten years ago I read Julia Cameron's The Vein of Gold--A Journey to Your Creative Heart and was introduced to the idea of Artist Dates. I did them faithfully every week. Not because I was following a program but because they made me feel so good. I rediscovered last week just how powerful they can be.

Kitchen of Joy

My kitchen has become a real source of joy. I love the colors! It was a real leap of faith to go with the colors I was attracted to without knowing exactly how it would all work together. To tell you the truth, if we had simply painted and let it go at that, it would have been rather ugly. But the fun was  figuring out how to make it work. The paint was like the first layer of a collage. Then I started looking around the house for things that might be moved into the kitchen either on a counter or on a wall. I found artwork by family members that needed to come in. I found two framed crewel needlepoint pieces that seem like they were made for the kitchen rather than as a gift for someone forty years ago.

I bought a few new things. A cute tray with the cutest-coffee-cups-ever from Target are now at home on the counter. I thought hot pink was so "out there." Yet, it is so in! At Pier One it is THE color of the season. Not too worry, the room is not covered only in pink stuff. Years ago, my mom painted a silverware chest for me. Since I've never owned a piece of silver in my life, I turn it on it's side and use it as a decoration. It looks perfect. She had also painted beautiful hot pink flowers on an old cabinet. It didn't look perfect at first after the paint job but once I added a pot of ivy to the top, it looked great. The last two weeks of playing around with things in there have been fun.

The best result, is that every time I walk in there, I am immediately filled with happiness. It's so cheerful and it is so us. It is a reflection of our family. As far as kitchen renovations go, it was totally on the cheap.

It's only been in the past couple of years that I've begun to see our home as a piece of art. This begins our third year in this house. This is the fourth home that I've owned. But I have to say that it is the first home that I am truly feeling joy in. I always felt like there was something wrong with all our other houses. I think it's because this is the first home that I've actually tried to make my own and do it my way.

A Colorful Tale

I love color. I love color in my house. When I'm looking at magazines, I skip over neutral pictures and go for the really colorful ones. In person, I'm rather neutral myself but I like my surroundings to be colorful. Last year we removed all the dark (green, brown, and black) wallpaper from the entrance hallway and dining room. We painted those rooms and the living room in colors that were much more to our taste than the dark and formal colors that had once graced our house. The results made us all happy.

Several months ago, we began removing the dark green striped wallpaper from the kitchen. This turned out to be a not-so-fun job. It had been applied to the wallboard. It's been a slow painstaking process. My husband promised that he would finish it and get the kitchen painted over the Thanksgiving holiday. I had already picked my colors. I wanted it to be the color of watermelon and cantaloupe. I'm not sure why but everyone was cool with that.

Anyway, by Friday, all was primed and ready for paint. I was excited. Dan asked what color first. I said the pink. Oh my. It was pink. I fretted. He said too late. He was a man with a mission. Did I mention it was pink! I was not sure at all I was going to like it. Then he painted the orange. I liked that much better. But still. What was I thinking? A pink and orange kitchen. I was a little depressed at bedtime.

Called my Mom in the morning. I knew it had to be okay even though it didn't feel okay yet. I've been drawn to having those colors for six months! I tried to tell myself that painting a room is only one step. It's the first layer of a room. My Mom has a lot of faith in me. I think even she was a little shaken when I told her the colors.

In the morning, it all looked better. That was yesterday. Dan worked a little more. I brought out some of the artwork we planned to use in there. The potential of the room is showing itself. Dan has a little more work today and then I can begin the finishing touches. I washed the  Blenko and Kanawha glass. I dusted the window ledge and the built-in shelf. I framed a couple of pieces of artwork. One was a picture Kathleen had done in grade school that I had been saving for years to use. When I was framing, I saw on the back she had been awarded a first place for it. I pulled out some of Kathleen's jars that she had decorated with polymer clay a few years ago.

Just having a few things out and about helped me calm down about the room. I actually feel proud of myself for trying out the colors that I wanted and had imagined. We know when it's time to sell, we'll probably have to have a painter come neutralize the place. But in the meantime, we are going to enjoy it fully.

A Place to Create

Last night I was reading in bed and as I put my book away, my work table caught my interest. It was looking quite cluttered. It's not actually my work table these days. In earlier years when it had been our primary dining table, I worked at it all the time. Now that it's in my bedroom, I use it more of a command center of artistic and communication endeavors. The real dining room is as always, my favorite place to work.

We're a family of five and when I have the dining room table in use, it forces us to crowd around our small kitchen table that is made to sit four. Someone has to straddle a table leg. Since I've created the situation, I usually take that place as well as the mismatched chair. When we moved to this house, I thought I would be using the old table in my room as a place to work. It doesn't have that vibe though. No, to feel fully creative, I need to be in a central part of the house. There is a totally different feel to the table from when it was our dining room table to when it isn't. I've discovered it's not the table itself, it's where it is located. So, most days will find our current dining room table covered with the current project. It just feels so good to work there.

While most people will have linens, extra plates, and such stored in their dining room furniture, I have art, craft, and shipping supplies tucked away in all my drawers. Right now the table is covered in stacks of magazine pages being sorted as I decide which stack will be the next Girl.

It's important to have a place to create no matter where it is in the house. But as much as I would have liked to have it somewhere else, the location really picks me. In the long run, creating a body of work has been way more important to me than having a picture-perfect dining room.

This is Smokey, who snuck up on the table. She just can't resist a new basket or box.

On Being an Artist

For a long time, being an artist was my secret. Outside of close family, no one suspected. I liked it that way. However, I guess after many years and creating so many of my girls, it got too big to remain a secret. I started leaking it out in conversation.

Once in while.

Then about a year ago, I finally decided to "do something" with my art. My something was finding a good fine art printer and putting up a website.

Being an artist means taking the time and having the courage to express yourself in your unique way. I don't know why my unique way involves going through magazines and pulling a few pages out of each. I don't know why when someone else sees an awesome carpet, I see fabulous hair. Or why you might see a big green leaf and I see part of the perfect skirt for my latest sprite. Or why, materials for angels are in magazines so infrequently. It doesn't really matter why. It only matters that something is wanting to be expressed and I am willing to do that.

That's being an artist.

We're All Doing It

Creativity comes in so many forms. It really is something that blossoms when we encourage one another. The thing that is most interesting and most frustrating about being a creative being, is that it also triggers all kinds of issues. Creating in the safety of your home is one thing. Putting it out there for others to see is another. Writing about it is another.

Creativity takes many forms. Over the years, I have heard so many really creative people claim that they aren't creative. I think there's a tendency to think that if we can't draw or paint like an artist, we aren't creative. Creativity takes many many forms. We're creative all the time. We're creative in our homes, in our cooking, in our relationships, in our work, in our lives. Sometimes we're even creative in an artistic way. The other thing I've noticed with people. The ways in which they are naturally creative, they tend to dismiss as no big deal.

Creativity is a BIG deal. We're doing it anyway, so we might as well do it consciously and have fun with it.