Kat Eye Studio

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The Butterfly Effect

The creative process is a lot like a redecorating project. It starts with a spark of an idea. You find something new and you want to integrate it, so you start to take apart what’s already there. It’s a mess in the middle, as you try new things, experiment, put things together and take them apart again. If you follow it through, order eventually comes to the chaos. In the end you have something different, you’ve created something new.

  
In the last week I added this great new set of prints, called “The Butterfly Effect” by artist Barton DeGraaf, to my studio walls. 

Of course, it looks great now, all finished up, but what a mess in the middle! Art off the walls and stacked everywhere. Tools scattered. Making holes once or twice or three times to get things lined up. Then cleaning up, finding new places for the old pieces of art on other walls or storage, and making the space usable again. It took about a week to finish, utilizing bits and pieces of time found here or there. But what a difference! I wanted to use my studio space again.

Once I finished and stood back to evaluate, I realized I loved not only the new art and the new space, but the whole process… The spark of the idea, the integrating of the new into existing pieces, the chaos of the mess as I try to make things work, and then the satisfaction of the completion of a project as well as something real and tangible in the end. 

There is the creative process, in a nutshell. 

Nothing comes out fully formed from an idea. It takes the disorder and frustration of trying new things, adjusting, and maybe leaving a few extra holes in the wall you work through the problems. It takes cleaning up the disaster created as a by product of the process before you can see the finished state. It takes an investment of time to do all of this work.

But when you get to the end? It’s all worth it. 

I think I have a new personal definition for “The Butterfly Effect”… It’s the satisfaction of struggling through the creative process, to bring something beautiful and worthwhile into existence. 

What’s next? It’s time to start the process again…

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Living with my Work

From photons to pixels to print – same day. One of the things I love about being able to print my own work is that I can, almost real time, print the work I am creating. Often I create something and love it so much I just want to enjoy it off of the computer. Or, I tried something new and I want to see how it translates to paper. I want to hold it in my hands, feel as well as see the texture. I can do that now that I have a printer.

A couple of months ago, I started a weekly “print practice.” My goal is to print one or two pieces a week, to get better at editing for print. Get a feel for the effects of different papers and really learn this part off the process. I’ve stuck with it most weeks, and I’m definitely I improving. I really love my prints.

The problem became how to display them. I thought about my magnet boards, but they are really not big enough to hold multiple large prints. I have a bunch of old frames in the garage, but they would need some repainting to match my studio and they are standard sizes. I would either have to start printing standard sizes or get mats. The thought of changing things out of mats and frames all of the time wasn’t appealing either.

So it was synchronicity last week that when I finally put away my painting easel and created some free wall space, I ran across these magnetic photo ropes on Photojojo. I bought three in red, on a whim, hoping they would work in the newly empty space.

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They are awesome! I can print and hang within seconds, easily changing images out. Each rope comes with eight super strong magnets, which work great even for the heavy fine art papers I’m using. It’s still a clean, uncluttered look, even with many images on display.

Now when I sit in my comfy chair, this is my view. Nice view, huh?

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I’m already learning a lot. It’s interesting to see how some images, loved in the moment, quickly fade away and I want to replace them. Others last longer. Some images don’t translate well from screen to paper, or need a little more work to translate well. After looking at them in different light I can see how I might need to adjust them. I’ve already changed up what’s displayed here several times in the last few days. It looks different this morning than it did when I took these images on Saturday.

In David duChemin’s workshop he encouraged us to “live with our work.” I understand why. We are more picky, we improve, when we have to look at it every day. How do you display your work?

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Music in Me

Creating takes many forms. We often think of creating as bringing something wholly original into the world. We limit ourselves with this belief.

When we take some raw material and transform it into something new, we create. When we cook a meal from ingredients, we create. When we combine pieces of clothing from our closet into an outfit, we create. When we pick up an instrument and bring sounds from it, we create.

I’ve been exploring this aspect of creating through my new/old guitar. I’m not the “creator” of the music I’m learning, but I am the creator of the sounds. This guitar would not be making these sounds were it not for me. The music doesn’t exist without me.

Every day, we get to create. Every day, we start with raw materials and turn them into something new. There is freedom and joy that comes with this knowledge. I love knowing this, don’t you?

In The Picture

This month’s {in the picture} theme is “Write On,” putting words on our self-portraits in some way. I thought this quote was perfect to express what I’ve discovered about playing the guitar. I envisioned this shot in my head, wanting the view out the window overexposed and me to be dark in contrast. I set it up using a tripod and remote, and discovered it was challenging to use the remote to trigger the camera, drop it, and get my hands in position in time to take the photo. It took a few tries! The blur of my head was a total accident, I must have been looking between my hands at the moment the picture was taken, but I found I liked the softness it brought to the image. It went well with the light.

So, month two of my self-portrait journey is done, and it’s getting a little bit easier. It helped to know what I wanted to “say” with the photo, and focusing on the concept I was wanting to convey rather than the idea that it is a photograph of me. How’s it going for you?

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A New Love

I have a new love these days. It came at me out of the blue, unexpected. I’m learning to play the guitar. Not just any guitar, but my Dad’s 1950’s Gibson.

Sometimes life throws us a curveball. Through some twists and turns, the guitar came to me in January. My brother, the only one who played, inherited it after my Dad passed away in 1995. Now it’s come to me for safekeeping.

I have so many memories of my Dad playing this guitar. Listening to him play 50’s and 60’s country-western music. Singing along to “Country Roads” by John Denver and “Sing a Song” by the Carpenters. Hours spent on Saturday nights watching TV at a certain house, while my Dad played music in the basement with his friends. He had this guitar my whole life, even before he married my Mom in 1969. It was a tiny piece of him we were able to keep after he passed away.

My Dad and the guitar in the 1980's

If you had asked me, two months ago, if I would be learning guitar today I would have laughed at you. What guitar? Who has time? I would have said. But when this piece of my history arrived and I put my hands on the guitar I knew it couldn’t stay in its case. I knew I had to learn. It’s like a living thing; it needs to be played. And by playing it, I feel closer to my Dad than I have in a long time. As I learn to play the chords I wonder how he managed to use his very large fingers to play them. I wonder how and when he got this guitar, why he chose this particular one. And I miss him, even more.

My guitar-playing friends seem to love this guitar. It’s a ~1956-7 Gibson ES125 hollow-body electric. Don’t know that that means? Don’t worry, neither did I a couple of months ago. It’s an early electric guitar, and little tiny piece of guitar history. A big piece of my personal history, growing larger every day.

I was surprised at how comfortable it is in my hands; how well it seems to fit me. I find that I like having music in my life again. Making music again. (I played flute years ago.) I always like learning something new, but in this I’m a true beginner. I can see how far I have to go, to even play a song. But I’m working on it. Working a little bit everyday, through the sore fingers and the awkward pauses to play the chords right and someday, I’ll be able to play a song or two.

And you know what? Surprise of all surprises, I’m loving every minute of it.

PS – Today is the last day to enter the Market/Wheels Giveaway! I would love your feedback as I prep for my exhibition, and you could win a matted print for giving it. Visit this post here for the details.

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Settled In

There is nothing like a few days in a row off with no travel plans to create some space for finishing home projects. With the arrival of the quilt from my Mom I finally had the final ingredient, some leftover fabric she sent along, to get me motivated to finish up the decoration of my studio.

I created a few pillows with the fabric for my window seat and reading chair. The long skinny pillows are “cat friendly” reading pillows. I like a pillow on my lap when I read to hold the book but then Stevie the cat won’t sit on my lap, he doesn’t like to be crowded, so I use a skinny pillow to suit both our needs.

I’m quite happy with how the pillows turned out. How nice of Stevie to pop into the scene as I was taking pictures early this morning.

The pillow project was preceded with finishing another project that had been covering my work desk for a couple of months. I was making some tags to hang from the “dream” placard on my wall, so I finished those up to make room for my sewing machine. Ahhh, now it’s all clean.

I like how it’s looking, but now I “see” all of my painting stuff, since it’s not lost in the mess that was my work table. I haven’t painted in MONTHS, the same canvas has been sitting on my easel for a while. Maybe now I’ll get on to painting again. Maybe not. At any rate, it’s waiting there for me when I get to it.

And finally, I thought I would capture where I spend most of my time in this room… at my computer desk. It’s not the pretty part of the room, by any means, but it’s “home” for me. I love my magnet boards for inspiration and having all of my notes accessible. My son’s computer is right next to mine, on the left. He got the old computer when I got a new one this July. I was tired of the constant negotiation with him over computer time.

I’m now finished with my current plans for studio decoration. I guess this means I’m all settled in!

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Colorful and Cozy

Is there anything better than curling up under a quilt and reading a book? A cup of tea, and a cat on my lap add to the mood. The only thing I need to complete the perfection is to have it be one of my Mom’s quilts I’m snuggled up under, made for me with love.

A while ago I wrote on Mortal Muses about how my life story can be tracked by the quilts that have been made for me, by my Mom and other relatives. Just this week a new chapter in the story was added, with this quilt of bright colors that arrived in the mail. My Mom and I chose this fabric to match my studio when she visited in October, and she took it home to create a new work of art for me to snuggle under. A quilt that marks the move home from Italy in my creative journey.

She thinks it’s too bright, but I love it. It makes me happy and cheerful to curl up under this quilt, with all of the colors I love. Perfect for these short grey days and long dark nights – colorful and cozy!

Today’s Many Muses Musing prompt is COZY. Tomorrow’s prompt is PEACE. Come on over and join in!

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