• Don’t think of making everything perfect… it’s not going to happen, & that’s okay!
• If you want to draw 10 times as well, you have to draw 10 times as much!
• A “masterpiece” is one in a thousand… so make a thousand!
• “You are over thinking it!” Jules tells me as I’m trying to animate a conveyor belt…
• The good thing about a book is that you have to focus on the page in front of you… if you turn it, the pages will stick together. You can’t go forward or back, you have to concentrate, accept and take care of the art challenge at hand. Once you are done with this page, it has a chance to dry, you turn the page… forgetting it because the next task has been presented. It’s sort of like life :)
• There’s a drawing of a lizard with a thought bubble. He’s thinking of a brain. Use that lizard brain… let go and draw! hehe

So, the line drawings are of the office supplies I had laying around… a tape gun, a glue gun, some scissors, a hole puncher, a stapler with loose staples and a single scotch tape dispenser.

See, you are surrounded by art in everyday objects! :)

I love these flowers. It reminds me of the sunflowers I used to draw over and over and over in high school… I even put them on my posters as I was running for a Senior Representative in student council. I should find one of those posters… cah-lassic lalapalooza/snapple/organic seattle feeling :)

So, the message I’m trying to give myself here is again, to use more color. And in my line drawings, I’m trying to practice that really popular screen printing look. The shape blobs of color go down with lines on top to define the style a little more. You can’t go into Starbucks without seeing something like that. I have a book on vintage wrapping paper… a lot of it looks like the flowers up top. I love it :)

So, after 5 months of letting my hair grow like a weed, I broke down and went to a great little salon in downtown Cary. At first, I thought the name was the Space and Hair Museum… I heard the recommendation wrong. It’s really called the Hair and Face Lounge. I think I will go to a salon based on the name now… there’s something so telling of someone who will be creative with the name… as long as it’s creative and not too obvious… just MHO.

Anywho, I sat down in a bright red boxy retro chair with tons of padding, and Toni worked magic on my roots that were now 5 inches long. I have to admit, I’ve been missing my fantastic hair guru, Michele (If you are still in La Crescenta, GO TO HER… she ROCKS), back in LA, so I was a bit hesitant, but Toni did a great job, and she is so sweet :) The salon is a converted house, with bright turquoise, pink and orange walls… with funky mannequins and wigs everywhere. It’s like Shag meets the 60’s… and a hint of Love American Style. Oh, and they have a sweet little mascot dog running around named Cooter. Ah, the Dukes of Hazard…

So, no word from Hurricane Hanna… our can and bottle openers are on the ready though! Come on, give us an excuse ;)

]]> http://www.violetsareblue.net/blog/2008/09/05/art-journal-day-4/feed/ http://www.violetsareblue.net/blog/2008/09/04/art-journal-day-3/ http://www.violetsareblue.net/blog/2008/09/04/art-journal-day-3/#comments Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:46:28 +0000 carrie http://www.violetsareblue.net/blog/?p=225

At first I painted this and thought… it need’s something… something furry. A squirrel! Then I was reminded about my Mom’s encounter with a squirrel in Burbank (or is it Glendale?). The squirrel stopped her in her tracks and put out his hands… like… “feed me!” The brazen little squirrel was obviously accustomed to handouts… but I thought… perhaps, in his little squeaky voice he was really saying “Hand over the purse, lady”.

Just thinkin’ out loud is all.

Theoretically, North Carolina is in a state of emergency. But really, here in the triangle, we’ll get some wind… a possible power outage or two. Sort of like the Santa Ana Winds I’m assuming (where I lost a window and door at the store). It’s really only going to be a storm here inland, it’s those on the coast who need to worry… but we did stock up on supplies… you know, the usual… batteries, canned goods, granola bars and beer. I guess the locals call a hurricane a chance to get together and party… the first thing off the shelves at the super Teeter is beer.

We moved to the right place.*

(*In all honesty, I’m not a beer drinker… I like fancy girly drinks that require ice, a blender and a fancy umbrella. Someone I know… who is it??? Has a diesel-powered blender… must find out who that is).

Here’s to new weather experiences!
Signed… the NC lush

Note to self… red acrylic paint usually wants to separate from the color next to it… why didn’t I notice this before?

The other problem is lack of motivation… art for one week? No problem. Art for months? ummm… not sure. I don’t wanna.

So, knowing that this will be forced at times… there is no pressure to be perfect. No competitive or inadequate feelings. It’s just art to DO art :) (an emphatic) Yay!

In business news… I’m sort of not doing too much with looking for new shop venues. I will pick it up later on. I’ve got SO many great excuses to why I haven’t done any of it! I won’t bore you :) But I do want to pick up that entrepreneurial torch again and run with it… but for now… art journaling.

Didn’t know quite what to expect… I thought… large hamster habitrail meets moonbounce. So, after some interesting interaction with the line nazi, we paid our $5, took off our shoes and went inside.

First, you enter a small area go and get a little history of the piece we are about to enter. It’s been to 39 countries and it was completely man-made. That last part made us chuckle.

The performing arts center adjacent to the huge magic moonbounce…

The line was quite long when we got there…

From the outside, the structure looks something out of an anime cartoon… grey with primary colors and bubbly round attributes.

While inside, it’s dark and the color is minimal, nothing like the pictures above. Seeing the pictures is like having magical eyeglasses that show you new dimensions… I’m so glad we took our good camera, these really are quite awesome!

They were playing a soft instrumental yet futuristic soundtrack inside… but outside of the structure, they were playing Abba, Kool and the Gang and other party hits. It was a nice juxtaposition of mood music. We wandered around for about 20 minutes. People were hanging out in the little chambers, relaxing and enjoying what $5 could get you on a Saturday night.

And, being that it is a small world, we ran into more friends inside… which was sort of magical :)

In other news, I tried pilates today. There is a reason that thing is called the “reformer”. I’m curious, no, terrified, to see how my muscles are going to react in the morning. My muscles are honest and will tell me if they would like to visit the reformer again any time soon. I think the last time all those muscles were used I was in a step class. There was needless bouncing, an abundance of Reebok logos, sweat, mirrors, confusion and an extended dance remix of “Jump” by Kris Kross. That was the night they took my membership photo… I was beet red and out of breath…. but somehow, still perky. 1992 was a good year.

For some reason, I can’t find groups of people who dig the following:

• Crafts… and being creative for… you know…money
• Business… Entrepreneurs at heart… you make stuff and sell it for… you know… money
• A tad edgy… I have no idea what I mean by that, frankly
• Are in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary etc etc areas
• Perhaps want to start a Craft Mafia or CM “ish” group to exchange ideas and perhaps host a handmade craft show in the area

Are you out there?

I’ve searched yahoo, meetup, myspace, google… I think I’ve found 5 ladies. Most of whom do not update websites or haven’t checked myspace in a year. And of those five, I’ve emailed 4 and signed up to join all sorts of mailing lists and notifications of upcoming stuff.

The super duper Lazy Daze Crafts Festival in Cary is tomorrow. I may have to wear neon colors that say “please be my friend” and march up and down from crafter’s booth to crafter’s booth.

I can’t miss “Hubba Bubba the Clown”…

I am really looking forward to covering the walls with pictures, art, shelves etc etc. But I’m starting small… err… on big canvases. I’ve never painted items so large, and I’ve never really painted on canvas before and I must admit, I really liked it. I was able to glob the paint onto the canvas and push it around with a spatula. I even got my hands and fingers into it… made a real mess. It was a blast! I used a lot of silver paint, too… so when you walk into the room some of the detail on these pieces moves with the light. I wanted to keep my color palette simple… trying to match this picture album:

The album was the inspiration… and I thought I would go more with the nature/egg theme, but the paintings took on a mind of their own and more color was added. Very therapeutic, very relaxing… I may run out and get more canvas tomorrow! :) The paintings definitely speak to me… what do they say to you? :)

I know one of the huge pet peeves of true fine artists is the art collector who says “I need something that goes over my couch!” There was even a mention of this in the movie Hannah and her Sisters. So, I wasn’t going to be that person who asks ;) Solution… I made it myself!

I have friends who do marvelous large pieces of beautiful, modern and serious art… stuff they sell for large amounts of money, stuff that is too good for that space above said couch. So, for those friends, I have plenty more wall space reserved for you with not a couch in sight!!! :) In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy pushing the paint around and making a mess!

And of course, another pic of Meg… with her monkey banana sling toy