[i] LoveLife

DAY 4 (5/5 art challenge)

I'm trying to catch up. Remember my 5/5 ART CHALLENGE? This is DAY4 for DOOR. It was not as easy as I hoped because 90% of my art supplies were packed away and sent to storage. What was left? A magazine, a glue stick and a couple of Sharpies. So, I tried to build the door images out of cut up magazine pages with the corresponding colours. Which probably would have been fun if I had only picked one image instead of twelve frickin' doors. After getting started I quickly realized that it was TEDIOUS work and not all that fun sticking teeny little piece together. I don't care for things that are un-fun so I made short work of it and called it a day. The original is actually a little more becoming than the scan, but evenso.

What I DID really like was the collection of doors from DAY2, DAY3 and DAY4 when grouped together. That's my absolute favourite part about this kind of exercise. I am hoping to get these framed up to hang in a row. Plenty of folks have asked me if the originals are for sale and the best answer I can give is: not yet. I am working out sizes for prints of the line drawing and will get that posted this week.

I have one more piece in the 5/5 ART CHALLENGE, but I am tossing up a digital piece versus a piece done with Pilot's half eaten crayons. That's about all I've got left around here for now. Check out the FLICKR group for other peoples solutions.

BLOG REDESIGN IS IN THE WORKS.
LOVELIFE is currently down to be redesigned - look for a new launch in June 2010.

Today: I'm going to take the girls for a tour of the firehall to fill our super-adventure quota for the morning which will be fun (because the firehall is always fun) and it should balance out the boring-ness of getting groceries and wandering around Home Depot. I will be carting around my camera very stylishly in my Epiphanie camera bag because there are no shortage of cool things to photograph when surrounded by heroes. Seriously. How can it be Thursday already?

GO!

DAY 3 (5/5 art challenge)

5/5 ART CHALLENGE. DOOR DAY 3. Ink. That's what I'm talking about. THIS is sort of what I was envisioning when I decided to do a bunch of doors. Lines. Lines. Lines. Cross cross. Overlap. Most of the time my eyes only see light, shadow and blocks of colour. But, sometimes they see lines. This is a semi-blind continuous line drawing of the doors. If you've taken an art class - your instructor will have, at some point, told you that in real life there are no such thing as lines. We interpret lines where planes and spaces meet. Where shadow and light dance. Where there is change - we often represent it as a line. Life is often thought of as a line. History as a line. Time as a line. And all the while - there is no such thing as a line. I love the imperfections in this drawing. I love where the 'lines' are off and I love that everything is so crooked that it becomes comfortable and inviting. I love that you look and then you look more. This piece was done with a Fine Sharpie on parchment paper as quickly as possible to maintain the spontaneous nature. The original is so pretty - I think I will frame it. Thanks INK.

How did everyone else do on their challenge? Did you check the FLICKR group?

Hey. I wanted to briefly mention that this kind of art challenge is TOUGH to view online in the FLICKR group because everyone has chosen a different subject and media. This makes comparing pieces very hard. Which is sort of AWESOME because art should be your own journey. Too often we judge our own self based on how we measure up to others. If I've learned anything at all in my own adventure - it would be how defeating that idea can be. Be your own. Own your art. Art is your own journey.

Today: We are outfitted with stylish rubber boots and are off to adventure in the greyness of this day. I start to feel pretty gloomy when it's this time of year and everything is melting + brown + dirty + cloudy + heavy + chilly + ick. Sunshine is going to feel so good after a couple more days like these. I'm going to think about sun and big spaces and happy thoughts. And a couple of upcoming months of serious chaos. And lattes.

GO!

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.