Hi Friday. SO. All kinds of things are picking up speed around here lately. An 18 month old. A 4 month old. A new puppy! Summer. Life is cooking. I've been feeling a creative itch and also feeling like I need a bit of a kick to get moving. I'm a new mom and as much as I'm loving these babies more than life itself - I'm also a person who fills myself back up by spending time making art. I'm feeling a little half-empty at the moment and there's only
one cure for that. PAINT. One of my highschool teachers always said "if you don't use it - you lose it". I'm pretty sure he was quoting someone much more famous than himself and I'm pretty sure he was talking about the French language, but I think that it covers just about everything else, too. EATING RIGHT, EXERCISING and CREATING ART. All things we need to get back to doing around here. That gave me a little idea..
So, there's this girl named Elise. She lives in Maryland with her very nice fiance Paul. She's a designerly, crafty, smart kind of girl and I really like her. I like her style. She loves paper. She inspired me with the sparkly TOMS shoes that me and all my neighbourhood 3 year olds are crazy in love. She sent me an amazing letter black and white "P" card for the birth of peaceful Penn - which I thought was incredibly thoughtful. I think she's cool. In fact, she reminds me a lot of myself about ten years ago - except the Maryland part. And the fiance. And the letterpress stuff. And probably the part about being cool. And of course the sparkly shoes, because they were definitely not around in the 90's. But, the point is - she's an ADVENTUROUS SOUL making mini-books and taking pictures and this week she was inspiring me so much that I sent her an email - AND ISSUED HER A 5 DAY MAKE-STUFF CHALLENGE. A throw down. A design duel. Blog versus blog. DESIGNER DEATH MATCH but no one dies. I said HEY ELISE - wanna play a bit of a game? Wanna inspire each other? Wanna play a little ARTSY-FARTSY back-and-forth? Wanna shake up your comfort zone? Wanna see how two different artist tackle the same opportunity?
AND she said YES! so we are off on a week of MAKING ART ADVENTURES and stretching some creative muscles. GO-ventures! Elise-style and Kal-style. Since it was my challenge I'm going to start by throwing up a clue phrase that we will each interpret in our own way to post on Monday. Each on our own blog. My piece here. And her piece there. Oooooh, original art! Then Elise with throw out a phrase of her own and we will tackle that for Tuesday. And so on and so forth until the week is over and we collapse into a sweaty art puddle. A little art, a little explanation, a little inspiration, a little push. I'm excited. Getting creative is a good thing. DO you want to play, too? Bring it on. JOIN US. I challenge you.
GO-VENTURE CLUE FOR MONDAY: GREEN + DIZZY.
Today: I am expecting total chaos and debauchery because we are babysitting an 8 week old puppy named Ozzie. Yup, a toddler, a baby, a Boxer and two puppies. (Dan thinks I'm trying to get myself committed to a mental institution so I can finally have a full night's sleep.) I foresee PEE in my future and I can handle it. I also need to handle getting a mama load of groceries because my favourite brother Kam is flying in tomorrow morning to hang out with this favourite nieces and to take a little jog called the Manitoba Marathon on Sunday. Awesome. Just what the doctor ordered. Good weekend ahead.
YOU READY ELISE? GO!
