Five Random Things

Here's this week's five random things:

1. I've been contemplating this idea of effort vs. ease or work vs. play all week and decided that I need to do more of both and find the perfect balance between the two.

For work, I've started to document everything I do during a day (inspired by Marisa Hardike over at Creative Thursday) to see where I could be more productive and to hold myself accountable (less jumping around the net and more art-making!) and to be more realistic about my "to-do" lists, because right now they are a little off the charts and then I feel crappy when I don't get everything done....

and on that note,

For Play, I want to laugh more. I intend to do something each day that is in the spirit of play and fun, even if its just rolling around on the floor and rough housing with my dog!

2. I taught my first official yoga class this week! There was a lot I could have (and will) improve upon, but I also did some things really well. I was nervous and scared and had a bit of a breakdown afterwards (as I sometimes do when I step out of my comfort zone), but I did it and for that I am proud!

3. I signed up for another e-class (I might have a bit of an e-class addiction going on!) called "In the Fish Bowl: Life as an Artist online" with Marisa Hardike from Creative Thursday (mentioned above). Registration opened yesterday and it starts up in March!

4. It's been raining and dark here on the Cape all week, which has swung the mood into low more than once, but the forsythia branches my husband's parents cut for us are blooming and bright, reminding me that I can create light on the inside and bloom it out, no matter what the conditions are outside of myself.

5. I want to express my gratitude this week to my mom, dad, brother and husband who inspire and uplift me every day. They have been following my blog and this week, learned how to create screen names and leave comments with their ideas and love! Thanks, guys!

How was your week? Do you have five random things you want to share?

Five Random Things

Playing with Poses

I played with painting figures in different yoga poses today.

I did some gesture drawing with the paint brush

to capture the movement of the pose.

I used darker tones to create the shadows.

Then I did the thing that I am oh so very addicted to:

(I outlined every little stroke I made with sharpie!)

And I cut them out.

I had so much fun playing with these poses!

Playing with Poses

Creativity Meditation Monday

Welcome to today's creativity meditation! This time of year, as winter wanes in the Northern Hemisphere, my thoughts start to turn towards spring. My spirit starts longing for lightness. I start to feel affected by the heaviness of the cold and the dark. Maybe some of you feel this way too? Well, today's creativity meditation is about lightening things up by giving yourself permission to play! The mediation will begin by tuning into the breath, and then move into a play of creativity. (It runs for about 4 minutes)

So gather together the materials you want to play with!

In this spirit of play, perhaps try something new. If you always use watercolors, try markers. If you normally use colored pencils, try acrylic paints. If you are newer to art-making, pick any material you think would be fun to try!

After you gather up what you need, find a comfortable, quiet place to set up your materials. When you are ready to begin, press the play button on the podcast!

Enjoy!

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Creativity Meditation Monday

Five Random Things

Happy Friday!

I thought maybe today I would share a bit more about who I am by telling you five random things about myself (do I sense a series coming on?? perhaps....)

1. Lately, I've had to fight the urge to put an exclamation point after everything I say!

2. I have one dreadlock. I call it Shiva because the Hindu god Shiva is depicted with dreadlocks and I kind of have a thing for Shiva. It has scared a few hairdressers who've I forgotten to tell its there. I can't cut it off until I go back to India (where it all began). No plans to go back in the immediate future.

3. If I was trapped on an island and could choose only one art supply to live with, I would choose a sharpie marker (assuming the island had lots of paper, endless food supply and the sharpie never ran out of ink)

4. My favorite yoga pose is the wheel, Urdhva Dhanurasana, because it reminds me to keep my heart open.

5. I believe that the world has more good in it, than bad.

What are five random things about you?

Have a wonderful weekend!

Five Random Things

Trees, Spring and Yoga homework

{photo taken by my-oh-so talented little brother Pat}

I've been thinking about trees today. And spring. and how I want the trees to be thinking about spring too...

I love winter, I really do. But here in my new home on the Cape, we haven't gotten a whole lot of snow (at least by my rather high standards about what's a lot of snow) and it

has really put me in the mood for some spring. So images of spring are floating around in my head.

I should do some art work with those images.

But I have been busy this week, finishing up all my yoga homework that is due for the next part of my teacher training. As part of the homework, I wrote the following about trees and spring and the celebration of life:

Each spring, we begin to recognize that trees have this vitality, this sweet inner essence that is lively pulsating through them. In a few more weeks, we’ll begin to notice little green buds starting to quietly emerge on the branches. Trees have deep roots, that go down into the earth and these roots, pull energy up into the core of the tree. The bark hugs onto the tree in concentric circles and this protects the sap the runs through the tree. From it’s trunk, from the very marrow of the tree, it grows and extends out and upwards with its branches each year. We start noticing this each spring, when the trees around us start to shine out with little green buds that eventually burst forth in full celebration of leaves. This pulsation that is happening with the tree, of drawing in through the roots and bark and then shining out through the branches and buds is happening inside of each of us too. We too can draw in and plug into our own sweet vitality and then shine that out in a great celebration of our lives. Yoga helps us to become aware of this pulsation, this spanda. It teaches us that our true nature is this sweet and pure essence and that we can celebrate that by drawing into it and shining it out.

I'm going to go celebrate the idea of spring by eating a warm weather fruit (a pomelo) and going to a hot yoga class.

Happy Shining!

Trees, Spring and Yoga homework

Music and Yoga

"Yoga and music strongly connect people. So what's the connection between them?" asks the introduction on the Pangea Films website to a documentary called "Wanderlust: Music and Yoga" directed by Matthew Caton.

I've been asking myself a similar question in my study of yoga and art for the past year and half.

Wondering, in my writing and research, what is at the root of the connection between yoga and any creative endeavor?

So clearly, I found this film fascinating to watch.

I've had the pleasure of getting to know Matthew Caton through our yoga teacher program. For the past year, I have witnessed his yoga practice and have been tremendously inspired by it, as we've journeyed along the incredible path to becoming teachers. Today, his art has also inspired me.

His film depicts 2009's Wanderlust Festival, a yoga and music festival that takes place in California. The film features several of the yoga teachers and musicians who highlighted the festival and discuss, in the film, the connections between yoga and music. It certainly lit up my creative flame for the day, so I wanted to share Matthew's incredible video here on Art Asana.

"Wanderlust: Music and Yoga" directed by Matthew Caton. Check out the website http://pangeafilms.com

Music and Yoga

Creativity Meditation Monday

Welcome to my first ever podcast! Every Monday for the next couple of weeks, I’m going to share with you a series of Creativity Meditations. It’s an experiment with my own creativity too, so anything could happen! Hopefully you will enjoy it and if you have any ideas/feedback, please feel free to let me know! Thanks!

This Monday, I invite you to take some time out to attune to your own heart and have a little creative fun and nourish yourself with today’s Creativity Meditation (which is approximately 7 minutes long!). In the first few minutes of the mediation, we will take time to quiet the breath and then, you will be invited to pick up your paint brush and paint in concert with the movement of your breath.

First, gather together the supplies you will want to have for this meditation:

1. water color paper

2. watercolor or fluid acrylic paints (and a palette of some sort to put the paint on!)

3. a paint brush

4. a cup of water and paper towels

Now, find a comfortable place to sit where you can be quiet and still and listen to this podcast. Place your supplies neatly in front of you. Now we are ready to start!

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Creativity Meditation Monday

Waves

Lately, my husband and I have been taking our dog, Tulsi, to the beach for walks. We were there yesterday as it pelted snow and rain at us, even as the water remained soft and calm. We were there this morning, picking our way over the snow and sand holes and skirting the waves as they dashed in. I marveled at how different the ocean looks every time we're here. Somedays the waves are crashing and the sky is gray. Somedays the waves are quiet and little, gently lapping the sand.

(print available here.)

I love going out there and opening my arms to the expansiveness of the sky and to the way the ocean seems to be pulsing like a heartbeat.

Just being there makes my heart feel more open.

Tulsi runs and plays gleefully, chasing the sand globs that fly out from her paws.

Out there, there is a sense of knowing that this is what living with an open heart feels like:

Expansive, playful and full of love.

(print available here.)

In yoga, my body is a lot like the beach.

Different every day.

I take pause and breathe into the expanse of sky that are my lungs

and I attune, like the waves to the land, to my own heart.

When we attune more deeply to our hearts, our lives become more expansive, playful and full of love.

When we splash more from our hearts,

we are able to dance more like waves.

Waves

Home

they say that home is where the heart is,

I guess I haven't found my home,

and we keep driving round in circles,

afraid to call this place our own.

are we there yet?

are we there yet?

are we there yet?

home.

(lyrics of "Are we there yet" by Ingrid Michaelson)

The Creative Everyday theme of the month is "home". It's timely because I've been thinking a lot about this subject. I'm trying to figure out how to be more at home in my physical location, in my artwork and it's "style" and in my own body.

Last week I did a "practice teach" yoga class and wove this theme of "home" into the class.

I asked myself how does the theme of "home" could be embodied through yoga.

In a physical home, you turn a physical space into a home by decorating the walls and fill the space with furniture and your belongings, things you've collected over the years of life.

All of this creates a sense of comfort for me. The physicality of my belongings arranged in a way I find fit, gives my eyes something to stop upon. There is a sense of security and safety in being surrounded by my collection of things.

What kind of space do I want my homes to be?

I want an airy, light, clean, spacious, safe place.

By expanding the breath, I can create this kind of home in my body. I can fill up as if the space of my lungs was a light, airy room with the windows open in the summer. I can engage the muscles of my legs as if my skin and muscles hugging to the bones, were the walls of my house. I can create fortitude in this house of a body. Through yoga, I can let the light in the windows of my body and mind.

In my artwork, I can make space and become more at home with my own creative process, by letting go of a fixed idea of what is my "style" and just create. I can engage my creative muscle daily and in that deep digging, I can find a reservoir of creative freedom that I will expand outward with.

May we all be centered in the home of ourselves.

Home

Inspiration Board

Hello! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend! I am taking part in an online class called "Blogging Your Way" with Holly Becker from decor8 and Leslie Shewring from Creative Mint. This week our homework was to create an "inspiration board" that represents how we want our blogs to be and what we want them to be about. The pictures above are what I created! I was really inspired by the colors purple, green, teal and red based on catalog pictures from house doctor. From there, I added hints of nature, yoga things and some of my own artwork, including scrap pieces! I was so inspired by what others did for this project and have been having so much fun looking at all of their inspiration boards! I'm off to look at more!

Inspiration Board

Story

Wishcasting Wednesday: What story do you wish to live or let go of?

I wish to live the story that comes fully from my heart. No matter where the story goes, I want my heart to be leading the way. The story I want to let go of is the one where my heart is locked behind layers of doubt and fear. May my heart stay open with courage.

Story

Spring, is that you?

Feeling ready for spring?

I am!

No, these tulips and daffodils aren't growing outside any place near my home.

They are inside bulbs, sitting oh so happily in the sun in my mother-in-law's house.

I needed a little floral reminder that spring is around the corner today,

even if the groundhogs don't agree.

Spring, is that you?

Lespwa/Hope

Last week, I was asked to design a tee-shirt for a Benefit Concert to raise money for Doctors without Borders in Haiti. The benefit took place in my community on Saturday and the organizers of the benefit estimated that our community raised over $3,000!

The picture above is the design I created for the t-shirt! I also donated an original painting that sold in a silent auction. I am putting up prints of it in my etsy shop. They are available now and I'm donating 10% of the sales of these prints to Doctors Without Borders.

available here.

I was so inspired by the big hearts of the people who organized this event, proud of their sponsor, the Sea Education Association and proud to be (newly) a part of the small community of Falmouth.

Lespwa/Hope