Archive for Inspiration

Here’s this week’s Art Inspiration Hit List–a few links to wonderful artwork from around the interweb to get you thinking, dreaming, and creating.

This week’s theme is Paper Sculpture!

These artist’s are making precise, interesting, wacky, thought-provoking, exciting work.

I hope they inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory.

Have you ever considered working three-dimensionally with paper? Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments!


Li Hong Bo’s Flexible Paper Sculptures Are Mind Bending

Watch this short wacky video. Then you MUST MUST MUST click on the link to see the rest of his work. It’s funny, smart, weird and wonderful. I love it.

XMqeWam


Jen Stark‘s Totemic Cut Paper

One of the things I love about Jen Stark’s art is that it’s  both simple and complicated at the same time. Playful and provocative, each individual piece feels almost totemic and is completely interesting by itself and as part of the whole series.  Please click through her list of images–great, great stuff.

jen stark burst


 Peter Gentenaar’s Ethereal, Organic, Fluid, Sculptural Paper…Beings 

Gentenaar seems to make living breathing paper organisms. Graceful and organic, they seem to both float and have serious substance. Truly lovely. When you visit his site, it might be unclear how to see more work. Click on the image on the right and it will open a slideshow.

petergentenaar2

 

Here’s this week’s Art Inspiration Hit List–a few links to wonderful artwork from around the interweb to get you thinking, dreaming, and creating.

I’m not sure this week has a theme, except it’s all women artists and I love all of it. What do you think, is there a theme? Monumentality maybe?

I hope these artists inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory: Take a look and let me know in thecomments–do any of these artists resonate with you?

Toshiko Takaezu – The Earth In Bloom

OMG, I love this woman’s monumental ceramic pots–I’m working on my own (hopefully monumental) felt pots, so I’ve been obsessed with vessels of all kinds lately–by contemporary artists like Toshiko or 10,000 year old pots from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Whatever you do, click on the link to view more–huge, silent, eternal, totemic. Everything you want in a giant ceramic pot.

pots by window


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Deborah Zlotsky – The Beauty of Mistakes

I’m crazy about these paintings by Deborah Zlotsky and I love the way they talk about them on this site–The Flood.
Here’s a quote from the artist: “As I adjust one relationship, another slips out of balance. Overlaying, abrading, reconfiguring, and repeatedly repainting and revarnishing create slippage between the past, present and future, as accidents and change remain visible in each work.” Definitely click on the image below to view more!

Debora ZlotskyEl Anatsui

 


Mixed Media Art by Jill Ricci

Jill Ricci also doesn’t plan her work, but builds up layers and layers to evoke a sort of history of place somehow–kind of the way layers of torn wallpaper in an old house evoke stories in your mind of multiple lives and memories–scraps of evidence that create a beautiful new composition and story. Love these paintings!

Jill Ricci - "Proud" mixed media art

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Wood Block Art by Betty Parsons

Even though these pieces aren’t big, they have a monumental feeling to me. And Betty Parsons was a monumental personality herself–a strong, independent, free thinking woman in the early 20th century–a successful artist, curator, and gallery owner who was an early supporter of Abstract Expression.

Betty Parsons Wood Block Art

Here’s this week’s Art Inspiration Hit List–a few links to wonderful artwork from around the interweb to get you thinking, dreaming, and creating.

This week, I’m focusing on temporary, environmental art–one snow artist and 2 sand artists. One of the sand artists is a good friend of mine–Matt Long–he was one of the sculptors on the Travel Channel’s SandMasters show. He travels the world carving sand and he has a super cool kit + a fab how-to video if you’re jazzed by the idea of making some environmental art yourself this summer(although his sculptures do last for weeks which I find amazing!)

I hope these artists inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory:

Click on each link or image to view more of their work–Enjoy!

Simon Beck–Amazing Snow Artist

You must must must click on the image below to see more work. He was a runner who could no longer run, so he decided to take up walking–but in snowshoes, and making patterns. The scale is amazing, the patterns are beautiful–I’m blown away. Read more about him here and like his Facebook Page while you’re at it!

snow-drawings-simon-beck-14


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Geometric Sand Sculptor Calvin Seibert–Love these modern,minimal sculptures

As I read on the website Inhabitat.com, Calvin Siebert is influenced by architects and designers Gottfried Bohm and and Aldo Rossi, as he creates striking geometric shapes in the sand.
Visit the artist’s Flickr Page or check his work out here and here.

Calvin Seibert geometric sand sculptor


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Matt Long: Sand Sculptor & Sand Sculpting Teacher Extraodinaire

As I mentioned above, Matt is a friend who travels the world sculpting sand for resorts, corporate events, and sand sculpting contests. What a gig! But he also shares his wealth of knowledge through a how-to video and a fabulous kit–so maybe you too can catch the sand sculpting bug and travel the world!

He’s marketing the kit to families, but really, his kit is for arty grown ups too. It’s all about the tools–and what do we love about great tools? CONTROL!! That’s where all the fun is with projects like this.

Watch his video  about his kit because you can get a great sense of the possibilities just by watching that. (You have to scroll down the page a bit to see the video.)

I think I need to get one of these kits myself as I love the summer, love the beach, but am so bad at just sitting there trying to make my white white legs turn at least grey, let alone tan–I’d rather slather on the sun screen and create!

IMG_7624_2


Hope you enjoyed these this week–and as always, let me know what you’re working on, what your challenges are, and what your victories have been!

Big hugs, Sarah

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Feb
07

This Week’s Art Inspiration

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Hey There My Artistic Friend!

Here’s this week’s Art Inspiration Hit List–a few links to wonderful artwork from around the interweb to get you thinking, dreaming, and creating.

I hope these artists inspire you to carry your own ideas forward into your own unique new territory:

Click on each link or image to view more of their work–Enjoy!

Gorgeous Flower Mandalas by Kathy Klein


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Collage Artist Matt Gonzalez is also a civil rights attorney–not your typical arty guy!


Stunning close-up photographs of seeds by Svjetlana Tepavcevic:

Jodi Harvey-Brown creates wonderful, whimsical pop-up-esque sculptures out of books:

 

 

 

 

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Mar
30

Sarah Kay–Joyful Creativity

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Last weekend one of my sisters showed me this video of the Performance Poet Sarah Kay‘s Ted Talk.

I wanted you to see it because she’s so joyful and so committed to her art form and her process, that it’s very inspiring.

Click on the video below to watch–or, if you don’t see anything, click here to see it on YouTube–it’s worth it. Enjoy!

Typically, I don’t start writing my blog posts or newsletters until I’ve got a clear idea of what I want to say. I ruminate for a few days before I write, and then, when I finally hit on my “hook,” I get started–and not before then.

Perhaps that sounds simple or obvious, but it’s the way I write my newsletters–therefore, it’s my newsletter writing process.

I’ve only started to notice my newsletter writing process because lately, I haven’t been able to use it, and that’s made it challenging for me to write anything at all.

In fact, in the last month or so, I’ve actually missed a week or two, which is highly unusual for me. (Okay, I was sick too, but still.)

And because I can’t change the nature of my schedule (at least for now), I’d like to find a way to adapt my writing process to my situation.

And this got me thinking about you.

If you’re trying to make room for your creative dreams and are having a hard time of it, maybe it’s because it doesn’t feel like you can “do your thing” the way you normally do it, or the way you used to do it, or the way you’d prefer doing it.

Maybe you like to work undisturbed for hours, but you can’t carve out a big block of time in your current busy schedule. And if you can’t do it that way, you think, “Why even start?”

Or maybe you feel like you need lots of privacy to create, but your home and your family aren’t designed that way and you feel too exposed to dig in.

This is challenging. And the funny thing is, this kind of block/thought can live underneath your own radar–it can be holding you back without your consciously realizing it.

Which can make it hard to fix.

However, once you are aware of it, then things can shift.

(Less Than) Ideal Conditions

The thing is, it’s a two step process:

  • you have to realize what you’re thinking/believing AND
  • you have to be willing to let it go.

This second part can be hard. Because maybe you’re pissed about not being able to follow your natural process. You WANT 4 or 5 hours in one solid block dammit.

Or you WANT to be able to work on something for longer than 5 minutes without 10 people hunting you down because they’re hungry or because they can’t find something they need right this second as they look down at your work and carelessly say, “What’s that?”

You want that. Is that so wrong?

No, it’s not.

And yet, it’s also getting in the way because the stars are not aligning to make your that happen.

So if this is you–if you realize that you aren’t creating because conditions are not ideal, then you’re probably going to have to let that attachment go in order to start creating. To be the artist you are.

Sigh.

But you can take your time about it. Feel free to be huffy, grumpy and out of sorts for a while.

And while you’re huffy, just consider letting it go. And when the huff dies down a little, maybe express it in words–privately in your diary, or out loud over coffee with your best friend, or to the guilty parties directly–”can you guys PLEASE give me some time to myself?”

And as you let yourself both be upset and consider the possibility of other options, your resistance will start to shift. A solution may pop up out of nowhere–maybe it suddenly feels okay to ask your loving family not to look at what you’re working on because it makes you self-conscious, or you feel more willing to try using the 20 Minute Technique and set yourself a lower bar for what you might accomplish in one sitting.

Now that I’ve figured out what’s impeding my writing, I’m asking myself, “How can I adapt so I can get back on track?”

What other way can I write my newsletters when I seem to have no space in my brain for another new thought?

How can I transition between disparate tasks in ways that work for me?

Or could I adapt in another way, and change my writing schedule instead?

What do I want for myself and how can I make it happen?

And so I ask you too:

What do you want for yourself and how can you make that happen?

Big Hugs! -Sarah

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Mar
09

Fear of One Hit Wonder Syndrome

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You know that favorite piece of yours–that one you love like crazy and feel most proud of?

Are you secretly afraid you can’t beat it? Or that it was just a happy accident?

I mean, you know you made it, but it feels like the exception and not the rule, and maybe you’ve decide that it doesn’t count?

Or you feel like you’ve mysteriously managed to trick Fate and slip one by him as he dozed off on his 24 hour shift at the Dickensian Don’t Get Too Big for Your Britches accounting desk in the sky?

Maybe you’ve even made something you love so much that now it’s paralyzing you from making more work because you think none of it will ever measure up to that piece again.

And if it’s been a while since you’ve made anything and you feel rusty, these worries can bring on a full-blown bout of extreme self-censorship and anxiety about ever trying again.

Listen, you’re not alone. Almost every artist, crafter, writer or designer I know secretly harbors these thoughts or has done at some point in their creative life.

Thing thing is, it’s total garbage. You made it once and you can make it again–or do something better.

Your best work is there to remind you what you’re capable of and the incredible possibilities that lie before you. You’re not a One Hit Wonder, over the hill and past your prime.

No one is.

Even One Hit Wonders. Because their singular “hit” was about the market and has nothing to do with the music.

You have a lifetime of creativity and possibility in front of you. And in that lifetime, sometimes you’re going to make crap–it’s inevitable.

And those of you who push yourselves out of your comfort zone most often will make more crap than the others.

But you will also make more great stuff too.

The great stuff and the…. “wadders” as we say in the sewing world, are like a yin yang inevitability–each is necessary for the other, and together they make your path.

The “wadders” are not mistakes, and the time you took to make them was not wasted. They’re paving stones on your path to better work. The real trick is to enjoy and honor them.

And the more you create, the easier this is to do because…the more you create, the more you own your process.

The more you create, the more you realize you are not your stuff. You are, in fact, a many splendor-ed thing!

The more you create, the more you embrace the evolution of your own artistic journey and the less you care what others think about what you do.

The more you create, the more okay you are with your mistakes, side trips, and risk-taking.

The key is to commit to yourself and your particular creative path regardless of the “success” of the work you make. Why? Because you’re already in it for the long haul–whether you realize it or not.

You could get hit by a bus tomorrow, but you”ll probably live to a ripe old age and you’ll still be drawn to creativity and creating–whether you’re making anything or not–just like you are now.

How are you going to spend those years from now til then?

Are you going to get to the end of your life having protected yourself from bad feelings and occasionally looking silly, or will you include yourself in the creative experience simply because you want to, because you enjoy it, because it makes you feel like yourself, fully connected to being alive?

Will you give yourself challenges? Will you make things you have no idea how they will turn out? Will you immerse yourself and go to your particular edge?

Will you live your life like the artist you are–creating, looking, thinking, noticing, reveling, marveling, appreciating and making-making-making–unwilling to rob yourself of your particular creative experience, your particular creative path?

What will you choose?

Please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you.