The Artist's Eyes by Jenn Lee

Here we are halfway into November, all the stores have fast forwarded from Halloween decor to Christmas. The retail industry screams, “Black Friday is coming! Mark your calendars!” Commercials on tv are all about deals for Christmas. Everywhere you turn including your mailboxes are reminders of Christmas and getting those presents for your loved ones before they run out. But what about Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving was a day of thanks that was created generations ago when America was birthed. Thanksgiving is the one day out of 365 in a year that we take a moment out of our busy lives to give thanks for everything in our lives. Of course five minutes of every day we could give thanks for at least one thing in our lives…right? But I admit even I take for granted the things in my life that I appreciate, love, need or have.

Like an epiphany, my mind runs through the things I have taken for granted in my life. Like a blind man given sight…all the colors all my senses are renewed. Sounds cheesy right? I’m sure some of you may think so, but seriously…think about it this morning..tomorrow morning, every morning. When you wake up, get that first sip of coffee to shake away the fuzziness…what am I thankful for?

While sipping my coffee I of course thought…I’m thankful for this coffee! ha-ha! But seriously, I am thankful each morning that I wake up. Thankful for the love of my life sleeping peacefully next to me and all the wonderful ways we show each other how much we appreciate each other as well as, he’s also my best friend. I am thankful for all four of my beautiful children and their good health. I am thankful for my family and the time spent with those that have passed. I am thankful I have a nice home for all of us to live in and all three of our wonderful kitties to share it with.

I am thankful for the wonderful friends that are in my life. Even though life speeds by at times and we get caught up with things that keep us from seeing each other as often if at all…my friends are always in my heart and mind. I am thankful for the smiles and laughter, the hugs and time shared, knowing we all are there for each other in times of need as well as times for fun.

I know this seems sappy in some minds, but seriously, take a moment…look around you…what do you see? What do you see that you take for granted? Finding things to be thankful for surrounding you isn’t difficult, just open your eyes, you will be surprised at what you come up with. It’s enlightening and well worth it….in this artist’s eyes.

My fiance and I decided it was time to upgrade our cell phones. I was upgrading from the LG Vu which was a total touch screen phone and he was upgrading from a Pantech Slate, with qwerty keypad. After a bit of investigating and listening to friends advice, we decided to go with the iPhone 3GS.

The iPhone had won the great debate over which phone was the best phone for us. It may not be the best phone for everyone of course, but that’s why the Cell Phone Companies provide us with so many options. The great debate currently seems to be the iPhone vs the Android. I do have to say I think the Android system is pretty awesome, but currently the amount of applications available is limited vs the iPhone. At some point though…they will definitely compete neck in neck with Apple’s iPhone regarding applications.

With the iPhone 3GS as an artist of photography or drawing, it has so many good applications available for total customization in any interest one wants. My fiance, John Adkins, wrote a great article about  the photography applications he and I like for the iPhone 3Gs. On the arts end, I researched and tested out quite a few applications. I of course started with the free applications (because I am frugal..he-he) and then moved on to the pay applications. Out of my research, I have come up with two art applications that I have to place at the top of my list, Art Studio and Brushes.

With both Art Studio and Brushes, you have complete control over the pencil size, pen size as well as brush size. You have a fully customizable color palette as well as ability to add multiple layers and filters. You wonder how a person draws in detail on such a small canvas? Well you can zoom in to an unbelievable per pixel detail, as well as zoom out so no matter the amount of detail you want in your art, you can zoom into any portion and add the minute details desired. Several other features are smudge, the ability to adjust transparency of colors and line detail as you want. There really are no limits to either of these two applications for your inner artist.

Last but not least in this little review, since my other love besides art is photography, I was pretty happy to see the additional features towards photography, implemented in Art Studio. You can add text, adjust all the same properties of your photos that you can with most photo editors from exposure to contrast, hue to saturation, as well as filters like Gaussian Blur, Emboss, Sepia etc.

I hope you enjoyed my little review of two of my favorite iPhone applications! Below you can see a few screenshots I took of the applications open and a couple of youtube videos that I thought gave good examples of these two apps. As far as I can see, these two apps allow the inner artist to go wherever your eye-phone can see…in this artists eyes.

This first video for Art Studio is primitive in nature. The amount of detail in it’s drawing capabilities is equal to Brushes app. My idea with this video was more intended to show you the features and options in the creation of your masterpiece regardless of the level of the art experience you may have.

This second video is using Brushes. You will want to watch closely as this video is sped up significantly, but I chose it because…well…it’s just awesome! You still get  gist of the features in Brushes, just don’t blink or you might miss them! Oh and as far as the subject matter, yes I admit I am a Star Wars fan…

Here we are less than a week away from Halloween. Many of you have already bought your children their costumes and probably did a little complaining about how expensive they were. I can’t believe how pricey they have become over the years. With two grade school age children myself, I always try to find unique ways to create the kids costumes without spending hardly any money.

My youngest is almost ten years old and she is my most difficult child when it comes to costumes. She changes her mind over and over till the last minute. She had finally decided she wanted to be a genie so I started looking at the costumes available. At ten years old I was not too happy with the prices for genie costumes that really lacked much material. This led me to go through my craft fabrics.

When I say craft fabrics I mean my box of interesting clothing that our family has grown out of, stained beyond repair, broken zippers, straps or tears. I also save sheets, curtains and sheers that are no longer being used. You never know when you might find another use for these fabrics and when you are on a budget, it sure comes in handy.

I even make trips to the local Goodwill stores and gather interesting materials for costume projects. Buying a formal gown or dress with a unique pattern costs between $3 to $5…it’s worth the price considering the cost to buy fabric at a fabric store.

So how am I creating a genie costume out of my treasure trove of materials? I will tell you in several quick and easy no sew or very little sewing steps:

• An old bathing suit that belonged to my older daughter when she was around the same size as my youngest (Out of style or not the tastes of my youngest to wear).

• Leftover curtain sheers in burgundy and gold that just don’t go with my decor any more.

• String, yarn, shoe strings, ribbon (whatever you have available).

• Leftover beads from crafting projects with the girls.

• Hot glue gun, needle with thread.

Take your sheer material and measure out the length needed for the leg covering for your genie and cut to length. If you lay the sheer out flat you should be able to cut it in four equal pieces. With these pieces cut, you then take two panels and hot glue them to the front of the bathing suit (for the no sew version), or you can use a simple loop stitch to attach them to the front of the bathing suit. With either method you will be creating a gathered effect where the material attaches to the suit.

Once you attach the front two pieces, you can move onto attaching the back two pieces the same way. After this is complete, move onto the bottom of your genie legs. You can take your string/ribbon, making sure to measure the circumference of your child’s ankle  and attach it to the bottom of the front and back leg pieces in a gathered effect. When completed, you should be able to tie the bottom of the leg to create that ballooned effect.

After the legs are completed, you can move onto the arms. I took another sheer and cut based on the length of my daughters arms and attached them to the straps of the bathing suit in the same way that I did the legs using the no sew or loop stitch method. At the wrists I used ribbon/string to once again create that balloon effect to the arms. Since I had two different colors of sheers that I don’t use, I layered the sheers to create a little more interest.

Now once you have completed the arms and legs of your genie, you can add the bling to your genie, because you know genies always have bling…he-he. If you have beads leftover from some craft projects they can be strung and attached to the costume. If you don’t have beads, your local craft stores always have a great collection of beads you can purchase for low cost.

I know this only covers making a genie costume, which leaves me to make a no sew/loop stitch costume for my son (he wants to be a ninja), but the same basic ideas will work for most costumes…search your fabrics at home  or the local Goodwill, grab that glue gun or needle and thread…and get creative! Homemade costumes are unique and easy projects for everyone…in this artists eyes.

During my studies of ways to create art using items that I recycle/reuse, I stumbled upon the art of cardboard art. What in the world is a cardboard art? Well cardboard art is created out of cardboard boxes that have been ripped, shredded or cut  into pieces and glued together to create a sculpture of whatever the artist envisioned.  There are many really talented artists out there creating these recycled creations! Here are just a few of my favorites…

Chris Gilmour specializes in life-sized sculptures made from recycled cardboard and glue, using both plain packaging cardboard and recycled packaging material. From bicycles to motorcycles, furniture to objects we use in our daily lives, he creates all of his pieces in perfect detail to scale and realism.

Mark Langan is another talented artist that specializes in reclaimed/recycled art mediums. Since 2004 he has been working diligently at educating through his art. Mark’s sculptures celebrate the form of cardboard  itself, complimenting the textures and layers. His work leaves one in awe for its simplicity of materials turned into fantastic pieces of art.

There are many many more artists out there that also work with cardboard in their creations, but I didn’t want to make this post go on and on and on. Just type in cardboard art in Google and I promise, you won’t be disappointed!

What an inspiration these artists are both artistically and Eco consciously….in this artist’s eyes.

I was sitting here late this evening surfing one of my favorite sites…Flickr. What is Flickr? Well Flickr is an online community where people share their photography or art via photographs. It is a community that spans across the entire world.

The addiction to Flickr for me comes in the ability to see so many talented photographers/artists compositions. Seeing the world and what’s in it through others eyes is quite amazing. Whether you are an amateur photographer, professional photographer, artist of any level…you can share your creative art with the rest of the world.

Every month Flickr shares a collection of the most popular entries shared. This is seen via their Flickr Explore page. You can view past months or follow along the current month as it progresses.

You can share your photos or photos of your art through your own page as well as adding them into various groups of various themes or styles. Doing so allows you also to view a more directed collection of work shared by other members that are into the same themes, styles or type of work you are.

Whether you are an artist or a photographer or even an artistic photographer of any level, this is an online community worth checking out. What a vast collection of creativity and inspiration right at your fingertips.

So if you have some spare time where you feel like vegging out in front of your computer….check out flickr, it’s full of art…in this artist’s eyes.

For those of you who already enjoy flickr, please feel free to share some of your favorite pages below!