imagination

It's been a while since I last talked about Squirt's adventures. Don't want to overdo it on the 'my kid is awesome' stuff. Although he is. Of course. Mostly ;)

Today, he reclaimed some of the toys he hadn't played with in a while.
Putting the ladders in the train, he looked up at me and stated proudly: "fire truck train!"

Awesome! :D

unexpected

Still doing silly stuff. Like drawing a (very small) herd of elephants in one line. That's one line, pen not leaving paper, for four elephants! That is, elephants from memory, without reference. Drawing elephants is fun, quite unexpectedly :)

I'm well aware this course is not inspiring my best artwork, but it's plucking me from my comfort zone, at times sorely so! I'm trying to stick with each assignment that's making me feel funny (in the 'odd' sense of the word) - until it doesn't anymore. And it's hard, but good! Very good indeed!

Everyone needs to have silly fun at times. I sincerely believe that!

photo challenge: QUIET

So here I am with my photos for this round of the photo challenge Mridula & I set up a little while ago - a day late & all... It's not that I'm not taking this seriously - I do and I love it, too. It's just that I didn't have a lot of head space going spare over the past two weeks due to lots of snot - both my own and Squirt's, and the mounting - let's call it suspense - surrounding the house-moving-thing that's getting closer by the day.

I had all these ideas that I didn't get around to trying out. Scenes that would have taken me out of the house and into nature - soft leaves and moss, for example. And I couldn't think how I was going to get 'quiet' across in another set of photos taken on my trusted coffee table...

I'm not sure if these first two photos give you any sense of quiet at all, but quiet it was. That's what I ended up with, eventually. Squirt was picked up by my dad on Friday morning for a sleepover, so that we could have a little time; to think, talk, eat and drink ideas for the new house, and to sort a couple of things. Which we did. And it wasn't quiet at all. Not in my head, either!

Except for my early mornings. Which are sort of sacred every day, but got seriously extended by Man finally grabbing a chance to sleep very late! :) So I decided to use the light. And space both literal and figuratively speaking. And I ended up with these light filled macro still lives on my coffee table. Again.

I love light filled macro still lives on my blue coffee table. I do. Which must be fairly obvious, the number of times my blue coffee table (here, here, here & elsewhere) shows up in pictured scenes. Even if you're not a close observer! BUT... I wanted something different. Something outside. Something nature-y! But with every passing hour and rain cloud I sort of saw my chances floating away from me.

Until I decided on a fluke to bring my camera along on the drive to pick up Squirt at his grandparents late yesterday afternoon. And the weather gods decided to give me a break. And I ended up with water. Not the spot I wanted to go to; nor a place I would have picked. But light filled waterscapes of silence, none the less!

I don't have many words to add to this. Except a heartfelt 'thank you!' to Man who was willing and able to climb over slimy rocks for better composition!

It was hard work, this week's attempt! Due to circumstances though. Not because it isn't fun! Good stuff, when you end up with something worthwhile to publish after the moaning is done - at least in my own humble opinion ;)

Please click over to Mridula's post to see what she's done with QUIET, and to find out what the next challenge is going to be! If anyone is reading, interested and willing, you're very welcome to join us! Just leave a comment or send a mail; we'd love to see what you come up with!

conkers

Happy Autumn! If it is, where you're reading this.

Otherwise? Happy! Be happy, if you can!

alchemy

Silly. & loving it :)

photo challenge: SPARKLE

A few weeks ago, Mridula from Blogaloorgirl's Blog sent me an email asking me if I'd done any photography recently. And I hadn't, not really. Which got me thinking. I love photography much! But at times it's hard to find objects or subjects to talk to your lens, especially when inspiration is running low. When there's a lot going on in my head, I find I'm not looking around at the world with as much wonder as I need to restock the proverbial well, to paraphrase Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way.

So... I suggested a photo challenge! I've done a couple of courses in photography, and I've found it's much easier to capture something worthwhile when you know what you're looking for! It's great to have a theme to work with; it gets the creative juices flowing and it helps me open my eyes to what's been staring me in the face all along!

Luckily, Mridula accepted, and she came up with the first theme: SPARKLE.
Which was a challenge for me, to say the least ;) I don't know whether anyone who knows me would actually classify me as the outgoing type, but in my own skin, I feel I'm more of an introvert. I get it, it's a 'duh!' thing to say. But much of the beauty I see around me gets chewed on and put away on shelves in my mind, never seeing the light of day. Never mind sparkle!
But I love a good challenge, it really works for me - as far as photography is concerned anyway ;) - so I set out on a quest to find sparkle in my world :)

Here is a rose from the bunch of beautiful flowers we got as a present for our wedding anniversary last Wednesday. The water drops didn't really want to sparkle much, even with the low sunlight I had to wait for - for days! Which isn't that strange, really, considering we've been married for 10 years now. Nothing wrong with that, just that it's more the soft light of a place to call home than it is the dazzling sparkle I was looking for ;)

Here are some shards of glass I found in the bike lane on my way to the shops. They shouldn't be there, for various reasons, and I felt they might do prettier work on my coffee table, too. Oh, the funny looks I got when I got down on my knees to pick some up ;) I love that - giving people something to talk about around the dinner table ;)

I still didn't feel like I got all the sparkle out of the challenge, so I added the one piece of costume jewelry I own into the mix to see what that would do... I don't know what it is, but - there wasn't any real sparkle to be had... You know, the kind with the light-star, refraction or whatever it's called... Maybe my lighting wasn't what I thought the early Autumn sun was going to be, and maybe I just didn't do it right, but I couldn't get what I was looking for.

So here we are, at the biggest cliche of them all, when it comes to sparkle... It suddenly hit me! If I'm such an introvert, at least by my own sense of being, then surely the sparkle must be inside! From the senses being tickled in every way imaginable to the world of possibilities behind it all - eyes are the windows to the soul (to stick with cliche!). If it sparkles anywhere, surely it must be there! Not brilliant photography, but honest sparkle if I say so myself :)

There. That's it. My ode to the sparkling beauty inside :) Hop on over to Mridula's post to see what she came up with!

Now I had to come up with a new theme, and here it is: QUIET.
That might not be a much easier thing to capture, but the word's been playing in my head (for various reasons - haha) for weeks now, and I couldn't ignore it...

Our next deadline is Sunday 26th September (if that's okay Mridula?) - but we might post sooner, depending on how it's going. If there is anyone out there reading this, who wants to give it a go too, whether it's sparkle, quiet or the next little/big theme, I'd love to see! Send me an email or leave a comment here or over at Mridula's!

quote

Be happy whenever you can manage it.

Enjoy yourself.

It's lighter than you think.

From Learning by Heart, a book written by Corita Kent and Jan Steward. Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rule 9. I came across this somewhere on a blog yesterday, I haven't read the book myself. But this, this is beautiful & sage advise. Something to take to heart...

Edit: interestingly, I came across this and the other rules again this morning; here! By chance! I guess I'm really meant to take note!

silly

I have joined The Art of Silliness 2 - an online class by Carla Sonheim! A combination of artsy inspiration and... well... silliness! And since I have been taking myself and everything around me way too seriously lately, I'd say that's a good thing ;)
The class doesn't start until Wednesday the 15th of September & you can join until the 15th of October since you can do the worksheets at your own pace. Click the above link or the badge to the right - have a look! I think it will be fun!

Carla sent out a test mail last Wednesday to see if all the links work properly, and there was a test worksheet, to get started! A drawing of a bird and the task to write it a story. I love taking orders, so to speak - especially when my own inspiration is running low - & it was definitely fun to come up with something completely different ;) Meet my bird, BillyBob, and his first wobbly steps onto the glittering stage of showbiz!

request

Yes, I can :) Things aren't really that bottom-of-the-pit-bad here, although I can see why it might look that way. My last two posts should really be taken with a pinch of salt & a wink.

I'm quite stressed with the house-moving-business - in my head, since we're not actually going anywhere for another two months - and find myself sort of at a loss. Sort of lost. Not gone yet but not quite here nor there either. Something like that. And apparently that leaves me with the mental flexibility of seaweed. About pretty much everything. I can't really see the light and the happy. Not all the time, anyway. But I still have my sense of humour, such as it is, and I can still smile!

Sorry Annemarie, out of cookies - you got the last bag ;) But I did make sense of your word-mush, and this works too, right?

hole

Edit: That little spade is 'mine' because I'm well aware I'm the one who's throwing spanners in my own 'je ne sais quoi' here. That's how I cope - ha ;) I'm really good at rewriting world history & my own when I'm under pressure. And at seeing imaginary bears in the road and in surrounding suburban gardens. I excell at battering my sanity when I stress! But I know the colours are still there - if only I'd look up, and I feel well-armed with that knowledge. I'll be okay :)

announcement

inflamed brain not matching pretty soul