Tag: creativity

Still Life 2

Once again my lighting isn’t great, but I think that this still life is better than the last one I posted. I really enjoy the rich colors and the blurriness of everything and the ephemera that I used. Do any of you do any still life arrangements? How do you repurpose old photographs?

Craig and I were engaged in this photo, and at one of my friend’s weddings where I was a bridesmaid.

I Need a Kindred Soul

I need a friend. I have friends, a few at least. And I love them. But what I wish I had was one more friend, a friend who likes phone photography or writing poetry or taking still lifes or journaling or painting or collage. A friend I can do creative challenges with, or even start a separate blog with to post collaborative work or stuff that follows the same sort of theme or concept.

I think that working with someone and bouncing ideas off each other would make my creativity stronger. I would certainly love the companionship and having someone to talk to about creativity, either written or visual. It would be fun if we were doing the same thing, but it would be equally great if we were doing two different creative things and just talking about them with each other, and giving each other suggestions and keeping each other posted with our progress.

I feel like I run on and on about poetry and other artsy things to friends that aren’t interested in them. And no one wants to be the person in the room who talks for an hour about something no one else in the room is interested in! But it’s hard when almost no one is interested in something that you really love.

So many creatives throughout history have been shaped by other creatives that they were friends with. I would love to have someone like that in my life and I would love to be that someone for another person.

I am not an amazing artist or photographer, but I really like designing images. I wish there was someone I could talk about it with. Maybe we could inspire and challenge each other. Perhaps we could give each other ideas outside of one another’s usual subject matter or mode of creating in order to sharpen one another’s senses. Why not try mixed media? Or instant film and toy cameras? Or ekphrastic poetry based on one another’s photographs? Book binding? Incorporating ephemera into our art?

Blogging helps me work some of my Creative Energy out. Blogging is extremely important to me. But maybe through my blog I will make a serendipitous discovery of a kindred soul who might want to be an angel in my life and let me be an angel in theirs.

This is probably a long shot, but maybe someday somebody will find this post and a beautiful friendship will spark. I know it’s unlikely, but it’s always worth a try. If nothing comes of it, my life will continue in much the same way and I will not have lost anything. And I have a good life. But if I do find that kindred soul, how happy I will be! If I don’t open my doors no one will know that they are welcomed into my life.

Iron sharpens iron, and friends are priceless. Is anyone out there? Hello….Hello……

Still Life 1

I am thinking of getting into doing simple still lifes with photographs and ephemera. I’ve done a few experiments. I don’t have the most professional looking materials. I don’t even have white foam board right now so I am using white tissue paper from gift wrap. I enjoy arranging decor and photographs and little odds and ends to make a picture. I’m debating investing in a Polaroid camera so that I can use little polaroid pictures for my designs. But for now I’m going to use the stockpile of regular photos that I have printed and haven’t used for scrapbooking.

This picture was taken when my husband and I first got married. I believe we were in Washington DC in this picture out to dinner. If not, we were in Rome. The background so dark and blurred and I can’t quite remember whether this was one of our trip to DC or our trip to Rome that year.

Abstract Painting Book

I bought this wonderful book on abstract painting techniques last summer. But before I could really start using it I suddenly became very angry, depressed, and discouraged about my creative process and I sold all my paints and painting supplies, along with a lot of other art supplies. I had bought all those paint the intention of really learning what to do and I had a huge number of them and I just got rid of them. But creatively I think I have healed since then and now I’m getting back into it, but I have had to start from the beginning with my paints. Starting out in painting is expensive. I had to buy all the bases to get paint texture, as well as gesso and palettes – on top of buying different colors of paint since I got rid of over seventy colors.

I am returning to this book to learn some techniques. I’m so glad I at least kept the book. I basically never throw out a book, and it looked so cool. I just wish that I hadn’t given up on Visual Arts back then. I would know so much more than I do now and I wouldn’t have lost money. Sometimes I just get angry and disenchanted. I’m not sure why. Maybe I was feeling untalented and upset about that. But I don’t know that that’s the case because I have never claimed to be a visual artist. I am merely someone who loves to experiment with color and texture. I am not a painter. I’m a writer. I may have been frustrated with everything at the time. Sometimes I just get angry or hopeless. Other times I tried to narrow the focus in my life, only to discover that I am not a person who can narrow focus. Despite being driven to create visually as well as verbally, I can feel extremely stymied. Like I’m just hitting a wall over and over again. But knock on wood that isn’t happening again so far. I’m beginning to get into the visual again with photo editing and with painting. And I may add some other things to my list as well. I will have to see. I feel like it improves my writing to work on the visual arts. That way my brain is kept sharp and creative all day long without focusing on my writing to the point of burnout or having nothing to say. So while I am not and never will be a painter, I can improve my writing with painting.

Experimenting with Acrylics

So far my painting journey has been interesting. I’m using different textures and experimenting with different colors, although I only have a few colors so far and need to buy many more. I would like to buy the Golden brand free flowing paint and see what I can do playing with that. I put it back the other day because I didn’t want to spend too much money on a hobby that I might turn out not to like. But so far I’m loving it. Pure color and texture. I want to find more tools and even more textures to work with. I love the abstraction of the images. For me they evoke moods and ideas. I am still a poet at heart and most of this blog will still be my poetry and my daily life. But now that painting is starting to become a part of my daily life I will include some of that too. Feedback is always welcomed.

My New Studio

Today I went a little wild and I tried a small art store at the south end of town. I’ve been watching videos on abstract painting on the Coursera app, and I have really been getting interested in it. I have always loved abstract painting, but through watching these videos I have learned a lot about how to do it. I’m sure I will never be a great artist but I think I could have fun and make some interesting images if I keep trying at it for a while. So I bought textured mediums, paint, brushes, mixing pan, gesso, pallet knives, and some panels and artist trading cards to paint on. I have set up the studio in the laundry room instead of at my craft room desk. First of all my craft room desk is in a carpeted room so if I get paint on the floor, like I did at the yellow house, it probably won’t come up and we will end up owing base housing a lot of money. I really don’t want to have to pay that. But the laundry room has enough space on that big counter for me to spread supplies out and work on creating. And right next to it is a deep sink. That means I have easy access to immediately wash my paint brushes clean. And I can do so in a sink that I don’t have to worry about staining or getting any gunk on. It’s a laundry room deep sink. It is designed for dirt and paint and anything else you can think of. So it’s a perfect environment for me. I’ll be sharing the space with Parsnip, who lives in the laundry room, but so far he seems interested in what I’m doing and he nuzzles my feet.

I’m really going to try to stick with this for a while. I’m not going to give up if my first few images really suck, which they probably will. I’m just going to enjoy the process and see what I can create. And it will be fun to photograph what I create and edit it on my phone and see what I can make out of that. I think this will be a lot of fun.