Loose the Plastic Bag...the Beautiful way!

These are my reusable shopping bags, that I bought In Portland, Oregon made by the BlueQ co. I love these bags so so so much, that I ordered more and now have a total of 5 awesome shoppers! Enough to go bonkers in the supermarket, carry clothes for an overnight slumber party and a bag to pack flat in a suitcase on my next trip!

So can we please stop taking plastic bags at the grocery store?? BYOB!!! And if you have already been so gracious to be doing so, can we now take this opportunity to self-define, be creative and make that Shopper BEEE--OOO-TEE--FFULL?

According to the NY times, it is estimated that the US uses over 100 billion plastic bags a year. That is sad. What are we doing with all those bags? Building houses? I would like to think that we as a country are beginning to take the steps necessary to stop using plastic bags (since the Europeans have been practicing the waste-not BYOB for years) and we're usually not that far behind. Yet, when I was in Portland this summer taking a 'glass class' at Bullseye, I was sideswipe with how eco-conscious Portland was, I mean NO STORE gave a bag without first asking! Yikes, I felt like we are slow to the mark back here in New Jersey. Grant it, around my parts the supermarkets have started selling those small reusable photo-sharp dollar bags, Yipee! And Whole foods has just made using reusable bags official. I have all the faith in the world that we here in the Garden State will indeed get there. When we do, there is another 'creative' side to the 'Plastic or Paper, Actually Neither-thing' and that is DESIGN.

First, we have to ask, "Now, What do I do with the 1000 plastic bags stuffed in my pantry?" You CRAFT them!! Here are some of the things I've been doing with my plastic bags:

What's that I heard? You don't sew, crochet or latch-hook? NO WORRIES!

DDIYers (Design and Do-It Yourselfers) are rising to the challenge and creating beautiful alternatives to the shopping bag for YOU! Like Etsy seller and designer Lima Bean who makes great re-usable canvas shoppers, and Monk Rock Creations makes eco-friendly shopping bags. Say you really want one of those awesome crochet out of plastic bags bag, go see My Recycled Bags by Cindy who creatively places recycling at the forefront of all her designing. Warning these are FABTASTIC crocheted bags and you may want to purchase more than one!

Whatever you do, self-define yourself and BYOB.

On the Absence of Color

My White Bedroom Wall

I thought a good follow-up to my chaotic desk would be this image. The absence of color is often soothing to me and brings a fresh start to my palette. Silence is such an important tool in processing and listening to information. I think in the art world the equivalent is the colorless plane. The stretched white canvas or the fresh sheet of sketchbook paper ready to be marked. I guess it doesn't hurt that I have a fourteen year old white dog within whom I can see the universe.

There is also a weird relationship between a colorless environment and why so many of us love hotel rooms - something about the neutral space. My studio however is an over stimulating eye-popping hot-pink, lime, eggplant purple space that can only generate madness (which I of course associate with my particular brand of creativity). My bedroom on the other hand, needs to function as a space to foster meditation and peacefulness - hence whites and beige. Some of my art students unknowingly get caught up in this same 'to color or not to color' question and ask, "do we HAVE to add color? Color is going to ruin it!!" Then there is the other group of students who say "Are we going to get to add color to these, because the value-only drawings aren't as fun." Interesting isn't it? Learning to quiet our minds from all the visual noise is a challenge.

Now a moment in defense of a color. Buy the book Color by Victoria Finlay and discover an amazing history and origin of every major color we engage with as creatives.

Who Says Disorganization is a Sign of Creative Genius?

Apparently, there is some truth to this notion, although I would much rather be organized!

It seems that this has been a subject of philosophical debate. There has been an 'on and off again' controversy with creatives about whether or not your lack of organization caters to or distracts from your creativity. I just know that when I am in the throws of a project (which just so happens to be obsession over this blog right now) I am in the biggest state of disorganization there is. However, and this is a big BUT, I can't start a new project (and I usually live on 3-4 projects at a time on average) until everything is put back in its place and clean. Wow, but this image is my desk as of this week - which is a direct result of this blog! So I have a plan, I will update this blog three days a week (instead of everyday) Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. So hopefully, the next time you see my desk it will appear much more 'tidy'.

So I have a question for y'all. Is 'messiness' the dress your muse finds herself in when your in the throws of creating or is your muse a polished dresser always ready for those impromptu run-ins with the paparazzi?

Update on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 01:40PM by Amarettogirl

O.k. so that was as long as I could go...Today is Sunday and I cannot wait until Monday to update my blog!!! So this is a follow-up/quasi-disclaimer announcing that I cannot box myself into any time frame of when it is and isn't o.k. to blog. In fact, having an excuse to write everyday even for 15 minutes is important to me and so I blog when I blog, mess or no mess.

Dia de San Valentin

This is a ceramic drape-mold wall piece that I made as a wedding gift for a friend.

Well -today is that lovely day of tugging on someone's shirt sleeve and reminding them that you celebrate your LLLL OOOOO VVVVVV EEEEE for them. And no worries if that person is not an intimate partner, but instead a person who has simply lit up your world with "I'm there for you always-buddy".

For example, yesterday I received a phone call from a florist trying to make a surprise delivery of flowers. Since my hubby insisted they were not from him, all I could ask myself was "Who could they be from???" I asked this question over and over until the delivery arrived. Honestly, I was kind of excited, yet nervous about having the prospect of a secret admirer lurking in my midst, especially one that wasn't my husband. Could someone else find me special???? What if it was someone creepy? Having an anonymous crush can be amusing, but only for a bit. So the flowers were delivered and I was spared all the mysterious-secret-spy-movie-stuff and was deeply relieved and moved when the card read "From MOM, Happy Valentines Day!" So please at least take out a moment to call Mom or Dad today. Or if yor mom is anything like my mom, you'll never hear the end of it:-)

I received some wonderful stories and words from people - so thank you to all - YOU know who you are. I encourage visitors to this blog to read these fantastic little stories that my guests have shared. Stories of burnt overflowing rice and parental love that lasted through the ages. Life is great and regardless of the commercialization we can't deny what makes it great is love.Would you like some wine with this cheese?

Love Story With No Words

Well, here we are one day away...

I have received some awesome feedback to my blog questions and I'm going to post those responses as tomorrows special VDAY BLOG! So its not too late to add your responses to those last two blogs.

Also here's an awesome tip- if you're running out of time and need to do some serious lovenote gifting go to this awesome PHOTOJOJO site designed with us creatives and photographers in mind. You are going to love these easy peasy ideas. Just click on this little arrow:

pRECIOUS mETAL loVE

Today's love note goes out to all my students for all the love I get from them on a daily basis...enough to keep me at my job!

This piece of jewelry is made out of precious metal clay (pmc) and what an awesome material this is! Invented by the Mitsubishi corp. PMC is fine silver that has been ground down into a powder and mixed with starch to make it pliable - like clay. When you are done sculpting it- you fire it and VOILA your left with 99% silver - not sterling silver but pure silver! Sweet huh?

I made a few of these word necklaces for holiday gifts a couple of years ago.

So here is today's request, you favorite 'love' word is...click on post a comment and let me know!!

Its not to late to leave me a funny VDAY story in the last post comment slot - I want to post them on VDAY!

Love is in the Air

This is the week with one of the most reviled and adored reasons for being romantic that there is- VD...oh no, I mean Valentine's day.

In honor of this week, and all the crazy things I have done in the name of love. I've decided to do a-blog-a-day in the name of that dirty little word 'love'. But don't worry thats just four days!!

So for today, Monday Feb. 11th, I have posted 'Falling For You' and embroidery piece that I made, on red satin. I made a series of 'drawings' on the sewing machine with the dog-feed down so I could move the fabric around at will. I ended up really liking the bobbin side (the wrong side of the fabric) as opposed to the top-stitch side. For this particular piece I placed the satin as the bottom fabric- hence, you're looking at the back of the piece.

Here's a funny vday story: I anonymously sent 14 rhyming and paper-engineered valentines beginning on Feb.1st to my now husband when we were barely dating and just co-workers. He had absolutely no idea at the time who these 'secret-admirer' valentines were from and he started visiting the school psychiatrist and principal in fear they were from a student (we work @ a school). I revealed who I was in the last valentine (on the 14th) via a scavenger hunt card, complete with landscape arrows that led him to a basket of gifts and a pop-up card revealing my pic! Boy was he relieved!

It may be difficult to see (the post button below here) but write me a comment and share one of your NON-DEPRESSING vday stories!!!

Working with Glass

This is an image of one of the glass pieces I made this summer.

I have been having a deep love affair with glass for some time now...I'd have to say 12 years - wow! I've had an on and off again relationship, sometimes amorously lost in its grip and other times unable to come to terms with the cost of such an attraction. Glass is not a cheap interest. In addition, you need equipment, facilities that are just not as accesible on the east coast as they are on the west coast.

I have been to Pilchuck Glass school twice on scholarship. Pilchuck is in Seattle, WA. I've taken glass classes at Haystack in Deer Isle, Maine, Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY, Peter's Valley Craft Center in Layton, NJ and Bullseye Glass, in Portland Oregon. I've blown, sand-casted, kiln-casted, lampworked, fused and slumped glass. For the longest, all I could afford to do when I got back home after a class, was strike up a small tank of Mapp gas and make beads. Beads that once upon a time, got annealed only by soaking in a tin of vermiculite. Then there was all my late nights with stained glass a medium that hot glass folks call cold glass connections. Mind you, the majority of the time, I'm a painter and an illustrator. So when I tumbled on the work of artist Catherine Newell, I thought what is this? Is it possible you can draw on glass? No, I don't mean with Pebeo glass paint- but with the glass itself?

I signed up for a class called Painting with Light taught by artist Tom Jacobs at Bullseye Glass. Lets just say, I am forever changed and I found a soul mate. No, not Tom (sorry Tom), but drawing on glass with frit (powdered, crushed and pulverized glass). I found what I could afford to do - and what I was meant to do with glass...finally.

Update on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 12:52PM by Amarettogirl

playing with layering I think that whenever you work with a specific medium (and since I am so varied in my interest) you have to ask yourself why? For example, why draw that on glass with glass?? Why not just do it on paper? What are the inherent qualities of that particular medium that makes working in it so necessary? In addition, I've heard it said that glass is 'inherently' aesthetically pleasing and therefore any thing a person does in it - will always look good, even if its not. Well, that's a lot to process. I think I'm after the fragility, the refractory aspects and the transparency of the glass. In this follow-up I've posted a possible layering effect.

Welcome to my blog!

Image by Inspiring Artist Vanessa Beecroft

Well, its finally here - my blog!

As an artist, and a maker, I am deeply invested in seeing how designing one's own life alongside of principles of balance and peace can be pursued actively. Hopefully, that comes through in the artwork that I produce and is displayed here on this site.

For my first blog, I wanted to highlight some inspirational work from other artists. First, please check out the work of painter Kehinde Wiley, a Harlem-based artist who has been a major inspiration in my Herstory Re-Envisioned project (images of which can be seen in my Herstory portfolio). In addition, I am particularly inlove with this Vanessa Beecroft image, South Sudan. It is powerful, riveting and technically inspirational to say the least.

I find that it's really difficult to come to peace with art making these days. Especially, in such a visually saturated society, like we have here in the US. I've come to a point and time in my life where I feel strongly about being an agent of change. Lately, I've struggled with abandoning the technical proficiency of my artistic training for deeper meaning and purpose. I'm also a 'big-time' crafter. I cannot stand the prevalent divide among craft and fine art. For anyone who holds my position, we are makers and to be makers today is to be informed by all aspects of image-making. We are in the middle of a DIY revolution from podcasting, YouTube to blogging. I think that force alone, will soon erase the divide. I think the most important thing is simply to be conscious and thoughtful of what you produce, how and why.