Carpe Diem

My youngest boy, Killian, age 5, asked for a desk for Christmas.  He is really into art, drawing in particular, and wants to spend most of his free time doing that.  I know how he feels... he wants a special place where he can go to just sit there with his own supplies and think and draw.  I love my studio and my table.  I love the cozy chair in the corner with the lantern above.  I love the 3rd story window with the old-fashioned lock and how it overlooks the trees.  I love my bulletin board full of inspiration and the refreshing robin's egg blue on the walls.  It all means something to me and is a part of the process.  It is much sweeter to have your own personal space that feels like the right environment for creating.  That is why I tuned into Killians wish and I am going to make him a space of his own. 
             I found a beautiful table and a chair on craigslist.  I just fell in love with the lines of the legs of the desk and the little key that you turn to open the drawer that holds your supplies.  Of course, the picture didn't show that the top was a little worn and the legs slightly banged up and I didn't realize that until I saw it in person.  So I decided to buy it and put some love into it.  I have spent the last 3 nights sanding the table.  Sanding looks a lot easier than it is and my arm and fingers got really tired.  Although they were aching, I just kept telling myself... "He is going to love sitting here and creating", and "he will be so surprised to unwrap this desk and find the little key to open it!"  That is what got me through. 
             I love keeping a piece of furniture alive by reviving it.  It is way more fun than just buying one.  It is always interesting and I try to piece together a story when I observe the piece.  I was down on the floor sanding the legs, and I saw written in miniature red letters, "carpe diem".  I wondered who wrote them and why.  "Ceize the day".  Were they ceizing the day with the artwork they were creating?  Were they taking a hold of the day with the words they were writing on their paper?  I pulled out the drawer, and there was a little star sticker on the very back... probably from a child.  I flipped over the drawer and 2 women's names were written in script in pencil on the bottom.  I wondered why they signed their names on this desk. 
            I put on the first coat of stain and it looks really good!  He will love the swivel chair I found for him and also the red lamp to grace the top and light up his masterpieces!  I love him so much and love his passion for drawing.  I can't wait to give it to him!!!

Hanging on 'till Christmas

           I forgot to post some baby shoes I made for a few ladies that were at my friend's baby shower so here are a few pictures of them.  They had ordered some shoes from me and these are what I sent them.  I found this really cool asian inspired fabric to make them out of, and lined them in a rich blue.  Since my last post, I have taken a little brake from working on art in my studio.  I have been spending time making some presents for Christmas, and when Christmas is over, it is time to start up in my studio again.  I have also been taking some time to brainstorm about what I want to do for my next pieces. 
           I am tired of cocoons, so I am going to take another direction next.  I also might change mediums a bit, although I am not sure about that.  I feel like I miss drawing on paper, although I love the texture of fabric and all of it's possibilities.  I really don't want to have to matte and frame my work anymore though, so fabric makes it easier for me not to do that!  I will have to play it by ear with the mediums I choose to work with next.  I really want to get out my wax to start up some wax paintings, but I have to build the wooden bases that they go on first, and that consists of help from my husband and time for him to do that... a little hard to come by.  Paper is so easily accessible! 
            In the last pieces I made for the salon, I worked in a way that was less realistic than I naturally choose to work in.  I feel like part of my natural makeup in the way I go about drawing and painting is in a hyper-realistic way, and I didn't work that way in my last pieces.  I really feel like I was trying some different things, but the realism that I love and naturally use in my work is crying to come out again!  I think that will be a part of what I do next.  I will post pictures of my new pieces I did for the gallery as soon as I get some good pictures taken of them.  For the next three weeks, I plan on continuing the brainstorming for my next territory, and making sketches of what I plan on doing.

Paving it's way

I feel exhausted.  I have been working almost every night for the past 3 weeks or so to produce some art for Downtown Betty's.  I haven't been feeling the best and I have really had to push through and force myself to sit down and work at night when I haven't been feeling like it.  I have really enjoyed painting them, but I am just tired.  I have been busy trying to get this house ready for my parents because they are coming in for Thanksgiving this week and there were soooo many home projects that we had put off doing, until these past few weeks.  Really bad timing for sure.  Also, Finn and Sully's birthdays have been in the mix as well... crazy times.  I have completed 3 new pieces, and I am working on the fourth one now.  I have 2 pieces that I had done this past year that I am adding to the collection.  That was my goal to have 4 new pieces and I can't believe that I have done it!  Well, not yet, but hopefully by the end of the day I will!!!  I still have to frame all of them and spray them with a UV-Resistant clear coating that will protect them from moisture and UV light rays.  I ordered new business cards which I am excited about and they were just shipped today!  Business cards have a way of making it feel oh so official.

Now number two is through!

I just finished my second piece today.  It is much larger than the first on and more detailed.  What I love about painting with coffee is that it is so random in the way that it chooses to bleed on the fabric, and you can change it with one squirt of a water bottle.  I like this piece way more than the first one.  I like the colors that are in this one and it is a little more dreamy than the first one and I always enjoy a dreamy quality.  I really busted my butt to get this one done.  I worked every single night on it and sometimes in the days.  I really forced myself when I was feeling too tired at night.  It always felt good to push through and I ended up making a lot of progress where I could have been sleeping, watching tv or serfing the net... that doesn't accomplish anything!  Now, I have two pieces of art that have been done in a week and it feels good!  This last piece was fun because I took a different approach to the way I did it.  Instead of drawing the base sketch out first, I had a general idea in my head and just started without any lines or real plan.  It just evolved as I went and it was very freeing to do it that way!  I wasn't tied to anything and felt no stress about what I was doing.  I am going to try and go about it that way for the next one again.  I think I want to do a series of small pieces of close ups of the cocoons.  We'll see how it goes.  I am planning on starting tomorrow.  I am running out of time!

Piece number one... just done.

I have been working on my first piece for the salon and it has been SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!  I have been going throughout my day anxiously anticipating sitting down at my chair to work.  Once I got started it was the best!!  Starting is definitely the hardest part for me I am finding.  I am loving working with staining fabrics, drawing and transfer of paper onto fabric.  To me, this particular mix of media is endless with possibilities!  I have so much swirling in my head that I am ready to try.  I just finished the first piece last night and I am pleased with it.  I don't think I am going to post pictures until after the work is hung in the salon though.  I think it might ruin it for me.  I want to present it all together at the end.  I only have a few more weeks left and my goal is to have at least 3 more new pieces.  More than that would be great... we'll see. 

Piece number one... almost done.

I have been working on my first piece for the salon and it has been SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!  I have been going throughout my day anxiously anticipating sitting down at my chair to work.  Once I got started it was the best!!  Starting is definitely the hardest part for me I am finding.  I am loving working with staining fabrics, drawing and transfer of paper onto fabric.  To me, this particular mix of media is endless with possibilities!  I have so much swirling in my head that I am ready to try.  I am almost finished with the first piece and I am pleased so far.  I don't think I am going to post pictures until after the work is hung in the salon though.  I think it might ruin it for me.  I want to present it all together at the end.  I only have a few more weeks left and my goal is to have at least 3 more new pieces.  More than that would be great... we'll see.  I have to sign off... it is up to the freezing cold studio I go!!!  3rd floor on cold dreary night... coffee, heater, and pandora?  :)

The beginning of a chrysalis

I was inspired by the idea of a chrysalis which I am going to experiment with in my work.  I feel like I have been in this chrysalis all wrapped up and for the first time I am able to start peeling away the layers to see what has been formed inside.  I found this painting entitled, "chrysalis" done by an artist named, Rose Frantzen, and I think she is amazing!  Tonight I was painting on linen with coffee and adding a layer of watercolor pencil ontop.  I was happy with how it turned out so far.  Tomorrow I am going to add some color because it is neutral right now.  I have started to notice a trend in my work, and that is it is usually mostly neutral with color added as a secondary part.  I don't know why it keeps working out that way.  I think that is why every artist is different in their own way, because we have our own natural direction that our work takes us.  I felt alive in my studio today.  It is great to finally get started.  Getting started is the hardest part.  I am working on getting a handful of pieces to put in my friend's salon/gallery in November.  I have a goal that has to be reached soon so I must keep working towards it!! 

Costume Creating

So it was another week of sewing for me.  Two of my boys needed costumes so I was busy working on those.  I made a cherry pie... out of felt, that is, for my oldest son.  I also made an outfit for my youngest son.  He has a Japanese day coming up at his school where he is supposed to dress in a japanese outfit, so I thought I would double up and make his outfit for school and for trick or treating this weekend.  He decided on going with looking like Aang from the movie, "The Last Airbender".  It has a japanese warrior feel to it.  They were more than thrilled with there costumes as you can see by the pictures.  What a joy it is to make things for my children who can enjoy them so much!  Killian's japanese outfit was a lot of work from the shirt to the shoes, but it was worth all the work.  I even experimented with dying the linen fabric with tea for the trim on the shirt.  This was the first outfit I have ever made and it was challenging, but I really enjoyed doing it!  This week coming up it is back to fine art.  I am putting the sewing machine aside for the next few weeks and getting into my studio.

A slice of Pie and All of the Above.

So it has been over 3 weeks since my last entry.  I have found that studio time isn't necessarily happening, but I am still creating.  I have not been able to work on the fine art that I intend to work on.  It has been more practical ways of creating.  Within these three weeks I made all kinds of different things.

First I made my best friend a gift for her shower which entailed me making an asian Mai Tai baby sling, a pouch for it to go in, two pairs of baby shoes and a pouch for them.  I really enjoyed sewing and trying something new.  It turns out the the shoes were a hit at the shower and I already have orders to make some for people! 

Then I was asked to make posters for my kids school open house.  I don't do much to contribute to my children's schools, but whenever there is an artistic need I am on it.  It is nice to serve in a way where I can use my gifts and passions. 

Lastly, I made my son some artwork for his walls in his bedroom.  He has a cowboy themed bedroom and the walls were bare so I decided to make him some art to fill them.  I made fabric panels that have different silhouettes from different fabric sewn onto them... a cowboy and cowboys riding horses.  He was thrilled that I made them for him and he appreciated them so much.  The look on his face was worth a hundred hours in my studio. 

My creating seems very practical at this stage, but I am trying to notice what I am doing as part of my life as an artist, even if it is not truly what I have envisioned.  I know I will eventually get there, but I am not willing to sacrifice doing these other kinds of artistic things to do so.  This week I know I will be making a costume for my oldest son for Halloween.  He is supposed to team up with a friend and their costumes have to go together.  He is in love with pie, so he wants to be a slice of pie and his friend is going to be a fork!  So off to the fabric store I go today to figure out the beginnings of a pie.  This is my life.

Where everything makes sense

Ok, so it will be one week tomorrow since I started this blog and it has been really hard to find time to get into my studio.  I had high hopes for this past week but everything else seemed to take over.  I did find one day to do some art and I drew for 4 hours straight.  I don't have a completed drawing yet, although I am going to see if I can finish it tomorrow somewhere inbetween helping in one of my boys' class and my tennis lesson.

 It's hard to eliminate things out of my life for the sake of getting in my studio and I haven't found the best way to do it.  I am going to have to figure out how to prioritize, but for so long it has not been able to be a priority so it might be a struggle starting to make it one. 

I have had an image in my head for a while of women jumping on trampolines so when I was drawing I was playing around with that idea.  Whatever I finish with by tomorrow I will post... finished product or not.  I love being a mother but I have felt a little trapped being taken over by motherhood for so long and I feel like I have slowly been allowed to start jumping.  The freedoms of being a child again seem to surface.  I love being a mother more than anything, but for some reason I had a hard time feeling completely alive when I wasn't able to do all the things that I'm passionate about and that make me tick inside.  It's funny now as I think about it and put all these feelings on paper, because the freedoms are here, but yet I feel trapped by those as well!  I felt so alive this week when I was using my pencil.  It felt like I was in this other place where everything makes sense.  It just felt right...

Studio staging

Today I got my studio in a good condition to work in.  I always feel overwhelmed in a space that is totally out of control where I can't find anything.  My brain gets seriously overstimulated because of all that it has to take in.  I am definitely not saying that I am an organized person because that would be a lie, but I like to see the floor.  As I cleaned up the studio that is in our third floor, I saw all the half finished pieces that I did.  I saw inspirational images that I love and pencils that were tired of sitting in the corner.  Right now my studio is not being used hardly at all and I want it to be a space that I am so acquainted with because I am in there all the time.  I want to be in that studio just as much as I am in the rest of my house! 

I don't know what my first piece will be, but I do know that I am dying to use my pencils.  Drawing is my first love and I feel like I need to use them for my sanity soon!  I don't want to use them for grocery lists, math problems, permission slips, writing in my calendar, or anything else rather than drawing!  What to draw?  This is where I get overwhelmed.  The blank piece of paper.  So daunting, yet it holds so many possibilities!  I feel like I should just start with some loose sketches and get warmed up.  Ok, so tomorrow I will commit to drawing in my sketchbook doing some quick sketches and maybe more.  That is a beginning anyway. 

It is so hard to ignore the dirty dishes, laundry, phone calls that need to be made, flowers that need to be watered, floors that need to be scrubbed, etc. all for the name of art.  This is what always holds me back.  I know that as soon as I pick up that pencil I am letting things go and that quickly leads to chaos with 3 boys, 2 cats, and a partridge in a pear tree.  I have decided that I just have to do it if I ever want to pursue an art career. 

I have been reading this book, "The Artist Guide" and it has been a really helpful book to read as I have been gearing up to diving into my art again.  The writer was also a mother and had to balance everything like I have to do and she really had to commit and ignore.  I have decided that that is what I have to do. 

The way I got inspired to make a blog is from the movie "Julie and Julia".  It was such a good movie and I thought that a blog was just the thing I needed to spur me along, just like Julie needed.  I hope I can keep up with the pace that I want to.  I am excited to think that if I do, I will have created 52 pieces of art in a year!  Now that is exciting! 

I am going to go to sleep now and as I lay my head on my pillow I am going to dream of holding my pencil and sketchbook.  What to draw?