approaching joy

Art to Inspiration :: August Challenge

It's Art to Inspiration time again!! 

The Art:
This month we have beautiful watercolors from Lara Harwood.  Check it out below:

The title of this painting is "...now imagine all the strange birdsong thick as the forest".  
I love the sketchy and quick feel of this painting as well as the rest in the series.  Actually, I think I prefer the series as a whole because one gets the feeling of going on a watercolor journey with the artist.  Free and lovely vacation anyone?  Check out this work here: http://www.laraharwood.co.uk/works/sketch-books/watercolours-from-india-2009/18-Sketch-Book-imagine- {And make sure you click through the images to get an even broader sense of India via watercolors.}

The Inspiration:
When I think of India (and look at those gorgeous paintings) I think of the rich culture of the Indian people.  I've never been to India but I have seen gorgeous pictures of traditional Indian wedding ceremonies; I always manage to fall in love with the details of the intricate henna and hand embroidered silks and sequined laces.

And it was the thought of sequins and lace that inspired my latest creations: *DIY camera straps.  Though these are far from the detailed masterpieces used in a traditional Indian wedding ceremony, I love that they are much more personal (and cute) than slinging a CANON emblazoned teflon strap around ones neck.

Here's the lace:

And here's the sequins:

I hope you enjoyed this months Art to Inspiration as much as I did!! Join in on next month's Art to Inspiration Challenge by clicking here.

*The DIY part of this project will come tomorrow when I devote a whole post to how I made these.  See you then!!

art to inspiration :: july challenge

July's "Art to Inspiration" artist is the lovely Smita Jacob.  You can find more of her work here: http://hoggerandco.com/  Smita is the real deal: Talented, smart, and friendly.
Do yourself a favor and check her site out.  It's like Christmas for your eyes.  

Speaking of Christmas and other things that make me think of  cooler weather, check out the links below for the two winter songs I mentioned:
Winter Wall by Wise Child
White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Floxes 

To Join in on next month's Art to Inspiration Challenge:  Click here or the Art to Inspiration button on the right.  Hope to see your project in August!

arty crafty :: art to inspiration - may

It's Art to Inspiration time again!  
The concept is simple:  Every month a new art inspiration piece is chosen in collaboration of a participating blogger and Supal from Chevrons and Eclairs.  This month the inspiration piece was this piece from Jo Howe called "Echoes of  fragrant voices."

I like how Jo uses books as her medium.  As someone who grew up reading and painting and sewing in my grandparent's library the sight and smell of old books is a visceral memory for me.  In fact, as I was helping my grandmother move out of her house in the past few weeks, we came across volumes and volumes of old condensed Reader's Digest books.  Literally- boxes full.  

And I kept them.
Not because I needed the condensed version of Gulliver's Travels or because I have a place to put another 60 books, but because these are the books introduced me to the world beyond the hay pasture outside my window.

In the process of loading these books up for my first packing trip of my own move I realized that they are beautiful.  They are all covered in simple, delicate, linear patterns that had both the younger and present me thinking "There's no way this can't be a good book if it's this pretty on the outside." (Yes- That's me judging a book by it's cover.  Judge away.)

Which all leads back around to this Month's Art to Inspiration:

I thought, "What if I could use Jo's inspiration of books and these old covers to make something of my own?"

As the awesomeness of the Internet would have it, I had just come across a tweet from Katrina of Pugly Pixel fame who shared a set of {free!}arrow brushes for Photoshop from Creature Comforts.  As someone who just started "doing" Photoshop this past January, I had never accrued the time or patience to figure out the brushes section, but these were to cute to pass up.  After a quick search for "how to download/ use photoshop brushes" on Google and YouTube I felt like I could handle it.

But was only once I started searching around Ez's site over Creature Comforts that I realized that I also had to figure out how to make patterns in Photoshop.  Luckily, she had this post which lead me over to this post about making repeating patterns from Mels Brushes.
Sigh... isn't the learning that spontaneously happens because of the interweb amazingness?!?! (made up word)

So I used my new-found knowledge and made old school book inspired backgrounds for my computer.  I call them: ampersands and arrows because I limited myself to those two design elements to make the patterns.
They make me smile every time I open up the Mac.  And wouldn't you if you saw these cuties?!?!

{fussy}

{funky}

{fun}

Lucky for you- you can smile too when you make these your backgrounds too.
Simply click on the one(s) you'd like to download and you will get the full size image.  
*Please note:  These fit perfectly on my MacBook Air but everyone's screen is different and I'm not a pro.  Try it and see if it works.  Bonus:  These could potentially make great framed prints for the bookworm in your life.

Recap:  
Books are cool and pretty books are cooler.  
The internet is amazing and the creative people on it are even more amazing.
I like to share.
Please enjoy.
And if you want to participate in next month's Art to Inspiration fun click here.

p.s. Let me know: Which is your favorite: fussy, funky, or fun?

arty crafty :: art to inspiration april challenge

I am so super excited to bring this edition of "arty crafty" to everyone today!!

I found out about Art to Inspiration through Inward Facing Girl when she participated last month.  The concept is simple:  Every month a new art inspiration piece is chosen by (my new *bff) Supal from Chevrons and Eclairs.  This month the inspiration piece was this piece from Pakayla Rae Biehn:

It is called "2 years 264 days and this morning" and it's kind of amazing.  It reminds me of my mother's double exposed wedding photographs that were stuck in the back of the wedding album that she always called "mistakes".  Obviously, the artist was intentional with her "mistakes" (i.e. her double exposed oil paintings) and the results are so intriguing.  I feel like she is hiding part of the image from me and that drives my curiosity insane!!  Plus the reality, that they show:  Can you believe that she was able to do this with paint?!?!
You can find more of her work here : http://www.youshouldtakecare.com/index.php?/paintings/double-exposure-series/

I will be honest:
My first project that this project inspired me to try did not work out.  It was a canvas transfer from A Beautiful Mess (which worked out wonderfully) under a pattern painted with acrylics made transparent.  I had a project in mind where, just like the artist's painting, my images from spring break would peak out from behind the colors in the foreground. 
Unlike the artist's work- it totally flopped.

I was actually pretty distraught ("What am I going to do now? I can't not do Art to Inspiration.  I've been too excited about this since last month!") so I did what I normally do when I am super stressed out- I procrastinated.  My favorite form of procrastination happens to be pulling up Google Reader and checking out my favorite blogs.  
Sure enough, like manna from tech-nerd-wanna-be heaven, there was a tutorial from Pugly Pixel teaching me how to use the same images from vacation (the ones I originally wanted to use) to get a "double exposed" affect.  

So thanks to the wonders of the iPhone, Instagram, and the lovely Katrina Tan I was able to make my own version of double exposed images, and came up with these lovely "intentional mistakes" from my vacation.

{For more info on the vacation where these images comes from visit here or here.)

I am (still) absolutely entranced.  These images seem to capture the exact feeling of wanting to hang on to every beautiful moment but having nothing but blurred and fuzzy memories to look back on after vacation ends too soon.
I hope my take on Pakayla's oil paintings can inspire you to go make your own beautiful, intentional "mistakes."

***
p.s. Doesn't this Art to Inspiration thing look like fun?  It really {really!} is.  You should probably join in on the fun.  It is super easy just click here or the Art to Inspiration button on the right.  Hope to see your project in May!

*And, yes, we really are Twitter bff's.  She shortens and doubles her words (like I do!!!) so we are officially soul mates.  Ex: "I am so looking forward to happy hour this Fri Fri!"
;)