Trial and Error

I like trial and error. I do. It is a necessary process that elevates my understanding of various media as I learn the quirks and oddities that make up the properties of a material. Yeah, whatever. As valuable as I know trial and error to be in creating, sometimes it just iirrrrrks me so bad!

Yesterday, when I discovered a drying process gone awry on a piece I had eagerly and excitedly painted the day before, I wanted to kick something, hard. Luckily no one else was around.

Some fluke crackle effect where I didn't intend it to be.
really? GRRRRR!!!

Yeah, it's a pretty big buzz-kill on that whole fulfilling creative process thing when green dries blue, stuff warps to look stangely like crap, or a tool fails just minutes away from the completion of a major piece, all but totally destroying
weeks of work.

super.

Seems like it happens the most on stuff I am really looking forward to finishing. I'll be cruising along, moving closer and closer to the finished product I picture, when, wham, a lil ol' monkey wrench in my plan. Most times whatever has gone wrong is fixable, and teaches me something I can use to my benefit on other projects. In fact, the errors sometimes equal happy accidents. Sometimes it will change the vision for what the finished product will be. Bring out my inner scientist when something doesn't work and I'm forced to rig- er, formulate a new method.

how many times do I have to mix paint
to get the right pink? we are not going for
pepto bismol here...

But often, it is a setback, adding additional
step(s) and an additional day or more to a project. And, who are we kidding, when you are creating for a living, the "time is money" thing definitely applies to you. In the end, I try to make myself feel better about extra time I have to spend fixing or re-doing by thinking about how much faster and more efficient I'll be able to get that same thing done the next 5 or 10 times, knowing what I know. It's awesome in the same way as getting your taxes done.
Back to the drawing board...

A Feature

I've been featured! Cassandra Tomlinson of Tomlinson Photography was so kind to do a feature on her blog about me. Here's the link: http://creationsbycc.blogspot.com/2011/10/multimedia-artist-renee-parker-owner.html. Please check it out and share her blog, if you're so moved. ;o)

And please be sure to check out her studio on Artfire while you're at it- she creates some beautiful things herself! http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/Tomlinson_Photography_and_Design

Thanks again Cassandra!

Balance

No matter what I do, some days my simplest goal, balance, eludes me. It doesn't happen often. Yesterday I was running like a well oiled machine, going from one thing to the next, checking things off lists and savoring a sense of accomplishment as I barreled through my day, determined to maximize every moment afforded me. What made it balanced for me was that I also found time to do personal things for me. Today, however, was a dog of a different color. While I usually manage to efficiently stagger projects, starting on some while others dry, completing some things while others progress, I just couldn't get my rhythm right, couldn't seem to manage my time the same today.

Instead I ran back and forth and in circles trying to determine what needed to go first, what could wait, what was simple and could get knocked off the list quickly, etc.. My mental lists, proven steps, and internal clock just didn't sync up for me today. I decided not to be irritated, because everyday can't be like yesterday.

warrior, a new sculpture, available soon

I still have a few hours left in this day. Maybe this should be that slow down day I promised myself. It is the weekend, after all...

Wordless Wednesday



Whatcha trying to say, cookie?

yes, it's real

Lucid Pursuits

Okay, so how far is just too far, lol? Not long ago I was going about my day as usual, when the memory of a dream I had had the night before came to me. You know how that happens... hours after you get up something triggers a flashback to your adventures in dreamland. Anyway, I remembered a dream where, clear as a bell, I could see some of my materials. I was looking over different components that I have in real life, and designing things. Seriously. Actually working out how stuff should be made in the dream. Great, so I found a way to get more done, even while I'm asleep, lol! And I didn't even sleepwalk (as I have been known to do). Now if I could figure out a way to harness this and decide which projects to to delegate to dream Renée... Maybe if I tucked some tools under my pillows...

Things I Make for Me

It's true, as an artist, I spend a lot of time making things for other people. But I also find time to make things just for lil' ol me. Sometimes those things go on to be copied to sell or give as gifts, but the point is, they started out made by me especially for me :o). Here's the latest item of note:

A bunch of wool I had
laying around...

Plus a bar of soap...

Equals a scrubby wool felted soap.

This little bar with its new wool jacket is great for scrubbing paint, glue, etc. off of my hands when I finish a session in my studio. No, I wouldn't make this to sell- there are oodles of folks who already do, but since I knew how, and the materials were around, why not do a lil' something just for me?

Wordless Wednesday

I'm in Love with a {Wonderful?} Soy...

natural goodness or not so much?

Okay, here's the thing.  I must be the last person to become conscious of the whole soy craze sweeping the nation, because apparently it's old news and people have been talking about switching to soy products for years.  I stumbled onto it late in the game in a search to decrease the dairy in my diet.  I am a generally healthy person who prefers preventative measures over drugs and hospitals.  I also like to try to eat and conduct my life on the healthier side, but I'm no health nut.  Anyway things like persistent sinus problems and other minor annoyances, drove me to consider what changes I could make.  Dairy it was.  I love dairy in all its cheesy, creamy, sweet, savory manifestations, but I was willing to try something different.

soy froths so nicely!

In walks soy.  It was obvious from the start that we would be close, considering that soy can be and do so many tasty things (one of my favorites being vanilla soy milk).  It sorta... got under my skin (biting my knuckles dramatically like one of those noir film ladies from the 40's talking to a Bogart type).  But then while doing some researching online, I found discussions speculating about whether soy was actually good for us, or if it was a horrible low cost government machination to fill the void in capitalism created by people who don't wish to consume hormone-laced cow's milk.  AAaarrrggghhh!  What's a girl to do, eat her corn flakes with water?!  (noir dame grabs guy's shirt dramatically, shaking him hysterically)  Anyway, the jury is still out on soy, there's more research to be done before I can decide, and I'm finding so much conflicting info all over the web ... anybody got any good advice?

Wordless Wednesday

Thrift Score

As an artist, I see potential projects and ideas everywhere I look.  Everyday things can be transformed into art.  It's a sort of double vision I think most artists possess.  I think it has to do with how we associate shapes, textures, and colors in different contexts and subconsciously identify like qualities in different things.  ANYway, the point, lowly though it may be, is that one of the places I go for ideas and for wierd and wonderous things is my local thrift store.  I can go there and find things that can be taken apart to become parts of sculptures, rescue old books for new paper goods, find amazing furniture for refurbishing projects.  One of my most visited spots there is the "metals" aisle (for lack of a better term - I think it's got a big number 4 hanging over it, but that doesn't help you, does it?).

There I find all kinds of misfit things missing parts or just needing some love and a new purpose.  Wire baskets, brass cups, metal tripods that once held vases or bowls.  These can all become part of new pieces for me.  Today I stopped in between other errands, and while I found what I went in for, I didn't make it out with that alone, cuz walking up to the register, a few other items called out "Renée!!!  Wait!  Take me too!  Fix me and find me a new home!!!"  So here's my score:

 1. a metal tripod  2. a mini glass apothecary jar  3. an embellished

metal tripod with a cup  4. a letter or file sorter  5. a really cute top- perfect with short shorts!

I often pick up metal tripods to include as stands for sculptures I make.  They create a great finished look.  I couldn't resist the apothecary- I have a thing for pretty glass jars.  The sorter will feed my obsession with organizing and being efficient so I can get more done, and the top, well, why not?  Yeah, I'd call this a successful trip, since on top of the things I carried out in my bag, I came away with a little fresh inspiration, which is always on my list.

One Down...

Okay, so you'll act like you didn't see me slink in and start tapping on the keyboard like I haven't been otherwise occupied for weeks.  But I have a good excuse.  I've been otherwise occupied.  Meanwhile, blog posts and rants have been pressing and straining to get outta my head (or that could be my seasonal allergies taking another crack at me), dripping into lists of topics onto sticky notes laying around, waiting for me to get around to getting my two cents off my chest so I can move onto other things.  Writing is becoming like my other forms of creating- an idea or a thing just haunts the mess outta me for weeks, months, sometimes years (don't judge me), and the only way for me to get peace is to sketch, paint, sculpt, write, whatever to get it out of me. 

And lately, it seems like somebody somewhere has turned the faucet on full blast, cuz projects are just pouring outta me faster than I can jot down notes on what they will be.  No figuring out how this piece is going to be painted, or that piece is going to be assembled-- just me running back and forth, from one thing to the next, finishing things as fast as I can so I can go on to the next.  And on top of my own ideas, the blessing of commissioned projects for customers.  Things that I'm enjoying creating for them, because I know I can make what they envision a reality.

Anyway, everyday I've been saying, okay TODAY I will find 5-10 minutes while something is drying or I'm waiting on something to upload to write some of these blog entries.  Well, here I finally am, and I feel like if I had the luxury of time, I could write five, but since I got some deadlines and I need a few minutes sleep this is gonna have to hold my place for a couple of days.  Alright, whew-- till, uh... let's say Thursday ;o).

Wordless Wednesday