Art and the process of letting go....

Click to watch a fabulous (and short) mini documentary called "Pardon My Dust" which cover the concept of Dynamic Sketching by Peter Han.  In it he discusses the difference of sketching on blackboards vs traditional art, and the ability to let go of your creation at the end (ie: erasing it) and beginning again.

Very fascinating, and well worth a few minutes of your time.

So excited..... oh my goodness....

I made my first Etsy sale!

(takes deep breath to steady self)

Oh yeah, I am bouncing off the walls here in the office...I want to go out and celebrate. Who knew how a little bitty $12.60 sale (she used the coupon code) could make me feel so good?

I'll post more about it later but HOORAY!!!!! I FINALLY FEEL LIKE A REAL FREAKING ARTISTAN!

...and a paid artisan at that.... ;D

Gratitude...

For the next little while (no set end date planned) I want to take a moment every day to share one thing that I am grateful for, appreciate or love. These will not be in any planned order, but will be more of a way for me to see all of the blessings that are in my life and the beauty that is all around me. I am noticing more and more in the blogs that I follow a certain negativeness to the world and the situations people find themselves in. While I understand that people are frustrated at the fact that winter has not fully departed yet, and that things do not always go as planned, I would like to see a little more positive and sunny outlooks out there in blogland. I admit I have my own moments of following the "downward spiral" and focus on the negative, but one blog in particular I follow has been nothing but doom and gloom and harsh criticism... it was enough for me to decide that if I want to see more positive things out there then maybe I should start with me.

So, in celebration of Easter, I would like to be grateful today for the simple joy of dying eggs for the holiday.



I was out at my friends' place this weekend, teen-sitting as it were, and no one had yet dyed eggs for the holiday. A quick trip to the store for eggs and dye (and a second trip for vinegar) and then the egg coloring went into gear.



For awhile I had a helper, and then she headed off to an activity with friends, leaving me happily finishing off the job. As I scribbled with clear wax on the eggs, and dipping them into the brightly colored dyes, I found myself relaxing and a big grin spreading across my face as I participated in this simple act of creativity. Looking back, I can see where I have really suffered from not taking the time for crafts and other artistic outlets.



I could have played with those dyes all day.

So, first challenge to myself....to spend more time introducing crafty/artistic projects back into my life.

The Price

What price can be put on art?

Apparently 150K

There is a local filmmaker (well, local for me....he lives just a few miles away, not that I know him personally or anything) who is interested in making a short film. A short film of a short story by Neil Gaiman called "The Price" (for those who haven't read it, trust me, its worth heading to your library and spending a few minutes reading) and Christopher Salmon's video looks great. I really would like to see this project finished... apparently there are over 1000 of us who agree (and have pledged already) including Neil himself!

Here is a look at the project:

(by the way that is Neil reading the story, and thats an artistic styling of Neil in the animatic)

So what's this Kickstarter thing I linked to? Good question!

Kickstarter is an online forum where you can see what artistic projects are requesting funding and you can pledge money to the project of your choice. There are a lot of good projects out there lacking funding, including this one. There is, however, a catch. Funds pledged are not collected until the end of the funding campaign, and that is only if the full donation requested has been realized. If the artist does not receive enough pledges then he receives nothing (and your funds remain safely in your bank account). You are not giving anyone your account information as pledges can be paid via your Amazon account (how cool is that?)

So where do you come in? Well, we have 8 days left to fund this project and still have $78,218 to go. Just go to Kickstarter if you would like to make a donation...or if you would just like to look around at all of the artistic projects out there....or if you would like to try getting funding for a project of your own.

Want to know even more? Kitty at the neverwhere blog (very cool blog if you are a NG fan) has done an interview with Christopher, and Neil has posted about it here on his blog.

....but is it art?

I went to the Springville art museum last night and I was AMAZED at #1 just how amazingly huge that space is (for such a small looking building) and #2 how much fantastic (and diverse!) art was hanging in there. Funny because when I moved here I was told by a close source that it wasn't worth bothering with. I can understand the fact that this person has been to Europe, etc and has seen REAL ART (their phrase not mine) but what a waste to discount such an amazing local resource.

So if they don't have a Picasso or Rembrandt its not a museum? Because some person isn't famous like Van Gogh or Matisse their work is crap? I never would have pictured this person as a snob but I was shocked to find out how wrong they were....apparently we have COMPLETELY different ideas about what we consider art. I can see why they call this town "Art City" and I am proud to call myself an artist (well I consider myself one anyway but I can truly call myself one since I live here!!!!!)

Frankly we all have different things we consider art--for some its photography, computer editing (or a mesh of the two), charcoal/paints/pastels, mixed media (my fave!)... heck I even consider my poetry as an art form! It never fails to amaze me how unless it fits someone's molded, pre-fab idea it gets discounted. Who can put a label on what moves and speaks to another person? Who gets to decide just what is and what isn't art?