The Other Side of Somewhere

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel

You have reached the blog formerly known as {art*play*possibility}.  ♥

Keep Calm and Carry On

It's only Wednesday, but it's already been One Of Those Weeks.  A whole bunch of little annoyances and frustrations exploded into a mushroom cloud of stress and frustration.  Seriously, when I am Queen, I will make it illegal to use the words "customer" and "service" together in the same sentence unless it can be proved that said entity actually understands what customer service IS and can deliver on it consistently.

It would also be nice if the utility company could READ the meter properly.  I had a gas bill that went from over $100 (that's a lot of showers and dishes for one person in a month) to $4.80 after I went out and read the meter.

Oy.

Yesterday, I was feeling the stress and barely resisting the urge to inhale large quantities of ice cream when I was reminded of these cool posters I've seen on etsy that say "Keep Calm and Carry On". The posters were designed in England during WWII as a way to encourage the populace during frightful times, though it is my understanding not many were actually displayed.

Dealing with Sears and the gas company (and computer hackers, and and and ...) is not the same as, say, hiding in the basement or the underground while the Blitz rages overhead, but the sentiment is encouraging, don't you think?  It is crisp and no-nonsense.  It immediately made me stand up a bit straighter and put my shoulders back.

So of course I ordered the poster!  Victoria (sfgirlbybay on etsy) sells lovely screen prints in a variety of colors including juicy orange, vintage red, pretty in pink ... lots of colors ... go check it out. (The photo here is Victoria's and features the vintage red version that I ordered).

Apparently London IS calling at the Peregrine residence these days: 

I can't stop singing along to Adele's version of Bob Dylan's To Make You Feel My Love (which might be my favorite song - I have several different cover versions of it, Adele's is my favorite).

Also enjoying Duffy.  Her voice is soulful and original.

Keep Calm and Carry On everyone! (I couldn't resist, sorry).

Play

I'm nearing completion of the art journal I began last year around this time.  It's amazing to flip through the pages and see the time passing. 

I think Dorothy Parker once quipped that her favorite part of writing was finishing (I love Dorothy Parker).  I usually agree with her - it's such a satisfying feeling to finish.  But with art journaling, I love every moment of the process too. 

What about you?

The Second First 30

Here are the first 30 atcs (Artist Trading Cards) in the second half of my year-long art project.  Hee, hee.  Is that hard to follow?

Which one's your favorite?

You can see all the cards (from the beginning) here.

If you would like to follow along daily, you can use a blog reader such as Bloglines or Google to subscribe to the feed by copying the following link into your reader: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=72157605356610868&nsid=84767708@N00&lang=en-us

News-a-palooza

It's a little publish-y around here this month.  Hee hee!

I recently had the opportunity to do artwork for Somerset Studio magazine's regular feature, With One Palette!  My aqua/tangerine/berry/black artwork appears in the newest issue (July/August).  The pieces in the article will be available at Boodzoo Studio over the next couple of weeks.

Stampington & Company has also included a reprint of my With a Pencil and Stencil article in the latest issue of Hand Crafted. The article originally appeared in Somerset Studio magazine in 2006.  This was my first article and it came about in an interesting way:

I submitted artwork for one of Somerset's themes, hoping one would be selected for their reader gallery (Expressions).  Instead I received a phone call (!) from the editor asking me to create additional artwork and an article! It was something I never expected in a million years.

I share this little story in the hopes it will inspire you to submit your work (if that's something you aspire to do).  So many of us are afraid to put our work out there for fear of "rejection" or "criticism" and sit on the sidelines wondering "what if".  If you're on the fence about submitting your work - do it!  Do it today!  You never know what might happen! 

Hand Crafted is a wonderful collection of articles and projects from all of Stampington's line of publications, from Somerset Studio and Art Doll Quarterly to The Stamper's Sampler and Somerset Memories (Legacy).  I can't possibly subscribe to all of these magazines, so Hand Crafted gives me the opportunity to see what's going on elsewhere. (And no, Stampington didn't pay me to say that!).  Hee hee.

Enjoy!

Bird

5" x 7" mixed media on stretched canvas: paper, paint, neo color II watercolor crayons, found papers, pencil and relief print (eraser carved stamp).

Getting ready ...

... tweet, tweet.

1000 Artist Journal Pages (Whee!)

Whee! 

This long anticipated and eagerly awaited book was waiting for me on the doorstep when I arrived home from work a little while ago.  I dropped everything - my purse, my lunch, the mail - and tore the cardboard off the box so I could finally hold this book in my hands.

Oh my.

The book is amazing, gorgeous, and hefty!  320 juicy pages of journal art from all corners of the globe.  I haven't gone through the book page by page yet (the content is deserving of a soft chair, a cold glass of tea and my full attention), but as I quickly turn the pages I see artwork from many of my friends and favorite journal artists and I'm already discovering new favorites. Oh boy oh boy!

I'm also excited because some of my own journal pages are included.  Color me thrilled and happy (and just a tad - ahem - giddy about it all).

Gotta go now and spend some time soaking up the inspiration!

Illustration Friday (Forgotten)

Illustration Friday.

Artist Trading Card (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") on recycled cereal box.  Collage, acrylic glaze, colored pencil, tape, found text, photos from my personal collection.

My daily ATC project.

Slaying the Quilting Dragon

Come summertime, for some odd reason, I find myself wanting to sew.

Last summer I made a doll quilt as part of a challenge on flickr. 

This summer I'm all about finishing up quilts I made four or five years ago.  See, I love to piece quilts.  There is something about sewing that strict 1/4" seam and piecing strips of fabric together that is meditative and soothing to me.  I love the hiss of the steam from the iron as I press and smooth out wrinkles.

But once the quilt top is done, I switch into avoidance mode. 

Hello, my name is Jeannine, and I don't like the quilting part of quilting. Nor do I like binding.

Quilting, even by machine, takes planning and time and attention to detail.  Even with a machine, the binding must be finished off by hand.  It really cannot be rushed and precision is necessary.  Quilting and binding often reduce me to fits of frustrated swearing.  (ahem).

These three quilt tops are at least four years old.  One features Laurel Burch Christmas fabric in the Trip Around the World pattern.  Another is from one of my favorite patterns, the Log Cabin Stew, and the last is from a Catberry R.F.D. pattern that I originally intended to give to my Dad.

I dragged them out last night to see which one I might take to the quilt shop to pay for someone else to quilt for me.  But I looked at them and saw all my little errors (my triangle points don't always line up) and thought about all the work that went into them.  I felt so tender towards them all of a sudden and decided I really need to finish these up myself.  Stop trying to find the easy way out (which is not only applicable to quilting, but to life, of course ). 

This summer I will face my quilting demons and finish these quilts! I have a book and a previous quilt (completed in class and with help)  to refer to, and a local quilt shop I can run to if I get desperate.

Learning how to do this will make me so happy and accomplished, and of course, once the quilts are finished I'll need new patterns and fabric to make new quilts! 

Back at One

Starting over.

I started this project last November with the intent to create one atc (artist trading card) per day while Mr. P. is away.  I had one particularly emotionally bad day, skipped it, and let the entire project lapse.  I was too sad to continue.

Now I will begin again and this time I will be counting down the days until he returns home for good.  It's a little more hopeful this go 'round.

You can see all of the cards from the first half in my flickr photo album.  I'll be updating my progress there daily.

Here is where things stand currently, a scorecard if you will:

ATCs #1 - 100. (Just over 3 months of daily cards)

Skipped ATCs (days) #101-110

ATCs #111- 112. No cards between March 20th - May 30th.

The ATC shown here resets the entire count.  We're back at one. This card is #1a.  With Mr. P. returning sometime in early November, the second half of this endeavor should yield approximately 150 new artist trading cards. 

It feels good to start again.  I've missed this.

In Between Now and Then

This week has been that awkward time in-between living our "normal" life and Mr. P. leaving again.

It has been nice having him home for almost an entire month.  A true gift of time.  We laughed, went out to dinner, spent a couple of days in Washington D.C., hung pictures in the house, watched Frasier reruns, sat on the back deck chatting and watching the birds, went to the movies, bought a new stove, and ran errands.  It's all gone by so quickly.

He goes back tomorrow and I will not see him again until November.

In-between now and then is the Summer to be gotten through.

It's funny, we've been married for 13 years this year and been through many work-related separations.  Each time, I think I've figured out how to deal with his absences, as if there is some kind of formula. 

Well.  There is no formula.  Each separation is its own unique entity with its own set of rules and customs.

This time, initially, I planned a lot of activity for myself (my well-intentioned daily/weekly/monthly creative projects for example).  All to keep me distracted and "busy", I guess.  What I've found during the first half of this thing is that I really need less structured activity and more free time for life to unfurl at its own pace; having big swaths of time allows me to take care of myself however I might need to at any given moment. Too much activity can be overwhelming.  Solitude, in this case, is a good, necessary thing.

That said, my Summer will not be lived in a cave.  Hee hee.  I am taking a creative class, online.  Class meets virtually, once a week, for ten weeks.  I'm very excited about this, a little nervous too (which is why I'm not sharing specifics, yet). 

I am also resurrecting my Daily ATC project.  This was a really good thing to do.  I've missed it. 

Other than that, I'm just taking it easy.

I hope time is kind, and passes as quickly as possible.

Creative Spaces

When I was a little girl, I used to sit smack in front of the TV (I Love Lucy and The Flintstones being favorites) and play with my paper, glue, crayons, and scissors.  Although I've pulled the chair back away from the TV so it doesn't burn my eyes, and although I have a dedicated space for all my creative stuff, I still say there is no better studio space than the one I had when I was five. Even now I love to sit on the sofa with my toys and play.

Even so, I saw this magazine at a friend's house after initially resisting it, and I cannot stop paging through it.  There are some awesome studio spaces out there!

My dream space?  Oh yeah ... a HUGE industrial loft with floor to ceiling windows spanning an entire wall.  A dedicated table for: working, cutting fabric, sewing machine, cutting paper (mat and tools), beeswax, and drying painted papers.  I'd love to have a dedicated space for shooting photos of my Blythe dolls.  Definitely need a bean bag or oversized comfy chair in which to read, write, and daydream (and for the whiskered ones to sleep on).  The computer and printers would be in there somewhere, of course.  I'm totally enamored with the idea of living in the loft as well - just one big living breathing space.  Last but most important?  A concrete floor so I can roller skate from station to station.  Wheee ...

It's a nice dream, isn't it?

This magazine is pure eye candy for me; a nice peek at how other people decorate their spaces. While certainly I like a nice space, I'm not too worried about decorating my own - decorating is not my strength. 

I'd rather play.

Changes

As I've mentioned,

Art & Soul this year was a deep and meaningful experience for me.  The classes I took and the people I met clarified a few things about both my public and private creative work.  These little epiphanies, combined with my aim to make authentic choices means there's a new way of doing business around here. 

 

I've made a small but meaningful change to my blog.  When I launched this blog in 2006, its purpose was to support an article I had written for Somerset Studio magazine.  I picked a blog name and it was fine but it wasn't all that; it was what I came up with on the spot.  I've kept the name all this time because I had some irons in the fire and it seemed important to other people that I remain consistent. A couple of years ago, I launched a second blog, a writing-oriented blog, with a name I loved from a poem I'd been composing.  After a short time I decided to close that second blog because really, who has time to keep a blog for every interest?  I was not happy breaking myself into pieces and compartmentalizing myself.  I've taken the name of that second blog, The Other Side of Somewhere, and applied it here.  {art*play*possibility} was nice and served its original purpose, but I've not been happy with it for a very long time.  It just doesn't fit me anymore.

 

Maybe someday I'll write a post about the meaning of the new name, or share the actual poem (still tweaking it).  For now it is a name that fits me and a name I'm madly in love with. It is not a strict definition of content you might find here and offers wide open spaces for all of my creative interests to roam about.

 

If you link here, I am beyond honored.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  If you wish to continue linking here you can update your link to reflect the name change, use my real name, or leave things as you have them.  The url for the blog remains: http://jperegrineart.typepad.com.

 

As for my artistic work, I've decided to step back from selling and a general sense of striving.  Oh, my etsy shop is still open and I'll continue offering work there occasionally, but I need to take the money component out of my creativity.  It confuses me.  It clogs it up.  It puts pressure on me to produce, produce, produce. The soul of my creativity is in playing, experimenting, happy accidents, and discovery, things that money doesn't have time for.  I've been asking my creative work to do things for me it isn't meant to do, at least at this particular point in time.

 

My experiences over the last few years have taught me a great deal; I've had quite the education.  I know too much to go back to working in a vacuum, but I don't want to continue the way I have been.  For now I'm just going to "be", enjoy the journey, and see what happens.