Sheba Kitty Productions

Today is the birthday of Frida Kahlo, this Mexican painter is one of my favorite female artists and continues to be popular beyond her death in 1954. Google has honored her in one of their Google arts on the search page. If you click on the picture at google it will take you to a web search about her with images, websites and news articles.

Today’s Word is “CHERISH”

To meet today’s word challenge I started by thinking about what things I cherish. (Treating something as an object of affection or as valuable.) 

One of the things that I continue to work on throughout my adult life is the idea of cherishing MYSELF. Why is it so many women find it easy to put everyone else ahead of ourselves when it comes to love and care? I am spending a good portion of this summer doing things for my self-care. Eating right, making art, going on long bike rides, learning new recipes to explore new foods.

Other things that come to mind quickly that I cherish is my dogs. They usually make it easy.

I also cherish my family, my home and garden and the fact that I have a great job that allows me to be artistic and creative.

Blue is the color that jumps to mind for this word… but I will see what else grabs me in the studio.

What do you Cherish?

The word I drew from my word jar yesterday was Cycle. I started by pulling a bunch of green fabric scraps. The idea of “cycle” just made me think of green for a bunch of reasons. For one, when I am out cycling these days there is SO much pretty green trees and plants. My allergies don’t care for it much but I love  looking at all the beautiful green. As much as it rains here, and I get tired of all the rain, it still makes our area so lush and beautiful. Another reason that green came to mind is the idea of cycles meaning growth and the seasons. Right now we are in the growing, green season. My garden is filled with green.

Then I cut all the green into circles. Circles make me think of my tire wheels… that are part of my bicycle. Also the idea of a cycle is that it comes back around from start to finish, so a circle is the perfect symbol for it.

After I laid out the circles I decided they should become pea pods. The peas are one of the main crops I can harvest right now so there are lots of them around. But I was also thinking about the protective shell around the peas. I am in a fun, but sometimes difficult cycle of my year right now. As a teacher I have the summer to reflect, relax and rejuvenate. But without any structure I tend to get lost and antisocial and even depressed. This year I am  working on creating a protective shell around myself and my goals to provide some structure.

Using beads, ribbon and trim I grouped the circles into some pea pods. I added some buttons too as little peas within some bigger ones. I also like how the white trim with the green sequins ended up looking like a bike chain.

I meant for this to be a quick one day per word type challenge. More of a doodle art starter type thing. But I really enjoy hand sewing/beading work, which takes a lot longer. I am thinking actually that this might meld into my Beaded journal Project piece, since I am behind on those and really this is pretty much the same idea as the BJP.

Sometimes it is hard for me to decide when a piece is done, when to stop adding to it.  But I feel good about this one. Although I still have to figure out how I want to ‘finish’ it for display purposes. That part seems to hold up a lot of my pieces, so they end up just sitting around in piles in these not ready to display states.

If you haven’t heard, Bravo channel came out with a new show about artists. It is like project runway (or any of those other reality competition shows) but for artists. I had to watch it because I know a couple of people that actually auditioned for it. (but they didn’t get on the show.)

 So far they have had to make a self-portrait, then had to partner up and do a a portrait of another player, then a book cover and most recently SHOCKING artwork. It is a fun and interesting show, of course because of the artist personalities. But it is also very interesting to see each artist go through their process. It is a grown-up version of what I picture as an ideal TAB studio. People to help each other and feed off each other. Everyone is doing their own media and meeting the theme in their own way.

The judges are very…um… ok not sure how to put it, but I don’t see a lot of value in their background. I would have liked some different types of judges. The host grew up in a rich art collector’s home and that is her credential. she is just a pretty face. A gallery owner of course is an appropriate judge. I think I would have liked to see maybe an art historian or a masters level art professor. I do like the guy that is their helper/advisor. He seems classy and so far helpful.

Has anyone else watched it? What do you think?

Anyone making their own art this summer? I am challenging myself this summer… join me or follow along if you like!

For the summer I decided that I NEED some inspiration to get myself into the studio and creating. I put out a call to my friends for some inspiring words. The idea will be to grab a word, randomly, and then go create a quick and small work of art based on that word.

Here are the words I am choosing from so far:

• Suggested by Lisa: Moonglow, Pensive, Stretch, Wander
• Suggested by Judah: Invoke
• Suggested by Jen W: Saunter
• Suggested by Geraldine: extravagance
• Suggested by Old Halloween: Passage, Nowhereness, Blooming,  Everlasting,  Euphoric, Remorse
• I also grabbed a bunch of words off this site.

If you have a word to add to my word jar, please drop me a comment with your ideas and I will add them. If I pick YOUR word I will send you some art based on that word.

Today’s Word is “CYCLE” (from the inspiring words site)

This is a great word for me right now! For those that don’t know I am working my way to a 100 mile bike ride by the end of this summer. So far my longest ride has been 60 miles. If you want to read more about my fitness and cycling adventures, that is on my Sweat 365 blog here.

But CYCLE also has a number of other meanings too. Every summer is the beginning of a new cycle for me. The time of renewal and reflection as I decompress from the past school year and prepare for the new year. It is also a time in the growth cycle of my garden where things are starting to fruit and flower, with early crops being harvested and more planting for fall. I am also in a renewed cycle of health and weight-loss as I refocus on my food and fitness. I have extra time to explore with new recipes and foods.

Now with all these thoughts in my mind I will head up to my studio and look at fabrics and papers, colors and trims to see what I can create for this first word. Pictures soon!

(An example of some of the art I do for my classroom, a FUN line doodle assignment. This one is with oil pastels and water color paint on water color paper.)

School is starting to wrap up and I will finally have some time to get into the studio to make some art. But I am still struggling with inspiration. SO I am asking for YOUR help!

Starting on June 28th I am going to do 30 days of one-word prompts. I will pull a word from a hat and then make a small fabric or paper art collage related to that word. The goal will be for the work to be finished within that day, but I will leave work open to additional time if needed. The main goal will be to get into the studio and work for a solid block of time each day during my summer vacation.

Send me some words! Looking for things like concepts, places, and emotions. This year my guiding word is “journey” so I would be happy for any of the words to fit within that theme, but that is not required. I haven’t decided what I will do with the work once I am done, or if I will keep to a standard size. BUT I will do a PRIZE drawing from all the comments on this post for ONE of the finished pieces at the end of July.

Post your words in the comments section below.

thanks!

My identity is currently in flux. I have been an artist for most of my life, for over a decade I have been an educator, in the last 7 years I have become a dog mommy. But it has been a long time since I have identified as being an athlete. I am currently on a journey, I have been majorly changing my health habits. As I change what and how I eat, increase my fitness and adjust for ever higher goals, I have suddenly discovered that I am becoming an athlete. This is great and I am pleased with this change. But it also feels like it is coming with an unanticipated cost. The cost of loosing touch of the artist part of me.

I haven’t made any art outside of my classroom for months. I still make little project examples for my students and that is fun, relaxing and still good. But not really “MY art.” I keep thinking that once school ends I will have more time to be both an athlete and an artist, but I will also be busy with being a gardener and a dog mommy. I can’t fathom ~not~ being an artist. So I will need to work to rediscover that part of me, find my muse, get back into the swing of things… or whatever.

Until then…. I ride!

The Beaded Journal Project has begun again. The third round of this amazing project begins with January 2010 and will end in December. The goal is to make a beaded work of art that is a visual journal representing that month. You can read more about the project at the website. This year there are hundreds of people participating. I am part of blog #3 along with 100 others.

So this is my January page in progress. Last year, I did alter style pages that were big (8″x 10″) and an odd size, which is making it difficult to finish them off in a professional looking manner. But it will be done, eventually! Meanwhile I move on. This year I thought about a doll shape either flat or 3-D. But I decided that would be pushing it again. Last year was really my first exposure to beading and it was a wonderful challenge. I decided on a small (4″x6″) size and a basic postcard shape. I learned quite a few things from Robin in her class, so these are not multiple layers with batting (like last year’s, which added to the complication of finishing.) Instead just a simple piece of paper backs the fabric.

I chose “Journey” for my guiding word for 2010, so these pages will hopefully be in tune with that word as well. But I have also been very interested in the tree as a symbol lately. I like the idea of growth, the protection of bark, the stability of roots, and even the element of annual life, death, hibernation and rebirth. This month’s page represents that symbol.

I still have quite a bit that I want to do on this page, but it is moving along smoothly.

I was recently reminded, by my friend Jen, about the guiding word method of setting new year resolutions. Last year in addition to a number of fitness and art goals, I also picked a word that would be the focus of my year.  Vibrancy was my word for 2009. I will admit that I forgot about this word towards the end of the year here, but I did have it in mind during a number of art projects throughout the year.

I had considered it the year before that, but didn’t end up picking a word in 2008. Some of the words I have considered in the past Growth, Health, Action, Adventure, Discipline, Artfulness or Creativity, Immersion, Journey, and Interact.

The words I considered for 2010 include Aspire, Forward, Journey, Resplendent, Transformation, Triumph.

I went with the word Journey becasue I feel like that is really where I am with my life right now. I have a lot of life, fitness and health goals set for this year. Dealing with food issues has been a life-long struggle and I acknowlege that it will continue to be a life-long journey to improve this part of my life. I feel like I have accepted this, there isn’t going to be one thing that I do that magically fixes my food issues. I will need to continue to live and work with it for the rest of my life. And it will be a journey that I am finally looking forward to.

There are a lot of artists that set the tone for their year in this one-word manner. DaleAnne is going to be in Action for 2010, Jen is looking for the Light, Cyn is going to Manifest this year into something wonderful.

All 12 pages from last year’s Beaded Journal Project are started, 9 of them are completely done with the beading. However, I am still struggling with how to display them or back them/finish them. At first I was planning to make them a big book together, then as little shrines with equally beaded doors that closed. I tried a number of different ways to make the pages sturdy enough to stand on their own, but flexible enough to open and close. I tried thick interfacing, felt and quilt batting of different thicknesses, these were great for opening and closing the doors, but didn’t work at all for standing. Then I tried some card stock, cardboard and finally mat board. These were either too thin or too thick.  I thought I had it all figured out after Robin’s class, but I can’t seem to make it work with the odd shape. Besides, where am I ever doing to display them where I have 12 podiums that are high enough to be able to examine the details.

My next plan is to try and turn them into a wall hanging, still keeping them in the groups of three that were part of the original plan. But because I have already turned the edges and backed some of them I am not sure how I will attach them. I am thinking perhaps reverse applique. I auditioned some groupings and some backing fabrics. It seems that a simple black will be the best choice, other colors will detract from the work.

This is June’s page, quite a difference from the beginning. June is the end of the school year so it is very hectic, closing up the classroom and getting ready for the summer. I created this fabric from a doodle I did in my paper art journal at my April art retreat. I scanned in the doodle, then mirrored it in photo shop, then printed it out on fabric. I used a lot of new techniques I learned from some beading books that I acquired, and then adapted to my own style.

Here are the remaining ones that need to be beaded.

This one is July. Spending time in my garden is the main thing that I enjoy during the summer months. This one is still very raw and has no bead work yet. But it is still part of the plan.

This one is August. I have been training for a triathlon all summer and August is the heaviest training month. Still need to get beading on this.

I am really pleased with how the beading parts are progressing (although slowly) and I am getting really excited for the next round.

Here are some things I learned from the first round, the reading and research on beading that I have done in the process and my class with Robin.

• 8″x10″ is WAY too big for a first beading project!!! Prior to this project I have mostly been making fabric collages from 22″x 18″ or larger. I have also made little ATC sized mini fabric collages. But these have all only had a little bit of bead embellishment. So I thought that this ‘small’ size was going to be fine. BUT for bead embellishment it was too big. ~so for my next BJP I will be creating in a smaller size~
• Alter-shaped is way too advanced and difficult of a shape. Again for my first project. The pointy shape is hard to turn and finish. yikes!  ~so for my next BJP I will try to pick an easier shape, however I am really leaning towards dolls~
• Quilting and including batting layers are not necessary. In the class with Robin we just used paper as a backing . This made it easier to turn the edges when the beading was done. The thick layers made this part very difficult in this first series.
• Printed fabrics with pictorial images will limit the beading. Because I was new to the whole thing I used some printed images to guide my beading, almost like a coloring book I beaded the images. This was fun and was a good way to start, but it is also very freeing to move to non-representational fabrics.
• An Ott light is a GREAT advantage.
• A bugle bead pathway is a great way to move forward when you are stuck.

So a few days from now is the NEW year and a new round of the Beaded Journal Project. Will I pick a smaller size, an easier shape, neutral farbics? I am really leaning towards dolls!