Blog Changes Arrived

What do you do when you are laid up with a bum hip? You change your blog template and watch stupid banal movies on Netflix after you've binged on Jessica Jones.

So I think that I am settled with this look. It is fresher, doesn't take a lot of energy away from the posts and leaves off the weight that the darker background had.

As for banal and stupid movies on Netflix.... I don't know why I am still watching this drivel.

Over Winter

As is the rest of this half of the world.

It's been a long cold lonely winter.... well not so lonely. But certainly long and cold.


West Bay is frozen over and it looks like a shanty town out there with all the ice-fisherman taking up root. And who knows when it will thaw enough to take those shanties off the water.

Lake Superior is frozen over so I expect to hear that some half wit has decided to grab some gear and head for Canada. Wouldn't that be a thing to tell the grandkids!

I forgot canned goods in the back of my car and they are frozen solid. That should be a fun conversation with myself when I try to open them.

And then there is the ever frigid drive to work. Which, will quadruple if we get the apartment that we are hoping for. And then the inevitable moving stuff in the snow. Because.... well.... this stuff isn't going to melt any time real soon and we are hoping to be in and settled before Easter.

Today, in the hope that Spring will come faster if we think on it really hard.... I have been noodling around on Picmonkey. Took three hours to erase the background of my watercolor and add in the whites that the camera made grey and then just a short little 15 minutes to add text and assorted goodness to the thing to have some thing to share. Not too shabby.

Thoughts Turning to Spring

I know that it is not as bad as the big Winter of '78. Nor is this Winter much different that a two month stretch in '07 that wrecked havoc on my budget with excessive plow bills. But this is a long and annoying Winter none the less. We have been spoiled these last 20 years with little snow fall and the ability to walk around like it is still Fall for most of the bleak white season. This year though, my patience is tried to its last bit of strength.

In a few months I will be moving again. For the most part everything will go back into storage, I'll be crashing with a friend for a while to save some money and with any luck I will not have surgery on those hamstrings. Yes.... it is getting to that point. I'm in a level 3 constant amount of pain in both legs and over the last two days I am losing the feeling in one foot... the one whose hammie has been torn twice. And the back is not cooperating. Every time I get stuck without the benefit of the boyfriend's assistance I do more damage. Oh if only I could stay home when he is not here!

With these trials and constantly numb fingers I find myself looking forward to Spring. Not because I want to move heavy stuff around. But because the color will come back like a slow spreading pinkish orange sunrise. I have the newest issue of Somerset Studio and this is the article that I want to pour over the most.



photo: www.stampinton.com, artist: Heather Jacob. See her awesome blog at www.heatherandlife.blogspot.com
Yes, borrowed without permission and edited like mad to avoid the impression of digi-theft.
Full credit where it is due... this is wonderful.
Seriously... check out her blog there is even more wonderful stuff there. Showing link love on the right too!  

 Oh no, not because I am a scrapbooking fool at the moment. But because I like the way her negative spaces gives you a chance to breathe and dig deeper into the work. It is filled with great bits but the work isn't cramped or crowded. It spreads out a bit.... like a cold tired somebody stretching into the sun after a dark and cold winter.

The stark white pages, like our stark white winter bursts with color. This is the article that grabbed a hold of my imagination on first and second look. It has that Boho Chic whimsy and the Shabby Chic simplicity that really speaks to me right now as I contemplate another move. It speaks to me as I am trying to stretch into Spring to break the grip of cold that runs through and across me every day. Even with my Sweetie by my side I feel the cold creeping.... he warms my heart. And he inspires me to be more than I have been in the last few years of conflict and fleeting peace.

We talked about Art. The making of it, the process and the absolute desert that is the home when I am fully involved in a project. We talked about the things that take him inside of himself in a similar way. So we already know there is conflict between Muse and Life, between Egos and Encouragement. And we are already preparing for the eventuality that we will chose to live together somewhere and make our dreams come true. He isn't an artist in my medias, but we shared an art class so he knows how the process becomes entangled. He is an artist in the kitchen. I am a mere foodie in his presence. But I know the rapture of a well executed meal. The pain of plating and the foibles of study that let him become better at his craft even after his 25 years of experience. And he knows that culinary art is the same to him as my media are to me. So we know. But can our egos handle it?

I think so. And somehow... Heather Jacobs' work seems to convey that feeling to me... the growing together and yet independently. The mutual success. The encouragement and the praise for each other. I think that the red so close to the mid February Hallmark holiday may also have something to do with how I feel toward this particular article.

My thoughts are turning to Spring at any rate. There is so much to do between now and then. And so much change coming. Good change. I am actually not afraid like I have been in the past. I think that means that things are settling in my fluttery, little anxiety-riddled heart.

I picked up artful blogging this week too. The cover is a few shades of Winter Blue darker than the persistent steely blue grey skies and lifeless evening shadows outside. Crisp and brighter, this has me thinking Spring again. Still. Also. And with those thoughts, I think of how to make the blog fresh again. To bring it into the Spring season and celebrate the warmth to come. While I think, I shall read. There is a lot of great information in this magazine.  As I absorb and assimilate the posts here will be rather small and scarce.... or maybe just scarce. So get your art fix with the links at the right and see what others are doing.

You'll love it. I promise!

Ahead of the Holiday

Written 2 weeks ago and forgot to post:


So while I was gone I had a productive week of a different kind than normal. One of the things that I did was start the process of putting up outdoor décor for the coming season. Why? Well for one, we already had a light dusting of snow and everyone pulled out their parkas. So since we got the hint that Ma Nature is ready for a little Winter action decorating is fair game.

And so is the picmonkey scrapbooking affair. Yes. I said affair. I do believe that I am in love with picmonkey. There is a great new theme that is being rolled out as we speak. I've been able to make something that makes my geeky little heart squee.... and I want to see if I can do this with a real snow man.

Check it out....

 



 

Can you see the snowman in the bottom pic? I don't know if you can open this and see a bigger picture. I hope you can. Because building the "Snowten" was almost as much fun as stringing the trees together and making the digital scrapbook pages. It is all definitely way more fun than the necessity of the left hand photo: I hate pulling the branches down and arranging them. These trees were bound tighter than .... never mind. It would have been mean to say.

 

Let's just leave it an observation that if I lived in China and had to assemble these things I would have lost all patience with the standards of which they wind lights around branches.

 

Any way.... can't wait to see how they look at night. Oh... and lest you think I am a spendthrift: two sets of mini trees were 7.00 each and the two four footers were a steal at 5.00 each on clearance many seasons ago. Crap.... now it is all getting rained on. :(

 



And we're back

Some how after getting the 'puter back life got away from me. No worries. It didn't take this long to debug. Just life.... So while I was gone, we began holiday prep, did some Holiday baking, had two holidays: Thanksgiving & Dr. Who 50th Anniversary, a birthday [Happy Birthday Matthias Reim], the inaugural game night, a freakishly poorly planned trip to vacate storage... in a blizzard, blistering cold weather, began a new blog, kitchen organizing to begin.

Notice I didn't say to finish. I am hoping to get that under my belt before game night number two in which we maybe play Killer Bunnies™ or Gloom™. In either case I am hoping that Monday is a baking day with a good friend and that the whole process is easier with things in their new homes and  that we can get some more mileage out of a poorly planned pantry.

Poorly planned seems to be a theme. We'll just pretend we don't notice okay?
Yes.... Dr. Who constitutes a holiday.

Game night involved making dinner for 6, playing Apples to Apples and Jell-O shots because we are adults... kinda. I think we are all secretly 12 years old because being an adult with the frustrating "stuck in the middle" blues is not the best way to be an adult. It was fun to kinda be 12 again. And even more fun to conspire to regularly visit our twelve year old selves. Hey, something has to make these stupid grown up messes easier to handle.

Yeah... three trips to empty the storage unit. When the plans were made the forecast was mild. The morning of the move we awoke to blizzard warnings and finished the last load just as the worst of the blowing and snowing began. Lots of cars in the ditch, people crashing public transportation, fish-tailing and assorted consequence of a poorly planned pre-Winter snowfall.

The result, this is the mess I have to figure out:






























Um... yes, because managing two blogs is so friggin easy, I've started another one. This one is at Wordpress. For reasons hashed out here. And because I know I can most easily organize the topics under the heading of Amateur Germanologist with the Wordpress format. Not to mention the connectivity Wordpress offers.

Lest all this activity make you think that there won't be any art, no worries. I found lots more tucked into just about every box I've opened so far.

Pause

Experiencing technical difficulties. So the 'puter is going into the shop to get a few things taken care of and hopefully we will be up and running in a couple of weeks. I put a similar notice up over at 6° blog. There are a lot of things to write about there. Hopefully there will be a lot of things to add to the art blog when I get back.

I found some carving blocks in the stash and have some ideas on how to use them. So that should also allow me to start work on the Reim canvas. Talk about nerve wracking. And this is why I hate to talk about a thing until it is done. The anticipation is killing me. And the pressure to be as good as I am hoping and advertising in advance is the kind of thing that makes life a bit hard as an introverted geek.

Funny..... the introversion hasn't settled down since I started these blogs. And that was one of the things that I had hoped would be a benefit of online publishing.

 So check out the other blogs on the side bar. And yes... I know the Hungarian blog is down. The owner is trying to get that worked out with Blogger. So I will leave it up in the hope that he can resume sharing some brilliant art that other wise the world might not see. Hmmm..... I wonder if his issue is the Hungarian government. He aggregates artists work and sometimes the Hungarian government takes its boundaries a bit too far in the name of self-preservation.

Anyway....
Make lots of art while I am gone. And feel free to share links to your art in my comments.

Creating in new Media

You all know I don't do digital. I have this thing about getting my hands dirty. It doesn't really seem like artwork if it isn't messy. Well today I discovered that you can make a right fine mess with the computer. While checking out blogs for things that I was missing out on (hilarity ensues without my constant attention) I found some interesting computer advice. And then I went bat shit crazy.

Four hours, three whiney comments on various forums and two snotty "stupid technology" rants on Facebook late I was rockin' a new header. And the more I looked at this fabulous new creation the more I thought to myself "Houston. We have a problem." That is after the problem of not knowing how to get it onto my blogger blog. Guess what. They make that easy for 5 year olds like me without the patience to dig through forums full of opinions from people who know of what they speak. The real problem came when I got done.... it was awful once it was on the site.

I started with this

and got this

I thought about it for a couple of hours, listened to Sting's new album (AWESOME!!!!!) and it hit me. When I resized it to fit across the space that blogger allows for a header I did it when I was done adding special effects. So when I resized it to stretch it out the typography stretched along with all the design elements. Oy! I ended up starting over.

Thankfully the site, picmonkey, is really easy to learn, easy to use and fairly simple to remember where everything is. So I uploaded the picture again and went to work. And then I crashed the site. Well I crashed my page. I did not save frequently so the pic monkey in the barrel had a conniption fit like someone said its brain would be chilled for dessert. So that makes take five. Annnnnnnnnnnnd cut!

If you use any software editor to make a banner for your website size your first layer (the picture you chose to edit) according to what fits with blogger. I ended up using 3900x1800 or something like that. Your first number (at least in picmonkey) is the length (duh! but it took me a while to remember that) and that is the key. Then you size the height so that your picture doesn't look too squishy. Then you can add all the frills & furbelows you like without worries.

The final result is soooooo much better than the crap that was up for a couple of hours. I could not have done it without http://www.blogguidebook.com and a very helpful gent at blogger forums who granted me my request and talked to me like I was five.

and this is the new header over on the geek blog.

 

 

So much better this way. And I decided to add a copyright to the banner this time around. Of course now that I have played with a digital version I am anxious to go back and finish the canvas. The only problem is that the canvas is much taller and the base photo is only the bottom 5th of the panel.

Reblogging: A Change in Policy

Originally, when I started this blog is was to be just for my own art. Spilt Paint was to be about my work and selling it, promoting it the best that I could. It occurs to me that I have been very shortsighted in a way. And by focusing on myself and my work, I've cut out a vital part of what being an artist is: the things that inspire us.

I posted that cartoon from Rhumer. And today I am going to link to a blog that I have been following. And the reason for that, aside from it being well written and an important message to other artists, is because of something that Amelia said:

Being an artist isn't something one does in 3 years anyway. It's a LIFESTYLE; a way of being; a mode of ongoing thinking and existing ad infinitum.

Art is a lifestyle. If van Gogh's life and death, taught us anything it should be that. Artists are essential to the human condition: feeding the soul, healing wounds, being there when there is not an earthly person to depend upon. Since artistic endeavors look so much like play and not much like work artists tend to take a lot of abuse from the people who could most benefit from our passions. And becoming a paid artist is a lot harder than one could ever imagine.


So I am linking to 101 Bird Tales article here. http://101birdtales.blogspot.com/2013/09/how-to-diy-art-school-education.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+101BirdTales+%28101+Bird+Tales%29 and telling you all to go for it. Unless you live in the frozen tundra (which is now melting under your feet) you are not too far away from a resource that will let you develop your natural talents. I am close to the tundra in that there is not much that is close to me that I can afford to attend on a regular basis. But I do have the power of the internet and the gift of serendipitous discovery: I can manage to fuel my imagination.

But I can not do it if I am only focused on myself. Look at every artist out there. They belong to some kind of a community. My friend Michelle is constantly in contact with other artists. They feed her and she feeds them. I do not know it musical artists do the same thing... I assume at some point they must, Sting and Dominic Miller being one example. But I do know that without constant immersion in art the well begins to run dry.

That is most likely the root of my current dry spell.... in addition to a profound discomfort in working conditions. There are things still brewing, fleshing out the Unverwundbar and Unendlich inspired pieces is taking a bit of time. Honestly, I don't usually plan pieces so carefully. I mostly work with a slight concept and work the kinks out as I go. This time is different. Still.... I need more art to fuel my own ideas because that is how the process works.

So I think it is time to spice up the Spilt Paint blog with a bit of the things that I find inspiring. I see being immersed in all things BBC has given my writer's imagination some fire for creative thinking over at 6°. So it is time to see what I can do with this one.

Coming Soon: ezsett typograohic project

Of course now that I have gotten set up to work in my little room there is an opportunity to move back into a house with enough space for a studio of the caliber I've had in the past. So, while I am packing and moving and unpacking and stocking the new studio, I leave you with a teaser for the mini project that I am working on.



Water color on 96#/160g weight Royal & Langnickel paper

Refocus

I do not know when I will have another chance to work on artwork of any kind. The Summer Tourist season is ramping up and my hours are intense... to put it mildly. In addition to the work schedule I am having some issues with housing again. So I am half packed and ready to go. Now I just need to have the money to move.

As I was packing, I found my jewelery supplies had become disorganized and jumbled in the container. It took a while to sort everything out. These were 3 separate tubes of beads that burst during the last move. I like how they spilled together to make this combination. It goes great with a few of the large focal pieces in my stash. What a visual feast!

I may have to take a few hours to bead something in the coming weeks while I am in limbo. But what?

I have also taken up a new blog on another platform. It feels like cheating... which is why I slipped it in here instead of making a full blown announcement. It isn't that I don't love blogging with blogger. And it is not that I haven't enjoyed sharing here. It's just that I am in a new place in my life. After months of wrestling with my relationship status and my living conditions, I have finally embraced where I am. And that has been something to blog about.

It is a frustrating thing to be reduced to living in a hotel room as a semi-permanent or permanent resident. There are tricks to making it bearable. And there are things that people need a little encouragement dealing with. So that is the focus of the blog. And unfortunately the focus of much of my writing.

Autonomy

I will have to seize the moment. OfficeMax has a notebook for 400.00. even if I have to buy the software in 2 months and buy a case it is going to be more affordable than trying to buy onefrom the local guys. Iwish it weren't so. I really like the local computer guys. They promise me good tutorial help. ButI just can't afford all 800.00 up front. I have to be able to be online more easily than I am. I could be hooked up by Friday. I wouldn't need my brother's help. I would have... as the titiel suggests, autonomy.

I faster I get copy writing the happier I'll be. Oh the hotel is great for what it is. But it will never get me where I want to be. And I love to write. It is the gate to a world I have seen in visions. Besides... I can't be scared of these stupid things forever. i an go anywhere to do what Ineed to do with a laptop in my... um... lap. Why does that not sound as I intended?

Photoless

Yes, I am still without photos of artwork to go here. But the good news is that I have a better shot at it now. I bought a digi cam for ten, regularly 20.00. It requires software and a USB hook up to get the photos onto a computer so that I can get them up an the blog. But... I am close.

The only function that I don't like is not being able to see the picture quality beofre getting to the computer. But what can I expect from a 20.00 camera?

Tech support comes in the form a a co-worker who has his fingers on the pulse of the digital age. Yea! Now i just have to quit being such a baby about it.