Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Supply Source

The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show deserve a mentioning, for it is the main source and major opportunity for beaders around the world - in our own back yard!! It is the biggest show of its kind in the world.  My mom and our friend Nancy come down each year for a few days; plus my aunt Joyce and neighbor from Phoenix, Sherry, come for a day as well.  They are experts at finding the good spots and leading me to them.  A few local friends come along each time as well.  Lots of people I know here head out to the shows several times a week after work during the month - Dedicated!  It is a frenzy here.  Some folk at work even take days off for it.  It is really hard to pay full price for beads or jewelry, most people say, after you have been to one of these shows. I also recommend going to the workshops.  Mom helped pick out a fun felting class this year with an artist who came to town. Last year we learned to work with glass, paper and resin. I hope to get to keep having that kind of fun with my ma every year!

Next year I will have to take a picture that truly shows the ridiculously overwhelming amount of supply, table after table, tent after tent, mile after mile (that was starting to sound like the Gansters' Paradise song there... chuckle).  I started to like the smaller shows that show the smaller, finer artists' hand-casted beads and hand-torched glass, like Best Bead Show and To Bead True Blue.  I frequent these now not only to support them, but because I needed less choices to reduce the shock of knowing where to start! I have finally honed it down to getting a few new things a year to refill or delve into new colors. I think these photos are from 2009 in the big tents that go up each year. Imagine massive tents of gems and minerals sprouting all over the city!



We used to buy a few items for Toad Hall (a boutique a friend owns in Oregon) but now that my mom runs her own art business, Bloom! an Artscape, we can can get in to the wholesales for some fantastic deals through her own business license. Some shows don't require that, but it does help you get bulk price tax free deals.

So that is where I get my fancy pants beads. Ta da!!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

the art of organizing our nests

whimsicals
 

 peaceful beauty


This thought is dedicated to those who use the placement of things as an art.  To Jenn, who I always thought was very artistic in her particularities about how things should be organized.  Like a science, a practice and an art.   Cady's houses always have such thought put into every decoration, with tidbits and creations carefully thrifted with frequent visits to second hand stores to build a feel of treasured history or forgotten heirlooms. And dedicated to mom, for helping me set up my place with sweet aesthetic touches that take time to decide upon, and she puts the time and love into it. Of course all the Holland-Mier's are fantastic at using their home as their palate.  And there are many more inspirations out there that I have helped show me how to to value this within myself - to appreciate the how the way we organize our material details serves us.

The whimsicals on my shelf are my little mementos reminding me who I am.  Yes, I am that forgetful.  They take me to places I have been and the relationships that have helped form me. That is the artform of memory.

xo!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Poloroid!




One nice thing about Poloroid is that it is not a digital camera.  You have one shot to get the photo you want. And now that you had to search ebay to find film and it is hella expensive... you really don't want to waste a shot.  You really have to think about what you are planning to photograph ahead of time. I took these photos above while Phoenix and I were on our road trip up the west coast last summer.  Since they were vacation shots, I asked a lot of different people to take the photos of us, and have to be brave to ask them to get a certain angle or brave to just see what happened.  I love them all!

Another nice thing about Poloraid is that it is just like a digital camera.  You get to see it instantly! So satisfying on a printed paper too.  Plus I love shaking and waiting a little bit while it morphs before your eyes.  It doesn't feel that long ago, though, that they were more common, but I do like how it has an old feel now.

In the last photo, you can see the old camera, that I got at a yard sale down the street, hanging from grandpa's vanity in my room. Works great!  And, it is awesome 80's pink & grey no less. 

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Altered Images

This is me and Loosey, daydreaming. 




This is impossible love.  




This is Loo and Roo in Wonderland.

  


I have missed having Photoshop.  I used to use it at my job in Flagstaff and my boss, Neil, let me install it on my own laptop.  It was so fun. Although I missed it when that laptop died when moved to Tucson, I made the most of using PowerPoint to play with images. I like using a program to the limit... making-do brings a very satisfying kind of creativity to the table. 

So...  for the image at the top of this post, I used a mural which I took a photo of in Bisbee.  The mural is on a motel up the hill, which by the way, allows dogs.  The mural painting was based on a poem, but I have forgotten what the poem is.  Using PowerPoint, I chopped my photo up into my favorite elements, repeating some of them in different sizes, added feathers and a bike with side-car... vintage of course, put that Amelia Ehrhart hat on Loosey as I have always wanted to see her in, and dreamed away, imagining her ears flop in the wind. Yes, I am wearing a Rainbow Brite costume. In the real photo, I think I am dancing with Alexandra... but of course! Do you see the tiny version of us?

The second image down was made back when I did have Photoshop. I stuck together about 7 different images- all stolen from a google image search for key words... sorry original artists!  The originals included images from some of the first Valentine cards produced.  I think I was going for a punky vintage look. This was before I knew steampunk was a word, but it does remind me of that a bit.  The Victorian people seem to have some troubles, and where you see the acrobats, there is some risk taking and saving going on, but I found my creation to be some how representing some kind of strained endurance that sadly represents just about how relationships seemed to have to be to me at the time. But I believe it is a piece of art I am proud to have created, for the pretty end-results and valiant efforts... on many levels.  I love the creative feel of the plush carpet and really enjoyed making wallpaper from an image I found into the frame.

In recent news, Stuart helped me to buy a student version of Photoshop recently. So, Yay! I shall indulge again!  The last altered image is a favorite shot I took of Loosey and Roofrauff when they were housemates in the Flower house. I individually swirled and pointed everything and then overlaid some effects to the whole image.  Stuey is going to teach me some tricks soon too, he said.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Mindfulness of the Body



Wright recently posted an article on mindfulness of the body with Buddhist practice which was a nice reminder of why I love yoga so much.  It tunes me in to balancing my life in the present, living as much in my front body and with mind on the future as my back body with memories in the past. It reminds me that I hold my tensions in on my own and how to consciously let them go.  You too?

Resting between my grandma Hazel's curtains in my bedroom window are my daily yoga reminders.  I made these yoga cards after realizing it would be a lot easier to paint them than to get Loosey to do all the sun salutation moves in photos (a true effort of mine;).  They were going to be Xmas gifts for everyone last year, but I ran out of energy and ran out of the will to repeat myself after making 3 ... ha... sorry.  I enjoyed making the yogis look like Chinese characters, somewhat, with fluid paint motions.  I used colored masking tape to make it look like ribbon holds them together into a sun salutation. Thanks mom and Alexandra for the pretty paper!