Happy Monster Monday everyone! Today I have a special treat for you. You may have seen this kooky critter creeping around my pages before- but what you may not know is that she made it into the children’s picture book that I’m currently working on! “My Very Hairy Monster Friends” is a collection of short poems accompanied by wild and whimsical creature illustrations. Adventures, life lessons, and celebrating diversity are some themes that come out of this book. I’m ecstatic about releasing these unique creations into the world, and today I’d like to share a sneak peek of one of the featured poems along with the original watercolour painting I did of the Biscuit Monster (I’ll share the actual page illustration when I complete it)! Enjoy…
The Biscuit Monster
The Biscuit Monster is lots of fun,
She eats her cookies one by one,
And if she’s hungry when she’s done…
Hide your treats and run, run, run!
The Biscuit Monster
Thanks for reading and be sure to subscribe to the Blog to follow the progress of “My Very Hairy Monster Friends” and other creative adventures…
Hey everyone, I’d like you to meet the Self-Love Serpent. Self-Love Serpent, I’d like you to meet the people on the other end of the internets.
This little sweetheart has been a lesson in the making for a few different reasons, which I’d like to tell you about, but first she requires an intro. This slithering slinky is part of a project I recently started called “The Self-Love Deck for Monsters”. “The WHAT?” you ask. Think Tarot Deck, but the inspirational kind instead of traditional Tarot, and where each card features a creature with a hint of wisdom concerning self-love. Within the categories of the deck are the elemental sub-categories fire, water, air, earth, and ether. The card I sat down to work on about a month ago was “Self-Love” itself in the air element. What I first envisioned was something fuzzy and cute, swimming and swooping elegantly through the air, smiling, with a radiant heart.
What came out on paper, though, was somewhat of an unlikely candidate for the job. I was thinking of something like the flying dog from “The Neverending Story” movie, yet what materialized was…a snake? Now there’s nothing wrong with snakes, but they don’t exactly elicit a warm and fuzzy feeling for me, personally. While I don’t always have control over what my pencil does, I’m learning to trust it, so I went with it. In the end, I loved her. She was sweet, interesting, and could wrap her sleek figure around herself in a warm embrace until she had tied herself in knots of love. Her two tails, for me, represented both giving love as well as receiving it (which I’ve come to learn are two very different practices). Her scales would symbolize the multitude of aspects of herself, each which she had learned to love unconditionally. Hence was born the Self-Love Serpent. I couldn’t have planned her this well. Lesson one— trust yourself and your pencil, as strange as either’s guidance may seem at the time.
Okay, so I’m not used to drawing creatures that can pretzelize themselves, and after drawing her and falling for her, I realized (due to the feedback from a close artist friend) that I’d drawn her without much thought and her anatomy made no sense. Her twists and turns didn’t work, her spine was impossible, and her “spikes” were pointing the wrong direction on her tails… in short, she was an anatomical mess. DOH! I so liked how her lines worked as she was! But being the perfectionist that I am, I took to figuring out the puzzle of her serpentine bodice. Well, she became a gruelling group effort involving that same friend, my family and my boyfriend. We became Team-Serpent as I drew, erased, redrew her lines, until finally we got her straightened—or not so straightened— out (thanks team!). Much better! And I needed only to misplace a bit of my sanity and a few too many sleeping hours in the process… ahem. Lesson two— it’s okay to make mistakes, get feedback, and ask for help! Even (especially?) if you have to hear something you don’t like in the process.
Playing with Style and Medium
Finally, when her lead outlines were exacted in a way that filled me with delight, as interesting lines on paper do, she was ready to paint. This became a whole other undertaking. You’d think I’d never painted before, but I’d just locked down hard on “solidifying my style” and thus was putting a lot of importance on this painting. I’ve been using gouache for a number of years now but when I consulted the aforementioned friend, she informed me that I was using the wrong medium for the style I was trying to achieve. Back I went to watercolour; a medium I’d first started using for my illustrations a decade earlier, and realized it did work better for my desired results! My homework was to play around with painting, doing so more freely and sloppily and even more outside of the lines (sorry Granny!). As someone who despises redoing things, this was tough for me, but I decided to paint multiple versions of the same picture, each as quickly as I could, to practise (see image above). Well, voila, I am getting closer and closer to what I want with my medium, style and speed of painting. Yeah yeah, practise makes perfect, right? But seriously, the slogan warrants some credit. Lesson three— don’t be afraid to break the mould, try something new, and step out of your comfort zones. You never know where it will bring you.
In the end, here she floats in all her grace: The Self-Love Serpent. And along with all her bizarreness, frustrations and imperfections, she loves herself completely— and she inspires me to do the same!
“The Self-Love Serpent”
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You know those times, when you’re walking through the Swamps of Lifeasyouknowit and you stub your toe, fly off the path, and land face first in the muck? It’s tarry and tacky and the more you fight it the stronger it holds, until you give in and lie limp, staring at the skies as Gremgirts drop gremdrops into your eyes. Suddenly a week or two has gone by when suddenly you realize that you’ve been stewing there long enough and you really ought to do something about it. So you start thrashing about, crying out, and trying to absorb wisdom from all but the roots of the nearby Trubbatrub Trees— seeking for any ounce of an inkling as to how you might set yourself free. You know, those times. Well that’s where I spent my last few weeks. It happens to me as it can happen to any ol’ monster.
The Mud Monster
Sometimes when you’re in the thick of it, or in the muck of it rather, it’s hard to see the way out, or you’re too busy thrashing to see the lifeline that’s landed next to you. But when you give into it, you’ll often find that the answer was there all along: just sit yourself up, wipe yourself off, give yourself a pat on the back and continue on. No harm done, hopefully, except for maybe the need of a shower, and most importantly— a new map!
Now I’ll be frank, it’s been a tough month for this here monster. I started off uber excited, motivated and inspired about my creative business, art, and this blog. Then I got all serious-perfectionist-ninja and pushed myself too hard, ran myself down, stressed myself into to the state of a monster-sized mud puddle, and lost sight of the whole point— to have and inspire more FUN! So yeah, I got caught in the muck but the process of removing myself from it has brought some clarity and the ensuing necessary redirection of my business and projects. The process being:
Pause: stop what you’re doing, breathe deeply, and have self-compassion for your challenge
Accept: that the struggle is part of the process of learning and growing, no matter how frustrating it may be
Reflect: on what’s going on and what you could do differently
Redirect: your plan, approach, or thoughts accordingly
And this applies to challenges in everyday life as much as to blockages you run into whilst pursuing creative endeavours or goals. I’m even testing it out on negative thought patterns, anxiety, frustration, or the ghastly “P Word”— perfectionism.
So anyway, the thing I’m redirecting today is this blog. It will now focus more on a behind-the-scenes of my Monster Studio than the original “Monsterly Self-Help” idea. That project is planned for a later date. This plan will help me concentrate on the essence of what Art of Nonsense is all about— creativity, play and joy! So what will this new blog look like? Same name, different tagline (coming soon). The sharing of sketches, art, poems, stories, project updates, sneak peaks, my process, ideas, thoughts, topics of interest, challenges, celebrations, inspiration and of course… MONSTERS! My posts will still feature tid-bits about self-love and self-discovery/improvement along the way, because those themes are interwoven in my work, my values, and arguably in any creative project or endeavour (perhaps a topic for another post?). So here I am, somewhat sparkling and clean, with a new intention to share with you my creative journey and hopefully inspire yours along the way. Here’s to us; may we unleash our inner creative creatures— hurrah!
P.S. If you have a project, goal, or challenge that has been giving you grief, can you approach it in a fresh way or different angle? New perspective can sometimes move mountains— even if it’s simple taking a walk down a new route or through nature. Just watch out for mud puddles and Gremgirts…!
Do you ever find yourself thinking things like, “I’ll be good enough when I’m that way; loveable when I have this skill or knowledge; worthy when I land myself in such-and-such position”? If so, don’t fret, you’re one in a sea of monsters having the same malevolent thoughts.
Here’s the thing— development and growth are great, building skills can be useful, new knowledge can be insightful, and different experiences can be life-changing, but a problem arises when you start believing about such things that:
a) they will fix all of your challenges completely and immediately.
b) without them you are somehow broken or deficient and won’t be “good enough” until you’ve achieved them.
c) they are all very serious business, so you’d better crack down hard!
In these cases, you might end up like The Gobbling Goblin: gorging yourself on self-improvement until you have a belly ache and your eyes are rolling maniacally around in your head to such a point that you’re left sitting there in a daze, unable to remember what the darned feast even tasted like, thinking, “I did the work. Why’m I not good nuf yet?”
(The Gobbling Goblin)
But self-improvement doesn’t work that way. We simply can’t digest growth and change in one sitting, and apply it consistently for dessert. These things take time, patience, and practice. Think of it like taste testing: try a little bit here, take another bite there, perhaps one worked for you, and another one didn’t. Maybe you dropped a few pieces on the floor or spit one inconspicuously into your napkin. It’s all okay. The point is, keep tasting. Just try not to devour the entire platter at once, and refrain from expecting the next bite to turn you into some grandiose version of yourself Alice in Wonderland style.
At the end of the day, know that you already are, and you always have been, good enough, and loveable, and worthy. So by all means, invest in learning and growing in ways that feel beneficial to you— just remember to do so gently and to enjoy your life and love yourself while you’re at it! And exploring how to do just that is exactly what this strange, monsterly, self-helpish blog is all about, so be sure to subscribe to join in on the journey…
Art of Nonsense is excited to announce the launch of its new biweekly blog “Monster Musings” on Wednesday, February 12th! Come and play with Kristy Biscuit and the Monsters as they explore ancient wisdom, spirituality, psychology, science, self-help methodologies and more – in totally laughable and wacky ways! Life shouldn’t be taken so seriously- why should self-improvement be? We’re on a journey to greater self-love, awareness, connection, personal power and expression…will you come along?
Also watch for Monster Mondays starting in February, where new adorable monster friends will be sneaking about with their weekly wisdom… find them on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest
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