Busy as a Bee

As this year comes to a close, this old soul has plans for the year ahead.

Such as what will I be doing, where will I'll be going, how will I progress in my future as an artist.

Planning ahead:

Fur Rondy Photography Contest - my goal is not only to enter once again but to win in one of the divisions this time

First Friday Show - goal is to have a gallery showing of my artwork in March or April

Contact Galleries throughout Alaska either on consignment basis or as representatives for my artwork.

A booth at Spenard Farmers Market on Saturdays and Downtown Market on several Sundays during the summer.  Goal is to sell lots of art and establish a larger client base

I also want to do several of the large Summer Festivals that are for artists and crafters.  These include Girdwood, Seward, and Homer or maybe even one up in Fairbanks

Come Fall I have a desire to do more Holiday Bazaars

Enter the Photography Contest at the State Fair with the goal of winning a division ribbon

I need to do some traveling to enlarge my portfolio 

I need to step outside of my 'shy side' and become a member of a Photography / Artist Guild

Also a few classes to refresh & brush up on some skills that have been neglected. 

To do many of the list above requires funding.  So I am also thinking of returning to work part or even full time if that becomes necessary to achieve my goals.  I have champagne taste when it comes to camera photography equipment and supplies.

Brick Architecture

Living in Anchorage, Alaska as I do it always surprises me that the city has very few 'brick' homes and buildings.  

Having spent half of my life in St. Louis, Missouri - a city that was 80% brick buildings, I grew up thinking all cities had tons of buildings that were brick built and of many hues.

Bricks were a low cost building material in the days when St. Louis was at it's early stages of becoming the 'Gateway to the West' thanks to the explorers Lewis and Clark.  

Brick architecture has fascinated me most of my life.  Colors range from reds to dark chocolate browns and pinks to beige.

It is quite expensive to use bricks or even some common stones for building in Alaska.  They must be shipped up from one of the lower 48 continental states.  So brick buildings are few and far between in any of the cities of Alaska.  Most often when one see's a brick building, the bricks are utilized more as a decorative enhancement.

 

Bricks may be made from clay, shale, soft slate, calcium silicate, concrete, or shaped from quarried stone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick

Clay is the most common material, with modern clay bricks formed in one of three processes - soft mud, dry press, or extruded.

Normally, brick contains the following ingredients:

1. Silica (sand) - 50% to 60% by weight
2. Alumina (clay) - 20% to 30% by weight
3. Lime - 2 to 5% by weight
4. Iron oxide - 5 to 6% (not greater than 7%) by weight
5. Magnesia - less than 1% by weight

What Were They Thinking?

My mind wanders every now & then.  Far off places may attract my attention for a short time; a new photo might grab me to experiment with it; and then I’m drawn like a bee to honey with ‘what were they thinking’ news headlines that open my eyes to the weird & wacky. Even on TV I am amazed at the antics of some that are reported.   

Online searches confirms *Per Google Search - About 179,000,000 results (0.25 seconds) * that I’m not the only one who is easily amused by folks who do these dumb and silly things that we call 'What Were They Thinking?'.

A couple of years ago we brought a new stove.  On the instruction page was a picture and then on the picture a red circle with a thick line crossed through it.  Yes dear fans it was a drawing of a person standing on the open oven door and the caution was “Do Not Stand On Open Oven Door will Cause Stove to Topple Over causing Harm to person Standing On Door”.  Believe me with all my cooking adventures of over 50 years never once has it crossed my mind to stand on an open oven door until that moment <G>.

A few others to entertain you over the holiday break if your children let you on the computer while they are at home.

Business:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9697581/

Celebrity: http://omg.yahoo.com/hot-topics/what-were-they-thinking/46

A homeless sign that got me thinking about the placement of just WORDS:

 

Pine Cones

Because of their widespread occurrence, conifer cones have been a traditional part of the arts and crafts of cultures where conifers are common. Examples of their use includes seasonal wreaths and decorations, fire starters, bird feeders, toys, etc.

As a child we made the Peanut Butter bird feeders.  I have made my own wreaths.  I have use pine cones as fire starters.  I have use them as Christmas tree ornaments.  For a long time just had a basket full sitting in living room adding a lovely fragrance.

In my yard I have several ancient Pine trees dropping pine cones over the lower third of my yard.  The neighborhood squirrels squabble over these morsels for storage during the summer for their winter feed.

Wiki has a great page for information and photos

of various pine cones species. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conifer_cone

Strawman in the Wizard of Oz

Anchorage at times is the center of wind storms.  We can be buffered from the North, the West and the South winds.  

Anchorage is in a bowl along the Chugach Mountain Range.  Many folks have built homes going up the mountain which we call the "hillside"  Winds gushing there can be 70 to 100mph.  With the speeds a bit less here in town.

The last two days has been major wind storms throughout the Anchorage Bowl.  This extends 40 miles South of Anchorage reaching Girdwood and 60 miles North to the outskirts of Wasilla.

Our little house is anchored in a bit of a valley here in town; one of the few actually... most of Anchorage is pretty flat.  The winds reached a good tree slapping 55-65mph last night.  It was a bumpy night with many strange bangs and clangs against the outside walls.  There were a few blasts that I thought this tiny house might go sailing through the air just like Dorothy's house in the Wizard of Oz.

With my fingers crossed all night for no power outage (which the temperature with wind chill -20) that would not be making for a toasty sleepy night.  We do own a generator although in the 4 years of owning it - it has never been powered up.  

I do believe a test and practice run of using the generator is in order...due to the severe wind storms this winter making my little old heart a tad nervous if I had to sleep again with such vivid dreams of a movie from decades ago.

All night my dreams seem to follow the characters in the Wizard of Oz.  The Tinman slamming into the side of our house, the Strawman tumbling over and over in the snow.  My fearless Patches the Cowardly Lion.  I the wicked witch of the East riding out the storm on my trusty broom.  And my guy the Wizard...telling all "Follow the yellow brick road!"

After this mornings quick check to see if any damage to our house and those on either side of me; I was happy to see just branches tossed throughout the yard and Mountain Ashe Berries littering the side yard.  My trees withstood the storm. Seems most of the litter that blew around; has been blown far south. I may find my trash can lids a few miles down the road tomorrow.

I wanted to tap my heels three times and say "There's no place like home".  There is no place like Home!

The snow did drift about one foot south over our sidewalk.  And added a layering effect on the other side.

Amazing Race

On Sunday night the team of two women won the Amazing Race.  A team I had been rooting for since the beginning of this season's start.  Finally two women beat out all men teams and man/woman teams.  I just about roared out a cheer but I just the the womanly thing and silently clapped my hands and said "YAY!"

Amazing Race has been since the first season one of the handful of programs this household follows. 

Dreams of being a team lurks in my brain. 

Fantasy of winning has been often replayed in my mind.  Except this is a household of two medical problematic folks.  Both heart patients.  And one has had two serious back surgeries and he medically could not do some of the stunts.  Then some of those things; I myself would balk at doing.  But the temptation to apply is always in the background when watching the teams race to the next stop along the race.  I think he would be a great partner to see the world with...I'm sure he thinks I would be an okay partner - I can be a bit of a nag, jump on his case for any reason, and I think things need to be done my way.  Other-words I have an attitude. 

I've never been out of the States.  He traveled once to England.  The cities on Amazing Race are ones I would love to race through.  He would rather do others, ones with more ancient history esp any that have a Roman history surrounding them.  He is an ancient history buff!  I'm just a time traveler to any city on the map of the world.

With a new season starting in January for teams that didn't win any race but became favorite of the viewers I can hardly wait to relax each Sunday night, dreaming of far off places and cheering on my next team to victory!

                                                 My guy racing each day in his own way

Finding Perfect Ink-jet Photo Paper

A common complaint I hear from many who print a normal amount of work on any brand of printers is that replacement inks are expensive and that the machines use it up faster than any of us could predict.  I have said several times before: Ink-jet inks are my number one loss of income.  

  

Ink-jet photo papers are another major source of my revenue spent.   My rant today is about finding affordable photo papers and paper that I wish to use for my photographs that are printed out on either of my two printers.

Photo paper for either of my printers drives me to look at all online sites with a fine tooth comb.  Which is very hard for a tactile person as myself.  I desire to feel a paper before I spend a lot of money on it for three reasons: I dislike thin flimsy paper, then it must not be too thick that is causes my machines to jam, and if the texture is one that is something I like also.

Anchorage has one art supplier store.  They were stocking a wonderful brand of photo ink-jet papers by Canson that Fishlips fell in love with using for several of her masterpieces that had the ‘watercolor effect’ as their focus.  Plus their color regular photo paper was outstanding.  The last several months restocking of these wonderful papers have not occurred. 

Anchorage has one photographic shop offering a small selection of inkjet photo paper also (although I have yet to crack open the box to test the brand recently purchased)  

Office Max and Office Depot both have every day Inkjet photo paper with one premium paper I have purchased that I found acceptable.

Although for any print larger than 8 ½ x 11 inches are send out to a printing company…I still must print out each creation so that I know what the final outcome is for color, depth,  make sure all is in focus, and that the photo meets with my standards.  Plus for every piece I create… a copy is kept in a portfolio.  

I do a lot of print testing.  Print testing means trying out on the different type photo papers that could make or break a photo: Matt, Satin, Gloss and Textured.   

Most photos will look stunning on Gloss Photo Paper.  Satin is wonderful for those photos in a glass frame so that glare is not an issue.  Matt and textured paper is wonderful for certain effects.

There are also times when viewing a photo that is 5 inches big on my laptop and may look pretty interesting.  Then when printed out on a full size piece of photo paper that slight blur which I thought was my eyesight is actually a bad photo.  Or one will print out a beauty but needs to see how it looks on all types of papers.

There are those times when wild abandonment hits me and I create artwork that requires several different steps and those need to be printed out so one can compare each different step.

This all just goes to show everyone reading this: nothing is easy as it looks when viewing the final product. 

So to all those other artists out there: If you have a favorite ink-jet photo paper let me know what it is, where one can locate, and what you like about the paper .  I’m sure there are brands I haven’t heard of or tried yet plus  It is always fun to experiment with new papers!

Color Me Bright

As mentioned in other posts Color is one of my driving forces.  The brighter and wilder the color the more Fishlips is attracted to them.  My take on using colors:

Pastel colors are soft, used to subdue the subject.

Bright colors shimmer, used to bring the subject to attention.

The following three photos are different perspectives of the same photo altered in a wild abandonment of having fun and discovering the different effects I can apply using Photoshop.

  

 

 

Christmas Cheer

Fishlips will be setting up Christmas decorations around our home this week.  I received a request from the man who shares my life:  real pine garland or wreath so that we have that ‘Christmas tree smell’ since our tree is a fake one for safety and lack of space reasons.

Anchorage has several places one can visit to find real pine trees and decorations.

Bell’s nursery in Anchorage is the place to go for the best real pine decorations. Bell’s is a lovely year-round nursery that is a joy to visit anytime.  They are also the most expensive in town.

Lowes and Home Depot both have super garden areas filled with affordable pine trees and decorations that are lovely and grand also!

Our Tree from 2009

Fishlips admits she is a sentimentalist.  The discovery of this fact as one ages only makes it all that much worse.  Hallmark cards can make me weep.  A sad chick film can me weep.  Looking through old boxes filled with photos from childhood make me weep.  Putting on decade’s old Christmas ornaments will make me weep.  Each of my tree ornaments are one of a kind and each has their own little story.  Each year I look forward to seeing many of the movie Christmas classics; one of my favorites is Christmas Story. 

Fishlips has very fond memories of holidays my family celebrated.  Tradition still holds for my family across the states. I also know this is not the case for many – their holidays were filled with anger, hunger, loneliness, sadness, and other horrors.  Holidays can bring out the worse or the best in any human.

Fishlips wants those around her to believe she is strong and invincible.  I do believe many of my fellow human beings practice this approach as they go about their strides of life. So to those who struggle during the holidays: my prayer for all is simple.  “May your heart have happiness and peace for this moment in time.”

Three Faces of Eve

I’m a sucker for color.  The bold, bright colors fill my thoughts.  When I see an item I envision it in different colors.  Taming colors is not what one should do.  One needs to celebrate the colors within their world.

Modern marvels from my computer:

Digital Enhanced Photo’s altered by Photoshop

‘Three Faces of Eve’

or

‘Baby Face’ 

as I am calling the final one in all purples which is listed at my Artfire shop.

Standing Still While the World Spins

The world spins round and round; folks spin out of control.  

Fishlips thinks it must be the holiday’s that make so many folks turn into crazies. 

Fishlips has been told she is a tad too laid back about the matters of the world’s craziness.   There are moments when I feel I’m standing still and the world is spinning out of control.

I’m totally aware that any second a crazy can jump out of nowhere and destroy the planet in two seconds.  Just reading newspapers, comments on any social network, the evening news on TV can set one’s heart all a jitter.   

I refuse to play into the hype.  One cannot live life with a constant fear in their gut.  It’s just is not healthy.  I'm aware and alert that is all that is needed.

Fishlips also believes folks have vast differences in views of the world.  I can respect yours but remember to give respect back.

I also will not allow anyone to offend/attack me verbally...in my world that type of baloney is not necessary.  I love to discuss the latest issues of the day – I am open to learning new things about the world’s issues; but I refuse to be taunted into a verbal fight.  When that happens: the person who gets so aggressive is either a total nut case or someone who has anger management problems so I step quietly away from them as far as possible.

Fishlips is glad that she can put blinders on when necessary, step away from the problems surrounding so many, and enjoy the sunshine that I see each morning as it appears.  I’m so thankful for the small things in my life: a roof over her head, a warm bed, food each day, and good health. 

 

More importantly I am pleased that in small ways I can help others. 

American Cancer Society of Anchorage received a donation of 4 pieces of my art today for their annual fund raiser that will be held on February 5, 2011.

 

I’m happy to give to several non-profits whenever they ask for a donation. We support a handful.

We help the homeless all year long.  

We give to abused women shelters.  

We give to Toys for Tots.

We are retire folks living on a small fixed income but we have enough for ourselves and thus also affording us to give when we can.

Tiny things that brightens Fishlips small world.  Plus holds the craziness of the planet at bay.

Anchorage had it first major snow over Thanksgiving Holiday.  My world is complete once more!