Symbolic Projections

In 2013 I decided to create a mini fold-out book to document 13 days of travel (from the July 4th holiday through conference and back). The experience was fantastic (that was pre-blogging days) and so the following year I decided to repeat the project. In 2014 July/Travel Journal 2014 documenting the 2014 AATA Conference in San Antonio. So of course this year I had to do it again! New city (Minneapolis), new book. I’ve been swamped at every turn as of late so instead of making my own book I used one made/gifted to me by a very talented past intern. The book itself a work of art with hand-made pages, cloth pages, cardboard sections, pockets, the works. The book became my memory-saver. Lecture and workshop notes, contacts, keepsakes, it all went in there. It was the repository of stray thoughts and tasty eats, as well as sketches and future plans. See you at next years...

June has been one exhausting month for this doctoral student. Putting the final touches on my dissertation while carrying a full time job and remaining faithful to the daily #creativedeed365 was quite tough. And some days I dare say, the art got cut. There is always remorse when I have to cut the art out of my day, and it is always a last resort measure. This month was jam-packed full of due dates and weekends spent on self-imposed house-arrest to get things done and turned-in on time. I cherished those 15-30 minute creative deeds (yes they take longer than you may think) on those days where all I did was write. Like I mentioned last month  I used only the pieces created for the 6 Degrees of Creativity 2015 workshops . Its been a huge change from my earlier deeds ( January , February , March , April , May ) and I must confess I struggle through the guilt of whether I should do more. Then follow-it-up with some positive self-talk about how if that's all I can give for t...

It is now the end of May and things are gearing up for the summer months. In this post I'll review the last month's #creativedeed365 offerings and where I see it going in the next month or so. Plan in review for #creativedeed365 . When I first began this 151 days ago back in January 2015, I planned on: 1. Sticking to a small card format has worked out well. As I continue to be busy and am ramping-up to get even more tied-up with school and work for at least the nest 2 months, a small size format will limit the amount of time it takes to create one deed "on-the-go". Although to be honest I am secretly looking forwards to having some free time in the fall so I can spend hours on just 1 deed for the sheer pleasure of it! 2. Up-cycling cards (first & whenever possible). I have up-cycled for most if not all of the first 5 months (and 151 deeds) and in preparation for the 6 Degrees of Creativity 2015 workshops I am now switching for the next 2 months to use th...

You may not know this, but this is the 3rd time I write this blog post. But, it's going to happen because these April #creativedeed365 had some of my favorites so far! I'm in the midst of what I lovingly and achingly call: dissertating. My husband encourages me that once it is used, it becomes a real word even if sr. webster doesn't agree. Tonight I decided to take a break from dissertating (hahh used it) and celebrate the end of the last week in April and the end of the 4th month in 2015, by adding a few touches to this post... In attaching the images I lost all the writing. Some sea salt caramel gelato later and here we are...   Lately I've done a lot of crying for things out of my control as they often tend to be.  And Amy's posts have been not only inspirational but given me tons of new reasons to shed a tear over the tablet and give it a fresh wipe.  Amy is on a quest  to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to "take a chomp out of cancer" (that "ch...

and it continues! #creativedeed365 continued through the struggles of march with lots of support from the Facebook group, family, friends, and even spouse. After the first 2 months of #creativedeed365  with Gretchen Miller , March began with a plan. Using the stained cards from Murphy in the Art Space  which were already cut into 3"x 3" squares I set out to conquer Marchs' 31 days. One day  card at a time. Much like the prior months I prepared the back of the cards with the # of the card and date plus a blip about the creativedeeds. Each day I found a few minutes to create the entry. Saving the cards for distribution once I was in public spaces such as the local university, coffee shops, or restaurants. This month I saw a couple pop-up on Instagram from people who found them and then found me through the #creativedeed365 tag. I was surprised by how exited I was at realizing where these cards had made-it to. Glad they were in good hands. Through the making of ...

Does it get easier on month 2, once the first 31 deeds are under your belt? Yes and No. The daily art practice of  CreativeDeed365  spearheaded by art therapist  Gretchen Miller  continued though February and is headed into March. So here's a quick-e report on what February brought along. 28 days of #creativedeeds365 later, some contemplations: Format/size changed to 3"x3" square format. They were cut from several over-sized pieces of old work (you know, from my recycle pile where other magical directives come-from). However, the paper was very flimsy and I ended-up adhering it to old torn-out book pages from altered books. I once again worked from a 'batch' that covered each day of the month. These were pre-stamped with the date and their # as well as with the typed blip on what the creativedeeds are. This definitely made it easier to just grab the one for that day and get to it. Admittedly my schedule is still struggling to allow a seemingly ...

In the last post [ Murphy in the Art Space ] I mentioned taking-on a daily art practice called CreativeDeed365 spearheaded by non other than the awesome Gretchen Miller .  Well, it is now a few days into February and I will report that (much to my own surprise) I'm still very much in this game. I wanted to commemorate the first 31 days (January) with a reflective post and maybe even 1x per month for the rest of 2015 (but who knows what the future will bring -- hopefully more ART!). My Plan (in review) for #creativedeed365 After a month of daily art making I am happy to report that I have done & stuck to what I said I would do. It worked! Here's a breakdown: Stick to a small format - playing card or ATC sized January cards were 2.5x3.5 ATC cards I had made for another project were now gathering dust & cluttering my art space. Mentally and physically they needed to be given a new purpose -- a new home.  Use older pieces of art first/ re-purposed whenever...