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”:

“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.

“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”

“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

Happy Febrrrrrrrruary all! It snowed here today. Big, feathery flakes tumbled down from soft-box skies, coating things in ephemeral, crystalline beauty and giving the day a peaceful, insulated feel. I spent much of it reading and procrastinating starting today’s art challenge. If you’ve been following me on Facebook or Twitter you already know about the challenge, but for those who don’t visit my social media pages (what are you waiting for!) let me explain. Late last year a fellow photographer from my graduating class at Hallmark Institute of Photography, Diana Garcia, posted a “30 Day Photo Challenge” on Facebook asking if anyone would like to join in. I agreed and had a lot of fun, (you can view the results here), this month she posted another challenge and I jumped right in. However, I decided to make it even more challenging by adding other art forms.

I’m posting each day’s piece on Facebook, (check the album out here and be sure to “Like” the page!), but I wanted to share my favorites from this week’s themes here. I’ll start with what may well end up being my favorite from the whole challenge; I think he’ll be pretty hard to top.

 ”One Tough Bunny” was Day Five’s piece for the theme “10am”. I often find myself taking themes and prompts very literally, so I’m try push myself to come up with ideas farther outside the box. 10am was also rather difficult in and of itself as a theme since how do you really represent 10am? I knew I didn’t want to simply take a picture of a clock, I’d done that for a related theme in the last challenge. Since I am usually up past 2am I’m often just waking up around 10am, so at first I started a piece involving dreams. That particular idea fell apart quickly, making me feel rather dejected, so I changed directions.

Despite not wanting to photograph a clock, I still wanted a clock represented somehow and when I really ponder times and clocks I invariably start thinking about Alice’s White Rabbit. I decided falling down a rabbit hole was exactly what I needed, so I ran after my own version of the leucistic lagomorph. I didn’t want to copy Disney’s, so I gave him a complete make-over, including attitude. It started off with having a clock in his eye, meandered from an anatomical rabbit body to having more of an anthropomorphic form, and then the tattoo appeared. I still felt like he was missing something, a pocket watch of course, so I gave him one on a choker, which led to the earring and tada! He felt complete. We’ll see if any future pieces can top him in my favorites, it will add one more aspect to the challenge

Next we have a photograph from Day Four’s theme “A Stranger“

The multiple exposures showing hidden emotions concept is something I’ve been fooling around with for a while. I haven’t yet achieved exactly the image I have in mind, but this one is quite close. This is the first time I’ve done a “triple exposure”, previously I used a double exposure option in camera, but since I use myself as a model it’s been difficult to get things lined up correctly while guessing where to position myself. Taking three separate exposures and lining them up in post production allowed me to get everything just the way I wanted it and add a third face. I like the way this image turned out, but I’m sure I will continue playing with this idea.

My last favorites from this week are both from Day Two’s theme “Words”

“Wordwell” was a really enjoyable image to create. I knew I would be unable to finish my other piece by midnight, so I scrambled to come up with something in the interim. In a fit of desperation to avoid taking a picture of random magnetic words or having to open a bottle of ink and try to write in something other than my usual inelegant scrawl I tossed a bunch of the magnetic words into an inkwell, put together the beginnings of a poem, added a “quill” in hand, and snapped the picture. Turns out a little bit of desperation can be a good thing for my creative process!

“Written Word” was a theme in the previous challenge. I’d considered using magnetic poetry in that image, but decided in favor of something I’d written, so I was glad for another opportunity to use them. I’m really glad I did because it allowed me to get a bit of poetry into the challenge as well.

The second piece for Day Two, “Dandelion Storm“, was an experiment for me. I decided to make a “drawing” entirely out of text. I hadn’t realized exactly how tedious this would be and so was unable to post it before midnight, but I completed it the next day.

Despite the myriad repetition of duplicating text layers (greatly aided by zealous use of customized shortcut buttons on my wacom tablet) it was satisfying finding just the right fonts and words to use for each part. (You can find a list of the words I used here.) I’m happy with how it turned out, not having any prior experience with this particular art form, but I’d probably still be fiddling with it if I let my perfectionist side take charge!

Here is a detail shot, so you can get a better sense of the text

Overall, adding things such as painting, digital art, and anything else I enjoy into the challenge has definitely been harder than focusing solely on photography. It takes much longer to paint and draw than it does to photograph and since I am not as confident in my skills in other mediums it has been stretching my comfort zone, but it is motivating me to get my hands back into other art forms and practice those skills. As long as I can keep myself from falling into the “Pit of Perfections”, where I’ve spent way too much time berating myself for my art not being exactly perfect, I believe I’ll enjoy this challenge just as much as the previous one. I’ll be posting my favorites weekly, but make sure you tune into my Facebook Page or Twitter if you want to see a piece daily.

Gutenacht
- Jülz

This winter season has been rather strange, with an October blizzard, roses blooming in December, and salamander nymphs and insect larvae still swimming in the stream in January. This final day of the month feels as if it were transported here from early April. The first new plants and flowers are pushing their way through the carpet of crunchy leaves, birds are chirping, and there are even clouds of insects dancing like dust motes in stray beams of sunlight. I couldn’t resist going out into the golden pre-sunset light, delicious warm air filling my lungs, the occasional breeze tangling my hair, and mud squelching under my boots, to take a few pictures of the precious purple blooms and other winter oddities.

These are actually a few wild berries that have survived all winter, but they are so delightful with their plump, indigo-hued forms clinging onto twirling vines that I had to share.

I believe these are well on their way to becoming daffodils

A world where frogs can fly

These salamander nymphs are so hard to identify properly I’ve given up trying, but I’m certainly not used to seeing them swimming around in January! This guy was happily prowling around in the muck.

Here’s another little guy from even earlier in January.

Other critters were making appearances under some logs

This centipede was none too happy about being disturbed, so I kept my fingers well away. Can you spot the hiding pill bug?

This delicate little blossom had already released its stem, perhaps hoping to blow away on an errant breeze to have a grand adventure.

I hope everybody else in the area is enjoying this pretense of spring while they can and I wish pleasant winds to those elsewhere.
- Jools

]]> http://www.juliagracearts.com/20120131/pretense-of-spring/feed/ 0 http://www.juliagracearts.com/20120126/daily-travels/ http://www.juliagracearts.com/20120126/daily-travels/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:00:18 +0000 JuliaGrace http://www.juliagracearts.com/?p=787 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

Almost every day my dog and I go for a stroll around a field on our property. Inara keeps busy stuffing her nose into the grass and mud searching for small rodents to hunt. I walk around taking photographs and looking for the quasi-resident group of blue birds or the occasional falcon or hawk.

This time of the year everything is muddy and brown, but there’s still a lot of beauty left. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from some autumn and winter walks.

I happened to be outside as one of the last real thunderstorms of the season rolled in. It was amazing watching the herd of stampeding water droplets blow across the sky, writhing and boiling.

These dried flowers are whitish blooms in the summer, but they dry out to a pretty slate gray, covering our field in an ever growing haze. When you crush and smell the dried blossoms, they have almost a medicinal smell to them. I wish I knew what they were, but I haven’t been able to identify them yet.

Over the past few years this lovely, though probably invasive, species of grass has been popping up in the field. I’m mesmerized by their tufts swaying in the breeze or glowing golden in the afternoon sunlight. They’re one of my favorite subjects to photograph out on my walks.

I live next door to a family with a large barn with a number of horses and they always have a barn cat or two prowling around, much to the local wildlife’s dismay. This past summer we had so many stray and barn cats around that we barely saw any frogs! One day I happened upon this tortoise shell kitty, practicing her camouflage. Can you spot her?

Happy Trails!
- Jools

A couple days ago a sample of the custom felting kit I commissioned for my class arrived! I commissioned it from another small home-based business, Woolpets. It has been a pleasure working with them and I love being able to support other artisans. The kit is absolutely fantastic. It’s exactly what I envisioned for my class and I couldn’t wait to share it.

The kit contains:

• 1 Foam Working Surface
• 2 38g Felting Needles
• 1/2 Oz White Wool Roving
• 1/4 Oz each of Black, Chocolate, Smoke, Cupcake, Sky Blue, Marigold, Red, Toffee, & Lima Bean Wool Roving

Each student will receive one kit to keep and will have plenty of wool left over after class to continue felting. I will also be providing wire for feet and ribbon for hanging for anybody who would like it for their felted creation.

I am so excited for this class and can’t wait to give the students these wonderful kits! I will be felting up a storm over the next few months making samples for the class, so stay tuned for plenty more pictures!

Adeiu
- Jules

My absolute favorite fiber craft, and quite possibly my all time favorite craft, is Needle Felting. What exactly is Needle Felting you ask? It’s sculpture using wool. Taking a very sharp, barbed needle you stab carded wool fleece, also known as wool roving, over and over and over. The barbs on the needle weave the fibers tighter and tighter together, allowing you to sculpt the wool into practically any shape you can think of. You can create sculpture, jewelry, décor, embellishments, and more. It’s a time consuming process, but it’s incredibly satisfying. There is nothing quite like the feeling of taking tufts of loose wool fleece, stabbing it, and watching it slowly take the shape of the creature I picture in my mind. It’s almost magical, except for when I accidentally stab my finger, then momentarily it’s not quite so magical.

Recently I have been given the opportunity to share my love of this wonderful craft by teaching a class on it through Main Line School Night, a great place offering a wide variety of courses to the local community. I’m incredibly excited to teach this class. Here is the information on the course:

Needle Felting: From Fleece to Fantastic

 Date: Saturdays: April 14th & 21st, 2012
Time: 12:15-3:30pm
Fee: $89 (Includes Materials)
Location: Creutzburg Center
260 Upper Gulph Rd
Radnor, PA 19087

View & Register Here

I will be teaching the basic techniques, with which you’ll be able to create almost anything, and talking about the many applications of needle felting. You will come away with your own felted sculpture or ornament and everything you need to continue felting. The course fee includes a felting kit, sourced from a fellow artisan, containing a foam working surface, felting needles, wire for feet, ribbon for hanging, and an array of colorful fleece. Registration opens today! There’s 12 spots in the class, so register soon. Feel free to send me a message with any questions you have.

I am hoping for a full class and if there is enough interest I may be able to run the class a second time, so please spread the word. Post it on Facebook, tweet it, blog it, and shout it out your window!  If you have a favorite spot with a notice board, let me know and I will mail you a poster to hang up. Every little bit helps.

If you would like to see a few more examples of my needle felting check out my Handmade folio. I will also be making many more samples for the class over the next few months so stay tuned for more  pictures!

Keep Crafty
- Joules

Today marks the rebirth of Julia Grace Arts with the launching of the new website and blog! Hip hip hurrah! Please feel free to throw confetti, pop open a bottle of champagne or sparkling juice, wear party hats, and make some celebratory noise. The volume of said celebratory noise I will leave to your discretion, in regards for any sleeping neighbors, babies, and dogs.

I’m so glad to have finally finished the site. It feels great to finally accomplish this goal. The past few years have been very tough, but thankfully the tide of creative burn out is ebbing and I am looking forward to this coming year and plunging my hands back into the world of ink, words, paint, wool, and plenty of new mediums!

The new site was much fun to design and build. I used the ProPhoto Blogs theme for a WordPress site and created the “Top of My Desk” design from scratch. It was occasionally frustrating when I had trouble figuring out the exact bit of code I needed or trying to discern why something wasn’t working the way I’d intended, but I somehow managed to get everything sorted in the end. I’m very happy with the way it turned out and very glad to have the website and blog integrated in one site instead of a separate flash folio site. ProPhoto has an excellent product and allows you to use as little or as much customization as you’d like. I’d highly recommend it. They have really wonderful customer service too, though I did venture too far out into the realm of customization for them to support at times.

So what happens now? Well, next on the revamping list is my poor, long neglected Artfire store and I also have another exciting announcement for tomorrow, so be sure to stop by then!

Party hard everybody!
- Julia Grace