Friday, October 28, 2011

Daily Art Challenge


I ran across a challenge today.  Leah at Creative Every Day is having a challenge to create art every day for the month of November.  So, I have decided to put myself to the test as well.  I’ve been meaning to create something every day, but before I know it, the day is over.  I will have a booth at Normalpalooza this year, so I need to produce some new work, so this is the perfect opportunity for me to do this. 

Several of my fellow fliers are participating in this challenge as well, so I hope you will check it out and see what they are up to as well.  I plan on posting my creations as I do them.  I may have to post a couple of days at once, but that will be ok.  I’ll make sure to mark which day it is for.  If you are up for a challenge, I hope you will join me.  It’s a great opportunity to get some work in your art journals or just get some new work going.  You can take a look and see what it's about in her post Art Every Day Month.

  


Thursday, October 13, 2011

Finding Inspiration


Where do you find inspiration?  Better yet, what inspires you?  I used to have one source of inspiration. Let me rephrase that.  As far as what I want to accomplish with my life, I had one source.  Kelly Rae Roberts.  I love her.  I love her artwork.  I love what she’s managed to accomplish all on her own.  I am starting to step out of that box and realize that there are other artists out there who have accomplished similar things.  I have been doing a lot of research, and I managed to convince myself that I can do it too.  As far as art is concerned, I look at blogs of other artists all the time.  I love seeing what other artists doing, learning new techniques and getting ideas for my work.  However, I’m starting to think I’m spending way too much time doing that and not doing art.  There’s inspiration, and then there’s time being sucked away from my life.  I don’t want to fall victim to all this technology we have.  It’s incredible what you can accomplish on a computer, but there’s a fine line there.  Once you cross over, it’s hard to not just stay there.  I don’t want to give up looking at blogs and taking online workshops and all those awesome things, but I don’t want to lose myself in the process.

This cute little guy was inspired by the lovely Wendy Brightbill.  

On another note, I’m trying to find inspiration in other ways.  Maybe the fact that I didn’t go to art school, makes it more difficult for me to know where to look and what to look for.  I hear people say their work is inspired my nature, and sometimes I just don’t see it in their work.  I’m a pretty literal person, and that may be my problem.  If I see a picture of a tree, and someone says they were inspired by it, I expect to see a painting of a tree.  I guess that’s why I’m not an abstract artist!  I guess that’s also why I rely so much on other artists’ work to inspire me.  I have been very inspired by my daughter lately.  She is such an amazing little person.  She loved to draw and paint.  I love the fact that she will just sit and draw or paint.  She doesn’t give it any thought.  She just does.  I envy the freedom she feels.  She is going to be a great little artist.

This is one of my daughter's amazing drawings.  I don't know a lot about kid's abilities, but it amazes me that she can do this at the age of 3.  This is a pony and rainbow.

One thing I wish for is to find a balance between looking for inspiration, being inspired and putting that inspiration to work.  I hope everyone is able to find that balance.  It’s not an easy thing, at least for me.  I am very easily distracted though.  Maybe that’s my biggest problem.




Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Norcross Art Fest


Well we went to Atlanta Saturday to go to the Norcross Art Fest.  First, we went to pick up my friend Aongelic.  It was pretty organized.  They had some parking options where you could take a shuttle bus to the festival.  This was awesome.  Since I’m not familiar with that area, it was great to just sit back and let someone else drop us off.  They drop you off right at the kids area.  Victoria couldn’t wait to get to the activities.  They had so many things for kids to do.  I’ve never seen that much kid’s stuff at an art festival before.  However, she must wait until we’re finished. 

This festival was huge.  It was all outside.  I have to say, I haven’t been to that many art festivals, so I don’t have much to compare it to.  However, this one was great.  It was extremely crowded, and from the perspective of an artist, that was amazing.  They weren’t all there to look either.  I saw a lot of people buying things.  


This is a shot of the crowd.  This is only one part of it.  There were about three other areas this size.



Victoria got her face painted for the first time.  She loved it.  She had an awesome time.  We went to visit our friend Erica who just had a baby, so she got to play with their dog while we were there.  She had one fun filled day.

I'm hoping to make it to this show as a vendor next year.  I'm really glad I took the time to go check it out.  I  think it will help me in the long run to see how big a show can be, what people are selling, etc.  I feel like I would be so much more prepared now than if I hadn't gone.  I've been to our local art fest many times.  This one was so different.  I should probably check out a couple more before I start signing up for them.