Daily Doily

Friday 5

1.  GLORY // Doily Blanket...WOW!!!  Be still my heart, haha.  I would LOVE, seriously LOVE to have one of these.  I will add it to my list of projects to complete + never will, OR you can buy one for $75.  My eye is set on the mustard one (of course) ♥

 

2.  Books at Jo Ann's.  I spent my lunch break looking through quilt books + I found some great inspiration for our wedding quilt.

Some I looked through: 1., 2., 3., 4.

3. My new spring/summer purse(Billabong Going Places Bucket Beach Bag)

4. All of Elsie's recent scrapbooks.  I can't wait to make one:

Spring Art Journal, Highlights Scrapbook, Mini Magazine Notebook + Our First Year

5. Silversun Pickups limited edition yellow vinyl.  They are one of a few bands that will always remind me of my husband + when we first started dating :)

Happy Weekend! ♥

Friday 5

This backpack is so great (I just wish it wasn't so expensive, dang!):

 

Did you know you can create your own fabric?  I am so glad I found this website.  I already ordered some with our wedding photos on it for the wedding guest list quilt I am making.  I can't wait to get started on it now.  I also ordered this button fabric for it too.  I'll post pictures once it all comes in! Sew cute ;)

One of my favorite things is to see other artist's studio spaces.  This sewing room is crazy good:

Have you seen Kelly Rae's new studio?  I've been enjoying seeing her fix it up via her instagram/twitter.  I dream of having a really awesome studio one day.

 

 I've only had a chance to look at the first few pages, but I am so excited about this special Organizing issue of Martha Stewart Living.  It's soooooo inspiring :)

 The 11 things posts going around: Danielle's, Moorea's, Kaelah's, Jess's

I just might HAVE to participate even thought I wasn't "tagged".  I've always been a sucker for these kinds of things :)  Did you?  Send me your link.  I'd love to see.

Art Lecture // Laurel Sucsy

I went to this lecture last night at Rhodes College.  I'm really enjoying these artist lectures by women with families.  It's very inspiring to me :)  Sometimes I find myself thinking you can't have both, but it's just not true.  You have to make the time to keep what you love in your life.  Here are some of the notes I took:

• Structure changing, but spaces stay the same
• Like moving furniture- collect + push around
• Painting talking back to her, start a conversation
• Got rid of marks + focused on color when painting in the grid
• Up in the air until last minute
• Didn't like the structure of the grid
• More spatial, super illusionistic
• Edges become abrupt- build painting with edges + each mark lines up with each other + shifts
• Task to maintain concentration so worlds don't pull apart
• Her world has been described as plate tectonics
• She's consistant in trying to make awkward slipping
• Shows the roots to her brain- missteps, version without the makeup on
• She feels everything she does is different- gestures, edges, time, consistently shifting
• No static, color/contrast, how paint applied
• Describes work like a music album- some slow songs, some upbeat, etc.
• Different brains on, different personalities

// current work //

• Hovers
• There's this thing you want to do + you don't do it.  You can only make what yours hands allow you to.
• Hard to create openness + finish a painting
• Turn works around to find a new "bridge"
• Works on same painting for years- crazy transformations, finds anchor but anything can change if she protects one area.  Holding on to right area?
• Hard to describe her new work because she is so personally attached.  She doesn't "know" her work until a year out.  She can still remember what music she was listening to when she made the marks.
• Discover one thing + find another
• Enters the work through small things
• Color choice is more intuitive + instinctive
• When she sees painting she sees shapes, landscape, etc.  Sense of light influenced by painting outside
• She loses a lot of paintings + loses stuff she loves, but keeps working.  Jokes she has a super appetite for failure.  Success rate low.  The whole thing has to work, not just the parts.  One piece went to a show, came back + she realized it wasn't finished.
• She has a certain time to paint + puts an apron on + creates rituals to make her paint at night so she doesn't go do dishes, etc. *I have talked about this.  I'll find myself painting a little + then doing the laundry, cooking dinner, etc.  Instead of focusing large amounts of time to my work.

♥ 

I hope everyone has a great weekend :)  I'm looking forward to it.  It's beginning to look + feel a lot like spring around here.

Art Crawl // Trish Grantham

isavirtue started a monthly art crawl on her blog every first tuesday of the month.  It is a link up + the idea is that bloggers will "crawl" from one blog to the next in search of art.  Doesn't that sound like a great idea?  She has featured many lovely artists on her blog.  Go check it out :)

I just found Trish Grantham's work + I really enjoy it.  I've been thinking about exploring layering more + collage in my next painting.  I'm partial to her paintings that include pink (of course), haha.

I had to include the one above because it is in my favorite hotel ever (Ace Portland).  Zac + I stayed there when we got engaged, so it holds a special place in my heart always.  I think it is the coolest hotel!  Awesome art + record players + stumptown coffee + photo booth...what more could you ask for?

New Hair + New Projects

I got my hair cut last night.  I've been wanting bangs for a while now, but couldn't decide if I wanted them.  I love herhair + that's where I got the inspiration to cut mine again.  Now I can wear the side bang or the full bang :)  At first I didn't like it, but I think it's growing on me.  The last time I had bangs was when I first started dating Zac + when we got engaged :) 

I've been doing this challenge + it's been super fun!  It's neat to see what things people choose to take pictures of + how different things are around the world.  If you haven't checked out the instagram appyou should!  You can follow me @dailydoily.  Let me know if you play along + I will follow you :) 

I also just signed up for this e-course.  I took one of Elsie + Rachel's art journaling classes two years ago + I really enjoyed it.  I write in a journal almost every day, but I don't really take the time to "art journal" or come up with prompts.  It was very therapeutic last time + I did a lot of soul searching.  I love going back + looking at what I wrote.  I wanted to start a 52 week project too + guess what?  This one has 52 sessions!  I'd like to do 1 sketch, 1 painting + 1 art journal page a week.  It will be hard for me, but I really want to push myself this year.  I need to make more time for the things I love.  Who's with me?    

Date A Girl Who Takes Photographs

I saw this here and had to share :)  I think this is the original source?

"Date a girl who takes photographs. Date a girl whose favorite sound is the click-click of the shutter as it closes and opens to capture a memory. Date a girl who sees the wonder in the simplest things. Date a girl who looks at the world and wonders how to put a little of herself in it.

 You might find her in the park, lost behind her lens, the world a blur around her as she tries to capture a single moment in time. You might find her in an exhibit, a look of concentration on her face as she contemplates a photograph that called out to her as she was passing by.  Or maybe you will find her in a bookstore, a book in her lap as she pores over photographs of weddings all the while wondering what hers would look like.

 Take her out to photo walks and laugh as she tries to take a picture of you. When she gets tired of walking, buy her cupcakes but wait until she has taken pictures of them before proceeding to eat them.  Listen as she tells you her ideas for a photo shoot on the ride home.

Take her to a restaurant and wait patiently as she surveys the menu carefully, appreciating the food photography. And again, wait until she has taken a photo of your food before digging in. Allow her introduce you to Ansel Adams while you both eat your lunch. Introduce her to your favorite musician as you wait for the bill to arrive. When you get home, change your Facebook profile picture into a photograph she took of you. She silently hoped for it.

Take stolen shots of her. Compile it and give it to her on her birthday. Tell her you love her over and over until your voice replaces the click of the shutter as her favorite sound. Kiss her after she lifts her head up from the camera. Give her camera-shaped necklaces. Go places with her.

You will never be bored again.

Date a girl who takes photographs. She will never whine about a little dirt on her favorite pair of jeans as she kneels down to get a better angle of her subject. She will never be afraid to take adventures with you. She will take photographs of you not just with her camera but with her mind as well and keep it to herself to admire at night. But above all, she will teach you how to look at the world with a brand new perspective and she will do that unknowingly.

Marry a girl who takes photographs. Ditch those wedding photography books and give her the most beautiful wedding you could. She will teach your kids to find the beauty in everything just as she had taught you. Every day will be an adventure as she tries to create photograph-worthy memories with you. She may wake you up in the middle of the night because she is buzzing with ideas but she will make it up in the morning with a stack of hot pancakes beside a steaming cup of your favorite coffee blend.

Grow old with a girl who takes photographs. Sit with her on the front porch as you both pore over the bits and pieces of the moments you’ve had together. Stroke her hair as you both relive the photo walks that you took and the places you have been when you were both young. Smile as you both reenact your clever wedding vows.

Date a girl who takes photographs because she will always see that “something” in the most “nothing” of things.  She will never let anyone take you away from her like she never lets anyone steal her photos and that is just one of the evidences that she loves you." 

I absolutely love this ♥

List of Artists

I found this list of artists in my studio (probably from college) + I thought it might be fun to look them up + write a post about it.

• Tim Forcum:

• Mary O' Malley:

• Ann Tracy
• Betsy Stirratt

• Cara Tomlinson (who I already did a post on)
• Molly Gunther:

• Jackie Tileston:

• Nina Bovasso:

• Darren Waterston:

• Sarah Emerson
• Cara Enteles:

• Jennifer Sanchez:

• Laurel Sparks
• Annette Davidek:

 

• Nancy Blum:

• Maija Fiebig:

• Amy Ruppel
• Niki Kelce:

• Julie Evans:

• Reed Danzinger

Ok.  That's enough for today :)  Who are some of your favorite artists + what inspires you to paint?

Art Lecture // Cara Tomlinson

Zac + I went to an art lecture at Rhodes College the other night.  Here are some of the things I wrote down:

• What is it to see + sense the world?
• Matter + consciousness
• Lessons of landscape: body has relationship to shape, urgency, painting a response, a dance.  Trains the imagination.
• Lessons of light + color from landscape.
• Finding truth through doubt, truth becomes the process.
• Layers of form: give + take
• Framing an absence, showing an absence- obliquely.
• Framework for viewer to fill in
• Pairing paintings as a conversation
• Became a mother + was influenced by watching daughter form language
• Color has amazing power: disarming, sensuous + affects the whole body
• Painting layers over time: refusal + erasure, boundary of painting: strata of process
• Negative capability: Doubt + Confusion= Playfulness
• Childhood + Child developing: stacking, linking, boundaries of inanimate + animate
• Process of construction- how paints + bodies are made
• Paint is dualistic: covers but also reveals
• The release + the control- going back + forth.  Tight vs. Loose.
• Sees process as collaborating w/ materials + the body + giving up consciousness + control.  Pure potential + strict limitation.
• Compositions are a process of trial + error, not preset ever

 And a sketch I did:

I'm looking forward to seeing the show soon.

Cara Tomlinson

Guess What?!?

I won a giveaway [for the first time]!!!

How to Sew a Button :]

 
[rachel's post]

The weekend flew by

This past...

Thursday:

Emmie, mom + I went to "My Big Backyard" @ Memphis Botanic Garden (see last post).  Here are some pics:

 

I would love to live in a house like this☺

 

I love bottle trees!  When I have a house, I want one in the backyard ;]

 

Swinging in the "rain":

 

Friday:

Zac + I went downtown to the art trolley tour on s. main.  I got a cute scarf + shirt @ American Apparel.  Here's the circle scarf (these are really in for fall):

 

We just walked around + went in galleries.  Saw the brush your teeth show:

 

and the Horn of Plenty, MCA Horn Island Alumni Reflect and Remember, 1985-2009  show.

We rode the trolley to Circa + had an amazing dinner: proscuitto wrapped asparagus; crawfish beignets; pork tenderloin medallions; sesame crusted ahi tuna with wasabi mashed potatoes, seaweed salad, soy-ginger beurre blanc; and bananas foster soufflé with vanilla gelato and warm caramel-rum sauce.  Yum!!!

Then walked back to SOB (south of beale) and had drinks.

Saturday:

Zac + I rode part of the tour de wolf at Shelby Farms.  It was too hot for me, haha :]  and I'm just getting back into it, but Zac was such a sweetheart staying with me + making sure I was ok ;]

After riding, we ate at Deli Mexicana (Las Tortugas).  Zac fell in love :]  I love that place too.  It has the best, authentic mexican tacos/sandwiches and fresh fruit drinks (I got hibiscus + Zac got watermelon).  Fire!!!

That night we (Zac + I) had dinner w/ William + his girlfriend Hallie at Rain and then went to Wimbleton to watch kickboxing + mma fights.  It was lots of fun.  I've never seen anything like that in person.  Then we had drinks at Dan McGuinness.  I got grape vodka with sprite- it was really good!!!

Sunday:

I had brunch with Zac, his dad, dad's g-friend, brother + brother's friend @ Interim.  I didn't know they had sunday brunch.  I had french toast + it was really good.

Then mom + I went to the Dixon to see Beth Edward's (my college professor) show.  This was my favorite painting in the show:

 "Happy Day", 32X38", 2007, Oil on Canvas

The nose is unbelievable in person + so are the eyes + couch.  Photos do not do it justice.

I saw this one in progress + fell in love (not in the show):

 

"Fall", 14X19", 2008, Oil on Canvas

And...I saw this one hanging on her wall a while ago + wanted it so bad (not in the show either)!!!  The lips are great!!!:

 

"Lost 1", 38"X32", 2006, Oil on Canvas