Oh, The Possibilities

Today, I want to talk about possibilities. Mostly, I’m writing this because I need to hear it, but also, I think there might be someone else out there who needs to hear it.

I want to hear these words hanging in the air, I want them dangling from every tree. I want everyone to fling the doors open wide, and let the possibilities in, I want to fill this place with:

This is just a friendly way of saying that too often, we focus on what is not possible, but truly, anything is possible. I am telling you, it’s true.

I will get specific and tell you that I need to hear this because sometimes I focus on the ticking of the clock in my art career instead of the possibility. It hasn’t been long since I went full-time with my art, but I went into it with a time limit: if I couldn’t start making a full income by the beginning of 2010 (allowing myself just a few short months to amp it up), I would have to re-evaluate and find some other way to make money, and return to pursuing art part-time (until some future unspecified date, when I did find a way to support myself at it).

I put this in here not as my sob story, but because I want to be honest with you—honest with anyone out there who is in a similar situation. You are not alone. Truth be told: I love making art (I love it, I love it), but I am not yet making said full-time income.

So now, more than ever, with the holiday season dangling very near in front of me, the season during which many artists make a large chunk of their income, I am singing out to you and to me this message: ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Don’t forget it. You wouldn’t want to.

[The above "Hope" drawing is one of my new, as of yet un-released drawings that I will be bringing to a local craft show this weekend. If it doesn't sell, it will be showing up here on the blog next week.]

Across the World

A while back, a very creative young lady named Tu Linh found my blog and emailed me to talk about art. It never ceases to amaze me how the Internet connects people with like interests from all over the world—Tu Linh is from Vietnam, and we were talking (with special thanks to her excellent English skills) across continents, about our love for art and being creative. This soon led to some mail correspondence, and imagine my smile when I received these wonderful paintings in the mail last month, completely by surprise!

Aren’t these paintings great! I love the different “fonts” she uses, and the combination of pen and watercolor! I especially love the black and white swirling pattern on the table and chairs. Tu Linh loves fish, as is evidenced by these paintings, but she also has started a blog named after this love, Ocean and Fishes. She is an amazingly creative person—in addition to painting, she also takes great pictures and even makes videos.

One of the main things Tu Linh and I have talked about is how to make time for art. Tu Linh struggles with the same thing that a lot of us struggle with—how do you find time for art in addition to everything else? I’m glad to see that she is making time! It seems to me that this is what makes an artist—a willingness to make time for art, against all odds.

Here are some more shots of her paintings:

Thanks Tu Linh for sharing a bit of your creative life with me, and now with everyone, via your blog! Keep it up!

Art as Play

What do you do in your free time when you’re an artist? Well, more art of course!

When I was still working at my day job, I often wondered, what will I do with my free time once I’m doing art during my work time? Obviously liking to make things is really a life-encompassing personality trait, not just a work interest, but I did wonder how it would all shake down. Could I get sick of art-making? Could I need to take a break?

So far, the answers are: no, I do not get sick of art-making, but yes, I do need to take a break from my art business. But that doesn’t mean I won’t want to make other things.

At the end of last week, I found myself itching to get my hands dirty. My pen and ink drawing is the opposite of messy, so sometimes I find myself wanting to mush wet media around. I decided that I wanted to make something with surface texture, something more three-dimensional. The first medium that came to my mind was grout—you know, that sort of smearable, cement-like medium used in between tiles, and often for mosaics.

So this past Saturday I took a trip to one of my favorite art supply stores, otherwise known as the hardware store, and found myself a bag of grout. I already had some old paintings that I was ready to paint over (I had finally faced the reality that I would never finish them), so a $7 bag of grout, a little water, and some old paintings to use as surfaces, and I was off and running in the lovely Fall sunshine of my backyard. Here is what came out of this adventure:

I ended up doing two pieces so far. I smeared the grout on with a paint stick and my hands and then started “texturizing” with a small piece of wire mesh I found in my collage box.

Here are some closeups of the two pieces:

Oh, what fun to create without any intention of getting anywhere—to just put your hands in and go. To lose yourself in the process. To act like a little kid and get dirty. I suppose I’m not getting too far away from my Blue Bicicletta tendencies because I don’t intend to add color—I love the white. I’m hoping to do a few more pieces like this and maybe hang them somewhere in the house, just for something a bit different.

This creative feeling continued for me later on Saturday night with another more easily accessible project (and one you might want to do if you’re looking for a fun and easy way to get creative). Last week, I read this post on a blog I love called Ink on My Fingers, and the subject of the post, an amazingly creative woman named Gwen Bell mentions making vision maps on her blog, which reminded me how much fun it is.

I’m not an expert, but as I understand it, a vision map or board is basically a collage—you go through magazines pulling any images that call out to you, then you make a collage out of them, and then you look at the collage and use it as a tool to see what you value in life and where you want to go. Even without the philosophical analysis part, this is a REALLY FUN thing to do. I love collage—it’s just so creative, accessible, and fulfilling. I highly encourage it—and all you need is some magazines, some piece of heavy paper or board, a pair of scissors, and some glue (I’m a fan of mod podge). Here’s the vision board/collage I made. Please note, all of these images were torn from magazines, so I can’t claim credit for them.

I call this collage “Zest” for obvious reasons. It is now hanging on my office/studio wall to delight and inspire me. If I did decide to analyze this as a vision board, I would say that it shows that I’m looking to lead a passionate, playful, creative life [bright oranges, reds, and yellows, the lightening strike, laughing woman, lots of art and illustration in the collage, the word "zest"] with an ample dose of calm and slowness [the bicycles, (surprise, surprise), natural elements, the bedroom].

I wanted to share these projects with you because taking time to be creative can be such a breath of fresh air. It gets your mind out of the old ruts and opens it up. When you’re making something that is actively engaging your creative brain, you are right there, in that moment, in that project, and it is a wonderful free feeling. I think this is really true for everyone who is willing, whether or not you think of yourself as creative or artistic. Once you let go of expectations, or the judgmental ideas like “I’m not creative,” and just go with it, being creative will take you to a new place.

Life as an Artist: update 3

Hello there! I’m just rounding my third full week as a full-time artist, and I thought I’d give you an update on how it’s going. If you’ve been following my blog, you will have noticed some new projects popping up, and when I was first thinking of a photo to take for this post, I thought of scattering my desk with various said projects, but instead, I settled on a calmer idea:

This is a “to-do” list for my upcoming weekend. I have learned quickly that I still look forward to and need weekends, even when I’m doing something I love for work. While I do not spend the hours of the week counting down until Friday anymore, the weekend is still a much needed mental break.

Other than the reality of having many new projects going, how is it really going over here at Blue Bicicletta? Well, if I had to choose a word to sum up my Life as an Artist right now (at least the more business-y part), it would be choices. I find myself constantly faced with choosing—which projects to work on, which projects to let go, and which projects to plan on doing in the future.

While I love that I have no shortage of ideas, it is my current challenge to learn how not to drive myself crazy about making each little choice of how to spend my work day, and bigger choices of how to structure my career.

I’m often reminding myself that it’s also a choice to relax, be calm, go with the flow, and trust yourself to get the job done. I am trying to make that choice as often as possible.

On the flip side, I am so excited about all of the new art ideas that keep coming into my head, and I’m so grateful to have the time to pursue a number of them. The creativity keeps coming, and it really fills me up.

Happy weekend to you, and I wish you days full of inspiration and calm!

Oh, and for those of you new to this blog, you can see previous artist life updates here

Something New: a monthly art club!

Have you ever wished that a little pocket of creative inspiration showed up at your door every month to excite and delight you? Look no further because I have just started a monthly art club! I call it the Little Bits of Art Monthly Club, and I just unveiled it over at my shop.

You might now be wondering, “what is the Little Bits of Art Monthly Club? Well, let me take you on a tour.

If you become a member of the Blue Bicicletta monthly art club, you will receive a neat little packet like the one above, each month of your subscription.

Here’s a look at the contents of the very first month, December 2009. The contents of the package will vary each month, but they will always include:
-2 greeting cards or postcards
-a set of monthly to-do lists
-a pair of monthly calendar bookmarks
-a unique piece of miniature art in the form of a mini book (as you see here), or a tiny original drawing
-and a little packet of creative odds and ends (like little bits of patterned fabric, handmade paper, buttons, old postage stamps, words, quotes, and anything else I discover).

All of this will be neatly packaged in a handmade envelope (and shipped in a bend-proof mailer), and all illustrations are, of course, completely original and created by me.

Here are some more peeks:

December’s unique piece of tiny art is a little book I made called A Bit on Buttons, with button drawings, little facts on buttons, and even button-related expressions. The odds and ends packet will remain a surprise for each recipient to discover when the get their packets.

For cards in the December package, I will include one each of my new Thankful card and my Winter Poem card. Of course, if you’re from the Southern Hemisphere, you’ll get a less Winter-y card in exchange for the second.

To help you add a little more creativity to your day, I will also include some fanciful to-do lists and a pair calendar bookmarks.

To become a part of my Little Bit of Art Monthly Club, click here. I’m currently offering memberships of 1 month and 3 months, and if you get a 3 month membership starting this December (2009), you’ll get a fourth month FREE, as a little gift for being a part of my introductory month!

This would be a GREAT and unique holiday gift! If you are buying it as a gift, I will have a certificate of membership available soon that I can email or send to you or the recipient in advance, just let me know that you would like this when you place your order, or contact me directly.

I will take off my business-y hat now and say, I’m really, really excited about this new item/experience/cool thing and have been excitedly planning it and putting it together (and hinting at it on this blog) for the last couple of weeks. It is the bringing together of many of my interests in art and design (obviously), but it also brings in my hope to help people sneak a little more creativity and inspiration into their everyday lives. Thanks so much for sharing this view into this new project of mine!

One more thing: Monthly packets will be sent out at the beginning of each month, so you must purchase your membership by the 22nd of the month to receive your packet at the beginning of the next month, or else your membership will start the month after. Here’s an example: If you purchase a membership between now and November 22, you will receive your first packet at the beginning of December, if you purchase a membership between November 23 and December 22, you will receive your first packet at the beginning of January.

Natural November

The first day of November here in northern California, was a beautiful sunny day, and we thought it called for a hike—so we headed up towards Lake Tahoe for some natural inspiration. My husband (who is an outdoor guru) chose the location: we started out at Wrights Lake in the desolation wilderness and hiked up to two nearby lakes called Grouse Lake and Hemlock Lake.

What a gorgeous day—the temperature was just fine—t-shirt and pants weather with open blue and sunny skies. Perfect for lying on a rock and letting the breeze and sun carry you into a nap (one of my favorite outdoor occupations). The thing I noticed most was the expansive amount of quiet. I live in a pretty small city (Davis, CA), so I can’t complain about big city noise, but I must have needed the quiet because I really felt the luxury of it. Here are a few pictures that unfortunately, don’t really capture the feeling of walking outside in the quiet sunny afternoon, but isn’t that always the way.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is fast approaching for all of us in the U.S.—woohoo, I do love this holiday of rejoicing and eating. A while back, I started thinking about that age-old Thanksgiving question “What are you thankful for?” and here is one of my answers, in a card:

I know that we all don’t say this enough, you can never say it enough. I am thankful for all of you reading this blog, and for my amazing friends and family who are always there, no matter what, and for all of the people I see who are making life happen, because they are inspiring me to make my life happen. I mean it! If I ever doubted that people are out there to support me, my recent wedding (see this post about it) proved it to me, big time. I mean people came out of all corners of the country and worked like crazy to make my wedding happen. It was amazing.

I have often been asked about where I get my ideas for art, and I have to say (and have probably said it here before) that most often I make things that say something I need to here. This is one of them. So get off your bum and thank someone. Give them a call, send them a letter, text them for gosh sakes. Or you could send them a card!

These cards are now available in my shop—great for Thanksgiving, the holidays, or any old day of the year!

October Love

The weather here is so fine—I wish I could put some in an envelope and send it to you, but this is the best I can do—greetings from by back yard.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day and appreciating the out of doors, rain or shine.

Free at Last, and the Public Library

I think the public library is my temple, my church. It feels like a holy place to me—so many voices whispering across the quiet rows of books.

Today was my last day at my office job, and while I could be talking about that milestone, instead, I feel like talking about the public library, how it fills me with a quiet rejoicing, an endless sense of possibility. Maybe it’s because the library is more concrete—it is what it should be—something that you can depend on, a safe place. On the other hand, endings are hard to talk about because they are never what you would expect them to be. Even when you want the thing to end (you’ve been praying for it to end), it’s still disorienting.

You may be asking yourself, “what do libraries and quitting your day job have to do with each other?” The answer is, exactly nothing, except the fact that today was the last day of my day job (the final tether was snapped, allowing me to become a full-time artist) and to celebrate, I went for a quiet afternoon in the public library: collecting books (I praise you Mary Oliver, I think I’ve fallen in love), reading magazines, and in general, breathing in that buzzing amount of knowledge and thought that hangs in the air above the stacks.

Before going to the library (my first act as a free woman), I had a nice lunch with my now former bosses and coworkers. They were just so nice, as they always have been, giving me a twinge of guilt for not liking the job better, or at least accepting it while I was there. This does not nullify the insanity of the job, or the insanity of me being in the job (as I was so, so, painfully wrong for it), but it’s almost sad in a way when you wish to run out of the building cheering, and jump on your bike like a bandit, and never look back, but instead your office takes you out to lunch and gives you gifts. I am thankful that they were so kind, but my conscience didn’t feel like I deserved it.

But now, I am free at last, and tomorrow marks my first official day as a full-time artist. Can I hear a hooray echoing out across the blogosphere? Technically, I’ll be leaving this weekend for my other big transition this Fall—getting married, so the rest of this week is going to be more of a tying up of loose ends than a beginning of a new career. But stay tuned as I am most definitely going to fill these next three days with as much joyful creativity as possible. I will be back tomorrow, with something creative, but will be announcing later this week a three week holiday for wedding and honeymoon.

Serendipity and 3 Letters

I believe in fate and letters, and last Friday these two things crossed paths. As you may have noticed, I love letters, and I keep seeing wall hanging collections of large letters and drooling. I have been trying to wait patiently until a day when I have some expendable income and can add to my small collection started with a gift from era.

Well, as fate would have it—I won’t have to wait—because ask and you shall receive. On Friday, I was getting the mail in the shopping plaza where I work, and I noticed a man pulling giant letters off the building where a business has moved.

I couldn’t believe my eyes—he was just throwing them on the ground as if they were trash!!! Truthfully, some of them were getting broken because they were glued to the building, but I marched right up to the worker and asked, breathlessly, if he thought he would be able to get any of the letters off the building without breaking them, and if so, could I have one or two (or one million) of them, pretty please with a cherry on top?

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure—and I love treasures, especially when they’re free.

Here is my take:

They’re a little weathered from living on the outside of a building and getting painted around the edges, but I LOVE them.

I haven’t quite decided where to hang them yet, but I’ve been experimenting in different places. Soon, my house with be further infused with the alphabet!