Entries Tagged as: cats
Peeking into my Sketchbook
October 8th, 2008, Comments (19)
I brought a blank sketchbook with me to Hawaii to draw and write in and since I got home I've continued to draw, sketch and doodle in its pages. I like how this one came out (above.) The blue color makes me happy. I'd been waiting to see where all the inspiration I took in in Hawaii would take me and I think I see some of it in these colors.
While I was in Hawaii, I was sitting in a chair and happened to notice the structure a mirror which made me think of a mermaid in this sort of stretch. Now, looking at these two drawings I'm seeing loads of curves. I've always been a fan of curves, but I'm sure the rolls of the ocean, the curved hills and mountains, the shape of fish swimming by, the half-circle of a turtle shell, the roundness of the sun and moon, all the curves, circles and swirls in nature brought that to the forefront of my mind.
I did some sketching on the plane too. I'm not a plane-sleeper, even though we flew first class (our first time doing that and it was lovely!). I have enough trouble falling asleep in a bed, never mind a chair. But I actually love flying, even at night because I love looking out the window, I get a thrill of traveling by air, and I like that time and space where I'm disconnected from the world and I can read and sketch, doodle and write to my heart's content. Here are two pages from my plane sketching below:
I've got some adorable, snuggly kitties next to me at the moment. I love how the cooler weather brings out the extra cute cuddles in them. Life is good and I've much more to share, but I've gotta fly for now!
Mermaids, Hope, and Other Tales (or Tails)
September 7th, 2008, Comments (9)
I worked on this all day Friday and it's already different from this picture. But it's fun to see work in progress pictures I think. I had the idea for this mermaid ages ago, but it kept developing in little sketches and doodles until I was ready to go. I incorporated a bit of collage. As soon as I received it, I knew that the vintage postcard that Tammy from Sunflower Studio sent me because she just felt it belonged to me would be going in this piece. I love it when that happens. As much as the image has been played around with in sketches and doodles, it's already entirely different than I thought it might be and I still don't know where it will end up. This process is definitely a metaphor for life.
I was feeling oh so tender around the edges yesterday. It was a lovely day, yoga in the morning, cleaning and movie watching in the afternoon. It was so incredibly muggy and I was dripping sweat and generally feeling sad and teary for no particular reason. The hubster was out of town and late at night we chatted on the phone lying in beds in different countries. The talk made me feel much better and then I slept like a baby, a baby surrounded by snuggly cats.
Today I'm feeling so much brighter, my ups and downs seem to be mirroring the wild weather. When I was feeling blah yesterday, I saw this meme on Elizabeth's blog and decided to do it. What is it about memes that are calming? Simple, a bit mindless, short answer, lightly creative.
Song you love: The song the hubster wrote for our wedding.
Word you love: Lately i've really enjoyed saying Hawai'i (not just for the meaning behind it, it's just fun to say.) I also love the sound of the word "ciao." Go figure.
Academic subject you love: art history
Hobby you love: getting lost in a book
Type of baked good you love: warm chocolate chip cookies
Type of sky you love: fiery sunsets, starry nights, stark blue against tree branch silhouette, poofy clouds, so many skies.
Beverage you love: coke
Vacation you love: Exploring a new place
Restaurant you love: Blue Ginger
Way of getting around that you love: walking
Person you love: the hubster
Room in your home (or ideal home) you love: studio/office
Movie you love: Clue
Book you love: The Artist's Way
City you love: Seattle
Future plan you love: owning our first home, starting a family
Form of communication you love: art
Junk food you love: m&m's
A huge good luck to Elizabeth (not that she needs it!) in her first year of the Squam Art Workshops! I wish I could be there, but I'll be on the opposite side of the country for a wedding.
I've been feeling the need for a short blogging break and the time I'm away on my honeymoon makes perfect sense for that. I'll still be checking my email of course and I'm sure I'll pop in on occasion, but for the two weeks from Friday the 12th through Friday the 26th, I'll be enjoying checking out San Fran for a wedding and then soaking up the rays in Hawai'i with the hubster. I'm SO excited! I will still have the weekly posts where you can share what you've been up to. And I know I'll be back with loads of inspiration. And I'll still be blogging this week too.
How bout some links? Yes? Yes.
- Mother Henna has a great post over at JustBeConnected that is fabulously filled with great links.
- One of the links Kara (Mother Henna) shared was to MIT's OpenCourseWare, a selection of classes posted for free online. One of the classes is called, "The Creative Spark"! Yeah! I loved this quote from the description of the course: Creativity - "the mastery of information and skills in the service of dreams" (Hirschberg).
- The sweet and talented, Jes has an article about artist's studios on the wishstudio zine blog here. There's a little bit of my studio in the post! And Jes is looking for more info about artist's studios, so check out the article and get in touch with her if you have something to share about your space.
The upcoming election has me partly excited, partly angry, partly scared, partly hopeful. Speaking of hopeful, I love this kind of news. The Maine artist who made the pop icon of the word LOVE has created a new piece for the word HOPE with proceeds going to Obama's campain. - Have you ever wanted to make a bowl out of an old record? My bff recently let me pick through some old records she was bringing to a thrift shop. I'd like to use the covers in some art and she mentioned she was going to keep a couple records to make some of those funky bowls. If you'd like to try it out, here are some instructions from P@perSeed.
- I received two copies of Patti Digh's Life is a Verb: 37 days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally
Still behind in emails I'm afraid. Hope to be caught up soon. I hope you've all had a lovely and creative weekend!
Random Tidbits
September 4th, 2008, Comments (15)
Some images from a sketchbook for a swap I'm participating in. I love to doodle and see what comes out. I guess the change of seasons was on my mind!
I'm surrounded by cute kitties at the moment, feeling sleepy after a day of errand running, and getting excited about my honeymoon trip in about a week! Wee!
Speaking of kitties, I loved Amy's post on the lessons her cats have taught her. Too cute.
I was tagged by artandtea to post seven random things about myself. I'm a bit wishy-washy about tags lately. I mean no offense if I don't pass on a tag, I'm just following my energy. I always wonder if I have seven random things to share that might be new. But there's always something right?
- I'm short, but I'm not big on wearing heels. They hurt my feet. And while I'll where them to a wedding on on random occassions, most of the time it's just not worth it to me!
- I love yoga, but I'm not naturally flexible at all.
- I'm not sure if it comes across here, but I'm incredibly silly. I regularly do goofy songs and dances for the hubster and he does the same for me.
- I can't figure out lipstick. I put it on and I think it just looks funny on me, so I don't wear it.
- I love having plants in my home, but can't because one of our crazy kitties likes to chomp on them. I sometimes get fresh flowers and put them in a couple spots that are out of his reach.
- I feel such a sense of spirituality when I'm near the ocean and I'm looking forward to being near it in Hawaii.
- I've never flown first class before, but we splurged for it for our trip to Hawaii and I'm really looking forward to the flight!
- And a bonus: I got some embroidery supplies today because I've been itching to try it. I also got Sublime Stitching
In the meantime, I've been feeling inspired to sketch in my sketchbook and have some new ideas to bring to fruition.
A big thank you to Shelley for the i love your blog award she passed my way. Shelley recently did the most gorgeous collage pieces as part of a 6"x6" collage supplies swap. I love Shelley's collage work and her eye for design.
O.k., it's late and time for me to hit the hay. Well, that's not very friendly, I won't hit the hay. I don't even have any hay to hit. Hey now.
Kitty Cat Dreams and Mermaid Drawings
August 11th, 2008, Comments (7)
Ah, after being home for the weekend, I'm feeling much more rested. I was amazingly exhausted after sleeping a week at my old boss's house. There's something magic about your own bed and I felt like I couldn't get enough rest when I got back to it. All the gray weather we've been having and the abundance of napping fuzz balls, like Tabbers above, is enough to make anyone sleepy. Fortunately, today I felt energized and ready to tackle some things.
I've been drawing a lot in the last week, including these two. The mermaid (above) developed from an image in my sketchbook of a mermaid with waves, a whale, and ship in her hair. The image below was done on a whim, doodling whatever came to mind.
Last night, while watching the Olympics, I grabbed what was handy, a few mini sharpies that came in a box of new golf balls and some index cards, and did some little drawings. I find mini drawing like this to be oh so relaxing and fun. Sometimes, it gives me ideas for paintings. Other times it gets my creative juices flowing, like a warm up exercise. And sometimes, it's just nice to get some of that creative energy out onto the page, even if it goes absolutely nowhere else.
This afternoon, I spent some time sorting through neglected paperwork. It's odd how you can procrastinate about something for so long and then as soon as you do it, you have immediate relief. Must remember this!!
Well, the snuggly kitties are finally getting to me and I'm feeling a strong desire to curl up with a book and some cute meows. Sasha, is letting me know it's time for bed too. (That's her yawning, even though it looks like she's yelling or laughing hysterically. Hehe)
Wishing you a night full of beautiful dreams.
What’s Up? The Sky.
August 5th, 2008, Comments (8)
I've been having some issues with my internet connection and haven't been at home much over the past few days, but I am alive! I'm helping out with some teenager-supervising/dog-watching/house-sitting at my old job which has been fun. I got to catch up with both the kids I used to care for as a nanny. One is nearly a senior in college and the other is about the be a freshman in college. Eep! When I met them they were just 10 and 13. Catching up with the two of them has been fun and I enjoy the doggy company too. I wouldn't want to go back, but these short bursts are nice on occasion. I've been all sorts of busy, making plans for our honeymoon, which is next month, oh my! We were given a travel agent gift certificate as a wedding gift and trying to use it over the last two months has been a nightmare. Normally, we'd just do our own travel planning and in the end, we had so much trouble with the agent not getting back to us, that after two months of back and forth, we complained and ended up just going through them for booking our hotel on one of the islands (which I did all the research for myself.) Oy. It sounded like a nice idea, having someone help us pick out the best location and activities for our needs, but it ended up being a major hassle. So, yeah, we'll never do that again.
Now that the headache of dealing with the travel agents is mostly over, we get to focus on the fun stuff, like taking a tour of the areas where LOST (the t.v. show) is filmed. We're both super excited about that. I was trying to find out which of the two companies that offer a tour would be better and came upon this youtube video (above), "top ten signs you're obsessed with LOST." The first one made me laugh so loud that my cat, Sadie jumped in the air.
Stopping home today, I was pleased to see several copies of the summer issue of Calyx, a journal of women's art and literature, which has 3 pieces of my art in it (two of which are above, Dreaming of the Seven Sisters and Lighthouse, and the third, not shown, is Memory Cycles.) The journal is lovely and I'm so happy to be a part of it. I've been pouring over some of the poems and enjoying them. It's interesting, what I like (and sometimes dislike, if I'm feeling fidgety) about poetry is the way that it requires you to be in the present moment. You can't skim over a poem, at least not if you want to get anything out of it. The way regular prose is written, we can zoom over the words because the structure and language is predictable. We usually know what's coming. With a poem, the turns of phrase are unexpected, the tempo is musical, you need to slow down and take it in, in order to understand what the author is trying to get across. Sometimes, if done well, a poem can express things that are very difficult to say any other way. Much like artwork.
In other news, the latest issue of the fantabulous Mankind Mag is now available (for free to view or download or for a small fee to purchase a paper copy). It's a great issue, all about...hair! Which reminds me, I need a haircut. But really, do check it out. I loved reading excerpts from Erin's "autohairography" and if at some point in your past you ever curled your bangs, I bet you will too. Oh, and I've got a little ad in there featuring my favorite whale art!
Wishing you a tubular Tueday! O dear, the hair issue, totally brought back all my goofy expressions from the 80's/early 90's. I used to begin all my cleverly folded notes (in square, triangle or rectangle shape) with the title of this post. Oh the memories. Heh.
Creativity, Courage, and Play
July 30th, 2008, Comments (10)
"Creativity takes courage." -Matisse
I came upon the above quote today and it resonated. It does take courage to be creative. Sometimes it takes courage just to move. But it seems like once you get beyond that first step, it becomes effortless. At least for awhile, until you have to cross that courage threshold again and again and again. Pure playfulness helps me get over that threshold. And the journal swap I'm participating in has been a fun way to play. There is the small fear that other people will be seeing and later owning these journals and I don't want to disappoint, but mostly I can let that go. It's a swap and meant to be fun, so I'm getting playful with it. Yesterday I punched circles in one of the pages. Working along with the see-through quality of the pages, I made this page truly see-through in parts! Hehe. I didn't really think of it at the time I was doing it, but they also go along nicely with the rabbit in the narrative I'm creating because they're like little rabbit holes!
And here's what's on the other side of those holes. The second page isn't done yet.
While doing playful work in a journal is good fun, it's also good to play BIG sometimes! Today I used a large sheet of paper and just started painting on it with a painting knife. As forms appeared, I went with what I saw. No clue where it's going yet, but it's fun to mush the paint around and see where it takes me. And if it ends up as a big sheet of mud, well, that's o.k. too. Got lots to do this afternoon, so I'm off!
p.s. That's my kitty, Emma, above, who decided to take a moment from her nap in the sunny spot on the porch to come sit next to my foot. My toes are still very sparkly from my 2nd pedicure of all time that I got a couple weeks ago. I'm amazed it lasted so long!
Where ya been?
July 27th, 2008, Comments (5)
This is the illusive Sasha, who is currently stalking a grasshopper. She and the other meows were very happy to see us return from a weekend away. We drove to upstate NY for a wedding yesterday. The hotel was cute, the people were friendly, but the city we stopped in was in rough shape.
The drive up was beautiful though and we had a good time on the drive and at the wedding. Tonight, I'm zonked.
I received a sketchbook in the mail today as part of a swap and I started drawing in it tonight while relaxing and watching some baseball. The pages are thin and a bit see-through, so I've started making a story that's building on the layered look of the drawings showing through. Fun stuff! Hope you had a wonderfully creative weekend!
Beetle Juice
July 11th, 2008, Comments (17)
Life is good and I'm feeling oh so grateful. One of the things I'm feeling grateful for is a healthy Sadie-cat. Thank you for all the kitty well wishes! Sadie went on antibiotics on Tuesday and by Wednesday evening she was 95% better. Thursday she was her regular crazy-kitty-self. I'm so happy about that.
It's late and I need to crash, so I'll have to save the rest of the post I was planning to write til later. Above is a spread from a moleskine I'm doing as part of a swap. On the right I drew a little pic of the necklace I purchased recently and on the left I wrote the message that's on the opposite side of necklace.
Oh wait, one last story before I go to bed because this whole thing made me laugh so hard. It started when I went into the bathroom where the hubster was brushing his teeth and I noticed something strange around his waist. Where a belt would normally be, he had a usb cable going through the loops of his shorts. I was confused and asked, "Um, what is that?"
Apparently he got to work and noticed his shorts were so loose and could fall down at any moment. He couldn't find a belt in his office, so he improvised, found a usb cable, took it into the bathroom, fastened it around himself like a belt and then pulled his shirt over it so no one would see. Too funny. I started cracking jokes about him being like a geeky MacGyver and then kicked him out so that I could use the bathroom. Well, I'm in there with my shorts down when I see this gigantic bug on the floor. I mean huge! I thought it was a cockroach at first. I yelled to the hubster to come quick and he told me it was a very large, but friendly looking beetle. Well, he may have been friendly, but I wanted him out of the bathroom immediately. So, I grabbed a plastic cup and a piece of paper, put the cup over the super-bug, the hubster slid a piece of paper under him, and I went ahead to open the porch door. The hubster came out of the bathroom with the gigantic bug in the cup and as he gets close to me he says, "Get out of the way, he's getting out!" Apparently, this clever beetle was trying to make an early escape. The hubster starts running towards the porch door just as his usb-belt-less pants fall down around his ankles. He practically trips and throws the cup, paper, and beetle out onto the porch all together and slams the porch door shut. I'm hysterically laughing at this point, yelling, "Oh my god. That was classic!" The two of us pant-less, trying to get a huge beetle out the door. Good times. Hehe.
I really hope that was a stray beetle though and that we don't see any more of those things inside. I'm not usually super spooked by bugs, but this one gave me the heebeegeebees!
Oh Bee-have!
May 27th, 2008, Comments (10)
Yikes. The older I get, the more I can't contain the puns.
I was feeling a bit stressed earlier, worked myself into a veritable tornado of anxiety. As I apply to various things (shows, galleries, agents, etc...) this sometimes happens. Is it fear of rejection? I'm sure it is in part, but the truth is that rejection isn't all that bad. I can handle it. So what is it that's causing my heart to race? Some underlying fear of being judged or being not good enough seems to be part of it. What an unpleasant feeling. In order to calm myself down, I needed to go sit outside and read for awhile. The cool post-storm air and a grounding book along with some cat snuggles helped bring me back down to earth.
Tonight, I feel calm again and I decided to do some fun art. This week's Inspire Me Thursday theme was "whimsy." Earlier in the day, an image of houses carried by balloons popped into my head, so I scribbled it down quick in my sketchbook and carried on. Later in the day, I was thinking on the combo of aqua and red and decided that I could do that quite nicely with the idea I'd sketched out. The idea of it is whimsical I think.
How did it get so late? Oh, I'm sleepy...But before I go, some links!
-Erin of Design for Mankind has created another gorgeous zine, which you can read here. This issue is all about inspiration in nature.
-Looking for some places to submit your artwork? The Art Deadlines list runs a blog with a wide range of opportunities.
-Want to learn how to draw a face? So much of it is in the proportions. This video is a great place to start!
And that's all she wrote, for tonight.
Weekend Shares
May 25th, 2008, Comments (5)
I've got some new art in my shop. You can check out the "New Art" page where I put new pieces on occasion. One of the new pieces up for sale is Leap, which I'm offering as a print. I love the whimsy behind this piece and it also seems t o fit in nicely with my Risk theme thanks to my dream lynx.
In the morning I was up at the crack o' dawn for a furntiture delivery. I was talking to the hubster about the new furnishings on the phone (he's celebrating a friend's b-day out of town), I told him how our cat, Sadie, was flipping out about the new furniture. I told him I couldn't figure out why she hid under the new chairs, rolled around on the trunk/coffee table and posed herself in all sorts of ridiculous positions on the rug. The hubster told me he was going back to bed and suggested I do the same, but I was too hyped up. That's when the hubster pointed out that Sadie was probably hyped up the same way I was about the new furniture. Hehe. I suppose, I'm not much different than my crazy cat some days. I'll take some pics when everything is set up. We're still trying to unload our dining room table and the lead I had fell through. Once the table moves out, we'll be able to arrange the new furniture as we like it.
In the afternoon, I took a trip to the mall to pick up a bridal shower gift. The mall was nutty. After I found the gift, I was perusing the shoes at Macy's when this little girl crouched down by one of the shoe mirrors and started screaming at the top of her lungs over and over again. No idea where her parents were or what she was screaming about, but wow, that kid had some lungs! I was happy to scoot out of there and enjoy a lovely ride home with the windows open. Mmm.
Now for some inspiration:
- A man who took a polaroid every day for 18 years of his life, til the day he died. The story was written about on mental_floss. The man behind the pictures was James Livingston. You can read more about him here. Found via Design for Mankind. I love how these polaroids are such simple moments in time, pieces of the every day. It's a very touching collection.
- The super talented and sweet, Jessie has opened up a new etsy shop for her blooming animal art business, Stray Dog Arts. Her paintings are incredible and truly capture the personalities of the dogs she paints. On the etsy shop she's offering, gift certificates for commissioned pieces, originals, prints, and cards.
- I went back to the Container Store today to pick up another storage bin made of newspaper. I have one at home already and they're super cool looking, fit perfectly on my bookshelf, and they're eco-friendly!
