[-process, painting-]

Mama and baby gables

Originally uploaded by nuanc.

Hi all! I took some time off from posting during July. It’s been good to get outside and away from the computer. One of the things I’ve been doing is painting—but not my usual kind.

We are finishing up painting the roof line of our old house. This project started in 2002 when my husband put a pitched roof on the previously flat-roofed house. That gave us five new gables. (They are all different sizes so, in order to be able to refer to them without confusion, I dubbed them the Grandfather, Papa, Mama, Teenager and Baby Gables.)

We decided to give the outside of the house more detailing and a lot more colour! The painting started in 2003 with the largest of the gables. We are only now back around to where we started with the last little bit of trim near the roof. (Then we have the rest of the house to paint….after we put on a new front porch!)

The painting is, as you can see, fairly intricate and calls for precision. As I paint, I can’t help but be pulled back to other times in my life where I’ve used paint brushes on a daily basis to do art, not house painting. The feel of paint leaving a paint brush is very enticing, even when all you’re trying to do is paint a straight line.

The process puts me back in touch with that realm of paint and colour, edges and transitions, the build-up of colour and illusion of light that all go into painting a picture on paper or canvas. It is attracting me back to something that I once spent a lot of time doing but have been away from for a long time.

So what do I do with this urge that I’m not only feeling, but—now with this post—acknowledging in public?

It would be easiest for me to let it pass. That I have other interesting and important things to do with my time, other than paint, is true. That summer is busy enough without starting in on another creative pursuit is logical. But the real reason I have for resisting the urge to put paint on paper or canvas is that I’m afraid. I’m afraid of not being inspired once I get to it. I’m afraid that the urge is best felt and not acted on. I’m afraid that what was once a passion of mine, will not recur for me if I try it again. I’m afraid that what I paint will be unsatisfying and mediocre. All of these things and more have kept me away from painting for years now.

But here’s the other side of fear. One of the big reasons I started Practically Creative was to use it as a fulcrum (”an agent through which vital powers are exercised.”) in continuing to work through blocks and indecisions and self-defeatist issues that have always been a part of my creativity. I have fewer problems than I used to, but—as this as yet un-acted on urge shows—those issues never fully recede.

I’ll paint something other than my house today (it’s raining today, anyway). I’ll dust off some tubes of paint, pick a favourite brush or two and I’ll start small. I can’t promise myself much but I think I can manage enjoyment of the seductive feel of paint coming off a brush.

Then, I’ll see what appears.

Happy last days of July!

Here’s a post from my blog that has photos and details of the house painting project: The Up Side of Outside
Another post about the history of our old house: Of Things Dreamed Of

[-crackles!-]

Today is the second full moon of June if you live in the Eastern Hemisphere. For those of us in the Western Hemisphere, it was May 31, 2007. Since I seem to have missed it last month, I’m celebrating it with those of you in the other half of the world. Either way, we both get a full moon [just barely] in June [except Aukland and thereabouts!].

The second full moon in a month is called a Blue Moon.

Blue Moons come around every 2.7 years or 41 times a century.

Even rarer is a year with a double Blue Moon. Those only occur 4.5 times a century or every 19 years or so.

The last Blue Moon was in July 2004.

The next Blue Moon will be December 2009.

Blue Moons have nothing to do with the look of the moon, though on a gorgeous summer night in June we might be excused if we imagined a special hue. Moons do spur people to be creative:

Movies:

Moonstruck
Joe Versus the Volcano
Paper Moon
Apollo 13
Man on the Moon
Walk on the Moon

Songs:

Blue Moon
Moon Over Miami
Moon River
Moondance
Moonlight in Vermont
Dancing in the Moonlight
Moonshadow
By the Light of the Silvery Moon
Moonage Daydream
There’s a Moon in the Sky
Dark Side of the Moon
Bad Side of the Moon
It’s Only a Paper Moon
Harvest Moon
Song about the Moon
Ticket to the Moon
Heading to the Moon

Open your curtains as you sleep tonight and let the light shine down upon you. Maybe you’ll feel more creative because of it!

My Blue Moon photosandwich above was made with the help of hypergenesb who allows his photos to be used under a creative commons license. Thank you! I had a fun time playing with your beautiful photo. On his flickr page, hypergenesb has fully annotated his moon. Click the image to see it and his other photos!

[-fiber art, alterations-]

mormors syskrin grandmothers sewingbox

Originally uploaded by gunnels.

This morning’s inspiration comes from Gunnel Svensson of Sweden. She posted this lovely sampler to the flickr Practically Creative pool. It’s made of things from her grandmother’s sewing box.

What treasures!

What a wonderful idea!

Most of us who love fabrics, also love collecting old bits of lace, crocheted edges, ribbons, thread, buttons. Putting them together into a fabric collage is the perfect way to not only save them but also to display and pay tribute to them as well. As Gunnel shows, we can use buttons and thread and even scissors!

It’s a lovely way to incorporate small stitchery projects that were never completed. Now there’s a tribute to our creative but overly busy ancestral womenfolk—finally *completing* their incomplete projects! I would be delighted to think that my granddaughter would care enough to do that with all my incompletes some day!

Think not only of monograms and lace but also quilt squares and scraps made from those gorgeous old fabrics that cannot be duplicated by modern means. Or how about those handmade items that have long since worn out but that are too precious to be thrown away? I know I have some of those tucked away.

Think of it as Heritage Art whether the bits and pieces are from your relatives or are things that you’ve picked up along the way from antique stores and flea markets. They were done by someone’s ancestors and more than likely by women who had very similar instincts for making something beautiful out of what was at hand.

Thank you, Gunnel for your inspiring art.

Click the image to get a closer look at Gunnel’s work.
Please visit Gunnel’s bog.
Edited to add: I just found on Gunnels blog that her sampler has been made into postcards. How lovely! Check them out here.

[-photography, process-]

red carnation

Originally uploaded by nuanc.

This photo is one I took over two years ago. It came up this morning while I was playing the game Free Association! on flickr. The game involves posting an image in response to the last one posted by someone else. I did a flickr search through my photos for “window” and “silhouette” and this popped up. I hadn’t seen it in a long time and I found that I enjoyed it—really for the first time.

It has unexpected qualities. The distorted shape of the window. The gradation of blue from the top of the window to the whiter light at the bottom. The reflection of green on the window sill and the way the light between the tree branches seems to slide inside into to the corner of the window. The pop of red! And there’s something going on between outside and inside. That’s open to interpretation, of course, but either the flower faces the window as if yearning to be outside or perhaps the bare birch tree is admiring/envious of that splash of living colour. I’m not sure, but there’s certainly a hint of communication between the two.

All of this, of course, was unintended.

I took the photograph with my LOMO LC-A. It’s a refurbished version of a cheap camera made in Russia decades ago and it gives erratic and often impressionistic results—which is why LOMO’s have become popular and lucrative long after the cameras stopped being manufactured.

This photo was of a truly unremarkable scene. My step-son had been visiting and left an empty can of 7-UP on his window sill. Also in his room (this was after he’d gone home) I found a red carnation that he’d picked up in some restaurant we’d been to. Rather than toss both of them immediately into the waste basket, I put the carnation in the 7-UP can and took some LOMO’s.

This morning when I really saw it for the first time, it made me think about the act of creating as one of constantly expecting the unexpected. This image isn’t just about the unpredictability of the LOMO, though that’s a big part of it. It is also about taking the time to photograph an unremarkable scene and to chance shooting a dull, unsuccessful photograph in order to come up with something that has something different to offer. It took combining the colours of what was there: the metallic green 7-UP can and the red carnation against the white and blue background and taking it from a low angle in order to catch the super blue of the highest sky. It took depending on the unpredictability of the little Russian camera.

Each act of creation is an act of faith. We don’t know if it’s going to work out or not. That’s never the point. Doing it is the point. Doing it with an open heart and sense of expectancy that will allow us to recognize—once it’s done—when we have indeed caught the unexpected.

[process, inspiration]

Book box

Originally uploaded by cramzy.

A Good Sunday Morning in May to you all!

The photo to the right is one from The Practically Creative Group on flickr. It’s posted by ‘cramzy,’ a wonderful fibre artist whose work has impressed me continually.

Cramzy, also known as Emmy Schoonbeek, does all kinds of fanciful, beautiful and colourful stitchery, constructions and embellishments. This one caught my eye because of its cross-pollination effect. It’s so many things and includes so many things all at once.

It’s fibre art. It’s collage. It’s construction. It’s functional. It’s art. It’s a box. It’s a book. It’s got words, music, textile, paper, beads and probably lots more that we can’t see. Do click the image to see it in larger form.

I believe that this process of cross-pollination is one of the best ways to be freshly inspired and motivated.

It’s easy to utilize various skills and interests in our work when we’re already FEELING inspired and creative. That’s part of what makes it fun when one good idea or impulse bounces off another to create something new and unique. But it also can work for us when we can’t find that FEELING.

If you are in the doldrums with painting, try writing in your journal. Brainstorm. Do calligraphy until it turns into something else. Play with letters until they are abstract shapes.

If you can’t get started writing, do a quick symbolic collage of your main character. Or put on music that you love but don’t often listen to.

Another trick is to use these alternate parts of ourselves to be creative while taking a break from whatever has depleted our motivation. For example, when I’ve written myself into a corner, I find cooking to be a wonderful activity to immerse myself in. It’s creative and involves the senses but it doesn’t require a lot of mental concentration. This flow of activity allows my mind time to wander in a relaxed way. Without forcing it, I often find a way out of that corner and come back to the writing inspired and motivated—with a good meal under my belt!

Thanks, Emmy, for your inspiration this morning. Be sure to visit cramzy on flickr and at her blog.

[-writing, motivation-]

Creative Writing

Originally uploaded by maher berro.

This photo speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

Maybe I chose it because it’s Monday morning, the sun isn’t shining so brightly today and I’m feeling at a lower ebb than I have for a while. It’s so pleasing to be able to write a tide-y blog entry everyday, but some days the ideas don’t flow as well as others.

The thing I love about this image (in addition to maher berro’s great title) is the sense of urgency. That water is coming, coming soon, and nothing can stop it. And, it’s going to alter everything.

“Time and tide wait for no man.” (Alexander Pope)

I think it’s a sign. I have to start working on that novel again. Okay everyone, go, now, today, before the tide washes this moment away. Write (or draw or sculpt) in the sand! If you don’t have a beach nearby (or it’s too darned cold) you can use a journal or computer or mashed potatoes (if you’re into sculpting).

thanks, maher berro, for a lighthearted look at the ephemeral nature of nature, creativity and our lives. ‘bye till tomorrow~
*waves***waves***waves*

Originally published in the original Practically Creative blog, February 2006

[-photography, process-]

Originally uploaded by tejana.

This beautiful macro taken at a beach, by tejana, reminds me of the impermanence of … everything.

Sand is one of the most malleable of substances. It’s constantly altered by the tides, the wind, even the small beings living within it. Whether a large wave, a sprinkle of raindrops, or a human foot, each causes a rearrangement and a new design.

Our lives, our creative efforts are no different.

If I had finished my novel last December, for example, instead of waiting until now to do it, the words I chose would have been different. I’m subtly rearranged from the person I was when I put the writing aside. Therefore, what comes out of me now, will be altered from what it would have been then. This isn’t a bad thing, but it is something to acknowledge. It might be a (well-needed ) reason not to put things off if we can help it.

Each new day, we need to attempt to put our mark on something in order to capture what and who we are on that particular day - the way tejana so beautifully preserved the sand’s essence in this spot on this day.

Thank you, tejana ~~~

Here are some links to articles about paying attention to the marks we make:
- doodles by Maureen Shaughnessy
- marks have meaning, about self-promotion
- marks have meaning, an art tutorial
- mark my words, a graphic reminder

Procrastination articles:
- Suze Corte - Mind Space
- a PCQ-QCP - The Imaginary Deadline
- a Practically Mperfect article - Collecting Dust

The other side of NOT finishing things:
- Karen Hatzigeorgiou - You, Me and Leonardo da Vinci

Originally published in the original Practically Creative blog, February 2006

[-photography, practices-]

Curvyques

Originally uploaded by suzeque.

This photograph is taken by my cohort [and, btw, sister] Suze and is an image from Texas, taken in San Antonio.

I’m crazy about it. But why?

Taking the time to analyze what we love about someone else’s work is a useful exercise. Heightened awareness can only help to make our own work more instinctive and personal and therefore, better.

This is what I like about Suze’s image: The composition is beautifully balanced without being predictable. The colour contrast between the graceful curlicues and the background is lush and the colour combination unusual. Then there’s the texture on the green metal, the layers of paint - light green, darker green yellow and more - and the rust, which I love. We might as well revere rust for its beauty since it’s inevitable! But in the interest of heightened awareness, let me just ask myself, why? Why is rust so great?

It isn’t predictable. It eats through surfaces irregularly. It makes the surface not only visually variegated but also texturally varied. It adds as it takes away.

Any ideas on rust?

Thanks, suzeque, for your curlicues!

See Suze’s other articles on the PCQ.
See photographs of lots of gorgeous rust and other beautiful signs of aging on our Patina page.

Suze Corte is a writer, artist and pre-school teacher in Houston, Texas. In 2007, she was chosen as be the Houston Area Association of Educator’s of Young Children’s Teacher of the Year and the Texas Association of Educators of Young Children’s Teacher of the Year. Congratulations, Suze! It is a well-deserved recognition.

Originally published in the original Practically Creative blog, March 2006; edited for re-publication

[-photography, science-]

Heart Chakra

Originally uploaded by Solitaire Miles.

This image gets to me, leaving me a little bit breathless. I’m not sure why. I have a nursing background so it has nothing to do with seeing someone’s insides. It has more to do with making something visible that we almost never see and therefore, often don’t think about.

The artist, Solitaire Miles is using the scans and medical procedures that she’s had to undergo as art– with beautiful results.

The image is striking. I’m struck by how close the heart is to the brain. I’m struck by how strong the arteries look. I’m interested in the fact that there’s symmetry but there’s also asymmetry within. And it fascinates me that the heart is clearly visible but the brain isn’t.

The image stimulates both my mind and my heart.

Art is about making the internal, the secret, the little understood, the inexpressible, the unarticulated, the unknown–visible.

Thanks Solitaire for the ultimate in personal art.

See more of Solitaire’s art at her flickr site.
Consider joining the Practically Creative flickr group

See my essay on my inconsistent bloggedness here.
Here’s another post and work of art - by arlee - based on the heart

[-art, photography, alterations-]

‘lingering doubt’

© 06 - 07 angela petsis all rights reserved

Today we have a wax collage done by Angela Petsis. She says that she’s only been doing collage a short while but it’s obvious that she has a natural affinity and skill for gathering, and the layered construction that collage requires. The transparency of this image - with words and background images showing through the figure - give it a dreamy quality. The wax she uses in lieu of glue gives it depth and an aged look.

I am always more drawn to an image when it’s been given an evocative title like this one. “Lingering Doubt” immediately draws me in. I look more closely at the woman’s image and begin to wonder about the look on her face, her stance, what she’s wearing. But more so, it makes me think about what’s going on within her. Both ‘lingering’ and ‘doubt’ are ambiguous words. They can lead to positive or negative outcomes, but they are evidence of an internal struggle that helps to give meaning to this complex image. The combination of title and image result in visual poetry.

- See Angela’s great tutorial on how to do Polaroid transfers
- Showcase of Angela’s Polaroid Transfer artistry
- Be sure to visit Angela’s beautiful website to check out what other kinds of art she’s doing: angelapetsis.com

Thanks Angela for your evocative collage!

Originally published in the original Practically Creative blog, February 2006; edited for re-publication