#100daysofart: weeks 3 and 4, making it work

Though I have never seen an episode of Bravo's Project Runway, I do fancy myself a bit of a pop culture connoisseur and I do know who Tim Gunn is. It is my understanding that Mr. Gunn uses this term as a 'shut up and put up' sort of mantra, only with far more panache. Trying to create an original piece of visual art every 24 hours is most certainly a put up sort of agenda and, though thus far it has taken turns I didn't expect, I am currently 'making it work.'

I knew that travel outside of the state would create obstacles in my cerebral adventure, but I chose to incorporate my travels as oppose to avoid. Shooting Ghostface on stage was amazing and, not wanting to rely on photography too heavily for this project, I deemed him, and this shot above, worthy. With little time to spare my third day at SXSW I got crafty and created an environmental scene using the wrist bands I had received the day before. Though I didn't know what I was doing as I was doing it, I sort of think this works.

 

 

A plane ride can really take it out of you and making my tomato garnish into a piece of art and a symbol of love brought my mediocre Mexican takeout to a whole new level with just a couple swipes of plastic knife. Wanting to explore art with Photoshop I took the maturation of my oldest nephew into an official teenager as an opportunity to make his monumental 13th birthday well, monumental. Flawed as it is, it was done with love - and what could be more beautiful than that?

A postcard to a dear friend is a standard practice in my life, but drawing it with pictograms instead of an assortment of 26 characters was a fun new take in addition to being a throwback to the days of high school when Hillary Gatlin and I thought we were far more clever than any of our teachers when passing notes between periods in this DaVinci code. Seeing beauty in the nature outside, the flora of which is unparalleled in sunny Southern California, let me to my next now pressed flower and pen drawing and a quick article on permanent marker and rubbing alcohol led me to the baseball cap only a niece could love (at least hopefully!).

At first I envisioned this project as a chance for me to take my university honed art skills and get my still life or pottery wheel on. Having a degree in Fine Art has been a blessing, but the practice in everyday life can be hard found. Instead of using my charcoal on the daily, I find myself going way way back, perhaps to when I first became an artist, when I was just a kid with a box of Crayolas. After encouragement from my parents and desire building inside I brought it to college, to the professional world and now here, to social media. The full circle of life. Ha!

Making it a point to use different mediums and play with different techniques, all while fitting it into a busy work life and developing social calendar on a new/old coast has left me using the resources and time that I have to the fullest. Whether that is a collage torn from the pages of People, a quick shot of interesting architecture in a local Asian eatery, experimenting with crayons and fire, creating colorful lines and dots while burning the print off of my right thumb, or my piece de resistance, Selena Quintanilla Perez's portrait on a teeny tiny canvas commemorating the anniversary of her untimely passing. A big Selena fan I wanted to make sure to represent and though a full length image in a purple jumpsuit may have screamed the tejano star a bit more, this simple sharpie portrait would have to do.

 

 I will admit that this challenge is, well, challenging - but as I am forced to flex not only artistic muscles, but creative ones, in terms of logisitcs as to how to accomplish a piece each day - it is sort of fun!

#100daysofart: creatively recharging one day at a time ...

I am an artist. 

It is just that simple.

I was born one and, when my parents encouraged me to create, express and go on to study the subject matter in the world of higher education, it became not only who I was on the inside, but who the world perceived me to be as well.

As adulthood weighs heavy on our shoulders and the responsibilities associated with building and blossoming into this You 2.0 dulls your senses, many of us let the artistry of childhood fall by the wayside and 'real life' sink in.

I have maintained my status as artist, both in person and profession for many years, a fact of I am extraordinarily proud of, but one that can be a challenge to maintain from time to time. This is especially true when life gets hard and for me - it has gotten hard. Real hard.

Instead of returning to my brush or relying on my pen I find that, when I sink down into the cobalt blues I prefer to space than to create. This nagging feeling, paired with one of the few true benefits of social media, just the other day I was inspired. A fellow real life adult and artist had chosen to take the #100daysofart challenge and post it to her instagram. When questioned about the project she said, and I am paraphrasing, that this too was something she needed to exercise.

Not wanting my creative quads to atrophy, I decided to assign myself the challenge of creating something new, witnessing something beautiful, or learning something enlightening everyday and, in turn, sharing it with the cyber-world at large.

I will be documenting this atypical journey through my own instagram, blog and on SOAlife, I hope you come along for the ride and I hope it inspires you too to do some squats for the soul.