I'm a little late to this post, sorry, but portals for this visual artist are vast. But it seems in hard times there's a veil obscuring their opening. Gardens and woodlands of old growth trees are my minds eye of portals. And although I love my studio looking out to my own garden, my newest portal is my Travel Van, Ozzy (to travel beyond the rainbow), a built out camper van that I can escape from home and find places to art and travel. Winter has hampered my efforts but I am ready to travel in my as soon as it warms up a bit more. Thanks Michelle your posts help in these hard times!
My portal key was a weekend retreat with likeminded people who explored making plant inks and on my return after a day of work, out came the inks and I lost myself in dialogue with nature’s creations. I arrived at a different time, darkness had fallen and bedtime called.
I am in a portal right now. Today, funny as it may seem, I lost one of my part time jobs. I have felt for a while that God has been leading me to do something with my art. So as I transition my life, I feel an excitement, fear and the need to learn. Here we go!
Kreativitasku terasa sebagai portal, saat tumpukan/dorongan di dalam hati membuncah dan menemukan penyalurannya, dan aku tak menahannya. Saat itulah kreativitas menjadi gerbang menuju pemahaman-pemahaman baru. Suatu anugerah yang tak akan pernah aku sia-siakan. Seperti melahirkan sesuatu yang baru…
My portal is my corner nook that has taken over my small living room. Art projects half done, more to be started. And even more on my list. It's a magical life in my imagination. I wish I could live there.
My favorite portal is from the glossary of a book I love (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy). It’s from the glossary:
“WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.”
I love it because just because things may seem a mess or even a disaster, it’s really just the start of an amazing adventure!
Wishing you all wonderful journeys in your adventures.
I love your line, “Ordinary-looking wardrobes still lead to Narnia.” I thought I’d missed Day 1 of creativity and then upon reflection of the day, (spent prepping for the blizzard of the century currently hitting New York), I realized within the ordinary moments that I had in fact escaped to my own Narnia! The following were my portals of creativity sprinkled throughout an ordinary day:
1. I re-learned how to embroidery and practiced my backstitch outlining a heart
2. I took some photos outside to record pre-blizzard snow amounts and found myself looking through a particular bush towards the winter sky
and
3. I wrote in my journal about where I find my peace, which led me on a journey of remembering my favorite beaches.
I’m so happy that on a deeper subconscious level, I was in fact, stepping into my portals of creativity and wonder.
There are many portals for me. My eyes are portals to portals😊
A puddle is a portal to another world. Nature is my largest portal. A shadow dancing on a wall, clouds spinning across the sky, leaves rustling in the wind, the colors on my palette commingling to create new colors.
I may not be able to capture them on paper, or with words, or in a photo. But my soul captures them and is fed.
It’s snowing here a rare blizzard they say. However it’s the North East and I just think people forgot what winters are about. while some think ugh enough, I welcome it. I love the snow the beauty of it, the quietness it brings. I love the crispness in the air. So today my inspiration is looking out the window watching the snowfall. So looking forward to our daily prompts. Thank you ❄️
My creative portal is a lush green meadow under bright blue skies with the sun on my face. This is Psalm 18:19 for me. He brought me to a spacious place. He rescued me because he delights in me. Here, as many have said, time stands still and my nervous system goes into a parasympathetic mode leaving me feeling restored and satisfied at what I've just created... painted, knitted, penned, or imagined. All is wonder. I'm going to try to stay in for #100daysofwonder. Peace to you. And, thank you.
Had an “oh my gosh” moment when I read your 001 email this morning. Your words did resonate with me. I guess my portal is sitting on my front porch in the morning with my coffee, my cat and my iPhone. My iPhone set up to an app to listen to the birds. See what birds are in my north Central Florida yard.(that’s important info for the app.) First a little info. Back in one of my art classes the teacher talked about looking at trees and studying them. You look at trees and they are green. If you study them they are so many different greens, dark and light and what direction the sun is coming from. Sunrise these days is about 7 AM. At 7:36 I took a picture. Looking out I see the sunrise only hitting the top of the trees. The sun rises up at the back of my house, so the house and other trees are shadowing the lower half of my view. It was an awe moment. So I took a picture. I posted it on Facebook to show my friends the beauty of it all. I commented, I should paint it! I got lots of positive responses. One friend said,”get to work”. My daughter said, “that looks like a painting,” I agreed. From what is usually an ordinary morning, turned into studying my trees and opened up an opportunity to create.
I visualize my creativity as my imagination. I so want to write, I am retired, and that is what I want to do, but I am struggling (a lot) to find that traction. In the meantime, I read every day. And I visualize the worlds that I am reading about sometimes so very easily, and I love doing that. Which can be a challenge when a book I like gets turned into a movie and the characters don’t look at all like I imagined, lol. I read fantasy, primarily, and some science fiction, so you can imagine the opportunities for creative, wonderful, fanciful worlds abound. Talk about portals! You can get lost in those worlds, and that is an awesome feeling.
I long for those moments where I am absorbed in something that causes time to bend, and I find myself hours from when I started. I used to have those when I was younger, when I was working. Now, time seems to be so available that, at least for me, it seems to be working against me. Still, I keep working at it – looking at the next sixty seconds, taking baby steps. It's time for me to believe in me. And my creativity.
Hi Maureen, another writer here. I love how you say you find it hard to find traction. What a great image. (I see a cartoon animal trying to run on ice!).
For me it really helps to set aside certain days/mornings/afternoons as writing days. No matter how much house work needs to be done, no matter what else is going on. That is my writing morning.
And the second thing is I meet (online) with other writers. We talk about few minutes and then everyone writes. Then we talk a few minutes about what we write.
Thank you for this! I have tried to commit to finding dedicated times. Something in my brain puts up walls. And/or I am lazy, I admit. Still, it's always on my mind.
I admit it takes a little courage to set aside time for writing. It means you take you writing serious (eeeek!), in stead of 'oh, it's just a hobby' or 'yeah, it's just scribbling'.
I found my writers' community when taking (and later teaching) a writing course. I just started the café to see if it would fly, and it did. (Sometimes we are only two, sometimes four or six, but we write).
I encourage you to take a writing course. (I found it helpful to have one with people who believe the same things I do).
Great beginning. A door left agar for us to peek inside.... get a glimps of something beautiful or fun... like the White Rabbit scampering down the path... drawing us IN! 💝
I am so grateful to you for doing this, it is a gift. My portal is the chair at my messy and well loved desk in my recently claimed art room of my house. It transports me away from anxiety and worry and lands me in a place of joy and abandon.
I'm a little late to this post, sorry, but portals for this visual artist are vast. But it seems in hard times there's a veil obscuring their opening. Gardens and woodlands of old growth trees are my minds eye of portals. And although I love my studio looking out to my own garden, my newest portal is my Travel Van, Ozzy (to travel beyond the rainbow), a built out camper van that I can escape from home and find places to art and travel. Winter has hampered my efforts but I am ready to travel in my as soon as it warms up a bit more. Thanks Michelle your posts help in these hard times!
My portal key was a weekend retreat with likeminded people who explored making plant inks and on my return after a day of work, out came the inks and I lost myself in dialogue with nature’s creations. I arrived at a different time, darkness had fallen and bedtime called.
I am in a portal right now. Today, funny as it may seem, I lost one of my part time jobs. I have felt for a while that God has been leading me to do something with my art. So as I transition my life, I feel an excitement, fear and the need to learn. Here we go!
Kreativitasku terasa sebagai portal, saat tumpukan/dorongan di dalam hati membuncah dan menemukan penyalurannya, dan aku tak menahannya. Saat itulah kreativitas menjadi gerbang menuju pemahaman-pemahaman baru. Suatu anugerah yang tak akan pernah aku sia-siakan. Seperti melahirkan sesuatu yang baru…
My portal is my corner nook that has taken over my small living room. Art projects half done, more to be started. And even more on my list. It's a magical life in my imagination. I wish I could live there.
My favorite portal is from the glossary of a book I love (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy). It’s from the glossary:
“WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.”
I love it because just because things may seem a mess or even a disaster, it’s really just the start of an amazing adventure!
Wishing you all wonderful journeys in your adventures.
I love your line, “Ordinary-looking wardrobes still lead to Narnia.” I thought I’d missed Day 1 of creativity and then upon reflection of the day, (spent prepping for the blizzard of the century currently hitting New York), I realized within the ordinary moments that I had in fact escaped to my own Narnia! The following were my portals of creativity sprinkled throughout an ordinary day:
1. I re-learned how to embroidery and practiced my backstitch outlining a heart
2. I took some photos outside to record pre-blizzard snow amounts and found myself looking through a particular bush towards the winter sky
and
3. I wrote in my journal about where I find my peace, which led me on a journey of remembering my favorite beaches.
I’m so happy that on a deeper subconscious level, I was in fact, stepping into my portals of creativity and wonder.
Thank you Michele.
For me it’s while writing. Time vanishes into some sort of vortex and I am in the flow.
There are many portals for me. My eyes are portals to portals😊
A puddle is a portal to another world. Nature is my largest portal. A shadow dancing on a wall, clouds spinning across the sky, leaves rustling in the wind, the colors on my palette commingling to create new colors.
I may not be able to capture them on paper, or with words, or in a photo. But my soul captures them and is fed.
It’s snowing here a rare blizzard they say. However it’s the North East and I just think people forgot what winters are about. while some think ugh enough, I welcome it. I love the snow the beauty of it, the quietness it brings. I love the crispness in the air. So today my inspiration is looking out the window watching the snowfall. So looking forward to our daily prompts. Thank you ❄️
My creative portal is a lush green meadow under bright blue skies with the sun on my face. This is Psalm 18:19 for me. He brought me to a spacious place. He rescued me because he delights in me. Here, as many have said, time stands still and my nervous system goes into a parasympathetic mode leaving me feeling restored and satisfied at what I've just created... painted, knitted, penned, or imagined. All is wonder. I'm going to try to stay in for #100daysofwonder. Peace to you. And, thank you.
Had an “oh my gosh” moment when I read your 001 email this morning. Your words did resonate with me. I guess my portal is sitting on my front porch in the morning with my coffee, my cat and my iPhone. My iPhone set up to an app to listen to the birds. See what birds are in my north Central Florida yard.(that’s important info for the app.) First a little info. Back in one of my art classes the teacher talked about looking at trees and studying them. You look at trees and they are green. If you study them they are so many different greens, dark and light and what direction the sun is coming from. Sunrise these days is about 7 AM. At 7:36 I took a picture. Looking out I see the sunrise only hitting the top of the trees. The sun rises up at the back of my house, so the house and other trees are shadowing the lower half of my view. It was an awe moment. So I took a picture. I posted it on Facebook to show my friends the beauty of it all. I commented, I should paint it! I got lots of positive responses. One friend said,”get to work”. My daughter said, “that looks like a painting,” I agreed. From what is usually an ordinary morning, turned into studying my trees and opened up an opportunity to create.
So now tell me where do I post my watercolor?🤗
I visualize my creativity as my imagination. I so want to write, I am retired, and that is what I want to do, but I am struggling (a lot) to find that traction. In the meantime, I read every day. And I visualize the worlds that I am reading about sometimes so very easily, and I love doing that. Which can be a challenge when a book I like gets turned into a movie and the characters don’t look at all like I imagined, lol. I read fantasy, primarily, and some science fiction, so you can imagine the opportunities for creative, wonderful, fanciful worlds abound. Talk about portals! You can get lost in those worlds, and that is an awesome feeling.
I long for those moments where I am absorbed in something that causes time to bend, and I find myself hours from when I started. I used to have those when I was younger, when I was working. Now, time seems to be so available that, at least for me, it seems to be working against me. Still, I keep working at it – looking at the next sixty seconds, taking baby steps. It's time for me to believe in me. And my creativity.
Hi Maureen, another writer here. I love how you say you find it hard to find traction. What a great image. (I see a cartoon animal trying to run on ice!).
For me it really helps to set aside certain days/mornings/afternoons as writing days. No matter how much house work needs to be done, no matter what else is going on. That is my writing morning.
And the second thing is I meet (online) with other writers. We talk about few minutes and then everyone writes. Then we talk a few minutes about what we write.
I hope you can find your writers community.
Thank you for this! I have tried to commit to finding dedicated times. Something in my brain puts up walls. And/or I am lazy, I admit. Still, it's always on my mind.
How did you find your writers community?
I admit it takes a little courage to set aside time for writing. It means you take you writing serious (eeeek!), in stead of 'oh, it's just a hobby' or 'yeah, it's just scribbling'.
I found my writers' community when taking (and later teaching) a writing course. I just started the café to see if it would fly, and it did. (Sometimes we are only two, sometimes four or six, but we write).
I encourage you to take a writing course. (I found it helpful to have one with people who believe the same things I do).
Great beginning. A door left agar for us to peek inside.... get a glimps of something beautiful or fun... like the White Rabbit scampering down the path... drawing us IN! 💝
I love a good rabbit trail!
I absolutely loved this sentence: “Ordinary-looking wardrobes still lead to Narnia.” Magic is alive. Brought tears of joy to my heart.
Thank you, Michele.
Lori, you are so welcome. William Blake wrote...
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
Portals are as much about how we see as what we see. 💛
I am so grateful to you for doing this, it is a gift. My portal is the chair at my messy and well loved desk in my recently claimed art room of my house. It transports me away from anxiety and worry and lands me in a place of joy and abandon.
A messy desk portal filled with so many ideas and treasures- just perfect!