7/12 Creativity Challenge and New Prompt

Beautiful entries for this week’s challenge prompt, “ethereal,” each with a little different take.  The favorite, though is Cathy Coley’s magical poem. Incredibly beautiful, Cathy!

Finally quieting for nap
my daughter nurses,
tossing her feet to my face
as when she was littler, toes to nose
in laughing games of ‘stinky toes!’
dreamily seeking the same.

Now fifteen months,
she has spent the morning
running across the backyard
barefoot, chasing the dog,
picking unripe tomatoes,
watching for my reaction,
dodging, one in hand,
out of my reach,
squealing in thievery delight.

Her feet to my face, I inhale deeply,
as she is latched on, rhythmically
sucking, most peaceful sound on earth,
lids sleepily closing.
I inhale deeply in the spaces
where her toes meet the sole of her foot
the in between, the nothing,
the soft padding
pressing into my lips, my nose,
roughening skin from
barefoot wandering
where once all was softness
pressing into my face
the ethereal scent
sunwarm grass,
freedom, independence,
and a girl, a baby no more.

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From Miranda Helin Hersey:  This mosaic illustrates is a mixed-media collage I made on the theme “ethereal.” How did I get from “ethereal” to “surrender”? I started with a map of the Earth and a round canvas. You can’t really see Africa anymore, on the left, but it’s there. I was thinking “sky” and “heavens” and a view of the Earth from above. I wanted blue and dreamy and starry. But I wanted a word on the canvas too, and I realized that what made sense to me was “surrender.” There is something in here about my phobia about astronomy and my fear of the little peon-hood existence we all live down here on the planet. Here, I surrender to the miniscule reality of existence, and pay my respects to a very powerful response to the present moment.

The collage looks quite different in varying light. The paler photos (lower set) were taken at night using incandescent lighting; the bluer set (top) were taken in diffuse morning light. Reflecting light in such different ways qualifies as ethereal, no?

My 4-year-old son did his own collage project(s) alongside me for most of the art session, which was fun. A two-fer 🙂

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From me (Kelly Warren): This photo immediately came to mind for this week’s prompt.  You might be surprised to know it was taken at the beach.  I was walking out to the beach to hopefully catch some nice morning shots, so the blazing summer Florida sun had not yet dried out the humid morning air and the moisture seemed to just hang there.  A simple beach flower that just seems to ethereally float out of the frame…

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This week’s prompt: “finger print”
Use the prompt however you like – literally, or a tangential theme. All media are welcome. Please e-mail your entries to creativereality@live.com by midnight eastern time on Sunday, July 19, 2009. Writers should include their submission directly in the body text of their e-mail. Visual artists and photographers should attach an image of their work as a jpeg. Enter as often as you like; multiple submissions for a single prompt are welcome. There is no limit to how many times you can win the weekly challenge, either. (You do not have to be a contributor to this blog in order to enter. All are invited to participate.) All submissions are acknowledged when received; if you do not receive e-mail confirmation of receipt within 48 hours, please post a comment here. Remember, the point is to stimulate your output, not to create a masterpiece. Keep the bar low and see what happens. Dusting off work you created previously is OK too. For more info, read the original contest blog post.