I'm back!

ooops.. I took a little 'Pause' from posting, but I have been playing around a little in Photoshop trying to make a Christmas card to send to some family members I don't get to see very often. One idea was a wreath of little photos from our trips this year- Kilimanjaro seems to stand out, but I also squeezed in the Great Wall, Barcelona, Davos, and Zurich even though you can't tell where is where. Maybe a little too much infor for one little card!

Then there's a cleaner, less cluttered horizontal format of little photo ornaments. Have also been practicing calligraphy messages, but I won't post that. Maybe I'll post finished card- if it ever is finished! Or maybe you'll receive one in the mail...

Crappy Kili

I dont mean the mountain is crappy itself, I just mean my uh, rendition, of it (the view from atop here) is. I think I need to take a class, don't know what the H I'm doing with acrylics on canvas. I'll keep trying though, and experimenting- that's what this month is about for me! Maybe a few brighter colors would help! And I know I have to remember to do something about the edges.

How about a distraction- look it's Oscar!

David Sedaris Moon

On the way home from David Sedaris' book signing and reading in Munich last night, I tried to take a photo of the moon (it was looking lovely). When I viewed the actual photo it looked a bit crazy...but in a good way! Kinda like David Sedaris! It was a thrill to meet him and hear him read some of his hilarious stories!


I know this perhaps isn't the best example for creative every day.. but I really was trying to swirl the camera around for these 'special effects'! If I come up with something better today, I'll post it, but for now this is it..

As you can clearly see here, I was able to write David's name with the moon.

AEDM - Day 10

I know leaves and drawings and paintings of leaves are a little cliche this time of year, but after witnessing another amazing fall, I just can't help but finally post one leaf. I've been drawing lots of contour line drawings and have enjoyed that process, but today finally decided to 'go out on a limb' and experiment with the dusty watercolor pencils that have been hiding out (unsharpened) for years. I have lots to learn with these, but thought I'd just jump in and try them out. I think my contour line drawings have been better and more interesting, but it was good to experiment with color too.

A tree

Should have posted this earlier, but thought I might squeeze out something better today..which I didn't so this will have to do! It's the tree that I see everyday outside our bedroom window. It's amazing how different it looks every season and its finally lost all its leaves, so its in full winter mode now (the actual tree is not really this scary looking:) And I've left off a few branches..many branches.

La lala lalalala lala..

Feeling kinda whimsical..maybe its the cookie dough. Or my new fancy scissors I just bought to play with. And I pulled out an old trick from my past life as a graphic design student when we had every color in nature for markers - and even a blender (non)color, which I seemed to recall us doing interesting little image transfers with. The guy at Kaut Bullinger art supply store in Munich said it wouldn't work but I had to trust my instincts. While its not the ideal method using this marker for an image transfer, and I know many other experienced artists are more familiar with this and other techniques, it was fun just playing around. I think I'll keep this in the back of my mind for future projects though.

The concept of the hands and stars come from my 'coach' who said I should try to contact my future self and see what advice she might offer me at this point in my life... I'm still waiting for her answer, but at least I'm trying to hear her now! Helloooooo?

I also just have to post this video that I love and am totally jealous at the same time of this 'Matt' character! But love his little dance and the people who participate. I can't begin to imagine the stories he has putting this together - see if you find your city! Munich makes its appearance, and it wasn't even raining!! Stride Gum sponsored it all (what a deal for him!) The video makes me all warm and fuzzy inside and I had to buy the song I liked it so much (scroll down for more on that). I'm not able to embed the video right into the blog, so here's the link. It's really worth a watch (but maybe copy and paste otherwise you'll leave this blog and will miss the wonderful poem below...

www.wherethehellismatt.com

The song is called 'Praan' and the music is by Garry Schyman. However, the lyrics are from a poem by a Nobel Prize winning Indian author named Rabindranath Tagore. The English version of the poem is loosely translated from the original, in Bengali, and according to Matt is more of an interpretation. I really like the poem. On his website (in FAQ section) he also lists the lyrics as they ended up in the song - much shorter.

The Stream of Life

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle
of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Creative Every Other Day..or two..

While I haven't really been slacking off, I've got some stuff to show from the last couple days.. I have been a bit, surprisingly, overcome with..how you say..pride?!?.. and Hope after the elections. More so than I thought, and I don't recall feeling like this for a long long time. I'm really proud that 'my people' came through and made the right decision. A historic decision that I can only imagine what it was like to be there for Obama's acceptance speech. So, keeping this in mind, please bear with me and forgive me for the following cheese..and I'm not talking mozzarella! For the first time in at least 10 years, I got out my acrylics- and stared at them for a while - noticed how old some of them are (but still squirt paint out!), and with my cheesy but proud self, jumped right to the blue and red colors and reluctantly put it to (scraps of) paper. Not ready to 'waste' a new sheet on experimental stage..

Hold on to your cheesy little hearts... (sorry, I couldnt help it!)






I was also somewhat frustrated with what I've been making (and still am) but am trying to remember that its just play time, and the process is what's important - not the product.

Now for my catchup days.. the weather in Munich was soooo gorgeous yesterday (good excuse not to go to the gym) that I had to grab my camera and go for a little walk and enjoy perhaps the last sunny Fall day. And it was Fun with the Föhn! Föhn is the weather phenomenon that I am grateful for. It brings warm air from the Alps and sweeps through town. People blame anything and everything on it, but mostly headaches due to the air pressure change. All I can say is it makes for a great day! This is in the English Garden a couple blocks from our apartment. Hard to believe that the city and traffic surrounds it all.



Since I've apparently decided to let it all out now, here's the drawing that began my frustration 2 days ago causing me to put the 'other' in 'Creative Every Day' - wait, it won't let me upload the photo/drawing. Its just a few lions from a photo I took in Africa (I'd eventually like to do something with some of these animal shots). I'll try to post separately, along with the real photo - we were so close to these lions! And they were so cute!

Day 3 of 'Creative Every Day' (but only my 2nd posting)

Did I mention Oscar is a robust 9 kilos (~18 lbs.) - pure muscle ... only I can't seem to find the definition while drawing him, but I know its there, hiding under all that...uh..fur. I just drew some very basic contour line drawings of him on his favorite chair (my computer chair). I started trying to do just contour, but it became a bit of a mix, thinking maybe quick gestural lines would hide my inability to define his 'volume'. Anyway, since I feel like I'm just talking to myself with this blog having not told anyone about it yet, I'll just go ahead and post these so I can move on with my day. Lots to do today, top of the list: buy 2 dirndls for a Phlippino and a Chinese girl I've never met for the Macau Oktoberfest 2008 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Macau - a very nice place by the way with a very nice German Food & Beverage Manager http://www.mandarinoriental.com/macau/. Confused? Don't really care? I'll get around to explaining sometime. And I must go for a run while I can still see the sun!

Today's sketches:

Here goes!

I'm determined to (finally) commit myself to being (somewhat) creative...on a (semi) regular basis..so here goes (really?!)! This in thanks to a motivating friend who's argument to start a blog at least in order to hold myself accountable to create, and post, creative 'scritches and scratches' artwork. And the immediate incentive/inspiration (the kick I need) is the "Art Every Day Challenge" for the month of November. I think this is a great idea, and just what I need. They say there's no pressure to create something everyday (whew), and I don't want to beat myself up about trying (and possibly failing?) to meet this goal - so I will do what I can. Beginning with this weekend's combined 'Art Every Day challenge' / 'I need a card to send my sister' task... So, while it's nothing super artistic, but I do enjoy scritching with my old calligraphy pen. As you can see, I'm out of practice, but excited to get back into it.