Artists Passion

This is just an idea I’ve been kicking around. Here are five interesting items I’ve found in the art world in the last few days. Every week, I plan to feature five more, from projects to artists to interesting art spaces. Rather than things I see in my day-to-day life, these will be things I see in the virtual world.

Oklahoma’s Charles Wilson

Charles Wilson is the topic of a recent Tulsa, OK blog post. The blog focuses on Oklahoma life, and Wilson, as one of Oklahoma’s native sons, is a perfect fit. The post gives a brief description of Wilson’s career and provides some context as to why his work is important in Oklahoma and beyond.

Tom Toles illustrated the sexist backlash against Hillary

The Washington Post cartoon shows the double standard stacked against Ms. Clinton in pretty straightforward way.

Pat Oliphant shows a more conservative view of her chances and leadership abilities.

Another comic in the Post shows an entirely different view Hillary’s now famous emotional reaction.

Summer Minor gives instructions on how to make paper

In a post geared towards home schooling moms, Minor gives a how-to and a brief history on making paper.

Shopdropping

Web Urbanist provides an explanation of the urban trend of shopdropping along with a guide to who’s doing it and a breakdown of their projects, complete with pictures. The most interesting to me was a project by Zoe Saldana, where she takes cheap clothes by Wal Mart and recreates them by hand, using the same fabrics, notions and stitches, then puts the tags from the originals on them and returns the homemade clothing to the store.

Try to think of the most dangerous jobs there are. What do you come up with? Firefighter? Policeman? Construction worker? All deal with an above average level of risk in their normal work routine.

But, there are a group of workers who deal with much more. These are people who balance on wires stories above the ground, do back flips from swings that consist of mere rope and a single rod, and shove swords down their own throats.

Circus performers.

Thanks to my interesting habit of acquainting myself with a host of oddballs around the country, I know a few.

Circus performers work on their craft with little-to-no support or compensation. Whether it be juggling or firebreathing, there just isn’t much demand for circus acts these days. There’s Cirque du Soleil, a few large family circuses like Ringling Bros., and a handful of indie organizations, but that doesn’t amount to much when a kid is trying to desperately learn to eat fire without any guidance besides what he might read in books, glean from the internet, or watch on TV.

My friend, The Amazing Kenny, is slowly making a name for himself in Central Florida, with a variety of juggling and firebreathing shows he puts on. Many are for no pay or tips, making a living through his job at a coffee shop.

In his show, he includes tricks with contact juggling (like in Labyrinth), Chinese yo-yos (like the little Chinese girls in La Nouba), and juggling balls and pins. He includes cheesy one-liners in the act and sets some routines to music. All of his hard-work barely pays off… He does it for his love of the art.

Before the end of Chanukah, I figured I’d include a quick reference to Food History, where Gillian Polack gives a how-to guide for frying foods. Jewish people generally make fried dishes, because the oil has significance for the holiday.

On Tuesday, I received two giant boxes of yarn from a friend who is moving to San Francisco.

I was going to pile skeins of yarn on my bed and take tons of glamorous photos, but that idea was shelved. There’s a yellow jacket in my car.

I usually don’t mind bugs, but yellow jackets sting. Yellow jacket stings make me woozy. It’s a no-brainer. Plus, I don’t know how long they live, so my yarn might stay in my car until I absolutely have to leave to go to my mom’s house tomorrow. Then, I’ll probably drive the entire way looking over my shoulder for an angry yellow jacket, starved and ready to eat my flesh. (Yes, yellow jackets bite. I’ve had gaping holes in my arms from the phenomenon in the past, because I was too afraid of their sting to stop them from chomping on me.)

Instead of glorying in full frontals of a bunch of fuzzy yarn in different textures, weights, and amounts, I’ll say “Thank you” to Marti for providing me with enough yarn to get me through the next year (or at least a few months).

As for turning trash into treasure, I’m a big fan of reusing trash over recycling. Recycling takes up a lot of energy and resources; men and women in the generations before ours didn’t have problems reusing old containers, fabrics, paints, pretty much anything you can think of. Even paper and plastic disposable cups can be washed out and reused, but we throw them out without thinking about it.

Summer, of the Creative Mom Cafe, shows readers how to make candle holders out of tin cans. While she considers them great gifts, I’d be more likely to make them for myself as luminaries. When I was in high school, I volunteered every year for my home town’s holiday walk, which included hundreds of paper bag luminaries, filled with sand and a lit candle. We were considered the fire patrol; we constantly walked up and down the street with extra luminaries, candles, and a lighter, in case luminaries caught fire or went out. Tin cans are a much better sidewalk luminary idea.

Of course, art doesn’t always have to have a function. Thanks to Globally Green Living, I just discovered the art of Shari Elf, who uses found pieces from yard sales and the like to make her pieces. She also earns a lot of money doing so; it’s just a thought. If you don’t have an overabundance of tin cans, consider scouting out flea markets and thrift stores to use other people’s cast-offs in your art.

‘Twas the third night of Chanukah and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Okay, my cats were probably stirring last night, just without me.

I was volunteering my time to an arts and crafts booth at a local holiday event. Not the selling variety of arts and crafts booth, but the children-do variety. I helped a bunch of children glue foam leaves to paper plates for three hours, scarfed down a cold hotdog and a flat soda, and wished the line for Santa wasn’t so long, so I could take a picture with him for my mom.

Why, in the name of all that is good and pure in the world, why would I subject myself to babysitting somewhere around 500 kids wielding bottles of glue and tiny red berries made out of what looked like lint?

The answer: I’m selfish.

The building we were in for the event was set up like a castle. Bubble “snow” fell from the ceiling. There were costumed characters, a small train set up for young passengers, games all over the place, and a store set up with toys and trinkets usually overpriced in the stores at the perfect prices for the little ones to buy with their allowance. In addition to the arts and crafts area I was in, there was a coloring book station, a scrapbooking station, and a cookie decorating station. The food was served in a huge, fairy tale ballroom where The Polar Express was playing on theater-sized screens. Everywhere I looked, faces were filled with wonder.

I highly recommend for everyone reading this to volunteer somewhere this holiday season. It’s a much better high than overeating or unwrapping an iPod. I always try to volunteer at an event with children, because they get the most out of the holidays. They still believe in the magic of the holidays, whether it be Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, or the secular Santa Day.

Unfortunately, I never did get that picture with Santa.

Here are some more holiday themed posts: with Chanukah almost half over, Christmas is just 18 days away. For the most part, my own Christmas-type presents are wrapped and ready to go. And, Cyndi at Bead Arts has listed some sites with suggestions for gifts that sparkle with creativity.

NaNoWriMo crashed and burned for me this year. While I typed out a few of my best writing scenes, they were few and far between. It’s too bad I don’t have a version of this graphic on fire or in ashes; that’s how bad it got this year.

Sometimes creativity is like slogging through quicksand. We can’t get out of the hole we’re in, and when we try, we just keep sinking deeper.

Sometimes anything looks better than the project we’re currently working on. Why not do the dishes? Clean out the kitty litter box? Or, even better, take a nap?

I’ve had paintings languish on an easel at my mother’s house until she’s threatened to reuse the canvas for one of her paintings. If creating is so much fun, why can it be so hard?

There’s tons of psychological mumbo-jumbo to explain why we procrastinate, but the truth is, everyone does it now and again. And, the why isn’t as important as the how. How we can climb out of the quicksand hole we’re in. Here are five hows to get you through.

1. Start a routine.
Routine is the natural enemy of procrastination. Set up a routine schedule and stick to it, even if you have to strap yourself to your chair and stare at a blank canvas/ sheet of paper. Theoretically, you’ll get so bored eventually you’ll start working. This is best implemented in a location without a lot of distractions. For example, strapped into your chair you’d have no problem trolling the internet for hours, if your laptop was in front of you.

2. Make a to-do list.
This one usually saves me. I love checking items off of a list; it makes me feel industrious. Of course, you have to write the list in order to check things off, which can lead to procrastination about the list itself.

3. Work in smaller time increments.
If you have problems getting started for an hour of work, take the time down to 30 minutes. If you’re still procrastinating at 30, move the time down to 15. Even five minutes of work is better than no minutes of work. Set a timer and keep going if inspiration hits and you can’t tear yourself away from your chair.

4. Check your muse.
Do your best ideas come to you on the can? Do they come after watching your favorite horror movie or reading your favorite book? As a writer, it can be strange thinking that part of my job was reading books, magazines, and newspapers. But, it’s true. Allow yourself to do the most important part of your job, sowing inspiration.

5. Take a break.
Procrastination might be a sign you’re burning yourself out, which is the kiss of death to whatever you’re working on. Depending on what you’re doing, take a day or two off. It might give you the rest you need to start up again, this time gung-ho and ready for action.

For me, NaNoWriMo failed this year because I had too much going on in my schedule. I was happy when I could type out an entire scene; all of my writing began to suffer because of the pressure I was under from all sides. Now that school’s winding down, I’m back at the game, better than ever.

I wonder if JM would consider me a writer’s block whiner… Or, I guess, an artist’s block whiner.

It’s a little late, but I’m a big believer that we should be thankful for everything in our lives all the time. So, here we go!

1. My mother.
I’m thankful every holiday season she’s still around, and I’m especially thankful for all of the paintings that end up on my walls.

2. Web Urbanist.
I love the urban art and legends I have at my fingertips because of this site.

3. Sugar ‘n Cream and Peaches and Cream yarn.
These 100 percent cotton yarns are my material of choice for all of my knitting creations. Even blankets, towels, and stuffed animals come out perfect when I use pure cotton.

4. Bamboo knitting needles.
I started knitting on aluminum needles. They would soon have dark pits and gouges in the metal. The colored coating would flake off, and the feeling of the metal grating on metal would set my teeth to grinding. Bamboo works a lot better for me. The needles don’t make my teeth grind when they rub together, and the thinner ones eventually bend to fit in my hand better.

5. Play Doh.
This is probably my favorite children’s toy. It is also the bane of mothers everywhere who have to pick the tiny Play Doh bits out of their carpeting.

5. Squid knitting patterns.
I found the pattern I use on Etsy, and I’ve modified it a few times to come out better.

6. Etsy.
I love the patterns. I love the finished products. Finally, a place I can find hand-printed greeting cards, home-made stuffed animals, carefully crafted jewelry, and so much more.

7. Crafting Out Loud.
It’s my local craft fair. It moves from place to place, but it’s a great place to buy more hand-crafted items for holidays, birthdays, and every day in between. Type in “craft fair” and your city to find a craft fair of your very own!

8. Crafty Chica.
She’s witty, outspoken, crafty, and colorful. I love reading Crafty Chica from my RSS feed. She’s everything I’d eventually like to be: a keen professional who crafts, manages a household, and covers everything that crosses her path in bright colors. I’m thinking of making shadow boxes as one of my next projects. Even though I don’t think I have a drop of Latin genes in my gene pool, I’ve always been attracted to the bright beautiful colors and interesting themes in Latin culture and artwork. I love pretty much everything she does, and she has her own video series online for crafting!

9. Paper Magazine.
I love fashion, especially when it isn’t homogenized mainstream fashion. I also love drag queens. Paper gives me walloping doses of both as it covers the newest trends. I like to think of a lot of its coverage as guerrilla fashion.

10. Mac cosmetics.
Mac looks are a work of art. I also consider it the number one makeup line for drag queens, which is another reason for me to wear it. It’s also a great line to wear for artistic photo shoots and fashion shows, thanks to the large variety in products and the high quality of products. Although, Sephora can be a better place to shop, just because of the large variety of products and brands available. Plus, the staff on hand is an invaluable resource if you’re not sure what you should buy.