Tuesday Time Zones

Well, I had a hard time getting up today - time zones and all. I basically got up at 3:30am PST...I didn't sleep well as the neighbors were having a little too good of a time. Eventually, I just turned on the television to drown the noise out. I'm tired tonight, but I'm sure tomorrow it will hit me.  Today, I just lost language a few times - I couldn't understand when one of the participants was signing to me - it was just like I had never seen ASL before but I know it was just lack of sleep.

I am doing a separate post for NaNoJouMo (National Non-stop Journaling Month) with one of the blogs I read.  Click here for the first day's prompt.

Haiti Help and S.C.R.A.P. as Inspiration

I only watched part of the "Hope for Haiti" telethon tonight, but I loved that the artists were singing some old classic music that will be sold on iTunes to add further funding for help to Haiti. I made my donation and will continue to find places to donate as time goes on. This isn't going away any time soon, so sustained giving is a good thing. If you didn't catch the website they were using last night, it was www.hopeforhaitinow.org and the funds go to a number of reputable relief agencies - UNICEF, the Red Cross, OXFAM, WFP, the new Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, YeleHaiti and Stand with Haiti Partners in Health. I like the idea of many organizations under one umbrella because clearly these organizations can cover the gamut of needs and may be aware of issues and/or areas of Haiti that most need assistance. I also appreciated having a PayPal option to pay so I didn't have to give my credit card information to anyone.  Help today if you can.

On a *much* lighter topic, I went to work before the sun came up this morning and as a result, was not feeling very arty, although I have been missing my lovely art journal this week.  I realized that my fearlessness of the first couple of days disappeared and I haven't been willing to "ruin" my journal by making a mistake.  Um. Duh. A journal doesn't have to be perfect, Jean.  You could rip out a page, or cover it or change it if you don't like it... Anyway, on the way home, I stopped at S.C.R.A.P. (thank you, Shannon) and bought some items I hope will push me over the hump.  I've stared this demon in the face before, but I'm not going to be stopped by a little perfectionism rearing its ugly head. I bought some magazines I normally don't buy so that I could find some images and words that don't necessarily appear in Oprah's mag every month, if you know what I mean. :)

For those of you who don't read magazines much (I don't really, either, but I have been getting some for the collage adventures) - they are EXPENSIVE!!  At S.C.R.A.P., I got 20 magazines for $4.  I can't even get a copy of most magazines with good images for less than $4.99 - many of them are substantially more.  If you don't know about  S.C.R.A.P., it is the School and Community Reuse Action Program and they have TONS of stuff that you can use for a variety of different purposes - old notebooks, fabric, paper, post it notes, envelopes, magazines, paint, pens, glass, jars, spools, mat board, etc.  And all for CHEAP - it recycles products and you can get them for less money. Win-Win.

So, hopefully, I will get back on the horse.  I have just been feeling like I don't know how to do it right - but there is a teeny part of my brain that KNOWS there is no RIGHT way or WRONG way. Just do it. I just have to give myself permission to experiment, I think.

Creative Every Day 2010

I decided that I liked the idea of doing something creative every day - especially when I read about the idea behind the challenge.  As I said a couple of days ago, I don't want to put myself in a position of failure, but creativity is so broad. Sometimes, figuring out how I can get a lunch break is a creative endeavor. Sometimes it is posting here, working on the journals, writing something, solving a problem, organizing something into a pleasing display...the list is endless.

I'm not going to write about creative lunch-taking here on the blog, but I did think I should mention the new badge for Creative Every Day. If you want to learn more, click on the badge and it should take you to the website.

For today, I worked on some new journal pages. I'm standing at the precipice of courage in art...but I haven't given in to it yet. I'm still thinking too much about what I am doing and if it will be what I want.  On the positive side, I am finally able to cut out pictures from magazines more regularly. For some reason, I have a hard time cutting them up...I have that "What if I need this again someday?" feeling and then I hesitate.  I just bought a bunch of magazines that I wouldn't have purchased otherwise and started taking out pages and pictures and words and I am feeling more comfortable with it. I realized, however, that if you read all the same magazines month after month, they all have the same ads. You have to go outside your comfort zone.

These pages are nowhere near done, but I like how they are shaping up.  I haven't decided what else they need - just text or more photos...I like the black and white quality and I don't really have a bunch of black and white photos from magazines, so I have to ponder. I'm trying to find a quote about things not being black and white, but I won't know the quote until I find it.

Here's a peek:

 

 

 I liked the images of this woman...there was one more in the magazine I had, but I would have had to cut up Meryl Streep's face to get it and I just wasn't prepared to do that. The teensy quote says, "Inspiration is virtually everywhere."

I will be playing more with these images/pages tomorrow. I am having fun and that's what counts, right?  We'll see what they look like in the end. I'm just trying to keep moving forward on it.

Day of Musicals and Art and Books

I have had a strange and beautiful day.  I woke up early, did some housekeeping stuff, then I watched "Xanadu" which I will be interpreting in a couple of weeks.  After that, I put in the "Chess" concert with Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, and Adam Pascal.  I try to embrace this version since it was Tim Rice who was behind doing it and the changes they made to the show, but I have to say that the original concept album is the only way to go. I ended up falling asleep and not finishing it, but the music played to me while I slept.

In the musical mood, I put in "Rent on Broadway"- the video of the last two performances of the musical "Rent".  I didn't watch it, I was just listened to it while I worked on another collage and another Art Journal.  I felt compelled to build another Art Journal (the one I am using has to be put together). I decided to try a different number of pages - I doubt I will do that again, or I will maybe add one set of pages (I can't remember what that is called but it has a name).  I think it is going to be a beautiful piece, but I think the 16 is the optimum number of pages. I wanted to work on the journal itself tonight. Ultimately, I got distracted by the second collage. I think I have some fear built up about the journal and I just have to get over it. I am going to use the first one to experiment and it will be fine. No matter what happens in any of them, it is mine. It is me learning how to create without fear, to create without judgment. To let it flow. I like that.

 

 

The mosaic on the journal is a photo mosaic from Flickr where I entered specific words and found photos to match them. I used the mosaics on my test blog and have the URLs for them for crediting purposes.

 

I read somewhere yesterday about a Vision board and they recommended that you outline the board in yellow or glitter to manifest the vision you are looking toward, so I did that tonight. I have some yellow glitter glue, so I outlined the poster board and then I did another collage that involved my personal photos. I'm not done yet, but this one is coming along, too.

I even had time to read today.  I started reading "Julie and Julia" and am still reading my "Weather Warden" series. Brain candy, but interesting and pure escape. I need that sometimes.  I am back on the plan to read 30 minutes or more each day, so I'm excited to have already started on the path. I have a PILE of books to read this year.

2010 is shaping up great, so far. I feel energized and positive. It's a good feeling.

Photo Post - I'm all Talked Out

The bird outside my kitchen window. You can't see it in the picture, but it also has an orange strip on it's tail. I have the name somewhere (I had to ask someone).

The new Santa for the collection.  I was experimenting with light and my camera...still working on it.

New pages in my Art Journal...Still experimenting there. I'm sure I will find my own way. Right now, I'm just trying new things and trying to be okay when it isn't perfect or doesn't come out the way I want it to.  I'm kind of amazed that I'm doing as well with it as I am.  My head has such bright and brilliant images and it is so hard to get them on paper. The blue page is the back. I covered it with blue duct tape (as suggested by Teesha Moore).  I didn't like that it was blank on the outside, so I decided to number the journals so that I could see the progression over time - whatever that turns out to be.  I bought 10 sheets of paper, so that will be at least 8-10 journals. I haven't decided if I will make a couple of longer ones or if the 16 pages is right for me. Once I had the number on it, I still wasn't happy, so I decided to write my favorite lines from random songs as they came to me. There's no sense to them, but just as they came to me...one song led to another.

 

 

 

I haven't been able to do any art stuff since my days off started because my shoulder/arm has been hurting.  I suspect it is bursitis (aka someone stabbing me repeatedly in the arm with a sharp knife). It is feeling much better after much ibuprofen, MSM and a heating pad. It's kind of amazing how something that wasn't really a part of my life 2 months ago has become something that I so look forward to doing. Lack of perfection and all.