the pure interest

It is amazingly beautiful out there today. Perfect temperature, bright sunlight, luscious breeze. It’s one of those days where I look up to the sky and say “Thank You for my life…”

I can’t believe that fall is almost here. Or, here. Just in the beginning stages. (See pic #2)

I’m going to get a bit interior-design-ish on you right now… sorry all

I have been trying to design a quadrant type artwork for our bedroom that would cater to the colors in there (pale sage/mint green + dark chocolate brown) because I have a hard time finding patterns that I really enjoy or that work with the color scheme. Here is a picture of the room as it stands. I like the cute little antique mirror above, but it’s a bit boring for me. The windows and side tables are from Ikea, and the lamps from Walmart. (w00t!) And the bed is a smorgasboard of blankets and pillows from jc penny to tj maxx to tommy hilfiger to ikea to pier 1 to walmart….! The vanity is from target, the box on top from ikea, and the basket in the corner from linens n things. The roll pillow on top is from pottery barn from another set I have. As you can see, I get a little ridiculous about bedding. I think it’s my thing - much more than clothes, that I will always buy way more of then I need. I change my mind a lot!

This is as far as I have gotten with my artwork. I like it, but not that much. It is frustrating when you don’t like your own art. Does anyone have any suggestions to make it better?

While reading Paper Shop Ink, they plugged this really cool site called The Paper Studio … and it has the variety I’ve been looking for - and the papers are actually AFFORDABLE. For me, I tend to get inspired by seeing pretty patterns and papers that people blog about, but most of the time get frustrated - can people actually afford this stuff? And, I don’t like to post and say - hey, I want this and this and this and this. But… these, I think I could afford to get a great selection and still not break my budget of only $100 to spend on home repairs/decor a month. What is better, these papers or the original artwork of mine?

Maybe these would be good for my living room too… (reds and taupes)

Aren’t these gorgeous? What do you think?

I was taking pictures of the exterior of my house to have record of it before the school year starts (we live on a very busy corner that gets a lot of litter, damage, and all-around suffering from school being in session).

Anyway I came out with this one which was interesting to me.

Brian, the gamer, went to a conference called PAX 2007 this past weekend. He competed in the Omegathon and came in in the top four! I was so proud of him. Our friend Zoe joined him there, and she gave him this very simple but fun board game called Ingenious. It has to do with matching colors, strategy and patterns - and is very appealing to many people I think. We had a lot of fun playing for the first time. Below are some pretty pictures

My husband is off to a gaming conference and he bought me these beautiful flowers to tell me he’d miss me and thank me for being cool about it. I miss him already.

This is probably old news to most, but I just found this add on for web development and I hope it could really help me! I installed it and have seen some cool features of it but am a little nervous to know all that it can really do.

Through a design email, I read about Microsoft Photosynth. Could Microsoft actually be coming out with something this innovative? It looks unbelievable - completely changing how we think about the limitations of our computer screen. You can view hundreds of images, complete books, ads, and zoom in at high resolution to see everything that is there….

These are screen shots from the way zoomed out, and then zooming in as though through a telescope to high resolution close ups.

Do you ever get excited by and overwhelmed by new technology all at the same time?

I have been so busy this whole weekend and week I’m having trouble getting some interesting posts out there. I did get to bake a cake late last night, then my husband and I watched LA Ink. I never have been into tattoos, mainly because I have a very low pain tolerance, and because I would be scared to commit to something on my body for that long. I will say though, that watching this show has made me have teeny little urges for getting one, and I’ve been very impressed by the amount of talent, skill and artistic ability it takes to be a tattoo artist. They are graphic artists and fine artists all spun into one (not that there is necessarily a distinction). Last night, Kat did one on rapper Eve that had this beautiful symbol then some gorgeous scripty text put below it, and it made me think that if I ever did get one, I think it would have to be writing of some sort. I just love the artists on LA Ink - their tattoos are so beautiful, colorful, and feminine (but can also be manly!) I also, (shoot me) love Lindsay Lohan’s tattoo - it is “breathe” in a delicate white cursive on her wrist. The (bad) picture is 1st in the second row.

Probably a bible verse or just a word that symbolizes my art, my faith, and my family and friends. Ha… that’s not tricky, right? But the more simple the better. Below are some that I like. Scripts, flourishy art, and I love cherry blossoms. The last one is the tattoos of little stars on Kat’s face. I just think they are so cute. I would never get something on my face - but don’t they must make her look so special?

What about you? If you have a tattoo, what is it and what does it symbolize? If not, what would you get if you were to have one? And, tell me the truth. Just how badly did it hurt?

I learned about Diane Arbus, as most art students and budding photographers do in college. As most of you know, this movie, fur: an imaginary portrait of diane arbus, is highly fictionalized. It was certainly an interesting perspective into what her mind was maybe going through and why she was drawn to marginalized people in her photography. The other main character was Robert Downey Jr. who played Lionel, and he is a man who suffers from a disease where his hair won’t stop growing, so for the majority of the movie he is covered in hair from head to toe, looking like some sort of animal or “cousin It.” The movie mainly focused though on her developing love affair with this man… and that was odd to me. Diane (played by Nicole Kidman) was drawn to him over and over, while her family just sat by and let her be with him as much as she wanted… trecking upstairs to his apartment in the wee hours of the night, spending days with him. It wasn’t clear if she was lieing to her family or whether they knew exactly what she was doing.

There were some great touches that I really enjoyed to the movie - like how her husband grew a beard so he would have more hair and be attractive to her, and the “tell me a secret” line that permeated the movie. It was very artistic and well filmed. However, I definitely wish it was more about her groundbreaking work instead of this made up love affair. I know her husband and she were divorced, but was it something like this that caused it? That she was just “too weird?” And there was some pretty graphic sex & nudity in this movie….. it was a bit awkward at times. (that’s a warning)

So, that’s my crappy movie review. (I don’t claim to be a movie reviewer… since this one had to do with art though, sort of, well there you go.)

Here are some real works of Diane Arbus…. these are all taken from artnet.com