Surfacing
I missed you too. So much that I got off my behind and took pictures to share. That's my dad and me at our first LA beach trip, after my family moved from the East Coast. Love the 70's square Afro my dad's sporting? Of course you do.Right after I decompressed from Art & Soul Portland, I made some progress on the Illuminated Vision artist book I started in LK Ludwig's class. You'll remember my "poem" was the song Someday by Sugar Ray. These are the hard pages I was approaching with a bit of anticipation and hesitation. They're the ones inspired by these verses:
Just close your eyes and I'll take you there
This place is warm, without a care
We'll take a swim in the deep blue sea
I go to leave but you reach for me
Thoughtful of me to close my eyes in that picture, 25 years before the song hit the radio. (Damn! 25 years?!) And yes, the shore of Santa Monica was quite warm that day, in English or in Greek.
I knew these foreign-language flash cards would come in handy... snapped them up at Vendor Night.
Wasn't sure if I should make a transfer of the image of my father and me. The original is not as sharp as a digital photo would be, and the transfer would only be less distinct. But then I thought, it's kind of appropriate that the image is reversed and difficult to see, what with this being so far in the past. And the viewer's memory of the clearer image should hold, as long as the transfer is on the next page. So, before...
... and after.
Also highlighted each head in the transfer, and finally got to use another one of those sacred hearts I picked up I don't know when.More later on the craft fair production, and Thanksgiving with half of the in-laws.
What I've learned from Mija
A shout-out to Mija, whose comment in the first What I've learned post tickled the better impulses in my brain [emphases mine]:
it's seems a matter of how we choose to react. if we think someone is copying our artwork, we can be flattered, or we can see it as a way to challenge ourselves in a new direction or we can choose to be angry and bitter and rant about it on our blog.
I think she's better at detaching herself from the crazy-making things in life than I am. Clinging to an idea/way of thinking/person/job can be useful... but... you do run the risk of squeezing the life out of it as well as yourself. I'm better at letting go than I used to be, though. When I finally let go and go with the flow, I'm done with it pretty much forever.
as for the "sharing" implosion... one way we can protect ourselves from creating copycat art, is by taking a hiatus from Somerset Studios for awhile. let's go to another section of the periodicals and let something else inspire us for a change.
Which is what I'm doing, for various reasons. I thought of the above musing when I saw this interview by sfgirlbythebay with Anahata Katkin:
When I get emails from people who are in isolated communities who ask how to begin and feel frustrated- I always tell them that they have an advantage because of their isolation. Not being able to rely on inspiration from others or from the culture means that the stuff is pure and can have a deeper impact on people once you find your groove.
Well, living in the 'burbs of Increasingly Diverseville should make that easier!
it's seems a matter of how we choose to react. if we think someone is copying our artwork, we can be flattered, or we can see it as a way to challenge ourselves in a new direction or we can choose to be angry and bitter and rant about it on our blog.
I think she's better at detaching herself from the crazy-making things in life than I am. Clinging to an idea/way of thinking/person/job can be useful... but... you do run the risk of squeezing the life out of it as well as yourself. I'm better at letting go than I used to be, though. When I finally let go and go with the flow, I'm done with it pretty much forever.
as for the "sharing" implosion... one way we can protect ourselves from creating copycat art, is by taking a hiatus from Somerset Studios for awhile. let's go to another section of the periodicals and let something else inspire us for a change.
Which is what I'm doing, for various reasons. I thought of the above musing when I saw this interview by sfgirlbythebay with Anahata Katkin:
When I get emails from people who are in isolated communities who ask how to begin and feel frustrated- I always tell them that they have an advantage because of their isolation. Not being able to rely on inspiration from others or from the culture means that the stuff is pure and can have a deeper impact on people once you find your groove.
Well, living in the 'burbs of Increasingly Diverseville should make that easier!
A little ahead of the game (which is to say, not quite as late)
Herein lies a smidgen of a design for the altered notebooks I'm making for the holiday craft fair. My manufacturing pace is going relatively well. I've gotten all ten of the regular-sized ones done! and now I've got to do the ten mini-notebooks. I'm getting a little better at the on-again part of my on-again-off-again cycle, but deadlines will do that to you.Last year I altered mini-phone books as well as the notebooks... they sold, but a lot of people pointed out they store most of their phone numbers in their phones now. Fortunately, I had a reply that seemed to knock down that argument: "But this phone book will never crash." But even so, I figured it probably wasn't worth the effort to do the phone books again. It was a good experiment, though. The craft fair organizers had suggested that I offer two or more options so people could choose a less-expensive, stocking-stuffer type of item, or a full-sized, full-price item. So I did the phone books for my buyers (I still get a kick out of that. "My buyers.") as well as the notebooks.
I sold three-quarters of my stock (stock! hee hee) at the fair, and then my boss' boss, who gets all card-crafty at the holidays, bought the rest. She and another coworker who bought two items said my stuff was a real hit with the gift recipients. So this year I'm actually hoping that one or two will be left over, so I can put them on my soon-to-be-established Etsy site. (I think I could set it up this weekend, if I'm on the ball.) I should've gotten it up and running by now, but it will be done -- I'm not going to let that fade away. So the Demons of Malicious Criticism are keeping things down to a dull roar in my head. Going to make some other stuff too, maybe a little less (gasp) practical than the notebooks... you know, just like, art. Stuff someone might want to put somewhere they can look at it and go, "Cool."