Clouds Break Over Copenhagen

// November 8th, 2011 // 7 Comments » // painting

Welcome to Copenhagen for todays Art Every Day Month (AEDM) painting. Copenhagen is about a thousand years old and a thriving green city-it’s one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the world AND the harbour is clean enough to swim in, just ask the Little Mermaid statue. Of course we wouldn’t expect anything less from a city founded by awesome Viking guy Sweyn I Forkbeard.

Noticing Mondays: The Ephemeral Adventure

// November 7th, 2011 // 12 Comments » // writing ideas

 

Noticing Mondays is a new weekly event on this blog where I discuss my mindful writing practice of ‘noticing’ and encourage you to join in …

 

One of the things I love about writing is when you’re noodling along and all of a sudden a phrase comes to you that manages to clarify your thinking. This happened for me last week when the phrase ‘ephemeral adventurer’ came up while writing about my Art Every Day Month series of paper plane / boat / etc art card paintings.

 

The term captured the idea I’m playing with, of these fragile vehicles setting out over the vastness of the world. Their inevitable disintegration is never addressed in the paintings, but it’s always implied and is what gives the paintings life (for me anyway).

 

As I’ve been doing my ‘noticing’ practice, one of the things that has become clear to me is the ephemeral nature of my attention. I’ll get all set up, gather my concentration, and begin writing until eventually the pen will slow down, then trail off, then go still, and I’ll just mentally wander for a while till I come to, chin propped on my hand, a couple of sentences written down in front of me followed by a field of blank paper patiently awaiting my return.

 

I’ve been thinking of my mind as this ‘ephemeral adventurer’ which, like a paper plane, sets bravely out on its journey, knowing it may not complete the trip.

 

Almost every time I do ‘noticing’ my attention disintegrates for a little while, or gets blown off course. Which is entirely ok–this is a gentle practice. When I catch myself I just pick up my pen, write the word ‘noticing’ and begin again. Or if I’ve run out of time I can close up my notebook knowing I’ll get another session in later on.

 

Just setting the intention and starting out on the journey is enough because something good always comes from beginning, there’s no need to return.

 

Here is an exerpt from a noticing session I did last week:

 

Noticing the hardness of my chair against my back, the conversations in the cafe,  the black and white checkered floor, how it looks slightly grimy. A woman laughs. The air is cool, though my body feels warm. I’m warmly dressed and comfortable. It’s Autumn, my favourite season. Noticing a broad field of tension in my lower back, there’s a pinching kind of pain. Shifting in my chair, now sitting back leaning into the curved back of the chair. That eased the pain a little. It’s comfortable here among the conversations. I’m focused on the page, but bathed in the movement of voices, the occasional burst of laughter. There is an air of friendliness in here, I feel separate, but not left out at all.

 

So, if you would like to be an ‘ephemeral adventurer and try out some ‘noticing’ today here is how you can do it:

 

 

How You Can Join In:

 

Everyone is welcome to join in in whatever way you like.

 

First of all if you haven’t done noticing, you can check out the brief instructions in this post.

 

Then … You could hang out in the comments section and share your own experiences and ideas.

 

If you have a blog, you might like to do a little noticing experiment in a post, or write about your experience with noticing, and leave a link! I promise I’d love go and check it out and leave a comment.

 

Of course, you could check-in and read the posts and never comment, just hang out and play quietly with your own noticing practice. (I’ve always been a shy commenter, and that’s my preferred way of hanging out on a lot of blogs.)

 

Even though posts are titled ‘Noticing Mondays’ they are there to capture any noticing, or ‘noticing noticings’ that might come up for you (or me!) throughout the week!

 

You could also post mini noticing sessions, or noticing exerpts on twitter or google+. (Use #noticing hashtag so I can respond!)

Hello Sardinia! Where’s the fish?

// November 4th, 2011 // 8 Comments » // creativity

Today’s ephemeral adventurer is another paper boat. I’ve enjoyed researching each place featured on my art cards and using that info for my Etsy descriptions and blog posts. But I was a little distraught today after learning that Sardinia was not, in fact, named after sardines.

 

In my head was this vision of a thriving community built on the backs of fishing fleets overflowing with sardines, with maybe some little tin mines and canning factories flourishing in the hinterland. I imagined well fed factory workers whistling as they cheerfully stuffed tin cans with plump, silvery fish.

 

But, no. Lots of brutal famines in Sardinia’s history. Brutal. There’s plenty of chemical plants, though, to keep the old economy chugging along. How idyllic. (It still seems a lovely place to visit)

 

Sky Lantern Over Thailand

// November 3rd, 2011 // 7 Comments » // painting

Here is a bit of a departure form the paper airplanes. I have a small list of the different ‘vehicles’ that I want to play with over Art Every Day Month, Thai Sky Lanterns are one of them.

 

I’ve been itching to try one of these and a little intimidated, too. They are a bit more difficult to pull off and I think it will take a few tries before I’m really happy with the results. Today’s lantern will do as a start, though.

Sky Lanterns were originally a Chinese invention and were used as a military tool. Later they were used for Children’s festivals in China, and in Thailand they are a symbol of good luck and embody the metaphor of troubles and worries floating away.

 

 

You And Me and Napoli

// November 2nd, 2011 // 8 Comments » // creativity

So, Napoli. It’s Italian for Naples and the city has been around since 600BC. Also: pizza! Napoli / Naples is the destination for todays Art Every Day Month offering.

 

I was originally drawing my planes in with a micron pen, but after some smudging problems with the ink sitting on top of the glossy acrylic paints, I switched to black fluid acrylic and a fine lettering brush to do the plane outlines.

 

My lines aren’t where I’d like them yet, but AEDM is a good opportunity to practice with the brush. I always feel more confident drawing than painting, so it feels like a good opportunity to move past that and get more confidence.

 

I’m doing lots of practice drawings and I think tomorrows art will feature a different mode of transportation.

Paper Plane Over Severodvinsk

// November 1st, 2011 // 12 Comments » // creativity

Today is the start of Art Every Day month over at Leah’s Creative Every Day blog.  Last year I participated and set my self a theme of ‘Labyrinths’. I really enjoyed the momentum I got from participating and thought that it would be fun to join in again this year.

 

So recently I was given a collection of old National Geographic maps and was wondering how I could use them in my art. What I came up with is a series of paintings over collaged map pieces that I do on ACEO cards. (ACEO = Art Cards Editions and Originals, they are miniature collectable art pieces and are always the same size: 2 1/2 in. x 3 1/2 in.)

I started with paper plane paintings, I love working out how to make paper planes look like world traveling adventurers. There’s something wobbly and brave about the image of a paper plane setting out into the great big world that I really enjoy!

 

I have played with a few paper boat paintings as well, and have been really pleased with how they are turning out. I have a few other variations that I want to experiment with over the month. Hopefully participating in AEDM will spur me on to experiment and have fun with this (while also filling out my Etsy shop!)