April Book Club - Creative is a Verb by Patti Digh

April's book for the monthly Blue Twig Studio book club is Creative is a Verb by Patti Digh. For this month, we read the first three chapters of the book. We'll be continuing this book for May and June as well. We are dividing the book into sections, so we have time to do some of the exercises in the book, as well.

Creative is a Verb by Patti Digh, front cover

Creative is a Verb, back cover

Patti Digh is an award-winning author of several business books, as well as the best sellers: Life is a Verb and Four Word Self Help,  She is also the author of the award-winning blog 37days.com.  She is funny, smart, and warm.

The back cover of the books reads:
    " Yearning to reclaim a creative spirit in your fantastic, unique life? . . . To live your whole
     life as art, not just the bits you draw on a canvas or embroider or sing?  Join Patti Digh in  
     a new kind of book that leads you by both heart and head to acknowledge, reinforce, and
     use your own creative spirit by teaching six creative commitments - Put Down Your Clever,
     Turn Around and  Look, Show Up Like Magic, Please Lick the Art, Stop Trying So Hard,
     and Ignore All Critics. Whether you're apt to say, "I don't have a creative bone in my body
     and really wish I were more creative," "I'm just a dabbler but would love to be a real artist
     or craftperson, " or "I'm an artist and would love to be known and respected," Creative is a
     Verb is for you. "

This month we read Part One: Art Fear, which includes the first three chapters of the book. The first chapter discussed how to Reclaim the Spark  Fear itself is a gift and not a burden, since it tells us important things. So to embrace fear and listen to what it tells us. Fear is a part of us, just like our shadow. When we know what we fear, we know what we most care about. So love fear; don't fear it. Claude Bristol said, "To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." Think about children - the first time they discover something, it's like a miracle; it's extraordinary. Therefore, we need to reclaim the extraordinary in the everyday.

In the second chapter, Digh tells us to Get Messy. She says to use the book gather unlined index cards,  a pair of scissors, a glue stick, a timer, some magazines to cut up, a rubber band, and a box of crayons. Keep it simple - use restriction as a friend and artfulness emerges from simplicity. This book will be about nurturing our creativity, since it is NOT a technique - it will be about turning every day into a joy and color and sound expedition - it's about waking up to the beauty around us - discovering the art that is my life - artfulness that only I can create; that is uniquely, incredibly mine. Every single moment of our life is an opportunity for creativity - even the darkest moments.

The third chapter tells us how to embrace the six creativity killers: (1) I work full time. (2) I don't have a good space in which to work. (3) I don't have the right materials. (4) I have no ideas. (5) I don't have any skill. And (6) They won't like it. Which one's apply to me?  My two biggest killers are (2) I don't have a good space and (6) they won't like it!  Instead of these, do I want my life to be a rambunctious story of uniqueness, imperfect beauty and abundance?  I can either own my circumstances and be creative in them or I can throw up my hands and give up! I have a choice!!  I may not be able to change my circumstances, but I CAN change how I am in them! I can open space for my own discoveries of how I see the world.

In the next six chapters (two months), Digh gives us two exercises. The first is Give Yourself 10. Using the simple supplies in "Get Messy," spend 10 minutes after reading each story either doing what's suggested or creating my own 10 minute exercise. Use my brain - IT HAS THINGS TO SAY AND DRAW!  The second exercise is Give Yourself 37. What if we only had 37 days to live? A life can be changed in 37 days. Change is that terrible, scary and fantastic place between insight and action. It can be hard, so note on the index cards what keeps me out of intention as well as my successes. What are my patterns?

When I finished Part One, I felt scared, excited and anxious! The 10 minute exercises I think will be doable, but 37 days?! That one scares me!! But I have to try! The last quote in Part One really speaks to me - I don't want this quote to apply to my life!!

     "Most of us go to our grave with our music still inside us." - Oliver Wendell Holmes.

I want my music to be sung in the world - to be shouted from the mountain tops - to be seen!! So as scary as this books seems, I need to not only Give Myself 10, but to Give Myself 37 and to embrace my fears!! To make art my life!! To make the everyday extraordinary!! That is my goal!!

I hope you'll join us in reading this book. I think it's going to be fun, scary, and challenging! Next month we'll be reading chapters 4, 5 and 6, the first three Creative Commitments of Section Two and doing the exercises.

Keep creating!
Lynnita

March Book Club - Show Your Work

March's book for the Blue Twig Studio's monthly book club was "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon.  It is the sequel to "Steal Like an Artist", which we read last year in June (see post dated July 1, 2014).  Austin Kleon is a writer with a wonderful sense of humor and many insightful views on creating artwork (as seen in "Steal Like and Artist)  and getting it seen by a larger audience (see "Show Your Work").

I have to admit that I first read Austin Kleon's book, "Show Your Work" last year and reviewed it for July's book review, as I couldn't find the book that was being read that month. So you can see my previous review here (dated July 30, 2014).

This book is worth reading a second time! Kleon focuses on using the community of artists to help make your work "findable" (putting your artwork out in the community where others can find you). It's more about discovering yourself (rather than promoting yourself), by sharing your process with others, so they will want to "steal" from or be influenced by you (see his first book). Once people start getting inspiration from your work or being influenced by your work, you will find that you have been "discovered"!

Kleon gives much advice on good manners for sharing and the pitfalls of oversharing, as well as, using the Internet for sharing - like building a good domain name and giving credit where credit is due. His books helps layout plans for succeeding as an artist - any kind of artist - in this digital age.

A couple of quotes Kleon used that inspire me are: 

     "Find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it until the people that are looking 

       for you find you." - Dan Harmon

     "Carving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share 

       your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time." - Andy Baio

Kleon helps me see that anyone can be an artist, even if it's not full-time. Don't be afraid to sell your work! Teach and share with others. Keep creating!  His books do not take long to read if you are interested. Also, you can find more about him and his work at www.austinkleon.com. 

Next month's book (and for the next several months) is "Creative is a Verb" by Patti Digh. It will be spread out over several months so we can work through several of the exercises in the book. For April, read Part 1, which includes chapters 1-3 of the book. Please join us!

Keep creating!

Lynnita

Book Club - The Art Spirit by Robert Henri

February's book for Blue Twig Studio's monthly book club was The Art Spirit by Robert Henri.
Robert Henri, an American painter and teacher,  was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1865 and died in 1926 of cancer at age 64 in New York City. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School of American realism and an organizer of the group known as "The Eight, a loose association of artists who protested the restrictive exhibition practices of the powerful, conservative National Academy of Design. No other American painter attracted such a large group of followers as Henri. He was an inspired artist and teacher who believed that everyone can find happiness and wisdom through the arts. Many of his paintings are in museums or private collections. Included among them are the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, as well as others.

The Art Spirit contains the essential beliefs and theories of this great art teacher. It includes technical advice and critical comments for students, as well as, inspiration for those who enjoy art. Henri saw no division between art and life. To be an artist (or truly alive), one has to experience life to the fullest. Henri says to find beauty within us and the rest will follow.

This book contains notes, letters, critiques, and so forth, that Henri gave to his students rather than lecturing them in a classroom. His notes are almost poetic, with artful insight to give his students encouragement and direction. These notes are not in any particular order that I could see - I almost felt like I was conversing with my attention deficit husband, as topics would jump from this thought to that and back again. It was very disjointed. The book is one huge chapter, with no organization or thought to the order to Henri's notes, letters, or critiques. It was hard to read and would be better read in bits and pieces here and there.  But Henri has much to say on the subject of art - the book shows that art was his passion. He enjoyed teaching art - not only how to create art, but how to "live" art. He gives information about painting techniques and the use of models. However, I found some of this hard to follow, without seeing a photo of the artwork he was describing.

In spite of the disjointedness of the book, I did find some useful passages that meant something to me. These include the following:

•      Henri says each of us have a song going on within us, to which we listen, that fills us with surprise and marvel. We allow our intellect to step in and retire the song and so become ordinary again. yet, this song is what motivates us to express ourselves.
•      "Don't worry about your originality. You could not get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick to you and show you up for better or worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do."
•      "...to free myself from any idea that what I produce must be art or must respond in any way to any standard.  ...It must be what it is and must have been made because it was a great pleasure to make it."
•      "Art is art, whether on a canvas, in stone, on a book cover, an advertisement or a piece of furniture." 
•      "Keep as far as possible all your studies, all your failures, if somewhere in them appear any desirable qualities. ...You can learn much from others but more from yourself."
•      "No work of art is really ever finished. They only stop at good places."
•      "...there is artist in every man; and that to him the possibility of development and of expression and the happiness of creation is as much a right and as much a duty to himself, as to any of those who work in the especially ticketed ways."
•      "In every human being there is the artist, and whatever his activity, he has an equal chance to express the result of his growth and his contact with life.  ...The object is intense living, fulfillment; the great happiness in creation. ...It is only in creative work that joy may be found."

I really came away with Henri's belief that anyone can be an artist as beauty can be found in living life to the fullest. That is what artists should strive to capture - the beauty they find in life around them. I found this encouraging - to find what I enjoy and just do it to the best of my ability without worrying about what others think of my "art".

Next month's book is  "Show Your Work"by Austin Kleon. We read his book, "Steal Like an Artist" a few months back (see post dated July 1, 2014) . It was fun and easy to read.  I'm sure this book will be, too.

See you at the end of the month!
Keep creating!
Lynnita

Jan Book Club - Frida, A Biography of Frida Kahlo

Frida, A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera

For January's book club, we read Frida, A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera.  This is a very well written book on the life of Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo.

Herrera not only tells about Frida's life - a good overview of her life as the daughter of Wilhelm Kahlo, the "on and off wife" of the famous muralist, Diego Rivera, and a review of many of Frida's best works - but she also gives us numerous details of Frida's life  - she includes actual correspondences from and to Frida, details and symbolism behind Frida's art work, and how Frida lived and coped with a life of chronic pain. Herrera also gives a glimpse of Mexico before and after the Revolution.

One of six children, Frida was the third daughter of Matilde and Guillermo (Wilhelm) Kahlo, born on July 6, 1907 in Mexico City. Her father, the son of Hungarian Jews living in Germany, emigrated to Mexico at 19 yrs old without any great prospects. He changed his name from Wilhelm to Guillermo and never returned to Germany, his birthplace. He married Matilde Calderon, a Mexican woman he worked with at La Perla, a jewelry store. Matilde persuaded Guillermo to take up photography, her own father's profession.

Kahlo did not spend much time with his children, although he was attentive to Frida, his favorite child, of whom he said, "Frida is the most intelligent of my daughters. She is the most like me." He stimulated Frida's intellectual adventurousness, lending her books from his library and encouraging her to share his curiosity about and passion for all manifestations of nature (stones, flowers, birds, animals, insects, shells, etc). He taught her to use a camera, to develop, retouch and color photographs, and shared his interest in Mexican archaeology and art with her. Frida's artist father encouraged her career.

Frida suffered from a bout of polio as a child, which left her with a withered right foot. Her father made sure Frida took up all kinds of sports, which were considered highly unusual for respectable young girls in Mexico at the time, to strengthen her withered limb. When she was a teenage, Frida was severely injured in a school bus accident, which left her in chronic pain for the rest of her life. This accident also prevented Frida from having children (although she had numerous miscarriages).

Due to the sustained injuries, Frida spent much of her life in and out of hospitals, and being immobilized in her bed for months at a time. During her recovery from the accident, while confined to bed, Frida took up painting. She is most well-known for her numerous self-portraits (which many artists today are afraid to even try). These document how she was feeling and what was going on in her life at the time of the self-portrait. Because of the degenerative back problems leaving her in chronic pain, due to the accident, Frida painted herself because "I am all alone most of the time." Frida's style is both realistic and symbolic.  As Herrera explained the symbolism, I would go back and examine the artwork again to see what I missed the first, second, and sometimes third time, to understand what Frida was portraying.

Frida married the famous Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera on Aug 21, 1929.  Diego was many years older than Frida. Frida said, "At 17 (20) I fell in love with Diego, and my parents did not like this because Diego was a Communist and because they said that he looked like a fat, fat, fat, Brueghel. They said that it was like marriage between an elephant and a dove."  The couple had a tumultuous marriage, but loved each other deeply. They married, divorced, and re-married. Both had numerous affairs. Diego actually built a separate house for each of them that were linked together.

The couple traveled as Rivera was commissioned to paint murals. They rubbed shoulders with movie stars, Communists, art dealers, and Leon Trotsky. Diego encouraged Frida's painting and also encouraged her to exhibit her work. He arranged her first major sale in 1938. "A painter in her own right" became Frida's suffix  for her first show in New York City in November 1938. Although, being Diego's wife added to the sensation. At her opening, Frida looked spectacular in her Mexican costume (which became her normal attire after marrying Diego). About half her paintings sold, which was impressive, considering these were Depression years.  Frida also traveled to Paris for an exhibit arranged by Andre Breton, a famous Surrealist poet, as she was accepted as a surrealist painter by fellow Surrealist artists. Georgia O'Keeffe considered her to be the best female artist of the 20th century. She finally had her first one-person exhibit in her native land of Mexico, a year before her death. To Frida, devastated by illness, it was a triumph. Her huge four-poster bed was included as part of the show, so Frida could attend the inauguration. She was brought in on a stretcher and placed in her bed in the middle of the gallery. Like a lavishly gowned saint, Frida dressed in native costume and jewelry, held court. Frida passed away on July 13, 1954 at the age of 47.

Frida was known as a long-suffering wife of a womanizing man (the most revolutionary artist of his time), a painter, an entertainer, a hostess, bi-sexual, severely physically challenged, a Mexican patriot. She painted many self portraits, as well as other subjects besides herself; wrote letters; gave speeches; traveled, and always suffered. She was dearly beloved and respected in her time (as well as today) for her colorful lifestyle, outrageous sense of humor, and for the truth and drama of her art.

Herrera did a remarkable job bringing Frida Kahlo to life in these pages. A wonderful book to read and learn about this extraordinary woman and great painter.


February's book is  The Art Spirit by Robert Henri.


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Dec Book Club - Education of a Wandering Man

Education of a Wandering Man
by Louis L'Amour

December's book for the Blue Twig Studio book club was Education of a Wandering Man, an autobiography by Louis L'Amour. L'Amour is an interesting character and lived an interesting life. He dropped out of school at the age of 15, as he felt he could not learn what he needed to learn through the public school system. He started wandering the country and the globe, working various jobs, all while reading avidly to continue his education.

L'Amour always knew he wanted to write - as he was a storyteller. His early years of traveling, he worked various jobs like mining, being a hobo, being a seaman, along with other jobs, as well as fighting as a boxer to improve his education and to learn stories and backgrounds for stories he would later write. I found the stories he included of hobos interesting, as the original hobos in the 1920s and 30s were a far different man than today. Hobos in L'Amour's time were hard-working men traveling the country by catching the rails to work any job that needed to be done before traveling to the next job. L'Amour would stay in one location long enough to earn  money to travel to the next location, and have time to frequent local taverns, eateries, and other places men would gather to learn the local stories from the men who lived them. He also spent much time in local libraries and bookstores to continue reading. He read any book he could get his hands on, from popular stories, poetry, history, politics, economics, obscure titles and so on. He also wrote when he had time, but this was infrequent during his wandering years. This was all part of his education.

After moving his parents to Oklahoma, his life took a different direction and he started writing more, researching anything that interested him, which was mainly people - how they lived, what they did, their culture, and history, especially those on the frontier - any frontier - not necessarily the West, although he is most well-known for his stories of the Western frontier.  L'Amour also researched other successful writers to learn how to improve his writing. He submitted his writings from poetry, short stories, and novels to many publishers and magazines, not waiting to hear back before submitting another manuscript. He didn't take rejections personally, but as a tool to continue to improve his storytelling.

Even after L'Amour became a successful writer, he still strove to continue to improve his writing, doing his own research, reading, and building his library of books. He feels that anyone can get an education by reading. He kept a list of books he read, which is very extensive, as he read 100 or more books every year. He built a library collection of those books that most interested him, especially those that talked of man's history and people's cultures.

I have read several of L'Amour's books and enjoyed every single one. I have also enjoyed many of the movies that were created from his books.  One interesting tidbit I really found fascinating is that L'Amour was at Camp Hood, Texas for training for WWII at the same time my father was at Camp Hood, Texas doing his infantry training for WWII. That helped put L'Amour's life in more perspective for me, realizing that he and my father are of the same generation.

I admire L'Amour's artistry as a writer. He persevered through many rejections, he continually strove to improve, and he never stopped learning. I think these are qualities that any artist would do well to model - learn from other successful artists, never stop learning about our chosen area of art, keep improving, and continually submit work for shows or publications, in spite of any rejections.

I think this was a book worth reading and would recommend it to others. Also, I would like to read some of the books included in L'Amour's list of books he read.

Next month's book is Frida: a biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera.


Keep creating!
Happy New Year!!
Lynnita

Nov Book Club - The Private Lives of the Impressionists

the private lives of the impressionists by Sue Roe

Blue Twig Studio's November's book club is the private lives of the impressionists by Sue Roe.

Sue Roe created a colorful, lively, poignant and well-researched biography about the lives of the first group of impressionists. It follows an extraordinary group of artists into their Paris studios, down rural lanes, into Montmartre, and into the rowdy riverside bars of a city undergoing enormous change. Roe casts a vivid, unforgettable, brilliant light on this society of genius colleagues who lived and worked together for 20 years and transformed the art world forever with their new, breathtaking paintings of ordinary life. 

The book started slow for me, but quickly built to a fast pace, so that I didn't want to put the book down. I've read much on the individual lives of the impressionists, but I've never read a book that talks about the individuals as a group. I didn't realize that Manet, Bazille, Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Callebotte, Morisot and Cassatt were contemporaries or how well they knew each other and were involved in each other's lives. 

Manet grumbled about his confusion with a new painter - Monet. I was amused that people confused Manet and Monet, but it was definitely not amusing to them.  Cézanne wandered in and out of the group, angry and paranoid. Monet is chased by creditors and has difficulties with his parents over his mistress, a problem that several of the other male impressionists also had. Berthe Morisot is alternately courted and rejected by Manet and eventually marries Manet's brother. Pissarro rants about his socialist ideals. But the group works together, gets angry at each other, fights for recognition and daily food, and have romances. Roe depicts these geniuses as real people with real problems. 

The group all struggled to build their reputations, support themselves financially and create meaningful personal lives, from the first meeting of Monet and Pissarro in 1860 to the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel's influential 1886 Impressionist exhibition in New York City. Often the artists from wealthier backgrounds like Bazille, and Callebotte helped support the ones often struggling in poverty, especially Monet. 

Roe believes that the artists' drive for success was the strongest unifying factor among this diverse group, which included the antisocial, celibate Degas, the socialist Pissarro, and the chronically depressed Sisley, who resented the Impressionists' meager public appreciation. I enjoyed the personal details that Roe includes in her portraits of the artists, like Mary Cassett's booming voice and atrocious French accent, to Manet's illegitimate son and his upper-middle-class family's elaborate efforts to conceal the child's existence, to Monet's affair with another man's wife, with both husband and wife living with Monet even before Monet's wife died of cancer.  Renoir and Manet were the most successful during their lifetimes.

The group exhibited in Paris several times, but were ridiculed, and caterwauled and jeered at. They were criticized for their "purple-coloured landscapes, red flowers, black streams, yellow or green women and blue children. This style of painting, both coarse and ill-defined, strikes us as an affirmation of ignorance and a negation of beauty and truth...It is all too easy to attract attention by producing trashier works than anyone else dares."  Several almost gave up painting, but it was essential to who they were. They had to paint.

Mary Cassatt, an American painter, was critical to helping Paul Durand-Ruel open an exhibit in New York City where the impressionists' art was accepted and appreciated. 

Mostly ridiculed or ignored by their contemporaries, today amazing sums are paid for their paintings. Their stunning works are familiar to even the most casual art lovers. I wonder what they would think if they could see today how well known they are and how much their paintings, sculptures, and sketchings are desired by collectors. 

Some of the quotes that I found interesting in the book include:

    "The big classic compositions are finished, an ordinary view of daily life would be much more interesting." - Bazille to Renoir

     "I have seen the light: truth, life, nature - everything that moves me - clearly does not exist for Gleyre." - Monet to Bazille and Renoir (Gleyre's studio is where many of the impressionists started out and met each other.)

     "the sharp and irritating colours attack the eye like a steel saw." - Jules Claretie in his review of the first exhibit by some of the impressionists at the Salon des Refuses in 1863.

     "A good woman. A few children of my own. Would that be excessive?" - Edgar Degas

     Berthe Morisot was regarded as a "willful eccentric." (some just called her a lunatic)

     "Paint the truth, let them talk." - Edouard Manet

     "Everything is gaiety, clarity, spring festivals, golden evenings, or apple trees in blossom." - critic Armand Silvestre on the first Impressionist exhibition.

     "achieving with their palettes what the poets of their time express, but with an entirely new emphasis; the intensity of the summer sky, the poplar leaves transformed into golden coins by the first hoarfrosts; the long shadows cast on the fields by the trees in winter; the Seine at Bougival, or the seal along the coast, quivering in the morning breeze; . . . like small fragments of the mirror of universal life." - critic Philippe Burty


I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I learned much about the Impressionists that I have never known before. Definitely a book I can read again. I found hope in the artists' sticking to their ideals and continuing to paint, in spite of all the negative review. Monet was told he was a lousy painter!! There's hope for me and other artists starting out - to keep going, painting, experimenting, finding one's voice and passions. 

Next month's book is Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour. 

Keep creating.
Lynnita

Oct Book Club - Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko (continued)

The book club, hosted by Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio, continued with the book: Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko for the month of October (see last month's post).  Deb has many good comments in her blog post. Some people finished the book, but some still didn't get the book finished - I'm one of those. I only got through about 2/3 of the book. However, the book is long with many techniques, examples, and exercises, making it difficult to read very quickly.

Thinkertoys is about changing how you think. It is mainly related to business, but can be applied to art and creativity or other areas in your life. The book is divided into sections for logical thinking and intuitive thinking with many real-life examples (right and left brain thinking makes more sense to me).  Michalko uses illustrations, as well, that include optical illusions, puzzles, brain teasers, and reversals, which he terms "Janusian thinking", named for the Roman god Janus, who had two faces that looked in opposite directions. These were fun to figure out and see how he applied them to the technique he was explaining in a particular chapter.

This book's main purpose is to help enable thinking outside the box. As Deb reminded us, many of us think in the same way no matter what the problem or challenge is -  we tackle the problem or the challenge in the ways we have learned all of our lives. It is difficult to change this.

The exercises in the logical sections of the book made sense to me and I figured these would be the easiest for me to understand and try, since I have engineering degrees and engineers tend to think in a more logical manner. However, I found that some of the intuitive exercises were some of the ways I found solutions to problems over the years. In particular, one I use is where you either dream about the problem and let your subconscious solve it in your dreams, or the one in which you let your unconscious mind work on the problem as you are falling to sleep and wake yourself before falling into a deep sleep and write down the ideas you unconscious mind came up with.  My father always sleeps on problems and almost always figures out the answer by morning. He discussed these with the family often. Generally, I take longer than my father to find a solution.

I applied this technique recently to a quilt challenge the guild I belong to issued for this year's challenge. We are to make 2 quilts, both 18" wide by 48" high - one about our origins, and the other quilt about where we live now, AZ. The challenge is called "States of Mine."  I readily came up with an idea for AZ  - a flower I photographed in our front yard.  However, I was stuck on the origins quilt. What did Ohio mean to me? Fall? My grandfather's farm? His pond where we spent so many hours? What??  I had a photo of the farm in the fall that I want to quilt or paint. However, it just didn't fit the long, vertical format. My grandfather's pond where we camped, had cook-outs, swam, fished, ice-skated - so many memories - it works better in a horizontal, not a vertical format. Fall leaves? - I already painted a photo of these and didn't want to do them again. Nothing else was making me excited. I slept on it for over a month. It came to me over several nights as I dreamed about the sky, stars, the Milky Way, the moon, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon (he did this on my birthday and we watched through the telescope - Neil Armstrong is from Ohio close to where we grew up), my father getting us up many nights to look through the telescope at the moon and stars. I've had an interest in astronomy since childhood.  When we visit family in Ohio, I always go out at night to look at the Milky Way and the stars, or when we camp out in the desert, I look at the stars, as we usually take a telescope with us. As I was talking about it to a friend, it just hit me what I'd been dreaming about - the Milky Way. My challenge quilt will be the the  Milky Way, if I can get it finished by the challenge deadline!

A long story to explain how I used the dreaming technique explained in Michalko's book. I want to try some of the other techniques, too.

This is a very good reference book to help think outside the box. My husband is also enjoying reading the book, as he has a small business. He feels it will help give him ideas.

Next month's book is The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe. Sounds like an interesting book for November. But I've been intrigued by some of the Impressionists for many years.

Join us for book club. It would be more fun to interact with everyone at the store, Blue Twig Studio, in Colorado, but  I enjoy participating online via blogs and facebook.



Keep creating!!

Sept Book Club - Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko

Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko

This month's book: Thinkertoys: a handbook of creative-thinking techniques, 2nd edition by Michael Michalko was chosen by Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio for the monthly book club she hosts. She has posted comments on her blog, which you can read here.

Thinkertoys is a very interesting book, full of ideas to change one's perception of something. In the introduction, Michalko starts by showing an illustration and then stating "Look at it again." Then you can see the hidden word and the entire message. Therefore, by changing perspective, we expand our possibilities until we see something that we were unable to see before. This is what the book is about - seeing things in new and different ways to lead to new ideas and unique insights.

The book is divided into linear techniques, which allow information to be manipulated to generate new ideas, and intuitive techniques, which show how to find ideas by using intuition and imagination. I've always thought of these more as right-brain and left-brain ways of thinking.

The author says that creativity is a talent everyone is born with, even if we don't know it. And that there are definable, learn-able skills that anyone can use to develop their creativity. This book is full of thought experiments and exercises to help with this - what Michalko calls a Thinkertoy.  Each Thinkertoy is a specific technique for getting ideas to solve challenges, with each chapter giving a blueprint with precise instructions to use the technique and an explanation of why it works.

I like Hank Zeller's comment in the book:

     "When you realize that you just came up with an idea that betters anything that has been done,
      well, your hair stands on end, you feel an incredible sense of awe; it's almost as if you heard a
      whisper from God."

The book, however, is geared towards business, so I have to do some stretching to apply it to creativity for producing artwork. But it does have ideas to help my husband's business, too.

I did not get the book finished. It's not light reading! It makes me do a lot of thinking about the ideas and how to change my perception for a problem (or challenge).  Deb said in her blog that no one in the group that meets at her shop finished the book, either. So the groups is going to continue reading the book for October and everyone is going to try to complete one of the Thinkertoy techniques. I'll need to read more before I decide which one I want to try to do.

See you at the end of October with an update on what else I learned from the book and what Thinkertoy I decided to try to do.

Keep creating!

Book Club - Show Your Work (alternate book)

July's book club book was The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  Unfortunately, I could not find the book to be able to read it. Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio (host for the book club) did a very nice write up in her blog.  Sounds like it's a good book about what causes resistance in our life to creating our art, as well as, how to combat this resistance in our life.

Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

Since I couldn't get a hold of The War of Art, I read the sequel to last month's book, Steal Like an Artist (see post from July 1)  - Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon.  This book was just as fun to read as his first book, with lots of good advice. 

Whereas in Steal Like an Artist, Kleon discussed stealing influence from others, Show Your Work is about how to influence others by letting them steal from you. The book is divided into 10 chapters with the following headings:

1. You Don't Have to Be a Genius.
2. Think Process, not Product.
3. Share Something Small Every Day.
4. Open up Your Cabinet of Curiosities.
5. Tell Good Stories.
6. Teach What You Know.
7. Don't Turn into Human Spam.
8. Learn to Take a Punch.
9. Sell Out.
10. Stick Around.

Kleon says the best way to get started sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.

     "Find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it until the people that are looking 

       for you find you." - Dan Harmon

The main idea of the book is the process, not the product. In documenting the process, you can see your work more clearly. Kleon says to share your process (and product) with others on the Internet with a website, or a blog, or a social media site, such as Twitter or Facebook - share a little something every day, if possible.  What you share doesn't have to be perfect. (It's taken me years to realize that I don't need to strive for perfection to the point of living in so much stress all the time. I can relax now and enjoy the process!)  Your influences are worth sharing because they let people in on who you are and what you do. (This advice is also hard for me, as I've always had trouble letting people in.)  Teach what you know - when you teach, you are generating interest in your work. (I have enjoyed teaching - I think I learn more than the students every time I teach!) As you share your work, others will start seeing it, which generates more interest and more people seeing your work.  It reminds me of the Kevin Costner movie, "Field of Dreams", from several years ago about building the baseball field and he kept saying, "If you build it, they will come." 

     "Carving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share 

       your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time." - Andy Baio

Lastly, Kleon's advice is to pay it forward and to keep working. When one project is finished, start another. But take a break occasionally, as needed, to avoid burnout, and more importantly, to generate new ideas. 

     "We work because it's a chain reaction, each subject leads to the next." - Charles Eames

I enjoyed this book - it's full of good advice, just like his first book.I am trying to share my work online weekly at this point. Right now that is more than enough to keep me busy.

Next month's book is The Trickster's Hat by Nick Bantock. 

Keep creating!!

Book Club - "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. was the book for this month’s book club with Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio.  The book is quick to read, full of humor, and advice on being an artist.  Austin Kleon wrote and illustrated the book as advice he would give to his younger self. 

 

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Back of book  listing chapter headings

He starts out stating that nothing is original – "There is nothing new under the sun.”  Ecclesiastes 1:9 - that an honest artist “steals” his ideas - that we learn by copying. Copying isn't plagiarism, it's about reverse engineering to see how it works. 

       Salvador Dali said, "Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing." 

       Wilson Mizner said "If you copy from one person, it's plagiarism, but if you copy from many,

           it's research". 

       Gary Panter said, "If you have one person you're influenced by, everyone will say you're the 

          next whoever. But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you're so original." 

       Pablo Picasso said, “Art is theft.”

Another thing I do that Kleon suggests is always carry paper to jot down thoughts, observations, doodles, conversations, etc. He says to keep a “swipe” file (digital or analog) of stuff you’ve swiped from others – notes, pictures, sayings  – anything for inspiration. 

       Mark Twain says, “It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around      

          neglected.”

Kleon also says don’t just steal style, steal the thinking behind the style. Don’t look like you’re hero, see like your hero. Study, transform and remix. Make art that you want to see. Write stories that you want to read. Write not what you know, but what you like! Add something to the world that only you can add.

       German writer Goethe said,  “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”

I love his advice to practice productive procrastination! Work on several projects at one time – when stuck on one, move to another – eventually you’ll figure out the first one and be able to finish it. I do enjoy working on more than one project at a time for just that reason. 

The secret is to share with people.  Wonder about something and then invite others to wonder with you.  The more open you are, the closer people feel to you.  Be curious, kind, have stamina, and a willingness to look stupid. And finally, instead of wasting anger complaining or lashing out, channel it into creativity.

Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

The last thing that really struck me was Kleon’s statement that creativity is subtraction. Choose what to leave out, so can concentrate on what’s really important. He gave an example about Dr. Seuss, who wrote The Cat in the Hat with 236 different words. When his editor bet him that he couldn't write a book with only 50 different words, Dr. Seuss won with Green Eggs and Ham.  It’s often what the artist chooses to leave out that makes the art interesting. Creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out. 

This is a good book to read more than once for the advice and suggestions! Makes me want to read Austin Kleon's latest book, Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered. 

Have fun.

Next month's book is "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. 

Book Club - Mixed-Media Self-Portrait's finished

The book club started by Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio continued reading the final chapter of Cate Caulacos Prato's Mixed-Media Self-Portraits: Inspiration and Techniques this month. (See review of the first chapter at Blue Twig Studio's blog here and my blog here.)  This is an excellent book if you are interested in self-portraits.

Mixed-Media Self Portraits by
Cate Caulacos Prato

The last chapter is full of projects to create self-portraits, such as art dolls, collage, photography, a fabric book, a plaster cloth mask, an assemblage of found objects, and a photographic art quilt. Full instructions for each project are given. 

I found this chapter very informative, as it's full of real examples of self-portraits that do not include a face!  When one says "self-portrait", usually a facial view comes to mind and that is terrifying for most. This chapter shows many different ways to achieve a self-portrait without including an actual facial view - it makes creating a self-portrait do-able and less terrifying. 

The journey doll is interesting, as dolls are used by children to role play and dream. A journey doll can become a vision of one's dreams or an alter ego or how one sees oneself at this moment in time. The sky's the limit in terms of embellishing a journey doll. 

I love the idea of the journal - a fabric journal, a paper journal, a mixed-media journal - that focuses on a specific year, event, milestone, whatever in one's life. The example chose the year of birth and created a page for each month highlighting what was happening in their life and/or the world. This could be done for any important time period in one's life. This is one I could see myself doing. 

Some quotes from this chapter that I really like are:

   
     "I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." - Diane Ackerman

     "The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place." - Barbara De Angelio

     "The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware: joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." - Henry Miller

I collect quotes. My grandmother started me doing this. Before she died, I had asked her to create a journal of her life for me. She wrote many quotes that she really liked in the journal. I've continued to do that over the years. I am now adding them to art journals. So I had to add some quotes from the book that I find inspiring.

Thank you, Deb, for recommending this book. It really is a great book full of ideas and how to get to know yourself better in order to create a self-portrait, that can be done in many different ways. I'm sure I will be using this book as a reference for years to come. 

Check out Deb's blog for next month's book, Ignore Everybody and 39 other keys to creativity by Hugh MacLeod. From the title, it's got to be a great book!! 

Book Club - Mixed-Media Self-Portraits continued

Mixed-Media Self-Portraits: Inspiration & Techniques
by Cate Caulacos Prato

The book club started by Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio continued reading the next chapter of Cate Caulacos Prato's Mixed-Media Self-Portraits: Inspiration and Techniques this month. (See review of the first chapter at Blue Twig Studio's blog here and my blog here.)

The second chapter has focused on "Knowing Thyself: taking the first step toward a self-portrait."  It started with a couple of exercises to understand yourself better - i.e. What color are you? Who lives here? Answering questions about your what you have surrounded yourself with in your home. And lastly, who would you like to be? Children have no problem drawing themselves as who they imagine they are - a princess, a pirate, etc. Who do you imagine yourself to be?

She follows this up with self-portrait exercises - studying yourself in a mirror and getting to know your face.  I like the quote by Leonardo Da Vinci

"The mirror, above all - the mirror is our teacher." 

I love the directions given for drawing the eye. I think the eye is the hardest part of the face to capture. I've done many portraits in colored pencil and oils over the years and it's always the eye that is the hardest part of the face. Without that, the person just doesn't look right. Her directions are great for how to capture the eye!

She also discussed digital portraits, caricatures, gettting started and putting it all together. Several artists shared their thoughts and journey to create self-portraits. Not all portrait examples contained faces. I think that relieves some of the pressure to draw a face that actually looks like you. Portraiture is difficult for most people, and I think that's why doing a self-portrait can be very scary. This chapter helps with easing some of those fears, while giving many helpful ideas to know yourself better and suggestions for creating a self-portrait.

The last several days, I played with a few different photo-editing software to create several digital self-portraits. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements, Pixlr Express, Paper Camera, and FotoRus. They all have slightly different features. I had lots of fun playing. I created a photo collage of some of the self-portraits I had the most fun creating and/or liked the best.

Digital Self-Portrait collage created in FotoRus with InstaMag.

Clockwise, starting in the lower right-hand corner: I used Adobe Photoshop Elements (PE) to crop a photo and enhance the color to create "Just Me, Myself, and I". I further edited this in PE, changing the coloration to create "Bold". I thought the purple skin and green clothing made for a bright, bold portrait. Again in PE, I changed the colors to make a monochromatic blue portrait, then rippled it and used the gradient to create "Fading Away".  In "Unadorned", I took the original self-portrait in PE and turned it into a black and white portrait with warm highlights.  "Sketch" was created in Paper Camera.  In "The All-Seeing Eye", Pixlr Express created 3 slightly different facial views, each a different color, which I imported into Paper Camera for the neon colors. Finally, I used FotoRus with Pip (picture in a picture) to center the eyes of the portrait in a drop of water. "Electric! (or eclectic?)" was created in Pixlr Express using special effects and overlays.  Finally, the blue portrait created in PE was imported into FotoRus Pip to make "Auntie Em, Auntie Em". The bubble reminded of the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy is calling for Auntie Em in the crystal ball while locked in the room by the Wicked Witch of the West.  

I created a few other digital self-portraits besides the ones shown here. I had so much fun playing with the different effects to see how I could manipulate the portrait. Another great thing about working digitally is I could delete anything I didn't like!! Lol! Working digitally also gave me ideas I would like to try on paper, in paint, or with fabric. 

This chapter has been inspiring to me to create self-portraits and not feel so self-conscious about it. I want to experiment and play now!

Book Club: Mixed-Media Self-Portraits by Cate Coulacos Prato

Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studios started a book club in Jan. It meets at her shop on the 4^th Friday of the month, followed by an online discussion with those of us that do not live close enough to go to her shop in Colorado.

Mixed-Media Self-Portraits
by Cate Caulacos Prato.

For February, we started reading Mixed-Media Self-Portraits:Inspiration and Techniques by Cate Caulacos Prato. 

Some of the questions addressed are:  Make a self-portrait? Scrutinize myself? Re-create all my flaws in paint, collage, or fabric? Does the self-portrait have to be me?  Do I have to show my face? My body? Can I reveal myself in some way other than a physical representation? Children do this easily with innocence and pride. They are eager to show us their drawings with smiling faces, or red, angry faces, or fat bodies or thin bodies. They draw what they feel so honestly and without embarrassment. Why is it so hard for us (me)?

Many famous artists drew self-portraits. The ones we’re probably most familiar with are Vincent Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, and Rembrandt Van Rijn.  

            Berthe Morisot said “It is important to express oneself…

     provided the feelings are real and taken from your own experience.” 

            Henry David Thoreau said “I should not talk so much about myself if there    

          were anybody else whom I knew so well.”

Self-portraits tell a story. They tell who we are at that moment in time,  what past experiences have shaped us into who we are now, and/or who we would like to become, etc. They can be whimsical; serious; therapeutic.

The main thing I took away from this first chapter is to learn to be myself – accept who I am, where I am, and just be creative – just paint/draw/write/journal…..  Recapture that joy of drawing we had as children. Just do it!

Last year, my quilt guild (the Prickly Piecers) did a self-portrait challenge. Approximately 40% of the members participated. One member did a triangular shaped profile with leaves and flowers to for eyes, nose, and mouth and an abundance of flora for her hair. She had been a landscape artist in a previous life and is now an art quilter, so she combined the two. Another did a whimsical green witch – she is 80 years old and figured at her age, she could do what she wanted. A few members took a photo of themselves and used the posterize filter with 4-5 values in Photoshop to create a portrait in fabric. One even won a Judge's Choice Award at a quilt show with his! Another member did several story blocks with each block telling of a milestone in her life, such as birth, childhood, marriage, motherhood, career, and retirement, and now artist. Another member created a map with all the places she has lived in her life that have made her who she is today and added brooches and pins that had meaning from each place she lived.  Another person created a very dark quilt, representing a dark tunnel, to a door in the center that opened to light.  A dragon led a wagon with a book in it along a path through the tunnel heading to the door. She is the dragon (as she loves dragons) and has been in a very dark place the last couple years of her life, but sees the light at the end of the tunnel. The book contained memories of her life that have kept her sane through the dark tunnel. This quilt was the most touching of the quilts.

I painted a wholecloth quilt using a photo from when I was in my 30s (as I feel that age mentally, but I'm actually in my 50's ...physically, some days it's closer to 90ish! LOL!). I drew Zentangles in my multi-colored hair (actually black with a few well-earned gray strands) to stand for my creativity and artistry. I painted a small dragon in the air above my head, as I love dragons and think of them as benevolent, wise creatures. I added a necklace with a dragon pendant, too.  (You can see the whole process on my blog here.)

"Me, Myself, and I" - 16" x 20" whole cloth painted quilt
designed and quilted by Lynnita Knoch

It was hard to get started, but once I did, I enjoyed it immensely. Everyone who participated in the challenge had fun creating their self-portrait. They all said the hard part was getting started. The other hard part was sharing it in front of everyone.

I think doing a self-portrait is definitely worth the time and effort to do. I will continue to create self-portraits (now that I have done one and the earth didn’t stop or fall apart!) periodically to show where I’m at in my life at the time. 

Go make a self-portrait!!

Book Club with Blue Twig Studio

Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio started on online book club this month. The book we read was  Art & Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland.  Its about our fears about art - both with ourselves and others. Deb has a nice summary on her blog. 

I really enjoyed the book. It was very thought-provoking – making me think about: Why I create art? What are my fears about my art? Is it the process or the end product I’m concerned about? – as well as all the questions Deb mentioned in her blog. I agree with Deb – you have to make art for yourself – you have to forgot about others and what they think of your work and just do it!!

I took a few art classes many years ago in oil painting, colored pencil, and watercolor. I loved them. They made me get out of myself and do something that I grew to love and work on it every week. I participated in a few exhibits with the group I was involved with and even sold a few paintings and received a couple of commissions. Then the group started getting clique-ish and I was no longer welcomed because I didn’t live close enough.  (Looking back, I really think it was because I was one of only a couple people that actually sold anything or got commissions from the exhibits.)  I allowed myself to quit painting and drawing because of their attitude towards me. 

I started quilting, as I had always enjoyed sewing. I love quilting, too, but it took me awhile to get to where I felt comfortable making art quilts. This past year, I took a workshop in painting wholecloth quilts. This combines my drawing and painting background with quilting. Wow!! Who would've thought I could do that? 

But I still missed painting and drawing. A couple years ago, I discovered  Zentangles, They inspired me first as I thought they would be great to use for quilting designs. Once I started creating Zentangles or ZenDoodles, I wanted to get back to painting and drawing. However, now I want to do acrylics, watercolors, colored pencils, pastels, and mixed-media. I enjoyed oil painting, but the fumes are pretty strong.  So I think, for now anyway, that I'll stick with mediums that are more chemical friendly.

I've learned that I love making art because it’s part of me – I have to paint or draw or make an art quilt. I’ve finally gotten over my fears (most of the time! they still haunt me at times! LOL!) and make it for myself. I'm also learning to loosen up and not be so obsessed with perfection or details.  I want to enjoy the process more, not just get the finished product done. I do enter shows (not always accepted, but that’s okay – it’s a learning experience). I'm actually trying to enter more shows or exhibits on a national level, not just the local field. Like having four of my Zentangles accepted into a book - Zen Doodle Tons of Tangles. (see my blog posted Sept 9, 2013).  

All of this, is to let you know where I’m coming from and why this book, Art and Fear, really spoke to me. I had to read sections 2-3 times. I know now, from experience, what the book is trying to get across – just create because you want to and enjoy the process. If people like my work, fine, but if they don’t – that’s okay, too.  Art (and creativity) is a part of me.