Bex Hall

Bex Hall > creativity exercises

creativity exercises

It’s been a weird few months.

Ginkgo leaf.

The first eight of this year I was enthusiastic with art, writing, blogging, and all things creative.

But September came and momentum screeched to a halt. I felt some guilt and anxiety for not keeping up the “schedule” I’d set for myself.

October was a wash for regular activities. The Walk When the Moon is Full project timing didn’t work out so well. The phenology wheel and journal only saw some errant notes with a few doodles on scratch paper to be transferred later. Tomorrow. Next week.

The negativity I felt subsided and instead, I acknowledge I needed some time off. Some time to rejuvenate. Regroup. Refresh. And other Re- words as well.

I’ve been experimenting with printing leaves. Thinking about setting up an online shop. Dreaming of building a new studio. Looking at classes to take and what I might teach others. 

And writing. Always writing and reading and learning more.

I guess I’ve been creative just behind the scenes. Quiet. That’s how I’ve felt lately.

Today is the 324th day of the year. I have written and posted 196 blog entries. My intention was to post something every day. I did the first 100 days, then the frequency lapsed. 

What other goals did I have? I returned to my first blog post from January 20th and re-read my intentions.

The overall plan was to document and share what I’m learning and doing. To include those of you interested in a creative path and practice. To make connections and discover what it is we want to say and do.

Did any of this happen?

Some. Maybe. I don’t know.

A quote from Emerson hit home this morning: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

What is within me that can be of value to others? How can I be of service? What’s the next step?

What’s my next step?

I’m going to keep going down this path and my hope is along the way, we meet, we create, and we find the answers together.

Until next time, may your life be filled with creativity, curiosity, and lots of love. xox

Which way do I go?

Discover your unique imprint for work

Work that makes you come alive

Sparked by Jonathan Fields

Last week on the Creative Pep Talk podcast, I listened as Andy J. Pizza interviewed Jonathan Fields about his new book Sparked, which helps you discover your unique imprint for work that makes you come alive.

Which caught my attention.

There’s free quiz you can take online and the results will determine your primary, shadow, and anti Sparketypes. The book does a deep dive into You. In a Nutshell.

I’m a Maven (I live to learn) and a Maker (I make ideas manifest) which is no surprise to those of you who know me. What WAS a surprise though was the depth and understanding given in the book which has me lifted and thinking in new directions.

The Maven.
The Maker.

I’m only partway through the book and have arrived at the “Now what?” section. Putting your Sparketype to work. I’ll post updates as I learn more. (How Maven of me…!)

Sparked.

I hope you’ll check out the quiz at Sparketype dot com. It’s fun and free and who knows what you may discover?!

Click HERE buy the book through Amazon.

My love affair with words and art

Today’s Squareathon prompt brings back a childhood memory

3x3 watercolor moonscape

Vacation starts today and in that spirit, I embrace time off by chasing rabbits down holes. One of the Squareathon prompts is cerulean, and as I’m wont to do, I googled the word.

It’s a pure blue pigment discovered in 1789 by Swiss chemist Albrecht Höpfner.

It’s particularly valuable for artistic painting because of its hue, permanence, and opaqueness. Artist Berthe Morisot painted the blue coat of the woman in her Summer’s Day, 1879 in cerulean blue.

Berthe Morisot’s Summer’s Day, 1879

In its inaugural year, Pantone kicked the COTY (Color Of The Year) selection off with Cerulean, which they actually called the “color of the millennium.” They felt consumers would be seeking inner peace and fulfillment in a time of uncertainty, while also reflecting on the past and looking toward the future. Thus, they chose this calming blue shade that’s reminiscent of the sky.

Pantone’s Color of the Year, 2000

All interesting facts, but then I read one and it ushered in a significant childhood memory. A defining moment in my love affair with words and art.

Ceruleun Blue on the wrapper of one of my blue Crayola crayons. It was one of the first words I ever noticed. How was it pronounced? What did it mean, exactly?

cerulean Crayola

I remember swatching colors, even though I didn’t know what it was called, with all 64 crayons from the box with the fold top lid and built-in sharpener on the back.

From CrayonCollecting.com

There’s a site called Crayon Collecting, and that was my rabbit hole. I felt like Alice in Wonderland, swirling and twirling and grabbing memories from a mist of dreamy colors.

And with that, I give you two of today’s prompts, cerulean and moon, in a 3”x3” watercolor.

3x3 watercolor moonscape

August is the Sunday of Summer

August Phenology Wheel 2021

August is the Sunday of Summer. And like a Sunday, we enjoy the vestiges of a rhythm we have become comfortable. August brings changes all around us, if you look.

The once majestic sunflowers hang their heads, tired. The verdant hillsides are suffused with a dullness. Morning birdsong comes later than usual. Queen Anne has traded her white lace for fields of purple ironweed and feathery goldenrod.

Hummingbirds are scarce, woolly bear caterpillars are on the march, and foggy mornings are frequent.

Cain and Mabel

August gave us a grand show, though. The morning glory blossoms were at their deepest velvet. Electric pink milk thistle appeared in fields. Pokeweed berries ripened to the color of burgundy wine. Orange jewelweed dotted the landscape.

August nature journal
Full Sturgeon Moon

The air still wraps itself around us like a steamy wet blanket, but soon we’ll use a real one to ward off the chill. Windows will reopen and curtains will billow with cool breezes. Bedtime stories will come earlier and car headlights once again necessary for the morning commute.

American Goldfinch on spent coneflower

When the sun shines in a September blue sky, it will illuminate mountains sprinkled with multicolored confetti against a backdrop of windswept white clouds. There will be hints of pepper and sassafras in the air. Squirrel’s nests will appear among the treetops, their height perhaps an indicator of the level of snow we might expect in winter.

Banded Tussock Moth and caterpillar

I heard cicadas for the first time this summer on Saturday the 21st. According to folklore, six weeks from then will be our first frost here. I’ve marked the calendar for October 2nd, just to see.

August, the Sunday of Summer

There’s only a little while longer for short sleeves and flip-flops. Butterflies, bumblebees, and trees thick with leaves. For this Sunday of summer, I relish the remnants of this relaxed time before I turn the page and begin anew. 

The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year – the days when summer is changing into autumn – the crickets spread the rumour of sadness and change.”

E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web
August 2021 nature journal

A nature walk as an artist date this week

You don’t have to know the name to see what you need to see

Tiger swallowtail

For this week’s artist date, I wandered in nature with my camera. Some subjects were old favorites, like the touch-me-knots, which I used to call popsie-doodles when I was a child. Their seed pods ready to burst open into a curlicue with a light touch.

Touch-me-knots

Or the Pokeweed plants and their deep purple berries. I used to crush them to use as paint and the color matched my favorite syrup, boysenberry, ergo this plant was a boysenberry, which I believed was its name for many years.

Pokeweed

But some names I didn’t know, like the tall, bushy mauve flowers or the yellow butterfly with black stripes or the caterpillar with spikes on its spikes.

A guide tells me the light purple flowers are Joe Pye weed. According to legend, Joe Pye was a Native American herbalist who used it to cure a variety of illnesses, including typhoid fever.

The butterfly appears to be a Tiger Swallowtail.

The spiny caterpillar appears to be a buck moth, which gets its name because it’s one of the few moths that fly during the day during deer season.

Buck moth caterpillar

I went on the artist date this week intending to capture snapshots of nature to use as reference for drawing. But my curiosity demanded to know the names of what I saw and I did that research afterward. Now I know. And so do you.

But the real magic happened before I looked up the names of everything. The real magic was being in nature. I didn’t see Joe Pye weed or a tiger swallowtail or a buck moth caterpillar. 

Joe Pye weed

No, what I saw were mauve air castles nestled among verdant waves dappled with sunlight and shadow. I saw delicate yellow and black fairies dance around the parapets while an armor clad guard stood watch.

I saw summers long past filled with boysenberry painted faces and contests with my cousin to see who could get the most popsie-doodle pops. Seed pod curlicues tied into necklaces. Caterpillars collected and held captive while we witnessed them become whatever they were to become.

To see, we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at.”

—Claude Monet

Until next week, all my love.