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Author Archives: rennata
May. 16.
Earlier I posted a watercolor work in progress. 
I finished the painting as intended, but in the process I lost some of the detail that I liked about the mountain. I also had the frisket lift some color creating some new shapes that I did not intend. One of the things I am enjoying about watercolor is this sort of creative accidents. I took what I learned here and used it intentionally in another watercolor to get the same effect.
It is important to take what we learn from mistakes and add it to our tool box, and not just trashing the piece. Since I was no longer happy with the watercolor as it was, I tried something new, I went back in with watercolor pencils and added details and some shading to break up the harsh lines that the frisket left.
May. 14.
There Is something about the springtime that always makes me want to pull out my art supplies and play. I have worked more in my sketch book, working on the basics of working with capturing shadows. I will be uploading a series of screenshots of this sketch in progress to Flickr. I plan to try it as a watercolor as well, or possibly as an acrylic painting.
Apr. 12.
I have had fun working with and reworking watercolor painting. I had always thought that once it was on the paper, that was it. This one has been repainted a couple of times and will most likely get at least one more go round to remove the circle texture on the mountain and the bleeding into the sky.
Feb. 29.
This past weekend I attended an event know as Podcamp of Western MA. I have been trying to recall when I first heard of a pod camp and what it is. I think that the first mention came from GregP and one of the Boston Podcamps. He made it sound interesting, yet somewhat chaotic.
The following is what the PodCamp Foundation has to say about what may be called a pod camp:
There are 6 rules which govern what may or may not be called a PodCamp. If your planned event meets all 6 and accepts the terms in the PodCamp Foundation License, you can call it a PodCamp:
- All attendees must be treated equally. Everyone is a rockstar.
- All content created must be released under a Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
- All attendees must be allowed to participate. (subject to limitations of physical space, of course)
- All sessions must obey the Law of 2 Feet – if you’re not getting what you want out of the session, you can and should walk out and do something else.
- The event must be new-media focused—blogging, podcasting, video on the net.
- The financials of a PodCamp must be fully disclosed in an open ledger, except for any donor/sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous.
That was still a little vague for me to get my head around. Recently however I received an email that gave the link to the PodCampWesternMA Facebook page and said it was an event rich in resources. 
This all came together in my mind to be an Interesting, slightly chaotic event focused on new media that is rich in resources. How could I resist? I went online and sent in my reservation. This past Saturday, I arrived at HCC to my first pod camp. It was everything I expected it to be and more. It was interesting, rich in resources, focused on new media and yes slightly chaotic. Sign in was on an iPad and went quickly and smoothly. Everyone was given a camp tee-shirt, and gift bag (the bright green bags in the photo) There was a brief opening session followed by the creation of the schedule. Events were based on who wanted to present what, and who had what questions. There were tracks for beginner, Advanced, Artistic, and several others. As you can see, the schedule was put together on the wall on sticky notes. My own involvement in new media falls somewhere beyond beginner, but short of pro. I mapped out my day with a mix of what I was interested in, and others that I wanted to check and see if this was something I would recommend to others.
I will be following up with posts detailing what I learned and how I have been able to apply it in my life on the sessions so for now I am going to list the sessions I attended with links to the presenter when available.
I started my day with a session by PodCamp organizer, Morris Partee on Augmented Reality session. I followed this with a session on Pinterest with Lesley Lambert . Lesley works at Park Square Realty in the same block of Westfield as my art gallery is located, so it was nice to be able to connect with her. Lesley’s slidedeck is here if you’d like to take a look.
The next session I attended was based on overhearing a conversation while I was pondering the wall of options. Davd Pakman’s Podcasting How-To. I am not at all sure that I want to podcast, but I did pick up some very valuable social media tools during his presentation. If you’re interested, his slidedeck is here.
- Christine Pilch Mancini was the person who had suggested the above session, and I had joined her conversation based on her mention of the session she was co-presenting, Optimizing Your LinedIn Profile with Christine Parizo. I have attended and read any number of Linkedin articles and presentations, and I must say this one was hands down the very best one I have ever attended. While both of these presenters have businesses in the field of social media, they presented in a user to user way that really made the material come to life.
I ended the day with a session on using Google+ with Alfonso Santaniello, who is according to his G+ page a social entrepreneur. creative marketer. loud laugher.
For me the defining thing about the day, all the material was delivered user to user. They were not thinly veiled marking pitches, it was this is how I use it and how you can use it as well. There was plenty of networking and information about the fields people worked in and the services they offered, but it was separate and distinct from the information. It certainly made me far more likely to choose to hire these people. Over the next couple of posts I will go more into what I learned in each session and how I plan to use it. All and all, it was a great day and I would certainly recommend the event to beginners and experts alike.
I would like to thank Christine, as I found many of the links I used in her article on the event. Her take on the event as a professional can be found on her blog.
Feb. 08.
Wednesday Work in Progress Review:
What is underway in the studio this week is floor cloths.
This first one is in an art deco style and will be going into the 43rd Annual Kiwanas Auction.
The second one is a garden fairy themed cloth. I am not quite happy with how it is coming out so far. There are parts of it that I love and parts that just are not working for me. I am quite pleased with the sky in the middle of the cloth surrounded by clouds. I like how you can still see the border frame through the clouds, but it is no longer a floating harsh frame. What is not working for me is the mix of flowers and the fairy creatures. I started with some traditional flower stencils and stamps and then deviated from there. I read an interesting post on a forum about art and how it can be focusing your opinions on things, and it happened to be about magic. I realized that part of my disconnect with this border may be the balance of representational versus the more stylized art. I was thinking that I might make it work if I tried to make it reflect my own opinions on magic.
I am also working on some necklaces and jewelry as well. I have not added any new fabric designs this week, but was pleased that the street art entry came in 121st. There were a lot of really good entries. I had been warned that new designers often do not get any votes at all until people start to recognize them.
Feb. 03.
As you might have noticed from the less frequent posting, I have been having a little trouble sustaining my level of energy for creativity. I thought about picking up my copy of The Artist’s Way and working through it again, as it was a big catalyst for my coming back around to choosing to pursue art. I have picked up her other books and have not gotten as far with them, so I decided that maybe I needed a new source of input. A blog I was reading mentioned a blog and podcast by Michael Nobbs called Sustainably Creative . It stuck a note that really resonated with me, and in a very synchronistic way he was starting a work through of The Artist way.
“The Artist’s Way Starter Kit” (Julia Cameron)
So Monday I plan to restart The Artists Way. I think doing it with a group might make a difference. The above is an Amazon affiliates link. If you choose to click on it and buy the book, I do receive a small commission.
On other fronts, this weekend will be dedicated to finishing up a couple of floor cloths. One of them will be going to the Kiwanas TV auction. I am both excited and nervous about that.
Feb. 01.
When the creation process is finished, and you have your final product there comes a time when it needs to be sent on its way.
For some artists this is the hardest part, because as soon as you show it to someone else there is a risk. What if they do not like it? What if they think it is (fill in the blank with your fear of choice)
I had an odd dream last night where there was a piece of magic which was in the form of a really cute A-line dress. ( I did say it was an odd dream.) The problem was you could remove the magic spell, but if someone complimented the dress it would reset the spell.
I woke up wondering why a single compliment would have such power. It struck me as really odd because I knew that a single negative comment could have that sort of power, but a compliment?
Why wouldn’t it be that powerful? A single compliment can change my outlook on the whole day. In my dream there was a man who kept saying it is all about the belief, you give it power.
It occurred to me that I know many creative types who will listen to any number of extremely positive things and then let one slightly negative comment will convince them that the work is horrible. When I am being objective, I see how silly this is, but I know that I can fall prey to the same thought process.
The accompanying graphic today is a seamless tile that I designed for a fabric design contest. I entered it last night at spoonflower.com. That contest has not started yet, and I am waiting on the results of the current contest, for a graffiti/street art fabric. I know that this contest is a vote based contest so it has as much to do with how many people you can get to vote for you as it does about it being a good design. I have to keep in mind the reason I created it, and remind myself, it is all about the belief and that it is the compliments that I want to give power.
Jan. 12.
In the process of developing my self as an artist, author and designer I read a number of different blogs, and books. I also attend lectures and listen to podcasts. Some of them are good and helpful. A lot of them are just saying the same stuff, linking within themselves and mostly putting a lot of add words on their pages. I have decided that I am going to include a category of Tools, tips and Treasures. It will be a place where I mention and link to various people and things that I have found to be helpful in my journey. To left is a photograph that I have digitally altered until it is completely unrecognizable. The idea was to play around with something new, in a set of colors that I usually do not work in. Whether I like it or not, a lot of people buy art because it goes with their color scheme. I made this with http://www.picnik.com/ A site whose tagline is:
“Photo editing made fun.”
It was just that fun. They have a bunch of different tools that can create all kinds of interesting effects. By just applying one effect after the other I created this image. A digital doodle so to speak. I have enjoyed making floor cloths, but the traditional patterns only hold so much interest for me. I have a couple of primed cloths just waiting for me to decide what to do with them. Now I know, I now want to create a floor cloth that starts as lines and spills into the more relaxed swirls. I am sure that it will not come out exactly like this doodle, but the basic idea came from this playing around. The play between the lines and the swirls is what made me stop and think about what I could do with it. It will be fun to try a similar floor cloth.
