Lost and Art

This week revolved around the season finale of Lost and also art.

Our project this past Creative Saturday was doing Digital Art. Although I had a tutorial I wanted to try, I put it on hold until I finished my piece on the rein-free, free-spirited horse I had put on the back burner for some time.

It was a day of laughs and curses ... mostly curses. Laura's tutorial left out crucial explanations, and she found herself having to digitally re-sketch her image several times. Several hours later, she finally got on track with her image, and it finally took on the beautiful shape of a pin up girl, all with the use of digital shading and highlights, just like in oil painting.

I spent the whole creative day trying to get the backlighting through the trees to match that of the sky. As I did not have a tutorial to follow, it was a lot of trial and error, and I too found myself going back to square one ... Frustrated and tired, I didn't know if I'd have the patience to be inspired enough to complete the image once Laura left.

Fortunately, I was inspired to finish it within the weekend. I posted a version that had a surreal combination of warm/cool colors (above) and then replaced it with a version where the warm/cool colors were toned down and the horse was slightly darker (below). I revised the original version based on two comments, and when I compare the two, I still prefer and love the initial one. This simply underscores the fact that art is subjective.

My other art encounter was trying to follow a how-to-draw book. I started with shapes to form an underlying structure, and spent just as much time erasing as I did drawing. I anticipate it will take some time before my drawing starts to resemble the faerie queen.

I spent a great part of the week speculating over how the show, Lost would finally end and whether all questions would be answered.

As I watched one heart-felt scene after another, I was certain I would love the ending. Not so much the case at the time I watched it. The following morning, I was more in acceptance, thinking how else could it end given what they showed us. However, I was still puzzled by unanswered questions ...

I googled for answers and came upon the following writing (at this link:

"But in the end, art isn’t about answering questions — it’s about the journey, about the movement from one perspective to another. It’s about creating something intriguing, multi-layered, beautiful ... everyone ends up with the person they’re supposed to, remembering the best moments of their life."

and I let it rest with that :)

Romance

In keeping with this week's theme, I've also added a few links to some of my favorite romance-based movies :)

Two fantastical movies among my top faves are Lady Hawke and Somewhere In Time. Despite the obstacles of time and curses, love conquers all :) Unfortunately, the embedded youtube links to these two were disabled, so I couldn't include them here.

Can't explain why Before Sunrise is one of my faves. It just is :)



Here are more of my favorite love stories (although what's here is not all-inclusive):

Like the heroine in Shakespeare In Love, my heart goes melty for poets :)



Hand to heart as I sigh toward the ending scene in Pride and Prejudice:

Summoning time and energy

I was trying to come up with an appropriate picture to post toward the top to offer comic relief as a contrast to the blah blah seriousness of this posting. Pics from this shoot seem to do the trick, and I may even add it to my Flickr site :)

Random Thoughts:

Another day my bed went unmade as I scrambled out the door toward the place I spend most of my waking hours. My job is not my life, but it enables me the means for self-reliance, and that is empowering. So for that, I truly am grateful.

The work place is all hustle and bustle, and there's little room for pleasantries. Everyone works at maximum intensity, doing their best to keep the peace with the boss, clients, etc. Time for daydreaming or feeling sorry for oneself is a rare luxury. A part of me feels proud to be a part of something so viable, with a brilliant boss and business woman, and another part resents the time and energy I have to give after hours to catch up.

It seems no one is without their share of concerns, so I know I've got it good. However, aside from the concerns of meeting the demands at work, I fret over wanting to make everyone happy. No question, I have fallen short. I simply feel I am too little butter spread over too much bread.

Exhaustion coupled with being easily overwhelmed puts me in shut down mode 10.

I missed the mark to blog last week. I made it private, thinking it would enable me to write uninhibitedly ... to express my truths without worry of scrutiny. It's been private now for days, yet still no entry until now.

Goals:

What's the answer for prolific writing? I'm thinking just sitting my bum down and doing it on a schedule. Once upon a time ... ok, several once upon a times, I made a schedule to adhere to, but without it staring me in the face, it really does no good.

I have pop-up reminders at work, telling me what I need to get done that day; now, I need to have a system that works for home. I aspire to stay true to my calling, which is to be the best version of me there is. And that is someone surrounded by family and friends, yet is able to find balance to run with her creative side. Otherwise, I'm in a disenchanting quandary. I don't want to eliminate what's in my life, but I have to have structure in order to fulfill my needs.

Creatively, I need to write. Preferably in a blog (to document the comings and goings of my life and to express my truths), and in a novel (to push the limits of my imagination and literacy).

I need to draw or paint. From what little I've done with a paintbrush, I know I love how it feels in my hands. Working with a pencil or brush brings to life that which longs to be created. I have denied the rich experience of delving more into it, thinking every stroke needs to be perfect. But there's something so perfect about flubbing ... it's fearless, raw exploration and discoveries. I have to remember there is time to get it right, but first I have to practice, and flubbing is fun if I can look at it as dancing and laughing with a new dance partner.

And then there is the canvas of movement and music which adds to and enhances the tapestry of our spirit.

Considering I'm writing all of this and posting it after a full day's work on little sleep, proves I'm capable of making an entry, but at a cost. It took a considerable amount of time to both write and process some of the corresponding pics ...

As the day wanes, I go through my mental checklist of what I'd still love to check off ... I love my life, and I must find a way to make it work for me. A mystery I will meditate on...

Of noteworthy mention the past week:

I finally got my external hard drive, so I don't worry so much about space nor picture loss.

I went on an outing with other photographers to the Jazz Festival in Deerfield. It was great having an opportunity to stretch ourselves as photographers, beyond the wildlife scene.

Another CS with Laura yielded more results of our respective oil paintings, and Laura and I practiced Japanese watercolor.

For Mother's Day, I talked at length with my Mom and we spoke of our lives and lusts. Also, I received my first letter from Bri since I've lived here.

He wanted to ensure I received it before Mother's Day, which I did. It felt sooo good to hear from him and to know what he's been up to. The gist of what he said was that work keeps him so busy his sleep is affected. He does his best to get as much alone time as he can. On some of his down time, he works out, which I'm happy about, as the endorphins released from it naturally combat stress and the results boost confidence. I so look forward to seeing and holding him again, hopefully soon.

Easing back into blogging

After a long lapse in blogging, the easiest way I know how to approach the daunting task of catching up is via a couple of quotes, pictures (which are worth a thousand words) and minimal commentary.

“The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy.”

"You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes." ~Walter M. Schirra, Sr.

My weekly visits with Tammy is girl time I really look forward to.  She always brings me amusing things to read or look at.  We like to hang out at Stork's Restaurant, where they have gourmet-styled food and baked goods, including Barbie cakes!

We recently went to Orlando, where we visited Gatorland (laden with gators and wild birds), Audubon (bird-of-prey sanctuary) and Downtown Disney, where we perused several shops, enjoyed outside entertainment, indulged in a brownie sundae at Ghirardelli's cafe, and of course took lots of photos!

I also went to Naples for Laura's birthday, which was also the first day of Spring.  We went to Tin City, with our cameras naturally in hand.  We ate at a cafe, browsed through stores at an outside shopping strip and visited a store of miniatures.  We were goofing around with fun glasses at this one store; She tried to imitate a school teacher with the glasses below.  I saw it as a base for Photoshop art :)

What has occupied a great deal of my time and energy has been work. Here, I am working from home, which is not unusual at my new place of employment.  I was wearing sweats and a T-shirt, when I decided to change and put my hair into the the cliche bun (of which I never do) for this shot.

CS with Laura have not fallen by the wayside.  Prior to yesterday, our last CS was spent on digital art tutorials.  Laura seems to pick time-consuming ones, but once complete, it's always an amazing masterpiece!  Her piece this time was imposing four seasons onto one tree of which she's completed Fall and Summer; the quadrants have been quite the challenge.  Mine was completed the same afternoon; I turned a picture into a watercolor, which I did below:

Yesterday, our CS consisted of a photoshoot at Blowing Rocks.  Our objective was to stay dry while we obtained stock images of us in various costumes to incorporate into our stock images.  The sudden onset of high tide and the playful waves changed that.  We surrendered to the organic fun of it, although it left us cut, scraped, sprained and bruised.  

What I like about this picture of me, is I appear to be looking into my unwritten future with hope, determination and optimism =)