not fast enough for us

"Walking was not fast enough, so we ran. Running was not fast enough, so we galloped. Galloping was not fast enough, so we sailed. Sailing was not fast enough, so rolled merrily along long, metal tracks. Long metal tracks were not fast enough, so we drove. Driving was not fast enough, so we flew.

Flying isn't fast enough, not fast enough for us. We want to get there faster. Get where? Wherever we're not. But a human soul can only go as fast as a human man can walk, they used to say. In that case, then where are all the souls? Left behind. They wander here and there, slowly, dim lights flickering in the marshes of the night, looking for us. But, they're not nearly as fast enough, not for us, we're way ahead of them, they'll never catch up. That's why we can go so fast; our souls dont weigh us down."
Margaret Atwood, The Tent

I have a lot to share but not a lot to write today. i'm conducting an experiment this week and trying to slow down and cut back on some of the noise in my life. I'm hoping to reduce the massive and wasteful amount of time I spend on the internet, the mindless TV watching, the obsessive email checking, the shopping online with no intention of buying. It's just NOT good for too many reasons to list. I want to be more aware of my time and how I'm spending it.

So with that, I don't know when I'll come back to my blog, it could be a few weeks or so. Just a little break. I'll leave you with a few links and art projects and things.

I can take a break from a lot of things on the internet, but not flickr. And definitely not my favorites. Lately I've been looking for photos of creative gardens, outdoor rooms, and beautiful naturey things.

I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver right now, and it's definitely inspiring me to spend more time in the kitchen and garden. All the seasonal, super healthy recipes from the book are here.

Measure for Measure is a New York times blog about songwriting, and Andrew Bird is one of the contributors. Fascinating stuff.





some collages from this weekend. i could have made ten more pages in the same color palette, I was really enjoying it.

Thanks for listening. See you soon.

color palettes

1. In good (although limited) company..., 2. boxes, 3. solo ante la inmensidad, 4. green ones are hard to find, 5. Picnic party in the garden., 6. red rain, 7. Rothay Park Robin X, 8. Orange mood, 9. red rain, 10. math books.

a mosaic from my flickr faves.

my color palette is an area of my artwork I'm trying to develop lately. I go to the same old favorites over and over, or rely on pretty basic combinations (red and light blue, orange and green, overall monochromatics, etc.) So, I delved into my flickr favorites to find palettes I found interesting that I generally don't or haven't used in art or collages yet. I figure, if I'm drawn to this image at least part of it has to be the palette, right? one thing I'm definitely seeing is a lot of orangey tones. . . .other than that it's all just super pretty and appealing to me.

I think I learned this trick at some point in college, to look at photographic imagery to find palettes for artwork. Not like it's groundbreaking or anything, but it's a nice reminder to always look for new inspirations.

I have been working late this week and I come home late and pretty tired. I'm full of ideas but not a lot of motivation. So, a glass of wine, looking through flickr pretties and listening to the
new andrew bird ep and she & him is a nice way to wind down the day.

art. and the past

this weekend i spent so much time in the art room making page after page of collages. it really makes me so happy. lately i have been worrying a lot that I've become too focused on results / feedback from others / some kind of commericial success. which is never what I intended this to be. so I looked back through a lot of my old work, before I started posting things online, back when it was solely about me and my personal fulfillment.

when I look at my old work it makes me glad that I took the time to make a painting, glue together a collage, whatever, instead of watching reruns on tv or spending endless hours reading blogs. It's nice to look at my (albeit small) collection of work and just feel proud that I have these pretty things to show for myself.

I have a lot of new things to show (as soon as it gets sunny enough to get a decent photograph!) but I wanted to show some of what's been making me happy this weekend.

the past five years worth of art journals. the flickr breaks it down.

from my messy watercolors phase. fun fact, i'm pretty sure I painted this the day before I met my husband.

more messy watercolors.

stack of little books.

more little books. yay for ribbons!

it was a nice weekend overall. sunday afternoon we went to the little petting zoo in town so I could see my favorite llamas. and out for sushi for dinner since it's been sooo long and I had a taste for some unagi.

hope you had a nice weekend too, friends.

inspirations

new books from amazon. like christmas morning in the mail box! the art of personal imagery by corey moortgat and fingerprint: the art of using handmade elements in graphic design. both awesome.


keri smith. her point of view is unique and challenging. also, she is one of the few bloggers that I admire not because she makes me want to be like her, but that she makes me want to be like ME. the best thing possible. (photo from keri's flickr site here)

a clean and organized house. i am not an organized person, to say the least. the past year it has been a labor of love trying to get my thoughts and habits maintained in any kind of ordered way. but now that I'm on that road, it's great. nice to be able to find the wooden spoon in the kitchen tool drawer, you know? rather than digging around in a bunch of haphazard spatulas and cheese graters.


these little red orange earrings from target. i've worn these every single day since buying them, and they magically seem to go with everything I own. red orange! i think it's going to be the new color obsession.

peace

Happy, happy Christmastime. The past few days have been so full of family and friends and nice quiet moments with Mike and the dog too. This is the little princess asleep in a sunbeam this morning.

The days have been so peaceful and I'm grateful and humbled by that, feeling so blessed. I strive for peace and seek it out, balancing myself by making art and saying small prayers and trying to live in the present, happy moments. Taking all these things and pondering them in my heart, you know, the true meaning of Christmas.

So today I have the day off work and am just puttering. I'm hoping to clean up the house a bit and send some things on their way to Goodwill, evening out the flow of new things into the house by sending others on their way out. Though I will say, I haven't done any of that yet since I always get distracted when I'm in the house. Taking a few photos of some recent art to share.





a new page in my art journal. and the journal, almost full. maybe I'll try to finish it in the next few days so I can start fresh in the new year.

larger sizes at my flickr.

last december's book

december 6, originally uploaded by oltremare.

last december was a big month for me, a big transformation month. i made a book out of old envelopes, with collages on both sides, and then put journal entries or whatever ephemera I picked up during the day into the envelope. making a collage a day was really doable especially since I used the same materials over and over and just left everything out on the desk all month. it was a great project, one of my favorites, and I don't think I've ever shared it online. there are a few more pics on my flickr right now and I will try to add more soon.

i haven't made many collages lately. . . .I'm not sure why. I've been working on other craft projects, some holiday decorations and felt ornaments for gifts and things. the collagey inspiration just hasn't been around lately, which is too bad. i love looking at the old books I've made because they're sort of like esoteric scrapbooks, memory-evoking even if it's ambiguous.

holiday season inspiration

holiday season inspiration, originally uploaded by oltremare.

usually I'm not the kind of person that starts thinking about christmas in november, but this year is different for some reason. I'm really excited to decorate the house and make gifts and be festive.

I LOVE flickr favorites because it gives me a way to map a general visual style. for this christmas I'm thinking: homemade, natural, sparkly, somewhat vintage, icy blues and cherry reds. these photos give my ideas some substance.

My Newest Love

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
1. unicorns are real 2. wonder to behold 3. narwhal 4. NARWHAL ! 5. narwhal-decks 6. narwhal doll 7. arctic narwhal 8. a narwhal for wiley 9. narwhal

As you may have heard, I recently became intruiged by / obsessed with narwhals. They're fascinating. Did you know they are the only creatures on earth with a spiral tusk? And that the tusk is actually a sensory organ? I'm really becoming a bubbling fountain of narwhal information. Ask my husband, he's heard it all.

I have also discovered that many educated people have never heard of or don't believe in narwhals! Yeah, they're totally weird and mythical, but they do exist. So I'm making it my mission to educate the world on the glorious narwhal.

A few useful links:
wikipedia entry
fascinating new york times article