The Julia Grace Arts Blog

Diving into Competition

Tuesday: April 17, 2012

Life has been in an absolute tizzy. I lost count of the number of times I thought “I really need to post about this”, but every time the notion was buried under the flurry of other to-dos piling up. Over the last few weeks I’ve been commissioned to create a chain maille watch band, entered four photographs in a local photography exhibit, worked on getting the JGA social media and store websites redone, spent the whole of last week bloodying my fingers from madly needle felting samples for my Fleece to Fantastic class on the 14th, fabricated 6 multi-needle felting tools for that class, entered two online competitions, and have been learning the hard way about just how hard it is to clean the smell of cigarettes out of a newly purchased used camera! I hope to remedy the lack of posts about each of these things, starting today!

Entering competitions isn’t something that comes naturally to me, it feels like a foreign language or way too much trouble than it’s worth, and more often than not I end up thinking my work just isn’t good enough to enter. However, along with learning the truth about that destructive mindset, I’m realizing that entering is more about getting out there than it is about the actual competition, so I’m closing my eyes and diving in!

In March I submitted four photographs to the Jenkins Arboretum, a local arboretum and garden center, for their 2012 Members Photography Exhibit in which one of my photographs was awarded an Honorable Mention and the print sold! The exhibit was small, with less than 50 entries, but it was still very nice and there were a number of wonderful photographs that I really admired. Here are my entries.

“Flower Ballet”

“Orange Blossom”

“Purple Iris”

“Redwing On Reed”
Honorable Mention

I’ve also entered two online competitions including A Long Pour’s Hipstamatic Photo Contest. A Long Pour is a wine blog, with a strong sense of community, striving to bring you “the stories behind the bottle” of California wines. In addition to wine, ALP loves the Hipstamatic Camera App and is running their first contest ever; The ALP Hipstamatic Photo Contest. This competition has been lots of fun to participate in! There are over 100 entries and counting and they’re wonderful! I love seeing the lovely variety of wine related photos, especially the ones of vineyards. I entered a number of photographs, including Kaleidoscope & The Ritual, from my latest Art-A-Day Challenge.

“Kaleidoscope”

Woman drinking glowing red wine from a glass

“The Ritual”

“The Tunnel”

“Last Drops One”

“Last Drops Two”

“Shadow Pour”

Photograph of red wine in a bottle through the neck

“Dragon’s Eye”

Yes, that last one is wine in a bottle. There are still a couple of days left to enter this contest, so head on over to A Long Pour to enter or view all the other loverlie entries.

The other online competition I entered is a Talenthouse Creative Invite. Talenthouse is a website I recently discovered that hosts a number of competitions for artists of all types. They provide opportunities for artists to work with leading brands, artists, musicians, etc. and gain recognition for their work. I’m not entirely sure what I think about them, especially since I have yet to received a reply to the email I sent them weeks ago inquiring for more information about their terms. I don’t know if I will continue to use the website, but I felt it was worth checking out when I came across the competition to “Design for Ladyhawke and Sarah Larnach”. I’ve never heard of either of them before, but the description of what they were looking for brought my portrait “Masquerade” to mind, so I decided to submit it.

Triple exposure portrait of smiling, screaming, and neutral faces

“Masquerade”

Ladyhawke, a New Zealand singer-songwriter, and her album cover art director, Sarah Larnach, are asking artists of all types to submit portraits that tell the story of their inner feelings. As far as all the self portraits I’ve taken go, I think this is the one that best fits that idea. Here is the description I submitted with my entry.

Do you ever look in the mirror and feel disconnected from the person staring back at you? Have you ever presented yourself as one person to the world while feeling like another person entirely when you’re alone? Do you ever smile when you’d rather scream? We often live our lives hiding behind our own faces, contorted into an appropriate mask for the occasion. I created this piece around that concept, to reveal the trapped emotions within.

In addition to the 19 portraits selected by Ladyhawke & Sarah, there will be a “People’s Choice” winner. I’m not a fan of community voting deciding the winners because invariably there are those who know about 1000 people and convince them to vote for them everyday and spam their Twitter and Facebook pages with pleas for votes. I really despise begging for votes and tweeting the same thing over and over, so I generally never get many votes if I bother entering into a voting contest. However, if you are inclined to vote, I would really love to have your support in this competition. You can mosey on over to this page, click on “Support Julia” (it works through Facebook), and you’ll receive a reminder to vote for me when voting opens in the next couple days. Share and tweet at your own discretion, but anyone who does gets my undying, eternal gratitude!

I’m searching for more competitions to enter while trying to keep my head above water with everything going on. Often I feel like I’ve been transformed into a tiny boat tossed about on the waves of a vast, dark ocean. One moment I’m on the peak of highest swell, only to be flung down into gigantic whirlpool with a kraken waiting at the bottom! Here’s hoping the next sea monster will be friendly!

Cheerio!
- Jüls

Tags: A Long Pour, Fauna, Flora, Hipstamatic, Human, Self-portrait, Talenthouse, Things, Wine

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Holly from 300 Pounds Down - Thursday: May 10th, 2012 - 10:04 pm

I think it’s awesome you are entering the competitions. Do what you gotta do!! You have to secure votes and people need to know about it first so don’t feel bad. I hope you win!

A Hero’s Goodbye

Friday: March 30, 2012

It’s been almost a month since my last post; unfortunately because there’s been a lot of sadness in the interim. My Grandfather went into the hospital, then hospice, and then passed away. It leaves me with a tangled mass of thoughts and emotions that will take a long time to unravel, which I’m inclined to do very slowly an in the privacy of journals rather than here, but I do want to write a little about my Grandfather, because he was a hero.

It wasn’t often talked about, but he was a World War II veteran and Prisoner of War. He flew a B17 Bomber and survived being shot down and put in prison camps and forced on marches. I didn’t understand this growing up. I knew my Grandfather made beds for my dollies that my Nana sewed quilts for and fixed numerous things for us. I knew he liked my drawings and my clay figures. I also knew he was a veteran and a POW, but I didn’t really understand what it meant. I learned about WWII over the years in school and on TV, but still there was a disconnect between that and my Granddaddy. Even now, I don’t fully understand the importance of it and it really didn’t even begin to dawn on me until I heard a description of all the things he did and of what happened while he was a prisoner at his funeral. It feels almost surreal to suddenly realize that there is a whole different dimension, multiple dimensions, to this person you’ve viewed through the eyes of a child your whole life, but I am glad, because he was a hero who protected freedom.

The funeral was the only military funeral I’ve ever been to. Unfortunately National Cemeteries are incredibly busy with funeral after funeral day after day, so there’s a time limit on the service and it was very abbreviated. It was a sad experience, but great in its own way to see the respect given by all. I was asked to take a few pictures, so here are a select few. Hipstamatic recently released a film that included a red, white, and blue stripe in the corner and I was glad to have it for this occasion.

The Honor Guard who shot a volley of rifle fire.

The bright sun threw the pavilion we were under into deep shadow, so I opened up my HDR app on my phone to capture this last salute.

A close up of the symbol of what my Grandfather fought to protect, after it was folded and presented to my Grandmother.

All along the fence by the pavilion they had the crests of the different branches of the military. I took a picture of the Air Force crest even though when my Grandfather fought the Air Force wasn’t its own separate branch of the military yet. Instead he was in the USAAF, the United States Army Air Forces, the direct predecessor of the USAF.

At the meal after the funeral there was a table set up with many pictures and memorabilia.

A collection of patches, pins, and a bullet from the war

And last of all, a collection of pictures of me and my Granddaddy when I was little.

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man’s avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

- Julia Grace

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Art-A-Day Week Four Favourites

Sunday: March 4, 2012

The February Art-A-Day Challenge is officially complete! It was quite the journey, but it was definitely a worthwhile one. I had so much fun creating each piece and trying many new styles, mediums, and techniques. That’s what I love most about these challenges; pushing myself a little farther out of my usual routine each time and finding out I won’t crash and burn in spectacular failure as my “inner critique” often tells me I will. Even when my pieces aren’t as successful as I’d like I’m learning to accept it. I’m learning I don’t have to be perfect and neither does my work and making pieces like that is part of growing as an artist. It may seem like a simple concept, something everybody should know, but when you struggle with crippling ideas such as “Your work is just not good enough.”, “It’s not as good as [insert artist/piece/etc. here].”, You haven’t been doing this since you were 5, so it’s too late, why bother?” floating around in your head, the realization that you don’t have to be perfect and your work will improve if you keep trying is quite the paradigm shift.

And on that bright note here are my final favourites, starting with “Envy” for Day Twenty-five’s theme “Green”.

A dark and mysterious close-up portrait of a green tree python with her head between a few coils.

Nyari, my green tree python, is a favorite creature of mine, in an “admire the deadly beauty from afar” type way. She isn’t actually deadly, but a bite from her is not a pleasant thing since she has rather long teeth. Green tree pythons often have rather delicate dispositions and don’t take to stress well, so handling her often isn’t something I do. She does however have a very tall enclosure with branches and greenery and I love watching her crawl and coil. She’s a beautiful model, even if she does have a shy yet firey temperament!

I wanted my piece for this theme to have layers of meaning beyond the obvious color for those who wish to ponder such things. Since green is associated with envy, which can be likened to a monster and to venom destroying and poisoning you from within, I chose to photograph Nyari whom represents monsters, venom, and because snakes are representative of original sin in the Garden of Eden. Envy is one of the “Seven Deadly Sins”, so that ties in quite well.

My next favorite is “Blush“

Digital oil painting of a peach using ArtRage

Since I haven’t eaten a peach recently I changed Day Twenty-Seven’s theme of “Something You Ate” to “Something You Could Eat”. This is one of the pieces I broke out of my regular routine with and was pleased that I did. I’ve never painted a still life before, though I’ve drawn a fair few in my art classes and only a handful were in color, so this was something rather new for me all around. I also broke away from the stubborn idea ensconced in the deepest recesses of my psyke that everything I do has to be hyper-realistic. That single idea has caused me more agony over my work than any other. Moving away from attempts at hyper-realism has made me a much happier artist. That’s not to say there’s something wrong with hyper realism, though I once had an art teacher who said it wasn’t “real art” or “true talent”, it’s still something I hope to be able to achieve one day, but for now I am choosing to explore other options. It was very freeing to paint this peach representatively (but not hyper-realistic), accept it isn’t perfect, have a few things that I dislike about it, yet still enjoy the way it turned out.

The peach itself is based from a photograph of the single most largest peach I’ve ever come across. To give you at least some idea of it’s girth, here’s a few photographic portraits of it.

A triptych of photographs of a Giant Peach And A Farm Girl

The final favorite of this challenge, which is in a three way tie for my absolute favorite with “One Tough Bunny” and “The Ritual“, is from Day Twenty-Six’s theme “Night”.

A digital painting of a Barn Owl by Moonlight using ArtRage

This feathered subject was a wonderful surprise. I originally started painting a moonrise above a dark forest when this guy swooped into my mind, grabbed my pen with his talons, and threw himself into the painting. I adore raptors, especially owls, so I was more than happy to have him and painting his luminescent feathers was my favorite part.

I chose the title “Phantom” since Barn Owls are often referred to as the “Ghost Owl”, “Demon Owl”, “Hobgoblin Owl”, and many other goulish names due to their spooky appearance, call, and probably the myriad occurrences of one suddenly appearing out of the night, white face gleaming, in close proximity to nervous humans. They’re beautiful creatures and one of my favorite species. I can readily imagine a little mouse, just out of the frame on the forest floor, unaware that death on silent wings is almost upon it.

I’m glad to be finished with this challenge, but I eagerly look forward to the next one I participate in.
Toodles!
- Joules

Tags: Art-A-Day, Challenge, d200, Digital Art, Fauna, Flora, Hipstamatic, Nikon

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Art-A-Day Week Three Favourites

Monday: February 27, 2012

I finally caught up in the February Art-A-Day challenge to find only a few more days left! Playing catch up was difficult. The more behind I fell the more a little voice in the back of my mind told me to just abandon the rest of the challenge, especially since I had a whole list of “more important” things to do. That voice is a silver-tongued monster; the same monster that whispers about my work just not being up to snuff. I’ve taken up a crusade against this voice, so in continuing my battle I finally managed to complete the items on my to-do list that needed immediate attention, tell that little voice to go fly a kite, and took two days to complete a week’s worth of pieces all in one. That week’s worth of work spans the end of Week Three and the beginning of Week Four, but two pieces made it into this week’s favourites round-up.

I’ll start off with a photograph I took before falling behind, entitled “Corded“, for Day Fifteen’s theme “Phone”.

Black and white photography of the inside of a cord from a corded phone

Since I use my iPhone for most of the photography in these challenges, and it had already appeared in Day Ten’s piece, I wanted to do something other than take a picture of it. I’d originally thought of a rotary phone, but don’t own one. There is, however, a corded phone here for the land line when the power goes out. I decided to take a photograph from an uncommon angle and since the cord itself is my favorite part of the phone I chose a view looking through the center of it. Playing with the cord brought back fond memories of twirling myself in the long, sagging, white cord of our kitchen phone as a child. I remember its weight and the sound it made slapping against the cabinets and the floor.

The next piece is a digital painting for Day Nineteen.

A digital painting of a spider hanging above a bed using ArtRage

The original theme for this day was “Something You Hate To Do”, but I couldn’t think of anything I hate to do that would make a worthwhile art piece because, let’s face it, who really wants to look at a picture or painting of a cat box or hairball on the carpet. Ick! I shortened the theme to “Something You Hate” and one thing that I really hate is spiders in or near my bed! I really don’t mind spiders in general as long as they aren’t on my person, holding tarantulas aside, but there’ve been too many times I experienced them dropping or crawling on me while half asleep. The worst experience by far was when I was rudely awoken from sound slumber at 5am as one of the cats chased a baby tarantula sized fishing spider up the bed along the wall it’s against. Thankfully even in my half asleep state I managed to scramble out of the way as my “knight” proceeded to kill the “demon” on my pillow and leave its carcass as proof of his heroic deed. Ugh! I spent the rest of the night cocooned in a blanket in the exact center of the bed. That was the inspiration for “Nightmares On Silken Threads“, though it doesn’t depict that particular incident. I chose the title for its double meaning of silk sheets and spiders hanging from silk threads.

My top favorite for this week, which has tied for first place with “One Tough Bunny“, was the most fun to create as well. “The Ritual” involved black silk, wine, and a flashlight.

A red-hued photograph of girl drinking a mysterious bright red liquid from a glowing glass

Myriad stories ran rampant through my neurons as I set up and photographed this image. I thought of vampires and elves, of darkness and light, of Carroll’s Alice and Neo’s red pills, until I was entirely distracted by trying to get the lighting and focus just so. Still, whenever I look at it, my mind returns to wander the many pathways of what might happen when the girl drinks from the glowing cup. Is she in danger or will it save her? Is she joining a family, a culture, or a cult? Is it poison, wine, dragon’s blood, or the red light of a dying star? I love the possibilities this image brings to mind and the inspiration it gives me for future stories. I would also love to hear what story it tells you! Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

That completes Week Three’s favourites. I’ll be posting the final week’s favourites in a few more days as well as posting about some really wonderful art supplies and the new business cards I designed. Stay tuned!

Adios!
- Jules

Tags: Art-A-Day, Challenge, Digital Art, Fauna, Hipstamatic, Human, Things

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Art-A-Day Week Two Favourites

Sunday: February 19, 2012

Leaping Lagomorphs! These past 11 days have found me swamped with much more than I expected, but in a good way. I received my order of supplies for the line of chain maille jewelry I’ll be creating, I submitted four prints to the Jenkins Arboretum 2012 Members’ Photography Exhibit, I’ve contacted a few locations about submitting work to be displayed, visited an art center where I may teach classes in the future, I’ve begun looking for studio space, and I designed and ordered new business cards. I’m enthused for all the opportunities fast approaching and to once again be working with chain maille! Unfortunately all these wonderfully exciting happenings have caused quite a few delays in online updates. I’m even a few days behind in the February Art-A-Day Challenge, but I’m hoping to get caught up again in the next couple days.

Since week two’s entries are all posted, I’ll continue in last week’s vein by posting a few favorites, starting with Day Eight’s entry for the theme “Sun”:

Acrylic painting of the sun in space in a style reminiscent of Van Gogh

“On A Bright Note” was a fun piece to create. It’s painted with acrylics in my journal. As seems to be the pattern for many of my favorite pieces, I started in with a completely different idea, but when the paint didn’t do what I wanted, I glopped more onto the page and let it carry me where it wanted, and got a better result for it. I had a lot of fun playing around with the textures of different brushes. I’ve painted very flat in the past, so now I’m trying to incorporate more texture and impasto into my work. I have since painted more another piece in the same vein and I think I will continue with the galatic theme and do a series on canvas and see where it goes.

This piece also made me appreciate the difference between viewing a painting in life versus looking at a photograph of it. It took quite a while to get a photograph that came close to accurately representing the texture and colors of the orginal and even now it still leaves much to be desired. It really makes me look forward to the Van Gogh exhibition I will be visiting next month.

Next is a self portrait of sorts.

A photograph of a collection of items that represent Julia Grace

“Bits & Pieces” is Day Ten’s entry. Since I decided against a more typical self portrait since I often use myself as a model for other themes, I thought I would try my hand at the idea of photographing a group of items that represent me. It was definitely hard to choose what items to use and it’s far from a complete representation, but it was fun to put everything together. Some items contradict each other, and some are probably hard to figure out what they are, but I think that adds to the representation since I’m made up of quite a few contradictions! I would like to do this again in the future when I can spend more time gathering different items.

This week’s last favorite is a digital painting for Day Thirteen’s theme “Blue”

A digital painting of koi and goldfish in a pond using ArtRage

“Pipsqueaks” was born of my love of painting and drawing goldfish and koi and the idea of the two meeting in a pond. This was my first time drawing any digitally. I really enjoyed drawing the fins, but trying to get the fishies to look like they are in any way underwater was quite the challenge. I could have fiddle with this painting for days and days, but thanks to this challenge I’m learning when to say “Okay that’s enough for now. I can always revisit it later or paint it again in the future.” Since I am quite fond of the little orange goldfish in this piece I’m sure I will draw him again.

I’ll be sure to share week three’s favorites, once I’m caught up!
Have a wonderful evening
-Jullese