Black (and white) Friday

Playing with my ISO today... something I'm still figuring out, but learning. I'm learning. Caught these two photos while trying things out. I love them.


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It's Impossible to live LIFE...

...when you can't FEEL half your FACE!!
Josh today, while trying to suck his Slurpee and still feeling the effects of his Novocain...

Look at him!! It's hilarious!! His right, your left is the side with the Novocain.
He is trying to puff out his cheeks on this one.

Three of us went to the Dentist today. It's moments like this that make me happy I have my purse camera.

No numb face for me today, and I didn't figure you'd like to see my shiny clean lower retainer... so you'll just have to be happy with sloppy faces from the boys until NEXT week. That's when I will be finding it impossible to live life.
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Where did my time remote go!?

I'm starting to feel like a broken record...

I'm starting to feel like a broken record..

I'm starting to feel like a...
Whoops!!
Seriously!
Any day now. This carnival ride of work and life will slow down...
I suppose I could PUKE... that always makes the ride stop, right!? lol
More work and dishes. That's what I've been up to.
Thank you to EVERYONE who left a comment on my last post!! I wasn't expecting such a wonderful response to it!! I just needed to write it because I recently had a friend who was crushed by some horrible things that a "real" artist I used to think highly of said and did to her. I just had to speak up.
I took this photo of my "new" old camera a while back to share, and then nada.
Isn't it YUMMY? Now I need to make my contraption to keep light out. Then I'll be able to take PICTURES through the viewfinder!!

One of these days soon, I'd like to be able to get on here and say I've done more than work and dishes!! lol I'm off to find that remote, and stop time for a while...
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NEVER let someone ELSE tell you what your art is.

SO MANY artists who are making a living with their art have an attitude about other artists. It's not only artists, but critics, and public. Lines start to be drawn in the sand about WHO can call themselves an artist. There are suddenly RULES about how GOOD art has to be to be allowed to be CALLED art. How many items in your art are things YOU did or did not make. There are so many lines drawn in the sand that it becomes impossible to enjoy the beauty of the beach it is on.
So just what IS art?
Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. ~Wikipedia
By definition, ART is what you MAKE. It doesn't say anything about whether or not you copied someone to learn a technique.** It doesn't say you can only use things to make it if you also made THEM. It doesn't say that EVERYONE has to agree that it's beautiful or appealing. Art like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It doesn't MATTER if it's scrapbook papers, or cards, or photography, or yarn making, or sculpting, or gardening. WHATEVER it is, it's simply about the deliberate way that you put something together to MEAN SOMETHING, or to LOOK GOOD.
Fine art is another buzz term that gets thrown around a lot. But what IS fine art?
Fine art describes an art form developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than utility. This type of art is often expressed in the production of art objects^[2] using visual and performing art forms, including painting, sculpture, music, dance, theatre, architecture, photography and printmaking.~Wikipedia
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic. Other terms that overlap with folk art are naïve art, Pop art, outsider art, traditional art, tribal art, "self-taught" art and even "working class" art. ~Wikipedia
No matter WHO you are.
No matter WHAT you create.
ART lives inside you.
Even within yourself, what you find frustrating because it didn't come out the way you intended isn't any LESS art. Even in it's definition, art is in the PROCESS.
Let your art SHOW. Don't let someone else tell you what your art can or cannot be. It's not up to them.
Certainly, one hopes that others will like and enjoy their art.
But be cautious in who you allow to have INFLUENCE over you.
Be cautious in how you give and take critiques. In the end, no matter how "worthy" the person giving a critique is, your art is YOURS. THAT is what makes it valuable. It's not about living up to the standards that other people have set for you. Make your art for yourself. When you allow yourself that freedom, the people who need your art will come.
There are people who will criticize, and pick, and pull at what is and is not art. They are not important. THEY do not "get" it. It's time we support eachother. There is room in this world for art to live in ALL of us. Some of us will make money at it. Some of us will not. THAT has nothing to do with letting your art SHOW, and allowing your art to LIVE.
**Please note that I am not condoning outright copying of other artist' work and calling it your own. I do believe that it is in the nature of INSPIRATION and art to use another artist's ideas and build on them. If you have questions about copyright, there is an excellent on line resource HERE that explains it in good legal detail.
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Nene

It's late, and I didn't have a chance to take a picture of her for REALS yet. So you're just gonna have to deal with the two I sent Coffee last night AS SOON as she was done!! Her name is Nene. (ETA pronounced Neh Neh.) It means tranquil in Japanese, which is the dictionary page I used for her dress. :) Pay no attention to her bent ribbons. I'll iron them out.

Used white paint to fill the crackle again, and I'm loving the whitewashed look it gives!!

She's made on a table leg with a wooden finial head that I sculpted paper clay over.
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Black and White and New all over

No, Officer, I don't know where my week went, but I have some funny photos and an awesome new/old camera to take pictures with!! No, I can't open my eyes... your flashlight is shining in them...

No, I didn't drink all those beers right before I started blogging... If you look at the cat, you can clearly see she helped.

I swear I'm not on drugs either... I got this vintage camera to take pictures through the viewfinder with my DIGITAL camera... All the cool kids are doing it...

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November in Black and White

My friend Maya hosted November in Black and White last year, and she's doing it again this year...
I thought I'd share some of my favorite photos from my most recent photo shoot. I just got them all edited...

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No, Kate! NO!

You know that time between a cute hair cut, and beautiful long hair?
I'm planning a trip there... at least for a while.
As long as I can stand it.
I used to have really long hair. Really awesome pretty and long hair.
Thing is, I'm not really great at keeping a hairstyle for very long. In fact, the hair style I have is probably the longest I've spent in one hairstyleville.
Another thing I don't think a lot of GUYS get, is that girls say a lot with their hair.
We make statements about how we are with our hair.
My husband really likes my long hair.
My short hair, he puts up with because it's attached to me.
I like my short hair. It says what I want it to about me. I feel like it matches my personality.
I also like my long sexy hair. In fact, I love it.
What I don't like, is the in between stage. There aren't a lot of awesome choices when it comes to growing out your hair.
There's the just-let-it-go-and-in-a-year-or-so-we'll-try-to-do-something-with-it cut.
There's the trim-it-as-you-go-and-try-to-keep-it-cute-for-three-years choice too.
I usually choose the second choice.
What I usually have trouble with, is keeping the funky style in between... it's HARD.
What I'm really worried about, is looking like Kate Gosslin at any stage of the process. I really REALLY don't want that.
So.
Today was the first of many trims to keep things looking cute while I grow out my hair.

In chicken news:
This is what greets me these days when I go out to the back porch:

I don't know if you can tell how big they are getting!! I think they're just about full sized hens now. Just a little more growing!!

Still waiting for eggs...

I've made some adjustments to the "roof" that I thought I should share... and as you can see, we've moved the girls to the back deck. It's going to be easier for feeding and checking on them in the windy rainy weather. We moved them when we had high wind warnings this last weekend. I put a tarp under their run so I can change it and keep their run clean.

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