101 Artist’s Date Ideas.

1. Visit an artist’s supply shop.
2. Spend some time outdoors with your journal, sketchbook, craft supplies, etc.
3. Go for a walk, and take your camera with you to document the experience.
4. Stop by the library, and check out some CDs.
5. Set a timer, and spend an hour working on something you’ve been putting off.
6. Create an artist’s workspace in your home.
7. See an Oscar-nominated movie or a foreign film.
8. If you don’t have an artist’s blog, start one.
9. Visit a “creative” shop that has nothing to do with what you actually do–an art supply store, a fabric shop, a music store.
10. Grab a stack of magazines, and clip whatever looks interesting or cool to create your own inspiration board.
11. Support the local arts scene. Go to a local festival, music event, art show, play, museum exhibit, etc.
12. Plant something. Start your own herb garden. Butterfly garden. Plant a tomato or some bulbs. Try a “guerilla garden,” and scatter seeds randomly somewhere to see what grows.
13. Spend an hour going through your books. Pick ten to read or re-read and ten to donate to charity.
14. Go to a thrift store. Give yourself 5$ to spend and find something really great that you can do something creative with.
15. Take a walk on a nature trail. Take your camera.
16. Write a letter – longhand, on pretty paper – to an old friend.
17. Give yourself a beauty treatment – a cuticle treatment, a foot soak, exfoliation, hot oil treat, etc.
18. Go sit at the pond and play in your sketchbook.
19. Visit all of your childhood playhouse and fort sites.
20. Sit in the driveway and make designs with pretty rocks. Sing campfire songs.
21. Sit in the porch-swing and lean your head back as far as you can and look up at the tree branches backward. Think of as many Shakespearean poems as you can while you are doing this.
22. Send a care package to your best friend or to a family member… just because. Take time and care to put loving and thoughtful things into it. Be creative. Make things. Be as careful with the packaging as you are with what you actually put into it. Include notes and loving sentiments. Get as much from it as they will in receiving it.
23. Go to Home Depot with 10$ in your pocket. See what cool things you can find there to create and art project with that 10$ (only). Go crazy.
24. Wine and dine yourself… go to dinner and a movie.
25. Choose a fantasy mentor. Take time to read their books, watch their videos, learn about their life as an artist. Let them inspire you.
26. Go cloud watching.
27. Spend some time browsing around Etsy.com and create a Favorites list – a list of items there that speak to you on a creative level – to refer back to and be creatively inspired by.
28. As a follow-up, contact some of the artists that created items from your list. Tell them that you admire their work; inquire about their technique; start a conversation. There is nothing better than being in contact with and becoming friends with fellow creatives.
29. Try an all-day drawing marathon. Wherever you are, take your journal or sketchbook and start drawing. You could participate in a SketchCrawl event: http://www.sketchcrawl.com/
30. Take yourself on a culinary artist date, and try a new cuisine, recipe, restaurant, fruit, vegetable, etc.
31. Create a self-portrait.
32. Take a walk with someone else’s iPod. Expose yourself to new music.
33. Move your body. Try Tai Chi, Pilates, yoga, bellydancing, etc.
34. Spend a day naked.
35. Write a poem.
36. Plan a road trip.
37. Write a letter to the person you plan to be in ten years.
38. Write a letter to your parents. Tell them what you are grateful to them for. Send it.
39. Go to the library and find a book on a topic that you know very little about but that looks very fascinating to you. Check it out. Read it.
40. Schedule your yearly check-up appointments (eyes, teeth, physical, girl parts, etc.)
41. Take a self-portrait everyday for a week.
42. Have a massage or a facial.
43. Take a creativity course at the local community college or community center.
44. Go to an estate sale or a yard sale.
45. Garden.
46. Watch a movie you’ve always thought you’d hate.
47. Make a list of one hundred things you love about yourself.
48. Make a list of one hundred things that make you happy.
49. Mix a CD of songs that inspire you.
50. Mix a CD of songs that you’ve never heard before, that you simply like the titles of.
51. Find a fun, new creative blog to read.
52. Have a complete day of silence.
53. Have a technology-free day.
54. Watch a movie with the subtitles on.
55. Write a Love List.
56. Color a mandala (Thanks Abby!)  Get one here or here.
57. Cook from scratch.
58. Have a silent day.
59. Take a day and go to a neighboring town and poke around.
60. Go to a local market.
61. Go to a u-pick farm.
62. Go for a walk around the neighborhood.
63. Create an accomplishment board
64. Create a vision board.
65. Make a “bucket list”.
66. Make a list of things you want to do before Christmas.
67. Make a list of thirty things you’d like to do before your next birthday.
68. Organize your closet.
69. Create a piece of artwork entirely with things from your recycle bin.
70. Get a hammock.  Lie in it often.
71. Go for a bike ride.
72. Blare your favorite music while baking something delicious.
73. Fly a kite.
74. Take a hike (literally).
75. Read a children’s book.
76. Read poetry aloud… to yourself.
77. Visit a plant nursery and plan your dream garden in your mind.
78. Take a day for yourself, rent all the movies that your favorite actor or actress made and watch them.
79. Go somewhere you haven’t been since you were a child.
80. Drive.  Aimlessly.
81. Give yourself five dollars to spend on items to use for an art project at a dollar store.  See how far you can stretch it.
82. Walk the historical part of your town and make architectural sketches.
83. Take yourself on a picnic to the park.  (Dogs can go too.)
84. Go to a free museum.
85. Create an account at Pinterest.  Mark pictures that inspire you and make you want to create.
86. Create a Look Book.
87. Take an hour and have tea.  Use your nice dishes, including the creamer.
88. People watch.
89. Collect fall leaves and then take photos of them in whatever neat compositions you can.
90. Read an old journal.
91. Watch a documentary (or read a biography) on your favorite artist.
92. Finger paint.
93. Take a walk around your town looking for heart-shaped objects (or any shape).  Take photos.
94. Buy a box of 64 crayons and a coloring book.  Have fun!
95. Go to an old graveyard.  Stay long enough to get spooked.  Notice all that’st there while you are there.
96. Play tourist in your own town.  Visit the local tourism office and see what you might not have known before.
97. Go to the hardware store.  Create an art piece with items on bought there.
98. Play at a park.  Swing.  Slide.  Hang from monkey bars.
99. Go to a cafe and write out any of the “bonus exercises” in TAW.
100. Carve out an hour and write notes, letters and cards to those you love.  Mail them.
101. Go to a pet store or shelter and play with or exercise the animals that are waiting for good homes.

(Some of these on the list may be similar to one another or repeats.  I didn’t go back and check for redundancy.  If they are shown twice, that just means they are really good!)

Now… YOUR TURN!
Name five (or more) Artist’s Date ideas to be added to our list.

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