[i] LoveLife

DAY 2 (5/5 art challenge)

5/5 ART CHALLENGE. DOOR DAY 2. Oh, Gouache. I love gouache. I love to say 'gouche'. So fun. It's never my GO-TO paint, but every time I use it I remember how much I love the chalky texture and the watercolour-like feelings. I also really, really love the velvety opaqueness. And the quick drying. Gouache is a beautiful and flexible thing. I had this idea that I would apply the technique-of-the-day to each of the 12 door photos (keeping them aligned and delightful) and life would be full of buttery unicorns... but that might have been a bit ridiculous because it's just 12 times the amount of work. I get that now. Oh, well. I roughly drew out my door collection in in pencil and then started attacking the doors with gouache. And then not one kid at my house was napping and there was so much going on that it was impossible to concentrate. And then I decided that I liked the mix of painted + unpainted - finished + unfinished. It was the choose your-own-adventure idea again. I wish that I had more patience yesterday - but at the same time I love the gestural-ness and looseness of this piece, too.

How did everyone else do? Are you still with me? Did you check out the FLICKR group? Join us!

DAY3 is INK. I love ink.

Today: Wednesday! I'm working hard in the morning and then off in the afternoon to scout out some more inspiration. I was just thinking about how unproductive and uninspired I am in March - and then I realized that my productivity has simple swung over to family and house things. It's the ebb and flow of the creative mind I think. I hope because if it's not then I'm hooped. ;)

GO!

DAY 1 (5/5 art challenge)

5/5 ART CHALLENGE. DOOR DAY 1. I picked the word DOOR for my 5 days - 5 ways ART SELF-CHALLENGE and I kicked it off by spending 40 minutes driving around downtown looking for doors to inspire me. The problem with that was there were SO MANY awesome doors that I could have probably spent 40 days wandering. But it was rainy and cold outside so instead I drove around with my hand out the window so I could take some pictures to get me started. And get me started they did. I decided to take this small and manageable art challenge and make it into a larger study. A collection! For each of the following days - I'm going to do a variation of this collection of door photos in different media. I really, really loved how the doors were so different and so leading... What's behind the door? I loved the textures and colours - the different materials. I loved how some were beat up and MOST of the doors I found were old. Imagine how many people have passed through these doors. I love the layers of paint. I love that you don't know what's on the other side. I love that some of the doors I don't even WANT to know. These photos lined up like this - made me think of choose-your-own-adventure books and novels lined up on a library shelf. I love the numbers and signs on the doors. 

*I loved every part of searching for doors UNTIL I got home and my camera was refusing to download the photos. SO FRUSTRATING. So much of a waste of time.... there's nothing I hate more than wasting time.

EVENSO - this wasn't where I thought I'd go with DOORS: DAY 1, but that's the point of an art challenge - to take you to a new place.

And you probably have to get there through a door.

How did everyone else do? Post a link in your comments or throw something in the FLICKR group.

DAY2 is GOUACHE. Hurray!

TODAY: The girls and I are off on a marathon of goodness. Penn is pretty much over morning naps and that has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for us. I've started making grocery shopping a long drawn-out, fun process where we touch the produce and learn things about textures and weights. We search for colours. We look for shapes. The girls have more fun (and make a lot of noise!) and I try to chuck stuff in the cart and shop as we go. The whole experience went from HAVE-TO to THIS-IS-FUN and that's pretty cool. I look forward to it. The afternoon is reserved for naps and a little art therapy for myself. DOORS. I am looking forward to DAY2 and getting my brushes in some water.

GO!

ART 5 days - 5 ways CHALLENGE

I feel like I'm lacking direction this month so I'm initiating a bit of an art self-challenge to push myself. This is a throw back to my college years and an awesome way to try some new techniques. The last few GO/ventures that I did with Elise - we focused on a different word prompt everyday. THIS IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT because I'm going to focus on the SAME word (or same image) for 5 days - BUT CHANGE MY MEDIUM for each day.

5 DAYS - 5 WAYS works like this:

• STEP1: pick a subject/word/idea. I've decided to pick something simple. I've picked the word/image: DOOR. Simple is best and DOOR conjures up all kinds of emotional meanings for me right now. Pick something that speaks to you right now... I've seen this turn out well with all kinds of different images. Fork, shoes, tulip, individual letters, birds, signs, anything. Go nuts.
• STEP2: I'm going to attack the word DOOR in 5 different ways by using different media and techniques. For example: photography, crayon, pencil, ink, paper crafts, oil paint, acrylic, collage, etc, etc, etc. I'm better at straying from rules than following them straight up - so I'm going to do this exercise this week and work a couple images in tandem. Just to be my complicated self.
• STEP3: GO and do it.

I like this exercise because you end up with a collection of pieces and a deeper appreciation for "many different solutions". You get to rework stuff and play with new media - which is often missing from creative life because there's this inclination to just GO and GO and GO to the next thing. I like revisiting and changing my answer to the word prompt. I like using media that I don't normally GO TO right away. It's fun.

TUESDAY: photography
WEDNESDAY: gouache
THURSDAY: ink
FRIDAY: pencil, pencil crayon, marker, glue, acrylic
MONDAY: free for all*

*If I'm having fun - I might extend this to include oil pastels, chalk, crayon, watercolour, etc.

If you want to play along - I think that would be AWESOME. Elise? Maile? Marta? Ali? Paolo? Jeope? Tara? Anyone? You can leave links to your post - OR IF YOU WANT WE CAN DO THE FLICKR group thing again. I'm easy. I will be posting my first round of DOOR tomorrow morning. Bright and early because that's how I roll.

5 DAYS - 5 WAYS to look at: DOOR.

Sunshine + smiles.

It's officially March and I can't deny it. MARCH. That's hardcore. Didn't we just ring in the new year? It feels like time is slipping away. Winter is starting to release. There's change in the air. Pilot and I are having full on conversations that usually end with her cracking a joke. WASN'T SHE JUST BORN? It feels like yesterday that we brought her home and now she's chatting up my friends and stealing their hearts. And Penn - everyday with her is more and more fun. SHE IS SO CUTE. I'm smitten with her sweetness and begging the clock to slow down to give us more moments to enjoy these small people we've been gifted. Three cheers for March for giving us sunshine and outside perfection. We had a fun weekend out and about enjoying the outdoors and good friends and long walks - the weather was perfect for sunshine and smiles.

ALL-ART week. I have an great self-challenge to do this week and I'd love it if there were folks out there who would play along. I really, really need something to get me going and get my mind working in different ways. I will post my official challenge later today.

Today: Hi MONDAY. I am looking forward to a week that's routine so that I can steal some moments to percolate a whole bunch of new things + ideas. If I get my nose to the grindstone and stay focused I think I can do good things. Starting with locating my rubber boots because it's starting to melt out there (I would like a pair of beautiful MoovBoots to fall out of the sky and onto my feet... now THAT would be cool). More coffee.

GO!

Love + Friday.

A couple of weeks ago - Dan and I had the great adventure of joining a bunch of friends on the island of Kauai. There was a wedding on the agenda and I can't think of a better place to get married than Hawaii. I seriously can't. I got to be the official wedding photographer. I don't feel comfortable calling myself a photographer because that implies that I have mad skills or something. I'm an artist and a camera is a type of media that I dink around with. I tried hard to take the pressure off and think of a name that combined photographer and artist - but, all I could think of was phartist. And that just didn't seem totally right. But, it did seem funny and true and a much less loaded-with-expectation than the word 'photographer'. Maybe I'll stick with phartist. ;) Either way - the Universe was conspiring in favour of love that day and I will be spending the rest of this day finishing a set of wedding memories. Aloha.

Thanks for the reviews for Mondo Beyondo. That is a lot to think about and I totally appreciate the honesty.

I will be stalking Tara Whitney's blog because one of these days she's giving away an Epiphanie camera bag (who is also doing a radical giveaway of a Canon 5D - WHAT!).

It's ALL-ART next week around here. Lots of projects.

Today: I'm finishing wedding photos all day and then tidying up some shipping. I might even sweep the basement. That might sound like a pretty boring Friday to you, but I'm going to do some bicep curls and butt clenches throughout the day so that I don't feel bad about having 13 cups of hot chocolate this afternoon and three glasses of wine with my husband tonight on the couch. Oh, no. NANNY DOWN. This TO-DO list will be radically changed to play-outside.

(Happy birthday Jessica!)

GO!