Yesterday I tried something new. I played with the Fractal filter on my graphics software.
I tend to always go to the same filters and the same effects so I decided it was time to try something new. I drew the flower with the paint brush, then ran it through the fractal filter which made the spiral. I then faded the fractal to bring back the flower. This is how I created the above image. The smaller ones I made seamless, so that they will tile into a pattern. I then played with color and texture on them.
This lower set of images, I am releasing under a creative commons license.
I will be putting the full size images on flickr this evening. If you take them and make anything with them, I would love to see a picture of it. Enjoy.
I started this month with the idea that I would do both the Nanowrimo and the AEDM. I did the same last year, but the posting fell away on the AEDM, and more days than not I felt my creative effort was in writing the words, because the visual art items I made were stiff and not terrible creative. I was looking back at some of those. I had not realized how much I had grown as an artist in the last year. I tend to measure my growth against the body of work I created as a college student in an art program. At that time I was pretty much creating art for 8 to 10 hours everyday, most of it pencil and charcoal sketches, so it is not surprising that I was at the top of my game.
Looking back at last years work made me want to go back and make the sometimes painful comparison to the college work. In sorting through the art stuff in the basement to stock my studio over by the gallery, I had unearthed some of my other college art. Some of the paintings, some of the weaving, and a very sad little sculpture.
This time when I went to make the comparison, I saw all of those before I pulled out the portfolio. All of those piece were the best piece of their respective classes, and my current works in those area surpass all of them except for the sculpture and that is because I do not have any current works as a sculptor. I decided to skip the portfolio and pick up one of my sketch books from that period. I was pleased to note that my current sketches were on par with those. All these years I had been comparing my rusty sketching attempts against the 20 best finished drawings that I had chosen out of the several hundred completed drawings I had made during that time period. I have read a lot about self sabotage and letting the inner critic shut you down. This felt like a two by four to the back of my head. I came upstairs and sat down to write. Not this posting, but rather on my nanowrimo project. Why? Because back in those college days, I had wanted to be an artist and a writer, but I did not have any written works other than papers and journals from that time period. There are not any because I was afraid to try then. I may not hit the mark this year by the end of November, but at least I will know that I was writing, and that is a win in my book.
So, completely unedited, a couple of paragraphs from the NaNoWriMo project.
A bright yellow candy wrapper caught Russell’s eye. Its bright plastic coating seemed to shed the thin film of wet dirt that covered the rest of the floor of the bus. He looked up at the sea of black, grey and tan in which he found himself seated. Black suits, black raincoats, black briefcases, black shoes. His own all black and grey attire that he had so carefully chosen as a statement this morning seemed to just blend in. So the business men were wearing dress shoes not high tops, but his long black duster was not that different than their trench coats. His gaze driffted back to the bright candy wrapper. Its bright cheerful colors seemed to mock him. Starbursts, a pack of contradictions. Their latest add featured the candy as players in a rock band. It was so close to what his own dreams were that he closed his eyes to trap the water that threatened to spill from his eyes.
Everything seemed so hopeless, so grey, dingy and grimy like the floor of the bus. The bus jerked to a stop, he looked to see that it was the stop before the Hospital. He rose letting and started moving towards the exit. A man wearing the same black canvas duster as him, but over a cheap looking black suit dropped into the seat he had vacated and unfolded the paper he has shoved under his arm. It was the wanted ads, with circles around some of the ads. The doors parted and allowed Russell to flee from this possible vision of his future to an equally grey city sidewalk with another sea of nameless people hurrying by in black and grey. He had enough to deal with in the present, without letting the vision of soul sucking job search cloud his mind. “First things first” he told himself and started down the block to the Hospital A beautiful flagstone path lined with bight mums in yellows, reds and even a few purple curved away from the dirty grey sidewalk towards the beautiful old building. On his first visit here the path had been flanked by the little green evergreens. They were still there and not much larger than when he first saw them. He wondered if they were just slow growing or carefully trimmed. He liked them, they were the baseline to this garden, a constant rhythm through out the changing melody of the seasonal plants.
Today I was playing around with a box frame for one of my small artworks.
It is an artist’s trading card that will be set into a small wooden box frame. While I know that the AEDM challenge is to create every day, not finish an entire project every day, I have found that the small things are fitting well into a busy holiday season. I am also getting ready a class on calling cards to help prepare for the up coming Dickens’ Days in our town. Part of the idea behind the calling cards is to help develop a community, letting the shop owner see who has visited, and to encourage us to support each other by visiting their businesses, social group or organization. If I as a business owner receive 10 calling cards that all show that the visitor was from the local Buggy Club, It will make me more likely to put an add in the Buggy News letter. We ran short of time, so we are going to introduce it this year, and work on it next year.
Thinking about how the whole concept of calling on others has gone somewhat out of fashion, it occurred to me that it is alive and well in the blogging world. I have “met” so many wonderful people who have come and visited my blog. They left their “calling card” in the form of a comment. This small social courtesy is what makes blogging so rewarding for me. Take care, I am off to call on some of my favorite blogs.
There are times when creativity needs to take a more practical side. The press to get all the holiday announcements and fliers out meant that yesterday my creativity was limited to the Business side of Art. I am very surprised by the number of Artists who sit back and take the view point of I created it, now they will come. Or in terms of our Gallery, we built it they will come.
I am not an expert in this, but I do recognize that it is important that I promote my own work, myself and my gallery if I want them to suceed. Connecting with other Artists, and organisations is an important part of that.
I am very happy to be working with Westfield’s Business Improvement District, I am also a part of Vallery Art Share. I am thrilled with the wonderful artists that I have come in contact with through Leah Piken Kolidas’ Art Every Day Month. The Small Art Show that today’s art is from supports Westfield Arts on the Green a 501(c) that promotes Arts, Artists and Performers in our local community. This show is set up as a 50/50 silent auction with 50% going to the non profit and 50% going to the artist.
The art work will be shown in the gallery for the duration of the show, and if the artist provides a digital image, the work will also be shown on our website. A win for both the Artist and the Non Profit.
I am always interested in where other artists have found inspiration, support and connections. Who has supported and helped you?
Gallery 24, part of Creative Corner Westfield, will be holding a Small Art Auction.
All pieces of art must be no larger than 6X6 inches finished size.
50 % of the Proceeds of this Auction will be benefit Westfield Art on the Green, a 501(c) non profit organization. 50% will go to the Artist. Some of the Artists have chosen to designate a greater percentage of the profits to Westfield Art on the Green, and those will be noted on the piece of Art.
When: The Silent Auction will run from November 28th until December 5th 2009, as part of Dickens Days hosted by Westfield On Weekends and the Westfield Business Improvement District.
How to participate:
Westfield Arts on the Green a 501(c) nonprofit and Gallery 24 invite you to donate to our Small Art Auction. We are accepting works of art ranging from 2×2 inches to 6×6 inches. All works must be framed and ready for hanging. Sculptural works or Pottery are also invited, but must stay in the size range. Instead of an entry free, we are asking that the artist set the initial price for the auction, and donate half that amount should the work not sell.
We will be accepting work starting November 21st, with the Silent Auction to run from November 28th
(1) the artist’s name and the name of the owner of the work of fine art;
(2) the title, if any, of the work of fine art;
(3) the medium and dimensions of the work of fine art;
(4) the date of completion of the work of fine art;
(5) the date of delivery of the work of fine art; and
(6) the anticipated fair market value of the work of fine art.
(7) Any other information about the work of fine art.
(8) the signature of the artist and today’s date
This morning I realized that yesterday I jumped the gun. I had sat down yesterday evening with the intention of getting a jump start on today’s post. It was then that I realized that I had not finished the post from that day. I finished it, added in the new pictures and posted it. This morning it dawned on me that I had put today’s photos on yesterday’s post.
I was looking at Degas’ ballerinas. So many people think they are of the romantic ideal of the ballet, beautiful and graceful. So pure and inoccent in thier lovely tutus. This is sort of jumping the gun in another way, the truth and historical context is a little less pretty than that. The girls in those paintings were my daughters age, and they were professional working girls.
So often we look at Art without a context, because we bring our own meaning to the work. For me when I see dancers, I see the strong lines thier bodies form, the contrast between the hard work and appearance of effortless grace that is the goal. I can see were others were pulling in the inocent and pure as compared to many modern dance costumes they are quite modest. Due to my modern sensibilities, I can only imagine the shock of the bare arms and the tantalising view of the legs.
There are some that is wrong to look at the painting in any other context than the historical one in which it was painted. I believe that knowing the whole story adds depth to the painting, but does not make any other vision of the painting less valid.
My daughter looked at this shot and said, it is picture of my ugly foot. I said, no, it is a picture that highlights the transformation of the plain foot to the graceful slippered foot. My pictures draws on the historical perspective of dancers in art, that contrast between the appearance and the reality. It makes me think, how many peices of art have I jumped the gun and gone only with my first impression without making any attemtp to understand what the artist was trying to convey.
Today at my daughter’s school I saw a sign that said I am an Artist. I live life out loud. It was a poster for MICA. I loved the comment. I thought about how true it is in many ways, When you create you put a bit of yourself up on display. I add another dimension to that by blogging about the process. When I do simple mom things like attending Ballet observation night, I bring my camera like all the other proud moms. The difference is that I take 300 shots and I move around the studio in order to get better angles, and I am just as likely to take pictures when they are not dancing as when they were. I found myself thinking of all the Degas ballet pictures of the dancers at work, not at the performance, but the actual in the studio work.
I think that in many things there is a beauty to the work and the journey to a final product that is important. I see so many would be artists discouraged that they are not creating masterpieces from the start. I think for me an important part of living out loud is to share the learning process, not just my final fished pieces, but those I struggle with. My daughters sometime are a little less excited about it, because they prefer to be the models in the pretty final performance pictures, rather than those photos that are the journey.
Today I decided to put a protective coat on the tiles. As I intended for them to be coasters, I decided to put it on fairly thick. The paint I was using was a solvent based paint, the sealer was a solvent based sealer. What I should have done was put in on in a lot of light coats. The bottom left tile got the thickest application and the top right the lightest.
There is a nice floaty blurred quality to the bottom left tile that does not pick well with my little camera. I may have to get the big one out and try to capture a few shots. This slight blurring has made me rethink my background too. I think I shall try some leaving the white background. I may also play around with a seasonal set. I was thinking of visions of sugarplums and other holiday treats. Or maybe a set of swirling fall leaves.
Off to work on the word count now.
I managed to get the colors a bit more vibrant on this one. My daughters both love it, but it is not what I had in my head, so I want to keep playing.
This morning I read Sandy’s Post on Time Well Spent. It got me thinking about balance in my life and business. While I am enjoying playing with these coasters, a little voice in the back of my mind is saying “Product Developement”, while another is saying “COA research”, and yet another says “Wheee! I am playing.” All these parts need to be kept in balance. The research into Certificates of Authenticity(COA) is by far the least fun, and since I show paintings and prints of graphic images, not hand painted ceramic tiles, it should be the more pressing so I can get the latest batch of prints up for sale. I have only recently started selling limited runs, and I had a buyer ask for a COA.
I discovered this is one of those areas that falls into a big grey zone, and I could research it for days and still not have the perfect answer, as there is not an equivalent to the ISBN for art prints. I’d love to hear from other artists what they do for COAs.
Almost halfway through the month, I am full of new projects to try. This is my first attempt at making a coast from a ceramic tile. I saw some at a arts fair recently, but they were a bit out of my price range. The Artist said that she used paint pens to create the images, but clearly a different type paint pen than I use.
The great thing about work on these. I can make a bunch trying to get the effect I want, and they do not cost much at all, so I feel free to try and if I do not like it, well it is not a big deal. Off to take my husband for a birthday dinner.
National Novel Writing Month
