SXSW: 8 Years Later

My first trip to SXSW was in 2007, nearly a decade ago.

A lot can change in a decade. I am a different woman, living within a different set of circumstances.
My location has changed, my relationship status has shifted, my perspective on life has been altered, but my love for music and photography remains tried-and-true.

I have visceral memories of my last time in Austin, Texas. A great town with even greater barbecue and an influx of art and congestion in the early Spring. I was in the infancy of my career, navigating the professional world at an outlet that trusted me enough to give me a stack of cash and a ticket to the South to produce a number of photo shoots for their upcoming issue. I made some friends, saw some live music, met Amy Winehouse, and cut my teeth in a world I was just embarking upon but, which would remain my world for the next 8 years, and the foreseeable future. Working in media can desensitize you to some of the plain old cool experiences we are fortunate enough to encounter. I try my best not to take said experiences for granted.

When I made my first stop in Austin it was on a cross-country trip. I was 19 and my big sister was pregnant, so you can imagine not a whole lot of havoc was wreaked. The next time I was with Stuff Magazine and trying my big girl pants on for size, so I was relatively professional and eager to please. This go round, I was just old. Last time I was here the sea of faces were white, and bearded. The bodies adorned with tight t-shirts and scuffed up sneakers. The population of 6th Street, growing exponentially during the music festival season, has become more Benetton and less milky white, the sponsors have grown from local venues showcasing a relatively unknown talent, to mammoth corporations flying out the latest Disney star to go viral, but I would like to believe the spirit remains the same.

I would like to believe my spirit remains the same as well.

A lot can happen in 8 years but then you find yourself back where you began. In the pit, sweaty and uncomfortable. Elbowing for room with your camera to your face and your bag weighing down heavily upon your back. Eager to get that one shot; eager to hear that one song.

Or as some of us may call it. Heaven.

#100daysofart: week 2, digging deep and making compromises

day 9 


Knowing this challenge would only become, well, more challenging traveling was only bound to add insult to injury - so to speak. With my first week under my belt I was feeling confident and seasoned and ready to take on the adventure of first, heading to Northern California, where I created the simple watercolor and pen portrait above, and next to Austin, Texas for work where I decided to use a handful of notecards I had taken from a fancy hotel several weeks back and create a DIY puzzle if you will with black felt tip pen, colored pencils, and the drag of my hand.

Day 10 brought a new medium into the mix with sewing, which I happily did with a dear friend and her daughter, using Martha Stewart as inspiration and a pile of felt and thread as our tools.

Making it a goal of mine not to only make something everyday, but make something different, maybe not everyday - but changing things up enough to not get bored with my own project, let alone anyone who might be keeping up with me, I went for duct tape wall art, a scribbled self portrait and a simple photograph of Our Lady of Angels I pause to admire each and every time I pass.

A few days in Texas with lots of work and limited access to the local Michael's I can only hope I keep an eye out for found objects and interesting opportunities to continue onto week three...

day 10 

day 11

day 12

day 13

day 14

 day 15

day 16

#100daysofart: week 1, getting creative being creative

A week in and I can already feel the enormity of this self proposed challenge I have chosen to undertake.

While perusing the site for #100daysofart you can see many people chose themes, creating a selfie a day or a watercolor of a variety of landscapes - perhaps a wise move when stumped for your next potential project. I, on the other hand, being a Jedi warrior in the art of making things far more difficult than need be, chose simply to create with an open ended idea of what that meant. I wanted to make sure I utilized different forms and mediums and, in the process, stretch and strenghten my idea of what constitutes art.

A stop at my old familiar stomping grounds of the local art supply store not only brought me back to my younger days; days when my father purchased and set up a professional draft table in my childhood bedroom, giving me the proper tools to create Louvre-worthy portraits of Peter Pan and Mickey Mouse, but also those days from university where one was often faced with the choice between a chunk of premium charcoal or nutritionally balanced meal. Ah, the good ole days.

A few basics in my bag and I was ready to go and conquer.  

day 2

day 3

day 4

Day 1 had been an introduction to the whole project and allowed me to use my middle school level typography that I love so much. Day 2 lent itself to my doodle days and came almost effortlessly as I dragged pencil on paper and made a random yet consistent pattern. Day 3 and Day 4 I chose to go 3-D, decorating mugs (a long stranding tradition for me and a couple of other ladies) and making a collage about said father who purchased that draft table all those years ago. Neither my typical form of expression yet both uniquely satisfying in their creation and result.

day 5


Figuring a trip to the Getty Center on Day 5 would simply lend itself to my next work, I found I was a bit stumped and, as a professional photographer almost felt like I was cheating it when I grabbed a quick shot of beautful bougainvillea wrapped around iron rods in the garden. Not having used photography yet I felt I got a pass.

Then life kicked in, as it is wont to do. Meetings and commutes. Social commitments and time at the gym watching How I Met Your Mother reruns while on the elliptical began to fill every conceivable moment of my day and I knew that, with this only being the beginning, I would have to think outside the box to accomplish this goal. Literally.

day 6

I knew when publicly declaring my attempt to complete all 100 days of art, time management would play as big a role, if not bigger, than the ideas with which I needed to come up to make my art. Day 6 ended up being totally out of left field and a back up when a previous concept didn't look like it was so feasible. A found rubber ball with a black sharpie and white out can go a long way when in a pinch. Day 7 was going to be a painting but, when seated at a basketball game watching an antsy 8 year old desperately searching for ways to fill her time when her father was shooting 3-pointers, I figured part of the beauty of this project could be my ability to share art with others. With a good pad of paper and colored pencils at the ready, I thought, pretending the entire time that I was not at all concerned about the fact that I knew my pencils would be returned dull and out of chromatic order, why not offer this little girl a distraction from her youthful boundless energy and allow her to create what ended up being a great portrait of her daddy playing ball. Though she was not able to finish the picture before I had to leave (with my compromised pencils)  I was able to give her a moment of art and, create art by proxy. Though I did not document her work, I did manage to capture a shot of her creating her own masterpiece, lost in her own world of color and texture - a place we should all visit more often.

day 7 

day 8


Siblings are a curious thing. Two (or more) people, made from the same ingredients who turn out totally differently. My sister and I are no exception to this phenomenon and while I was born an artist, she was born a businesswoman. Her business is fashion and, while spending a day fondling fabrics and chatting over tea I saw the opportunity to make a face right there - at the Sunset Tower Hotel with table scraps of artichoke, peper and honey for Day 8. The lemon wedge to create a sunny smile was simply icing on the cake to a day with my very different, yet almost equally lovely sister and my first full week of #100daysofart.

Hopefully having worked out some kinks and warmed up some muscles, next week will bring new inspiration and new visual adventures. Wish me luck!

#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.