What is Art?

photo by fotologic on flicker

Seriously? What is it? When I told people I was going to take the summer off and just relax and work on my art they went, "Oh, you draw?" Umm...no, I can't draw to save my life. Since when is drawing the only art form?

I believe that art is up to the artist.
Art is anything and everything.
Art is an expression.
Art is creativity.
Art is making something outta nothing.
Art is not a masterpiece, it's something you're proud of.

I wouldn't call myself is artist. I enjoy it, but I'm not going to make money off it or go prancing around calling myself an artist just yet. I'm practicing and trying a little bit of everything. In fact, if I could spend my life doing a job that included painting(water color of course), writing, music, mixed media, building, movie making and fashion all snuggled up together in one, I'd be the happiest gal alive.

Until then I'll enjoy my little hobby and label it whatever the heckle I feel like.

What do you consider "art"? Does it have to fit into a certain category or be beautiful? I wanna hear your thoughts!

A Very Potter Musical Monday!

I was debating whether or not to feature these amazing people today or not. I love them so much, they are such an inspiration to me but I feel weird posting about something so popular that people already know about. Then it hit me--I need to blog about things I love about. If I didn't, then what's the point?

That's why I once again have a long, excited fan girl type post today.

I've always wanted to write a play or musical. These guys make me want to pick up a childhood book and start adapting it into ridiculous musical numbers.

Team Starkid (or known as Starkidpotter on youtube) is a group of former University of Michigan students who started performing together. In April 2009 they performed an original musical based on the Harry Potter sequel by J.K Rowling. Then, on July 5th 2009 it was uploaded to Youtube with the title A Very Potter Musical and almost instantly became a hit due to it's comedy and brilliant music. At seeing the great response from this, they then uploaded a project they had done previous to AVPM called Little White Lies, a web series. It didn't get quite the same response as a full blown stage musical. Their next show was Me and My Dick...which I have yet to watch due to it's topic.

Buuuut, just last Thrusday they answered their 57115 subscribers and uploaded A Very Potter Sequel! With pretty much the same cast (+ two of their amazingly talented writes with non-singing roles) and all new songs it packs a punch. It's a bit more vulgar and has a bit of "Starkid trying to be starkid" feel to it, but man oh man, these guys can't go wrong.

I was going to post a video of the sequel but I think you need to be hooked to the first one to really some of the jokes. Anyway, their first video has the best song in my opinion.

Tutorial Tuesday: I like gum.

I like gum.
Do you like gum?
(click^^)

So I'm pretty sure everyone in the entire world knows how to make a gum wrapper chain except me. I may have to wait until school starts to try this on account of lack of gum wrappers. I haven't been chewing as much as I used to, so I'll have to steal some of friends. Anyway, I'm always on the lookout for things to upcycle into jewelry so I don't know why this hasn't crossed my mind. It doesn't have to be gum wrappers. I'd love to try this with book pages because I pretty much love vintage book page jewelry (I assume there's another name for this).


Oh and sorry for the overly colored photo of a still from Grease, I'm trying out my light textures. I actually made some! I'm so happy. I'm working on resizing and coloring and all that jazz and will probably release a pack on DeviantArt when I figure out how to do that :D So next month-ish. I'm really getting into digital art...almost enough to give up my dream of being a poorly paid high school English teacher and become a designer. Doubtful.

Music Mondays: I love Pomplamoose! (a bit too much)

Whew, I'm back! My trip was tiring and stressful and wonderful at the same time. I needed to unplug and get out into "the wilderness" aka a ranch with hotel-like cabins surrounded by the prettiest forests and rivers. However, I would have never made it through the weekend without my newly stocked iTunes library.

I've been obsessed with this little couple on Youtube for quite a while and I just now have given in and paid for one of their CD's because let's face it, it's hard to live without their wonderful music! Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn have created their own whimsy corner of the internet and it's where I go when I'm in need of inspiration or had a terrible horrible no good rotten very bad day. Their band Pomplamoose is nothing I've ever heard before. I literally can't describe it. Think of it as an aqua colored cupcake served at a tea party for cowboys and spacemen.

They make videos. Video songs to be exact. Each of their videos show how the make the music so you know there are no hidden sounds or gimmicks. Pomplamoose is pure, raw talent. It's an art form. I wouldn't be getting so passionate about them (or any other music) if it wasn't.

Another thing I adore about these two is that in a video taken right after one of their first songs she Nataly says, "I was afraid I wasn't animated enough...I wasn't, like, flirting with the camera. I was just singing. Is that okay?" and then dear Jack responses with, "Of course. You're not fake." And that sums them up. They're not fake. They're adorable and brilliant and oh my gosh I'll just post a video already! If I can pick one...

Oh, and have you seen that car commercial with the indie cover of Mister Sandman in the background? Yeah, that's them too.

Pomplamoose Music
^^There you will find all of their music along with links to Jack's and Nat's music and other projects!

If it seems quiet around here...

It's because I'm traveling! My family reunion is this weekend, miles away from civilization in Minnesota (which actually is more urban than South Dakota, but we're staying in a camp of some sort). Regular scheduled blogging will return for Music Monday. I have big plans for the coming week! Stay tuned!

Tutorial Tuesday: The late night/early morning edition!

There's a cricket under my bed.He's not making any noise at the moment, but I know as soon as I try to go to bed the little bugger will keep me up all night. So, why not get a head start on Tutorial Tuesday...since it is Tuesday. Early morning tuesday...or late night monday... Ah, screw it, I'll finish the post when I'm sane.

After two cups of coffee and hours and hours of sleeping in, I think I'm sane enough to update. Today's inspiration actually hasn't been rotting in my favorites for years. My mom sent me a link to Donna Downey's blog Simply Me because she not only is she an amazing artist and business lady, but she hosts Inspiration Wednesday; where she posts tutorial videos. Now, I don't stamp. I'm jobless and stamping is a very expensive hobby. Donna Downey is definitely a stamper. So, instead of following her videos, I improvised. She uses acrylic paint and I'm scared of real paint so I used water color to see if I could get the same effect as she did in this video:

inspiration wednesday 6 30 10 from donna downey on Vimeo.

I just tried the flowers and I learned that I really like mixing colors :) It makes me feel like a little kid.

^Accidental Drippage & crappy grass & if you turn your head it's a flower

This post took forever.
Hope you're happy.

You know what I love?

I love staying up past my critics* bedtime and doodling with gel pen and painting over it just to see what will happen and then saying "aw, screw it, this thing needs bright green poka-dots (pokadots? poke-a-dots?)" all while listening to struggling youtube singers with amazing talent. I also love writing run-on-sentences.

*my critic is a fictional character stolen from Diana Trout in her book Journal Spilling (which is pretty inspiring if you, like me, love journals and ruining them with water color). You're critic is that little voice in your head that says something like, "No, that's not what you planned to do." or "You've gotten this far, why don't you just stop before you screw it up? You'll never get it back" or something more simple such as "Just give up". My critic is my 13 year old self only dramatized into oblivion. She only wears black and ripped tights which she bought ripped and worships pop punk bands. She hates the color pink and doesn't like any of my ideas because they are too "conformist" (yet she loves Twilight, the bible of conformism, because it's "dark and gothic"). She is a complete and total hypocrite because she thinks I should work harder to make my craft look like everyone elses. Basically, my critic is the world's most annoying pre-teen.

What's your critic like?

p.s. Sorry for the lack of grammar. It's late and I don't quite care.

p.p.s Want to hear some of the music I was talking about? Have a gander. This is Julia Nunes with an amazing cover of an amazing song. This blog is starting to become musical :D