making room for all the things
Today, I felt inspired to either sketch or paint. I’m not really any good at either. When I opened up my pad of newsprint. I found some cutouts I’ve used for collages, and one was sitting on top of some ink marks (I think I was trying a pen nib). I thought it looked cool and wondered if I could play with integrating a sketch with a cutout. I came up with some ideas, and photographed them.
From my walk around Ballard.
January 6, 2016
3D
Sloop Tavern and the Henry art on the side
Woods, sunlight, and texture
Looking up
Discarded and Announcements
Suburban Suburban
Nickelsville
I’m getting ready to hang some of my work at a local coffee shop for the month of February. Everything was going swimmingly. I had business cards designed, I’m working on my Artist’s Bio, and picked out two sets of photos I think would work well in the space.
The first set of photos are a group of three that I had printed last month. I bought the frames online and they were delivered while I was away. When I got back I worked on framing them, and they look great.
The second set of photos is a set of four. I dragged my feet a bit getting them printed, and dragged a little more deciding how I wanted to go about framing them. Initially, I thought of having them framed in town, but after a consultation they estimated an amount that was out of my budget. So, I went the online delivery route and the four came in two separate shipments.
The first two came a few days ago. I immediately opened them to get the process started. For what they cost, they are what I expected: simple and black. I cleaned the dust off and slipped the photos in there. They looked great. The second shipment arrived today and I was excited to have homes for the final two images. And more, I was excited to have them ready for the show. But as I took the first one out, I heard a little noise, like it was the sound of a wind chimes. As I tilted it to one side, I realized what the sound was, and winced. It was the sound of broken glass. I thought “Don’t worry. We’ll ask to send a replacement,” thinking I’d get one by end of next week. Just my luck, the company who makes them let us know that they were out of stock and a replacement wouldn’t arrive for another month. Le *sigh*.
My husband, sensing my stress, called from work and proposed a couple of options:
A couple of other options I thought of later are:
I’m so close. I started off pretty irritated, but it is what it is. I’m channeling Bruce Lee and how he said “Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend“. Sometimes plans hit snags and you just have to deal. It’s not worth it to fight what I don’t have control over (the production of the same frame in the time that I need it). Instead, I need to just work through it, find a fix, be resourceful, and have faith. It’s not the end of the world, and it’s not like this isn’t fixable. This won’t define my work. Nor does it define me as a person. I’ll go ahead and be water.
I didn’t get much time to walk around on my own with my camera over the holidays. I did double duty between my camera and iPhone.
I’ve spent many of the past 13 years of the winter holidays in Southern California, where my husband’s family lives. It’s always sunny, sometimes freezing, sometimes sweaty. It depends on what part of the large county that Los Angeles we are in. Being a large family, we travel far and wide to be with different families. Below are a few photos from the past before I get on a plane to spend another holiday with the family.
Santa Barbara, California. Jan 2014.
Downey, California. Jan 2014.
City Walk. Los Angeles, California. Dec 2009.
Los Angeles, California. Dec 2010.
Americana, Shopping Center. Los Angeles, California. Dec 2010.
Santa Barbara, California. Jan 2014.
Photos from December 16, 2015.
I’ll be one of several artists selling at Seven Star Women’s Kung Fu Holiday Martial Arts & Crafts Bazaar. Below is a selection of the work I’ll be selling. If you’re in the Seattle Area, come support local artists and our school!
As I work toward creating a name for myself in artistic photography, I’ve been thinking about photographers that have inspired me, “wowed” me to be better, or whose work resonated with my own. One of them is Gordon Lewis, who takes beauties like this photo. Another is Cubie King, who captures magical moments like this.
As I prepare and package photos to sell at an upcoming Martial Arts & Crafts Bazaar, I stumbled upon this image that I took on the side of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art building (if I remember correctly).
When I rediscovered this photo I almost asked myself “Is this mine?” because it has so many elements that remind me of photographers I admire. As much as I want to stand out, I found that comparing my photography to others in this way is uplifting and reassuring somehow.
In the creative world, generally speaking, I think we all want to be unique. It can be easy to compare yourself to others and see it as a threat to your creativity. The “They’re better than I am” syndrome can leave one paralyzed as they’re finding their way through the art world. And I’m bit by this bug every once in a while. But through time and exposure to other artists – talking with them, meeting them, learning about their process – I’ve come to take advantage of these moments and use them for inspiration and learning, as opposed to ranking myself to them.
So, as I continue on this journey of self discovery and identity through art, I want to keep in mind that being like others is okay. We’ll never be exactly the same, anyway. All I can do is be inspired and see myself as an artist with my own unique voice. My continuing goal will be to have more moments like this when I ask myself “Is this mine?”.
Snow is in the forecast for the next couple of days. The snapping cold kept us at home today, but we were lucky to have clear blue skies all day. But one of the benefits of our apartment are our our west-facing windows and wood burning fireplace.
The Sun also helped inspire me to produce a small collection today that I titled A Slice of Sun that I’ve featured in my Kitchen Table gallery; a running collection of small projects I work on at home. Take a peak!
And here are a few uplifting moments I’ve had at home. I hope your weekend was just as warm and inspiring.
I’ll featuring new and small project work at The Kitchen Table. They are specifically projects I do at home at our around the kitchen table. Today, I share with you a small set I put together today titled A Slice of Sun.
fighting reality 