Do It Yourself Creativity
We ask our Creative Residents to share their art and ideas with the community during their time with us. Below are guides for several Do-It-Yourself creative projects you can do any time and at your own pace. Follow the prompts and see what new discoveries you make.
Coloring Nature: Illustrations from Dorota Haber-Lehigh
No matter your age or your artistic skill, everyone can enjoy coloring. This all-ages activity is expressive, playful, and relaxing.
Illustrator Dorota Haber-Lehigh captured these images of kingfishers and dragonflies during her recent 2020 residency. They are downloadable and just waiting for you to color them in. (Click on the images shown right.)
The Nose Knows: A Scent Walk with Composer Mary Ellen Childs
Mary Ellen Childs (our February 2021 Creative Resident) is an award-winning, internationally renowned composer whose creative process includes tapping into all of her senses. She shares some of her thoughts about the evocative nature of scent and her own fragrant discoveries while visiting Bloedel in an essay here.
And here are Mary Ellen’s instructions for taking your own scent walk. Take your time. Inhale. You’ll be surprised at what you discover.
Taking a Scent Walk
If you’d like to take your own scent walk, here are some things you might ponder:
- Take time to stay with a smell.
- How might you describe it?
- Lemony? Dank? Sharp or soft? What else does the remind you of? Perhaps jasmine? Or pepper? Or stinky socks?
- How does it make you feel? Relaxed? Elated? Repelled?
- There is no right or wrong way to describe smells so feel free to let your thoughts go.
- Go beyond flowers and plants to soil, sap, rotting wood.
- Be willing to put your nose right up to a flower or plant. Consider getting you nose close to the ground and taking a big inhale of damp soil or rotting matter. (I find both to be deliciously satisfying.)
- Remember that smells will change through the seasons, perhaps even day to day depending on whether it’s rainy or sunny or windy. You’ll likely find a range of smells different from what I found in February. A great reason to take repeated walks through the Reserve.
A Three-Part DIY Poetry Exploration from Poet G.C. Waldrep
Poet G.C. Waldrep was our final Creative Resident of 2020. Because COVID restrictions left him unable to do an in-person poetry workshop, he gave us an extraordinary gift — a downloadable, do-it-yourself writer’s class in three parts, each part inspired by a different area of Bloedel Reserve.
Use the links below to get started on your personal poetry journey. To get the most from this creative exploration, G.C. strongly recommends that you read the introduction and then complete each part of the class in order and not skip ahead.
Bloedel Reserve Writing Prompt Introduction
Bloedel Reserve Writing Prompt Part One
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