Art Every Day Month

Well! November 1 starts the month...being creative, making art every day. Thank you for setting this up, Leah!

I anticipate becoming more aware every day of creative moments, defining and redefining what "making art" is for me. I'm new to this blogging thing so will try my best to keep you all abreast of my daily creativity.

I've been taking a cartoneria class at The Crucible with Ruben Guzman so will be posting the evolution of my "Ganesh"....here he is in his current state. Looks like he's in traction right now, eh? He's over a foot tall. I'm concerned I've taken on too big of a project for the duration of the class, which ends just before Thanksgiving. But, Ruben encourages us to just stay with the process, build a relationship with the piece and it will all unfold for us. Right now I'm struggling with the detail of Ganesh's hands and ears. Ruben has showed me several ways I might construct them. "Don't worry," he says calmly during class. I then take a deep breath and step back for a moment, and now I see a possible solution. I'm beginning to think I chose the perfect piece and the perfect teacher.

Elephants Love Pumpkins

I didn’t buy and carve a pumpkin this year. Apparently I’m not the only one. It has been reported that pumpkin patch sales have fallen this year over last (darn economy). So a local pumpkin patch will donate their unsold pumpkins to the zoo for the elephants to snack on. “Elephants love pumpkins.”(I never knew!)

Wanting to do something with pumpkins though I bought a good ol’ can of organic pumpkin from Trader Joe’s and baked Pumpkin Chocolate cookies per a recipe I found in a recent Culinate newsletter. Baking cookies is usually a task I deem tedious and would rather make those fabulously simple one-shot “pan cookies,” but this recipe requires separate spoonfuls, so I couldn’t slack and make bars this time. I psyched myself up for the rounds of baking. I also asked my husband and step-son to join me for a little family bonding time in the kitchen, but, alas, CSI was on TV so I was left on my own with the teaspoons and spices.

My personal pep talk had done its job. I was remarkably zen about dealing with our rental’s old double-decker orange ovens (a la the Brady Brunch). Neither of them work very well (the bottom one actually not at all last time we tried) so all baking attempts usually end in uneven disappointment, but this time I was delightfully pleased with the results. Good bakers probably know this already, but the recipe provided a tip to rotate the baking sheets halfway through, which worked like a charm.

I brought a plateful out to the living room, because this I know: my family loves cookies.

Initial Notion

You now know one of my favorite numbers, one of my favorite colors, and one of my favorite shapes – “9 orange squares”. More about me will slowly become apparent – to you and me – as I embark on a practice of creating daily for the month of November, and posting (about) the creations here. What will I be creating? All I know right now is that I enjoy working with paper, pencils, paint, fabric, and...food (yes, cooking is also a creative process.) I look forward to learning a lot about you and...me. Namaste.