sandstone slideshow

April 14, 2010April 14, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

I discovered yesterday that I could make a slideshow for my wordpress blog and I have just the subject matter I want to test it on for us. The day is that very gray day when I took the sacred rock photographs. It is not a very interesting day when you look out into Navy channel but as I turn my attention to the large sandstone forms on shore, I become intrigued and lost in their wave-washed beauty.

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Sprout Question: What is your most inspiring subject matter this week?

Note: Here is the link to the tutorial by Jesse P. Luna I used to build the wordpress slideshow http://wordpress.tv/2010/04/14/using-slideshows-on-wordpress-com . The only information that is missing is when you click on the photo icon, make sure you then are using the “Flash uploader” not the “Browser uploader. ” Have fun!

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Turning Pages

March 1, 2010March 2, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 14 Comments

March is for Mona’s Work

Leah’s Creative Every Day theme for March is stories. If there is a fit for me, I like to participate in her themes because she has an outstanding blog to support creative efforts along with an outstanding readership who comment regularly on her posts. For creative people it is like having a coffee shop with a talented host and an open mike just for them.

I’m committed to working on my book Mona’s Work which has an introduction on my Gaia blog and an entry here on Creative Potager in “Potatoes to Potato Salad.”

My challenge: how much or how little do I share with you as I go? The writing will be “hot” and like most writing, it is better when it has cooled, been reviewed, and is then served to you after editing several times. I am leaning towards providing snippets of writing and mostly blogging about the writing process and my behind-the-scene challenges and decisions as I work through the source material, my memories and the developing of the structure of this book.

I’m sure this challenge will work itself as I set down to prepare the blog post each day. However, I would be delighted to hear what aspects of Mona’s Work YOU most want to find when you click to open your Creative Potager post, Monday through Friday for the month of March.

Sprout Question: How do YOU decide when it is right to share your creative efforts?

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Wabi-sabi

February 18, 2010December 10, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 7 Comments

Wabi-sabi castes a familiar womb-like shadow into the emptiness of creative possibility. We know wabi-sabi by what is left in the muted abundance of emptiness. As I sweep the deck with a straw broom, I hear its brush against the floor’s surface – first the wood then the jute rug. I hear my breath. I hear the pair of Canada geese honk as they land in the pond below, followed shortly by a jet gaining altitude overhead. I stop my sweeping. My hand slides over the back of the bamboo chair on my walk toward the railing. I sniff the night’s rain soaking into the ground, feeding the fir trees as they bask in the morning sun.

Winter is coming to an end. Wabi-sabi then, is spiritual in its practice of simplicity.

Read more about this topic on my post about wabi.

Read about this topic more on my post about sabi.

Sprout Question: Does wabi and sabi meet in any part of your creativity?

Primary reference: The Wabi-Sabi house: the Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty (2004) by Robyn Griggs Lawrence.

p.s. I am away today and will reply to sprout responses tomorrow.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

Sabi

February 17, 2010December 10, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

If wabi is a preference for very little in recognition of its unequaled abundance in the face of all else, then what is sabi?

According to Robyn Griggs Lawrence, in The Wabi-Sabi house: the Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty , sabi means “the bloom of time.” Sabi implies an understanding that beauty and life are fleeting. Sabi is the grace of wear through the passage of time and use. Sabi is the appreciation of imperfections. Sabi is not about things of poor quality falling apart or leaving things in poor repair. Sabi is the carefully mended knee of a pant leg which is still in service.

Sabi is our lines, wrinkles, and weathered beauty.

Sabi is the waxed, worn, wooden arm of a chair.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Sabi is rust through the oiled surface of a wood cook stove.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Tomorrow I will put wabi and sabi together as in wabi-sabi.

Sprout Question: Does sabi have any part in your creativity?

p.s. I am away today and tomorrow. I will reply to sprout responses when I return.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

Fast Water part 2

February 2, 2010February 2, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 6 Comments

Yesterday, I shared the first part of my weekend hike along the Cowichan River near Skutz Falls. Today’s photo journal entry focuses on building and using stretchers in the wilderness. I hope you enjoy this creative adventure that is also an applied survival skill.

First, let’s take a look up river. While I am taking this photo one of the coaches is explaining that next term if the students choose they will jump in up river (with life jackets and helmets of course) and be rescued just below the bridge we are standing on at the moment. They don’t have to go in but it is a prerequisite for learning to whitewater kayak.

The senior students met us at the bridge and lead us back down the river on the north side to where they had made stretchers by cutting poles and stringing them with coats, backpacks and one with a tarp. There was also stretcher made with webbed rope made and a foam sheet used in kayaking – this showed what could be used when sea kayaking and poles may not be readily available.

Everyone formed teams and the senior students lead the groups through a series of off trail maneuvers as directed by the coaches.

Down the trail they come…

Stopping to check on how the patient is doing (a very vulnerable ride)

It’s getting dark and I have to use my flash as they go through the brush…

And on the home stretch(er)

Creativity is related to much more than the arts. Creativity is the product of our ability to imagine. Our imagination allows us to find connections and ways of doing things that we have never seen or experienced before. I can tell by the smiles of these students, as they take on what is actually a difficult task to carry someone through the brush on a homemade stretcher, they are creative beings and loving it – lucky them and lucky us. I feel very privileged to have been able to share their company for this one afternoon on the Cowichan River.

Sprout Question: Have you ever had to use your creativity to save your life or save someone else?

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

Fan Your Creativity

January 22, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

When we live a creative life, we create, we manifest and we pour out our inspirations day after day. In the language of Julia Cameron the creative well needs to be refilled – an “artist’s date” is what she prescribes.

We need to fan the flame of our creativity with cushy pampering. My “artist’s dates” often include enjoying the creativity of others.

Going to the city is a great place for tapping into rare creative gifts. We dined at Café Ceylon. Chef Tamara Bailey, a native of Sri Lanka – uses principles of Ayurveda in her cooking and prepares the most delicate dishes I have ever tasted. We seldom get to take in Chef Tamara Bailey’s masterful art work because of ferry schedules. Last evening I feasted under her talented palate on blackened coconut curried prawns – the sauce takes five hours to prepare. My creativity is stoked.

Later back at our room in the Humbodlt House Bed and Breakfast, following a lengthy lounge in an oversized soaker tub (we only have a shower at home), I browsed through my blogroll to see what other creative souls had been doing. Leah Piken Kolidas of Creative Every Day is featuring creations by amazing CED participants.

Ahhhhhh! See you back at the studio next week. Friday happy dance to you.

Sprout Question: How do you pamper and fan your creativity?

Note: I have limited computer access today but shall be on-line again this evening.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

My Art for Haiti

January 20, 2010January 20, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

As I am catching up, after two days of being off-line due to high winds, I drop in on Martha Marshall’s blog and discover her Art For Haiti post. I must participate. Below are the three images that I will donate 100% of post-production profits until the end of February 2010 to AVAAZ Stand with Haiti. I’m providing my redbubble link for each image for full resolution and purchase of various products including cards, matted and framed prints and canvases.

View “Sandstone Shoreline” (a new image) in full resolution and purchase here.

View “Last of the Season” watercolor image in full resolution and purchase here. More about publishing of “Last Rose” in River Poets Quarterly Journal here.

View full of resolution of “Stand with Haiti” image and purchase here. More about the rose-hip and Stand with Haiti image here.

If you are on twitter, you can help by tweeting “RT @terrillwelch My Art for Haiti http://bit.ly/77EG0b #art4haiti ” in your update.

In closing, I offer a special thank you to Martha Marshall and her outstanding An Artist’s Journal Blog for this inspiration.

Sprout Question: How has your creativity been useful in contributing to the greater good of others?

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

Path of No Return

January 13, 2010January 13, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 8 Comments

View image in full resolution here.

Yesterday I wrote about redefining the concept of “underpainting” and “overpainting” to include moving from a digital photo through digital processes leading to depicting other art forms such as oil painting and ink drawing.

Today, the image I share with you has little resemblance to the original digital image. Yet it feels more like what I experienced in that moment than the original photograph. With rising tension, I digitally worked to create this image, changing one thing, then another and yet another. Like the children in the fairy tale, I was so delighted and excited about what I was doing that I place no marks on the path for my return. Yes, I have the original photograph. But the here-to-there is lost in the same mental processing as happens when I physically paint.

In the image above, Cedar in oil, I now have only the one image left that is the voice of what I want to express.

Dr Bob Deutsch states “The creative communicator is an alchemist of thought, attending to the reasoning of emotion” in “Marketers Need to Better Understand Creativity” This statement seems right – validating. (Note: this reference is to incredible well-written article about creativity published today January 13, 2010)

Sprout Question: Accepting that you are a creative alchemist, what do you want to express in your art that isn’t available before you start?

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

The Great Blue Heron and creativity

December 29, 2009January 2, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 2 Comments

View full resolution at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch/art/4375903-2-great-blue-heron

I share the Great Blue Heron with us today. The heron is a bird of patience, fishing for hours to catch its dinner. It is graceful as it sits, and often awkward when it takes flight — with the most retched voice, reminding me of prehistoric times. I find it unfortunate that such a beautiful bird has such a horrible song. Yet that strange song echos and has us looking around to see where it is coming from. Meanwhile the heron, in its awkwardness, takes flight and flies to safety. I love the heron for reminding me that in order to love a part of myself (or another) I must live and accept the whole and learn when to be still, when to sing and when to fly.

I gift us the heron to remind us that we are not one thing or one way all of the time in our creativity – and there is a reason… even if we can’t see that reason in the moment.

Sprout Question: How do you acknowledge and honour the different parts of yourself in your creativity?

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.