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The PoArtMo Anthology Series: Interview with Azelle Elric

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On November 28, 2023

In Inspirational Artist Series

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our PoArtMo Anthology Series, which celebrates the artists whose work appears in The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 4.

Today’s guest is Azelle Elric. She contributed pieces of art to our anthology.

Auroras & Blossoms: Tell us all about the inspiration behind your pieces.

Firstly, thank you very much for this collab! To work with you all on a PoArtMo Anthology is always a pleasure!

In most of my drawings, I am inspired by Art Nouveau artistic movement and Mucha’s symbolism, particularly long-stylized, wavering hair that I find calming to draw! “Rapunzel” is my own little challenge to draw an illustration inspired by a fairy tale. Using pencil and blending stump was particularly satisfying in an attempt to transcribe a magical/ethereal atmosphere (or so I hope at least LOL!).

A&B: How does a poem, story or creative piece of art begin for you? Does it start with an image, a form or a particular theme?

Most of the time it happens by accident, with papers and inks, or whatever is in my kitchen. “What if I put turmeric powder on a wet blank paper?” “What about mixing tea and blue ink?” lol! There are a lot of random results in my creations, I find it particularly entertaining to mix several techniques and see the final results of these experimentations! It is all the more entertaining, since these results would be totally different while using the same products from one work to another.

A&B: What is your own artistic background?

While looking back at my artistic path, I can pinpoint two main influences in my artistic work, Mucha who is one of my favourite artist and Japanese animation.

I admire everything about Mucha’s artwork: his use of colours, his precise and delicate style, his wonderful ability, and facility to suggest movements and fluidity within a static picture! “Cycles Perfecta” (an advertising poster for a British company manufacturing bicycles) is a perfect example. The female figure with its stylised wavering golden hair suggests both motion and trepidation, while riding a bike.

The second pillar of my artistic growth is without a doubt Japanese animation and Japanese culture. Since childhood, Japanese animation always fascinated me because of its storytelling and their designs that I found more aesthetic than most Western productions (even now I still think the same way! I am not very objective on that, LOL!)

For instance, CLAMP is for me an amazing Japanese collective art group of four female mangaka. I found their artwork absolutely fabulous! It is a beautiful artistic parallel with Mucha and the Art nouveau artistic movement.

A&B: Does your work have any specific themes or social commentary we should identify with?

Not really! It is just a need to doodle at first, I really love to experiment with things. Maybe I have a real interest with feminine faces and their transformations.

I love to challenge myself, since 2010 I try my best to do one doodle a day, the easiest thing to draw was feminine faces with floating hair (LOL!). Several weeks ago, one of my friends told me that my art was interesting, since while drawing more or less the same type of things, the results were always different.

So, I ask of myself to push my own limits and discover new artistic techniques: pencils, fountain pens, pens, watercolour pencils, calligraphic pens, ink, coffee, or tea stains…all of these materials I have dabbled with, and it has been an amazing journey for me. However, I have never tried collages, digital drawings or digital paintings though. Maybe I should have a try at them one of these days. After all, the first step is always the hardest but the most rewarding!

A&B: Tell us the most positive and uplifting advice you have been given while working as a creative person.

The most uplifting advice? Maybe “never give up” or “do what you love”, two pieces of advice given by my best friend a long time ago. It is plain and simple. To be original among other artists in these times when social media networks spread at top speed is difficult and complicated!

However, if I could add my own artistic touch among other artists and to be able to brighten the day of someone looking at my art, I would be extremely grateful for these opportunities.

Bio:

Azelle Elric is a happy French girl who loves cats, Japanese animation, and drawing.

Website: https://www.instagram.com/elric_azelle

Azelle, thank you for answering our questions and supporting Auroras & Blossoms! We know that people will love your work as much as we do!

The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 4 is available! Click here to purchase your copy.

The PoArtMo Anthology Series: Interview with Cendrine Marrouat

By

On November 24, 2023

In Inspirational Artist Series

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our PoArtMo Anthology Series, which celebrates the artists whose work appears in The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 4.

Today’s guest is Cendrine Marrouat, who is a co-founder of Auroras & Blossoms. She contributed several poems and flashku to our anthology.

Auroras & Blossoms: Tell us all about the inspiration behind your pieces.

Cendrine Marrouat: My goal has always been to inspire whoever reads me or looks at my visual art. To me, being an artist transcends creation. I want to share important life lessons so others are encouraged to question their own outlook.

All the vardhaku in this volume come from an unfinished project based on nature and the seasons. My other poems talk about the importance of self-love. Finally, my flashku, which are short forms of flash fiction inspired by images, freeze a moment in time in order to deliver a stirring message.

A&B: How does a poem, story or creative piece of art begin for you? Does it start with an image, a form or a particular theme?

CM: As a multidisciplinary artist, I find this question difficult to answer. When I take photos, I hear words in my mind. When I write, I see images. And when I paint or work on a digital piece, it is a mixture of both.

The only constant in my artistic life has been the need for finding a title before starting any project.

A&B: What is your own artistic background?

CM: English is not my mother tongue, but I am a former English major. I hold a Bachelor’s Degree in English-to-French translation. My linguistic training has played a major role in shaping my style and teaching me how to write in an impactful manner.

However, when it comes to photography, digital art, and painting, I am completely self-taught. I watch tutorials and ask questions, but mostly learn through practice. I love going with the flow!

A&B: Does your work have any specific themes or social commentary we should identify with?

CM: As a writer who seeks to inspire people, the recurrent themes in my work revolve around the importance of self-love and mental well-being. I have released several books that deal with topics like death, suicide, and depression. I want to normalize challenging conversations.

My photography and paintings mostly focus on nature and details that we tend to overlook. Finally, my work with fractals is geared towards our connection with the universe.

A&B: Tell us the most positive and uplifting advice you have been given while working as a creative person.

CM: “Welcome imperfections and embrace mistakes” and “If you do your absolute best, you will never fail”. 🙂

Bio:

Cendrine Marrouat is a French-born Canadian photographer, poet, digital artist, and the multi-genre author of 40+ books. In 2019, she co-founded Auroras & Blossoms and PoArtMo with David Ellis. She is also the (co-)creator of several literary forms and a type of digital image.

Cendrine writes both in French and English and has worked in many different fields in her 20-year career, including translation, language instruction, journalism, art reviews, and social media.

Website: https://creativeramblings.com

Cendrine, thank you for answering our questions and supporting Auroras & Blossoms! We know that people will love your work as much as we do!

The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 4 is available! Click here to purchase your copy.

The PoArtMo Anthology Series: Interview with David Ellis

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On November 21, 2023

In Inspirational Artist Series

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our PoArtMo Anthology Series, which celebrates the artists whose work appears in The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 4.

Today’s guest is David Ellis, who is a co-founder of Auroras & Blossoms. He contributed several poems to our anthology.

Auroras & Blossoms: Tell us all about the inspiration behind your pieces.

David Ellis: My inspiration comes from many diverse sources. I try to keep a very open mind. I can be motivated by lots of things at once, providing that I have some prompt ideas and access to the internet! As this is now the fourth volume of our PoArtMo Anthology, it is important for us to keep the material fresh, different and vibrant each time we collaborate with artists on this project.

Cendrine & I work on so many varied collaborative projects together, we usually have an abundance of conceptual ideas that can all co-exist at the same time, which then helps us to compile some of these ideas into exciting collections.

The ‘Vardhakus’ that I have written for this volume were influenced by Cendrine’s autumnal poems. We used winter/water as key themes and therefore were a considerable influence on each other, so they dovetail very nicely in this collection. Cendrine co-created this amazing form herself with another fellow writer, we heartily encourage people to attempt it themselves!

I also attempted my first ‘Sepigram’ poem (which was solely created by Cendrine) and merged it with my Greek heritage, selecting a fairy tale as my ultimate form of inspiration for the piece. I enjoy exploring poetic forms with mathematical structures and combining/inserting words into them, it is like solving a literary puzzle piece by piece.

Finally, my found poetry pieces (blackout poetry/found poetry is a speciality and passion of mine) were inspired by the poems of Toni Morrison, a very remarkable lady full of integrity. While she did not write much poetry in her lifetime, her poems are all very moving in the extreme and she leaves a strong literary legacy in her wake as well. I hope that the sincerity of my own poems do her justice and honour her memory.

A&B: How does a poem, story or creative piece of art begin for you? Does it start with an image, a form or a particular theme?

DE: I would say that usually a poem begins for me with a particular theme. I will then look to explore a form for that theme and attach an image later that coyly describes what the poem is going to be about. I do this as I do not want to give everything away from the image or title, as to be too literal with it could rob the poem of any mystery/romance/intrigue. You want the reader to use their imagination when they encounter your work to make it a more interesting experience for them.

However, in the past I have experimented with new forms that are unfamiliar to me, which in turn I will then apply a theme to them. This has definitely been the case when I have been trying out Cendrine poetry forms, in order to master them.

If I choose to write a poem based on an image, I will try to imagine a story that the image evokes to then give me a framework to enable me to write a themed poem about it.

All three choices are valid creative paths, so you might as well pick the one at the time that suits your creative mood the most and run with it.

A&B: What is your own artistic background?

DE: I am primarily a writer of found poetry with several books to my name that have been published. I am also the co-founder and co-editor of Auroras & Blossoms with Cendrine Marrouat. We have over thirty publications to date spanning anthologies, marketing guides, journals and creative prompt books to name a few.

A&B: Does your work have any specific themes or social commentary we should identify with?

DE: My pieces are constantly filled with positivity, romance, self-confidence boosting and stimulation of profound thought. I will always be a champion of the underdog and you will find that my themes celebrate the triumph of beating adversity, along with treating people with respect, love and kindness wherever possible.

A&B: Tell us the most positive and uplifting advice you have been given while working as a creative person.

DE: For me I think the most important piece of advice I have been given from multiple people is it to write to identify with others, to connect with people and explore similar emotions. I have learnt to appreciate hard work and perseverance throughout my lifetime but especially through my collaborations with Cendrine, as she is one of the hardest working artists I have ever found in my lifetime!

I write with a very clear purpose and an audience in mind. I want to help, encourage, motivate, stimulate, inform, enchant, thrill, prompt and transcend. I want to make people fall in love with the written word, to let the euphoria take them to places they could only dream of and to get people achieving their literary goals. We are a community of like-minded individuals and we should always strive to what is best for each other.

Bio:

David Ellis lives in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in the UK. He is an award-winning poet, author of poetry, marketing workbooks/journals, humorous fiction and music lyrics. He is also the co-founder of Auroras & Blossoms, and the co-creator of PoArtMo (Positive Actions Rally Thoughts & Momentum) and the Kindku.

David’s debut poetry collection (Life, Sex & Death) won an International Award in the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2016 for Inspirational Poetry Books.

David is extremely fond of tea, classic and contemporary poetry, cats, and dogs but not snakes. Indiana Jones is his spirit animal.

Website: http://toofulltowrite.com

David, thank you for answering our questions and supporting Auroras & Blossoms! We know that people will love your work as much as we do!

The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 4 is available! Click here to purchase your copy.

The PoArtMo Anthology Series: Interview with Nichola Napora

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On November 14, 2023

In Inspirational Artist Series

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our PoArtMo Anthology Series, which celebrates the artists whose work appears in The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 4.

Today’s guest is Nichola Napora, who contributed a story and three poems to our anthology.

Auroras & Blossoms: Tell us all about the inspiration behind your pieces.

Nichola Napora: My work in this volume speaks to the perspectives we choose and each one is an opportunity to explore alternatives while opening a portal of potential. It is in this act of surrender to seeing with possibility that we can resource through a deeper connection with presence and openness. Tuning into deeper wisdom and experience. Judgements keep us stuck in narrow views and this feedback loop can be interrupted and re-directed. 

Great art disrupts. It comforts while navigating uncomfortable aspects of ourselves and life. A goal in my phenomena research and creative adventures is to go to the edges of what I have known in order to burst past that point with a fervour for discovery.

We can develop our vision and impact our engagement with inspiration. Translating the seen with the unseen. The ability to shift and to hold more than one thing is a muscle we can build and why not make this kind of observation fun while we’re at it. An attitude of enjoyment goes a very long way.

A&B: How does a poem, story or creative piece of art begin for you? Does it start with an image, a form or a particular theme?

NN: Most of my writing happens as an event – stream of consciousness from a place of intrinsic aliveness and oneness with life. When I engage in activities that make me feel connected, which is varied, I often begin to receive downloads, much like breathing air. Like lungs opening to receive fresh air insights and a natural poetic language emerges. Also, reflecting on past experiences through different layers of embodiment, from mundane to sacred, from mental to emotional to etheric, begin to dance in my vision and then the work of capturing them begins. Like a poem hunter where patience and attention are the tools.

Blending these worlds of imagination, creativity, experience, and the timing of both the moment and the cadence or heartbeat of the work itself becomes its own dance.

Sometimes other activities like free writing on an idea leads to the place where creation meets me in the field and the muse of “everything belongs” as ingredients for self-expression is always there. In the case of “Red Shoes,” the story was written about an alternative world right where I live, born from a mix of characters both real and not, but the actual starting point was a prompt from Christina Dunbar in a writing group I’m in called Red.

Other people’s art acts an entry point as well. Everyday occurrences, moving my body, and beautiful spaces are ripe with poetry and my garden, wildlife, and forest or water time are a few places/activities that seem to speak in a poetic language and what I do is listen. Things like birds, rainbows, and acts of kindness interrupt our lives with a kind of magic that deserve to have us stop and pay attention.

Taking time to be creative is certainly an act of kindness towards oneself that trickles outward when we share it.

A&B: What is your own artistic background?

NN: Well, I’ve been writing poetry since I was about 8 or 9. Around the same time I was put in weekend meditation classes over the long cold winters in Manitoba, Canada. I have creative, fun parents. My artistic training is in dance, music, and textile art/fashion.

In retrospect, I can see ceremonial arts has always been a part of my life. Earth and aroma arts, and kitchen crafts have been inspired outlets as
well, in general I am always creating and experimenting.  I love to travel, learn new things, and find the journeys I go on creatively and with my visionary explorations have reduced my need to be on the go, which has revealed a very rich source of joy and peace.

After a time away with other focuses, I came back to poetry and dance, when my design career became more technical in focus, and I needed more creative expression. 

Poetry and writing help me better understand the world and my place in it. Now after cultivating and feeding a deep relationship with nature, myself, spirituality, arts and culture I am in a place of infinite possibility. The more I write and create the more it feels like the stories are seeking me as much I am them.

A&B: Does your work have any specific themes or social commentary we should identify with?

NN: There’s a lot of playfulness when approaching paradoxes, perspectives, and potential in my work. I am leaning into how it can activate a blueprint of transformation in the collective. Strong themes of exploring nature and the wild (inside and out), celebrating interconnection by entering the rich territory between things, being holistically resourced, and asking big and small questions while wholeheartedly facing and living answers as a process and not a destination. Innovating life and work while finding a rhythm of existence unique, enriching, and inspiring that provides roadmaps of opportunity and codes fresh ways of being into our culture.

My art is activism and I do use the act of creating and viewing it as a lens where kaleidoscope meets telescope meets microscope meets stethoscope. Seeking patterns, beauty, radiance, harmony, as well as gently confronting less desirable things that can’t be ignored, like our dark shadows and those rattling skeletons, yet these make up the texture of who we are being and becoming.

My art is my healing, and it helps me, and hopefully others, both breathe through the complexity and embrace the simplicity of life.

My art is alchemy. It helps me digest experience and discover my centre to connect with all that is. It opens doors and first makes them appear as a balm for the imagination.

My art is an opportunity to gently traverse what it means to be alive on this earth.

A&B: Tell us the most positive and uplifting advice you have been given while working as a creative person.

NN: Great question!! A tough one as I’m grateful there’s been so many wonderful teachers and influences in my life.

On my desk sit 3 quotes, 1 prompt, 1 question, and then one I carry in my head that a friend once said. I added a bonus line that bounces around me and I can’t say where it came from, but it’s a good one to feed the hungry critic and partner with the roaming muses – I find exposing myself to uplifting things compel me to go for my creative dreams with commitment and excitement. I surround myself with such things and keep the intention to be this for others, a light that illuminates love and potential. We are all artists. Here they are:

a. “The HOW reveals itself as we go.” – KC Baker
b. Take 3 hours creative free play each week.
c. “We have to create. It is the only thing louder than destruction.” – Andrea Gibson
d. What role does an artist play in society?
e. “Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!” – Allen Ginsberg
f. “Put it in the art.” – Cara Pifko on life’s challenges…
g. If not you, then who, if not now, then when?

Bio:

Nichola Napora is full of surprises. She shares awe and magic with effervescence, along with deep love. This curious writer and a multidisciplinary artist mixes awareness and dedication with an intuitive response to the craft at hand. She is continually evolving the way she creates and interfaces with life on this amazing planet.

Website: https://www.mysticpeaks.com

Nichola, thank you for answering our questions and supporting Auroras & Blossoms! We know that people will love your work as much as we do!

The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 4 is available! Click here to purchase your copy.

The PoArtMo Anthology Series: Interview with Marjolein Rotsteeg

By

On November 7, 2023

In Inspirational Artist Series

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our PoArtMo Anthology Series, which celebrates the artists whose work appears in The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 4.

Today’s guest is Marjolein Rotsteeg, who contributed a story and three poems to our anthology.

Auroras & Blossoms: Tell us all about the inspiration behind your pieces.

Marjolein Rotsteeg: The short story ‘The Cakes Club’ is inspired by the world of horses, riding schools and (very) rich people.

The poem ‘Writing is…’ is about a time when I didn’t have much inspiration to write. I knew I just had to get started, but found distractions and excuses not to, until…

The poem ‘The first snow’ is about a day early winter when little by little the world was covered in about thirty centimeters of snow and went quiet.

The poem ‘The power of stories’ is inspired by the perpetual cross pollination between all the different forms of art.

A&B: How does a poem, story or creative piece of art begin for you? Does it start with an image, a form or a particular theme?

MR: A poem or story can begin in many ways. Sometimes the trigger is something that really happened. Other times it can be a dream, a (short) film I see inside my head, one single word, a newspaper article, an experience in nature, and literature or works of art.

A&B: What is your own artistic background?

MR: Ever since I could hold a pen, I have been writing stories and poems. My first published poem, at age nine, was about my pony Girl. On Wednesday afternoons I wrote fictional stories to a picture of an animal. I still have three of them.

During my studies of Dutch and English, I also followed courses in creative writing, theatre and film(making).

While I was working as a (music) journalist, the creative writing took a backseat for a while. Somehow I have always known there would come a time for that again.

That time came after completing my non-fiction book Cherchez la femme. Travestie als fenomeen on transvestism and transgenderism. I followed two courses at ‘t Colofon, school for writers in Amsterdam, on short stories and novels. I had my first two short stories published, ‘De erfenis’ (The heritage) and ‘Vrouwentongen’ (Mother-in-law’s tongues). Just as I thought I might get a collection of short stories together, fibromyalgia struck, hard. I had to give up writing altogether. Years later, without any (deadline) pressure, I picked it up again. Fortunately, the muses are still with me.

A&B: Does your work have any specific themes or social commentary we should identify with?

MR: Nature, animals and people never cease to inspire me. That is broad, I know. Transcience, beauty, vulnerability, (in)justice, animal wellfare, sweet revenge and the process of writing itself. I’m allergic to snobbism.

A&B: Tell us the most positive and uplifting advice you have been given while working as a creative person.

MR: “If you can write a story like that, that novel will come as well”, by Adriaan Krabbendam (†) the editor of my non-fiction book Cherchez la femme. Travestie als fenomeen (1996) on my short story ‘De erfenis’.

Bio:

Marjolein Rotsteeg is a writer and a poet, writing in English, Dutch and French. Nature, people and animals never cease to inspire her. She is a former music journalist and the author of the non-fiction book Cherchez la femme. Travestie als fenomeen (Vassallucci, 1996) on transvestism and transgenderism. In 2023, her haiku were published in The Auroras & Blossoms Haiku Anthology: Volume 1, the inaugural edition of the Folk-Ku Journal (King River Press) and the online Enchanted Garden Haiku Journal. One of her 55-word flash fiction stories is also featured in an anthology published in The Netherlands.

Website: https://substack.com/@marjoleinrotsteeg

Marjolein, thank you for answering our questions and supporting Auroras & Blossoms! We know that people will love your work as much as we do!

The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 4 is available! Click here to purchase your copy.

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