September 19th, 2013

I am working on my first big art for me project in a long while. I am making an altered book that will be stuffed with mantras and healing art. 

Really, I just made that decision as I was typing this. I have been wanting to make an altered book for quite sometime now. But launching what is essentially two businesses and renovating a house has left no time for art. The last two weeks, though, they were hard.

Things have stalled a bit. And while I am making loads of contacts, I am still not making money (which has to be a part of the process. {More on money as nourishment in a bit}). I am, or was, giving quite a bit of assistance to others and not filling my well. 

I had spent days and days making things for the sales, being on the phone supporting someone I love through a horrid time, and doing all the regular things on my schedule. I was able to crank out a ton of tea for one of the sales...and sold 1. (There is tea in the etsy shop..)

It was a disheartening month. (Fret not, I am down a bit, but never out). It is a reality of the capitalistic world we live in that I need money to make this work. I need funds for supplies, I need funds for space. And I need funds to pay my personal bills. 

And this is where the idea of money for nourishment comes in. I need money to make the things happen that will nourish my spirit to continue my work. At some point in the future, I believe that the business will become self supporting. But for now... there is a balance I am trying to strike. The money gives me space to do this. It nourishes my spirit, in a sense, by giving me the ability to move through to the next phase. This will be an idea that we explore more at a later date, I think. 

Now, onto the art bit... like I said, I have wanted to make an altered book for a long time. I just never took the plunge. Now is the time. I found a book that liked the shape of. And have been working on the base.

I realized that if I have something that is physical to show some of the things I can do, that it might be the breakthrough that I need. The vision is there and there will be a ton of photos as I go. Mantras, scribbles, labyrinths, and I hope, movement.

Preparing for Autumn

It is the second day of grey skies here. It certainly brings to mind my favorite time of year...AUTUMN. When the days are still warm and lovely, but the nights are cold. When the first rain brings me petrichor. When the leaves change and light up the world around me in oranges and yellows.

I love autumn. And I love to decorate for it. So I make banners (those will be later) and pumpkins.
Because of who I am I also stuff those things with pouches of scent (pumpkin pie of course).

There will be more of these and they are all for sale. So feel free to message me if you want one.

Friendly reminder that I do commission work.

Check out www.urbantaoherbals.etsy.com

ATC's

I spent the weekend gaming. And then time on Sunday making some artist trading cards. There is not much to say about them. One focuses on texture and the other was more about me making something for the sake of doing it. 

Here are the pics. 

 

Dream Collage

I know that I told you we moved. And we are finally starting to feel settled. Trust me there is a ton of renovation work left to do... such as building a new room and laying all new floors, and let's not even talk about all the painting or the bathroom work. 

However, I finally got my work space set up and proceeded to crank out 6 scrapbook pages for my sister-in-law. Those may or may not get posted. Some turned out fabulous.

My oldest daughter decided to have a fully shabby chic room. Which has been a blast for me. I have made curtains, have some ideas for pillows, just really going to town. I made a wee collage for her wall. Painted wood piece with paper and lace and a tag and flower.
I love the way it turned out. I am even thinking of doing a line of similar ones for the shop. 

  

I am back and I have art.

I am working on a new piece, but I just don't know... what do you think? I love the concept and can see a whole series.

I feel refreshed after my trip. Ready to really tackle some new stuff. I am ready for some leaps forward.

P

Peace
K

What a busy week

Where to even start...
In addition to all of the normal goings-on, i.e. school, my real job, being a mom, I have been busy crafting up a storm. I am in the middle of two tutus. One for big sis one for little sis.
I have been taking photo after photo, trying to get just the right one for the shop. However the weather here has not been cooperating. I do have two new paintings up. And I was featured on a blog at byhand.me. I am super excited that people are starting to see what i have been doing for the last two years. I am feeling like I am finally busting out of my shell. Break free from all of the stuff (whatever that was) that was holding me back.
So, I think that this will be a quicky post, and I will be off and running to keep up the good work, as it were.
Also, I just love that pic I took at the cemetery at the UofO campus. I think I will be making prints of it.
More very soon.
Kristen

Finally Live

The etsy.com shop is finally finally live. Go here to check out the pretty little brooch I made this morning. I had the worst anxiety attack in posting it. It was that leap into the unknown. But now that I have the general idea... Watch out world. There are dolls to post and more things to make.

So much...

I have been having a tough week this week. Some emotional dramas have been playing out in some interesting ways that were very unexpected.

On the the other stuff. I was brain storming a while back trying to determine how to get a hold of a cheap canvas that would require a lot of work to clean up. It is easy enough to find used canvases that you need to spend a great deal of time and effort to make usable. But finding anything that just needs a coat of gesso or paint is next to impossible. Especially if you are trying to keep to a recycling theme. One of my resolutions is to reuse as much as I can that others through away. I have an affinity for thrown away things.

Anyway I was, brainstorming and I realized that all I needed was something to keep the canvas tight and taut. Well, an embroidery hoop does that. And it does it quite well. So what if I used embroidery hoops as my frames? Turns out it works just fine. It enabled me to continue to tighten the fabric ( I used fabric and not canvas because I was out of canvas at the time, still am actually) as I needed. It also allowed me to take the fabric off the frame to make other adjustments as needed.

The result is something that is a departure from my usual style. It hearkens back to a simpler time when recycling was the norm, reusing was done all the time. And is in line with what is my new focus.
Peace
K

There isn't much to say

Sissy's first choir performance. I am really proud of her.

I spent the evening listening to my daughters first ever choir performance. They were very good. Considering they had only had eight practices and one of those was actually just a pizza party, they did very well. They knew several songs and sounded very good.

I spent my day finishing up grant work for a charter school. After tomorrow I will refocus my work and get some things for me done.

I think in the mean time, I will pose the question "what definition for art do you use?" And honestly this is a question with no true answer. But I wonder what other people think art means. I believe that art is primarly the act of creating, using raw materials, to create a new different an unique form that has a meaning to the creator and that can convay some meaning to the viewer. It doesn't need to have a specific function, the important thing, for me is the creation. There was a discussion in one of my art history classes ( I have had several, one class away from a minor, yet one more useless thing I have done with my college career) about whether or not the process of an artist can be considered art.

We had this discussion because one the students in the class was using food in his art to discuss his food addictions. I remember thinking, well sure that process is art if I get to be part of that process. Otherwise he is just slapping chedder on a peice of paper and has no context. Context is important, especially when the artist is expressing a point of view that may be unique to that artist.

And I quess that could easily lead to another question. Is art art without a viewer? Please feel free to leave me your comments and we can start a discussion on this very subject.

K