Fortune Cookie

"Fortune Cookie" - digital collage

It seems as though my fortunes from my fortune cookies frequently hit home. This was my fortune from dinner tonight. You can tell it's authentic by the incorrect grammar. ;-)

Devil In The Details

Yes, yes, I know. I've been missing for almost a month. Between vacation and an extra workload when I returned, I've had little time for much else. But, the work marathon has come to an end and I look forward to returning to more artistic endeavors. Today I had the extreme pleasure of meeting up with my sister Photoholics and taking a photo safari to the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah. We spent a delightful two hours there and then had lunch at Carlito's; another delight. 

I chose to focus on the details of the artwork on exhibit at the museum as well as on the architecture of the building itself. I have purposely decided to not comment on the artworks themselves and hope that you enjoy these photos as abstracts.

A Legacy Of Color And Design

When my youngest son was in art school, he told me about an interesting discussion that was held in one of his classes about a person's personal aesthetic. The question arose, is it learned or inherited? I don't know if anyone determined the answer to that question. I have one artist friend in particular who laments her own lack of color sense. She frequently asks me about color and how I learned what I know. I find that I'm stupefied to answer. Yes, I know all the theory behind color, but learning it only served to validate what I already felt I instinctively knew. But then, you could not possibly grow up in my mother's house without learning about color just because we were surrounded by it. 

I consider my mother to be a self-taught interior designer. Although she's been given the opportunity to express her talents on a professional level, she has always chosen not to do so. But, I have been the happy, lifelong beneficiary of her particular abilities to combine color and create design in every room of all the homes she's ever lived in (and that's been quite a few). So, I'm sharing some "vignettes" of Chloe's world.

Georgia and Bomomo

"Bomomo In Pink" by Georgia May Copland

My niece, Georgia, has recently discovered the fun of Bomomo. (Gee, I wonder how she learned about that! ;) ) And this is her first attempt!

As much fun as I have with bomomo as an adult, I love seeing what kids can do with it. The site has no instructions, so while adults struggle with what to do and what is "correct," kids just go wild with it and their free spirits are set free.

Make sure you give it a try, or at least show it to your kids or grandkids. Bomomo!

Budding Artists

"The Rain" - illustrated poem by Georgia May Copland

I am blessed with a baker's dozen of nieces. Two generations of them, actually. And all are beautiful and talented each in their own way. Among the youngest of them are two budding artists; Autumn and Georgia, and from time to time they send me samples of their artwork. I recently had the opportunity to spend the weekend with Georgia (who's 8, almost 9) and we drew and colored for hours on end. Then the other day in the mail I received the masterpiece above, which she created.

When I was the age of these two young girls, I was humiliated by my teacher for what she perceived as a lack of imagination and talent. From that point on I struggled in my art classes until I was in the eighth grade an no longer required to take it. I never took an art class again (except for art history and art appreciation) until I was 39.

I've since come to realize that there are just two requirements to being an artist. 

 1. a desire to create

 2. the joy of making a mark on a piece of paper or canvas

That's it! That's all that's required. Now I can't tell you what makes an artist successful. I don't think anyone knows the answer to that. 

But I highly encourage anyone consumed with the desire to create to go out and do just that. We were created to create. I firmly believe that. And we truly are not happy unless we're creating. So, today; now, even. Go make something. Bake a cake, write a poem; know the satisfaction of being a creator.

More Zentangles

Still having fun with the Zentangles! Each day brings more designs and I'm feeling more and more comfortable with executing them.