My Box

Lettering #2 Mosaic
Originally uploaded by mlee.etsy.com

My project box that is. Through all of the not part of reality silliness in The Creative Habit I found a few gems. I finished it on my Kindle iPhone app the other day and am putting what I learned to use.

1) Start a morning ritual to get myself going in the right direction. My first thought and attempt was for this to be making green smoothies and then working out doing The Shred. But that was just too much to do every day, especially on days following a rough night with Alex. So it soon got whittled down to just the green smoothie part. Much healthier than a cup of coffee and a more long lasting energy, plus it is for the entire family. And Alex needs all the veggies I can get her to eat. Plus we are fasting for the next three weeks and coffee is out.

2) A box for my creative project(s). One box for each one to keep things focused. Right now I am using a shoe box, but when I get the chance I will probably take her advice and get the kind you can buy at Office Depot. In this box goes all the papers I have found that could possibly work for my project. Various papers including plain ones, pre-printed ones, washi and my own woodblock and gocco print scraps. Along with that I have a two tiered pencil case that keeps the small pieces so they don't get lost in the shuffle. And at the top level of that case are the ones I think I will be using. She just suggested a box, but she is a dancer not a visual artist, so I felt the need to expand to suit my needs.

3) I also have an computer based tool that I am trying out as a way to gather and organize various materials. I can save websites and images and put them into folders so they are easy to bring up whenever I need them.

Have I mentioned how much I love the Kindle app yet? Because I do, yet it actually keeps me from getting an actual Kindle rather than making me want one. I'm a minimalist when it comes to what I carry with me and having it in my phone is perfect. Now I read my physical books at home, but I always have something as backup on my phone.

Now along with a novel (The Blind Assassin for you curious types) I am reading another book to boost my productivity. This time it is a book that is practical for all people called Getting Things Done. The latter is on my Kindle app again which makes it handy for a quick read and note taking. I plan on always having one fiction and one non-fiction books going at all times. Funny how just six months ago I could barely find the attention to finish a book in six months and now I am reading books within a week tops.

Just another sign that things are improving.

Newfound Hunger

a great find, but I need more!
Originally uploaded by mlee.etsy.com

My collage from last week is officially finished and listed on Etsy and Art Fire. I worked hard, yet it all seemed to flow quite naturally, to balance color and form. The only snag was my own confidence making it difficult for me to commit. But after playing around with the layout of elements for the week I knew when I had the right one.


This alphabet paper I found last week has awakened a letter hungry monster in me! I have such a selection of papers to chose from that I have built up over the years that it is remarkable that I found these so quickly. But I didn't know that I had multiple colors! This opens up a lot more to me, but I still need different papers, cut outs, fonts and colors. More please! The circle series didn't feel like a series at the time, but this piece is certainly the beginning of a new series. What fun!

So for now I must settle for a virtual online shopping spree collecting various papers, stickers and what not of various fonts. I'm thinking some stencils might be nice too so I can make my own.

I can't wait for my two free hours on Wednesday! It is a pity that I won't have more to work with by then, but I have enough to get started.

Unsure

layout
Originally uploaded by mlee.etsy.com

Being out of a near constant stream of creativity and art making has left me feeling rather insecure and slow to nail anything down or complete something. I hesitate before bringing out the glue and sealer. I hesitate before making certain cuts to paper or wood.

This is my current challenge. I have a hard time feeling that I have wasted precious and sometimes expensive materials on a failed piece. This was much easier when I was just doing straight up woodblock prints. Sure, if I messed up an actual block that stunk because I was out one block and the time I put into it. But with actually printing I was much less scared of failure because paper and ink are rather inexpensive and I knew that even if some pieces didn't turn out I could use parts of them in other things eventually. I saved failed works sometimes for years, being a packrat has really paid off because now I am going through those pieces and finding bits of beauty even in the worst of them. Even a horrible piece can have an inch of beauty.

Many of these collages are rather spontaneous and fast. I wonder if that is wrong and I should labor over the layout for many hours or if I should just go with my instincts. One thing is for sure that this is something I need to figure out so I can keep it from holding me back.

I'm excited because I just got a wonderful and rather inexpensive refurbished sewing machine off of Overstock.com. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to even get it started, but that should be solved tonight with the help of a friend. I've been wanting to add stitching elements to my work ever since I started collage making two years ago. I've done a bit of hand stitching in some pieces but I really like the look of perfect machine stitching. I'm very excited about what is to come and I hope to share it here with you soon.

Happy Late Birthday Indeed!

washiwashiwashiwashi!
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

I won the paper fetishist lotto tonight.

This incredible gift of washi and other beautiful papers that I recieved tonight has pulled me out of my hole to blog a bit. It is just spectacular and I haven't even gone through it yet. I need to find a good place to store all these pretties. I have some pretty wonderful, thoughtful and generous friends.

Speaking of friends, we took a little drive down to RI to see HeatherJeany, meet her husband and her precious new baby boy. Packed up all our gender neutral clothing along with the much loved but sadly outwiggled Moby Wrap and we took to the road Saturday morning after a sudden warmup after a bad storm. We had a great time. She's the best, her husband is very sweet and her baby is adorable and so tiny!





I actually have a lot of new work that I haven't blogged about yet, new work that I even love but something is holding me back. I keep waiting for the perfect words to talk about them, but I don't have time to come up with the perfect words these days so I end up here writing about paper, friends and cute babies.

One might say I am at a weird point in my art where I am trying to figure out what to do next. I've been going on a bit of a different path these last few months and it is continuing and it is exciting but sometimes very difficult.

I miss you guys. I miss the morning routine of tea, oatmeal and blog writing and blog reading.

March will be different. Can't February be over already?

Overwhelmed

what I did with my day (while blee sleeps)
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Overwhelmed by the rush of ideas that I am feverishly sketching each day. I have enough supplies just never enough time for all that needs to come out of my head. I'm having a very hard time finishing anything because soon after getting into one project I get a new idea that I feel I must start on right away.

And now I am seriously feeling quite overwhelmed as I stare at my stacks of paper. Half of them have one layer, the other half are blank and are being saved for later. I'm not going to print on it all right away maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of it which is still a lot! The rest will be used as a background color for other colors. It is getting close to midnight on Wednesday and therefor way past my bedtime. Yet I really want to bring out my ink and start printing layer two, but I know that is a bad idea. Getting out ink is a bit of a time commitment, time that I should be spending sleeping. Which haven't been doing enough of lately. I guess you could say I have been feeling a little high which is all great except for the crash that comes later. And it always comes. Especially if I don't sleep and let this continue.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to finish some pieces for Friday. That is my big goal.

Now I am off to bed. I don't want to, but I have to.

Of paper, dentists and bottle feeding perks

damage good!
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

See this beautiful paper? Ten sheets of one of my favorite papers of the bunch is damaged. This is a very good thing because Dick Blick has awesome customer service and they are replacing the sheets with no charge to me. Note that I said damaged, not ruined. And really they are only slightly damaged, I can easily avoid the area and tear smaller sheets. This paper is not cheap. Between the thirty I got off the order and this I probably saved over fifty dollars off! I am going to have sooooo much paper. There is a place in Boston that sells nice paper, but with the baby getting there is such a pain so I will be ordering online from now on.

Now for something completely different. Even though I had an appointment with the dentist this morning (ew) things are going pretty well. And honestly after going through pregnancy and childbirth without drugs I am not scared of much involving pain anymore. My fear of needles and dentists is pretty much gone. Not that I enjoy it but eh more annoying and uncomfortable than anything.

Plus, while I was away Jon was caring for blee and apparently she was a bit of a nightmare baby during that time. But now that I have her she has pretty much settled down and I can concentrate on work. I even tidied up the bedroom a bit and *gasp* made the bed!

My mood is much improved as well as I put things into perspective. Putting the soap in the milk did suck but she is obviously fine and we haven't had to use even an ounce of formula since. This is the longest we have gone totally without the supplement since she was three weeks old! It seems that I have (at least for now) finally caught up with her with my persistence and we have gotten into a rhythm together.

And bottle feeding has it's advantages. Jon is able to help out with the feedings, especially useful at night and me going out on my own is much more doable. In fact, on Monday I will be going to see Jens Lekman with a friend of mine while Jon is stuck at home caring for her. Score!