pondering

- is it time to re-visit spiritual direction?
- can I do a 48-hour silent retreat without coming out of my skin, and have something of value come from it? is it worth it (right now)?
- what if I really followed my heart, and didn't work in a white-collar sweat shop?
- what could that look like?
- if I really followed my heart, what the hell would that even mean?
- why am I not picking up my camera?
- what do I need to be writing?
- why does writing anything feeling so daunting these days?
- courage, o where art thou?
- how can I balance more writing and creative projects with my current job?
- continuing to watch idols of certainty and compentency crumble...

illustration friday - IDLE

From their website: Illustration Friday is a weekly creative outlet/participatory art exhibit for illustrators and artists of all skill levels. It was designed to challenge participants creatively. We believe that every person has a little creative bone in their body. Illustration Friday just gives a no-pressure, fun excuse to use it. No clients looking for a particular thing. No one judging the outcome of the work. It's a chance to experiment and explore and play with visual art. 

This is my entry for the week. 

looking ahead

with 2008 in the books, here’s what I’m shooting for in 2009, creatively:

reading. goal of 50 books. averages out to approximately one per week. ambitious? yes. achievable? i think so.

writing. I’m not going to set a goal of a specific number of days this year. i have some ideas about what I want to write about and will focus on that.

photography. increase my photoshop skills. take another class or two at working with artists. take pictures consistently. and do something with them. get a macro lens, duaflex camera, and build a contraption so I can take thru the viewfinder shots. work on the plastic jesus series.

learn the mac. 2008 saw me move from being a pc girl to being a mac girl. great move. still have a lot to learn about the mac and all i can do with it. i’m signing up for apple’s one-to-one program so i can get the most from it. how can you go wrong with the option for an hour’s worth of one-on-one instruction for $99 for a whole year?

more knitting, collaging, random hand-crafting and d-i-y projects.

looking behind

2008 was a challenging year in a lot of ways. lost my dad in march. spent the first part of the year growing into my new (at the time) job. people insisted on playing emmylou harris’ orphan girl at every live music venue I frequented. moved on from a church I had tried to make fit for me for quite a while to one where i am finding real community. had my faith stripped of a lot of certainty along the way. still being forced to reckon with uncertainty. had to get reading glasses.

looking back at my first blog entry of 2008, here’s what I hoped to accomplish:

Read 40 books. the year-end tally was 41.

Write 5 days a week, or 20 days a month. it is almost laughable how short i fell of this goal. i did far more talk about writing than i did writing.

learn photoshop. off to a good start on this one, but there is so much to learn. doesn’t feel daunting any more, though.

take a jillion pictures and learn how to organize them. fell just short of a jillion pictures. figuring out the best way for me to organize them is an ongoing project.

develop the plastic jesus series. the plastic jesus series did not grow very much in 2008. definitely an on-going work.

take some creative risks. took a photography class at working with artists. went to the glen workshop in santa fe. collaborated on some creative worship experiences at a couple of different places.

drop a few pounds. dropped a few. more to go.

get my money’s worth out of my gym membership. used it more than in 2007.

simplify. ongoing. life does feel less chaotic.

be a little more free. let go of some stuff that was not life-giving. so, yeah, a little more free.

love/hate

5 things I love today:
- my friend Nadia's new book
- wooden knitting needles
- my boots
- a fantastic blazing orange sunset
- espresso at home

5 things I could do without:
- seeing people walking their dogs toting around clear plastic bags of dog sh*t
- milk that goes bad too soon
- beets
- too-small parking spaces
- legalism

Urban Skye Art & Design Shared Studio

What: Urban Skye Art & Design Shared Studio
When: Monday, October 27, 7 - 9 pm.
Where: 2830 S. Harrison St., Denver.
Details: Bring a project you are working on, or something that inspires you, or something that sounds like fun to do around other people. Show & tell, asking for help, bringing friends are all highly encouraged. More info to come on the Urban Skye website.

new office decor?

Oh, how I want these for my office.

random weekend tidbits

Low-key weekend here. Farmer's Market yesterday. Bought and cooked fresh vegetables. Last night went to see Agents of Future at a house concert in Lafayette.

Today, got stung by a wasp. Took a two-hour nap as result of the Benadryl. And finished this reverse-applique journal cover for my Moleskine. The pattern is from the Aabama Stitch Book. I LOVE this book.

Still pondering some questions from a conversation that began with friends in Santa Fe a few weeks ago - does our creative side drive our spiritual side, or our spiritual side drive the creative? Can you have one without the other? Can anything be sacred/spiritual? What makes it so?

Also thinking about what it means to live life authentically. Out of a more honest and real place than I feel like I currently am. To really be seen. Kinda freaked out lately that I have lost my edge and am just mellow and vanilla. Yikes.

RGBP meet-up

In the midst of my post-conference craziness after Image Journal's Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, I'm also (finally) making the switch from a PC to a MacBook. Hence my delay in blogging about my week, and especially my fun meet-up with Zorra and The Scientist. After meeting briefly during intermission of an Over the Rhine concert the night before (via the aid of cell phones to find each other!) the three of us, along with my friend Jenny, enjoyed a lovely New Mexican lunch in downtown Santa Fe. Good food, great company, and for me, a great escape from the confines of St. John's College. Many thanks to The Scientist for being our photographer.

And for my dear lurkers - the conference overall was a mixed bag - some highs and some lows. Glad I experienced it, not sure I'll need to go back. It did spark the beginnings of some great conversations, and the new connections with a few people were the best take-aways. But aren't they always?

denise, this one's for you!

What a small world we live in. Right before I headed out the door tonight to go to the Dry Bones Denver Photography show I checked email very quickly. My friend Denise had commented on my last post about how the church she goes to in Abilene is a huge supporter of Dry Bones and that she had played Bunko with Nikki (who is one of the staff leaders) last month.

Long story short, I sought her out at the fundraiser tonight and we made the connection, which was really cool.

The show was very well put together and hopefully raised several hundred dollars for the Dry Bones folks. It was set up as a silent auction and there were some wonderful works. I walked away with two nice urban photos of Denver.

Urban Skye Art & Design First Friday event

What: Urban Skye Art & Design First Friday event

When: Friday, March 7, 2008, 6pm

Where: Temple Events Center, 1595 Pearl St, Denver, CO 80203

Join Urban Skye Art & Design as we support the budding photographers of Dry Bones Denver in their first ever Photography Exhibition.

Dry Bones Denver is an outreach to homeless teens and young adults living in downtown Denver.
*
Afterwards, we’'ll check out The Shoppe @ 3103 East Colfax for some tasty treats. The Shoppe specializes in cupcakes and cereal! What's not to like about that?

hopeful happenings

Well, we're 1/24th of the way thru 2008, and I'm moving along half-way decently toward my creative intentions of the year.
- I've read 2.5 books so far. Will try to get them posted this weekend.
- I'm signed up for a PhotoShop crash course on Saturday.
- Have been somewhat sporadic on the writing. Seems like I may have overshot it by thinking I could write something of substance 5 days a week. 3 days seems like a better goal. (Actually, if I counted writing business plans for work, etc, I'd be at 5 or 6. But I'm not counting that stuff.)
- I'm off to a decent start of taking pictures, including a day at the Museum of Contemporary Art and some photos at an Off the Map community party.
Now to get my lazy ass to the gym...

urban skye shared studio

What: Urban Skye Art & Design Shared Studio
When: Tuesday, December 11,2007, 7 pm.
Where: 2830 S. Harrison St., Denver.
Details: Got some last minute Christmas projects you need to finish? Bring those along! Bring a project you are working on, or something that inspires you, or something that sounds like fun to do around other people. Show & tell, asking for help, bringing friends are all highly encouraged. More info on the Urban Skye website.

Denver Art Scene featured in USA Today

Check out USA Today's recent article on the art scene in Denver.

what's up

- just back from a belated birthday beach trip. yeah, i milked this one for all it was worth. squeezed two more birthday celebrations out of the big 4-0.
- got to catch up with my birmingham buddies.
- played a lot of boggle.
- ate a lot of firecracker shrimp (this involves the best remoulade sauce in the world).
- slept a lot.
- sat on the beach a lot.
- watched the sun set and the moon rise.
- had some great conversations.
- did a lot of nothing.
- read Bless Your Heart, Tramp. and random magazines. deep, deep reading, in case you can't tell.
- did read a bit of Breath for the Bones, by Luci Shaw, so all was not mindless.
- enjoying the new foo fighters album - echos, silence, patience & grace. isn't that a great title?
- found the perfect music for the treadmill - florida state's marching band doing the best of college football fight songs.
- drove up to the mountains today so i could catch the aspens in all of their fall glory.
- just spruced up my porch with a pumpkin/mum display to officially welcome fall.
- trying to plan my week now so that i can ease back into work and maybe even a daily routine that doesn't feel like chaos.
- have a huge need for great amounts of creative energy to come bursting forth in the next week or so.

word in art

Join us...
creative artists showcase
at the refuge
sunday august 26 2007 at 5:30pm

we are excited to host a fall creative art evening at the refuge, coming up sunday august 26th. this will be a chance for all creative artists from any medium--music, art, photorgraphy, writing, drama, comedy--across ages & abilities to share their work as a form of worship.

invite your friends & neighbors to join us for this amazing evening together with music, multimedia, drama, art, photography, poetry, great food & more!

the evening will include 3 broad categories--sights, stage & statements.
* sights - visual arts, painting, photography, sculpture & other visual mediums
* stage - music, dance, theater, comedy, film, spoken word & multimedia
* statements - poetry, short stories, prose, fiction, non-fiction

me

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

lent...week three

Keep us alive with three square meals.

bread of life

creativity and lent

While researching ideas for our Urban Skye Ash Wednesday Labyrinth, I came across a great idea in New Zealand. Cityside Community has a project going called The Desert Files.

The whole idea is to make a creative product in the medium of your choice, using the period of Lent as your time parameter. You are encouraged to use a prayer practice, and to keep a record of your process as you go along. At Cityside, the culmination is an art exhibit.

I've decided to use their outline and do something similar.

Here are the basic steps they have laid out:

One...Choose one of the last sayings of Jesus from the cross. This will be your theme or starting place for your work. I am going to use The Lord's Prayer as my guide, as Urban Skye is using The Lord's Prayer as our Lenten text this year.

Two...Consider the media of your final project. For me, this will include photography - digital, medium format, Polaroid. Maybe all three. And possibly collage.

Three...Choose a prayer path that you will explore during Lent. They suggest Centering Prayer, Ignatian Visualization, Lectio Divina, or Body Prayer. I decided that this would be a good time for me to actually read Tony Jones' book on Lectio Divina, Divine Intervention: Encountering God Through the Ancient Practice of Lectio Divina, which has been riding around in my Timbuk2bag for most of February.

Four...Choose how you will record your Lenten process. Suggestions: Photos, written journal, sketching, rapid sculpting. The purpose of the recording practice is to help integrate your prayer practice with your reflections on the stimulus, your original theme, and your final creative work. It will come as no surprise to those that know me well that a trusty Moleskine will document my work.

It was interesting to me that they made a point of stating that your process record is part of your completed work. Something I need to keep in mind as I go along.

So, that's my Lenten plan. Make art. Use a prayer practice consistently. Record it all.