Toca Proverb

Spray Paint = Instant Mojo Boost

Make a note of it.

Birth of a Studio Part 2

It is so hard for me to believe that just a week ago I was blearily blinking and chatting with an old friend in her living room while her girls and my boys were having breakfast and getting engaged. (they're 8 and 5...so we're not too concerned) The keys for my house were picked up that day, the movers arrived the next, and it's been moving pandelirium ever since. Oy! But the house is awesome, and it's starting to look like a home. Our "Jam Room" is the best room in the house so far. It's a converted patio that is now a funky den housing our electric keyboard, congas, djembe, bongos, doumbek, and various shakers and triangles and such. Plus all books about music, some couches, and a few games. It's FunTastic!

But yesterday was the day I couldn't take it anymore and started unpacking my studio. I had to. I just had to. I knew the rest of the house wasn't finished...but it was CALLING me.

Even though I was thinking of painting the room, I went ahead and unboxed everything and stuffed it in the closet and the bathroom. After all, if I hadn't unboxed it, it wouldn't have fit in those spaces. And I realized my packers were rather odd people who thought things like towels, kitchen decor, and my bathroom scale were art supplies.... :? So many things actually left the room as I unpacked it. Here is the bathroom after I was done.... This room has a full bath because it used to be the maid's quarters many decades ago. I'm actually thinking of putting storage shelves IN the shower because the odds of my showering in here are extremely remote. ;)


So I was going to paint. I was. And then I got so overwhelmed by the thought of it..and so distressed at the concept of NOT being able to get this room in order... That I think I may have reconsidered. But while I was undecided about that, I took a break and did something else colorful! Saturday morning I bought an old desk for $25 dollars. (my thrifting mojo made the move with me, apparently!) It's great. Solid. Basic. Will stand up to LOTS of whackity-whacking... (hitting furniture at yard sales gets you odd looks, sayin?) But it was a nice basic boring brown. No no no. This will not do.
Please excuse the mistiness of the photo. After all those years in El Paso, I forgot what happens when you take a camera from an air conditioned house into the rain-forest weather that is Coastal NC. O_o So the table was ready for its makeover...and so was I. I shoulda got a pic, but I'm sure my neighbors were a bit surprised. I was in a dress. I do just about anything in a dress. When it's 97 degrees and about 150% humidity, a little sleeveless linen dress is WAY more comfortable than anything else you can imagine. I picked one I thought was about ready to get rid of...but now that it has paint splashes on it, I think I like it more and will probably keep it. Ha!

Here are the after photos... And inside...

There is a pull out shelf which goes on the right hand side. It is also painted and will be reinstalled today. The colors are SUPPOSED to be dark grey and brick red. If you ask me...that red is a bit on the orangey side. I don't mind it on the desk...actually I kinda like it! But I'm glad I did this first...because that color was supposed to go on the walls too, and I realize I don't want it there. So if I do paint the studio at this point, it will be a light sterling grey. But I'm really leaning towards not painting and using a bold rug and LOTS of wall art to make this room flow with color. What do you think?

Put It Out There

I'm about to hit the road for the beginning of the end of Operation Relocation! ;) Can't wait to start photo-journalling the birth of my studio-space! In the meantime...here's a quote that jumped out and joyfully jolted me today. From the latest issue of Belle Armoire jewelry...

"We take a little piece of our soul, put it out there, and want people to love it. The best way to keep the ideas coming in is to let them flow out." - Christi Friesen

Discuss...

Behold. She Rocketh

I love this woman. She's awesome. And when I'm somewhat more replete in the qualities of awake and caffeinated (because you can be the first without being the second but why would you want to??) then I will have my own thoughts to add to her wonderful post. But for now, just go read Helen. Cause I said so, that's why.

To The Sea ~ A Mojo Music Review

Music is a big part of my life, and a big part of my art. Music fuels me when nothing else will..when I think I'm too tired, when I think I have nothing in me to put on the table (the worktable, that is). Even if I'm not listening to anything while I work...I'm probably singing something or at least hearing the constant playback in my head. ;) Music, to large degree, IS my mojo.

So it only follows that I do music reviews. I'm always getting new or new-to-me music...might as well share it!

Jack Johnson's newest album To The Sea came out on Tuesday. I am shocked and amazed that it took me til today to download it, since I am a devoted Jack Johnson fan. I just finished my first listen to the entire playlist and.....

Well. Y'know... there's really only one legitimate criticism that could be leveled at Jack Johnson's music over the years. I've heard it, you've probably heard it "It all sounds the same". Which, if you're a fan, isn't really a problem. Jack Johnson's laid-back, groovitational, surfer-dude, put-me-in-a-hammock-and-pass-me-a-margarita mellowness is exactly why Jack is Jack. It's what we love about him.

But you cannot say that about To The Sea. It's still Jack. It's still groovy. But it's Jack with....more. It's so exciting to see, or in this case, hear an artist's growth. The songs on To The Sea are rich with funky rhythms, stylistic change-ups, meaningful lyrics, and a sense of drive and excitement that I personally just didn't feel on Sleep Through The Static, though I do like that album. (I like ALL his albums) You can really hear and feel that Jack and the other great musicians (Zach Gill is the bomb-diggety, yo) are having FUN doing that groovy thing they do.

Every song is strong. I don't think I can even pick a favorite. But I know I fell in love with You and Your Heart within the first two bars. My Little Girl is a father-daughter song to rival Paul Simon's Father & Daughter. And I was grinning ear to ear when I recognized the familiar sounds of ALO on Red Wine, Mistakes, and Mythology.

I made several outstanding cuffs while listening to this. It totally rocks. I give a Monster Mojo rating for extreme awesomeness. Suitable for all kinds of positive creation and a general good-time. Kids. Try this At Home.

Motionless Music

It's still so strange to me to call myself an artist. When I was growing up, my visual arts skills were...well, practically non-existent. Even when I was an adult and first took up rubber-stamping, my own parents said my cards looked like a 3rd grader made them. And not a talented one, mind you. O_O But music... now I have always been into music. I sing, I play percussion, and I'm learning the drums. Music is, and always has been, the primary force which drives me. I call my iPod "my Ritalin", though it's my Prozac as well. Not to mention my meth, my ambien, and whatever other drug I need it to be. Music makes me move. But music can also make me mutely motionless.

"Despite its connection to dance, music is nonetheless the emblem of immobility, for when it is really great it seizes time and holds it still in an invisible grip." ~Mark Helprin

I wrote a few days ago how I create out of joy, not pain. Similarly, I create out of motion - frenetic motion - rather than stillness. I tend to pick music that keeps me at a certain sustained hum of mirthful activity...like a cute and stingless bee. And most of the time when I see artists talking about music for the studio..it's about music that makes them go. But it's good to stop and be still sometimes. And it's good to let the music hold you breathless while you feel parts of yourself you might have forgotten. Opening some of those closed places and letting in some air and sunshine. Like spring cleaning for the soul.

One piece that stops me in my tracks with its yearning loveliness is the Adagio from Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A Major. How about you? What music makes you still?

Metal and Meaning

I scored a Spring of 1994 edition of Metalsmith magazine at the thrift store yesterday. Cost me a whopping 12 cents. ;) Fascinating to see how much magazines have changed in 16 years... I don't think of the 90s as old-fashioned, but this magazine looks positively archaic in its fonts, columns, and ads. Plus it actually has articles...loooong articles with lots of words in long connected paragraphs that are not broken up by call-out boxes or small pictures. How weird is that? People used to read!

Anyway. I want to learn more metalsmithing. I can't wait until I get my studio set up and can get busy ordering more tools. But for now I can read and daydream and ponder... feed the metal-muse, so to speak.

The first article, written by W. Scott Braznell, was about one Janet Payne Bowles. This quote caught my fancy:

"The universal and the eternal are my favorite and abiding subjects and I
am most conscious of a desire to express them in metal." Her intense interest in
the spiritual with regard to religious objects was made clear: "In the objects
for religious service, I have tried on the decorative side, to reverse the idea
of trans-substantiation, to turn a direct symbol back into the mystery of
spiritual underflow and express not history's symbol, but the emotion that
produces that symbol."

Now that, my friends, is a lofty artistic goal, right there. Far, far beyond my usual goal of "I want it to look both cool and groovy. I want people to enjoy wearing it...and be happy." And there's nothing wrong with that goal. But I find myself inspired by artists with more lofty and complex aims than mine. Besides.... that quote just sounds soooooo good. ;D

You can view many of the works of Janet Payne Bowles here.