I can be a fairly stubborn person. Particularly when it comes to decisions I’ve made specifically for myself. Back in May of 2011, I cut my hair yet again. For about six years before that my hair style was constantly “growing.” I would cut it to my ears and then grow it for about a …
Okay, awful pun, but I couldn’t resist. And it harkens back to the seventh Harry Potter book. You know what I’m talking about. Anyway. At the Ignite Craft conference I got to talking to Diane Ivey, owner of Lady Dye Fiber Arts. She was giving a presentation as well and we spent some time trading …
Recently, the internet served up to me another interesting idea: Photograph centenarians, a.k.a. people in their 100’s. This idea was undertaken by the German photographer Karsten Thormaehlen in 2008. He photographed over 40 men and women who had reached the stately age of 100 and published them in the book, Happy at One Hundred. Their …
Read more “Idea No. 43: The 20th Century Captured in a Face”
Applying paint in new ways is one of my favorite things. In college, I was having lunch in the cafeteria with a group of friends when I accidentally squirted ketchup across the table out of one of those red plastic ketchup bottles. As an artist my first reaction was, of course, ‘I wonder if I …
Whenever I tell people what I want to do with my life, what I’m studying, they always end up asking, “what is community art?” This is a hard question to answer. On the one hand, it’s self-explanatory: a group of people come together by creating some form of art in a way that strengthens their …
Recently I’ve been working on making my songs less… obvious. I love metaphors and always have. I’ve used them since I was a young girl comparing my feelings to pudding that could be eaten. I began writing this song by just playing around with sounds on the guitar. I found a couple lyrics but at …
Make time to practice Many people have the misconception that you either have creativity and talent or you don’t. This is particularly true when it comes to visual art. However there is another important element in the process of creating: practice. In some art forms this is more obvious than others. Music, especially instrumental music, …
The internet this evening informed me of the suicide of one of it’s greatest leaders: Aaron Swartz. I was first alerted by Upworty.com, who I follow on Facebook and on Twitter. Their Facebook message said this: “Everyone who works on or uses the Internet owes a lot to Aaron Swartz. Today was his funeral. His …
I’ve been playing classical music since first grade and for the first eight years I hated it. My mother, who was usually not a particularly strict parent, put her foot down when it came to music. She loves the arts and has always regretted the fact that her mother let her quit piano when she …
Last year it took me months to come up with a new years resolution. So much had just changed, I had only been in Boston for three months at the beginning of 2012, I was in a new relationship, I was enjoying my graduate school, and my most important unconscious resolution was just to get …