Catching up: some thoughts and art

Quite often I am taking part in art projects like the 100 day project, the annual Index card a day challenge … or Square collage, done daily in August on Instagram. When I am doing those kind of challenges, I create more because it is a daily project! I also post more of my art, usually on Instagram, because sharing there helps me stay on track. Makes sense, right? The challenge of the project and the habit of creating a little bit each day keeps me committed. I do enjoy that way of working very much. Twice, I have even done a 365 project creating daily, or every few days = 365 pieces in one year!

I do not have a daily art project now, except for generally taking photos every day. So, I renewed my Blipfoto Journal as of late, gravitating towards using it again at the very end of last year. This was after 1 whole year of my absence from Blip! I think a daily bit of creativity was missing for me and I needed it. Blipfoto has been very helpful to me, as far as keeping my creativity burning, especially when I don’t find myself involved in mixed media as much. Three of my recent entries below . . . to see more, just click on the Blipfoto Journal link, above.

What helps when you find yourself not creating as much as you’d like to? I’ve been cooking and gardening more. Yesterday I made a delicious chili. I used my regular recipe, but improvised on some of the ingredients! I added a cubed sweet potato, a red pepper & chopped carrots, along with onion, garlic & celery, all sautéed together. Then I added both dark red kidney beans & black beans as well as a small amount of lentils. Chili powder of course, but also a bit of cumin, a couple of splashes of Tabasco sauce, fresh basil & parsley from our small herb garden. That was fun! Steven loved it and I have 3 containers in the freezer for us to enjoy later.

Earlier this week I created a card with tessellating rubber stamps for a friend on Instagram. These stamps fit together & make a pattern. Mine are from a company called Rubber Poet and are 30 years old! We were writing to each other about the tessellating stamps she carved by hand & I mentioned the ones I had. I wanted to share what they looked like & that was the inspiration to create the card for her:

Today, I was inspired to do another project. I had recently put a wooden tray on the kitchen counter (easy to see) as an “‘In-Box” for any bills, receipts or papers that need to be read or filed. The In-Box was empty today and I did not like seeing the bottom of the tray had errant ink on it from when I used it to hold rubber stamps. SEEING THIS is what made me say: what about doing collage or adding some paper to the bottom of the tray to make it look better? That was all I needed! I went to my studio to choose some papers. I thought of and old ledger I had that came from my father’s (and grandfather’s & great grandfather’s) Stock Brokerage business, E.T. Andrews & Company Investments. I picked a page from 1933, copied it on my printer and started.