Blogging confession

I've been going behind your back - doing something without telling you... I'm taking a blogging class, so that I can learn how to make this little space on the internet better for... well, for me and you and anybody else who stumbles upon it. It's a class being run by a big blogging star, that's the link over there in that gray box titled BYW...Blogging Your Way.

You may have noticed I changed the blog template last week? Gone is that background dot pattern that was making me dotty every time I looked at it. I'm planning to make up my own header sometime soon and do a site re-design, so stay tuned for that. Also planning to feature my artwork more, glimpses into my process, and some other stuff in the works.

The class has been great so far, a lot of focus in these early classes have been on self-knowledge, and so the homework has been a sort of therapy in a way. Yes, I said homework! And the only person grading me is me, so I can't fake it. This next post, coming up soon, is what I did for the latest homework assignment - the first fun one! I'm excited to show it off.

And if anyone thinks the class sounds interesting, I'm pretty sure that Holly will be having another session, please check out the class description here.

On Seeking Commitment

I was just reading an article on tinybuddha about the things that hold us back from our dreams. This part really stood out for me:

But if you don’t know what you’re committed to, you can’t possibly progress. A great start is to ask yourself, “What is the one thing that would upset me if, at the end of my life, I do not attempt, do, or complete?”....If there’s an immediate answer, you must commit to that.

The reason why this gave me pause, is because I asked myself this question a year and a half ago, and I got my answer. There is one thing that if I were on my deathbed I would not be able to forgive myself for never attempting, and that is making art. Not the kind of dabblings that I've been doing in my free time - I want the opportunity to immerse myself in art making, expand my abilities and develop my style. I want a lengthy chunk of time to dedicate myself to the process and to have a converation with the work.


And so I know what I want, and yet I am still blocked. It is incredibly frustrating that I still have to deal with the realities of the world, making a living and all the mundane aspects of life, when all I want to do is lock myself and my supplies into a studio for the next 6 months. Just to see what I'd be able to do. Whether or not I fail, or can create anything meaningful. I just want the chance!


So why is it that I continually fail to commit fully to my dream? Is it because I don't like the circumstances under which I must carry forth determination? Why am I still seeking that which I should already have? These are the questions I'm asking myself.... And I need to stop avoiding them.


This is part one of a two-part posting - I intend to come back (with my answers to the above questions!) next week, so stay tuned. In the meantime, please feel free to share your feelings about commitment or progress here in the comments... I'm fascinated by people how people overcome their stumbling blocks... maybe we can encourage each other!


Photo above from Studio Antwan on flickr

New Work in Progress

I had an out-of-town visitor this weekend but I was able to sneak in some time to paint. Company's gone home now, but I'm trying to stay off the computer too much for what remains of the evening.

I wanted to share what I'm working on really quickly! Here's a small canvas (6in x 6in) that I started yesterday afternoon. Collaged elements from an old book about birds, and acrylic. I just need to add some more details to jazz it up a bit. What do you think?

Knit Graffiti

I saw this entry on The Daily Green the other day about knit and crochet art (much of it pretty tongue-in-cheek) and I just had to look at the slideshow, even though their site is horribly slow and I consider slideshows to be painful. I mean, come on, just make it scrollable already. Anyways, I thought I'd share some of my favorites from the artists and groups featured in the article, so that you can see the goodness without dealing with the slideshow.

Knit graffiti courtesy of Knitted Landscape, an outfit that tracks knitted additions to our world via their website. Scroll through their images and you'll see knit flowers rising out of snow, crocheted cozies over rocks, and trees wearing something similar to legwarmers. The site encourages people to contribute their own modifications to their surroundings. Guerilla knitters of the world, unite!

Artist Lauren Marsden set out to cover the street signs in her hometown with knitted replicas. Over two years she outfitted the signs of every street she'd lived on in Victoria, BC. You can follow her trail here.

Knitting as a form of protest? The craft's image of home, warmth and grandmothers contrasts with this ambitious project by an artist whose first name may be Marianne (the Daily Green didn't attribute and I couldn't find her name through Google).
Volunteers knitted together pieces submitted by people all over the world. Her website states that she intends to continue with more variations of tanks until the Iraq war is over. If that's true, I can definitely spare a pink square....

And then you have Knitta Please. The originator of this whole knit graffiti art thing. I mean, how could you not love it based on the name alone? Behind Knitta is one Magda Sayeg, and she's finally joined the blogging world herself. There aren't a whole lot of posts yet about her crazy-wonderful guerilla artworks, but we should expect to see lots in the future.

Thanks, Magda!


Hope you enjoyed this little round-up of some of the funnest un-commissioned public artworks around. Keep your eyes peeled, you never know when you might come across one of these some day!








All images courtesy of the artists and websites mentioned herein.

Final (Late) Entry to Best of '09 Challenge

Yes, it's now 2010 (thank god - good riddance 2009) and this entry is definitely a day or two past when I intended to write this. I swear, I really need to kick this tardiness habit I have this year! No, I didn't make it through all the daily prompts, and yes, I chose to forgive myself for this. Just resolve to do better now when I can and not beat myself up for the past anymore. Good resolutions, no?

But I really wanted to respond to the last entry, as a record for my future self, if nothing else. December 31. Resolution you wish you'd stuck with. I started out 2009 with a few things I wanted to accomplish in addition to the fairly-standard "lose weight, do yoga more often, take vitamins, etc" that I end up ignoring. I accomplished just one, a big one. But of the all the resolutions I abandoned, the one I regret the most is not opening up an Etsy store to sell my artwork. {I confess to feeling silly about even stating this here. Bashful guilt.} I'm sorry not because I think the world would beat down my door to buy my stuff, but because I didn't open myself up to risk & give myself a chance. The point would not have been to sell a single thing, but rather to make the effort. And to have more faith in myself. So, I'm making this my top resolution in 2010: Believe.

Gwen has a great round-up post of the Challenge on her blog. She's also planning something big for this year - looking forward to joining in with this one. I'll be following & posting entries on these daily prompts on my other blog ninja haiku. Observations, frustrations, and random thoughts will be blogged there. Art, art, and more art, will be posted here. No more filler on this blog, I need to hold myself accountable to practicing & talking about that here.

The end of 2009 feels like a turning point & I think this new year is going to be a good one. Here's to a wonderful 2010 for all of us!

A failure begets a lesson

So, I didn't keep up with every day of the Best of '09 Challenge. Obviously, as evidenced by the week-long silence here. Sidetracked by too much contemplation, as usual. Thank goodness Gwen said we could write - or not - as we're inclined! I do feel I've let you and myself down a bit though. And I really don't like that icky guilty feeling.

One thing learned from this Challege was how I stretched big-time in a couple areas this year, while stagnating, perhaps even atrophying, in others. Like the "stretch" was at the expense of all other pursuits, maybe. Has anyone else felt that way this year? If anyone's out there reading this now who's participated in the Best of '09 Challenge, has going back over your year in this way brought about any realizations, that you may not have otherwise had?

Overwhelm

I truly believe that some of the things that happen to you in life are a direct result of what you've been ignoring. For example, getting sick when you've been pushing yourself past your limits. A series of clumsiness when you're trying to speed through 40 minutes-worth of activity in just 20. Continually losing things when you're purposely avoiding dealing with an issue. It's life's little way of saying, "Hey! Wake up!"

Therefore I wonder if there's an underlying cause behind my stomachache today, or my disinterest in the upcoming holidays. It's not that I think every illness or bad thing is the result of some superstitious cause & effect. But sometimes, there's this feeling, this intuition, that it's more than an ordinary occurrence. And I do know, that when small things start to feel like yet-another-monumental-obligation in a long string of obligations, it's not a good sign.

I hope to be back here tomorrow, in a better frame of mind. And with some more Best of '09 goodness.