Un-Creativity

I have been amazingly UN-CREATIVE lately. I haven't been journaling let alone art journaling. I have pulled out scrapbook supplies but cannot seem to start a page. I have not been enjoying my Art Journaling magazines. I have not finished or started any knitting projects. I have just been so uninspired to do anything creative. Work has been draining. Domestic life has been hectic. Plus, I have not had the drive or the inspiration to work on any project. Strange, I have not even been reading my YA books like I usually do or watch any television (except for Chuck). I usually use books, magazines, and other media to kickstart my creative juices flowing. Media is many times my creative companion.

What do you do when you get stuck in a creative rut? Do you push on anyway? Do you create projects to do? Do you go through your pre-prepared list (ha!) and pick one and just start working. How do you continue to create when you just don't feel like it?

I am thinking that I need to journal a list of projects and micro-movements for those projects and DO SOMETHING each week even if it is something small - like organize my digital prints or even print my digital prints. Or maybe I can just throw some color washes on my journals. I think I definitely need to get back to daily morning pages and weekly artist's dates. These staples and routine and ritual might get me back on track. I will let you know next week how I fare. Good luck to you if you are in the same situation. Maybe we will both be back with a project to share.

In the meantime, here is a new photo from an app I have been playing with. It is a Tokidoki / Sephora app that allows you to "sticker" your photos on your iPad or iPod. The puppy is from a wallpaper app from my iPad. I love that he looks like he is stuck in your iPad and of course, all the pink.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:E 4 St,Cleveland,United States

Watercolor Calendar

I never thought too much about those page-a-day calendars. I do not have an office or a desk that I sit at every day so it is not really something that I would need. Now, for the past few years I have been purchasing the Scrapbooking calendar because the pages were acid-free scrapbook paper. The daily pages were supposed to inspire you to create daily pages. Not all of the papers were my type of papers but they were useful enough for the price. I usually bought the calendar at 75% off at the local bookstore after the start of the new year. I think I bought the scrapbooking cut-outs one year and the scrapbooking stickers another year too. I really am obsessed with scrapbooking supplies.

I have been working with this Watercolor page-a-day calendar for the last few months. I have not done a lot with it the last few weeks because I have been forgetting to bring it with me on my weekly travels for work. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed learning to replicate other artist's watercolor portraits with this calendar. Here is a pic of my watercoloring and my working on my blog while on one of my weekly trips.

I have learned a lot about color combing and watercoloring using this calendar. I love to watercolor in my art journal, but I am a pretty poor watercolor artist. I usually use a student/kids type of watercolor palette where I do not have to create my own colors. But with the calendar I have only 4 colors to work with and have to create all of the other colors by mixing what I have. It has helped make my art journal watercoloring much more fun by experimenting with mixing and producing different kinds of art than my usual ocean or flower landscapes that I always produce.



So, my point is that don't be afraid of simple tools to expand your art. Page-a-day calendars are only one such tool. There are those how-to-draw books, mini project sheets from your local arts & crafts store, and prompt-filled books. Pick a new tool and watch your art change and grow from it's use.

-- Thoughts From My iPad

Balancing Art and Work

So let me tell you a bit about my work life. I have been doing what I have been doing for 10 years. Just celebrated my 10th anniversary, actually, only a little over a month ago. I initially started out as a trainer, then explored other parts of the company. After two mergers and several name changes, I am right back being a trainer. Well, to be truthful, I do much more than train but it is one of my main responsibilities. I am a business analyst for a software development company. So basically, I am tasked to review a business' processes and develop a plan to implement those processes into our software program. Implementation requires software modification and set up, training, and other such tasks. It is quite an intriguing job.

The downside is the long hours and the travel. The travel beats me up. I enjoy the travel if it is occasional, but the weekly travel that I do is painful. It beats up the body, especially when you travel between the extremely different climates. It also prevents you from having a life. I have a weekend to have my real life. During the week, I have a life but it is not my chosen life. I live alone five days and four nights a week. (Stay with me. I'm on the up-swing).

But what is beneficial about being alone for this time, I have the time to play with my hobbies. I have the time to work on my art but only with limited art supplies. So I do most of my art while I am on the road. And sometimes it is better art because of the limited supplies. When you have to use what you have you have to be more creative.

So, I'm not saying that you should find a traveling job, but I believe that we need to make the best of our environments. Look around and see how you can blend your work life with your artistic tendencies. Can you create more colorful presentations? Can you use a flow chart or mind map instead of the usual list? What can you do today to be creative at work?


-- Thoughts From My iPad

Nighttown in Cleveland

After a long day at work, there is no better de-stress than a great meal and some live music. I went to Nighttown in Cleveland Heights which is a suburb in Cleveland. I am in Cleveland for work. Nighttown is a wonderful jazz club and restaurant with an intimate venue to showcase jazz musicians.

Soul Cycle was playing that evening. They were a great group - young, talented Musicians that played such an eclectic jazz sound. It was certainly not your usual jazz. They played mostly original music from their new cd Mosaic. I really enjoyed how they would improv throughout their songs. You tell that they were improvising and playing off-the-cuff because they would listen and look at each other when they played. Every person in the group was simply amazing. My favorite was the pianist and not because I play the piano. He composed many of the songs. He was the emcee. He was also extraordinary on the piano and keyboard. I also enjoyed the bass player. He was such cool and chill and superb. I am usually a sax person but I was not really impressed with the sax player. He seemed to squeak his instrument a lot. He also took breaths in odd places in the arrangement that made his sound sort of choppy. Overall, I really enjoyed their music and hope to purchase their albums from iTunes soon.


-- Thoughts From My iPad