Day 24 – Make something that incorporates or is inspired by a smell.

Not many things smell better to me than a loaf of bread fresh from the oven. So, with a nod to Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland, I can’t help but submit my version of fresh baked bread and butterflies.

Day 23 – Interpret your favorite song lyrics.

I have a lot of favorite songs. Good Day Sunshine by the Beatles captured my inspiration for this challenge.

Good Day Sunshine

The Beatles

Good day sunshine, good day sunshine, good day sunshine
I need to laugh and when the sun is out
I’ve got something I can laugh about
I feel good in a special way
I’m in love and it’s a sunny day

Good day sunshine, good day sunshine, good day sunshine
We take a walk, the sun is shining down
Burns my feet as they touch the ground

Good day sunshine, good day sunshine, good day sunshine
Then we’d lie beneath the shady tree
I love her and she’s loving me
She feels good, she knows she’s looking fine
I’m so proud to know that she is mine.

Good day sunshine, good day sunshine, good day sunshine
Good day sunshine, good day sunshine, good day sunshine
Good day sunshine, good day sunshine, good day sunshine
Good day…

Day 21 – Take something boring and make it really fancy.

I started with a basic (boring) butterfly shape in black and white.

 

Then I added background layers, lace textures and a string of pearls. Voila, a “fancified” butterfly.

Day 20 – Create using only materials you can find in a kitchen.

I don’t know if it’s because it’s getting close to Halloween, I have an aptitude for chopping things or I’m feeling a little edgy..but I’m totally feeling the knives for this one.

Day 16 – Invent a new word and illustrate or demonstrate its meaning.

Bucolepidopteous – descriptive of a a beautiful pastoral setting filled with butterflies.

Taken from bucolic, lepidoptera and beauteous:

Bucolic – adjective: of or relating to the pleasant aspects of the countryside and country life.

Lepidoptera – is an order of insects that includes moths and butterflies.

Beauteous – full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome

Day 18 – Take a walk outdoors and create something using exclusively the materials you find along the way.

Just a few of the interesting things I come across on my two block walk from my office to the parking deck:

The courtyard in front of the office building…window displays and a leaf print in the concrete, two friendly iron critters…

Day 17 – Green is the color of so many different things. Use it as your inspiration today.

“It isn’t easy being green,” but my little green Kermit butterfly is definitely having fun with this challenge…

Day 14 – Combine two things that you don’t usually find together.

Things that don’t go together…hmmm…but butterflies go with everything right?

Since butterflies are found in nature, I decided to use something that was man-made and ended up with clockworks and gears for a Steampunk inspired butterfly.

 

Day 13 – Recreate a famous work of art in your own way.

I was really excited by this challenge and raced through ideas for Van Gogh’s Starry Night and the Birth of Venus. Eventually, I decided on The Son of Man by Rene Magritte, often referred to “Man in the Bowler Hat.”

I could call my version “Daughter of Woman,” but I think I’ll go with “Hidden Behind Myself” inspired by the quote from Magritte below.

At least it hides the face partly well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.

This quote is what helped me finally decide to use this piece for inspiration. And, it got me pondering not necessarily about how everything is hidden behind something else and that we’re constantly seeking, but how true it is that we, especially artists, struggle between reveling who we are through our art and keeping our creations to ourselves for fear of exposure to the public eye.

Whenever someone confides in me their fear of putting their art out in the world, be it words or paint or photos, I always tell them that for every creative thing there is a person out there who will connect with it in some way. All too often, I find that I need to follow my own advice and bravely put my work out there whether I’m completely happy with it or not.

CreativeSprint has been the most creatively demanding exercise and the most emotionally supportive venue for exposing my art to the world.

 

Day 12 – Make something inside of a box.

Oh boy! My Butterfly-of-the-Month Club box just arrived!