Author Archives: leslie

The Reveal

I've been having that feeling lately that I'm not doing it right, whatever "it" may be. I have that feeling that everything I've done should have been different. I  just don't care about SEO and SMO and everything everyone else seems to be obessesed with. I simply want to write blog posts about things that I care about; art, craft, photos and all that fun stuff.  

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All the people I enjoy reading and they are writing about this workshop or another that is designed to turn them into a super blogger/business-person/artist/whatever and I realize I'm just not that into that. Yeah, I want to be the best damn artist and writer I can be but i also don't have the desire to sit through meetings and vlogs and podcasts and skypes with all of the well-intentioned people who claim they can make me a super something-or-the-other. 

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I'm fighting to leave corporate life and all that stuff brings it back in. Sure I want to use the skills and knowledge I've acquired over the years but the real goal is to leave the corporate stuff behind. 

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Over the last year I realized that I has to make a few changes or suffer burnout. So, I made those changes and not surprisingly my life has been better. Balance, it a good part of what life is about, the rest of life is about the pursuit of happiness in whatever form it is you seek. 

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In all this deep introspective bullshit I've found my new project. I've looked at what I enjoy: art and writing. Then I spent some time looking back at my life and recognizing patterns. Overwhelmingly I see a pattern of exploration and learning of new ideas. I am a compendium of thoroughly useless knowledge that I've learned over the years in a fashion with little rhyme or reason.  


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My personal project will combine all of this but add some structure to the whole thing. Instead of willy nilly exploring a concept I'm going to work an art journal around the concept and see what the results are. From there I hope to self publish the results via blurb or lulu. 

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Call it a zine. Call it something else. I'm nor sure what exactly this is all I know is that I have to pursue the combined projects.  

For awhile now I've felt like everything I do is fighting with what I really want to do and that I need to give into my interests in some manner. Giving myself the space to make art, take pictures, and tell stories is exactly what my brain has been telling me to do since I first folded and stapled together my first "newspaper" when I was in 4th grade.(on pirated software and laid out on an Apple IIc printed on an Oki dot matrix.) 

 

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Apps, the iPoo, and a shock

I’ve been testing out some apps to see how useful they are for composing posts and zine blurbs and so far the one I like the most is, believe it or not, Microsoft OneNote. Shocking. But it let’s me add photos to my writing with ease and it auto backs up to an online folder as well as my computer if I want. Unlike the stupid typepad app that won’t autorotate the onscreen keyboard for entries OneNote let’s me do that. (and then I can copy and paste into typepad.)

Go figure, Microsoft does something right!

So, I suppose now would be a good time to tell you about my latest project…. But Imma leave you hanging for another few days. A hint though, it involves the iPoo, writing, photos, and art journaling.

Also the photo in the post was taken with the iPoo and edited with instagram and camera+.

Apps, the iPoo, and a shock

Intentions

I had the greatest intentions of posting some pics of my painting in progress, a Hopper inspired view of Super Chicken, whichyou can see in black and white in the photo below. I'm combining on site (in situ) viewing as well as photographic reference for the painting.

However. I worked on the painting diligently for a weekend, went to Maine the following weekend (I'm an Aunt!) and now I've been sick and this weekend I'll be at a funeral. So, painting and updates wait.

Woprk has been interesting. People come into my office and start to talk, their eyes narrow, they say, "Are your allergies bugging you or are you sick?" I tell them I'm sick and they slowly start to back away from my office door. It has greatly decreased the real actual work that is occuring. Additionally my voice has that smokey husky quality that Pheobe in Friends had in that episode where she sang, "Smelly Cat," and people really liked her music until she got better. I still can't sing but these are the kinds of things that I think of when I'm on DayQuill. People, it's not good.

Anyway, Super Chicken…

image from www.flickr.com
On another note, can I stop hacking and sneezing and oozing from my sinuses? Just for a few weeks so I can ()**&^^&%&*(^(*&(*_ enjoy fall, after all it IS my favorite season.

Art Adventure: Boston’s MFA

After a brief hiatus the art adventures are back on! This week Jane and I headed to the MFA in Boston to see the (new to me) Art of the Americas wing. It’s pretty darn sweet. It also renewed my interest in some of the more modern American painters.

ONe of my favorites has always been Edward Hopper for his street scenes. It is directly in line with the sort of photography I’ve been doing lately as well as the paintings I’d like to produce.

From our trip Jane and I discussed a lot of things; that we miss having critiques because they push you to do more; we miss some structure of classes and assignments, to that end we’ve given ourselves an assignment (I’ll discuss this later); additionally we miss making art adventures.

We already decided that we’re going to meet again in 2 weeks.

The assignments are going to have a theme but that’s it. We can work any size and any medium as long as we stick to the theme. This week’s theme is pretty easy, “Create a piece inspired by our visit to the MFA.” It couldn’t get much more open than that, given that we looked at work on paper, sculptures, drawings, photography, and stuff from all time periods.

So far I’ve decided I’m going to go with a painting of a local business Hooper inspired, probably China River or Super Chicken and most likely work in acrylic on stretched paper. I haven’t figured out size yet, but that will come with time.

I leave you with this guy drawing in the MFA, I'll scan some of my drawings from our coffee sessions and from the train station.

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What a Weekend alternatively Fall is Here

When I went for my walk on Sunday I was greated with perfect air, not too cold, not to warm. The sun didn't rise until later in the day and the trees have lost that golden yellow green color, they have changed to that deeo green shade you get right before fall and everything turns yellow, orange or red.

From here the days will get shorter and we're only weeks away from snow, I'll be soaking up the last of the sun while I can.

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Harbor Fest

We had a few rainy days this week so I was pretty happy to have a nice sunny day for the Beverly Harbor Fest. We walked down and wandered about listening to some live music and checking out the crowd. I could really see this take off and be a great event for the city, much like Art Fest, in fact I’d love for the city to have a fall harvest style festival right on the water.

On our way home I took this picture. I might try for a better shot of it next time I’m out. I have to admit I’ve never stepped foot in this shop, but maybe I should.

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