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Why
Pencils Have Erasers & Food is Food!
 Posted
Jun-30-2006
What I Learned at Kids Art
Camp —
Lesson #2: You Can Eat the Still-Life
As artist adults we sometimes get anxious when faced with a blank sheet of paper.
Making the first mark and allowing ourselves to "mess up" the paper
is akin to having teeth pulled at the dentist. Sometimes we get so overwhelmed
with the idea that we must be perfect in our art that we hold back expressing
ourselves imperfectly and secretly spend our days yearning to be artists, foregoing
opportunities to simply practice being artists. ... |
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Un-molding
Rigid Expectations Posted
Jun-26-2006
What I Learned at Kids Art
Camp —
Lesson #1: Clay is for Play
If you're frustrated over your lack of wheel-thrown
pottery mastery or hand-building skillery, a couple hours with
a classroom of kids who each have a hunk of organic terra-cotta
clay will fix you right up. ... |
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Tree-mendous Printmaking
2006 Kid's Summer Art Camp Posted
Jun-24-2006
Yeah, I'll be back next year...
I was thrilled to be invited back this year to help teach a
week-long children's art camp at a non-profit center after
assisting with their pre-teen art camp last summer (see "Oreo
Talk" and Other Kids Art Camp Adventures).
The age group for this art camp was 6-9 year olds, and we
enjoyed a daily schedule of art-making fun: Monday was clay,
Tuesday was drawing and cartooning, Wednesday was printmaking,
Thursday was painting, and Friday clay was revisited along
with a final project of crayon-etching. Each of the art projects
facilitated and unleashed wonderful creative expression, imagination,
and play in the kids — an awe-inspiring experience to
observe as a teacher that I wouldn't trade for anything.
Spending an entire week (mornings) in an art studio with a
group of nearly 20 children buzzing with creative energy was
fun and fulfilling — and exhausting! And of course the
experience wouldn't be complete without me sharing some funny
stories and creative lessons I collected during our time together,
which I intend to post about over the next week or so. • |
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Art
of the Song Creativity Radio Posted
Jun-24-2006
Listen Online or Tune-in
to a Station Near You!
I absolutely love the endless variety of ways we
can experience creativity in our lives — either first-hand
on our own creative paths or by taking in and learning
from the journeys of other creative people through articles,
books, movies, the Internet, and even the radio!
I recently had the privilege of meeting two creativity-passioned
people, John Dillon and Vivian Nesbitt, who co-host and co-produce
a weekly one-hour syndicated radio show called Art of the
Song — Creativity Radio out of Taos, New Mexico. "Art
of the Song explores creativity and inspiration through in-depth
interviews with makers of folk, jazz, roots and blues music" and
features a short segment called
"Creativity Corner" featuring tips by acclaimed creativity
experts like Eric Maisel. More exciting is that selected Creativity
Corner Segments from the show are now available to read
on the Creativity Portal Web site, so one more inspiring ways
exists in the world for people to supplement their creative
lives.
If you have a few moments, check out the Art of the Song Web
site where you can learn more about the program and listen
to past shows (mp3 streaming audio) and find
an affiliate station carrying the show near you. • |
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Between
Lines #1 Posted
Jun-18-2006
Linear Thoughts
As lowly as the simple line may seem, can you imagine
what life would be like without it? Lines are just about everywhere
you look as elements of art and design, as points connecting
the dots, as structures in nature. Upright trees, interstate
highways, square sides of billboards — all lines.
P.S. See those rainbows from June 13 below? Those are lines
too — curved lines referred to as an "arc" — not
to be confused with the "ark" that Noah supposedly
built — although I think the story says that the first
rainbow appeared after the Great Flood / Deluge that Noah built
that ark for anyway. Yep, we've just come full-circle on another
tangent (which is another type of line, btw). • |
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Two ends of the same rainbow. Double
rainbow is more
apparent in the picture on the right.
Double Rainbows Posted
Jun-13-2006
Roy G. Biv, Vib G. Yor*
An evening walk in a friend's neighborhood during a drizzle.
Kids coast by down the street on bikes. Somebody exclaims "A
rainbow!" I turn around and look up into the sky. There
it is in all of its colorful splendor. No, there's two of them!
Rays of sunlight pierce through the clouds. How I wish I had
my camera.
Six miles away my camera is pointed towards the same rainbow
hovering over my neighborhood. Picture taking ensues by a capable
companion who heard my wish through the prism. I arrive home
and see the camera sitting on the table and immediately know
that the rainbow is captured inside. A colorful moment in time
was not lost. I found the pot of gold after all. •
* Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo,
violet. Repeat backwards. |
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Peonies Make a lot of Scents Posted
Jun-7-2006
Flagrant Fragrance of
Flowering Flair
More flowering fables here. This week it's the pretty peony
which my dictionary describes as "Any of a genus of chiefly
Eurasian plants with large often double red, pink, or white
flowers."
When I saw plenty of peonies flowering in my friends' yard
a couple of weeks ago, I immediately recognized the tight round
flower buds from my childhood. I'm so sorry Mom, I used to
pull those round things off the peony bush on the side of our
house before I knew better because they reminded me of small
rubber bouncy super balls. (I would never intentionally hurt
a peony bush today, but I'm so ashamed!)
I was informed by my flowery friend that ants love these
flowers and one must "shake them off"
before bringing a bouquet into the house. I also learned that
these flowers have a magnificent aroma which reminded me of
high-class perfume (no kidding!) every time I walked past the
vase sitting on my kitchen table. The red ones seemed to be
the strongest smell-wise, followed by pink and then white.
Maybe that's why the ants like them so much. • |
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Do
You Blog Your Creative Journey? Posted
Jun-1-2006
Essay Published on the Creativity
Portal
Learn about my "Inner Diablog" creative journey and
how it all led up to the 2005 launch of this Web site named Creative
Slush. • |
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