Inspiration to Fruition

My best friend and I moved into an apartment back in November to be closer to our jobs, cut down on all the driving to and from work and you know to try and be real life "grown ups." The process of finding the right apartment was a whirlwind but God had his hand on it all and we really ended up at the perfect spot for the two of us. Nothing fancy but we feel pretty blessed. 

We're doing things on a budget... obviously, so we've been piecing things together bit by bit trying to make the place feel like home. Lots of people were really generous and gave us lots of odds and end furniture, appliances, cookware, etc. Now that we've been living there for about 5 months things are coming together a bit more and some art is making it on the walls.

A couple months ago I was in Fort Worth, TX visiting friends and stumbled upon this super cool store on West 7th Street called Wrare.

I pretty much loved everything inside the store and while I restrained myself to buying a single decorative piece for the apartment... and a couple cards, I think the best thing I left with from the store was this inspiration:

How ingenious. Hanging a collection of standard clipboards with pieces of a picture attached that when put together create one large image. Easy-peasy.

So, when I got home it was my turn to bring this to life in our apartment. I went to Office Max and literally cleared out their Clip Boards and then went back a week later to get a couple more. Luckily I am a designer and have access to some programs that make it a little easier for me to set up and print out the chopped up image as needed. Originally we had selected an image of a bunch of trees in a forest but I think it was too dark and too "organic" so it didn't require the lines to match up to really create the impact I was looking for. So, we selected a new picture:

Apparently, I have a current obsession for elephants that is increasingly growing and now filling our apartment... oops. But look at these lovable giants!

My steps after selecting the image:
1. turned image black and white

2. set up art boards in illustrator that mimicked the clipboard layout (my cipboards were the standard size to hold 8.5x11" paper)

3. place image across art boards

4. set up image for each page... and print. (I printed the images on 11x17" paper and cut out so that they would be the full 8.5x11" size. If you print on 8.5x11 paper there will be a white boarder where the printer can't print on the paper.)

5. hang clip boards (we drew a diagram of the wall we were putting the clipboards on and did all the math and planning before putting any nails in the wall. Once we had it all figured out we put in the nails and then hung the boards. Always plan first. No surprises)

6. clip your art up. make sure you have all your images organized or... it's not gonna work right. May become a bit of a puzzle if you don't keep them in order from the beginning.
When I was hanging up the pictures of the elephants I was too close to see it coming together and I was getting so bummed. My roommate was in the kitchen watching and tried to assure me it was coming together but I just couldn't see it. Then I stepped back and was like...

Walla!

There it is... Pinterest that!
I just love how you can get inspired anywhere, anytime, but you have to keep your eyes open.

What are you creating? Where have you been inspired?

Start Somewhere

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I think drawing is like running for me... the longer I go without doing it... the more intimidating it becomes.

I've found that when I just run for myself it's more like therapy than fitness. It's like the world fades away and I have the clearest thoughts... that same thing happens to me when I get lost in an art piece. So the question would obviously be, "Why don't you do it more if it makes you so happy?"

Time.

...and then fear.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist and and over-thinker and sometimes when I should just put pen to paper and do something, even if it's just a doodle I make it more complicated than it should be and I talk myself out of it. You know the saying, "Use it or lose it." I get scared that... I've lost it. That by letting the time slip by I won't be able to draw anymore. uhhh... that's fear and if you read my last blog... that's a lie. I mean yes, I am so out of practice but the gift I was born with is still up in there and I have to get out of my stupid, little head and JUST DO IT.

Back in December I made this glorious discovery. I was in the West Bottoms looking for some unique items for the new apartment and I kept walking by this beautiful drawing table. I wasn't in the hunt for a drawing table... but it didn't care. It asked me to take a seat and as I brushed my hand across it's surface a tear fell from my eyes and it took all I had not to lose it right there. Soooo... I bought it.

It needs a few repairs and the back still has to be stained but it's my baby and I love it.

So, now with a drawing table and having collected all my supplies from my parents' house I'm ready to get creating. But of course as life throws out it's demands on your time it's easy to start pushing things without deadlines back and back. This is why I am really excited about a little creative challenge for 2014 that I am doing with some friends from work. We were all discussing how we wanted to be creating more even if it was just something small. You gotta start somewhere! So, here it is. Each week we have a new word that we have to create something related to it. That's really all the guidelines. Create whatever you want. We have a little show and tell on friday and then are posting them on instagram and facebook with the hashtag #WeeklyWordPlay2014.

Our first word was "Elephant." I picked the word and I may have a thing for elephants...
Above is the elephant I created on watercolor paper with sharpie and watercolors. It was super simple... but I just didn't want to think about it too much. I really just sat down and went for it.
Below is the gorgeous Elephant my friend Lauren created with pastels! (Click here to see her site)

Anyway, so here I am trying to live by the words from my last blog about fear and saying you just gotta start somewhere. Get out of your head, don't over think it and just do it.

I look forward to creating and sharing with you all!

Cassatt Love

I am a huge fan of Impressionism. I have been moved me to tears... a couple times by these works of art. It's like realism with emotions. I can get lost in these pieces and I find that being able to see the artists strokes makes me feel connected with them. The Rock Stars of this style for me are Renoir, Degas, and Cassatt. And of course Monet and Pissarro are key members of this style but the former three mentioned are my absolute favorites.

An overview on Impressionism from Wikipedia - "Radicals in their time, early Impressionists violated the rules of academic painting. They began by constructing their pictures from freely brushed colours that took precedence over lines and contours, following the example of painters such as Eugène Delacroix. They also painted realistic scenes of modern life, and often painted outdoors. Previously, still lifes and portraits as well as landscapes had usually been painted in the studio.[1] The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting en plein air. They portrayed overall visual effects instead of details, and used short "broken" brush strokes of mixed and pure unmixed colour—not blended smoothly or shaded, as was customary—in order to achieve the effect of intense colour vibration. The public, at first hostile, gradually came to believe that the Impressionists had captured a fresh and original vision, even if the new style did not receive the approval of the art critics and establishment."

Being that I am of the female gender I have a very special place for Miss Mary Cassatt in my heart.

^This is what I love about the Impressionism style and Cassatt. There is this freedom in her strokes that create an emotion with the movement in the piece. Choosing to focus in on the face and then fade out to incompletion elsewhere.

^It is rumored that Cassatt and Degas had a bit of a love affair (love that). Can you imagine what that would have been like? Anyway, the story on this image is that Degas actually worked on part of it with Cassatt. I learned that in one of my Art History classes in college. I love little stories like that, brings things to life.

^So, this is the one and only Cassatt piece I have ever seen. Isn't that sad? And I only saw it once. I've been to museums in LA, Fort Worth, Dallas, and Omaha and while I think they all may have one of her pieces they are never up when I'm there. This one is a part of the permanent collection at the Nelson Atkins Museum of art, but out of all the many times I have been there, I have only seen it up once. I remember entering the room that it was in expecting to see the usual suspects and then as I turned the corner this precious baby was staring back at me. I teared up immediately. And then the next time I went, it was gone.

^My Junior year of high school we had to do a self portrait in the style of a famous artist. I chose Cassatt and took this approach. Still one of my favorite pieces I've ever done because it has significant meaning to me.

And on a related note, look what gem I found at the Joslyn Museum in Omaha when I went with Henna:

^So happy I had to hug it. -INFO FROM JOSLYN MUSEUM- Edgar Degas, "Little Dancer Aged Fourteen" about 1920-21. Among the Impressionist painters, Degas alone was also a sculptor. "Little Dancer," the only statuette he exhibited, reflects his fascination with the ballet, whose aspects - rehearsals and backstage activities - he like to observe and record. The model for "Little Dancer" was Marie van Goethem, a "rat," as novices at the Paris Ballet were called. Although reminiscent of a standard dance pose (fourth position), her stance is informal; seemingly unaware of being observed, she stretches her arms and shoulders. This "snapshot effect," the capture of fleeting moments, is characteristic of Degas art.

Altered: The Book

A creative genius would be one way to describe him but I'll let you look at his master pieces and come up with your own elaborate descriptions of this artist.

BRIAN DETTMER
I saw Brian's work for the first time last week on another blog and had to share with you what I saw.

Artist Brian Dettmer alters pre-existing books one page at a time using knives, tweezers and surgical tools. He begins by sealing the books edges, creating an enclosed vessel. He manipulates the pages and spines to form the shape of his sculptures. He also folds, bends, rolls, and stacks multiple books to create completely original sculptural forms. Nothing inside the old encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries is relocated or implanted, only removed. The meticulous account for detail and acute precision is mind blowing.

[For larger view: Click on picture.]

Sources: Honestly...WTF and My Modern Met.
For more information on Brian Dettmer, check his website http://briandettmer.com/.

Humans That Fly

I wasn't planning on blogging about this today but when I saw this video I had to share it with you.

I'm always in awe of highly skilled dancers, no matter their expertise. Whether it's a ballerina, delicately leaping across the stage, or a b-boyer, seemingly levitating over the ground. It's as if they're saying to gravity, "You don't own me!" I love it.

So of course, there are tons of videos out there of amazing dancers, but this one particularly caught my eye and led me to share with you because of the artistry in the filming. Really beautiful with the lighting, which seems to turn the dancer's shadow into a character all it's own.

Enjoy.

In the beginning... I drew.

I wanted to put up some of my old art pieces to show where my passion started.

I grew up with art in my blood. Genetics, you might say, from my dad's side. My dad has always been artistic and I grew up with him drawing little sketches, especially while the pastor was teaching at church. He had these great characters he would draw and even made a family called the "Derf" family with the main character, Fred Derf (Derf comes from spelling Fred backwards). In addition, my dad’s mom, in other words, my Grammy, was an art teacher for several years at a private Christian school. And when she retired from teaching, the school created and named an art award after her called the "Crystal Sexton Art Award." I remember having my first art lesson with her. We sat at the round kitchen table and drew a little flower and then painted in watercolor. I continued to have art lessons with her as I got older. During the summer months, my best friend and I would go to her house for lessons; and when we weren't distracting each other, we did some great work.

As a little girl, I wrote stories and then illustrated them. One of my first was about a mouse named Betsy who saved the day by killing a snake in her schoolhouse classroom with her pencil. And in the fourth grade, I wrote a story about a girl who brought her painting to life and went inside it. She was painting a rainbow, but when she ran out of red paint, she used her blood. The life from her blood brought the painting to life and she escaped into this new world. As she traveled through this land, she brought color and life back to what had become a land of black, white, and gray.

I am a non-traditional artist. Never crazy enough to fit in with the artsy-fartsy kids and yet never normal enough to fit in with all the...well…normal kids either. Rarely was I trying to make a political statement with my art nor was I a tortured soul who preferred to be left alone to work. Instead, I love being with people. In fact, some of my favorite work is portraits. Being able to capture someone is better than a stuffy still life. It wasn't until high school that I actually started to think that maybe I could have a career involving my artistic gifts. I never desired to be a fine artist, but I started to learn about this graphic design field. It was a way for me to mix art with business.

So I went to college and I became a graphic designer. But I haven't forgotten where it all started. And as I move on, I hope to do some more personal art projects as well as mixing the two mediums together. When I'm working on a project that I am really invested in and I'm able to block out all other distractions and dig in, I call it the "zone." It's kind of like going home, back to the basics, a happy place. When I'm in that zone, I am at my best and I am cookin'. At one point in time, I did a project in pastels that captured the Mary Cassatt idea of Mother and Child. Immediately I got swept away and did this piece in just over an hour. It's been awhile since I've been able to work like that, so I'm excited to dig in to a new project and get swept away again.

I don't have work from before high school available to put on here but here's some stuff I did in high school and some from my first year of college