Fun but Serious Monday Challenge #39 - Our teachers, our lineage, our resilience

Collage of Edith Kramer (1916 - 2014) by Lani textures by FlyPaper.

With the passing of Edith Kramer, I think maybe fun but serious might be what I'd like to explore today.  We've all had teachers who have guided us in ways which were exactly what was needed at the time.  I have to say Edith Kramer was one of those teachers for me.  I posted some of the things I have learned from Edith on my blog so if you are interested please feel free to visit.

Here's today's challenge.  Think about a favorite teacher of yours.  You are a part of this person's lineage.  Think about what you have learned from them and then work on an art piece to honor them and the things you  have learned.  As always feel free to share your work or play on Instagram by adding #14SecretsChallenge to your description, or by adding your photo to our Flickr pool. 

Fun Monday Challenge #38 - Collaborate

"Past and Future" collage by Lani, textures by FlyPaper.

Another easy, fun challenge.  This one is about collaboration.  When I look through my Big Kids Magazine I'm always impressed by the collaboration between kids and artists, between the magazine contributors and the readers, and between the reader and her imagination.  Such a rich experience.
Want some inspiration?  Take a look at the Big Gallery.  Wow, fun!

If you have children in your house or where you work, you are in luck, lots of collaborative possibilities.   You might consider any of the ideas you find on the Big Kids Magazine website or Julia Cameron's  The Artist's Way for Parents: Raising Creative Children


Another source for collaboration (and the one I used here) is This Playground.  Oh, my, another fun website.  Download one of the free pages and have fun. 

So here's the challenge, collaborate with big or small artist friend or with This Playground, and as always feel free to share your work or play on Instagram by adding #14SecretsChallenge to your description, or by adding your photo to our Flickr pool. 

Fun Monday Challenge #37 - Create an inspirational postcard for yourself

"Start here" collage by Lani,  textures by FlyPaper.

This one is very easy.  Take a little time to create a postcard for yourself.  What do you feel you most need or yearn for right now?  (I'm using Jennifer Louden's wonderful The Life Organizer for this one.  She has the simplest and most thought provoking questions to ask ourselves!  Thank you Jennifer!)  Once you name what it is you most need, try using that idea to create your postcard.  Put your address on it, put a stamp on it, and release it!  Don't think about it and it may surprise you when it returns to you!  Have fun!

As always feel free to share your work or play on Instagram by adding #14SecretsChallenge to your description, or by adding your photo to our Flickr pool. 

Fun Monday Challenge #36 - "Friendly Wishes" Art

"Wishes" collage by Lani,  textures by FlyPaper.

This idea came from mindfulness and compassion training that is happening in some schools today.  You can get an idea of what is possible in Susan Kaiser Greenland's website.  She calls herself a recovering lawyer, and became very interested in teaching mindfulness to children after turning to meditation during a family crisis.  She learned different meditation practices as a way to maintain inner calm when the world was anything but.  After making it through the crisis, she continued to practice because it helped her feel calmer and see life experience more clearly.   She decided to develop the Inner Kids program which was was researched at both UCLA and UC-SF. (And the findings are promising.)  There is a link to a pdf of the research conducted by the  Mindful Awareness Research Center of UCLA on the Inner Kids program.  Susan Kaiser Greenland also wrote The Mindful Child  which shows parents how to teach these practices to their children.

One of the practices is "Sending Friendly Wishes" which is actually a very kid friendly guided meditation.  You can listen to it on Susan's website and you can see a clip from a class that is practicing it.  You can also see kids describing what the experience is like.  Lovely!

So the Fun Monday art challenge today is to think about a "Friendly Wish" that you could incorporate into an art piece.  After some thought, try creating your piece.  Now check in with yourself.  How does it feel to create a "Friendly Wishes" art piece?  What if you turned it into an "Art Abandonment" piece, a random act of art kindness?  How might that feel?  As always feel free to share your work or play on Instagram by adding #14SecretsChallenge to your description, or by adding your photo to our Flickr pool.