Archives for January 2017

January 26, 2017 by Kat

Art is Arriving!

It started with two and then it was four and this week it was more! Thursdays are the day I stop in and pick up the mail at my UPS store, bringing home some wonderful art goodness for the Liberate Your Art postcard swap. There is still lots of time to join in the swap if you haven’t already. You can get more info and sign up for the swap here.

If you are already signed up, you are probably anxiously awaiting some photos of the mail art I’m receiving! Here is the first batch…

The first two decorated envelopes to arrive were a couple of smiling ladies. Kate in Michigan sent the happy vintage beachcomber (wishing for some sun?) and Natasa in Slovenia created the cute woman with the fox hat.

This envelope is from Annie in California, a lovely valentine theme! This is Annie’s first year in the swap, so give her a great big LYA welcome. Annie, the UPS store owner was especially enthralled with yours. “This one has texture!” He pointed out to me especially. Thanks for making his day (and all of ours!) a little brighter.

Mary Jane in Canada sent this lovely envelope. It had texture too! Loved it both front and back. I was especially enthralled with those dragonfly stamps…

And wrapping up this week, it’s an irish themed envelope for Jacinta in Ireland. Made me smile!

And it’s all just starting! There are still six weeks before the swap deadline, and I look forward to sharing many more envelopes in the coming weeks!

January 12, 2017 by Kat

Where I’ve been… Where I’ll be

So, I’ve been a bit missing online this fall. Part of it has been a creative slump, which I’ve been pulling out of with my digital painting. Part of it has been my new job, taking on a management role again. But there is one more part I haven’t talked about here… and that’s the part about me becoming a mentor for my son’s FIRST Robotics team.

If you’ve never heard of FIRST, it’s a great program… In the Robotics Challenge, high school teams from around the world design and build robots to compete with each other. Each year is a unique game and challenge. This year’s game is called Steamworks and involves robots collecting and placing gears, collecting and delivering balls to high and low goals, and climbing ropes.

My son Brandon is a sophomore in high school and this is his second year on Team 997 Spartan Robotics. Last year, he wasn’t so sure about it. It’s a HUGE time commitment. The “build season” is 6 weeks from start to finish, with the new game released each year in early January. Teams start designing and building after kickoff in January, and complete the robot by mid-February. It’s 5 meetings a week, after school and on Saturdays, because designing an building a functional robot from scratch is not an easy task.

And, as we learned last year in his first season, it’s an amazing experience for the kids who participate. For me, working as an engineering professional for 24 years, it’s the best thing I’ve seen in high school to prepare kids for the real world of work. They learn an amazing range of things:

Working as a team to accomplish a goal
Time management and prioritization of both school work and robotics work
Working together and being professional under stressful situations
Adapting to unanticipated problems and changes
And oh yeah, they learn about engineering, business, and marketing along the way.

Pretty darn cool.

I started mentoring this fall, focusing with the team leadership on project management. In the fall, the team participated in an informal competition called BunnyBots, which serves as training and practice for the real season to come. They didn’t think they could meet the schedule… but they did awesome – they were part of the championship alliance, winning the day! You can watch the final championship Bunnybot match here. Look for the bright blue robot with 997 on it, that’s our team’s robot named “Hermes.”

But that was just practice. This last weekend, the real season started. January 7 the game was released and build season is officially under way. It’s pretty much non-stop until February 18th.

Here’s the team on kickoff day. I’m in there, way in the back. We were even covered in our local newspaper (see if you can spot my son!).

So, yeah, my artistic output has dropped off dramatically since Saturday. I’m sure it will come back as we get into the swing of things. Right now I’m having fun seeing these kids do amazing things, enjoying the front row seat in my son’s development into adulthood, and hoping that I’ll have a little bit of impact on developing some future engineers.

January 3, 2017 by Kat

Back to Beginner

There are different kinds of learning. There is the learning of an expert, polishing and honing a skill to perfection. Getting better and better at a chosen craft. Creating good art, then better art, then great art. Someday, maybe even amazing art.

Then there is the learning of a beginner, growing by leaps and bounds each day. Getting better fast, up a steep learning curve. And creating lots of crap along the way.

There is pleasure in both, but I do love being a beginner! It’s so much fun to sit down and be continuously engaged in the process. To learn something new each day.

What if I do this. Let me try that. It worked out great! Or not so great. Or awful… undo. Undo!

It’s just hard to go back to not creating good work. Occasionally, I create something I like, like these leaves, but I have no idea how to extend that into the next piece, or the next. I have no style, no focus. It’s all experimentation.

I know it’s part of the learning process. To grow you have to accept that you do not start out with mastery. You have to willing to be a beginner again, starting from a place where you will create more mess than good. The only way to get to the real art, your art, is through the process.

That’s the fun and that’s also the frustration.

I’m hopeful some good art will come out on the other side. And if not? That’s ok too. I’m having fun creating again. Learning again.

Right now, that is what matters most.

Archives for January 2017

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