Treat Yourself to a Subscription of Color!

The full spectrum of colored pencils by Felissimo

So during my blogging escapades I discovered the kind of mail subscription I would have LOVED, and I mean LOVED, to have had as a young budding artist - heck if the times weren't so financially tight I would LOVE to have it now!!!

just one sample of the cleverly named pencils- Mermaid's Gown

Think back to a time when (instead of a new encyclopedia every month) your parents ordered wonderful little packages of animal flashcards that you could build a zoological collection of and catalog in that great little complimentary index case. Well this subscription is just as good if not better! 500 pencils and not just any pencils, color pencils!!

Japanese design house, Felissimo has created a new social experiment by developing this subscription plan in which 33 dollars a month will buy you a Japan-mailed-package of different assortments of 25 like-minded colored pencils, for 20 months until you have 500 varigated colors. The different colors have names like Tragedy, Tea with Milk, Maple Sugar and Drizzly Afternoon. Geez I want these!

One of the ways to display your pencils as they arrive

In addition to being able to order your pencils you can order high-design displays that rival some of the great stuff you see in the Moma (Museum of Modern Art) gift shop, like this wall display on the left appropriately named Orchestra. Felissimo's Social Design Network states,

Social designer curates and creates smart products that tune into the greater good. You can join the cause by submitting designs for our competitions, weighing in with your opinion, purchasing goods or just simply talking about them. After all, every good idea (and every good cause)... starts with a conversation.

The Color Wave Display Option ($104)

So if you do happen to indulge or splurge on this beautiful monthly treat let me know! I would love to see pics of your open packages as they arrive - they're sure to be works of art in themselves!

If you have 4min to be inspired see -Japanese Creative Takeuchi Taijin's Stop Motion

One of my art students turned me on to this video and we couldn't watch it enough!!! It is absolutely brilliant and gets better and better as you watch. So if you're a creative and want to get those juices flowing watch this video.

It's a stop-motion of a stop-motion - with around 1,300 photo stills making up the process. Watch for some of the highlights like an elevator ride up the wall, a swimming pool sequence in the sink and an awesome finale - Enjoy!!Still Shot from Takeuchi's Stop Motion

And you thought life between a wolf and pig was pretty straight forward- tsk tsk.

Keri Smith The Illustrator and author of How To be An Explorer of The World

Illustration by Keri Smith

Keri Smith is an illustrator and graphic designer with an impressive and long list of clients that include: Forbes, Chronicle Books, Random House, Bank of Montreal, Toronto Stock Exchange, Ladies Home Journal, Men's Journal, New York Times, The Body Shop, Washington Post, People and others.

However she is most well know for her phenomenal work on creativity through the authorship of books that help the everyday day person tap into what I like to refer to the 'prana' (life force) of things, places, people and experience.

So here is a book, How To Be An Explorer of the World; Portable Art Life Museum, that I bought quite a while ago, as I maintain this creativity blog and am a HUGE fan of Keri Smith and her work.

the next book you should buy

This is Keri’s fourth book after so many other inspiring creativity-inducing books such as Living Out Loud, and my all time fave - The Guerilla Art Kit, and a book entitled Wreck This Journal. For creatives these kinds of books offer a treasure trove of prompts and inspiration, in order to help you see everyday things with new fresh eyes. I think they also offer some wonderful blogging prompts.

An Excerpt from How To Be An Explorer of the World by Keri Smith

Here is a prompt I think we should all try our hand at: a magical invented story inspired by an everyday simple object. For example,

I came across a light turquoise strand of thread that magically smelled of succulent cherries, airy cream, gold-dusted oranges and chocolate mousse. As I inspected it more carefully I knew it looked antiquated, weathered, and very fragile. So I placed it within an envelope and sent it to an expert. I eagerly awaited a response. After weeks of despondent mail-box-checking it finally came! It seems the thread belonged to a dress belonging to Marie Antoinette! It seems the thread was pulled from the actual dress that she disrobed of the day she had to change into simple white frock for her up and coming beheading. How the thread came to arrive on my house carpet is a whole other story...Now I keep this thread in a very special place, I've stitched into the lining of my coat so that I remember to 'Let them Eat Cake!'

If you still can't tell just how amazing this book is just read the back cover!

The back cover of Keri's Smith's book How to be An Explorer of teh world

Ms. Smith also maintains a blog entitled, Wish Jar Explorations of the Familiar that is laden with excerpts from her book, outstanding and well researched quotes by fascinating artists.

Earth Day Creativity Shot!************ Inspiring Artist Vik Muniz on TED Talks

Have 15 minutes??

Indulge in a creativity shot! Watch this TED talk video by Artist Vik Muniz who makes art from pretty much anything! Be it shredded paper, wire, thread, clouds, sugar or (my fave) chocolate!!

I think this is a great artist and visionary to look at on Earth day as his work inspires me to see in new ways and to look at things that I would normally disregard, and notice that these things have majestic potential.

My earth day wish and oath is that we would approach our communities and future with open eyes, a conscious heart, an active hand and a willingness to try. - Amarettogirl

Here in this video he describes the thinking behind his work and takes us on a tour of his incredible images. If you stick it out past the cotton, fluff shapes you'll me mesmerized!!

I was fortunate enough to see this Vik Muniz piece in 'real life' when it was at the MOMA:

So what do you say? After reading such negativity, deceit and hardships in the news why don't we shake our heads and open our eyes to seeing life a new. Lets try to see the beauty and potential in everything. Lets be more creative as we strive to create environmental balance and daily peace.

Lastly, let me share this phenomenal ten second exercise emailed to me today by a brilliant student W. Greenbaum,

Here is a 10 second exercise: Read then try...

Close your eyes. Inhale softly, then exhale slowly. Then open your eyes.

That moment was brought to you by the planet earth. The relative stillness provided by her gravity. The air from her atmosphere. Love and Respect her. That's all you have to do.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

3ww prompt:Deceit, Indulge, Oath

Drawing With Light

So I was going through some pics from this past summer and I found these silly abstracted photos from when I was playing with drawing with night light:

path by marisol diaz hearts by marisol diaz circles by marisol diaz

In the popular world of drawing with light my pics are definitely little itty bitty babies!!!! To see some AWESOME, sophisticated, funny and flat-out spectacular drawings with light images (and EVEN get in on the action with awesome INSTRUCTIONS check out this site- BOOM!) Boom is a site made by genius designer Jeff Hamada in hopes to foster a community of creators. He asked for submissions of light drawings and boy did he get them!

Light Drawing submitted to Boom by Brett Peacock & friends | http://www.soap.com.au/

On Resurrecting a 24yr. old Animation Project

Unearthed envelope of drawings by Gregg Emerydetail of stack of illos by GE

So while my hub (fellow artist and teacher Gregg Emery) and I have been on Spring Break he unearthed a couple of things from the deepest bowels of the garage (imagine a garage that two artist employ). He had been stretching some new canvases when he stumbled across a large brown envelope that housed a project he did back when he was in the 9th grade.

Mind you we currently teach high-school and we have just assigned a sixty-second digi artistic-animation project to our advanced portfolio development class made up of 10, 11 and 12th graders.

details of 24 yr. old Animation by Gregg Emery

In the past I have made some short test runs of my own animations inspired by artist William Kentridge, who primarily illustrates a single drawing that he animates by erasing and redrawing on the same page. You can see samples of his work on Youtube because much of how Kentridge's work is displayed, is in moving projection form. However, even with our love of Kentridge and my work on animation I had never known that in my husband's past lurked this behemoth of an animation memory.

Today, using programs like IMovie on the Mac or MovieMaker on a PC (and countless other free movie programs) it has become very simple to drop hundreds of photos into a track and speed them up. Now, things like transitions and animated titles often come in prepackaged cookie-cutter forms.

Yet back in the North Country 24 yrs. ago there were no digital cameras, no accessible movie making programs and definitely no prepackaged ways of making animated titles.

hand drawn animated title by Gregg Emery

So here lies my husbands ninth grade self-assigned animation project in which he hand illustrated every single sec of movement and photographed each new page. His art teacher at the time assisted with driving the roll of painstakingly shot 8mm film to get developed. Needless to say the film never returned developed.

There had been something mysteriously wrong with either the development or the film itself.

Can you imagine the heartbreak that caused a young man who had put in that many hours of self-assigned work?? In the end this entire project never saw the light of day. It was designated into an envelope that was to be moved around and spontaneously unearthed 24 yrs. later. opening scenes by Gregg Emery

So for my last days of Spring Break, my project is to do some artistic CPR and resurrect this amazing piece of art work from the land of the forgotten.

my sequencing notes

We have already reordered all the sequencing. Since it is so old, it was often difficult for my husband to remember what many of his intentions in specific areas were.

I have also written out his overall story arc vision and we discussed where I might breathe some 'Marisol' life into aspects of the story to boost his overall narrative.

Thankfully, my husband loved all my proposed additions (not changes) and I'm starting today!

Everyday Typography..

sample of a Primitive Country Folk art sign

I went up to the North Country this past weekend to visit my in-laws. We even crossed over the border to Cornwall, Canada for an afternoon of consignment/thrift/antique/ (really window) shopping. One thing that shows up in all the country decor and antique shops on the way up North are those "Primitive" (I just learned that is indeed what they're called) country folk art wall quote signs saying things like "I don't repeat gossip, so I'm only going to say this once" or "don't look down on someone unless you're helping them up" or "family is..." you can fill in the blank with any sugary heart-warming thing you like (cuz it all looks good on an antique-treated, wood stained, framed sign).

An embroidered primitive sign from Susie's Bittersweet Treasures

However, I'm partial to the hand-lettered signs as opposed to the computer generated ones that are meant to imitate the hand-lettered look with a cleaner polish. I am also partial to the beautiful hand -embroidered quotes that are sewn on to tea- or coffee stained fabric. As they are meant to be, all of them are very inspirational.

So for today I thought all of us 'creatives' in cyberspace could all use some inspiration and motivation to put our hand and art back into writing. I discovered this 'envelope' (scroll down) in my writing desk (its origins unbeknownst to me) and I thought I would share the images of the writing tools and eloquent instructions that came within the envelope with you.

Instruction #1

A well positioned desk is an invitation to write.

detail of pen nibs

Instruction #2

Dip the nib in the ink-pot and try first on scrap paper: otherwise the first line might be a spot or ink blot. Use a protective sheet to cover the blank part or your sheet as you write. Always write with the full width of the nib.

front of envelope envelope insert

Instruction #3

Do not use pads: use single sheets. To begin the quiet art of beautiful writing, inner calm and concentration are required.

back of envelope

Instruction #4

It might be that at first your hand will not accomplish what you expect. Try again. Eventually you will reach your goal, and, in the process, gain a true feeling of peace.

When finished with your writing thoroughly clean the nib. You are now experiencing the pleasure of writing.

For really wonderful examples of lettering one of my favorite art magazines Somerset Studio has a wonderful section entitled Lively Art of Lettering that you should be sure to check out!

Art House Sketchbook Event!!

Spread from My Arthouse sketchbook click HERE (or scroll down) to see it

The Arthouse Sketchbook Brooklyn event was this past Friday on the last day of school before our Spring break. And what a day that was...but that's another story. It was a beautiful way to end the day as we (my husband fellow artist Gregg Emery and I) accompanied our student Colin (who is also an artist featured in the sketchbook event) to the Brooklyn opening by public transportation from New Jersey. At the last moment, we were joined by two of our other art students, Ji Min and Nicole. What an adventure it was to take the bus, subway and walk through Brooklyn's warehouse district with our students in such a spontaneous, unplanned and informal trip.

All of us at 175th Train StationThe ArtHouse Event was at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn

The Arthouse Event was sponsored by 3rd Ward Creative Space in Brooklyn, NY. 3rd ward is an amazing space with art facilities from wood to computer center available for use by the public. There were over 2500 international participants in the sketchbook event. When we arrived there was already a major crowd spilling out onto the street, music blaring, and sketchbooks galore being perused.

Our three students checking out sketchbooksfolks checking out Colin's sketchbook

As soon as we realized how the sketchbooks were being displayed - simply laid out to be handled and traded we knew finding any of our own would be like finding a needle in a haystack, but we tried anyway. By a stroke of luck, Colin immediately spotted some folks checking out his sketchbook! He was overjoyed as they were commenting on how much they loved it!!

Colin peeking through an uber-creative sketchbookMy sweet cousins, Tai Tai and Kas came to the show too! ready to check out some art!Another amazingly creative sketchbook!We met up with some co-workers and alumni (students of ours from 1999 and 2000!)There were so many varied responses to the Everyone I know theme...it was mesmerizing!Sketchbook spread by artist Duncan Reid - my favorite sketchbook of the night.

So thanks for tagging along to our Art house sketchbook event in Brooklyn! Hope you are as inspired as we were when we left...we were so hungry we got off the subway in Manhattan and had some Gray's Papaya before heading back up to Jersey!

An Alternative Way to Think About the Creative Process

Seeing as I've been feeling a little under the gorgeous Northern Eastcoast weather this weekend, I spent a good portion of time laying back perusing through some of the amazing talks on TED. Something I highly recommend to any creative whenever they have 18 minutes to spare.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Currently Ted features an amazing online community and offers what I consider to be a phenomenal set of free, brilliant, educational video-talks on what they appropriately have tagged 'Ideas Worth Spreading'. Their mission is to make the world a better place by the spreading of ideas.

So here is just one of many TED ideas that I want to help share, especially with my readers since this blog is on living an art-full life. This idea comes from Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of best selling book, Eat, Pray, Love. Her idea is that instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. She's an excellent, inspiring speaker and this talk was just what every creative needs to hear every time they ask themselves, 'What's next?'

I hope you received a spark or an 'a ha' moment from this video. Let me know, as I will most likely be featuring Ted talks again!

Objectified Rags to Riches or My 'Slumdog Millionaire' Art Piece Pick!

Since one aspect of my 'living an artful life' blog is to promote the eco-conscious in art making, I like to highlight artists/designers that use materials and resources in fresh, evocative ways. Sometimes that means recycling old objects to make something new, and sometimes it means using the material that is so plentifully available all around us to make something sustainable and usable - so this post I give you Stuart Haygarth whose chandeliers are my slumdog millionaire art piece pic of the day!

Stuart Haygarth's Optical Chandelier

In the movie Slumdog Millionaire, an over-wrought, inundated, economically-severed place (the slums of Mumbai India) give birth to two children who end up orphaned but not destitute- since they are filled with illuminating hope for a future destiny to love each other. Their brilliance of life becomes manifested through a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire televsion show" and a brutal accusation of cheating. Now this may seem as a stretch, but my artist eyes see that same story line when I see Stuart Haygarth's chandeliers...objects plentiful, disregarded, over-wrought, inundated give off such a spectacular shape, form and light.

Stuart Haygarth's Tide Chandelier

So seeing as Slum Dog Millionaire was the big winner at the Oscars last night - I only thought it fitting to find an artist who I think is the 'slumdog-millionaire-designer' of the day! Some of the objects that make up these chandeliers are objects that you would find a plenty in landfills, dollar stores or in your pantry.Mr. Haygarth collects, cleans and categorizes these objects (sometimes for years) before composing them into forms.

My work is about giving banal and overlooked objects a new significance. The finished piece of work takes various forms such as chandeliers, installations, functional and sculptural objects. - ^{excerpt from Stuart Haygarth's online posted profile.}

Detail of Stuart Haygarth's Selffridge Harpoon 321

So who is Stuart Haygarth? Well, I discovered this artist/designer/lighting designer through design sites and blogs such as the Design Museum and Moco Loco. Mr. Haygarth is an England born artist who for many projects and commissions uses objects that are debris found along the coastline of Dungeness Beach in Kent, UK, such as this Selffridge named Harpoon321 made of found rubber fisherman gloves that have changed in tints and tones as they have been used and worn. To see more and to learn more about Stuart Haygarth another good link is Icon Magazine Online<

As for Slum Dog Millionaire if you haven't seen it- you must! It will defy any preconceived notions you have, illuminate the forgotten joy you had in love and thrill you the way a great movie should. And, if you're a comment leaving type - let me know about the unexpected and unlikely places you find beauty!