Artist Nick Cave - Soundsuits

Free To Fail

Heard something interesting in church yesterday.

I was encouraged to fail.

Being "free to fail" can be liberating. I tend to be cautious in so many areas; because I want to do things well (read perfectly) I tend to put off things. To the point of never doing them.

But I really saw where I could apply the concept in my art.
I want to paint. Craft. Create.

But do I?

Sometimes. But I have a hard time translating my concepts through my fingertips. I watch other artist seemingly slap color on a page adding layer after layer of writing and emphamera and creating a visually rich piece of art. Art journalling, it's called.

Why can't I let myself go and do this?

I'm afraid I'll fail. That it will be a muddy illegible mess.

WHO CARES?!

BUT. It means so many positive things came before that.....

I started, began, gave it a shot, tried, endeavored, experimented, attempted, tackled, aimed, strived....

And there is no failure in that.

Playing with PS

I was up before the rest of the family this morning. I thought about doing a post on "savoring solitude". Of course, I wanted to add a photo to illustrate my post so I went into my archives. I found a photo of an adirondack chair.

Then I started playing....

Well, that was not at all where I began with this post, but it led to a bit of artistic serendipity!

Whooo! Can't believe it's been a week since I blogged! Time can really get away from me...obviously.

I don't know why my life seems so busy right now. I haven't added anything extra to the mix--other than being really busy on the weekends these days. That's when I plan to relax and delve into my hobbies (and catch up on housework) but recently my weekends seem to schedule themselves. This past weekend I was thinking that I had a weekend with no plans (always the goal) and...whaddaya know?! My little girl had a birthday party to attend, my sister came for a visit and I took a trip to a neighboring town to take my girl for her portrait sitting. (An artist friend and I are bartering. She'll paint my daughter's portrait.)

See? All good things, but they just jump on my calendar!

O.K. We're going to try again this weekend. So far, there is only a massage scheduled for Friday. Oh. And a graduation Friday night in a town about 30 min. away. Ohhhh-kaaaay.

You can't have Saturday! No how! No way!

(Stay tuned...)

Birding

In our area there are an abundance of mockingbirds, red birds (cardinals) blue jays and sparrows. Those are pretty much the only birds I ever see. So imagine my surprise when driving down main street in my town, I saw two kildeer on a grassy patch near a fountain. I guessed as to what kind of bird it was and when I got home, googled it and discovered I was right! Wish I'd been able to snap my own pic, but thanks to google... this photo was taken at Coyote Hills, in San Franscico Bay. I found it at Weather Underground in ann e's blog. If you are a birder, you will also find some other lovely photos of birds there.

Love those stripes around the neck!

More from MoMA

I am drawn to color. So imagine my delight when I found these paintings. They were grouped on the same wall, but I think are by different artists. I didn't have the insight at the moment to photograph the names. Sorry.

I love each of these, but especially love this one...
which, now that I think about it, may have actually been hanging vertically. But I can't say for sure. Let's just call this MY interpretation of the artist's work. :D

Art from MoMA

This is what I saw when I first laid eyes on this piece of art... But upon closer inspection...

I discovered this...

I think it's fascinating and wildly creative when someone fools the eye this way.

Don't Give Up On Me...

I was on a roll posting pics from NY and I have more.

But inevitably, when I'm on a roll, life jumps up and slaps me in the face. I have worked a good bit this last week and on top of that, the internet at home has given up the ghost. I tried to post from my phone; but my Blackberry, cool though it is, is a dinasour and told me in no uncertain terms that it couldn't help me out there--sorry.

Hopefully, the internet connection which was supposed to be fixed yesterday, (Memo to Frontier: you need some competition.) will be repaired today.

Funny.

When I have something to post on my blog, I can't. When I'm able to post on my blog, I find myself with a lack of subject matter.

Go figure.