More clouds

More clouds for you today, taken with my Holga, like I talked about in this post. I seem to be obsessed with the sky—this morning, riding my bike to work, there were these two jet streams zooming upwards and crossing in the sky, and I was mesmerized.

Actually, I saw this interesting documentary about the great photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and they mentioned a gorgeous series he did on clouds. They are amazing.

I am putting all of my cloud photos, and other Holga photos of everyday things, in this pretty little album my cousins got me for my birthday last winter.

The album is very fancy—it has heavyweight organic-y paper and wax paper between the pages. I bought some black photo corners to go with the rustic look of the photos.

Little Reminders II

I finished the second two Little Reminders today (see my last post for the first two):

These were pretty fun to make, and very important ideas to me—in fact, I think I accomplished all four actions in making them.

I can’t stress “dream” enough. I think I would like to hang an entire wall of the word “dream” over and over again (now there’s an interesting home decor choice). What is the point of this life if we aren’t dreaming and striving to make our dreams happen? Even if your dream is as simple as “take a nap two afternoons a week,” that’s worth fighting for.

“Breathe” is about living in the moment—stopping to take a deep breath. I know I am always trying to remind myself to do this more often.

Then the other two, “make things” and “live creatively” are perhaps a little more personal, but I think making things is beneficial for everyone because it gives you an outlet, and living creatively can mean so many things.

What little reminders would you add to this list? I’m not talking about reminders like “lose weight” or “stop biting my fingernails.” I’m talking about reminders that talk about how you really want to live your life. Consider writing or drawing up little signs or post-its and hanging them in places you see multiple times a day.

As I said last post, prints of these little reminders will be for sale in my shop very soon, that is, if the scanning and printing gods are on my side. Also, I am always available for commissions, so if you have a little reminder, a quote, or even a word you would like drawn up in my style, drop me a comment.

Little Reminders I

I’m working on some very small works—little reminders about living and enjoying life. I got inspired by my new Etsy button (see my sidebar to the right) and decided to create four little 3.5 x 5 inch word drawings in that style, border and all.

I have made two so far (see them below), and I will hopefully have all four in my shop, later this week.

There are two very pleasing things about these to me:
1. They are small, and in case you haven’t noticed, I love small drawings
2. It makes me happy to put down important ideas in this deliberate and kind of quirky way

All on the farm

As I’ve said before, the University of California at Davis was set up as the UC Farm School. In celebration of the centennial this year, the UC Davis Craft Center is having a show called “Crafts from the Farm,” and I’m participating!

I teach beginning photography at the Craft Center, so I thought it was only appropriate that I use photography as my medium, specifically, my Holga (which you can read about here). The Holga just felt right for this project because I got an image of old-looking farm pictures. I decided to challenge myself to take the photos only on the UC Davis campus to show what remains of farming here, 100 years later. I gave the pictures an extra added old feeling by using warm tone fiber paper, which gives them a warmer tonal range.

This show is happening towards the end of September– I’ll let you all know the actual dates in the near future, in case some of you Davisites want to take a look. There will also be lots of other crafts, inspired by the farm.

I think I will end up with 7 or 8 photos. I am printing them small– about 4 x 5 inches, with the intention of framing them in a variety of thrift-store frames, to give them a homey feeling. Here are my two favorites, so far.

Business

Well, I’ve been doing some business-related things today. It is such a large word, “business,” but I am trying to think of my art as a business in some way, or at least, I would like it to be.

“Exhibit A” is my new Etsy Shop button at right. Since the Etsy Mini (Etsy’s marketing button that shows glimpses of your personal shop as a method of advertising) does not jive with WordPress, I drew up my own. This doesn’t display my wares like the Etsy Mini, but I think it’s a little more eye-catching than the generic Etsy button I had before.

“Exhibit B” is my new business card. Every once in a while, art will come up in conversation, and the person I’m talking to asks if I have a website. I always end up writing my blog address down on a scrap of paper or saying I’ll email them a link. This is very unprofessional, and kind of ridiculous– I’m an artist for crying out loud–I have to be able to think up some sort of business card. So, here’s my new business card below, that I drew up the good old-fashion way (with pen and marker). I know I could have made it with a computer graphics program, but this was more fun–and more appropriate to my work. I wanted something loose and fun, that displays in some way, what I do.

I’m going to get them printed in a low-quantity fashion at the local print shop, so that I don’t have to make a giant commitment to the design, but I at least have something to hand out. I’m starting a creative web design class next week, so I hope to have an actual website address to add to these cards by this Winter. I’m having a little trouble with the scanning, so hopefully the blacks will be even blacker in the final scan/print.

Cityscapes

I’ve been thinking more about squares, rectangles actually. I started seeing rectangles in my head, all lined up like a cityscape. Somewhat unrelatedly, I also started thinking of the e.e. cummings poem that starts:

my love is building a building
around you,a frail slippery
house,a strong fragile house

These drawing have nothing to do with love, but it is interesting to see what comes up in your mind— a million little flashes of connections. These two cityscapes are now available for purchase in my shop.

“Cityscape 1″ 5 x 7 inches, pen and ink/marker

“Cityscape 2″ 5 x 7 inches, pen and ink/marker

About the world

Hello there, this is just a short little note about a contest I entered over at Craftster to design a t-shirt for 350.org. I mentioned it a few posts back, but 350.org is a website dedicated to spreading the word about carbon emissions.

They were looking for new t-shirt illustrations around the number 350, which has been noted as the ideal carbon emissions level for us to get our planet back to health.

The entries have been posted and are ready to be voted on. You can see all of the entries here: 350 t-shirt contest. Check it out! The top entries will be determined by anyone who wishes to vote, and then I think the 350.org people will choose the final winner. Mine is a black and white drawing of the world with trees and solar panels and such under the name bluebicicletta. I believe it’s on the second page of entries.

My one disclaimer is that I wish I had taken the time to place my illustration on a t-shirt shape like some of the others, but hey, it was a fun drawing! Let me know what you think.

The sea

One, Two, Three

I’m playing with squares over here in Davis, CA on this hot Wednesday [Fall is my favorite season, and it just can't come fast enough]. While I would have to say that triangles are a favorite of mine, squares don’t fall far behind. When it comes to the equal-four-sided, symmetrical version that I call the classic square, I can fall in love with that little chunk of space that the four lines hold together.

I started thinking about building some compositions around a white square, kind of like a cell, a couple of days ago. Here is what I came up with when I put pen to paper. These three original pen and ink drawings are now available in my shop– check it out, out, out.

“One,” 5 x 7 inches, pen and ink

“Two,” 5 x 7 inches, pen and ink

“Three,” 5 x 7 inches, pen and ink

Roses

Here’s another one of my Saving the World drawing series. It is pretty self-explanatory, but how often have you actually stopped and smelled the roses, in the literal sense?

The roses are all on their last leg in my neighborhood, but out and about a couple months ago, the scent of roses would be so strong in places that I found it hard not to stop. I highly encourage it. The following drawing is available as a print in my shop, along with several other sensational signs and drawings.

“Stop and Smell the Roses,” 8×10, pen and ink, and now also, to make the blacks even blacker, Copic marker! Hooray for new tools!

Have you got any exciting new art tools/materials or life tools/materials? I’d love to hear about them.