(For Me) computer does not equal art

Up tonight with that lovely artistic craving again.  I've been thinking recently that using my camera on my phone surprisingly does make me feel a little better (not the best permanent camera replacements - but it works for now)...  As I'm done with my mini photoshoot and go to load the img on my computer I find I still have no idea how to make the filters stick on more than one img at a time and for me going onto Photoshop to make them "pop" tends to be extremely lackluster.  So what's a girl to do?  Upload each image as she takes them?  Suck it up and learn to love applications?  Save every last penny to get a real camera?  Only time will tell.  For now, I leave you with the one remaining img.  The last one I shot...

Artistic Fulfillment

So after going through a lot of lists and some wonderful ideas, I've pretty much have come full circle.  Which tends to happen a lot in life, landing on photography.  My first love in life.  My calming center. 

I, for awhile, was trying to figure out how to get myself a nice camera to come back to my love.  But I am finding that even the pictures I take with my camera phone, with wonderful filters, makes me very very happy.  So for the time being I believe that I can let my art come through my mini technology.

Here are a few examples of said new work.  No theme at this moment, but there will be in future posts.

Building a Foundation

After a little bit of reflecting on my new search for some sort of artistic release I've come to the conclusion that before I can start on something new I need to go through the old.  Figure out what I am still in love with and what I've moved past.  Ironically the first thing to go off this list is my painting.  I've always enjoyed doing it but in the last year or so I just have not really felt the urge to pick up the brush, so time to set it aside.  I do still love the craft but I can see that at this point I don't really have the time nor space to keep every little thing that I've found that I enjoy doing all up in the air at once.  It's just clouding me. 

So I've made a list.  List of all the other things that I have floating around, that one by one I'm gonna take a nice look at and choose to either set aside or focus more on.  This list is of anything that will help me clear my mine, open me up, keep me going creatively.

A new calling?

While it's true that I began this Blog as a response to what I was learning and feeling drawn to artistically while studying The Course in Miracles, I've since then gone through a lot of changes and growing experiences that have left me wanting for some sort of artistic release.  I was talking to a few friends about this and it's true, one may thing that it's silly for me of all people to be searching for such a thing.  I edit (films).  I paint.  I was a photography a major for crying out load!  I'm learning the bass....  And yet all of that still does not seem to feed this yearning I have for a creative outlet.  I've tried writing, but I never seem to be driven to complete.  Maybe that's what I'll learn while going through this next exercise, that all I really need to do is sit down and complete something, or maybe there is something else out there.  Something that I've yet to find that will be my true passion.  So from painting things that I feel called to paint to searching for something I have yet to know, here is the new theme for my Blog - a search for artistic freedom/fulfillment - AKA - the calling from within -

A work in progress - pt1

Hey there folks,
So life has begun to hit this Blog. 

As much as I want to say I've been able to push on through and get a fresh new painting done this week for you all to see, I just got back from a long trip up in Northern California helping my Aunt and Uncles clear out my Grandparent's old house and arrived home today... While I have the idea for the painting in my head I have not yet had the time to get it out.  I do how ever have some reflection form the reading I've done this week and a nice lead up to the painting that shall be posted next week :)

As it turns out I'm quite the sentimental old fool in many ways; mostly when it comes to my family and parting ways.  I've reached the point in my "lessons" where we're now really focusing in on forgiveness and letting things go from the past, looking forward only to the future or even more so staying only in the present.  While this does sound like a nice way to live and I can see how it would be freeing in a lot of ways, I really do love the nostalgic way of living.  There's nothing I love more than getting together with old friends and taking a nice looking back at where we've come.  Or going through old note books, once started journals (of which I have quite a few) and seeing the journey that I've been on thus far.  I do understand that letting go of the past does not mean that you can't also be nostalgic and I'm sure I'll find that lovely balancing point as I continue my journey through this course and other material that I'll run across, this idea is just now really sinking in for me.  Although I am learning to let go of the bad, forgiving those that I feel hurt by, most of which would have no idea I'd even have these feels, and that has brought a wonderful newness to my daily life to be sure!  Anyway, as I said before I have no painting this week but here is an image of where I do my work, the grill I melt my paint on and the piece of wood I'll be painting this coming week...
 

To share. To reflect. To love.

I am the light of the world. 
That is my only function.
That is why I am here.

I LOVE this idea. 

To be a light upon the world.  To be a blessing, if you will, on everyone.  At first glance this seems like it would be a limiting idea, saying that it's your only function.  But I find this statement very freeing.  To be open and loving.  Sharing your light being your only true responsibility.  To lead by example, shining through the fog of the ego to a new you and helping others to see through as well.  The more I've been studying the more I see the truth in the fact that in order to get you have to give.  Just as Edith Wharton says "There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."  To share light you are not only bringing it in but also reflecting it from those whom you are bringing it to.

As I was meditating on this idea the image of a small child holding a candle came to me.  I realize that this is a pretty obvious way to interrupt this passage but I'm finding that sometimes that's the way it works.  The obvious does not always mean that it's not the right way to go artistically.  I feel that I have a tendency to reject ideas because they don't feel original enough, but this image is exactly what I felt when I read this.  A light shinning through.  Puncturing the darkness, the fog that blocks us all from moving forward.  Being as a child, with that innocence.  Open and ready to learn.  No prejudgments on anyone or anything.  Ready to more forward.

To see more art I've done go here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/jkalty

Guidance from within...

This weeks inspiration comes from a passage that stood out to me: "You must experience guidance from within."

I'm a little over 50 lesson in to my workbook in A Course of Miracles and I've been doing a lot of meditation. So when I ran across this line while doing some reading it really hit a cord. Just reading this phrase makes me feel calm, centered, in control. Ready to take on life, as Joseph Campbell would say "follow my bliss". To trust that inner voice, that Jiminy Cricket (going a little Disney on ya).

This painting is a tad abstract. Focused more on texture, building up the exterior but still being able to see what's underneath. Using this as a reminder that guidance may be deep and covered but it's there. You can see it if you try, work at listening, sitting still, being open.

To see more art I've done go here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/jkalty