How to Occupy Our Lives

Collage by Lani for 6 Degrees of Creativity

Over at 6 Degrees of Creativity, Kristina Bell DiTullo has an inspiring workshop to teach us about Examining the Everyday for our inspiration and creative meaning.  One thing we are doing for this workshop is examining one or more social/political/cultural issues we are passionate about. We then look for images, quotes, etc. in the media and online that relate to these issues and that inspire us.

Well I got to thinking about the Occupy Wall Street movement and how inspiring I find this idea of really occupying OUR streets, our parks, our lives, our work, our art, and our very selves.   And I started wondering why this growing movement is different from previous progressive movements and so I combed through some of the material on OccupyTogether.org and OccupyWallStreet. and wondered what it would look like if I were to apply it to my life.  Here goes:

1. Be Prepared.  Make sure your sleeping bag is in good shape and that your tent doesn't leak.
2. Make sure you have some eating utensils, some toothpaste, soap, a change of clothes, and a pillow.
3. You might need a flashlight and a credit or debit card from a small local credit union type bank.
4. A cell phone with charger is a good idea.
5. Musical instruments and other creative tools to help in peaceful community building are welcome.
6. You might need a journal to write down great ideas.
7. Know what you are passionate about and want to talk about, and start sharing your ideas and listen to others' ideas.
8. Make friends with your neighbors, since they are most likely part of the 99%.  Be kind and generous to them.
9. Discuss ideas in order to arrive at consensus.  We are not alone, we are a pretty big "we" if we work at it.
10.  Help others feel free to speak up and start creating change from the bottom up.
11.  Always practice and promote non-violence.
12.  Maintain eye contact with others.
13.  Move slowly.
14. Encourage everyone to express their wishes, dreams, hopes, beliefs and fears.
15. Listen, the listening is more important than we realize.
16. Love one another.

Image from Occupy Wall Street.

I can see this could be worked into a very fun zine and or maybe an eCourse.  Hmmmm.  Let's occupy our lives!

For the one who is loved who may not feel it right now...

Collage by Lani

So never give up, never.  Know you are loved.

New Book Alert!

  Collage created from techniques in Digital Image Transfer. 

There's a new book review up on 14 Secrets.  Take a look if you are interested in Image Transfer.

Monkey Business!

Fun going on at 6 Degrees of Creativity

The truth is there's a whole lot of fun going on over at 6 Degrees of Creativity!  There are 6 different workshops on offer. Many of us are making sock monkeys, and even threatening to have a little monkey exchange in one of these fantastic workshops.  I had a favorite pair of socks which I liked so much that I hadn't worn them out yet, just kept them for art retreats and grumpy rainy days when I needed a special boost.  They turned out to be perfect for this particular workshop, but I may have to order more of these socks because I think I'm hooked.  Here's my before and after.

Before

After (her name is Lulu)

What do you think?  Fun, eh?  Want to come join our Sock Monkey exchange?  Check out this workshop and the five others here!

Another thing that is going on around 6 Degrees of Creativity is the daily search for 3 good things, and the creation of art based on this search.  Some of us have been enjoying the bracing fall winds that have been blowing through our lives.  William Charlebois's image can be found here.

Wind, scarf, and dog on morning walk with texture from FlyPaper Textures.

And here's a lovely journal spread all about the finding of good things every day, from Gretchen Miller, who I'm most grateful to for creating 6 Degrees of Creativity.

Gretchen's spread.  (So much sunshine!)

Image from my 3 Good Things board on Pinterest.

Some of us have been enjoying collecting good things on Pinterest so that when we look at our collection of images later, we find lovely brain chemicals and hormones get released.   For more on the topic of the connections between brain chemistry and imagery you can read here.

For more on sock monkey therapy, you can read Kat Thorsen's blog here. 

Six Easy Lessons for the Happy Artist's Life

Collage by Lani, texture by Kim Klassen.

Do you know about 6 Degrees of Creativity and Six Easy Lessons for a Happy Artist's Life? Come over and play and create with us! Wonderful things are happening!  Come see.

Tracking Happiness

Collage by Lani with textures from FlyPaper Textures and from Skeletal Mess

Back from a wonderful workshop at Lemoncholy's Studio with Michael Demeng.  What a blast!  He had so much to teach, even gave us the skinny on how to create lizard effects with a great new product from Kroma.  You can read about the art journal workshop that used this product here.  I need some of this stuff right away!

Michael's Journal

Now here are some photos of Kecia's beautiful, amazing art and cottage.  I loved exploring all of this and wish we could have stayed longer.  Hmmm, maybe another workshop one day?

Bring Me a Crooked Moon

Kecia's Collage from an Anahatta workshop

Dolls everywhere (this is a bit of a double exposure, but I like it!)

 Some of Kecia's work.  Dreamy!

Another doll (Kecia, how many dolls do you actually have?)

There were also many wonderful Santos everywhere.  (I love Lemoncholy Studio!!!)

So that was great fun for me, playing with my photos from the workshop at Lemoncholy Studio, creating some double exposures, adding Kim Klassen texture layers.  Let the fun continue.  Oh and now I can track my fun and happiness quotient thanks to this great website.   Thank you Gretchen Miller for alerting me to this possibility.  Every so often you can get an email or text message and you can answer a few questions which provoke some thought about our happiness levels and what causes them.  Art and aesthetic experiences are a big one for me.  Also tracking and thinking about it gives me joy and happiness too.  So try it for yourselves:

https://www.trackyourhappiness.org/

Here's a little poem for Kecia, by Anonymous:

"In that remote inn

Which pretends to nothing

And is therefore both comfortable and good,

They knew so much"