31 Days of December 2018

31 Creative Days of December

We have made it into the final twilights of 2018. December is filled with short days and the blur of holiday festivities. To mark the month, I have decided to create a 31 Creative Days of December drawing series,and so, I will be creating 31 creatures with holiday themes. The holidays I will address are:

In order of their calendar dates:

  • Hanukkah (Chanukah if you prefer)… Starts the eve of 12/2 goes thru 12/10: It’s known as The Festival of Lights and is honoring the Maccabees’ victory over King Antiochus, who forbade Jews to practice their religion.
  • WINTER SOLSTICE..12/21 at 5:23 EST: The shortest day of the year.
  • CHRISTMAS…12/25: The birth of Jesus Christ. Did you know the word “Christmas” is a shortened form of “Christ’s mass.”-makes sence!
  • KWANZAA…12/26 through 1/1: Commemorates African heritage. Kwanzaa has seven core principles, ranging from Unity to Creativity for the community.
  • NEW YEAR’S DAY…January 1: The first day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. (Yes I realize this is actually January and 2019, but it seemed appropriate to end this series with the bang of a new year.)

Starting December 1st, you can see/follow these drawing on Instagram (find/follow me at botanicalbb), which also populates FaceBook (find/follow me at Botanical Beauties & Beasties) and Twitter (find/follow me at @BotanicalB_B). If you don’t follow any social Media and you would like to see the seasons creatures, just let me know, and I will send you the full series after January 1st. It will be a combo piece, so don’t worry it won’t be 31 emails! In the meantime-Here’s to creativity, imagination, digital art, the closing of the 2018 door and the opening of a new 2019 door. Hope the holidays bring you all some joy, love, and peace.

 

Look both ways

A look back and forward at the same time.

The solstice was yesterday (June 21), and I am always fascinated by this day. Celebrations near and far still do happen-fires, harvest, and sun worshipers collide.

On the solstice, we are given a reminder to ‘honor’ ancient wisdom and traditions, to celebrate the summer with its abundance of light, warmth, and agricultural bounties. Overall we are much less conscious of the joy of the solstice and its celebrations, festivals, and rituals than days gone by. Our ‘modern’ world does still mark the solstice, and most of us somehow connect (somewhere in the recesses of our brain) that it is a day of celebrating new beginnings.

The simple ‘facts’ of the Solstice are that it is the day sun reaches it’s highest point in the sky all year, “the tilt of Earth’s axis is most inclined towards the sun directly above the Tropic of Cancer.” (http://time.com/5314789/summer-solstice-facts) and so it is one the longest day of the year. It marks the beginning of summer. One of the most well-known celebrations of the summer solstice is at the Neolithic monument of Stonehedge: with many of the theories of this magical prehistoric structure stating it was built to align with the sun. In doing a little research about Stonehedge, I learned a few new things that historians and archeologists are saying about this masterpiece: It took 1,500 years to erect, it is roughly 100 stones, it was possibly a burial ground, some stones are local to the nearby quarries, and yet other stones of the inner ring seem to trace to the Preseli Hills in Wales- some 200 miles away. WOW!  (BTW- want some interesting reading on Stonehedge? click.)

Icarus drawingOn this day I always tend to think of the Mythological story of Icarus, because of the sun. It’s a story of hope, and creative imagination at the beginning, unfortunately, turning into sorrow. Somehow this small Greek Myth has always stayed with me, and although it is kind of sad, I have always liked this myth. I think it’s the soaring free, the wings, flying above it all, the innovation of Daedalus and the spirit of Icarus,  that makes me admire this myth. So, on these summer days, where now, unfortunately, the days are getting shorter, there is still a joy and lightness of summer. Right now the day light is approximately five and half hours longer than that opposite day (i.e the winter solstice) and I’ll take it! Hopefully, we all get some soaring time this summer-with projects, friends, families, maybe some journeys, and always some paths with their twists and turns. With a little luck, your melting will be minimum!

The myth of Icarus:

“Icarus was the son of the famous craftsman Daedalus in Greek mythology. His father was the creator of the Labyrinth, a huge maze located under the court of King Minos of Crete, where the Minotaur, a half-man half-bull creature lived. In order for the secret of the Labyrinth to be kept, Minos had then imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus in a tower above his palace. Daedalus managed to create two sets of wings for himself and his son, that were made of feathers glued together with wax. He taught Icarus how to fly and warned him not to fly too high, which would cause the wax to melt, nor too low, which would cause the feathers to get wet with sea water. Together, they flew out of the tower towards freedom. However, Icarus soon forgot his father’s warnings, and started flying higher and higher, until the wax started melting under the scorching sun. His wings dissolved and he fell into the sea and drowned. The area of the sea where he fell took the name Icarian Sea after him, while a nearby island was named Icaria.”

https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Icarus/icarus.html

Search, Seek, and hopefully find.

The title seems to go with the word FOCUS? I read a blog/website called Daily OM. I get daily emails from them, sometimes I skim it, sometimes I don’t read it at all, and sometimes it grabs me. This one caught me and today’s post I am merely reposting…

path in a clearing
Lots of options – many paths.

I started reading it because of the title “Empowered Storytelling” – I am ALWAYS looking for ways to help me figure out how to tell the story of The Botanical Beauties & Beasties. But of course, the piece was about a different kind of storytelling. It was about our own life tales/stories. A good topic-I often wonder just how many more times I am going to be “reinventing” my story?  I recently realized I am not necessarily “reinventing,” I am just trying to get the story adjusted to the route I would like. Never easy, but I feel worth the effort. It would be MUCH easier to go along and  ‘bounce’-but I am trying for a conscious path.  I choose the image above left for it is definitely about paths: It is right here where I live, I added Beau for he is Minister of Wisdom, Gordy for he is a local artist and the recent sketch I created of an Maryland Whopping Crane flying in the trees-seems to cover the bases!

The piece is written by: BY MADISYN TAYLOR

Empowered Storytelling

“We all have a story to tell, but sometimes we get stuck in that story and become our story.”

“We all have our own life story. It is filled with relationships and events that help shape who we are and what we believe to be true about the world. Depending on our perspective and willingness to grow, our experiences can become fodder for negativity and patterns of playing the victim, or they can fuel a life of empowerment and continued self-development. It is the story we tell ourselves about what happens that makes all the difference.

Take a moment to look at the life story you create for yourself on an ongoing basis. If you generally feel peaceful about the past and trust in your ability to handle whatever comes your way, then you are framing circumstances in a manner that serves you well. On the other hand, if you retain a lot of guilt or resentment and often feel weighed down by life, you may want to start telling yourself a new version of past and present events. No matter who the characters are in your story or what they have done, you are the only one who can give their actions the meaning they will have for you. You are the only one who can define what role you will play in your own life. By taking responsibility for your story, you are able to learn and grow, forgive and find compassion, and most importantly, move on into a brighter future.

From now on, you can choose a life story that supports you. Let it be proof of your own resilience and creativity. Be kind with the roles you give yourself and generous with how many chances you get to learn what you need to know. When you remember that you are the author of your own story, you are free to create a masterpiece.”

http://dailyom.com/cgi-bin/display/articledisplay.cgi?aid=61036&aff=0

It’s spring time-Use your noggin!

Engaging your brain in new tasks is a key to boosting brain performance, or at least that is what the website of “Brain World Magazine” says. I will summarize the webpage here to get to my point: Most fabulous inventions happened when someone asked themselves- Is it possible and how can I do it? When you ask the hard questions, you expand your brain. This makes sense for it forces you to think and problem solve. As healthy humans, we WANT to discover-to search for new. This process keeps our brains active and functioning. “True creativity comes from an integrated brain that establishes new, robust connections between the parts of your brain dealing with cognition, emotion, vital functions, and crosstalk between the two hemispheres of your brain.”  ( http://brainworldmagazine.com/ask-brain-spring-creativity-within/)  My thoughts today are about creativity.

Think about a snake, a crab, a caterpillar. They all shed one skin and start anew. If we don’t keep trying to rejuvenate ourselves, we too can get stuck in our old skin. It’s SPRING, the season of renew-Go For It! The transformations we create and abide by change with the times and what is going on within ourselves. It is this pursuit of transformations, this metamorphosis, that forms the very base of the process of LETTING GO!  I believe this shedding is the core of what I will call creative imagination. My imagination most often happens when I just “DO”, when I don’t worry too much about what I may be creating.  I might not know “the hard question” and that’s ok. My brain is stretched by the creative process regardless of a conscious question. The process relaxes me and lets the questions flow. Right now I am working on an array of new projects. That alone is maxing out part of my mind. Creativity churns and keeps my imagination going full steam. (Or would it be imagination churns and keeps the creativity going?) It’s hard to dial my brain down and do things like sleep sometimes.  One project is my third children’s book which is indeed about imagination. I am struggling with a cover design. Resisting the usual exploding of things from a cloud, or a head, is difficult. Colors are about the only thing I have come up with. I might resort to the ‘norm.” After all, it is tried and true- but, it doesn’t feel very creative or imaginative.

So far I have a line drawing of a book open and exploding colors.
I like the “look,” but it does it say – “Hey this story is about the main character, our friend Fuddles, who has lost his imagination and then it’s found! Ideas?

Possible book 3 cover
Possible book 3 cover