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Posts from the ‘Tammy’ Category

Dec 13

7 Comments

Tammy: Art Journal — Goals Irrelevant Unpursued

 

“I live now and only now,
and I will do
what I want to do this moment
and not what I decided
was best for me yesterday.”
~Hugh Prather

collaged art journal page
9×12″ drawing paper

 

A realization.

GOALS ARE IRRELEVANT UNPURSUED.

Lots of writing, to come to this conclusion.

Which seems obvious.

Now that it’s officially concluded.

Pick a goal. Let it go. Or get serious about it.

I looked back at my list of goals for 2010.

I won’t be sharing the pitiful % completion rate.

I did a lot of stuff, to be sure.

But it wasn’t the stuff on the list.

It needs to be the stuff on the list.

Or else I have to re-look at the list.

I’ll re-write the list for next year.

Make sure it’s in sync with life now, today.

Yesterday’s goals only matter if they still matter to me today.

 

[Crossposted from Tammy’s personal blog, Daisy Yellow]

 

May 24

8 Comments

Tammy: Define yourself

“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul
can always depend on the support of Paul.”
— George Bernard Shaw

I picture myself ordering at Starbucks, tentatively holding a moleskine journal and a Ziploc of pitt pens and gellyrolls, anxious for a few peaceful hours of drawing. The barista smiled and asked if I was an artist. What an odd question for a girl who had lived in the world of numbers, objective decisions and analysis since grad school. It was two years ago and a key a turning point… because I said yes. Yes.

If you teach calculus, yet ski every chance you can, are you not a skiier? You don’t have to be a competitive skiier or a particularly fast skiier or even stay upright most of the time to use the word. Calling yourself a skiier takes nothing away from Olympic skiiers or ski teachers.

We are all many things…

  • A Java programmer who is an avid urban sketcher
  • A mom who writes sci fi when the kids are at school
  • A logistics manager who writes stories for her children
  • A pilot who embroiders aprons
  • A mom who manages the PTA and blogs about nutrition
  • A chemistry teacher who creates art journaling pages all summer
  • A photographer who quilts
  • A paralegal who sketches jewelry designs at lunch
  • A realtor with a cooking blog
  • A homeschooling mom who develops crossword puzzles and writes poetry
  • A veterinarian who writes sewing patterns

What are you? If you say you are an [fill in the blank]… you are!

PS.  It’s Your Art

[Cross-posted from Tammy’s personal blog, Daisy Yellow.]

Apr 12

5 Comments

Tammy: Art Journal–Fiction

“People from a planet without flowers
would think we must be mad with joy the whole time
to have such things about us.”
~ Iris Murdoch


There are no rules to art journaling. You get to play using color, words and images. Art journal on cold-pressed watercolor paper or a box of Chex. Artist quality paints or cheap acrylics. Graffiti grunge or elegant typography. Just have fun, explore, create, get messy. This was a fun page to put together; it has a little bit of everything!

I’m always looking for spare moments to make progress on something creative, like drawing mandalas or embroidering. The first layer of this art journal collage was written while my daughters were in swimming lessons. I wrote pretend bits of short fiction in the form of slow journaling. Little mini-stories of detectives searching for clues, a lavish purse, and personal trainers pushing vitamins. Writing each letter slowly, constrained by the wavy lines, allowed time to have fun with the words.

Later (as in months), I added bits from an old children’s math text (discovered in my dad’s attic), quotes, paint chips, maps, psychedelic batik cardstock, cotton fabric stamped with a handmade FIMO stamp, fluid acrylic paint, even a 35mm slide case.

Have you tried the Kick-Start Art Journal Prompts?

[Cross-posted from Daisy Yellow; image copyright Daisy Yellow.]

Editor’s note: If you’re ever in search of creative inspiration, go immediately to Daisy Yellow — do not pass go, do not collect $200 — just go. Tammy’s blog is one of the very best blogs in the artful blogosphere — never fails to delight the senses and empower the creative soul.

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