Kat Eye Studio

Archives for April 2016

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Spring Cleaning your Device

The change of seasons brings with it a natural opportunity to clean things up. As we rearrange our gear from cold season to warm, it’s easy to purge and organize. If I didn’t like something last year, I’m no longer attached. Away it goes.


But… What spurs us to clean off our devices? If you are like me, your device is a cluttered mess. All the apps you downloaded and never used. Music you haven’t listened to in years. Photos from six months ago (or longer).  Other than my Camera Roll, I haven’t really ever cleaned things up since I started using the iPhone in 2012. I keep the home page organized, and page two after that. The rest? A disaster.

So this week, when my iPhone failed to update to latest version of iOS normally, I decided to not fight any longer to get it restored to its pre-update condition. After my lessons the last time this happened, my contacts were backed up. All of my photos were already archived on my computer or Dropbox. Resetting the device was a great opportunity to start from scratch and clean things up. 

It took a little bit of time, but now, I only have the apps I actually use on my iPhone. Not only that, they are nicely organized into folders and I can find them. My camera roll is clear and ready for new photos. My podcasts and music are downloaded and ready to listen to. My wallpaper backgrounds have been changed, which is surprisingly refreshing. The whole device feels clean and fresh.

Have you cleaned off your device lately? If not, here are some suggestions:

  1. Delete any apps you don’t use regularly. You can always download them again if you find you need them. I kept anything I use all the time, or have used in the last year in specific circumstances (like travel apps). I didn’t keep photo editing apps I rarely use or want to try out — those can stay on my iPad since I do most of my editing there. Only the apps I know I will use stayed.
  2. Organize less-used apps into folders. There are apps you use all the time and want available to open with one tap, and then there are the apps you use once in awhile, where a couple of taps to navigate a folder won’t hurt. I find it easier to navigate and find apps with fewer pages on the device with more organized folders, than pages and pages of apps. Keep most used apps on the home page where you can easily get to them with a click of the home button, and move the rest to a secondary page. 
  3. Clear off your camera roll. Haven’t cleaned your photos off lately? Can you find anything? Archive and delete old photos to lighten the load. It makes it easier to find things! Your photo apps run better, too. Learn how to archive and delete here. Are there special photos you want to keep on your device? Learn how to create permanent albums here.
  4. Change your wallpaper. It seems simple, but if you’ve had the same wallpaper for over a year, you might find this visually refreshing. For background wallpaper, something subtle with open area works well so it doesn’t distract from your app icons. For the lock screen, the image can be busier as long as you can read the date and time easily. Experiment! The iPhone changes color scheme depending on the background photo, so it’s a nice way to “redecorate.”
  5. Update your notification settings. One of the biggest ways to clutter up the device visually is with notification badges. Not to mention it makes you feel like you are behind on everything! I’ve recently gone through and turned off badges for almost everything except phone and messaging. Lock screen notifications are limited to a few apps I want to hear from. Do I really need to know everytime I get a new email or someone likes a photo on Instagram? No! I’ll check in with the apps when I have time. I don’t need them nagging me.

There is nothing like a fresh, clean, organized room or closet or cabinet, is there? It’s the same with your digital spaces. Take a few minutes here or there to spring clean. If you do, I guarantee you will enjoy your device more! 

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The First of the Season

It’s my first hiking pic of the season! My interpretation of the sunrise as I got out on the trail, called “Burn Away the Night.”

  
It’s been gorgeous out on the trail the last few days. The forest is alive with its new layer of green and birdsong, and sweet spring scents. I’m getting to know it again. Reminded of the pleasures to all of my senses.

And my body has been reminding me too… I haven’t done much of anything all winter long, and there is payment for that. From zero to a few miles of hiking a day means I’m tired and sore. Every year in the spring I curse myself for my winter inactivity, saying I should figure out how to keep this up year round. And every year, here I am in the spring, tired and sore as I get myself back into hiking shape. Ow.

This morning, there will be no hiking. I woke up to pouring rain. Between that and my aching body, I think I’ll take it easy today. I’ll enjoy a cup of tea and work on some art, pretending it’s still winter for one more day. 

Hopefully the weather and the aches will clear up soon. Now that I’ve got a taste of the trails, I’ve got a whole season of hiking to get going on.

(Update: About an hour after I posted this, the rain lightened and my body warmed up, so I went out for a hike anyway. The rainy forest smelled great!)

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Time for Trails

It’s that time of year! It’s time for trails. Every year, as the days get longer and the weather gets better, my morning time begins to revolve around getting out in the forest instead of other things. This morning I’m heading out on my first morning hike in months. My dog celebrates. My body celebrates. My heart celebrates.

My art, however, does not always celebrate. I will miss my winter trees! The question is… Do I work from my camera roll, as I did for this image created yesterday, or do I create new images?

  
Maybe it will be a bit of both this year! I know my art will change this summer, it always does. I wonder what will catch my eye?

But before I head out this morning, I have some business to take care of… Announcing winners!

Congrats to Michele, who won a copy of my Art with an iPhone book, and CatieAn, who won the matted print, in the Final Celebration of the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap. Thanks to both of you for joining in!

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Liberate Your Art 2016 Final Celebration

2016-Lifelong-Journey

It’s time to celebrate! This weekend we wrap up the sixth annual Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap. It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this for SIX YEARS now. It’s still so much fun, isn’t it?

But let’s not delay… Here are the stats you’ve been waiting for on the 2016 swap:

1050 pieces of art liberated
175 artists participating
12 countries represented

The total number of participants was lower this year, but the enthusiasm was just as high as ever! We even had artists in two new countries participating: Israel and Belarus. Awesome!

I created this year’s final celebration art piece to remind each and every one of us that we are on a journey. We may start on the path of liberating our art timidly, fearful of the response we are going to get. Art is such a personal thing, it can feel like we are putting a piece of our heart and soul out there, where others may reject it. But you know what? The more you liberate your art, the easier it gets. The more confident you get. You just have to keep taking small steps.

Liberating your art is a lifelong journey.

Take a look at where you are today compared to where you started. You will see how far you have already come, even if you have a long way to go. Whether this is your first year, or your sixth year, or your twentieth year of liberating your art, there is a supportive creative community here to help you take that next step. Celebrate where you are, and encourage your fellow artists, no matter where they are at.

Let’s celebrate with a video! About 60% of participants sent me a digital image of the art featured on their postcards for use in the 2016 video. As you watch it, imagine 40% more! That’s how much art was liberated. Enjoy! (And if you can, watch it in HD.)

Thank you to all participants for liberating your wonderful art, and for connecting to celebrate each other on this lifelong journey.

 
Now, it’s time to HOP! I have a special bonus for the blog hop participants in the form of a giveaway drawing! At the end of the final celebration, by random drawing from all blog hop links, I will be giving away:

  • One copy of my book Art with an iPhone: A Photographer’s Guide to Creating Altered Realities. It’s so exciting to finally have my book in print and I want to share it with you!
  • One 6×9″ fine art print, matted to 11×14″, of this year’s Final Celebration image “Lifelong Journey” shown above. Having this image in your studio will be a reminder to honor and celebrate wherever you are on your journey, and to take that next step.

If you would like your own 6×9″ fine art print of this year’s image “Lifelong Journey,” it is only available for purchase during the time of the final celebration. To order, click here if you are within the US and here if you are outside of the US. Postage is included in the purchase price. Thank you! Your orders help me defray the extra expenses I incur on behalf of the swap. (And don’t worry, if you purchase the print and then win the giveaway, I’ll refund your money.)

All right, are you ready? Let’s celebrate! Share your experiences with the 2016 swap. You can link in from a blog, Flickr, Facebook, even Instagram! Make sure your image is public, and you are good to go.


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What I Love About Art

Occasionally a piece comes along that reminds me exactly what it is I love about creating art. It doesn’t have to be the best piece I ever made (usually it isnt’t). It doesn’t have to be something others love. It just has to remind me of the joy of creating in my chosen medium.

This piece, Meet Me at the Tree, is one of those pieces.

  
It reminded me of the two things I love about iPhone photography…

First, the immediacy and availability of it, which allows me to capture the world I move through. I was walking from my car to the office building where I work my corporate job, and there it was: This cool twig, which looked like a stylized tree, planted along a crack in the asphalt of the parking lot. A little scene in itself. I pulled out my iPhone, framed and photographed a few images, and then went on my way. (My coworkers think I’m crazy.)

  
And then the second thing I love, transforming it into something altogether different in my editing process using iPhone apps. Taking the image as the raw material to create a new type of art, related to the starting photograph but comepletely different. No requirement to tie to the original “reality” of it, I can transform it into a completely different expression. The world I see becomes a world I imagine. 

  
And I am giddy with it! This is what I love about art. This is what I love about my medium. The ability to see beyond my current reality. The transformation of one thing into another.

I am filled with the excitement of the possibilities. What might I see and transform today?

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Creative Life Conversation: What is Creative, anyway?

Our next step in the creative life conversation (first step here, if you missed it), is to talk about what constitutes a creative activity. This is where I’ve gotten hung up in the past, feeling like I have no time for creativity, because I define “creativity” way too narrow.

So what I want to do today is expand that definition. Creativity is not only the physical act of creating art. Creative activities are all of the things that feed into us creating our art, however big, however small, however seemingly unrelated.

Let me give you an example… Last Saturday I taught a workshop, the second in my Mobile Photography series. I had to get ready for the workshop, teach the workshop, follow up on the workshop. I’ve taught this workshop many times before, so it doesn’t seem like a “creative” activity. It’s fun, but is it creative? Any yet, the time in the workshop teaching led me to reconnect with a couple of apps I hadn’t been using recently. Seeing the work my students were creating inspired me to play around with those apps again. And guess what, the next day I created this piece of art, as a direct outcome of teaching that workshop:

  
So, was only the time I spent making this piece creative? In my expanded definition, no. Teaching the workshop was creative too, because it gave me the spark for the piece of art.

With an expanded definition of creativity, I can look at my life and see two things:

  1. I have way more creative activities going on than I give myself credit for. (This is my perception about my creative life.)
  2. I can fit these creative activities into all sorts of books and crannies in my schedule, increasing the amount of time I have for creativity. (This is my actual creative life.)

What I want to do in the next couple of steps is help you increase both the perceived and actual creative activities in your life.

The first step is on perception: What is a creative activity? 

Make a list of all of the activities that feed into you creating art. 

If you are having trouble with this concept, let me put it another way… What are the activities which being you inspiration, ideas, put you in the right frame of mind, clear space, etc. in order to create your art? What are all of things that give me a creative boost? Go start that list now, before reading too much further. I don’t want you to be too influenced by my list at the outset, which I’ll share later. You will come up with some different ideas that way. 

The second step is on actual activity: When and where can I be creative?

Group your list by categories of time and location.

What are the different chunks of time you have available? Maybe you have a few minutes in the morning in the studio, or a few minutes each day waiting in line while you are running errands. Maybe you have a few hours a week on a Saturday afternoon. In what ways can you slot your creative activities into these different snippets of time and location? 

List out the different types of time you have available, and then sort your list into those groups. Remember, a creative activity can be in more than one group. You might even add to the creative activity list, as you think through how you use that time now.

Let me share me output from this exercise, both groupings and activities, as an example…

Creative activities I can do in a few minutes in the studio:
Writing in my journal
Inspirational reading – on creativity, personal growth, essays, poems
Clean my workspace
Looking at art – books, online
Take a photo
Play around with a new app

Creative activities I can do in a few minutes away from home:
Inspirational reading – on my smartphone!
Going for a short walk wherever I am
Take a photo – smartphone!
Play around with a new app – smartphone!
Visiting a gallery
Looking at art online – smartphone!

Creative activities which require an hour plus in the studio:
Altering a photo – my main art
Writing a blog post
Writing a tutorial
Printing/Framing my art
Listening to artists talk about their journey, or any new ideas – podcasts, videos

Creative activities which require planning ahead, blocks of time:
Going for a hike
Visiting a gallery or exhibition out of town
Travel and exploration of a new location
Preparing a class
Writing or editing a larger piece (book, article)
Teaching a class
Preparing for exhibitions or art fairs
Listening to artists talk about their journey, or other new ideas – presentations
Takng a class to learn something new and interesting
Meeting up with other artists

Wow! I have lots of creative activities available to me, don’t I? I’ll share my insights later this week, because I have to get ready for work! My time is up.

What are your groupings? What’s your list? Share it with us here in the comments, so we can learn from and inspire each other to think about creativity in new ways. 

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