New Art Therapy Challenge!!

I like to always challenge myself.

Each month I go to http://nikerunning.nike.com and create a challenge to run a fixed number or miles in a certain amount of weeks. Currently I am running 30 miles by 5-2-2012.

Over a year ago I bought a brand new box of "64 Crayola Crayons", and I gave myself a challenge to do a drawing every day for 64 consecutive days. See older blog posts. In retrospect, it was a lot of fun, but in reality, some days it was frustrating and annoying.  But just because something is frustrating and annoying does mean we should not accept the challenge.

When we tell people about our personal goals and challenges, we are more likely to follow through. This is me telling you.

So, here is my new challenge...

I have discovered a new iPad drawing app called "Paper", and I love it!  I will create and post one drawing per day until the end of my daughters' high school school year - June 12, 2012.  That is exactly 54 days from today.

 Follow me on this journey....

Here is my first drawing done on my iPad with the "Paper" app.

Day 64: Orchid

Before I even looked at the color name, "Orchid" I felt that I wanted to draw either lotus flowers or water-lilies (are they the same thing?)  Something about this color reminded me of Monet's "Waterlily" paintings, but the word "lotus flower" was more prominent in my head.  I Google Imaged "Lotus Flower".

I have not researched the lotus flower, but my understanding is that this type of flower grows up out of the muck.  That is why it is such a powerful Eastern metaphor for rebirth.  Also representative of being pure of body and floating above the muddy waters.  I feel like right now I am in mucky waters.  Money problems.  Navigating through parenting adolescent girls without them hating me all the time.  Trying to find excitement in a 19 year relationship.  Renegotiating my career, because the rate of incoming clients has diminished significantly and in direct proportion to the declining economy.  But I know "This too will pass".  As every other hard time in my life has - it comes to an end and things look brighter on the other side.  But while I am here it is dark and hard to hold on.

Yesterday I had lunch at Wolf Creek Restaurant and Brewing Co in Agoura Hills, CA with three of my friends from my martial arts class (Team MMA in Woodland Hills).  We were celebrating an upcoming wedding. We decorated our lunch table with beautiful pink lily and white hydrangea center pieces, and I took one home after lunch.   I just walked through my kitchen, and smell of that beautiful lily fills the entire room.  Although I did not think of this flower at the time, I am sure I was subconsciously influenced by that smell and the colors.

There is one more crayon left in my 64 box of Crayola Crayons.  Any guesses as to what that last color might be?  

Day 51: Yellow Green

Yuck! I DO NOT like this drawing.  That is my critic voice.  The chin is wrong.  In face drawings, the chin can make or break you.  It can really determine how masculine or feminine the figure looks.  Too big or too square and it becomes a man - more rounded and it is female.  However, now that I am looking at it, there needs to be more space between mouth and chin and less space between mouth and nose.  The proportions are wakey.

Usually I like this color.  I call it "Appletini Green".  Maybe Crayola would consider changing the name.  I have an LL Bean winter coat this color - which I LOVE.  I am not really a fan of the Appletini, though.  It's too sweet. I just like to say it. Appletini.  Everyone try it at home.... Appletini.  Isn't that a fun word?

I took little daughter to get her hair done today, and her stylist gave us a card with an image similar to this drawing.  So later when I sat down to draw, the card was just lying there on the table in front of me. What could I do?  I had no choice but to recreate this sensual seductress.  (Appletini)

I don't think there is too much subconscious stuff in this one.  I was really just copying.  However, she does look like she is looking back over her shoulder in a paranoid/anxious way.  Am I feeling paranoid or anxious?  I didn't think so. But maybe people are out to get me...I did not realize that one could be sensual, seducing, paranoid and anxious all at the same time. I guess anything is possible.

Appletini!

Letter to Crayola Company

I sent a letter to the Crayola company, just to let them know that I was using their product in my Art Therapy project.  I received a response in less than 24 hours.  Crayola gets big points for customer service.

Here is there reply....

Dear Pamela,

Thank for your e-mail and introduction to your blog, Art Therapy by Pamela Hayes.  We are happy to learn that you are featuring Crayola 64-count crayon colors each day.  Our company receives hundreds of letters and e-mails each week.  Most are inquiries for product information.  Few people take the time to write and share their thoughts and experiences with us.  I will forward your blog and information to those responsible for monitoring our social media program.

Again, we appreciate your contact.  Best wishes for a colorful future, Pamela!

Colorfully yours,

Kristina Lomax
Consumer Affairs Representative
CRAYOLA

Day 43: Timberwolf

I felt like drawing cartoons today.  Not sure why, and I knew immediately that I wanted to draw cartoon animals.  I had to look up cartoon animals, and copy them. That's the thing again, I can copy anything, I just need help getting started, and than I always end up making it my own.  I am like that with anything, even writing a reference letter or cooking a meal.  i just need a little motivation to get going.

These animals are playful and fun.  I did not even look at the color name until I started peeling the wrapper off to melt the crayon to make the darker color.  I am amused that this color is "Timberwolf". According to Crayola, this color was not introduced until 1993.   It looks like gray to me.

Day 18: Tickle Me Pink

Today WAS a better day...

I am lecturing today in Columbia, SC.  While the attendees of my conference on Art Therapy and Grief are creating  a collage, I do this.  I have to say, I hate this Crayola name "Tickle Me Pink".  This is a stupid name for a nice color.  One of the attendees commented that this color would make a great lipstick shade.  Maybe that is why I drew mannequin-looking heads with lips. This drawing just seemed to create itself.  Without expectations. I really like this drawing.

With just 3 hours of sleep, I am tired. Must shower and get into this comfy Hilton hotel bed. Nitey-night.

Day 14: Macaroni and Cheese

First off - I must apologize for not getting yesterday's drawing up yesterday.  My daughters had three friends sleeping over and they were in the room where the scanner lives... Believe me, you do NOT want to interrupt 5 pizza and milkshake filled teenage girls while they are watching "She's The Man".

Secondly, thank you to all those of you who sent their emotional support yesterday when my blog was sad and colorless.  I am feeling better.  One of the reasons that I have chosen to do this "64 day / 64 Crayola colors drawing" Art Therapy experiment is to show how my feelings change from day to day. So, no matter how sad, angry or alone I feel one day, it is possible to start a new day feeling completely different.  I find that people assume if they feel sad today, they will definitely feel sad tomorrow and they must have felt sad yesterday. Not true! Emotions are fluid. In order to illustrate that (pun intended) I must be completely honest with myself, my drawings and my interpretations.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled program...
I am feeling better.  Not completely over the disappointment from yesterday, but closer to some acceptance. It really helps that I got an apology and felt real remorse from my loved one.

It is a beautiful, sunny, citrus, California morning. The sun is streaming in.  Both cats are sleeping in there beds in the bright sunlight.  I look out the kitchen glass doors to my backyard where I see my swimming pool and the lemon tree. I cut open an orange from the bowl of fruit on the table, and the smell permeates my senses. I choose a bright and sweet color. The drawing starts as the fruit and than metamorphoses first  into a sun and later into what could be a sea creature.

The fruit and the sun are obvious, but I need to explain the sea creature.  On Tuesday I am leaving for South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida where I am doing a series of lectures on Art Therapy and grief.  Than, I am heading down to Miami where I am getting on a Carnival Cruise ship to Jamaica and Grand Cayman Island with my cousin Susan.  Today Susan I were choosing the excursions that we are interested in, and snorkeling was high on our list.  There! Sea creature reference.  Art Therapy is similar to dreaming - things that were part of our consciousness a few hours earlier make their way into our subconscious drawing.

I just need to add one thing... This Crayola crayon seemed waxier than the others.  It was very difficult to get a dark full coverage, and it was flaking off more than I had experienced with the previous colors.  My question to Crayola... Does the hue of the crayon change or alter the texture? or Is there a different wax content from crayon to crayon?

Day 9: Red

I really like that this one is not as busy as some of the others.  I purposely stopped myself before I thought I was done and I walked away for a little while.  When I came back and viewed it with a fresh eye, I decided that it was done. Sometimes less IS more.  That is outside of my comfort zone, but it does seem consistent with trying to do less, better (monotasking).

I mentioned in another blog post that I like stairs and ladders, while here is that symbol again - without intentionally putting it in.  I think I may spend some time looking up metaphors, meanings and mentions of ladders and stairs.  That is what I tell my clients to do when images and symbols begin to reoccur in their artwork.

I am ascending something - moving towards the future.  The "Bliss" (free floating images) are still in the background as the circles, but now there is a path. A direction.

The red is very dynamic, energetic and powerful.  I have had some emotional challenges in the past few days, and I believe that I am calling on my inner strength for power, direction and stability.  I have to accept my limitations, and understand, and maybe alter, my own response to frustration. I may have to change my role in the family dynamics.

There is a lot of texture that is created from removing the wrapper* and spinning the crayon on it's side. That is how I made those circles in the background.  I purposely broke the crayon into several different sizes so I could get different circle radii.

*When I was a child, it was very easy to remove the Crayola wrapper. All I had to do was open it at the seam and it lifted right off.  Sometimes it even slipped off by accident (maybe that is why they changed it).  But it seems that the wrapper is now glued to the crayon, and in order to remove it I have to scrape off small parts at a time and often my fingernail digs into the side of the crayon - leaving unwanted grooves and gouges. 

Day 7: Burnt Sienna

I was at an a Capella conference with my sister at UCLA today, and I was sitting in one of the workshops while I drew this. The other drawings so far have been very abstract, and I felt like creating a more representational piece. I almost always draw while I am in a class (I have been doing that since, well, since I have been taking classes - 3 years old). I often draw figures while in a class.

I think this dancer came out because I was attending a class on something which I know very little (music), but it is not so dynamic to draw a singer as it is to draw a dancer. I know even less about the world of dancing. I used to draw musicians a lot when I first started dating my husband and he was working as a professional musician where I sat through many many gigs by myself as a groupie.

The floor tiles became a little obsessive, but my mind likes that while I am listening to a lecture. I believe that the only reason that this dancer is naked is because I prefer to draw the body than to draw clothes. I realize that this lights in this drawing look like breasts, but I was copying the actual lights in the class room. However, this particular teacher was very pregnant and her breasts were huge, and I remember thinking that at the time. There are no accidents in art.

I used new technique with the crayon - I drew very heavy, and than I scratched out with my nail - muting most of the color, but leaving a darker outline. I like that affect (except for the crayon left under my nail).

Day 3: Orange

This started out with the dark center line- which was originally supposed to be grass-like, but now it feels more like an EKG (a life line). There seems to be mountains that are growing up and out of that lifeline - moving upward. Underneath I interpret this as multiple layers of Earth - very subterranean and/or tunnels.

Near the end, I was pressing really hard with the crayon to get the darker orange color, and the crayon broke. So I removed the wrapper from one half and spun it on its side to create the half circles - which now look very celestial - sun and moon like.

I am interpreting this as if there are many layers in my world - things that may still be unseen below the surface. I am feeling as if I need to start digging deeper to get to something new - get passed the superficial.

This feels a lot more positive than yesterday, and even inspirational.

Day 2: Blue Green

I wanted to use the crayon in a different way, so I decided to melt it. I was getting frustrated because the candle wax was mixing with the crayon wax and I had some difficulty getting the paper wrapper off. Once I decided to embrace the elements that I was trying to avoid (the wrapper and the candle wax), the whole picture started to come together. Once I had melted about 3/4 of the crayon, I blew out the candle and reverted to using the crayon in it's traditional way.

I do not like this drawing. I feels forced and contrived. I feels confused and disjunct.

Usually "Blue Green" would be a calming color for me, but not today. It is early morning, and I feel as if I am in a rush. Also, my 15 year old daughter is ill today and is staying home from school. She has been sick for the past two weeks, and she was getting better, but there seems to have been a relapse. I am frustrated and confused as to how to care for her. That is why this drawing reflects those feelings.

If I learn from this drawing, it may be to allow the outside elements to contribute to the whole picture. Maybe my vision is too myopic right now. I have to include things that I thought were trash and needed to be discarded.

Your thoughts are welcome and encouraged!

Day 1: Red Violet

This drawing seemed to evolve out of the color. It feels very organic, but almost in the opposite color than I would expect it to be. I've always thought of "Red Violet" as a Victorian and uptight color. This does not feel like that.

I am open to your interpretations. And I am curious to see if others want to draw their own picture with a "Red Violet" crayon.

Crayon has never been my favorite medium. I am going to have to explore unconventional ways to use this art material. Any suggestions?

New Box Of Crayons

Today I bought a brand new box of 64 Crayola Crayons, and there are so many new colors that did not exist when I was a child, and other colors that have been retired or have had their names changed. I am fascinated!

I have decided to choose one color each day, and allow that color to create a drawing. (See next blog for this first drawing.)

History:

In 1903 Crayola introduced 8 different colors: Black, Brown, Orange, Violet, Blue, Green, Red and Yellow.

By 1957 there were 48 colors: including "Purrsian Blue" which was changed to :Midnight Blue" in 1958, and "Flesh", which was changed to "Peach" in 1962 - partially as a result of the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1971 there were now 64 colors: including "Indian Red" which was changed to "Chestnut" in 1999 because many people thought it was offensive to the Native American people.

By 1989 Crayola was up to 72 colors with the inclusion of fluorescents.

80 colors by 1980 and in 1992 several colors were retired: including "Orange Red", "Orange Yellow", "Raw Umber", "Grey Blue" and "Maize". These colors were replaced with such colors as "Vivid Tangerine", "Cerulean", and "Fuchsia".

In 1993 Crayola introduced 16 new colors that were named by the public: including "Asparagus" and "Macaroni and Cheese".

Today there are 120 colors with new colors like: "Inch Worm" and "Wild Blue Yonder".

Info from: http://www.crayola.com/colorcensus/history/chronology.cfm