Your Custom Text Here
Connect With Yoga will be a creative community art project to celebrate the practice of yoga, foster positive community involvement, and inspire individuals to recognize their personal strength and beauty.
The website is built, I’m getting my schedule together to take photos for Yoga Week next week, and put together this introduction video. Check it out!
I have been fortunate enough to have a lot on my plate the last few months. At least that's how I'm trying to look at my busy schedule. In early January the Connect With Smith Rock event in Boise was a great success, and later that month my boyfriend and I successfully delivered the painting to Redpoint in Terrebonne.
I figured out what size I was going to make my limited edition prints, remembered how matting works after a few attempts, and finally got my first giclee print framed and mailed! Totally felt accomplished after that was out of my hands.
It seems like my list of things I would like to get done is never ending, and I struggle with that. My character is not one that likes to leave projects undone or in progress for very long. I stress about deadlines, and worry about how my timeline is effecting others. I need to just relax because I know the stress doesn't help, and maybe by putting it into words I will be a little better about it in the future... Fingers crossed.
For tonight, I'm going to allow myself an extra glass of wine and watch climbing videos.
So I'm on track to get my project finished before Christmas, but the next task on my list is figuring out where and how to show it?! My thought so far is to have a party/showcase with a keg, food, and prizes. Everyone likes free stuff and beer right?
And the locations...
January 7th; Boise-Urban Ascent
February 5th; Bend- TBD
As you can see, I haven't quite figured out the best Bend location is yet... One limiting factor is the sheer size of the piece. It's 4ft x 8ft so there has to be a wall big enough to display it, and a room big enough for a small crowd...
I'm finding it a bit hard to juggle all my hats at the moment, but I'm optimistic it will come together. So if anyone has some great quotes about patience, or a suggestion for a Bend location please email me or leave a comment bellow.
Thanks all!
So far I have learned a lot about myself and my process during this project. Creating is scary! It makes me feel vulnerable and exposed and has led to some semi-humorous little freak outs. As I complete or start each new phase of this project I'm overwhelmed with the terror of screwing it up, doing it wrong, and failing... For the most part these fears are completely irrational, and I'm aware of that but they are still part of my process apparently.
The little freak outs aren't entirely obvious in the time lapse videos, but the visual part of the process is fun to see...
Here are a few of the videos, and the rest are published on my Youtube channel!
Mid September I installed a new floor in my studio and built a badass table that will fit my needs as an artist working with large boards. It's so exciting to have a space! A space where the sole purpose is to create and play!
Last weekend there was an Open Studio Tour around town where other artists opened up their homes and shared their creative spaces. It was so fun to be able to wander through these very personal spaces and see how different artists work. There was the practical side of me that was excited to see how different artists organized their space, and stored their work and materials. And then there was the kid in me that was excited to see all the collections, knick-knacks and colorful mess that was prevalent in most studios. Each artist's character and process was reflected in their studio and I left each one with a different slice of inspiration.
It will be fun in the coming months to continue to mold my space, adapt it to fit projects, personalize it, and just work in it more! I'm especially excited to have a wall designated for inspiration, reminders of things I want to do, goals, deadlines. I think in a very visual-exploding-map sort of way so I'm looking forward to having a space to collect all of those thoughts. And who knows maybe in a year or two I'll be able to open studio too.
This dream of creating a work of art by the community for the community has been building since late January of this year. I received a grant for the project in April, started promoting the project in early May, and have been vigorously doing out reach and spreading the word of the work I'm doing for 5 months.
All the time and energy has paid off. To say that I am excited is an understatement. I have in my possession 850 community submitted Smith Rock photos spanning several decades, and next is the huge task of putting them all together on three boards totaling 32 square feet. Did I mention I'm excited!? Because I'm really excited!
Over the next month I'll be spending a lot of time in my studio, printing the photos, arranging them on my boards, and chances are drinking a fair bit of wine.
Thank you to everyone who has submitted photos I cannot wait to share this process with you!
It's hard to say what my favorite part about my work is. There are so many elements to my process, image collection, cutting, arranging, organizing, collaging, sculpting, painting and of course delivering the final piece. With my Wedding series work I think the amount of time I spend with all of the smiling photos is a narrow second to delivering the final piece to the newlyweds.
I spend at least 30 hours with a 2x3 poster size piece and the majority of that time is spent smiling. It's a rough job really. I have to stare at, work with and arrange a couples most precious, joyful, happy moments they have captured on film and it makes me constantly smiley! As it turns out there is a little science behind the act of smiling. Did you know it's practically impossible to not smile back at a smiling face without conscious effort?
Over the last month and a half I have been smiling at and with my friends Jess, Taylor and their radiant family. In my initial sketching stages, it was imperative for me to find an image that both symbolized and spoke to the fullness of this couple and their journey together. They are both passionate, strong, magnetic beings that draw people in like bug lights with a happy zap. They place an emphasis on growth and self-reflection and have the joint responsibility of nourishing four energetic children.
Knowing what I do about their characters and intentions it was easy to see them and their journey reflected in the symbol of a tree, but I wanted to further emphasize the act of coming together to create something new. In this piece Maitri (which is a Sanskrit word meaning unconditional love and friendship with oneself and is also now their last name) I decided to have a bright seedling tree in the foreground to show the beginning of their relationship and a larger full tree in the background to show the inevitable growth and longevity of their relationship.
Thank you again Jess and Taylor for allowing me to be part of your journey and share in your smiles!
“It’s really just a small hurdle.” I have heard this metaphor at least a hundred times, but for some reason reading that text message from my brother really made things click. He was right, it was a small hurdle in the grand scheme of things and I was going to get over it.
I had turned in one of my first large mixed media and acrylic paintings to a local contest and it was turned down with the critique of being “too crafty and unoriginal.” Naturally any kind of failure hurts, especially when you fail right out of the starting blocks, but it’s not the end. It just sucks. So after wincing and holding back tears from my tumble, I am back on my feet.
Tripping hurts, failure hurts, face plants and decking really hurt as my friend Jenny encountered last week, but there’s always a rebound, a high to match the low, a path to take, a hand up, and another hurdle to cross. So while I am naturally disappointed about this first defeat, the race is far from over, and I am recharged and ready to clear the next hurdle.