make room

In between product photography clients, I sometimes make room to do something I want to do, although I do feel like I'm loosing contact with that part of myself a little. Not a good thing. 

People are Amazing

Thanks to Alma Loveland and Nichole's Classes I feel like I have a much stronger grasp of Illustrator, and I have been having a lot of fun with it:

This one I did for an assignment about making banners.

The rest are drawing I did a while back, scanned, manipulated in Adobe Illustrator CS5, and assigned several different colorways. These were fun. If I had it my way, I'd spend three straight days scanning drawings and playing in the wonderful world of Illustrator. 

Jen's Gems

Hello strangers. It's been far too long since I have communed here with you and I have missed you. I never really know ahead of time when a hiatus is needed. It just sort of happens. Kind of typical for me really. 

One of the things I've been doing lately is photographing the stunning work of Jennifer Leonard for her Etsy shop. 

Here are a few highlights. 

Her work is not only beautiful, and I don't really think my photos do it justice, but it is well made, of high quality materials and very solid. So, if you are interested in adding a little sparkle and color to your jewelry box, Jen's shop should not be overlooked. 

People are Amazing

I need a break from my brain

a vacation from my mind

a reprieve from an unwelcome inheritance

an alternate route from the neural pathways I never chose but have been thrust upon me.

I'd like to anticipate without dread

I'd like to plan and look forward without fear

I'd like to feel good things, unencumbered by temperance.

Just for a day

I'd like to sing and work,

laying down all accessories

all shame and doubt

all hesitation

all censorship

I'd like to know me

in raw form.

I wonder who I'd be.

I'd like to feel completely;

air

water

vastness

hardness of stone

prick of grass

cold sluicing streams 

warm sunning

rivers washing detritus away.

I'd like to be of my body

self possessed

naked

accepting

clean.

I'd like to be pure

to be raw

to be rid of history,

naked and new

filled with love

and peace,

agression

and jealousy,

if the situation called for it

- not because my mother's

mother's mother's mother's mother

would have. 

I want to be a wolf woman,

a mama bear eating berries,

predator, prey, ruled by need

by survival, by ingenuity. 

I just want to breathe

unhampered by resignation,

unconscious of concrete,

unthinking,

unthinking...

unthinking...

unthinking...

Consuming words rather than images

On a rare occasion I feel like I get overloaded with imagery to the point that I become numb to sights that would have left me sighing and my heart thumping just a week ago. So, I'm trying to take a break, a vacation, from Pinterest, Etsy, Flickr, Blogs, etc. It's not easy. That's a lot of time and room in my brain to fill up. 


On the other hand, I have been craving words. Luckily for me, my husband prophetically gave me a book for mother's day which I'm trying hard not to devour in one giant gulp. It's called, If You Want to Write: A book about Art, Independence and Spirit by Brenda Ueland.   It first appeared on bookshelves in the late 1930s and has inspired generations and while it appears to speak to writing specifically, in truth it's about all kinds of creativity because it's all related.


I thought I would share a little from the first chapter.  (paraphrased except where indicated)

Everybody is original:

If one speaks from themselves and not who they should be, they are an original. This is important because self-trust is one of the most important ingredient in creativity.

Creative power and imagination is in everyone, as is the need to express and share it. But, it often disappears sometime in our growing up. How?

"...we let dry obligation take its place; because we don't respect it in ourselves and keep it alive by using it; and because we don't keep it alive in others by listening to them." p.11

"...the only way to love a person is by listening to them and seeing and believing...in the poet in them... by doing this, you keep...the poet alive and allow it flourish." p. 11

Critics undermine us because:

 "...all people who try to write [be creative] (and all people long to, which is natural and right) become anxious, timid, contracted become perfectionists, so terribly afraid that they may put something down that is not as good as Shakespeare." p.12

"It is a murderer of talent. And because the most modest and sensitive people are the most talented, having the most imagination and sympathy, these are the very first ones to get killed off. It is the brutal egoists that survive." p. 13

Her advice:

"...you must practice not perfunctorily, but with all your intelligence and love.... Work freely and rollickingly as though talking to a friend who loves you. Mentally (at least three or four times a day) thumb your nose at the know-it-alls, jeers, critics, doubters." p. 14

I think what I like most about this book so far is that it is helping to confirm some very basic, deeply originating beliefs that have been part of me since the beginning of time, but which I call into doubt on occasion.  Those beliefs are that everyone is original, that we all have something to say, and that we are all creative beings who often forget that fact. 


Color me inspired. How about you?

shy and proud

I've been beaming inside for quite some time because Uppercase Magazine asked me for the use of 5 of my photographs in an article about how Seattle weather effects Seattle art. 

When I got that email, I had to keep reading it over and over, thinking that maybe I was seeing what I wanted to see and not a reality. But real it was, and as I was waking my husband up to share the excitement that started to sink in heavily. I love and respect Uppercase Magazine very much. I'm so honored to appear on their pages. So so so proud. So so so giddy even now. 

The mag came out in early April, and while I thought I'd be sharing the news here the minute it arrived in the mail, I've waited till now. Hense, the shy part. 

I dunno what it is. Maybe it's that I was raised with the idea firmly planted in my brain, that bragging is wrong. While I know it's not bragging to share this milestone with you, that it is in fact sharing and celebrating with my fellow creatives, I felt / feel vulnerable in baring this news. It's so important to me that maybe I'm a little bit afraid it will all fade away if I share it, like an elaborate daydream I created. Silly, I know. But that's where my head goes. 

Perhaps that kind of angst come with the territory when what you create feels like such a part of who you are. Perhaps, it's a necessary part of art making that a bit of one's own very being is put on display... and that those very private, very sensitive, so very important parts of ourselves are what we want to share and protect at the same time. I know this is nothing new, this struggle, this push and pull. I'm just kind of endlessly fascinated by it when it erupts in my own skin.

The most important thing to say here is that I am so grateful, so honored, so proud of being included, being chosen, being part of the party at a level that awes me. Thank you Uppercase. There are no words!!

accidental logos

 I wasn't meaning to make anything like a logo when I started down this path, but that's what it wanted to be. I doubt I would ever use them as such because they are a little (forgive my word usage) ballsy for BAC, but I like them nonetheless. Maybe BAC is going toward the ballsy. I don't know. She doesn't regularly consult with me. 

Monumental

I wish I had any kind of words for what happens to me when I see mountains. They are such a monumental symbol of all that I love about nature; both serene and deadly, unmoving and ever changing, home and stranger. I think I'd like to be one someday.