What is the Colour of Hope for you?
Daffy
Sally Swain © original art
Cancer Council NSW’s fundraiser has art, heart and soul.
You create an image of HOPE on a 30cm x 30cm canvas.
Category Archives: creative love exchange
Tree Truth
This story straight out of the Creative Love Exchange
is Part one of a Treelogy
Tree Truth 1
A lovely Psychodrama person rings me from far yonder. She requests my arty input into a banner for this week’s Australia/NZ conference in Sydney.
I hum. I ha. I say
I wish you a JOYful New Year
Little Arty Joy Book
is an Art and Soul playshop coming up soon.
(See the Offerings page on this website)
Here’s a Fat Book of Positivity that helped to inspire it.
Fat Book of Positivity
Sally Swain and others
This was a frabjous art swap I engaged in
as part of the Art Therapy + Happiness 2015 Project.
Imagine.
You Need Not Feel Alone in Your Creativity
Support is at hand
Could you do with a trusty consultative companion by your side?
Qinka – Creative Spirit has found her Owl. She didn’t know she needed one until it/he/she turned up in an op shop.
Qinka and her Owl Companion
Sally Swain © original art
This Owl does not yet have a name.
Please can you help us name Qinka’s owl?
You can leave a suggestion in the comments box below, or the speech balloon above. We eagerly await.
NEWSFLASH! (late August, 2015)
We have a name for Qinka’s Owl. It is Qoot. Inspired by a raft of suggestions from Louise Jade. Thank you, Louise.
And in a spectacular turn of events, aligned with the Creative Love Exchange,
A Spiral Lets Itself in and Makes Itself Right at Home
Creative Love Exchange Revisited
I’ve joined the wondrous global Art Therapy + Happiness community.
My first task:
Create an Introduction Wheel, featuring the four Cs in four quadrants. The four Cs? Courage, Compassion, Connection, Contribution. Right up my alley.
The four Cs mean a lot to me. I spend days pondering how I might portray them. I itch to get to my art-making. Finally!
I carve out time and space. I ignore my list of Tasks-To-Do-Now-Or-Your-Life-Will-Topple-Over. I am at play.
The Creative Love Exchange
What is it? It’s when you stand in the flow of giving and receiving, feeling creatively alive. And it’s win-win-win.
You do something you love
You share it with others
They benefit – sometimes way beyond your reckoning
You receive the glow
You do more of what you love
One Leaf is Many Leaves
I was sorrowful. It was the week of the Anzac centenary, destructive storms around Sydney, the execution of two of the Bali Nine and… the Nepal earthquake. Working as an art therapist in aged care, I see more Nepalese people than I ever did before in my sheltered Sydney world. They offer intimate personal care to the frail elderly here, while their families are suffering severely back home in the hills. A tough call.
I gave myself creative space – art-making time. I reached for the grey, allowing paint and tears to flow. I gave myself permission to not know, to not know how these pictures would turn out or IF they would turn into anything in particular.
Painting, weeping, following the brush of my heart …. eventually, I noticed shapes and forms emerging.
A guitar appeared in one picture. Wraith-like figures appeared in another.
The paintings became more defined, more present. Crying stopped and thinking began. What if I were to bring gold and white decorations to the images? What if I could put them for sale on Facebook and donate the full proceeds to earthquake survivors?
But what if the paintings are no good? I don’t usually show my raw work so soon after creating it. What if no-one likes this idea? What if it’s crass to mix money and Facebook friends? Continue reading
Art and Soul Space 