Art Slam

I won my first photography contest yesterday. My photograph received the Editor’s Choice award in the People of Porkopolis category of the Capture Cincinnati book. Very cool and a wonderful honor.

This is what winning did for me:

• It made me very proud.
• It made me want to shoot more.
• It made me want to seriously step out of the box with my photography.
• It made me want to win more.
• It made me see that anything in possible.
• It made me see that I am on the right path with my photography.

When you win, you want to win more. The spirit of competition is a good one and a great feeling. My flickr group, Living in Cincinnati was well represented in the book. I had the chance to meet some of the people from the group and we have a great little community of photographers.

"We don’t make mistakes, we just have happy little accidents." Bob Ross

Bob Ross made me believe I could paint. As much as I could not stand oil paints, I would try to paint beautiful things like he did every week on TV. I found this website, with neat Bob stuff. I miss seeing Bob beating paintbrushes on PBS.

Because I can, I am doing a mid-week project to get the Slam back up and going. I have been crazy busy with my day work, and finishing up the art journals for the students, so that has not left a lot of time for the Slam. I do have many pages to share for the student journals and I will do that Friday with a painting technique.

I was having a serious creative moment; like three minutes ago, and remembered this spread I did in a tiny journal. The colors made me think of the holiday season we are experiencing now and how timely the message is from this page. I wish for more time, but I don’t always use the time I have well. Especially during the holidays!

So, I challenge you to create something artsy that uses "holiday" colors and a message that is profoundly important to you right now. Share your work with the crew at the Art Slam Flickr group.

"Do not wait to strike until the iron is hot; but make it hot
by striking." – William B. Sprague

I have a birthday coming up next month and as it approaches, I have been reflecting on the past year. A lot has happened. Biggest one being starting a business and right after that one a new job. Both of these things have led me to discover more about myself than I thought possible.

• For one, I have standards. I am at a point in my life where I do not believe I have to settle for crap just for the sake of it.
  
• Secondly, I now understand that businesses do "abolish" entire departments for business reasons. I found this out two months after my former employer kicked me and four other people to the curb right before Christmas last year and gave us one week to get out.
• Thirdly, if you don’t ask, you can’t receive. We, in general, are such chickens. Never asking for what we want because we are too scared to get the answer we don’t want. Now, that is a glass half empty thinking. This year, I have been asking for things and assuming I will get what I want or a yes answer. It has worked 95% of the time. Why in the hell did no one tell me this sooner?!
• Fourthly, just because I have a professional attitude does not mean the people around me do and that is ok, up to a point. What I have discovered is that you can be sucked into negativity or you can rise above it.
• Fifthly (is that a word?), I really don’t like revisions. They destroy my creative flow. I am an artist, damn it!

I have discovered lots more and am thankful for all the lessons I have learned this year. They have been a blessing. Being a student of life is one of the best experiences I am going through right now. Sometimes the lessons suck, but I am learning and that is all that really matters.

I often say this to friends who are going through crisis and as they are ranting about what sucks in their life, I remind them that what someone thinks of them is none of their business. I need to live what I preach.

I am a big questioner. I want to know people’s motivation. I like being in the know. Especially when it concerns me. What I realize now is I am setting myself up to be pissed off and angry. Which leads to self-doubt and unnecessary insecurity. My new mantra, which is actually an old one; "What you think of me is none of my business." Seriously, it isn’t. I no longer care what negative people think of me. I no longer care that they need to bring people down to feel good. I no longer care that they have no life at home and therefore are working themselves into a grave. I no longer will allow them to have any power over me. That is a boundary I now have and will stick to.

My opinion of myself is the most important one. If it is not yours, it should be. What you think of you matters more than anything anyone else on this Earth thinks of you. If your opinion of yourself if low, how do you expect others to think highly of you? We, in general, wait for others to validate us and tell us we are special and great. That is such crap. Some people wait their whole lives to be told what they have always known. We care too much what others think of us. We have no boundaries. I am settings lots of them for ‘08. Why? Because I can and I owe it to myself. What do you owe yourself?

I had my little people select numbers from 1 to 14 and they picked 2, 7 and 8. Those numbers go with the following names: Lisa O, Melody Ross and Vivian

Please send me your addresses so I can grace you with my random act of kindness.

The past few weeks have been filled with lots of hurry up and wait activities. What I have found is I am tiring of doing things that do not allow me to live my life to the fullest. Being a creative person is not always easy. It is expected that I will design on demand and every design will be outstanding. How can you be outstanding when your creative space is grey and uninspiring? I understand now why artists fill their spaces with so much crap. I do not have a devoted room to create at home…currently, my sewing desk is now the art desk.

I am working on two journals for a college class and I am almost done with them. As excited as I am about the project, it also makes me a little sad to see the journals go. I have come up with pages I would have never done before and experimented with techniques that are now becoming my signature with my artwork. This project has been a blessing and came into my life at just the right time. Working on these journals is one of the first times I enjoyed the process of simply doing what I love, letting go and letting God. That is saying a lot.

This post is all because of this post. I have been reading a lot about paying it forward lately. Wondering what I can do to foster some goodwill. It starts at home as I am seeing more and more how words can lift people up and break them down. I have a responsibility and a power with my words. I am acutely aware of this, yet I do not always use my words like I should. What kind of paying if forward is that? It’s crap. That is what it is.

So, for the next two months, yes, I said two months, I am paying it forward with my words. Positive words. People do not need to be constantly reminded when they make a mistake. They already know they messed up and who in the hell wants to be reminded they screwed up? I know I don’t. So, I am paying it forward with compliments. Making a conscious effort to not bitch and complain. To find something good to say to people instead of bad. Uplift them. They may need it. What do I get from it, I get to feel good seeing someone else feeling good.

I also plan to pay it forward with my creativity. I will do as Vivian has done and make something for three people in the next 365 days. Granted, it will most likely happen sooner, but I get a year. If you want to participate, leave a comment and I will randomly select three people to receive my random act of kindness. There is a catch. You have to pay it forward if you are selected. That is all that I ask.

Macro photography is off the hook. I love this shot. Love it for the details, the bokeh, the color, the mood, the fruit.

Cool weather means turtlenecks and self-portraits.

I almost pulled out the backgrounds and set up shop for some serious portrait work, but ended up not doing it. I need a freakin’ studio. Then I would not have to put my stuff away AND, this would be my gift to all my girlfriends and family… if I had a studio.

I would like to first start this post by thanking Jesus that I can read. I love reading stuff that makes you stop and think and even makes you laugh. Check out this post about how to debug your brain.