my mental pendulum

Julia Cameron writes eloquently about stiffling our negative blurts, and I think I have made true progress with this. Lately I have been struggling with artistic individuality, it's an internal mental war where thoughts see saw back and forth.

I am always hungry for eye candy, artistic inspiration, visual stimulation I search it out online, in books and magazines, taking classes, visiting museums -heck even shopping! I am a very visual and creative person and doing this feeds me.

So what's my issue? I obsess about creating my own art and about having filtered my inspiration enough to make it "original". I read a quote the other day by Joichi Ito:

"Most creative work is a process of people passing ideas and inspirations from the past into the future and adding their own creativity along the way. "

I find myself being judgemental about others' art when I assess it through this prism. I look and see "popular" themes that seem to run rampant through the art world where I like to browse. Do you know what I mean? Birds, wings on figures, dunce caps, big eyed portraits of women -they are everywhere! Is this "creative" or is it just copying, following the pack, being trendy?

It does not mean that I don't like what I am seeing, it's just that my preverse mind thinks that by adopting these elements is not authentic somehow for me.

In the past few months I have done two online classes, one was Shades of Grey with Pam Carriker and the other A Prompt A Day with Kelly Kilmer. I enoyed both and got a lot out of both, the page picture above was influenced by both. I was "copying" to learn techniques and I think that is totally fine, but now I need to take those techniques and make them my own. Michelle Ward had a GPP Street challenge* to make somthing your own, and even though I didn't participate in the challenge I have taken it to heart.

So can I use a bird in my art work? if I do a border edge on a journal page like Pam's is it unique enough for me? my inner perversity has me wondering. A final thought is that I am probably thinking about this too much and I should just create and let what comes come....

* unable to link to these -typepad won't let me in to her sites for some reason

Rock & Roll

This is a journal page I made inspired by the small piece of post it note I found on the washer, Greg must have pulled it out of his pocket (at least he checks them now!). I was already thinking about what fun it was to be interviewed for his paper for History of Rock & Roll. My studio is conveniently adjacent to the laundry area so I stuck this scrap in my moleskine and made a page about it. I am also very proud to report he found out yesterday he got an A+ in the class -not bad for a senior level history course at Univ of MD...

Eye Candy overload at the Blogging for Bliss Party

Yesterday was so much fun meeting so many bloggers at the Blogging for Bliss party.
I have always been too shy to really leave comments and interact, thinking somehow I don't really know enough about blogging, or somehow my blog isn't a "real" blog -just me fooling around. I am not sure why but I decided it really is time to fully plunge into the blog pool and not just dunk in my little toe. I am still working my way through the party list and hugely enjoying all the eye candy and all the amazing creativity that abounds, it is awesome and humbling and so inspirational! My copy of Blogging for Bliss arrives tomorrow from Amazon, and being me I can never just stop at one book, I am also getting An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers by Danny Gregory and Image Transfer Workshop: Mixed-Media Techniques for Successful Transfers by Darlene McElroy.
This should be lots of inspiration for my artwork and my blog! We are going down to the beach on Friday and I'm excited I'll have some fabulous reading.

Blogging for Bliss Book Party

Today I am joining the book launch party at Artsy Mama's for Tara Frey's new book Blogging for Bliss. I am anxiously awaiting my copy! I started blogging over a year ago and then had a huge lag where I just let it sit. The past few months I am back into it regularly and I enjoy it! I highly recommend blogging as a blissful creative outlet.

If you stop by to visit ~ please leave a comment and your blog link! I'd love to add you to my inspiration list, because visiting and discovering wonderful blogs is every bit as fun as creating one yourself. I am looking forward to the party today and visiting with everyone attending the party.

Soul Collage

I came across some photos of some cards I had made a few years ago when I was fooling around with Soul Collage. I liked the process of thinking about the various aspects of your psyche and creating the collages, but the whole tarot like process of doing stuff with the deck of cards left me cold...I still quite like the cards though, and they are still me.....

This is "The Source" card

Summer of Love

August arrives tomorrow and with it the 40th anniversary of Woodstock - in celebration I am getting the Woodstock Moleskine...

they just look so cool and fun. They are sort of hard to find, but Barnes & Noble in Rockville had some so I had them save two for me -I am going to give one to Greg (shhhhh) since he did so well in his history of rock & roll class this summer.

Perhaps I'll have to get some music too, hmmm maybe this?

The Sketchbook Project

I love moleskine notebooks and signed up today to participate in a national sketchbook project that will tour as an exhibit. The Sketchbook Project will send me a moleskine and a theme, I fill it up and send it back to them for the exhibit...should be a fun and interesting challenge.

Confirmed Exhibition Dates:
December 11 - 13, 2009 Atlanta, GA

Art House Gallery
309 Peters St Atlanta, GA 30313
February 19 - 21, 2010 Brooklyn, NY

303Grand
303 Grand St.Brooklyn, NY 11211
April 8 - 11, 2010 Los Angeles, CA

Art and Shelter Gallery at The Salvation Army Alegria
2737 W Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90039
April 16 - 18, 2010 Saint Louis, MO

Soulard Art Market
2028 S. 12th St Saint Louis, MO 63104

amazing nature - diatoms

eye candy from the Manchester Hermit

Sherwood Forest

Tomorrow David, Greg, Elizabeth and I are going to Sherwood for 3rd of July fireworks on the pier preceded by a fun day on the Severn, sun, cocktails and cookout. I am going to try to find some of those new off clip on mosquito repellants for the evening.
They sound to good to be true - I guess we'll see...

Ahhh - 3 day a three day weekend and new books on my Kindle, now if only my arm would heal enough to let me get back to art work....

Fractured, but healing

no art, not much typing

radial head of my right arm and of course I am right handed....