Using Creativity To Make A Difference...

Sometimes, life events and disasters happen that make us feel completely overwhelmed. It is much easier, we tell ourselves, to hide from reality than to face something seemingly hopeless face on.

But Creativity whispers to our hearts that anything is possible, as long as we try.

Illustrator Kelly Light has found an incredibly Creative way to deal with the Gulf Oil DIsaster.  Artists from all over the world are donating tiny original paintings, drawings or digital prints to be sold to anyone who makes a $10.00 donation to two organizations helping to tackle this disaster. "Swan Song" (shown above) and "What Greed Can Do" (below) are two of the images that I will be sending in to Kelly for this cause.

INHALE:  Never give up hope.  Something beautiful or creative can come from almost any disaster or tragedy if we keep looking for possibilities.  Just look at the infinite variety of how different artists of all ages and walks of life have felt moved to contribute.  It may almost take your breath away!

EXHALE:  If you can draw, paint or doodle, consider creating a piece of artwork for this worthy cause.  If you prefer to appreciate art rather than create it yourself, browse through this blog and keep an eye out for an image that appeals to you.  Follow the blog, spread the word and make a difference.  The card I bought arrived in the mail a few days ago and now graces the wall of my office.  Remember that you can always use your Creativity to make the world a better and more beautiful place.

Eggstremly Enjoyable...

My fingers now have several layers of paint that will be difficult to explain tomorrow morning at church.

Friday after church, Erin and I went over to her high school to help paint two young men in their unitards for the upcoming CATS musical.

This morning, we sat down as a family to dye our Easter eggs.  For Erin’s friend, Holly, who had slept over the night before, this was a first.  She had never dyed eggs before so we introduced her to just how many colours a family of artists need to prepare for this eggstravaganza.

We showed her how to use a white crayon to do wax resist patterns and she proved that creativity lives within us all as she made her very first Easter egg ever.

Bethany thought this one of hers was worth showing off...

and Erin liked how this egg of hers turned out.

I always take the longest to do my eggs because I keep trying to get as many colours and as much detail as possible on each egg.  For me, it isn’t about how fast I get them done but how much fun I have as I play with the possibilities.  This one was really neat with several layers of wax crayons over the different colours.

My favourite egg cracked when I dropped it from just a few inches above the table as it slipped from my hands... a reminder of how fragile egg painting can be, even when working with hard-boiled eggs. in the end, it is worth all the work!

Tonight,  I helped my best friend spray paint pieces of styrofoam to turn into a fence on the CATS set and added yet another layer of paint to my fingers and no doubt sacrificed a few brain cells to the fumes...but it was enjoyable.

INHALE:  How we celebrate the special occasions in our lives gives us endless opportunities for creativity if we just look for them, give ourselves time to savour it and experience it, ultimately making it part of the celebration itself.

EXHALE:  Whatever way in which you celebrate the turning of the seasons, Easter or Passover, find a moment to make something, cook something, plant something or share something with those you love.  If you have never played with crayons on hard-boiled eggs, buy some kits when they come on sale in the next few days and sit down to play.  You may get messy, but you may also discover that the child within you is not as buried as you thought.

Finding Creativity in the Mundane...

I faced my fears today and drove to France for some afterschool activities with my niece and nephew... surviving roundabouts and mopeds, narrow lanes, delivery trucks and unmanned border crossings. I did not have to resort to chocolate in triumph and the worst moment came as the sun suddenly cleared the clouds to shine on one mountain in particular. I found myself contemplating pulling over suddenly into the farmer’s field to take a picture... luckily, common sense won out.
Yes, today, I finally saw the mountains! The local Swiss probably think the tall person in the burgundy coat is as mad as a hatter. I went up to the top floor of the shopping centre and out into a courtyard between buildings to shoot one picture of Geneva with the mountains behind it. I am sure that tourists with cameras never go there, only smokers, but I might not have had any other proof of Alp sightings! Images are stuck in my camera for now since I am using my brother's computer, but I will alter these posts once I get home to include the images I intended to put here.


Today’s inhalation actually came from the more mundane tasks in my life today as lived in someone else’s house.

INHALE: Chores are pretty un-fun no matter what age you are. Encouraging children to help out can sometimes try your patience on the best of days. Being the visiting Auntie, I can actually coax things out of my niece and nephew because it is something novel, but I truly believe that kids should learn to help out in a family as they grow. When a bit too much of supper landed on the floor under the table tonight, I asked them to show me where the broom hid and once I had the pile of crumbs and meal remains swept into a pile, they took turns "dustbustering". I asked them to clear their plates to the sink from the table by being waiters or waitresses and we got toys put away by asking them to show me where they went. This works because I am visiting... but it at least plants the seed. I am, however, pretty exhausted. This is like looking back in time 6 years at what my own kids were like and trying to remember what tricks worked and what didn’t. The neat thing about young children is that you get instant feedback!

EXHALE: If you are going to find more time to be creative in your everyday life, you have to stop being a martyr and doing it all yourself. This isn’t to say that 4 year olds are capable of complex chores or that 8 year olds can handle doing loads of laundry, but it starts with baby steps. The first thing is to be honest with yourself and know the areas where you can and can’t accept help. I am pretty particular about both washing dishes and washing laundry, but I will always welcome help drying and putting things away. Finding ways to be Creative about how you teach the need for each and every member of a family to help in some way goes a long way towards keeping your own sanity. Think of one or two chores that you could use some help with around the house and some Creative ways in which you could make even the mundane a bit more interesting. Sock fights anyone?

Facing Fears Creatively...

Sometimes in life there are things that scare us. What is easy for one person might be incredibly difficult for another. Ask me to draw a dinosaur roller-skating and I can do it in a flash. Ask me to speak in public to a crowd of 500? Bring it on! Ask me to do a quadratic equation or drive in a foreign country in someone else’s car... well that’s when my palms get a little sweaty.


I guess because my husband, Nick, is such a good driver and honestly loves to drive any type of car in almost any situation, I seldom drive on long trips in our van. That is PRIME knitting, staring at scenery or daydreaming time!


Being in Geneva, Switzerland this week to help out with my niece and nephew while my brother is away and my sister-in-law handles some major conference calls and then leaves on her own trip meant I was going to have to drive them to and from school each day as well as get them to their various weekly activities. In theory, that sounded a lot less scary than Sunday night and yesterday morning when Anne showed me the various routes I’d need to take. I tried not to panic on the outside as much as I was doing on the inside...


So what do you do when that cold grip of fear starts to take hold? Face your fears and think creatively!

INHALE When Fear strikes or there is something you need to do that will be difficult, the best thing to do is tackle it as soon as possible. Facing fear head on and attacking the problem is much better than ignoring it and hoping it will just go away. Bait is also very good. Once the rush hour traffic was over, I took Anne’s car out on the roads and traced the route I’d have to follow to pick them up later in the day. After that, I even went to the main department store in their area which had underground parking just a bit taller than I am. I was almost giddy with satisfaction once I parked the car and stepped into the store... so of course I rewarded myself with a new type of chocolate bar to try. Since losing my extra weight about 8 years ago and keeping it off, I try not to use food as a reward very often... but I am in a country where really EXCELLENT chocolate takes up almost a full grocery aisle! Need I say more?

EXHALE Find something in your life that you find difficult to do but that needs to be done. Spend 15 minutes and map out a road plan, write a list or brainstorm doodle ways to break that scary task down into some smaller steps. Martha Beck calls them Turtle Steps. Someone else once said “Just eat the elephant one bite at a time.” Taking the first step towards change can often be the hardest part. By thinking more creatively, you may find interesting solutions to challenges that have stumped you up until now. Plus, don’t forget to find some good bait!

Learning to Pray Creatively...

I meant to post this last night after my safe arrival in Geneva, Switzerland to look after my niece and nephew for a week, but between jetlag, travel adventures and being the Aunty Dragon hug machine, I never got on my brother’s computer until this morning. Given all that has happened since Dad died, all that a few of my friends are facing and some of my travel experiences to get here, this felt like the right topic for today’s Inhaling Creativity.
Any weird typos will be because the y and z are reversed on this European keyboard... so do bear with me if I don’t catch them all.

Prayer comes in many forms for many different religions around the world. Certainly with the disaster in Haiti, many of us around the world are praying for other people in other places more than ever before. That is what intercessory prayer is all about.

INHALE What do you do when you don’t know what you are supposed to pray for? You just turn everything over to God. Praying about someone and for someone doesn’t have to be a bargain, a list of demands or wishes, a plea or even a formal prayer. All you have to do is hold that person, issue or concern in your innermost being and let it go...

EXHALE The next time that someone or something is weighing heavy on your heart, just try being creative in how you pray. I had to calm myself when the customs officer in London took a 3\4 filled bottle of lens solution because it COULD contain 120 ml (companies don’t make a smaller size yet) instead of 100 ml. After I got over the initial desire to pray for a bolt of lightning, I turned my creativity to prayer instead. Inhale, exhale. That’s becoming routine now in tough times as well as good ones. I hold a prayer in my heart and then imagine it as a butterfly, coloured bird or even a balloon... drifting up to Heaven. If we believe in a Creative God (and I have ever since I first saw a platypus) then why should our prayers not reflect that? Pray or praise with music, drawings or images. Write down your own prayers that move you or string one word after the other like worry beads to hold them in your heart; Peace... Healing... Love... Joy...Strength. Just take it one breath at a time.

Learning the Zen of Knitting...

Knitters have known for years what I am only discovering in this quiet time after my father’s passing. Until now, I have worked on one or two projects at a time and forged ahead until each one is completed before starting anything new. Now I have 3 scarves, one pair of socks and a baby blanket on the go at the same time. Depending on my mood, I am taking time to sit down for a little while with any of them, watching them grow stitch by stitch. Only one of them has a deadline... and that is in flux because babies can be a bit unpredictable in their arrival date. The rest are just for the sheer pleasure of working with the particular colour of texture of the chosen yarn. None of the knitting is complicated enough that I have to concentrate very hard, so there is also the fun of letting my mind wander. Creative ideas pop up, prayers are spoken from the depths of my heart, dreams remembered or the week ahead planned out as stitch after stitch slips from one needle to the next. When my “thinking time” is over, I have something to show for it. When I sit down to watch television or help the girls with homework, I have something to show for it. 

Bit by bit the knitting grows, a single thread turned into something beautiful and functional.
No wonder so many of us get hooked on different crafts or ways of being creative. Each has a magic of its own and something to teach us if we only listen.

INHALE: Sometimes, in order to be creative, we have to pick up something simple to get our hands, mind and spirit to connect better with one another. Musicians have scales to keep them limber on their instrument of choice. Doodling is a great way to let your mind wander for artwork, but every craft out there probably has a simple step or an easy task that can accomplish the same purpose. You want to be creative, but you also want to give your mind a chance to wander a bit and the stress of everyday challenges to be held at bay for just a little while.

EXHALE: This week, find time to enjoy a simple part of the craft you love the most. Find a ball of yarn that you love to touch, cast on 16 stitches and knit until it is used up. Sort your floss boxes or wind some onto their little cards and then tidy up your stitching fabric to see what might work for a simple chart to stitch up between larger projects. Scrapbook some gift tags for next year instead of a whole page for an album. String a group of beads that you like to make a bracelet instead of a fancy necklace. Whatever craft touches your heart in a way that replenishes it, take the time to indulge in something simple so that your mind can go off to a calm place while your hands stay busy. It’s a great escape!

Time For Some Holiday Fun...

When I revamped my website last week, I added a contest for the holidays and linked it to my drawing blog .  Since no one has been brave enough to enter the contest yet, I thought I would throw it out here for those of you who are trying to inhale a bit of Creativity.

This isn’t about drawing ability so much as ideas...

Are you up for some fun?  Let’s see what some of you can come up with!

INHALE:  The thing about taking chances or trying something new is that it can be scary.  We are worried about how people may judge us.  Today was report card day and Bethany was actually disappointed that she only had one A+ in a straight A report card!  So often, we create impossible expectations in our heads that keep us from trying something because we are afraid to look foolish or to fail. The more I try to be Creative, the more I realize that failing is actually a necessary part of being Creative.  It is only when you try something different or push the envelope that you may sail off in to brave, uncharted territories!

EXHALE:  Today is easy.  Print out the picture and doodle... colour it... turn it into a paper airplane.  You don’t have to enter the contest if you don’t want to, you just have to play.  We need to have more play and experimentation in our lives!

Tearing Down to Create Again...

Today, one of the Creative women I admire most took the courageous step of announcing that she was closing down her cross stitch design business.   Sometimes you have to end something in order to create something new.

Teresa and I met through cross stitch just over a decade ago, but we quickly formed a friendship that went beyond just working in the same industry.  As cross stitch began to falter, she and I began to act as sounding boards for each other and talk about if and how we could take our Creativity in other directions.

Four years ago, we went to Dragon*Con in Atlanta to see if we wanted to transition into Fantasy artwork on the con circuit.  She also helped paint me green for my She-Hulk adventure as mentioned in yesterday’s post.  Last February, we went to the SCBWI conference in New York together to see if children’s book illustration would offer new possibilities.

The joy of having her as a friend is that we share some of the same hopes and insecurities, interests and insights as well as quests and questions.  While we have very different styles, we both feel called to continue to share our Creativity with the world... we’re just still trying to find the next way to do that!

I do know that the past 5 years would have been a lot more scary and stressful without her encouragement, support and sense of humour.

I stayed home today to take care of Bethany who is still running a fe er.  I also got up the courage to tackle a demolition of my own.  A year ago, I overhauled my Dragon Dreams website to reflect the change my artwork was taking as I honoured the 98 published cross stitch designs that I had created, but also tried to showcase the different directions I was heading in.  Then I created a separate website for illustration once I got feedback that Art Directors don’t have time to sift through intensive sites looking for your artwork.

I’ve limped along since then feeling very fragmented and slightly confused at how to make things better.  Today, I realized that the only way to rework the site was to start over from the very beginning, look at what works, get rid of what doesn’t and focus on what truly needs to be covered by the website while making it an informative place to visit.

I am in the middle of the destruction and rebuilding process, but I am actually pleased at how well it is turning out. I'll post on my blogs as soon as the new site is uploaded.

INHALE: Sometimes we have to rebuild from the ashes as friends of ours have done with their house, shut down a business to start in a new direction, crumple up a drawing that isn’t working or go back to the beginning and start over.  Any Creative person, crafter or artist has experienced this more than once.  I’m not sure it ever gets any easier, but I am finally learning to trust that something even better may come from drastic measures.

EXHALE:  I tried to explore today's topic in a fun way.  Find a few magazines for images or inspirational photos.  Instead of trimming them carefully with scissors, rip and tear them out then glue them into your book so that they overlap and create a collage background (you can leave white spaces).  Next, write some words over the images or around them that add to your Creative inspiration.  If this seems too time-consuming for your hectic day, try a simpler exhale: crumple a plain piece of paper and then smooth it out again then draw or write a message to yourself on the less than perfect paper as a reminder that we often set ridiculous standards for ourselves.

Surrounded by Creativity...

It’s been hard to blog, even though I had to add Internet access to the room in order to get Teresa’s files up here safely and ask her the occasional question as she gets over the nasty flu that kept her from coming to the show in Toronto.  While everyone REALLY misses her, they are a wee bit glad that she kept her germs at her house!

I’d forgotten what a huge city Toronto is compared to Moncton.  I’d also forgotten just how small the CN tower makes me feel!

This festival is the most INCREDIBLE experience because you are literally surrounded by Creativity for the whole day!  I’ve seen the most amazing beaded, knitted and quilted outfits that I’ve been longing to go up and touch, half drying or half completed class projects being carried carefully by their creators as they head to their next adventure and enough craft supplies to send me into fits of “I need to have that!”  I’ve been good actually... I’ve also been teaching most of the time!  The only purchase that I did justify yesterday between classes and my lecture was this yarn.  It’s been REALLY cold here in Toronto and the taxi showed up just early enough in Moncton that I forgot to grab one of my scarves to bring with me. Yeah... that sounds like a convincing excuse...

Despite having to juggle things, change things and adapt, all of my presentations have gone well so far.  I’ve spent time with amazing, creative people and also had fun just playing.  Yesterday was the joint “Tiny Dragon” class where Teresa and I both designed little dragons over one to “torture” them with. 

One creative stitcher even brought along some of my Gemstone Dragons  that she’d stitched OVER ONE  backstitched with BLENDING FILAMENT!

They looked amazing and I felt so honoured that someone loved those dragons enough to work on them that small.

I did a lecture called The Perfection Trap that reminded stitchers not to point out all their mistakes to others or strive for impossible standards and then went on to teach my Hoarding Your Creativity class.  What fun we had!! I’d made a bunch of Inspiration tags before leaving home with the ShrinkyDinks film. If you haven’t played with it recently, go find some at a craft store and tuck it away for a day when you want to play.

That was really what made the last class go by so quickly.  I was inspiring them and sharing why it was important for Creative people to have a book or box in which to hoard things they find that spark their creativity from quotes to scraps, images to ideas and photos to textures.  Everyone got so caught up in playing on that deep level that children know instinctively that the time just flew by. Before we knew it, we were cleaning up and I was heading back to the hotel to snip more floss and chase beads around on the carpet. That’s another entry.

INHALE:  We sometimes forget how important it is to surround ourselves with other creative people.  They may not all create the same things that you do, the same types of objects or crafts that you like, but when you are with other creative people, it recharges you in a special way because you don’t feel as alone.  We cannot create in a vacuum.

EXHALE: Whatever craft you love most or whatever creativity you have just discovered, find out if there is a gathering, a special day, a class or a retreat that you could attend in the next few months so that you could take a large block of time to spend not only doing something creative but also surround yourself with other creative people.  I know that even though this festival can be tiring, it is also way more INSPIRING!!

Moment of Truth...

The phone rang this morning at 6 am, a few hours before I left for the airport to fly to Toronto .  On the other end of the phone was the barely recognizable voice of one of my best friends telling me that she wouldn’t be able to get on the plane to teach with me at the CreativFestival .  What had started as a cold earlier in the week turned into the worst kind of flu and she was in no condition to leave home to board a plane... she could barely talk to me.  I tried to tell her that everything would be OK and to get some rest or get to see a doctor.  It wasn’t until I hung up the phone and clung to Nick that the panic set in along with the little inner voice screaming “How on earth am I going to do this?”

Then, a funny thing happened.  I just began to take deep breaths.  Inhale... Exhale... Inhale... Exhale.  In that moment of focussing on my breathing to calm myself, the ideas began to flow of how I could adapt Sunday’s Power point Breakfast presentation, of who might be able to help cover Teresa’s part of our joint classes, of how she might be able to get her files to me and lots of other insights buzzing like bees in a hive.  I knew in that moment that taking this year to focus on Inhaling Creativity was not only teaching me unexpected truths, it was helping me cope better with uncertainty in a creative manner.

By the time I got on the plane and hauled out my journal, I was reasonably calm.  By the time I shared with show organizers what had happened, I had some backup plans.  By the time I met up with Erica, I knew I had a Guardian Angel helping out who was inhaling and exhaling Creativity herself.  Just look at the beautiful breakfast goodie basket she’d made up for Teresa and I!  (OK... to all of my Weight Watcher members following this blog, I do know that some of those nummy rolls with have to find homes with other people since I am the only one in this hotel room!)

I even found another advantage to kicking around in this hotel room all by myself, missing Teresa and hoping she will feel better soon... I get to cover the other bed with all my kitting stuff as I sort and snip and get ready to start teaching tomorrow.

I will miss her!  Get Well Soon, Teresa!!!

INHALE: You can’t stop the panic that happens when life throws you a curve ball.  I am learning this each time something unexpected happens on this adventure.  Part of what makes it so much worse for many of us is that we have this built-up template in our head of how things are SUPPOSED to happen.  When life or reality fail to measure up to that template, some of us freeze, panic or get really bent out of shape.  Others, like Nick, work in an industry where every day brings the unexpected.  Teachers, emergency room staff, firemen, police, taxi drivers... there are many professions where each day or each client can bring something totally unexpected into the mix, so they learn how to adapt and think Creatively better than most of us.  Don’t measure everything to some PERFECT ideal.  Just let it be and think of any creative solutions you can without giving up.  Then watch as it unfolds into something new.

EXHALE:  Take 10 minutes to explore an area of your life in which you tend to expect PERFECTION from yourself.  Does this add more stress to your life than enjoyment? Does it really have to be done to the standard that you’ve set for yourself?  If the answer is YES, then write down 3 ways you could reward yourself once the task is done.  If the answer is NO, then write down 3 ways that you could lighten your load slightly, adapt your standards without throwing them away altogether or come up with a Creative solution that won’t leave you feeling like you just didn’t measure up.  After all... Pobody’s Nerfect!

Creativity amid Chaos...

No pictures or fancy message tonight, just a gentle reminder that when you go looking for something, you usually find it.

Last night, heavy rain and high winds tore a lot of the lovely orange leaves from the trees.  I am hoping there are still plenty to see when Dad and Barb arrive this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving since she has never really seen the maple leaves turn colours.  I was feeling cold all morning until a great friend showed up to take me to our lunch date while the kids goofed off a bit from their morning of child labour assembling kits for the show in Toronto.

We went to lunch at a marvelous restaurant here in Moncton called the Blue Olive .  My plate was such a work of art that it had me wishing my cellphone had a camera!  A wonderful sampling of Mediterranean food was arranged on the plate in artful groupings and every little bite offered different flavours.  Creativity in food presentation.

When I went to the washroom, there were patterns in the floor tile and also in the wood grain of the dark brown wooden stalls that had brightly painted ORANGE door handles and hinges!  It was a gentle reminder than when you seek, you shall find.

INHALE:  Even in a crazy, hectic day of trying to get ready for an important event, I could still notice and appreciate the Creativity all around me.  I find the older I get, the less I believe in coincidence. I rather think the Universe was smiling along with me today and putting gentle reminders in my path that in the midst of my own chaos  (as I get ready to go share my Creativity at a show), I can still enjoy, experience and savour other Creativity around me.  Such offerings are everywhere once we begin to look for them, just as the negative will be if that is all we go looking for.  When we look for the positive and the Creative, we are really just affirming Life and Hope in all their glory.

EXHALE:  When things get hectic, it is OK to bask in the Creativity of others.  Today’s project is to make two lists in your sketchbook, taking time to think before you write things down.  Make one list of the people in your life who exemplify Creativity to you; your favourite authors, musicians, cooks and even friends who have talents you admire.  Next, make a list of the people in your life who most ENCOURAGE the Creative spark that lives inside of YOU.  Neither list has to be long.  The first list is to remind you of where you can draw inspiration and the second is to remind you of who you can call on for support and encouragement when you need it.  Think of these as emergency contact numbers... you never know when you might need them!