Friday Five

Here are 5 inspiring things around the internet. I read LOTS of blogs...and I keep track of my favorite things via Bloglovin'. Here are a few things that inspire me! (P.S. If you use Bloglovin' to follow your favorite blogs, please add mine to your feed)

Izziyana Suhaimi via Booooooooooom!

Flower Mandalas by Kathy Klein via Free People

 {Henry Rousseau} Fantasy Pants via Sea of Shoes

From High Fructose Magazine

Allison Krumwiede via Supersonic Electronic

Photo Collage Friday {Number Seventeen}

After the art auction in Kansas City a couple of weeks ago, we visited the studio of an artist living in the Crossroads District. He had many interesting things in his studio...my friend Meg thought it was one of the weirdest places she had ever been...This might not be my favorite photo collage ever....but I did find his studio interesting and there was some cool stuff hanging and hiding amidst the clutter.

Collaborative art....

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to help a group of artists create a sculpture. I wrote about it here.

The student visit to the local art center is well underway and they have started covering the first big sculpture with bits of fabric, paper, tissue paper, cardboard and other things. Students are weaving colorful bits of this and that through the chicken wire mesh.

Still much more to be done...this is an 'in-progress' stage...I can't wait to see it finished!!

Working with a team of artists...

On Saturday, I had the awesome opportunity to collaborate on a really cool project. Every year, a thousand area 3rd graders visit a local art center. The students get a chance to see the show, make some art to take home and also help create some sort of large-scale project. Last year, students painted a patch of some huge murals, this year, they will be helping create an outer shell for a large-sculpture.

The education committee at the art center, (me included) came up with the idea last fall and recruited a local artist to help build the armatures for the sculptures. It was decided that we would construct 3 armatures of welded metal covered in poultry wire and then the students, over the course of 3 weeks, a thousand kids would help cover the surface of the wire by tying, wrapping and weaving bits of paper, fabric, cardboard and other materials to the surface. At the end, we hope to gesso or modge podge a final layer so the sculptures can stand outside.

The sculptures are designed to resemble artwork from the current show that is in the gallery. Linda Mitchell is a truly inspiring artist. I love animal paintings and her website does not do her work justice, her work is seriously so beautiful. If you are in need of some new inspiration, definitely check her out.

Saturday, under the smell of the melting welded metal, and the sound of the an iPod set to shuffle, we worked at the amazing studio of another artist, Jorge Leyva. Just to give you an idea of how cool this studio is....here is his painting studio....

Here is the breezeway connecting his painting facility to the sculpture garage:


And here is the place where all the magic happens:

And by magic...I mean this:

 Taking a painting, making a sketch.....forming the metal and connecting the pieces....

 To make something great.

I am in awe of artists who can take an idea and make it totally 3-D.

Jorge constructed the metal skeleton of the form by welding together rebar, while the rest of wrapped the chicken mesh around the form to give it some bulk. We zip-tied the wire to the metal form, and after many scraped fingers, ripped thumbnails and some blood, we had finished the elephant on the box....and the body for the rhino. Jorge is still working on the head. He is also going to create a large dog so that we will have 3 sculptures for the 3rd graders to cover.

Here is phase 1 of the sculpture project. It was so much fun getting dirty and working in a real artists' studio. I almost don't want to waste these sculptures on little kids...I want to help finish them myself!

 The elephant-in-a-box in all its glory.

 Josie Mai and me. Saying 'I helped wrap the head' is a little like saying 'I carried a watermelon'....yeah, I helped, but she totally made this thing happen, I was a little more like the errand boy/assistant to the regional manager.

 The 3-D chest of the Rhino.

 The hot boots.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of this project. The kids will be visiting the art center starting next week. I can't wait to see these finished.

Find new inspiration from these artists: 

Linda Mitchell
Josie Mai
Jorge Leyva

Please leave a comment with feedback if you check out any of the artists linked above ;-)

The girl who can't stop painting owls....

I keep painting owls. I just can't stop!!! 

Here is my entry for this year's Spiva Small Works Auction.

Remember last year's entry:

And I've started a circle journal with some friends. Angela. Jari. Jen. I've done the first two pages...but I also decorated the cover:

Close up!

This one might not quite be finished, but he is part of the collection. Retro owl....Inspired by Mati Rose.

Night owl.

Baby blue owl.

And Winston. One of my first owl paintings. This guy is really huge!! One of my favorite owls ever.

I am only motivated to paint occasionally...and I know I will never be Monet, Picasso, Cassat, Frida or any of those great, dead artists who would NEVER appreciate my work...but I think...Eric Carle would like it...and that is okay with me.

So I just keep painting owls.

Because I think it is important for an art teacher to make art. And show it.

So I had a show this weekend at a local art walk. And one of my (4th grade!!!) students also had art on display there also.

I've sort of had writer's block.....

Last spring I had about ten things to write about every week. Now that summer is here, I just don't want to be tied to my computer and I am feeling totally uninspired. I haven't stopped creating, I've just sort of taken a break from documenting it. I thought it would be fun to share some pretty pictures I took at a recent local art walk. If you don't want to read all the boring stuff, enjoy the pretty pictures!

Today is my second day of summer vacation. The worst part about a vacation is feeling like, 'wow...I don't ever want to go back to work....ever....." I guess that it is bad because I fee guilty, like I don't like my job. But it is good too because it means that I am really enjoying every single second that I do have off. Yesterday I did a few things on the computer that I needed to get done but I had been procrastinating. (ordered some more Instax film--yay!)  I am shooting a wedding this weekend so I have been getting ready for that. Today has been a major cleaning day. Clean sheets. Clean kitchen. Clean laundry (folded and put away). I drank some green tea and it really energized me to get some mundane tasks done!

I recently set a few new goals for myself....
1. Lose 5 lbs.
2. Keep a food journal
3. Work out at least 4 days a week
4. Avoid fried foods, eat more grilled meat with veggies and fruit
5. Limit sweets and other junk food

This is week four and I have done pretty well with all of my goals. My food journal was really easy while I was in school but I have slacked off on that this week. I have really stuck to working out....I must admit that the last time I ran a full mile was in Jr. high but I am nearly there now...I can't run an entire mile...haha...I live in a neighborhood full of hills...but I almost can. I jog/walk 2.4 miles nearly every day and I have gone hiking at a local nature center too.

I had hoped that the results from all this hard work would be paying off but I haven't lost a single pound. My clothes fit a little better but I am still the same size. grrr....that is frustrating. Week 4 is almost over and I am going on a trip next week so that might sabotage my workout and eating plan (who wants to be restrictive when they are traveling!) I just hope I don't have to start completely over when I get back. I want to meet my goal of losing 5 lbs. before school starts in August!!

I have been working really hard on some art goals too. I am planning an art exhibit this fall with my medium format photography (Holga pictures) and I am creating some sculptures with found objects as part of my exhibit. I am excited to be working on this and I will share pictures as soon as I am a little farther along.

These are a couple of my artists friends from college. One of my favorite thing about art walk is all the great old friends I see!

 At art walk the students at the local university create a screen print on site based on a post card picture from an old building downtown. The prints are so cool!

 Here is one of Scott's sculptures. It is a guitar made out of found objects. The entire show was so cool. Some of them were made my his students! He is so great!!

 Yes, the guitars actually work!

Frustratingly, the local photography studio that develops my holga pictures (for 25 cents each--total bargain!) is closing. I have been buying equipment to start my own darkroom, but that is pretty far in the future. I am excited to get it started but I will probably only be able to process black and white pictures so that may limit my options with the holga photography. Bummer.

I just entered some of my Holga pictures in a contest: HOLGAPALOOZA!! I don't really think I will win....but I am proud of myself for actually entering.

I just finished my first 'summer craft swap.' I am getting ready to mail off 16 sun glass cases. I will share pictures soon!

My family is going through some stuff so I am trying to relax but I am also worried about several situations that have developed. None of them involve me directly, but I am still feeling the stress for my parents and brother.

Oh and I have just a couple more pictures from the art walk to share with you. I took these with my iPhone hipstomatic app. Tacos and a Mexican coke! YUMMMMMM!!

On scrapbooking and paper art.

The term scrapbooking is a little dorky. My friends (the non-scrappers) tend to make fun of me for my late night scrapping habits. They just don't get it. I love photos. I love paper. I love techniques. I feel like what I do is more than scrapbooking. I create art with paper and photos. I am inspired by other people who make art with paper and photos. I am not inspired by boring photo albums. I want beauty. I want art. I like to combine good design with text and stamps and stickers. I love making cards. Here is a kit from Close to My Heart that helped me to combine all of my favorite things. I made 2 'scrap book' pages and LOTs of cards using this awesome Twitterpated kit. I changed it a little to make it more mine, but the workshop guide made it easy for me to get it completely finished in a reasonable amount of time. So great for me. I haven't had a lot of time to make anything lately. I actually made all of this last weekend when my brother stayed the weekend with me. In between going to the recycling center, lunch, hitting up a scrapbooking sale (thanks Yvonne and Stacy!), where the wild things are (fantastic, I want to build a fort!), chuck-e-cheese and the late-night spookhouses, I was able to create a 2 page layout and 12 cards.






WOW! This was perfect for me. If I am not 'feeling it' with all the creative mojo...which is often....a kit like this helps me to break through and actually complete SOMETHING. And it was fun. And I am proud of myself. And I like it. So yeah. I don't care if scrapbooking is dorky. Or if it makes me less of an artist. It is fun. It is a creative outlet. It keeps me going. I need it.

p.s. I followed the workshop guide for my first six cards. They look exactly like the ones in the guide. These additional cards, I made up using the same layout but different paper and stamps.