Cheater, cheater, Chrysanthemum Eater

I've spent the last few months buried up to my neck in... the New York Times Sunday Crossword! I'm obviously terrible, because I work on it for a while on Sunday and then gradually throughout the week. I'm almost about to break through, though - I've only got one little chunk left to solve from this past Sunday's puzzle. Hooray! Only one week later.


So, creative endeavors have taken a backseat lately. But a few weeks ago, I saw the front cover of the Paper Source catalog and decided that I HAD to have the chrysanthemum wreath featured on it.







So pretty, right?


Paper Source sells these kits that you can assemble yourself. The make it really easy to be creative. Actually, it's so easy, that it feels like cheating. All you have to do is punch the petals out of the pre-cut paper that they provide, curl the petals, and then stick everything together with the tape that they provide. Really, the only decisions you have to make are where to put the flowers and leaves when they are assembled.


That got me to thinking: so much of my creative activities are really just following directions that the real creative people give me? Most of us pull inspiration from elsewhere, but there comes a certain point where it crosses over from "drawing from" to "copying." Where is that line? I'm pretty sure this project is pretty deep into copying territory, but I loved the process (and the result) just the same.

Materials used in this project:

• Paper Source Chrysanthemum kit
• Bone folder

Summertime Is Bloggy Time - Candle Scandal

Greetings! I've spent lots of time over the winter on creating fun new creative projects, I just couldn't manage to get them up on the web. So here's a start to it.

For one of my projects this winter, I decided I needed to maximize the life out of a candle I received as a gift from one of my friends. You see, I've always loved candles, but I have this hesitation to use them because I want them to last forever. Call me a bit of a candle hoarder. When I was younger, I would take any wax that had dripped off of a candle and stick it back in the still-burning flame to make sure I got every single bit of mileage out of it. Walk around my place, and you'll see little collections of candles everywhere - most started, but sitting dormant for years at a time.

So you can imagine my surprise and excitement when I finally made it to the bottom of this deliciously citrusy hunk of wax. This square Jo Malone candle was huge - about 5"x5" but had finally burned down to the very bottom. It is one of the first candles I've finished on my own - quite a feat considering its size and the fact that I never finish even the smallest votives. Now its empty shell was just sitting on my fireplace mantle collecting dust since it only had one wick - the thing probably had more than a third of its wax left even after it was done! Maybe I should send a note to the good folks at Jo Malone to help them rectify that.

So, being the little saver that I am, I decided to melt down the wax from the remainder of the candle and turn it into several smaller candles. I had several small vases I had received from two friends' wedding that needed to be put to good use, so I decided they would make good votive containers. I used kitchen twine to create the wicks. Never mind that you're supposed to do all this prep work to make an effective wick; I wanted to get this project done TODAY, so I just used the wicks as-is. Sure, they might not be totally straight, but whatever.

Meanwhile, I stuck the big hunk of wax into a smaller pot and boiled a pot of water underneath it. Instant double boiler! I didn't have the patience / courage to chop the giant block of wax into chunks, so I just left it in a chunk waited for it to melt.

 

Almost half an hour later, everything had melted, it was time to put the wax in its new vessels. I didn't really think through how I was going to get the melted wax into the vases, so I just had to wing it. Suffice it to say that using something that has a spout to pour, or at least a narrower mouth would have been better. Wax everywhere on the counter and placemats I had laid out, down the side of pot, on my hands, all over the vases.

But finally, all the wax was in the vases. Time to let it cool! This is where the project ends, right? Well, that lack of wick preparation finally caught up to me. The string was waving around like no one's business, creating a snakelike line through the wax. I kept trying to readjust their paths, but it was too late.

Also, It turns out that wax contracts when it cools, so I ended up with a strange hollow shape for the candles. The wax clung to the sides of the vases and the wick, but left a nice bundt-cake style gap in between. Oops.

If I were to do this again, I would figure out how to do this in two halves instead of pouring all at once. I tried to take little bits of wax that I had to peel off of my placemats and stick them into the gaps, but it doesn't really fill much of the space. So now, every time I start a new candle, I have to take it outside for a little starter burn. Since the wick is effectively too long for the amount of wax, I have to let it burn then trim, burn then trim... At least I get to spend a little time outside bathed in warm (and great-smelling) candlelight, right?

Materials used in this project:

• Kitchen twine
• Glass vases
• Chopsticks
• Double boiler (also known as two pots)
• A steady hand so you don't pour wax all over yourself

Birdsong

A few weeks ago, I woke up to the song of a bird at my window. It was happily tweeting away for several minutes. It was a nice way to start the morning, except that it was even earlier than my 5:30 alarm. Nevertheless, I went to the window to see who my sunrise serenader was. As I stepped out onto the deck, I saw that the bird wasn't in the tree, but on the roof of my bedroom. I'm not sure who he was singing for, but he looked very impressive. Despite the fact that I couldn't immortalize his song, I feel like he deserves a little place on the web:

I was sad that after only three days, this little robin disappeared again. I hope he comes back to visit.

A Day in the Life

After a whirlwind April that included visits from friends far and wide (including some two-year-old twins), I'm finally back on track with a new post. Hello again!

I feel like all girls my age kept a diary when they were younger. It was definitely the hip thing to do in middle school and high school. I occasionally would write entries in my own journal, but for whatever reason, I didn't feel emotionally connected to what I was writing. I jotted down the things that happened in my day, but it was usually pretty mundane. "I practiced piano today" and "I did my math homework" were pretty common entries and were even then only sporadically written. Despite the fact that I was a huge nerd and really self-conscious about it, there apparently wasn't a lot of angst that I needed to capture on paper.

Now, I'll occasionally go back and read journal entries and reminisce about things that happened to my younger self (like the field trip to DC in 8th grade when a few of my roommates decided it would be a good idea to give two 20-year-old military enlistees our hotel room keys). For the most part, though, I rely on pictures to bring back memories of the past. Like they probably do for everyone, my pictures remind me of things I've forgotten about or great times that I can't forget. Recently, my husband has taken to scanning pictures into the computer from all our old negatives. My favorites so far? One picture from my first big trip to Alaska with my mom when I was 5 and one of Chris and I standing on top of the World Trade Center when he took me to visit Manhattan. It's not that they're great photos, but they bring back memories I didn't even realize I had and stir up emotions that aren't even related to those specific events.



However, one thing that I dislike about my picture collection is that there are pretty much only photos of "special occasions" like holidays or weddings or vacations. But most of life actually consists of things that happen between those events. And I also think that posed pictures really capture what is happening at any given time. I mean, when is the last time you just looked up into the distance and just smiled for an imaginary photographer. It doesn't really happen unless you have a camera aimed at you.

So I decided to spend one day and capture the things that I saw that struck me. Most of them were mundane things, but were just happenings from everyday life that I decided to capture: going for a run, the beauty of flowers in spring, a delicious cupcake break, or just sunlight streaming through the window on a beautiful day.

You could argue that this images are still kind of fake constructs simply because of the fact that I stopped to look and take a picture, but I draw the line at wearing a camera strapped to my neck all day long. I'm hopeful that I'll look at these pictures in a year or two, or maybe even 20 years and have them conjure up things I can't even imagine right now.

Drag and Drop Movie Magic

I've always loved nature television and watching animals. Big Cat Diary is an inspiration; Wild Kingdom has fascinated me. That's part of the reason we decided to go on our Galapagos trip this year. Tortoises! Sea lions! Boobies! (That last one is my favorite for many reasons.)

Since we just purchased a Mac late last year, I thought that I would make use of its iLife suite. That's why we got this thing in the first place, right? What good is a Mac unless you use the fun stuff? (It's certainly not because it has made working from home easier. I miss you, Excel!)

I have to say that it seemed like a daunting task to make a movie. I mean, this stuff is usually best left to the professionals. One of my friends is going to film school to study this, and I'm investing a few hours with footage from a Canon point and shoot to do this? Ridiculous. This iMovie stuff had better work miracles!

It turns out that iMovie is one of the easiest programs to use. It loads all your videos in from iPhoto, puts them into nice visual representations and lets you edit in little bite-sized chunks. Because all of the iLife software is totally integrated, there's even a little toolbar on the side where you can pull in your music and photos. It was amazing - literally drag and drop! It took a lot less time then I imagined to cobble together a brief video representation of the wildlife we saw.

But enough shilling for Apple. Check out the movie!



If you have a Mac, try iMovie. It was tons of fun to put together these clips.

Color On My Mind

Despite the fact that I said that artwork is not my forte, I've been spending an awful lot of time blogging about artwork. I've started to spend more and more time on it, so I guess it's worth saying a few more words about it.

That said, I thought that I would talk a little more about color. A lot of you know that I really like color. When I was in high school, I had a pair of purple leather high tops and red suede shoes. I also had a bright rainbow stripe knit dress covered with little clear paillettes. Yikes. I've toned my clothing color down over the years with some coaching from some good friends (you know who you are), but I still love a pop of color.

Here's the irony in my artwork situation. I am so shy about applying bold strokes to paper that all my color looks totally washed out. Over the past eight art classes, I have noticed that everyone has artistic habits. One woman has a tendency to draw very hard outlines around her objects to define them; another has a very heavy hand when it comes to shadows. Me? Every image I draw is light. Almost ghostly. No one could accuse me of overcommitting to a line.

I started out thinking that this was a flaw. But I've come to feel that it might just be my artistic signature. For example, take this picture of pillows I drew in class last week. You could criticize it for being way too gray, but in a way, it creates a mood and intention. The background fabric was red, but I hated the color combination, so I made it a gray/white, which give the whole image a bit of a washed out look. Maybe you feel differently about it, but I like how sad the pillows look because of how pale they are and how gray the background is.

Next, over the weekend, I set up a still life in my own living room! Do you remember when I said that this whole drawing this is really messy? Ugh! I'm going to have to find a better solution. Anyway, I made a commitment that I was going to try to saturate my colors a little more. I think I achieved that goal, at least more so than I have in the past, and I achieved a pretty realistic look. However, does the picture says much other than here's a pile of pillows? I'm not sure. I like the image capture, and I love that I framed it a little differently by just showing the corners. But does the color say anything?

Lastly, here is the image we worked on in our second-to-last class. This is the first class in which I felt like I was able to really make use of my lack-of-coloring skills. Since we were working with black paper, the point was to really use the color of the background to greater effect. I used very little color to fill in the shape and color of the spools of yarn/thread, but I think despite the minimal line use, you can still tell what it is.

It was remarkable how different my image was from everyone else's. Overall, because I used so little pastel, it looks like the room is really dark. Everyone else drew spools that were 80% filled in, while I only filled in 20% of the spools. So far, this is my favorite drawing.

Obviously, because I have written so much about these pieces, I seem to be becoming kind of invested in this whole "drawing" thing. My last art class was last night (self portraits - scary!), but I think I'll be continuing to experiment a little more on my own. You'll be able to tell, I guess, if you see more posts in the future.

Reframing the Scene

Hello, again! I've missed you, and I'm sure the five of you who read my blog have really missed me. :)

I've been a little lax with my posts lately because I was away on vacation last week in... the Galapagos! But this little jaunt was a great place to get some new fodder for the blog. I embarked on a project that has been bugging me for a while.

You see, I am not a good photographer. I get jealous of some of my friends' pictures that feature fantastic scenery or portraits that seem to capture spontaneous moments. My hallmark is a posed picture. Where everyone is standing dead center. Like this:

Exciting, no?

It's not like I don't have practice taking pictures. When I was younger,  my dad was already toting around some camera or another. He had a big fancy Nikon SLR, and there were always a few point-and-shoots hanging around his neck or wrist.

When I was in grade school, I was given my very own 110mm camera with a big red button that made a hearty "click!" when you took a picture and that you had to wind forward with every shot.
For my seventh grade trip to the UK, my dad let me use his 35MM Kodak S-Series with automatic winding and an awesome sliding lens cover feature. Sometime in high school, I upgraded to a nice automatic camera with a flip lens cover and flash built in. AND, it had a zoom! In 2002, Chris and I upgraded to digital, and we've had a nice series of Sony and Canon cameras ever since.

Finally, life came full circle when I bought Chris a Nikon digital SLR (the D90) particularly so he could use it on this trip to the Galapagos.

I wanted to challenge myself to put together more creative images in my photography. I love the way some photos allow to me to experience something I've never seen before or show a totally different view of something familiar. I don't get to use the awesome SLR when Chris and I on vacation together since it's ultimately his camera, so I'm doing the best I can with a little digital camera. Luckily, digital photography has made life easier with on-computer editing.

Here are the results of my endeavor. I took hundreds of pictures - most of them mediocre to bad - and these are the ones that rose to the top. I've edited every single one of them to hopefully capture a mood, feeling, or funny moment. They don't exactly capture the experience, but hopefully you get a flavor for what I was feeling when I took them.

Do these pictures make me look like I had a good time? Because other than the crazy vertigo that lasted for 5 days after I disembarked from the ship, I had a great time.

Finally, a few guest shots. The first is from Chris, who captured a fantastic sunset on our last day on the islands:

Finally, one shot from a fellow vacationer that simply captures the magic of the sea lions in the Galapagos:

Materials used for this project:

• Canon PowerShot SD800
• MacBook Pro and iPhoto
• The Galapagos