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. ...

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. ...

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. •

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. •

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). •

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.

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. •

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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