The Artist's Eyes by Jenn Lee

“Get your motor running, head out on the highway,
Looking for adventure in whatever comes our way.” ~ Steppenwolf

As I sat here this morning looking back on the year past and thinking about the year just begun, these song lyrics just popped into my head…literally. What an inspirational and motivational quote for the new year!

Each year we sit and ponder new years resolutions…health, careers, relationships, changes of all types in an constant quest to make each year better than the year before. Instead of making new years resolutions this year, I decided I wanted a new year motivation/inspiration. I hear people all the time say “I wish I had stuck to my new years resolutions…” or “I broke my new years resolution…”, myself included. Finding your inspiration or motivation is key to meeting goals or expectations. Each goal requires steps to fulfillment.

While you sit there thinking about the goals or plans you want to complete this new year…think first about what inspires motivation for you. Think about what keys help keep your motor running. Then get out on that highway and find your adventures! On your mark…get set…go! Inspiration and motivation is an art…in this artist’s eyes. Happy new year everyone!

My good friends Jason and Christy of Webfoo and PetResearch.net have the biggest hearts when it comes to animals of every kind. Their love for animals is shown not only by their support of animal shelters & services but shown in the knowledge every one of their dogs were rescues. When I first met their dogs, I learned the story behind each addition to their family. It brought tears to my eyes to hear the sad stories. One was near death on the roadside, another tortured by mean people, another owned by a breeding farm and mistreated/uncared for. These dogs were very lucky to have been given a second chance at life…the happiest life a dog could wish for, with these two wonderful people.

Recently I did a portrait of one of their dogs that had passed away…Rudy. I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting Rudy, but given the extremely unique personalities in each of their dogs, I can’t imagine Rudy didn’t have an equally fantastic personality of his own. He can be seen on my blog here. When Christy saw Rudy’s finished portrait, she had tears in her eyes. She had felt I had captured him perfectly. The feeling of satisfaction was priceless! After Rudy, they then asked me to paint their other dogs portraits, to which I was honored to fulfill.

Each portrait is painted on canvas’ of 100% recycled paper materials, 11×14 in size (standard frame) and painted with ECO friendly paints. I’d like to introduce you to…Hardy, Lois Lane, Buddy and Blue!

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!

Last week I became a Grandmother for the first time. My eldest daughter gave birth to her own daughter…Angel. She fits her name perfectly…a real angel.

I have to admit that this has been the most difficult challenge to overcome when it comes to work distractions. It is difficult to focus or work when you have a new baby in the house.

Since I can’t share with you new paintings I have…err should be completing, I thought I would share my precious distraction…please say hello to my grand baby, Angel Lee. Isn’t she beautiful? She is a distraction worth being distracted for…in this artist’s eyes.

©Photo by Jenn Lee

©Photo by Jenn Lee

©Photo by Jenn Lee

©Photo by Jenn Lee

When we bought our home, I was absolutely excited about this project…creating a Koi pond. I had always said when I had a house that I owned I wanted one. Thankfully John was in total agreement with me!

It took us awhile to get to this project but in the end it was the artistic vision we had imagined. We slowly collected the rock from various places around our city which served dual purpose in doing so. It was an ECO friendly way to re-purpose a natural resource, as well as giving us something that meant more to us than a trip to the local rock quarry.  Being able to say “That came from the riverbed by Johns parents.” or “That came from that spot we love to take environmental photography.” personalized it way more for us.

Our good friends let us have their old pond liner, the rocks came only with sweat equity and the little long finned goldfish were also donated. In the end we paid for the waterfall pump equipment to the tune of $200, a few small succulents planted around the edges $35, and the small Japanese Maple we picked out for it’s character $20. Every bit of the energy and time put into the creation of this small artistic project, will forever imprint on us memories personal to us.

As an artist and John, a photographer, the enjoyment we get from visual stimulation is as good as gold. We enjoy going out every evening to watch our little fish and listen to the waterfall as we sit and talk about the days events…..pure heaven and priceless….in this artist’s eyes.