Fugly Art. let it be Fugly

For the past oh, 7 years, i've been working on making it pretty. When i did interior plant design my boss would say "Make it pretty'. And thats what I did all day, and still do. I make my floral shop pretty, make nice arrangements. But lately, out of boredom I've also been making funky, sometimes downright ugly arrangements. for example, pulling all the petals off the sunflowers so they are just a big black eye, and arranging them in a row with cattail spikes. and i'm always surprised when they sell. People like unique.

I've been a jane of all trades for as long as i can remember, but have become a master of none. Now i am determined to overcome my Libra tendencies to flip flop and buckle down and become a master of a material. And on that journey i am going to make some Fugly art in the process of learning that material. So here's my first attempts at Raku, exciting, hot, and fast. i learned so much from making these tiles I will not be deterred by their Fugliness!

I got this crackle by waving the red hot tile in the air before lighting it on fire. You can hear the glaze cracking, sounds awesome =]

Goddess skateboard

This is my one-nighter skateboard design. I wanted to just do it and not worry about the outcome, and not try to make it to perfect. Go with the flow ya know.. And surprisingly it turned out great. It's a huge longboard skateboard. We are going to get hardware and wheels to skate it someday. meanwhile, it brightens up the living room.

Art Sabbatical

Well I've been holding off on doing art for about a month now (ok i did one quick painting will post later) I am getting super antsy. I want to do metal work, but i have to teach myself to weld first and go collect some metal, which requires days off and summer trips into the desert whew~

I have started the welding in my garage (scary and fun)

After my decision to switch gears i planned a weekend trip to my favorite escape. Madre Grande monastery. It was so wonderfully quiet I kept falling asleep in the meditation room. It's very inspiring to be with people truely working to get off the grid and change society with thier own acts.

I love photographing the trees there too, here's some i did with the age-old technique of breathing on the lens~ and flipping the camera around super fast. Even harder when it's super hot and dry.

This one really shows the heat

Hello new blog!

I got a new name with my new husband, changing your name is a very strange thing, it brings up all kinds of questions of personal identity. My little identity crisis, if you will, has led me into all sorts of directions in these last 3 months of newlywed bliss.

For one, I am reinventing myself as an artist, dropping all my crafting ventures I've worked on the last five years. Crafting was such a huge part of last year because i personally made everything for my wedding, from the ring bearer's pillow, to my birdcage veil and fascinator.

Now I am ready to get serious and be the artist i thought i would be when i was five years old dreaming of my future self. At the always wonderful advice of my friend Shayla, i am stepping back and not jumping at the first idea for a new project. I am just sitting back and re-thinking what excites me, where i want to be in the future, and who.

Since i have not jumped into the next great idea, billions of ideas have been flooding to me, i write the good ones down, but it's like sifting through miles of pictures floating everywhere. i am looking for that one to reach out and grab.