2023 Artful and Intentional Living

I have just finished my 2023 altered book of intentions and wanted to share the pages and intentions I identified for this year. This year marks 15 years of this creative practice!

The process begins with preparation, including finding the children’s board book I will be using, getting the book ready to create, gathering materials, and prepping the creative space I will be working in. I then direct my focus to intention, which includes creating a list of words I want to guide me throughout the new year ahead with meaning and purpose. From this list, I shift to creation, crafting a page inside my altered book that symbolizes or embodies each intention.

This year I chose the intentions: Meaning, Resolve, Respite, Anchor, Tempo, and Artistry. I primarily used material from my paper stashes, magazine photo collage, dictionary pages, ink, paint pens, washi tape, handmade paper, and oil pastels in a 5×5 children’s board book.

Meaning

Resolve

Respite

Anchor

Tempo

Artistry – The heart piece was done with the handmade paper I made in a BlendJet blender I recently purchased— I wrote on small pieces of paper things I wanted to let go of/transform, ripped them up, put them in the blender to pulp, and then formed new paper from it— other pages/intentions also include hearts with the same handmade paper….

As the year unfolds, I revisit my altered book of intentions to reflect on and witness their transformation. I am grateful I am also able to participate in this process year-round within an inspiring digital community of women who are engaging in this creative practice as part of Prepare.Intent.Create.Transform workshops.

What are some intentions you have for this year?

Creative Destruction and Transformation in Art and Therapy

I am super excited to share that this article I co-authored with art therapy colleague Mindy Jacobson-Levy was officially published in the recent issue of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association (Volume 39, Issue 4): Creative Destruction and Transformation in Art and Therapy: Reframing, Reforming, Reclaiming.

For a limited time, you can download the full article for free. This access is available until March 31, 2023.

In February, Mindy and I are also teaching an all-day, online workshop as part of the Expressive Therapies Summit Singular Sessions inspired by our article. Join us on Saturday, February 25, 10am-5pm EST for this 6-credit continuing education offering.

Participants will explore key concepts surrounding the role of creative destruction and transformation through the lens of altered book making. This will include dismantling the book’s pages and reframing intentions within a safely contained construct. As we take this metamorphic artistic journey, this workshop will spark your creative spirit through extensive art making, embellishing methods, and group discussion. Case material will be shared to demonstrate the value of the create-destroy-reform process. To register, visit here to learn more.

How have you used concepts of creative destruction and transformation in your art or therapy practice?

Top 8 Loves About Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrors

Here in Cleveland, it is the final week of Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The city has been so fortunate to have this amazing experience over the last three months:

Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors celebrates the legendary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s 65-year career. The exhibition spans the range of Kusama’s work, from her groundbreaking paintings and performances of the 1960s, when she staged polka-dot “Happenings” in the streets of New York, to her widely admired immersive installations and the U.S. debut of her recent series of paintings, My Eternal Soul. Visitors have the unprecedented opportunity to experience seven of Kusama’s captivating Infinity Mirror Rooms, including Where the Lights in My Heart Go (2016), exclusive to Cleveland. Additionally, a stunning array of large and vibrant paintings, sculptures, installations, works on paper and rare archival materials can also be seen. Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors is on view in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall and Gallery, and in the Ames Family Atrium, July 7 through September 30, 2018. The Cleveland Museum of Art is the only Midwest venue for Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors and one of only five U.S. venues to present this exhibition. ~Cleveland Museum of Art

I first experienced one of Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors Room when I was in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and waited for hours at The Broad Museum (who had a special Twitter feed just to update visitors about wait times!).  The wait was well worth the 30 second experience of their singler room!  I was so excited to learn last year that Cleveland would become a temporary home to 7 of Kusama’s installations this summer and knew it needed to go on my 2018 artist date list. 🙂  I am grateful that I was able to see the exhibition twice: first, during it’s debut week before the show opened to the public and then I returned earlier this month for a second viewing.  Each experience was amazing!

It has also been fun to see friends, students, colleagues, and the greater Cleveland community engage with this exhibit on social media through sharing video, photos, blog posts, news, and more.  Such excitement and enthusiasm surrounding getting tickets, attending and sharing the experience with others.  With the exhibit closing this week, I wanted to share some of my reflections and memories of the exhibit here in Cleveland:

Top 8 Loves About Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrors

• Polka Dots: From the trees outside of the museum, to inside the lobby, and throughout the exhibit in not only Kusama’s immersive room environments, but also the collection of paintings, sculptures, collages, photographs, and other creative works created over Kusama’s career. Learn more about Kusama’s interest in polka dots here.  My favorite polka dot experience was in and around the installation for “Dots Obsession—Love Transformed into Dots” (2007).

• Light: What my attention was most immersed in when stepping to many of the Infinity Mirrors Rooms was being surround by light everywhere and this endless presence…. above, below, and all around.

• Social Media– The phenomena of social media has been an incredible element of Kusama’s work reaching more and more people and more and more people wanting to see it. Myself included! This article speaks to Art in the Instagram Age and how social media is shaping our experience with art.
• Stickers– Kusama’s Obliteration Room was by far my very favorite.  We took photos of the room’s entrance when we first visited the space during the exhibit’s first week in July and then another photo in early in September. Think of all the people who came through this space over the last three months and left their mark with the sticker sheets we were each given! I think it visually shows us how overwhelmingly powerful our collective presence can be, including obliterating what was once easily visible around us.  Take a look Inside The Obliteration Room at the Cleveland Museum of Art here.

• Color– There was certainly no lack of color in Kusama’s work- which was vividly expressed through so many patterns, textures, design, and forms.
• Love Forever Infinity Mirror Room– This installation was not one of the rooms we were able to walk in and out of, but instead invited us to take our time peering through a square cut out box that revealed our reflection among a field of mirrors and lights. Definitely one of my top experiences!

• Joy– There was such a strong feeling and community of excitement among the visitors attending the exhibit- in person and online.  Most of the Infinity Mirror Rooms offered a private, intimate, and immersed moment in time, but for me it could also be felt beyond those reflected walls of mirrors and light.
• Kusama’s Creative Spirit — The life and story behind Yayoi Kusama‘s career as an artist and how her art has been a life affirming force and refuge to express her experiences, fears, hopes, and curiosities. As an art therapist, I appreciate how Kusama has found safety, acceptance, and life in her art  — not just for others to experience or post on social media, but as a daily creative practice for herself.

 

 

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Artist Dates, Creative Field Trips, and Artful Adventures: 18 Ideas for 2018

Last week I was scrolling my social media feed and stumbled upon a daily dose of creative goodness from Sharon Burton.  I always look forward to seeing Sharon’s posts pop up- they are full of inspiring ideas, people, quotes, and images to nurture our creative spirit.  Sharon recently founded Spark Your Creative to help others discover and strengthen their creative gifts.  Sharon posted an encouraging invitation to think about scheduling Artist Dates for the new year, something she already practices and shares weekly. I thought to myself, “I want to do this!” and make a 2018 commitment to taking creative field trips and going on artful adventures- on my own and with others on and offline. I started to brainstorm some ideas….. with regular creative activities and practices I want to do more of, as well as new possibilities and experiences that I would like to do/try/enjoy over the next 12 months:

1. Art exhibits: In 2017, I had the amazing opportunity to experience Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room- The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away at The Broad when I was visiting Los Angeles.  This summer, six of Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Rooms are coming to the Cleveland Museum of Art. This is definitely a must do local creative field trip in 2018! Is there an exhibit or artist you want to see this year?

Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrored Room @ The Broad, Los Angeles (2017)

2. Visit studio spaces.

3. Saturday Art Nights- with one of nights dedicated to playing with alcohol inks and watercolor on Yupo paper.

4. Take an art class.

5. Have an art movie night.

6. Organize my creative space and art materials, supplies- I realllly need to do this.

7. Blog more- One of my social media goals for this year is to begin regularly blogging more again! I’m trying out this editorial blogging journal to help support content, planning, and scheduling.

8. Replenish my magazine photo collage stash- I always find the process relaxing and inspiring! Made some progress on taking time to do this already! Doing another paper stash swap this year would also be fun!

9. Take a visit to Michael’s with my new giftcard. I would like to venture out for a visit to Blick this year too!

10. Take $5 to spend on items to use for an art project at a dollar store.  See how far you can stretch it. (#81 of Julia Cameron’s 101 Artist Date Ideas)

11. Bob Ross Art of Chill Board Game Playing- We recently played this during a Saturday art night and once we got all the rules and concept figured out, it was a fun time….

 

12. Follow, connect to, and be inspired by more art, artists, creatives, and art communities/organizations on social media.

13. Learn a new art technique or media.

14. Discover new artist blogs and revisit my favorites.

15. Organize a local art therapist meet up to hang out, make some art, and have fun together!

16. Create a new creative offering online.

17. Remain socially engaged in arts and art therapy advocacy through reaching out to, visiting with, and building relationships with legislators, policy makers, and stakeholders.

18. Invite spontaneous opportunities for creative connection and mindful moments of creativity!

What kind of artist dates, creative field trips, and artful adventures do you want to take in 2018?

 

A Happy New Year Gift: Empowering Your Creative Values & Strengths

To celebrate the New Year, I am re-sharing one of my free and favorite e-workshops from a couple of years ago!

Creative Covenants

How would you define your creative covenants?  Your creative covenants are values that you believe are core to the way you create, practice, and live as a creative and artful being.  When you know your own creative values, you can activate them to empower your creative life.  In this e-workshop, you are invited to create an inspiring book made from a series of permission tags that honor these promises to our creative self and practice.  Content in this workshop will also be nurtured through a series of prompts exploring what celebrates, challenges, and empowers the creative goodness in each of us!

This free workshop download includes a PDF & video offering and is available here:

******

An oldie, but goodie New Year’s creative practice I’ve enjoyed for almost 10 years now:

Ready for Revo’lution Art Journaling

Check out these freebie downloads below from archived Creativity in Motion posts that are still available here:

Creative Goodness with Gluebooks eBook

The Art of Emotional Resilience

Art Journaling’s Visual Voice in Trauma Intervention

Paper House Making with Youth Exposed to Domestic Violence

Best wishes for a great 2018!

 

Gratitude Round-Up: Creativity, Resilience, & Well-being

I thought today would be a nice time to re-share some of my favorite archived blog posts about gratitude, creativity, resilience, and well-being. I enjoyed re-visiting these and I hope you will enjoy this round-up too:

• 20 Creative Quotes on Giving & Gratitude
• Self Care through Creative Practice & Intention: Gratitude
• Growing Abundance: The Making of My Gratitude Tree
• Trauma Stewardship, Gratitude, and Wordle Making
• On Resilience, Strengths and Gratitude [Art Journal Pages]

These posts continue to guide me about the importance of having a gratitude practice and the role of creativity in helping support and express what we are thankful for– especially in times of uncertainty, stress, or conflict. Not just today or when times are tough, but beneficial for our well-being everyday.  A wonderful opportunity for us to activate daily creative practices with an attention to gratitude.  🙂

The Role of Social Media in Creativity and Connection

This past week, I helped moderate an online Make-inar organized by Inner Canvas‘ Lisa Mitchell that brought together therapists, students, and professionals to learn more about how connecting with your creativity can be a great way to strengthen your experiences as a clinician and see your therapeutic relationships and work with clients from a new and fresh perspective. I love opportunities that bring people together through technology for a common interest and the way these experiences offer support, encouragement, and connection! I left feeling inspired by the energy of the group and had lots of fun connecting with everyone.

This Make-inar was a preview event for a larger offering happening next month. I am super excited to announce that registration is now open for CreateFest 2017: The Second Annual Online Creativity Festival for Mental Health Professionals being held May 19 & 20. I contributed last year as a speaker and it was a great! I am thrilled to return to CreateFest again this year- not only as a speaker, but as co-host too!  🙂

CreateFest is a 2-day celebration to empower therapists, awaken our creative spirit, and reignite passion for our work.  Lisa has invited 12 speakers, all of whom are passionately committed to helping revitalize and enhance our practice.  Topics will include how to manage creative anxiety, embody our intuition, use creativity to grow resources, integrating writing with painting, writing for healing, and more through speaker interviews and lively conversation.  Rick Hanson, Natalie Goldberg, and Kay Adams are only a few of the speakers in this year’s line up that I am looking forward to learning from. Attendees will also be invited to participate in interactive, hands on creative experiences from each speaker to further explore the content and concepts presented.  No worries if you can’t make CreateFest live—there will be recordings available to watch at your convenience after the festival! This is a great online CEU opportunity for therapists including LMFT’s, LCSW’s, LPC’s, LMHC’s, ATR-BC’s. For a complete list visit the FAQ section of the CreateFest website.

I will be speaking about the role of social media in creativity and connection; specifically how social networking can inspire us and activate our creative process.  I will be sharing examples of art’s ability to bridge the gap between digital and physical connection and offer an invitation for CreateFest attendees to participate in a fun art exchange.

 

A CreateFest early bird rate is available until April 28- and there is also a discount available for people who register together!  Check out more information here.

I hope you will consider joining us!

Creative Motivation: The Gifts of Online Community Participation

As part of this year’s Spectrum (on its opening day May 2!), I am really excited and looking forward to chatting with Spectrum Organizer Hali Karla about the topic Creative Motivation: The Gifts of Online Community Participation. In our recorded video chat we’ll be exploring how to find your own rhythm and balance when using social media connections for inspiring & motivating your creativity.  As you may know, it is a topic I am super passionate about! I can’t wait to talk with Hali about it and have it included to kick off Spectrum 2016 as a bonus offering for this year’s participants- Yay!

How have you used social media connection to nurture or inspire your creativity?

Related Posts:

Social Media & Creative Motivation

Creative Motivation Quotes

Cultivating Creativity, Connection & Community | TEDx Ursuline College

Spectrum 2016 Give-Away Blog Hop!

I have some exciting news to share today: I am going to be a returning contributor in Spectrum 2016 this year – and I have 1 spot to give-away here at my blog as part of Spectrum’s Give-Away Blog-Hop!

If you’ll remember from last year, Spectrum is an online Holistic-Creative workshop– now going on its third year, and organized by Hali Karla of Hali Karla Arts. Spectrum 2016 will be guided by 20 NEW featured teachers and more than 20 returning contributors offering a variety of workshops, inspiration and invitations – all intended to empower, nurture and celebrate your innate creative expression, healing journey, and personal development!

There will be weekly inspiration & reflective activities related to mixed-media art-making and journaling, guidance on integrating your creative process and holistic awareness into your day-to-day life, and a variety of opportunities to connect, support and share with others in the growing Holistic-Creative online community.

The themes that will loosely guide our 2016 Spectrum experience are Forgiveness, Shifting Perspective, Navigating Uncertainty, Integration, Alchemy, Connecting with Nature, Honoring Body, Trusting Joy, and Expressing One’s Truth! You can expect a variety of perspectives on these – and so much more.

To learn more about the details, including all of the contributors and workshop offerings for this course GO RIGHT HERE.

As a returning contributor of this year’s Spectrum, I am looking forward to participating in an exclusive interview with Hali around a topic I am super passionate about: Creative Motivation: The Gifts of Online Community Participation that will be offered as a bonus during the first month of Spectrum!

Pre-registration for Spectrum 2016 officially opens on February 1, 2016 (and the program will begin on May 2). So be sure to bookmark this blog post so that you can check back to see if you win the giveaway here or sign up just as soon as it goes on sale.

About the Give-Away:

• I have one spot for Spectrum 2016 to give-away to a lucky winner in our January blog-hop – but if you follow the awesome blog-hop list below, you will have an even better chance of winning a spot by entering the other giveaways as well. All of the new teachers are playing along – and quite a few of the returning contributors volunteered to join in the fun, too – so there are over 30 chances to win a free pass!

Here is how to enter my give-away:

• It’s simple! Leave me a creative hello below in the comments section between now and January 30, 2016. I’ll randomly pull a name from this group and will announce the winner of my free Spectrum pass via this post on February 1, 2016 – the same day pre-registration opens for Spectrum 2016!

Just below is a list of the other amazing, inspiring teachers who are playing along in the Spectrum 2016 blog-hop, with the dates their giveway goes live – be sure to visit their site and enter there, as well- all giveaways are open until the end of the month:

13 January:
Hali Karla http://www.halikarla.com/blog

14 January:
Andrea Schroeder http://www.creativedreamincubator.com/blog
Angelique Arroyo http://schoolformedicinewomyn.com

15 January:
Bebe Butler http://www.bebebutler.com
Beth Morey http://www.sheofthewild.com

16 January:
Briana Goetzen http://www.orangespiralarts.com
Carissa Paige http://carissapaige.blogspot.com

17 January:
Cat Caracelo http://catcaracelo.com
Catherine Anderson http://catherineandersonstudio.blogspot.com

18 January:
Chris Zydel http://creativejuicesarts.com
Effy Wild http://effybird.com

19 January:
Elloa Atkinson http://www.elloaatkinson.com
Grace Howes    http://www.redbarn-studios.com

20 January:   
Kara LC Jones http://motherhenna.blogspot.com

21 January:
Kelly Johnson http://www.wingswormsandwonder.com
Kitty Oppegard http://handoverheartstudios.blogspot.com

22 January:
Kristal Norton http://kristalnorton.com
Lisa Hofmann http://dandelionseedsanddreams.blogspot.com

23 January:
Lisa Wilson http://www.beingbreath.com
Lucy Pearce http://dreamingaloud.net

24 January:
Malini Parker http://www.maliniparker.com
Meghan Genge http://www.meghangenge.com

25 January:
Melissa Harris http://www.melissaharris.com
Michelle Turbide http://michelleturbidestudios.com

26 January:
Petrea Hansen-Adamidis http://www.arttherapist.ca/blog
Rachael Rice http://rachaelrice.com

27 January:
Robin Hallett http://www.robinhallett.com
Shelley Klammer http://www.expressiveartworkshops.com

28 January:
Suki Ciappara Ka’Pinao http://sukihealingarts.com
Tara Leaver http://taraleaver.com

Enjoy the blog-hop, good luck on the give-aways, and I hope to see you in Spectrum in a few months!

What’s Your Art Story?

This semester’s Art Therapy Studio class I’m teaching again for Ursuline College’s Art Therapy and Counseling Program is quickly winding down. Our time together over the last few months has been another series of artful Saturday morning gatherings!  It’s a pleasure seeing students take time to create their own art and strengthen the important role of personal creative practice as artists and soon to be art therapists.

One of the requirements of the class, even before I started teaching the course has included students telling their “Art Story” through the media of digital storytelling (DST). This assignment provides students an opportunity to use (and learn!) digital video making and create a creative piece of work reflective of their identity as an artist.

According to Lasica, (2006) “Digital storytelling is a craft that uses the tools of digital technology to tell stories about our lives…. and can be a powerful, evocative, and emotional way of communicating themes and stories, often touching us in deeper ways than one-dimensional videos…”

 The final videos and stories that students reveal in class are always delightful, inspiring, and grateful to view. Here are a couple of videos (shared with permission!- thank you!) created by students in this semester’s course about their journey as an artist:

Mary:

Kristie:

Want to tell your Art Story?  Using tips from this TechSoup tutorial, I recommend these steps and considerations to help guide students in the process of putting their stories together:

• Step 1: What is your Art Story?  I encourage students to brainstorm ideas about the story they want to tell about their journey as an artist, which will include showcasing their art work through the years.

• Step 2: Collect materials to help tell your story– This can include images relevant to the art story you want to tell that is inspired by memories, creative milestones, keepsakes, and meaningful items, objects, and photographs. Art expressions and work can span from childhood, undergraduate, graduate, and also include historical pieces and periods of art or travels that have influenced this journey.

• Step 3: Draft your narrative/script for voice over– Start working on what the voice narrative of the story will be in association with the images and visual content chosen.  The story should have a beginning, middle, and an end.  It is normal to be anxious about adding and hearing ones voice as part of the story, but it is important to have confidence in the words you speak.  The inclusion of ones voice I believe is an important element to telling and claiming the story as your own in an authentic and natural tone.  Reading your script to a friend or classmate for feedback can also be helpful.

• Step 4: Prepare equipment– You’ll need access to a computer, laptop, or tablet that you can use movie making applications, such as iMovie (for Macs) or a program such as Windows Movie Maker Live (for PCs).  Basic movie making programs are often already installed on many computers or can be easily downloaded for free.  Newer computers often have a built in mic that you’ll need for the voiceover.  Other equipment that will  come in handy includes a scanner and a camera to capture your art in digital form.

• Step 5: Try storyboard planning – The TechSoup tutorial recommends creating a storyboard with index cards to plan out what happens in your story and in what order.  Using index cards makes it easy to move the sequencing of content around as you work on matching the visual material you’ll be using with your voice over script.

• Step 6: Digitize material & media– This often involves scanning or digitally photographing art and images you will be using in your story, as well as cropping and sizing them appropriately.  If you have art photographed on slides, some scanners have special attachments for converting them into digital form or your local photo developing store often can help.

• Step 7: Record your voice over– Find a quiet and interruption free space to record the voice narrative of your story in natural, conversational voice that is clear and easy to hear.

• Step 8: Add music– The addition of music will often inspire the emotional feel and rhythm of your story. Music that is without vocals and instrumental in nature works well.  I recommend that students explore the site Free Play Music to find a genre or type of music that fits for their story.

• Step 9: Edit, Add transitions & effects – For this assignment, students have the challenge of making sure their digistory is between 1 1/2 – 3 minutes, which I think is a good size.  During this step, all the content (visuals, voiceover, music) start to come together in the movie making program. It’s also a good time to start adding transitions and effects between frames, as well as titles or text overlays.

• Step 10: Share – It’s time to produce!  Saving or exporting your movie project into a video form (often a m4v, mp4, or wlmv, wmv) will make it easy to share with others on video sites such as YouTube or Vimeo.  Often raw movie files are very large and difficult to send through e-mail, but can be saved on USBs or dropboxes for easy archiving.

Some other resources:

• Creating Digital Stories | AATA Technology Committee Blog
• Tips for Digital Storytelling
• Center for Digital Storytelling
• Windows Movie Maker Live Quick Tutorial [VIDEO]
• iMovie Tutorial – Introduction
• Digital Storytelling: A Tutorial in 10 Easy Steps | J.D. Lasica- TechSoup

What’s your Art Story? Where would it begin and what would you include to tell your story?

*****

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