Progress at last

OK, it wasn't great progress, but I did get something done. I just forgot to post the pic which I'll do tomorrow. Today I started on Round II with this dopey magazine swap project. I decided to play around with Photoshop and a photo that I've had for a long time, but didn't dare use without permission of the subject :-) I've tweaked the photo and will do more altering tomorrow. It's too dark right now to do fine details. At least I did it! So there's not much more to share other than the photo in its early stage and prior to other-than-digital alteration.

Frustrated and Unproductive Again

Time to fuss. I am at an absolute standstill on my current project. That would be the one I wanted to have completed this week. My mind races with mediocre ideas. There are a lot of them floating around in my head, but all lousy. However, I will not give up! I spent a long time in the studio today sketching, then more time perusing books and magazines for inspiration. I kept thinking of my earlier blog entry about people who copy other artists' work and am probably being overly cautious. With my husband out of town and leftover pizza for dinner (thank goodness for having had a little party here yesterday), that gives me more time to work - no cooking and no cleanup. Time to get back at it.

Back in the saddle

Artist's Life: Today I spent a lot of time in the studio. I started the first step of a new art doll, though I need to get more clay. Keeping my sketch book on the desk has turned out to be a good and helpful move - when I come up with an idea for a project other than the one I'm working on (my brain can't seem to focus on one thing at a time), I can jot down a word or two to remind me of the idea. I'm still plotting along on the pendant project and am quickly running out of time. I need to give myself a deadline. A former boss once told me that I worked so much better under pressure, so every now and then she'd just stand by my desk and yell, "Hurry, hurry, hurry!" and laugh before she got nailed by whatever I had handy to throw at her. I miss Mary Jane. I will give myself one full week (taking into account the four days I have to get ready for a party - they don't count). Ugh, now I've GOT to get it done. I will post a photo by next Friday. There, it's done. I'll embarrass myself wildly if I don't meet the goal.

Mom's Life: My son has his first girlfriend. I'm trying to be the cool mom, but it's hard. They are so different. She was telling me at lunch about getting into fights at school because someone called her "chicken" and she was going to prove she wasn't by slapping the other girl...way out of my experience as a mom. I'm feeling like a snob and trying to stop. They're just kids, not engaged. That will be my mantra this week.

Silly family

My husband's nephew is one of my favorite people in the world. When I was first married, he was just a kid that teased about my engagement ring being just so SMALL (he was right and my husband has fixed that little problem :-) He was ten and I was 18, but the age gap seemed huge. We lived near each other for a year, then both moved, leaving us on opposite coasts. For years, we had very little contact. Not by conscious choice, but I think it was just laziness and distraction (grad school, babies, always moving). I can't pinpoint how or when it changed (probably when he married the fabulous Marcia), but I'm so glad it did. Reflecting on earlier posts, I am reminded to appreciate the good stuff in life. Travis is one of those good things. No one can tell a nastier joke and make me laugh so hard, no one I know is as brutally honest but still a keeper. He loves my kids and they think the world of their oldest cousin. We don't love the same bands, we don't share any hobbies (barely on the same planet, we're so different), he loves dogs while I love cats, and he'll never, ever be able to talk as much as me even if he tried. I'm truly hard to beat - ha. Oh, and he totally stinks at playing slug bug because he can't accept that his rules are wrong. I love giving him a hard time about that. I don't know why I felt to write about him today, but I feel good sharing. I hope everyone has such a clown in their lives. You rock, Sucky!

There's so much stuff in the studio!

The Artist's Life: I figured that the only way I was going to get anything done was to just go in the studio, shut the door, pick up something, anything, and start using whatever I picked up. With no formal training, I really define the term self taught. So I decided to play with watercolor pencils and combined a little leaf. It's not as easy as it looks! Using a scrap of old textured water color paper, I scribbled, dampened, dried (I cheat and use one of those heating tools for embossing because I am the queen of impatient), scribbled and watered down some more, then applied multi-coloured leafing material. None of it is beautiful, but I had fun just playing. This experiment has inspired me to do more of this every day - just pull open a drawer or get into the closet, grab material and do what I can with it.


The Mom Life: Kevin was moaning and groaning this morning about feeling nauseous. I asked if he felt he needed to stay home from school, and he said yes. He has snuck into the kitchen two times now, telling me he feels "barfy," but that he's also hungry. Me thinks perhaps someone is enjoying a ditch day after the stress of finals more than someone is sick, the big fibber dog. He worked hard last week, struggling with a pretty miserable head cold and impacted sinuses during finals week, so I'll give him the "stay home" pass this once. I've suggested he doesn't need to moan any more, particularly after asking me if he's allowed to play video games. Puh-leeze.

The Artist's Life / The Mom's Life

The Artist's Life: I'm so slow!!! I decided to participate in this pendant swap for the magazine, but I can't seem to make progress. I've made a million notes and jotted down a thousand ideas to try, but I don't get very far. I'm frustrated that my studio is too small (I need the stupid cutting table, but it's hogging up so much space and makes it impossible to maneuver), but need to work anyway. I vow to put in an hour.

The Mom's Life: I want to work in the studio for an hour, but the kids are getting out of school early today (in an hour and a half) because of finals. I was informed of this fact at drop off this morning. Ugh. Our kitty that is struggling with cancer keeps approaching me, looking forlorn, pleading for attention (which, of course, I oblige) and "squishy food" (which I also provide since it's all he can eat these days), while I grouch about the fact that my son didn't do his chores last night so the house smells of dinner which means either I clean up now, or I smell it until he gets home from school. It never ends.

How fast can I clean and get into the studio? How quickly can I drag that cutting table out and find a large space to stash it (the garage?) before the next storm hits and without knocking yet another wheel off of it's base? Oh my.

Copy Cat!

I have a lot of books on my studio shelves by artists who share their techniques and personal artistic style. I am inspired by their work, try to learn from their methods, and also try hard to be sure that nothing I create too closely resembles the work of those artists who inspire me. My cyber-friend and artist Debbie Fecher has given me great advice in this arena. As a result, I tend to move slowly and cautiously when in a creative mode inspired by someone else. It's important that my work is just that, my work. I try to pause and really think about what I'm doing and avoid becoming a lazy copy cat.


Tonight I was reminded that more "artists" should pause before they make something and then pass it off as their own. I visited a website today that referenced a blog, and that blog listed a few others...you know how you can get lost stumbling from one to another and lose all track of time. The last blog that I viewed had a photo of a table set up for a show/sale and had artwork on it that looked exactly like that of Kelly Rae Roberts, an artist whose instructional book "Taking Flight" I bought and read cover to cover and highly recommend. I thought this tabletop shop was hers and tried to figure out where she was selling, hoping I might be able to see some of her original work if it were nearby. It appears that this particular blog author must have attended a workshop conducted by Kelly Rae or read "Taking Flight," and had generated a large amount of artwork that was so similar as to appear to be copies of Ms. Robert's work. This was the blogger's sale table and there was no reference to Kelly Rae Roberts at all. I then took a peek at the blogger's Etsy site and found more of "her" art for sale that appeared to be more copies of Ms. Robert's work. Shame, shame, shame.

I would rather move slowly and struggle to produce original work with integrity than to copy another artist's work and not only pass it off as my own, but sell it with my name on it. Ms. Robert's has explained in her book and on her own blog what she views as "not okay." This includes replicating her paintings or designs and selling them as the new creator's own work. Someone has clearly missed that part of the book, blog or class and stepped over the line big time. Shame on her.