One

Letters and Numbers

The Creative Everyday http://creativeeveryday.com theme for May 2012 is  ONE.  I have been creatively blocked for a while.  Yes, I can blame the energy sucking job, my distractions like watching Downton Abbey for the umpteenth time or just everyday stuff that I allow to get in my creative way.  Yet, the blame won't get me anywhere and I am pledging to let go and just accept that I am where I am suppose to be and I am finally getting my artistic butt in gear.  

The above is one of 18 pieces I have done since last July.  I had flurries of moments where I created grid after grid.  Once school started - I am a teacher by trade - the energy slowed to a grid here and a grid there.  Christmas came along and all my creative energy went into holiday crafting.  Yet, this most recent one was in an effort to redirect myself back to my ultimate goal:  Create an life that is infused with art.

These grids are a great exercise for me.  They allow me to not think and play with colors, textures and patterns.  It is an experiment in composition as well.  Like my mood boards that I change by the season, I like these grids.  They are orderly, quiet and soothing for me when I have had a trying day, moment or week.

I started these exercises last summer (2011).  The images are from magazine pages, bits and pieces I have culled from my favorite magazines.  I work in a 6 " by 12 " spiral sketchbook with paper that is a heavyweight natural, white and is able to take the Mod Podge I use to glue the squares down without buckling.  For the squares I use a Marvy Uchida 1" punch.  The images come from magazines that use a heavier weight of paper because I find that the Marvy Uchida will eat the paper if it is the cheap or super thin brand of magazine paper.

To start, I draw a 4 x 7 grid rectangle lightly in pencil, then arrange the squares in a pleasing way.  Sometimes I let it sit for a day or two and move things around - I also pray the cat doesn't do a jump on to the table and scatter the pieces.  Sigh.   Once I like the arrangement I carefully move the squares to the table in the right order.  I use a sponge brush and lay on a nice juicy layer of Mod Podge and then adhere the squares one by one in a single row using my fingers to quickly push out any air bubbles.  I then use a brayer - a hard rubber one use for linoleum prints to make sure the squares are flat and glued.  I repeat the process with the next four rows.  I put one thin layer of Mod Podge over the whole thing.

If you are one of those people who collect magazine pages and really need to weed out and also want a quiet easy exercise just to get your mind off your troubles, free up that creative bird to soar a bit try this.  

Catching up! Early Spring Mood Board

I have been busy - work is not letting up and I have a few more weeks of craziness there.  The energy sucking continues.  Sigh.  However, the creative itch continues - so I try to satisfy or rather sooth the itch with some creative exercises that just take the edge off the irritation that I can't put my full focus on my art.  In the Winter I took a bulletin board that hangs on a wall at one end of my galley kitchen and created  a Winter mood board.  Actually I did it for Autumn as well.  Let's see did I post about these? Oh, here is the autumnal post:  http://astheartflies.blogspot.com/2011/11/art-every-day-challengechallenging.html.  The Winter one is...let's see, its, right...well I tried to do a link but for some reason google is messing with me and won't let me call up that post.  Sigh.

Well, March 21st has come and gone.  Primavera is here.  In California we are experiencing a very wet and cold spring with moments of beautiful sunny, tepid weather.  Daffodils are up and brightening up the landscapes and gardens.  Flowering quince and cherry are just dropping petals like snow on the green grasses.  Its beautiful!  Inspired, my mood board is now reflecting the shift from a stark winter to a soft and pastel spring.

Many of the images I use are from many magazines especially my favorites - Somerset Life, Marie Claire Idees, and Country Living British Edition.  Others come from scrapes and pieces of purchased patterned papers.  This is a board to inspire me and not something I would sell or use for sale.  So, I don't think I have infringed on other artists territory by posting my mood board.  If I have please let me know and many apologies. 

Anyway, it is fun going through my stash of papers and images and deciding which one's work well together in terms of color, texture and patterns.  In a way, its a great way to practice my composition skills for future reference.  I highly recommend making mood boards to get past a creative block and to rejuvenate the creative juices.  Give it a try.  You don't need a big space. I took an old cork board 24 x 32 that covered in an oatmeal colored linen.  I use sewing pins and tack all the images down.  I can move things around easily since nothing is permanent. So easy to put up and to remove for the next season or if the mood strikes me to do something else.

This exercise as gotten me thinking about Leah Piken Kolidas' ( Creative Every Day) http://creativeeveryday.com  April's theme around 'Language'.  As I have a crazier three weeks to come at work, I am going to challenge myself to use the theme and work on something that I can share but mainly to get me moving beyond the cross roads where action and stagnation meet.  So, I will keep posted on how I get along as best I can!  Cheers.

D.I.Y. Project Week - inspired by Mollie Makes Magazine

I am a teacher at a San Francisco high school.  Between the 2 semesters we have an interim course period of about a week where teachers can teach a class to 18 students.  The courses range from Iron Chef, Dorm room cooking, Physics of Sledding and Yoga.  This was my first year doing the program.  Inspired by Mollie Makes Magaine http://molliemakes.themakingspot.com  I created a D.I.Y Project Runway class to teach students how to sew (basic sewing machine use) and make accessories.  We started with a coffee cup cuff, moved on to a wallet - inspired by one one of the articles in Molli Makes.  Then I let them loose to be creative and use a variety of magazines and books I have from Tida Finnager's books to, yes, Mollie Makes magazines, and Altered Couture.  I am so proud of my students.  90% of them have never sewn before in their lives!  I had 15 girls and 3 boys. 

Note:  Because I didn't get permission from their parents to use their images, I am only going to show their products.  Cheers!

Wallets

Coffee cup cuff.

This student took a tank top and used it as a pattern and created this bag.

Clutch with applique.

Drawstring bag all done by hand.

Zippered bag.  Hey, I never showed them how to set a zipper...they figured it out themselves!

There were more things that they made Infinity scraves, messenger bags, belts and all but I wasn't able to get pictures of those.  I had 5 days to teach them to sew and though not everything was done with a 'professional' eye the students learn something and had fun with it.  In the U.S. or at least in California, many schools do not teach home economics anymore.  One funding is not there for it.  Secondly, no one is coming out of college to teach home economics anymore and you have to have credentials to teach it in the public schools.  So, I thought this would be a great way to get young people into something different - thrift it and make it.

This project was done on mostly donations.  I got a lot of the fabric and notions as donations from parents and the community.  Teachers and parents and students lent their sewing machines.  Of all the sewing machines we had one worked the best an old 1960's Singer.  Amazing, right?  All the others kept breaking down and were too sensitive for use. 

Now with that said, I plan to do this next year but get another teacher to help me and we may break it up to more crafting and will include sewing, knitting, embroidery, jewelry making it but the premise will be thrift it then make it.

Cheers.

Happy New Year

The Wednesday after Christmas I went for a walk with a good friend and her 2 month old daughter.  We often walk together to get exercise and keep up with each other in many ways.  As we walked we encounter two very uplifting things.  One a family had set up on a deciduous tree a small plastic bucket with mail tags and permanent markers.  The sign asked:  What are you thankful for?  Both my friend looked at all the fluttering  tags with expressions of thankfulness.  We added ours.  What a wonderful way to celebrate our lives and share our joy of life no matter what is going on in our lives.  This simple mode of expression was a beautiful gift that this family could share with their neighbors.

We advanced to an eatery and had a nosh.  While we sat in the sun - yes we were wrapped up against the chill but the sun warmed us - a monarch landed in the bush next to us.  He/she wondered below the canopy of the leaves and the then boldly emerged to stand for its photo op.  What a beautiful reminder of how precious life is and how strong even a simple creature like this butterfly is.  This butterfly is probably one of the early arrivals of flocks of migrating Monarchs braving through ancestoral memory the migration from southern climates to come north and start life again.  Many do not make it but those that do remind us how strong we can be in life's journey to survive and thrive.

Best wishes in 2012 to you all.  May your days be filled with creativity, love, hope and joy.  No matter what the world (media, politicians and other unhappy souls) say or do, don't let anyone steal your joy and share it that joy.  Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays and best wishes in the New Year!

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel and blessings this Winter Soltice!  Dear creative kindred spirits I wish you all a plethora of creative opportunities in the new year!  I am happy to say that I have begun my efforts to develop a more creative habit of mind than I have currently.  I pushed myself to enter a painting in a show through the Berkeley Art Center.  BAC had a call for entries for their winter show and a friend sent me the announcement.   I just felt it was the writing on the wall to get out there and show my work.  In the flurry of trying to get the piece framed and delivered to the curators, I forgot to take a picture of it.  Silly me!  In anycase, I am proud of my effort. 

The wreath above is one of the creative efforts I made for the holidays.  I use to go into a Martha Stewart mode and decorate, bake and make for many years but my job in the last 5 years took all the joy out of my spirit and I haven't done anything for years.  This year was different.  With a job change, I was able to release the bad karma of the last job and take on one that gave me a sense of Joy and freedom that I use to know.  So, with that said, I have been crafting, baking and making again.  What JOY! 

So, to 2012 I look forward to continue what I started this holiday.  Year round crafting, painting, sewing, baking and making.  My heart is full.  Best wishes to you all and your families.  Cheers.

The colors of Winter

In the spirit of the holiday season I have been indulging in making decorations for the house.  For the past 8 years I have been sleep walking through my life and have not felt anchored in what makes my heart sing and dance.  In 2011, a change in my job situation has enabled me to clear the cobwebs in my heart and I can breath again.  Essentially I lost my job but gained a new one in which I am paid a bit less but I have more personal freedom and time.  As I adjusted to the new job this past fall, I was looking for something creative to do but was 'creatively blocked'.  Reading my favorite magazines, I found repeatedly artists talking about being blocked and they would say - 'When blocked, just do something!  Anything!'  So, I did.  I created a mood board.  I showed it in my last post: http://astheartflies.blogspot.com/2011/11/art-every-day-challengechallenging.html

The board is in my kitchen and is a cork board with a frame that I covered in an oatmeal colored linen.  I use silk pins to pin up the images and papers to create a temporary collage that symbolizes the season.  I enjoyed that so much that I've decided to do one for each season and regularly change it to satisfy my creative moods and decorate my house. 

My holiday decorations are focused on red and white as a theme.  Does my theme change every year?  Yes, it seems every year.  I don't do a 'tree' so I make it up with lots of garlands, wreaths, flowers and all.  For some reason red and white resonated with me, this year, and I have followed theme.  As my house is evolving into a space that has black and white furniture, and accents that are black, white, red and burlap beige I decided that I would make my winter mood board around those colors. Here is the result:

The whole board complete.

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

What I like most about doing these temporary collages is it allows me to play with images, colors and textures without worrying about permanency.  Art on a whim, then living with it and tweaking it and just enjoying the process of playing.  A lot of the images are from my favorite magazines like Marie Claire Idees (France), Country Living (British), and Somerset Life (US). Other images are from Christmas cards from years past including some I collected at flea markets from the 1930's.


I hope to share some of my new holiday decorations. I made two wreaths...no, three!  I made one for the front door and I have made two more to hang inside the house in various places.  So, more posts to come, stay tuned!

Art Every Day Challenge...challenging...

At Creative Every Day, http://creativeeveryday.com, Leah has continued her November challenge to do art everyday.  She never waivers from supporting us in doing what we can, when we can and share. Though I  struggle with getting something 'arty' in everyday, I did come up with a autumnal collage for my kitchen.

I have a linen covered mood board that I have used to pin up images for redecorating my house.  I took those down and have begun a journal of ideas.  The blank linen has been staring at me for a while.  Then the November Art Every Day came up and I was thinking of things to do.  Well, why not create a mood board for the Thanksgiving holidays and the wonderful autumn we are having in California?  So, I did.  Here is the result:

I source the images from my favorite magazines like  Country Living (British) , Marie Clair Idees (French), Country Home and Gardens (British), Martha Stewart Living and many of the Stampington magazines like Somerset Life.  Putting this together got me in the fall spirit and a creative mood.  Thanksgiving is around the corner so I am planning to apply my 'art everyday' in a culinary way as well as decorating my house for the event.  A process to be sure.  Then, on 'black Friday' I plan on staying home where it is safe and begin decorating for Christmas!  So a possible mood board change to come.

Cheers.