Would you like some Inspiration?


Pot of Inspiration

 Image: “Pot of Inspiration”  ON SALE right now. 20 % off everything in my webshop until coming sunday!!!

I write my morningpages most days. Some days it helps me be with the parts of me I would otherwise push under the carpet because it didn´t at first seem tempting to examine the feeling of fear, restlessness or sadness. Truth: they always hold a hidden gem, and morningpages is one way to uncover that. Other days it gives me a place and time to jump verbally with joy or count my blessings. In both cases, it´s like quietly stirring my inner pot of inspiration. It really is. I can almost feel the bubbles rising.

In my experience, Inspiration comes to visit when we make ourselves attractive to it. And, to Inspiration, attractive does not mean a perfect or always happy person. I find that what Inspiration seems to find most attractive is something I will call “Movement toward Joy”. When we dare to move – even with the smallest of steps – in the direction of our passion and joy and does so again and again, that´s when Inspiration decides to jump our train.

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(Me, writing morningpages – yes, lefthanded!)

And “plop”, you have an idea that seemed to come from out of the blue. Or you suddenly SEE the solution of a certain problem. Or perhaps you just know that you have to begin taking that dancing class, for no seemingly logical reason. And when you do, even more inspiration begins to flow, which leads you in the direction of a more passionate and fulfilling life.

For me, writing morning pages (more about morningpages HERE) is the greatest help for inviting Inspiration as a daily companion. It keeps my inner pot brewing keeping up the temperature of my life passion without making me burn out. I highly recommend this tool, created and introduced by the blessed creativity coach, Julia Cameron.

I don´t think of it as luxury to live a life nourished by Inspiration. I think of it as a respectful and most fitting way of administering this marvelous life we have been given. May Inspiration quietly and steadily be bubbling in our lives every day. Perhaps hidden under the surface and not very feelable to ourselves on testing days. But all the time nourished by our quiet steadily Movement toward Joy!

Dancing with life

“Dancing with Joy”, also part of the 20 % SALE this week!

 

Nourish your seeds… painting process

I would love to share the making of one recent “mixed media” painting with you:

1 paper

First, glue different papers to the white canvas with Golden medium glue. I use the medium gel or soft gel, and choose semi gloss or gloss. Inspiration at this stage was very basic: a color scheme involving the yellowish papers. No big ideas yet.

2 Beginnings

After gluing, lightly go over the dry papers with some acrylic color on a sponge,  “binding” the whole look a bit. I use golden fluid acrylics for that.

Then add more paper details…..

And begin sketching! For drawing the tree/ground I used Litho crayon, a black oily crayon. It can be wiped away until dry in about a day or so. At this stage my inspiration has boarded the project, I have a plan, a vision is emerging…..

8 working with a sketch

I often use notes/ journal sketches while painting, helps me keep the overall focus when I´m lost in detail.

5 more details

 

Adding more details, using molotow pens to draw dots and finer lines.

7 Nourish your seeds

And finally, adding words. And it´s done:

“Nourish your seeds”

3 On the table

Somehow our move delayed a real good painting session forever. (House full of boxes, unsorted things, ill children and adults and ill children again…and again!!!). And of course I got frustrated and even scared if I would ever be able to paint again. But that´s part of the whole process, I guess any artist knows that feeling?  When it comes, I know it´s not permanent, and never will be as long as I am alive. I wrote a post here about getting started when you really don´t feel like it. And the satisfaction when we push through that fear and become humble enough to simply try again is worth it all.

Hope you enjoyed!

Calling all creative mothers!

Are you a mother? Are you also a creative soul?

And do you sometimes wonder how on earth other creative mothers manage their time and energy? How they find a good balance between motherhood and their own creative time? How they make the shift from mother to artist and so on?

I Do! And I guess that´s why I love Artfully Carin´s Arty Mama interview series. I loved reading the first one with Marcia Beckett. And I am so honored that I am up next! Today!

In the interview Carin asks me how I go about motherhood/ artist-life, time schedules, how I get ready for making art and much more. Curious? Head right over to Carin´s blog:

Arty Mama Interviews

Art, art, I want you!

If you have not yet watched this video by this gifted woman, here is your chance, your artist-heart will love it and possibly feel healed by it:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpunQZ4cUyI&w=420&h=315]

Sometimes I wonder: will I ever reach the point where I can actually earn money from painting, singing, writing, dancing and teaching about creativity? And then I realise that this is exactly what I already do!

And in a way have done my whole life. Gradually moving from being a teacher  toward expressing my own art and style, plus learning how to share it with the world. And lately also creating and selling products and thinking out of the box like never before.

All the time it has been art that made my heart sing. Colors and melodies, words and dance. Never just one thing, I always wanted them all to be there, the paintings, the songs, the dance, the words. When I was a kid at 7, faithfully drawing one fairy drawing after another, it seemed too good to be true to live from creating a world of goodness.

(resent look of my morning pages journal, created with cut-outs from magazines)

And it took me years and years to acknowledge that what I created was fine just the way it was. That I did not have to create heavvy or intellectual art for it to have a place and value, that it was ok express art that holds the goodness of things in this world. Strange that I would ever doubt that! I guess we are all under the influence of a sometimes mad world, not knowing what is natural and true. And more than that, that goodness was, and is, most needed.

(New painting, “Sharing a moment”,  right now part of the autumn exhibition)

Now my belief has changed: I no longer think about what the world needs first, I think about what turns up in me as a natural and inspired urge. And I follow that, knowing that it is probably there for a reason, and that by witholding it I may hold back a needed piece of apuzzle in the world. And then, but only then I ask: who may benefit from this? And I am open to the answers that turn up, often surprising even me.

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