Since my residency in CA I had been pouring over videos of mixed media artists on youtube and realized that it is not that much different from the way I design in photoshop and in general. My mom does cardmaking so she already had a lot of the supplies. I’ve also been looking for something to keep my mind off a few things and just to have fun. I think mixed media is the way to go! I’m definitely planning on making more this weekend. 🙂
[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]From Sunday September 28th to Saturday October 4th, I’ll be at Pine and Birch Retreat here in Ottawa, CA for the Ayatana Research Group residency. I’ll post infrequently, if not at all throughout the week. I need sometime to unplug and reground and figured this week would be a perfect opportunity. I quite honestly don’t know what to expect, but I hope I come out of this program as a more enlightened artist![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_empty_space][vc_custom_heading text=”Other Pieces” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Roboto%3A100%2C100italic%2C300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C500%2C500italic%2C700%2C700italic%2C900%2C900italic” el_class=”widget-title”][vc_masonry_grid post_type=”ids” element_width=”6″ gap=”10″ item=”masonryGrid_OverlayWithRotation” grid_id=”vc_gid:1534894494196-34e8d5d5-dc08-7″ include=”3715, 15095, 15102, 15201″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Last night I printed out the designed materials for A Solo Show: Electrolyte! I’m trying to think of EVERYTHING lol. The gift bags aren’t included here as they haven’t been completely made yet and I don’t have good photos of them. I will take more photos on setup day.
Two of my artist friends inspired me to make more photo manips after I changed my cover photo to the first one I listed here. I forgot how fun this project was. Creating scenes using images of earth to create another world entirely. I need to do more!
Today I visited Joanna at the Healing Center in Beverly and we talked about a future partnership with my Kirlian Process and my studio space at Cabot Street Studios. We talked about potentially getting my research into workshop format and using the Healing Center space as well as Studio 19’s space for workshops and presentations.
We also talked about literally working with the life force energy as well, since Joanna is a Reiki Master and knows how to work with the energy we thought about trying to capture and visually express the differences of a charged object with Reiki energy and a regular object. I also talked about some of the things I had been struggling with and we decided that Reiki should be the next stage in my healing process as well.
So, since the summer and ever since I’ve been following beauty bloggers, I’ve been transfixed on the idea of having your own show on youtube. I just haven’t gotten the courage to post a damn video! I don’t know what’s holding myself back, but I just can’t get over certain things that appear on camera that I subconsciously do. I just gotta force myself to get over it and maybe someone doesn’t see it the same way I do. I’m also worried about my lisp and how it’ll come across on my show. I guess like in Fashion, they say if you have it, flaunt it! I’ve been filming some test videos to see how things will come together. I concluded that I need to get my studio setup first before I can film comfortably.
In preparation for my opening I made table cards, this evening! I’m not sure how I am going to label things yet, as I haven’t quite decided on the food and drink stuffs that I’ll be having. I’m going for a fall esque kind of tastes. So pumpkin, apple, etc. To go along with my bohemian themed room, I made fall-bohemian table cards… these should look nice on the silver table cloths that I bought. 🙂 I might just end up having a major category on them and the list what is available underneath. We’ll see!
Last week I went around to a few different stores and put together a Housewarming Gift Basket for my brother for his birthday present. He’s at the point in his life where he can buy anything he wants to – and does – so when it comes to birthdays or other holidays, its’ difficult to find him a present. So I combined his birthday celebration and his purchase of his condo into a housewarming gift basket. The thought process behind all of this is that if he doesn’t use it right away but thinks of it later, he will have it already. I bought him the following items:
Fabric Folding Cubes (x2)
Outdoor Extension Cable
Plastic Bag Caddy
Sutter Home Merlot Wine
WD40
Paint Roller
Picture Hanging parts
Screws
Pack of Playing Cards
Grow your own Chives
Gardening Tools
Plastic Planter Pot (for the basket)
You can buy anything to suit your needs as the giver. My dad got into it as well and bought some of the items on the list. If you’re in a pinch and can’t think of anything, try combining a life event with a birthday. That always seems to do the trick. And last but not least, it was very well received! My brother loved it! 🙂
This Saturday I went to the Harvard Leadership conference as a “participant”. One of my Kirlian Photographs was submitted and exhibited on the sides of the conference room. Got a lot of positive feedback for it which made me happy. The first workshop I went to was called, “High Awareness through Spiritual Consciousness”. The speaker was a little hard to understand, but he basically said that we should be focusing on how our emotions affect our actions and by focusing on our emotions we become more in tune with the present moment, and thus more in tune to the realization that we’re all connected. By realizing that we should then present ourselves as individuals that stand out from the group and not act as part of a “following” because we’re trying to do what everybody tells us what we should do. Anyway, that’s what I picked up. My speaker was Chat Troutwine who spoke how presenting in a leadership role is like telling a story. Storytelling is very important to leadership and presenting oneself because the brain is hardwired to learn information in a story format. My second workshop was Designing for the Client; Building for the Community. It focused on 3-D design and architecture instead of 2-D design but the concepts are the similar. I was put into the design group and apart of trying to convince clients why design is important for a building. I also got a potential client out of the second workshop as well! I spoke about how design is more about psychology than anything else. The final speaker was Roger Love and he spoke about how to speak in front of a large audience and how music was a big part of how we speak even if we aren’t singing or performing the same kinds of techniques that performers and singers use can be applied to presenting as well. Overall it was a good day, just long. Glad to be home.
On the way to the conference I saw a playing card on the ground and ignored it. When I got there I was advised to go back and put a sign saying I got a permit for parking, and when I walked back to the conference a second time I picked up the card. It was the Queen of Hearts (in Tarot the Queen of Cups). The Q/Hearts is her character card… if that isn’t a sign of what is to come I don’t know what is…
I wanted to do a cymatics setup for awhile now. I was gonna try to do one for my self-portrait in Intro to Photography and use a song I wrote so I could visualize the notes. But I didn’t have time and ended up doing something much simpler but turned out very well in the end. Coupled with this project I also wanted to work with the sonoluminescence experiment which turns sound into light. Maybe something interesting will out out of these. Both projects are about visualizing sound in its inefficiency.
