"Take my Hand"................

"Take My Hand" - inspired by the Galveston Beach this morning as we stood and watched wave upon wave come in.  The surf wasn't just the one wave coming in to crash - there were about 5-6 simultaenous waves that came in all curling around each other.  The beach was scattered with the weeds of the sea...giving this great bulbous texture mixed with greenery. 

The challenge for you now:  Where are you going in the next 3 months?  Where is your art taking you?  Who is holding your hand?  Who is the partner that is taking you on the journey?  No matter how much ALONE we feel - we are not alone.  So I'm taking the hand....and walking forward!

I feel that in some ways - the girl on the left is walking forward facing backwards. Not in a way that stops her walking - but looking behind for anything coming up to pull her back. Both girls move forward, both with missions to do going in the SAME direction.

~Pink Light Images~
Galveston 2014
"Take my Hand"

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Creating homework: A way to push yourself BEYOND your limits.

I don't know about all yall other creatives....
but sometimes you get "in the zone" creating for a lot of other people and you tend to let YOUR creations fall to the curb and be forgotten.

This year is a year of REMEMBERING!

Let's pick back up our ideas and visions...and ASSIGN OURSELVES HOMEWORK!!!!

I cannot say that I create every day - but every day IS an opportunity to create.

Today, I'm about to launch into a project that is hands-on and creating a prop for a future shoot.  But I also thought - WHAT CAN I DO TODAY in creation mode in the photography world???

I am re-visiting my Creative Live images again.  You know, the kind that keep calling you back...saying "come plaaaay with meeee" :)  Well, i stopped in through a journey of ideas into the image of Jane Love on the floor in the old abandoned seminary.

I wanted to play with some feathers that I've had for a while and make an interesting piece that says something else besides what I would consider normal.

I've been striving to push myself since Brooke's classes - and see what visions I can create what dream worlds can be concieved.  So far, I'm just playing - I'm learning - I'm growing.  Time management can be a mind suck when it comes to being an artist as I've just spent 2 hours distracted.  But out of this quick distraction I found some fun, ideas and future dreams.

Join me in welcoming another image into the family.................

and then, GO CREATE YOURSELF some homework!!! <3
show it...see it....think about it....write about it!

here is mine

Free flow writing.....

What a troubled and oppressed lady this is.  She is surrounded by clouds of dark and light and she struggles to find flight.  It seems as though she has fallen asleep and taken notice that someone is watching her.  What is she thinking? What will she do next? 

Inspired by Inspiration part 2. - the "Breakdown" of the vision.

I just finished reading MeRa's blog about her starting an art class.  I think because I grew up DOING art...I can relate to the process a little more that way.  I also know that my pencil/pen/painting doodles were merely me passing time and expressing myself as I went through life.  I still have many of them hanging in my home.  I don't have anywhere else to HANG them! :)

So to get where I'm going - read THIS blog entry...and then i'll talk about MY part as well that I related to:
MeRa Koh: "How to draw a siamese cat"

When I read this, I could relate off the bat because many years ago, probably 10 or so I was going through my phase of seeking again.  I took an art class locally in continuing education.  I believe it was a still-life class in which we drew various objects and learned about shading, details and which pencils to use where/when.

I have great drawings on paper of white on white objects (where it was all about shading only)...and a few other fun things.  But eventually the teacher was like.... "OK!!! our final project is drawing from a photograph!".  But what she didn't say right away is that it would be OUR FACES!!!! Yes, indeed.  We took pictures and printed out a 4x6 or 5x7 - I don't remember which - and we had to draw our HEADS.

What I remember briefly about mine is that we had a grid that we laid on top of the image so we could break it up into squares.  This made the task actually EASIER to comprehend in stages for me.  I looked at my picture and my face and thought, WOW, am I really going to do this?  I have a foggy memory about it but I realized that as we went box to box...I could see the picture starting to form.  We had laid out the foundations...lightly sketched our grid onto the paper and box by box...we filled it in.

The part where I freaked out the MOST was when I got to my eyes.  By the time I left the 2nd class session I was starting to see myself STARING back from the paper and it freaked me out.  A few people would come over and comment and I would say YEA I'm creeped out by me staring at ME!!!!!!!  Bit by bit...I worked through the eyebrows...the eyes...the mouth....the nose....and I just looked at this 10 minutes ago.  I even filled in the details of my EARRINGS to perfection . Every DETAIL about my image was on that paper.  In that moment, I was clear.

I don't have any of the old pictures of the process - but i do have the final result. :)

You can see WHY I got freaked out by staring at it. :)

May 2000 - Art Drawing Class - CCCCD

 Every once in a while I glance locally at the classes going on and wonder ....what other new thing could I try that would enhance the creativity inside? <3  I've done arts, sewing and even took an archery class.  I hope I find that next fun thing soon....I could use a break from the norm! :)  I have been learning a LOT....and celebrating how far i've come.  I hope you do the same today!

CELEBRATE YOU.

Love Jen

Day of the Dead : Collaboration with Pink Light Images and Hallie Garcia : Artist & Face Painter!

The following teaser set is the VISION of Hallie Garcia.  Her dream was to put together a "Day of the Dead" or "Dia de los Muertos" shoot involving her styling and designs of  face painting and atristry.  Below you can see the colors, textures and styling we all collaborated on.  IT WAS SO FUN!!!!!  I had already seen a few people in my life do their own sets of this theme - so it was of no surprise that we did our own to celebrate this kind of artistry.  Our original goal was TREES and FOG....but the never-ending rain threw our plans into a kind of plan B.  That is ok - we are planning part 2!

We have a lot of lovely and talented peoples in the DFW metroplex.  I'm glad to call quite a few of these ladies friends.  It has been fun putting together ideas and just having fun.  I have and keep writing down ideas that I want to accomplish for myself...and i'm knocking them out one by one.

My main goal really - NOT GET DISTRACTED.

I find that when I'm on the verge of really amazing creations - I get distracted before and I get distracted after.  I have emotional thoughts that come into my mind - and I'm getting better at fighting them - but sometimes they win.  Sometimes they don't!  I think when you stay on your path - true peace leads you.

Maybe it is because I don't mind the drama and battle within.  I would rather have a battle, than a boring life.  I may whine or complain and I may shut my mouth and just do the work.  The point is, I'm just being me.  The only ME I can be.  The ever-evolving artist expressing myself over and over and over as I jump from flower to flower or mountain to mountain.

Again, huge thanks to all the ladies that came out to play Tuesday nite.  This will be my final blog entry for the weekend as I nurse my neck and get well with these tense muscles.

Art comes from life.  Be it pain or joy.

We had a BLAST...and I hope you see it in our teaser images!!!!

Thank you, bless ya!

Much Love,Jen

Models: Carrie Sumner, Destiny Lenora, Hallie Garcia
MUA: Hallie Garcia
Styling: All of Us.
Photographer: Pink Light Images
Hair: Kat Howe

and here is the lovely quickie VLOG i put together for you today. have a great one!

The day train trip to Paris, France - an opportunity well spent.

I had a vision of myself in Paris right before I went.  I had seen myself seeing the Eiffel Tower.  I have no idea why, but I wanted to see it.  I have seen Paris TX and I have seen the Paris Hotel in las vegas. I can now say i've seen Paris France.  Mind you, SEVEN HOURS was nowhere near enough of a taste, but I got enough to know I would like to go back.

I was able to walk past many sights....and my tour guides were more than willing to share things they loved about Paris and the endless museums (again...vast museum world!).  We sat for a few moments and had lunch in the park near the tower before getting in line to WALK, yes WALK the tower.

We walked past the Louvre...and I had always wanted to see it...I wished i had more time to just enjoy and watch and think....but it was kindof a hurried trip in the hopes of seeing a few things here and there.  We took the train a couple of times which was great.  You can actually sort of understand when they say the stops unlike NYC and sometimes London.  With their help navigating we were able to hop around with no problems whatsoever until our stop took us to the tower...and then up the gazillion steps to level 1 and level 2.

It felt like an eternity of steps going up.  We paid 5 euros to go up there and it was super because my guide had not been since he was 9 years old. He really enjoyed himself!  My legs were shaking by the time we got downward from the tower...and we found ourselves running over to the catacombs but they were closed by 4pm :(.  Our next venture took us to the La Basilique due Sacre Coeur de Montmartre!  (yes i had to look that up).  You can see it from Eiffel and he suggested that could be our next stop....

On the way....i was wondering about shopping for souvenirs...and was wondering about a lil store or something that would be open to grab some vintage stuff.  At first it seemed grim to find a place but on our way....we found a cute cute lil shop that had dolls/fun things in the window...and it turned out to be a cute lil nook place with vintage items and tins and dolls. :)  I ended up finding a super cute hat and having a blast trying to negotiate for it. LOL!!!!  He couldn't give me a price...so we opted to go to the Sacre Coeur and then come back. :)

BOY there was a lot of stairs going up............and we found another touristy area to see, even though we couldn't see the Eiffel tower from there. (shocking i know!)  There was a tree in the way, but it was very very lovely.  I always felt most of the times walking that i was going to fall because of all the un-evenness of the sidewalks. LOL!!!! Ahhhhh

We returned to the store...and voila! Got the price on the hat and we were done shopping. :)  Poor guys - i hopped into several stores but didn't find much in some of them.  But after the vintage store i stopped into the souvenir shop....it was my last chance to get something fun for the family/friends. :)  GOOD TIMES!!!!!

They dropped me back off at the train station...and good times were had, goodbyes said!
I'm truly thankful to Pel for hooking me up with wonderful guides all day. :)  SO THANKFUL!!!!!!

Here are some montages from paris................

and here is a video mash...........................