Momma said...

growing up I can't remember all of the times I heard my mom or dad say Practice makes Perfect.  In art, not every single piece made is world class, museum-worthy or going to sell for a fortune.  Sometimes, the pieces are just practice....practice....and more practice.  #InspiredArtProject2015 #art

The Mind's Eye (c)SZing 2015.

Who Hasn’t Doodled?

Wow, it wasn’t until I saw that title in the big pink letters that I realized how wrong that sounds.  I’ve been asking that question for years in my classes.  Have always gotten a few sort of funny faces and a lot of giggles as a result but wasn’t sure why until now.

Let’s face it.  Everyone doodles. 

My Bomomo artwork, #1, (c) SZing.

As an artist, my job is to figure out how to make my doodles count.  Doodling is useful for me in a number of ways:
1.  In my art journaling.
2.  When I’m stuck on the phone listening to musak or someone droning on and on…
3.  As a way to clear my mind when I’m getting organized for a project.
4.  To help me think outside of my current color scheme or ideology.
5.  To practice drawing.

Bomomo #2, (c)SZing

I’ve been doodling for as long as I can remember.  My mom doodled profusely. I’m guessing my grandmother might also have been a doodler.  I come from a long line of doodling.
I recently have been looking at online and phone widgets that have artistic applications.  I do a lot of abstract painting and glass work so I want a tool that can help simulate my artwork without too many limitations. I also want to be able to save my work so that I can view it, use it, change it.

Here are a couple of my favorite online widgets:

Scriblink—a great tool for collaborations, whether artistic, business or otherwise.  The thing I don’t like about it is that there is not a way to save a picture—instead it saves a link. That’s not as useful as I’d like it to be for my artistic purposes.  The tools are somewhat limited as well.  You can invite parties to the URL and collaborate. Very cool.  Lots of limitations though.

Qweeky—this is a pretty sophisticated doodling machine. Actually, it really is more designed for drawing rather than just doodling.  Very complex and complicated.  I honestly don’t have the time to sit and figure it out when what I really want to do is get hands-on doodling time in.

Swarmsketch—this is really limited because you only get to put one line in and you’re done.  On the flip side, since it is creating a collaborative art piece, it’s pretty cool.

Bomomo #3 (c)SZing

and of course, my all time favorite so far is Bomomo. There is a large selection of tools. The tools follow the cursor on the screen.  The only things I’d change would be the ability to select the color palette and the chance to change the shapes and sizes of the tools at my whim, not the whim of the widget.  Otherwise, I can spend my late-night before sleep hours watching TV and doodling.

Of course, I still love my hands-on, in my art journal doodling the very best but the digital version are gaining ground.

Unpackingness and the Virtual Move

(c) SZing  An enhanced photo of my keyboard....

As if I don't have enough going on, I've initiated the transfer of my domain from one service provider to a new one that has easier access to manipulate my website...so, for anyone trying to reach me, all of bohemianartcafe.com emails will be down for anywhere from 7 to 10 days.  Hopefully much less.  During the months of July and August, my website will be receiving a facelift.  I suppose it is what one might call a "virtual move"...like the real thing hasn't been enough for me, eh? Makes me want to sing a ditty revised from Finding Nemo..."just keep unpacking, unpacking unpacking unpacking...." and it begs the question...will it ever end?  Well, I have decided that I must always say I am working on unpacking because inevitably the moment I finish unpacking and love the way my studio is set up, the Universe conspires to move me on to the next great adventure...so no, it will never end.  I'm going to be unpacking forevermore...and the website is just one more manifestation of that unpackingness (yes, it IS TOO A WORD!)

Pretending these are "Flying Hands" working diligently to unpack my studio while I sleep.

(c) SZing "Flying Hands"

So, one might wonder what an artist does while one's studio is discombobulated (also a WORD, I swear it!)...this artist works on making background pages for journaling, practice doodling (it's astounding that anyone actually thinks they NEED practice at doodling!), cutting out favorite images, articles and words from magazines and sorting them into their appropriate new homes (my inspirations binder, my wisdom binder, and the word bin for collaging, respectively.  HAH!  Talk about your organizational skills...)  Also working on teaching proposals--just got one accepted for weekly classes during the "season" (October through April) and seeking out venues for selling one's work--have a line on at least 4 locations and now need to do the follow up/footwork.  And tomorrow, I'm indulging in a wire wrapping jewelry class so that I can make some different looks with my glass cabochons.  I've been experimenting with wire wrapping and will soon reveal some new rings I'll have available for sale....and reading art related books "Orbiting the Giant Hairball" by Gorden MacKenzie and The Guerilla Art Kit by Smith. So, no, just because the studio isn't up and functional, does not mean one must starve for artistic outlets.  If all else fails, I can work on painting the cats and dog or at the least, gel-ling their fur into interesting configurations. 

Have a happy weekend.  Find a creative outlet.  Be.