work-in-progress, aren't we all?

this week off of blogging was a little bit of many things. above is my studio and some works in progress, behind my messy easel.

i missed you! i realized the extent at which i count on my little blog as a way to stay connected and that the life of an artist can be isolating, and that this community helps the loneliness gaps. Here is filled with inspiration and motivation for me. I appreciate you. alas, there is a time of inspiration gathering and then just a time to hunker down and get to work, sans distraction. that was what this week was for me. sticking to it, even when i'd rather be checking in on my little cyber world.

i feel like one of the roles of an artist and the pleasure of life is to appreciate the visual aesthetic and emotional landscape acutely. this we do with or with out a blog, but it is nice to capture it. this week i noticed and wanted to write about, photograph, draw, post, blather on about:

*my fresh folded laundry, laid on my bed in piles, making patterns of pretty nuanced colors.

*eating peashoots and flourescent orange butternut squash curry.

*a man on his 80th birthday and a surprise party celebrating the years lived and loved.

*discovering behind the deli a secret garden for eating lunch with a lemon tree.

*feeling alone, scattered, nibbling on too much....going to that place and climbing back out.

*cleaning out an old suitcase of ideas and drawings... purging, making room for new ideas.

*applying for a grant for a collaborative book and feeling like we could really do this!

*meeting with a professor at "Wired" for lunch and digging the creative energy (and the magazine's personal chef!).

*the wholphin dvd magazine.

*Philz turkish coffee made by the cup with mint and cream and sugar.

those are some snippits.

H and i had a little &hearts to &hearts about my path. illustration or painting? i'm kinda in between majors in art school, one foot in each department. i know i should just let the artwork reveal itself, but either direction requires a lot of energy and focus. approaching galleries vs. magazines. the answer is both. however, i think in my heart i am not an illustrator because i am a rebel. i don't like to do work for other people per se. i like to create from my own ideas. i really have struggled with this labeling. i know there are a lot of folks who do both and are accepted in both disciplines, and this i need to explore. in the end, we decided that my motto should be "go fucking ballistic". don't hold back. i feel when i'm trying to fit one hat or the other, i hold back a bit... time to go ballistic and let out that inner desire onto the page. does anyone relate here and want to join my fierce mantra? hee. my friend sab, full of knowledge, wrote "NOW is the time" in my notebook that is staring me in the face right now. so true. Now is the time... for going fucking ballistic:)

i will leave you with something to think about relating to work-in-progress and the bigger story, found in my little suitcase of tricks passed on by my friend Katherine who illustrates children's books. personally this quote reflects my path of starting school and discovering the more you know, the less you know...learning is illuminating. it also seems to speak on the bigger story of our growing to know ourselves. for some reason, read this way, gets me teary, especially in the context of witnessing an anonymous 80 year old man blowing out 80 birthday candles and imagining his story. Or maybe it's just how to write a good kid's book:

"In the best of stories the end may take on a greater meaning than was anticipated in the beginning. When this happens, the story grows into a new dimension, the individual becomes universal, the specific and mundane becomes magical and wondrous. Even stories of the utmost simplicity can take on a surprising significance from the way they complete their actions".
~Writing with Pictures by Uri Shulevitz