new blouse. happy mama.

It's been so long since I last bought something for myself :). And can you see the sun coming through the doorway? Oh, so nice and warm...

I also made another hand. Sorry about the crappy photo. Again. I must get that scanner working! I will publish this in a better version as soon as I do!

Love!

Robin's Playground on flickr.

I think this is the best solution. It is probably possible to create some kind of group on facebook, but I want everyone to be able to comment and upload as they please. All you have to do is the following:

Go to www.flickr.com/photos/robinhasadream and then go to profile. There you will see my groups, I have only one which is conveniently called Robin's Playground. Join in to be a member and you can upload an image of what you have done with the weeks prompt. I you want to.

I am very excited to see that we are a group of people allready! It is going to be so much fun to share with you and maybe get to know you a bit.

Love!

My hand.

Okey, I've made a version of the assignment/theme now....

I wanted it to look like my hands making the om-sign. Because I need tranquility, and to remind myself that in the larger span of eternity, five minutes of whining really isn't that much to be bothered about :). Started a little bit to far towards the middle, and so one hand is cut off a bit abruptly, but there you are. I like it anyways ;).

Week one of Robin's Playground.

Hoooooraay! Today we start! I am both excited and a little disapointed. Excited, because it is going to be great, and disapointed because I have suffered a humongous video failure this morning. I had recorded a video so I could talk to you, but I can not get the audio and the visual to sync. And there is no way that I can figure out now to only upload the audio. So we shall have to do with my writing instead.

And so here goes. Welcome all you lovely souls to this project!!! Once a week I will post a prompt, or excersise or theme that I will and you are welcome to create during the week. I will post what I have done as soon as I'm finished, and you are all welcome to post photos or texts in the comment section. If you prefere you can post a link to your flickraccount our some other place where we can go see what you do.

My aim for this is to create a playarea - hence Playground name - where we can create things for the mere fun of it. I was inspired by Julia Cameron's Artist dates (if you haven't read Artist's way, and you are an artist, then by all means - read it!). I figured out, why not do something like that, but in a group where we can inspire and learn from eachother?! So here it is: Robin's Playground. I would like for this to be a warm, welcoming and positive area, where there is no right and wrong in creating, no good or bad, no goals to be met or failed at. Just the play and the fun that creating can be. Just the exploration.

You can follow by popping in here whenever you like, or sign up for the newsletter and get the prompts in your mailbox. Whatever is best for you!

And now let's get to it:

This weeks theme is: My Hand.
Why on earth this? Simply because one of the great masters of painting (I think it was Leonardo da Vinci, can not be sure though...) started up every day be drawing his own hand. So I figured it could be a good first excersise. Now, you can do exactly that - draw your hand as it looks. Or you can draw it symbolically - what is your hand to you? Or you can write down what ever pops up in your mind when you think of your hand and then make a poem or a word collage. If you are very pressed for time: here are some really quick tips:

Draw the outline of your hand on a piece of paper:

If you have time you can fill it in with colours, collage it...
Or do it many times:

Dip your hand in paint (feels good!):

Lovely feeling indeed, so do it many times:

I was aiming for tree, but I don't know.... Hehe.
Ok. Let's get to it! Hooray again! Let me know how you are doing.

Oh, I just realized it is not possible to leave a photo in the comments here :(. How about keeping that exchange in the Facebook area? I have a page there too:
http://www.facebook.com/RobinHasADream?ref=tn_tnmn

Or if you have any better suggestions that I, as the very analogue person I am, don't know of , just let me know ;).

Love!

one layer a day.

I haven't quite been able to make one layer a day, and post it here on that day. But I have been continuing - and here are some pictures of the progress:

I hope to see you here tomorrow for the beginning of "Robin's Playground"!

Love!

introducing my new plant friends.

Six new friends of mine.

One of the things most important to me and for my health (and sanity), is to keep a close relationship to nature. So when I suddenly got the opportunity to cultivate an elottment right outside my door, for free (it's true, a piece of land for free in the middle of the city!), I was oh, so excited. Since I got it late may and my belly pretty much prevented me from doing anything at all but lay on the sofa or waddle around trying to keep pace with my son, nothing much grew there last year. But this year I have plans! Look at the pea sprouts, and the beans! 

Nature truly is the greatest artist of us all, and I can't wait to see these beauties grow and change. If I don't kill them first. Some people have green fingers. I have black. But maybe this time.... I do so want to learn how to grow things. 

If your soul is aching, or you feel detached to the world - plant a seed. Plant cress. The easiest thing in the world, and they are beautiful and taste really nice. I would have posted a picture of them to if I had not managed to somehow kill the seeds.

Oh, and it's getting closer. Robin's Playground starts on thursday. Eeeeek! It's going to be great. Pop in here to check it out, or sign up for my newsletter and follow it via mail.

Love!

guestblogging. oh, and an illustration.

Today I am over at www.karinas-inner-space.blogspot.com, writing my first guestpost ever! She is one of my fellow sisters at the goddess circle,. This is a wonderful community where you can meet creative and/or entrepreneurial women from all over the world. Or just simply kind, genereous souls. I love being part of the circle and totally recommend joining. Follow the link on the right (a circle of sisters waiting for you) to check it out. If you find it is something for you and you decide to join via my link, Leonie, the creator of the circle, may send me a generous thank you.

Anyway, I also met Karina, who is also swedish, although she lives in France, for a long cup of coffee the other week, and she is a lovely person and I am so happy she wanted me to write something for her blog.

And now to something completely different....

The first illustration is finished! I think.

a quick tip.

I am sorry that I don't make it here everyday. It is my intention nowadays. Coming here to write a few words is growing into a nice little moment that I have to do something for myself. Gather my thoughts, check in on my creative journey and so. Right now, I have my son wriggling on my lap, asking to watch the alphabet song - oh, now he gave up and ran off with his goggles (made of toiletrolls, painted and waiting to be put together somehow. Glue didn't work, neither did staples, hmmmm...). Oh, here he is back again. "The little spider is going to sit with big spider!"

And so it is. I know there are so many parents out there. Just as I am, they are struggling to have some sort of creative, artistic process going. But how, oh how? Also, I know there are so many people not really having the courage to try drawing or painting or singing out. Because they have been told they are not good enough at it, because it is not useful or whatever... Here is a little tip for all of you, if you want it:

I easily get blocked in different ways, so I have come up with a couple of things to unblock. This is one. If you are a parent, for example - when your children has been painting, and you have like two minutes to clear up before you need to take care of the next activity or disaster (some days, really...). Then just take one of the pieces of paper that is still not painted on and use the excess paint to make whatever during those few seconds you have. Because you don't have time, you can't think, and because you don't have a choice of which colour or how much of it to use, you are forced to just do something. It's very freeing. A lot of the time, I just make different patches of colour that don't look like anything at all, but still it feels nice to move that brush!

Here's one I did the day before yesterday:

inner critic.

We all know it. We have all succumed to its' visious whispers.
What am I talking about?
The Inner Critic. Telling us everything that could possibly be considered negative or bad about ourselves and what we do. Killing ideas before they are even born. Making us hide away masterpieces (or just regular good, nice, interesting things) or even shred them to pieces. Hurting us at our very core.
And you know what is - I don't know which word suits best here - the most ironic, the best, the most surprising, about it? It is that in its' essence, or from the beginning, the Inner Critic is/was designed to support us and keep us safe.
It is true. Totally, I promise. It has only run amock a bit, a heep, way too much. It has oh to much power for its' own good. And for our good. The Inner Critic tells us all our possible weaknesses, because he/she doesn't want us to get hurt. He/she points out things for us to fix. The problem being that most of the things an Inner Critic that has run amock points out to us don't need any fixing at all. They are allready perfect.
So the Inner Critic needs to be shown the limits of what he/she is supposed to do. Easier said than done, I know for sure. But maybe a strategy to stop our Inner Critics stopping us from creating is to simply say something like:
"I know you fear I am going to be hurt or laughed at, and that you actually just want to keep me safe (locked in), but this creating is for fun. It is not dangerous. Maybe people wont like what I do, but that is totally OK. They don't have to. I like the creating. That is enough for me."

What do you think? How do you tackle your Inner Critic? Leave a response in the comments if you feel called to!

I drew my Inner Critic at two points in my life. So far. I am sure I will do it again. It is good to put a face on that b-gger (pardon my language) sometimes, hihi.

Love!

I remind myself 2.

When I was somewhere around twenty years old I went to an exhibition of Miró. I was blasted away.

It changed my way of looking, not only at art, but life itself. First because I was so happy (read stomach full of bubbles popping and bouncing, giggly, biiiig smile on face) that art could look like that, and people would respect it, like it and even put it in a gallery. It was so funfilled, surprising, sometimes "simple" (probably just to the uneducated eye - how simple it is will probably reveal itself quickly once one tries to do something similar oneself. As I discovered. = actually not simple at all, hehe). And then there was this quote. When asked about inspiration, he simply said that he got inspired by everything. That inspiration is everywhere. Everything can be turned into art, if one only knows how to look at it.

I think this is one of the most positive things I have ever heard anyone say. To see the world like that - an immense treasurebox. Everything can be wonderful. Everything is valuable. Our perspective can change any dull thing into a masterpiece. And so when I feel low or the drudge of the everyday threatens to drag med down into feelings of hopelessness and such I try to remember this:

Love!

like mother like daughter.

Going crazy over a box of paper and cut out images.
My heart is smiling.

Didn't get to make another layer today. Lost some sleep due to nightmares and eating frenzies and very sudden completely out of nowhere: "MAMA, can you CARRY me!!"'s I was slow today. Slow about everything. Totally okey :).

I did, however, go walking with some other mothers and fell in love with spring time again (don't look at the fence, look at the carpet of flowers, yay!).

Oh, and I love that house. If we get married I want the party there.

Love!

one layer a day exercise.

Today I didn't do much. Just a few lines of charcoal. I'm beginning to see a pattern:
Every two days I like the image, and every two days I hate it.
Today I hate it. But that only means tomorrow I'm gonna come up with something awesome and love it :).

A reminder, of course, not to be too judgmental on our work or ourselves. It is all a matter of perspective. Who is watching? What mood is he/she in? What has her/his day been like? Is he/she jealous or overly exited about just about everything? Etcetera.

I think that was one of the favorite things I learnt in theatre school:
Our teacher (very harsh, very loving Polish old school guy) always told us not to bother about judging our own work, but let the audience do that. For some of the other students that seemed stressful, but for me it was a relief. I could only show up, do my job the very best I could and enjoy it as much as possible and that was it. I didn't have to go home and agonise about weather it had been good enough or not, I could just leave it to the people who were watching. And I didn't have to bother about it at all. Not about what they thought either if I didn't want to. The acting part was my business and the judging part was theirs (if they felt like it).

Everything is a work in progress. We only invite the onlookers to get a glimpse of our journey.


Which is what I am doing here I guess.

Love!

picture in progress.

I'm reading a book - about how to create a life that allows for creativity and artmaking. Hopefully I'll get down to writing a review when I'm done. One thing the author writes about is how you can see different "types" of creative persons. Few are just one of these types, most of us are a mixture of several. I am not going to delve into that right now - but attached to these accounts of the types were exercises especially made up to suit that kind of personality.

And one of the types, that are part of who I am - came with the exercise to make something, but not finish it at once. Just make a layer, or a part, and then leave it till next day. Make another part or layer and leave it again.

So, I am currently working on a sort of painting, collage, mixed media thing. It started like this:

Actually I did this a while ago. The first time I painted in years. For some reason I have felt that it is so grand to paint and I've just been doing these more "simple" illustrations instead. But one day I decided to take out the brushes and paint again and just give it a try. It was so much fun. I loved painting again. Then I looked at the picture. And I decided I hated it. And I hid it. But when I came across this exercise I decided the painting was perfect for it, and added a layer.

As you can see it is more than one layer. For some reason I didn't understand it's a perfect project for the blog until this evening. So what have I done? I painted more blue and white the first day. Then the day after I ended up with a pile of small pieces of yarn that I glued on. Next day, I hated the yarn and started tearing it of. Then I decided I liked it again, so let some :). Then I dripped som blue paint on the yarn. And today I glued on torn pieces of notepad paper. And now I have to wait until tomorrow to continue...

Love!
Robin

challenge for today

Oh, me and the computer... I cannot believe how scared, nervous and easily frustrated I get. Before I even sit down to start my heart starts to pound and I feel that anger building up that comes from not knowing what you are doing and screwing up. So what complicated task have I been facing?

Creating a signup form for a newsletter. Muchos difficult, no? So easy, and so userfriendly, and yet... I clench my jaws, my fingers fumble, I absolutely have to eat two cinnamon rolls real quickly. I am a fairly smart person, so why is it that every time I have to do something "techy", I turn into a nervous freak? Anybody else recognize this? This is just one of many challenges in this process of trying to make a living as a multiartist. I know I have to overcome it. And today I did this. Now you can sign up for a newsletter. It all has standard templates since I didn't have the nerves to start playing around with the HTML. See if I ever get there... If I do, and manage it, I will open a bottle of champagne. And drink it. With strawberries. Possibly pata negra. Not at once though.

Anyhoooow.... I will start sending out the newsletter hopefully once a week. I don't know exactly what to put in them yet. Something to inspire you, of course updates on project Robin's Playground when that takes off, and who knows what else :). I'm really nervous. And very happy to get to learn these things, and I hope I will get to communicate with you also through the letters!

And now to the rest of the daily tasks: call about a job and create some! (Maybe a post on that later, if not, then tomorrow)

Love!

I remind myself.

In this time of my life I often feel a bit fragmented. I have so many different threads I need to follow. So many different things to remember doing and follow up on. Since I, for natural reasons, from time to time lack sleep and energy, and don't get to see many other people except for baby L during the day, I sometimes end up feeling a little bit disconnected from the world.

Then I just have to remind myself: All is one.

So simple. All is one. We are all part of an enormous web, of a great energyflow, of... call it what you want. A greater whole. (Almost wrote hole - must be the depressive part of me wanting the word ;)).

I don't know why, but I fing this immensly comforting. That the strangers in the street, the trees and the stars are all part of me and I of them. That all living things are my kin.


Love!

so what on earth have I been up to?!

I know. I have been away for way too long. And, as always, the longer you put something up, the more difficult it is to get started again. So, here goes:

I am actually so happy to be writing here again. I didn't realize until this very moment that I have actually missed it. I have been busy, you see. Doing what, exactly? Well, a number of things. Procrastinating as usual, of course. But not only that. I have been here:

It is in Scania, the south part of Sweden were my father and his wife live. It looks so grey and dull, I know. It was mist season... A whole week running around outside, working in the garden. Oh, and I drove a tractor! Yay! It was on my list of things I would most like to do thus year, so I payed a visit to the farmer next door and asked if I could try out driving his tractor and he said yes. He looked somewhat worried when he found out I don't have a drivers lisence, but didn't change his mind. It was just as fun as I had hoped.

I have also been doing some agonizing. Since I don't have a job, and I need to start making some moolah before beginning of september. Yes, I believe it is important to start in good time. Agonizing I mean. The jobsearching is a bit slower to start.

And finally, I have worked on a surprise I am launching on april then 26:th. Well, I am probably not going to keep it a secret until then. Since I am now also on Facebook, you can read about it there :). Or in my newsletter that I will start sending out soon. If I can figure out how to do it. No matter how user friendly these tech things may be, I tend to need an eternity to understand how to do it and then do it. Hmmm.

Love!