Orange and Beignets

Today is going be a mix of little bits of creativity. We'll start with clothing.

 I recently bought a green and black patterned shirt at Cotton On for $10. It has a a silk appearance with a bit of shimmer giving it a polished look. Not only was it affordable and elegant but most importantly it was Comfortable!  I'm usually hesitant about buying looser clothing afraid it will swallow up my short frame but I couldn't pass it up and figured it might work with some skinny jeans or leggings. So here is the outfit I put together for this shirt.

 Here is a close up of the shirt so you can see the pattern and also a side view since it changes lengths.

 Here is the evolution of the look.
1) I chose white pants because the shirt is already dark. Also it was a sunny day today so white pants fit the mood of the weather.
2)Since it's long and baggy, I wore heels to give me some height :)
3)Next I added a bracelet and necklace. I chose a necklace with a hint of bright colors to lighten up the look. The contrast in color makes the necklace stand out. The bright colors add another dimension to the look. I also chose a v-shaped necklace because it make the shirt looks less wide. Visually speaking, lines direct our eyes. The V of the necklace directs our eyes downward which visually cuts and narrow the width of the shirt. This is why horizontal stripes usually make us look wider. They direct our eyes outwards horizontally.
4) I added a orange bag to add some color and brightness. A little POP action with color.

Today I made some French doughnuts calls beignets. A friend gave me this mix as a gift and it expires November 1 so this was my last chance to use it before it was too late. Once the work week starts I know I won't have time to be deep frying these guys. My friend told me that you can actually get them in downtown Disney. I'll have to go try it sometime. I had some stumbles along the way but in the end my friend and I figured it out. It's all about the process and adventure. :P

 Lastly, here are some orange flowers I arranged. Something simple but I love flowers so I wanted to share them.

Cupcake Card

It was a friend's birthday this week so I decided to make a simple birthday card with the materials I had at home. I used stickers, tissue paper, felt, pillow polyester filling, and a cupcake liner. The fun thing about the card is how it sticks out from the surface and looks like a fluffy cupcake. I stuffed filling under the layer of pink felt so that it would fill the shape of the cupcake liner.  I tried to capture the perspective in the second picture. Then I used some word stickers and used that for the inside of the card. The words happened to be really fitting so I didn't have to think too hard to make them work and was still able to communicate my genuine thoughts and feelings.

Start of the Mourning Doves

I have been wanting to make a wall piece to fill the empty space above my bed and I've finally started! Other than my dandelion piece that I made awhile ago this is one of the first big projects I've done on my own that has not been a class assignment. 

I've had a vague feeling for a long time now of what I want to make but haven't really been able to envision it. I've spent this week trying to articulate my feelings into colors, shapes, forms, textures. I drew a few simple sketches of designs.In the end though, there was only so much I could do without actually playing around with some potential materials I had bought. Here are the sketches: they're VERY simple :)

I wrote down my thoughts, feelings, images that I had in my mind that I wanted to capture. This is what I started with:
PASSION. Dark red. Life. Nature. Graceful. Peaceful. Life-giving. Brown. White. Textured white acrylic paint. A hint of metal- something man-made. Contrast of natural and mechanical. Delicate. Soft. More white. Flowers. Movement. Growth. Energy. Nurturing. Uplifting. Details.

I am someone who likes to plan ahead. It makes me nervous just venturing into the unknown, uncertain of where exactly I'm headed. But I learned from my art classes that art is going to require some uncertainty and spontaneity- some going with the flow, riding the wave. I looked at this white canvas. Focused my internal eyes on the words I had written above. Took a deep breath and dove in. Here are some photos of what I ended up with today and some of the process of getting there.

 

I glued together sticks I had collected into a shape that captured the feeling of gracefulness, energy, movement, growth. 

 

 

Next, I used wire, a textured paper, and Mod-Podge to make a flower.

 

As I was arranging the branches, I had a defining moment. I realized that I wanted to put birds in this piece. It felt fitting and slowly I started to get a concept in my head of what I want to do with this artwork. I had wanted to somehow incorporate wire in it, so I decided to attempt to make a wire bird. I had never done this before and it was actually really scary starting it. I watched a youtube video to get an idea of how to start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJsEV0sLoWQ

I researched mourning doves on google images and observed its basic shape. I printed out some photos of birds in the actual size I wanted to make the wire bird...about 4-5 inches and then I just went for it!

 The other challenging part other than just making the bird is that I only needed half a bird because it's going to protrude from the canvas. I needed to add a tail though because when people see it from the front view, the bird will need to look like it has a tail.

 And so...this was the product for the day! I spent maybe4 hours on it today. I still have quite a ways to go but I think the hardest part is done- starting it and having a vision. :)

Thanks for reading!

-M

Snidbits

The last month has been full of a lot of changes and I haven't had much time or energy to post anything but I do want to stay in the habit of sharing at least some bits of creativity and art. :) This will be a post of random collections of things I've been doing here and there. Nothing grand but just some everyday creativity that feeds my artist soul.

Texture and patterns. There is so much visual information that we take in as we go about our every day lives. One of the things art does is that it takes something simple, something we take for granted and barely even notice and draws our attention to it. It shows us how intricate and beautiful the world is.

Painting. I bought a little set of animals to paint with some friends. Here is the before and after. I was going to add some more designs on the shell but haven't quite gotten to it yet.

Photography. Beautiful Blues.

 

 

Love of Words

I love to write. I find words so beautiful. When I pick up a pen to write or when my hands are clicking away on the keyboard, I feel like a painter with a paintbrush in hand sweeping my hand across the canvas.

This week I decided to get creative with words. It's a simple creative activity that you might want enjoy if you have time. I gathered a few magazines and started to cut and paste words that stood out to me. I tried not to think too much about it. I let it be more of an intuitive thing. Sometimes I picked words that I thought described me. I picked words I hope to be. I picked words that give me a warm comfortable feeling. I picked words that challenge me. I picked words I wish I knew more about. I scanned through texts, letting my eyes flow over the pages searching for treasure- words that triggered something inside me. It's truly an amazing thing that a simple word can trigger such emotions and memories within us.

I used a variety of magazines: a program for the Hollywoodbowl,  a fashion magazine, and an Ikea magazine. It was fun to see what kind of words I found in each. The program had very artistic phrases such as "emanating elegance and class" or "climbing out in triumph." The fashion magazine had lots of words like "affordable", "sexy", "chic". The Ikea catalog has words like "pillows" and "comfortable." I have to say I enjoyed the Hollywood bowl program the best. I picked up words like resonates, vibrant, sacred, blossoms, distinctive, and dynamic that I hope to add to my simple writing vocabulary.

I've finished my page of words and I've started to see the interesting combination of words I got from randomly pasting them around the page.

 

This is my favorite so far: "beloved mood-setting unforgettable cheeses" :) 

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful week!

-M

Dream-givers

A few years ago I decided to go back and read some children's books I had read many years ago in elementary school. I remembered reading The Giver but I couldn't remember the story so I borrowed the book from the library and when I finished it I decided to go read other books written by Lois Lowry. As an adult I now found it interesting to see how someone writes various stories. A book reflects the author and by reading various book by the same person I could get a fuller picture of who they are.

One of the other books written by Lois Lowry is called Gossamer. It is a story about these little creatures that come out at night.These creatures go into a person's room and run their fingers over items in the room, picking up the scents, sounds, stories, and memories of objects. Once they collect enough they combine them together creating dreams for people which they then bestow onto the sleeping people.They are dream-givers.

I found this concept very interesting and it brought to light something I already knew but had never articulated. Objects are often not just objects. Objects carry memories. They tell stories. They can bring a flood of emotions whether pleasant or uncomfortable. One simple item can become a symbol of many things. We may pick up a toy from childhood and suddenly remember the many times we played with it as a child. We might remember the childhood friend who joined us on our adventures. We might remember the sound of our mother's voice telling us to clean up our toy and come eat dinner.

The human mind and heart is such a beautiful and complex thing. My eyes see an object but consciously or subconsciously a million thoughts and feelings are triggered. When I think about home part of why it feels like home is because everything is familiar to me. I am surrounded by things that carry stories, stories that are hidden to someone who might come to my place for the first time. Last night I decided to capture this thought by taking pictures of some things that you would see in my room if you came over. Some things don't have elaborate stories but are nonetheless familiar to me. Some of my stories I post here may only be part of the whole story. I hope that this experience will open your eyes to look at the things you see everyday in a new light and bask in the stories they store.

 

 

For those of you who want to know what kind of things you would pick up if you were a dream-giver running your finger over these items, here are some memories...

Eiffel Tower: I bought this souvenir when I went to Europe exactly one year ago :) I traveled to 13 different countries in Europe and my last stop was in Paris, France. I got to go up on the Eiffel Tower and look over the landscape of Paris. This is the scenery I saw...

Do you know the Eiffel Tower has a light show every night? The tower sparkles with lights for about 10 minutes.  I think it was at 10pm and 11pm.

Flower: The flower piece reminds me of the trips I took to many antique shops looking for items for my room when I was redecorating a  few years back. It brings back fun memories of possibilities and exploring. I had never really been to antique shops until then and it was definitely interesting to see what kind of stuff was out there.

Wine glass: This was something I brought back from my first official wine tasting adventure in Temecula. Beautiful weather. Wonderful company. Friend passed out from too much wine in the backseat of the car. And my favorite thing from that trip? It started me on a cheese tasting craze!

Clock: I brought this clock back from Europe last year. We stopped by a clock store in Germany in the Black Forest. They specialize in cuckoo clocks.  I found this clock there and knew I had to buy it even though I would have to lug it around with me for the rest of the trip. The price was so affordable and it reminded me of a clock my parents have that make me think of my childhood and the house I grew up in.

This turned out to be a long entry, but if you made it this far, thanks for reading and I hope it was interesting :) Have a wonderful weekend. It's almost Friday! 

-M

Origami

Have I mentioned that I love working with paper? I don't know what it is. I love the crisp feel of it in my hands. I love its versatility. I love how it's so common yet it can be transformed so many ways to create really interesting shapes. It is bold in shape yet so light when we hold it. I think what draws me to it the most is that it is strong and delicate at the same time.

Last week I decided to pull out an old origami book I had lying around the house. I flipped through the pages and decided I wanted to make the brontosaurus dinosaur at the very end of the book (the book calls it a diplodocus but back when I was in elementary school we called it brontosaurus). It was always one of my favorite dinos. They seemed so gentle and graceful with their long necks and smooth curves. Did you have a favorite dinosaur? Anyway I figured out pretty quickly that the book gets harder as it gets to the end. I had been a bit too ambitious...but I had started and I decided I wanted to finish. Folding the piece itself wasn't so hard. If any of you have tried to learn origami from a book, you know that the bigger part of the challenge is trying to decipher what the book is telling you to do. It's like cracking a code. It was definitely a test of patience and perseverance. The end product is my little green bronto...he is a medal of hard work and determination. Guess how long this little creature took to make? A good 4-5 solid hours. 62 steps. Yes, it doesn't look like much and he's not perfect but he's a trophy to me :)

There are some really amazing works of origami out there. Here are some photos you might enjoy. :) There are also Youtube videos under origami artist if you're interested.

http://www.mostamazingnews.com/art-and-design/amazing-origami-art-works/437

http://ezylook.blogspot.com/2011/04/amazing-japanese-origami-art-works.html

http://www.unicorn-pictures.com/origami-unicorn

http://thereisnosuchworld.blogspot.com/2011/10/origami-paper-fold.html

http://www.ursispaltenstein.ch/blog/weblog.php?/weblog/eric_joisel_origami/

http://www.drollthings.com/?p=770