You coo man, you are coo

This was posted today in a group I belong to....and it is very appropriate. Pushed the "SEND" button on a submission this morning and I think my finger hovered about 20 seconds above it.  Regardless of what happens to that little submission, I feel brave and ready to start new pieces with a heightened sense of what makes my art, mine.  

"Make more art" encourages my favorite art director, periscoper Lilla Rogers. 

You coo man. You coo.

Mood Board and playlist fun

One of the assignments in my illustrator group was to start pulling together a mood board for our individual illustration businesses. This is a tiny taste of mine.  City life through rose-colored glasses is the theme, and my inspiration includes Cleveland's East 4th street (shown in the bottom corner), shops, buildings, cartoony black and white displays and brick walls.

At first this whole "build a brand" thing felt ridiculously intimidating, but then, as I looked about my house and closet, and the doodles I draw when barely thinking....the whole thing became crystal clear.
This IS who I am, it is not contrived. The movies and books I love fit the bill, the stories I loved reading to the kids, even the music I listen to...


Sooooo while working on pulling images together over the last week - I even created a playlist that suits the feeling I want to project.... includes lots of my favs
Cat Empire
Elvis Costello
Happy by Pherrell Williams
Natalie Merchant
Florence and the Machine
Tom Waits
.....and more, continually adding new 'old' favorites.






Oh, and my infant baby website lives here for now - until I can get it a proper domain name and all.
http://shannontimura.wix.com/artstreet    stop by and check her out. :)

Synchronicity - or Jam today

Several weeks ago ( a little before Christmas) I joined an illustrator group run by Johanna Fritz. Although - like most things in my life- it was done on a whim...there was an element of synchronicity* that is undeniable. 

I have been in the art world for *ahem* many years, writing, painting, sculpting, teaching, even taught illustration for the past several years. While I sent out sporadic book ideas to publishers - there wasn't any accountability.  That changed with the introduction of the Fritzi Flock into my world. 

Daily challenges, weekly assignments, challenging homework and a group of like-minded artsy business people to fly with has been an amazing adventure - one that feels so right and so perfectly me that I wonder what happened.  Where was I?  

I am practically known for reinventing myself. It's a joke, something people laugh at me about.... *shrug*  I don't really care. I love what I love when I love it and love to jump in with both feet - if I fall, I fall.

I admire those in my life - some who I have known since grade school- who have followed a slow and steady pace. They do their thing, cautiously and without fanfare.  Their social media accounts are clean and predictable. When I see them in person, I know what to expect.

This is not me.  I have followed "the path of the hummingbird" as Elizabeth Gilbert calls it. A slightly mad path, flitting here and there - always quite sure of myself, and often quite puzzling to those around me. 

Working with this artists group feels like I have "come back" to who I really am....after much too long of doing what others tell me I have to do. The way they tell me to, regardless of how inauthentic it feels to me. No more. Stopping the madness to pursue my own madness. 

One more thing - in the process of flitting to and fro, I lose people. And I miss those people. Regardless of whether or not we ever connect again, their stories and muse-like qualities are part of my soul.  Creating with a muse is another concept Elizabeth Gilbert spoke about in a TED talk, but if I remember correctly, her muse was more mythical than mine. All the same though, a muse is a muse and I thankful for mine. 

More info, just because ....

Synchronicity 

One of Jung's favourite quotes on synchronicity was from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, in which the White Queen says to Alice: "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards."

"The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day."
"It MUST come sometimes to 'jam to-day,'" Alice objected.
"No, it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam every OTHER day: to-day isn't any OTHER day, you know."
"I don't understand you," said Alice. "It's dreadfully confusing!"
"That's the effect of living backwards," the Queen said kindly: "it always makes one a little giddy at first—"
"Living backwards!" Alice repeated in great astonishment. "I never heard of such a thing!"
"—but there's one great advantage in it, that one's memory works both ways."
"I'm sure MINE only works one way," Alice remarked. "I can't remember things before they happen."
"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards," the Queen remarked.

Fritzi Flock 

Elizabeth Gilbert - Flight of the Hummingbird, Curiosity-driven life 

Elizabeth Gilbert - TED Talk - Your elusive creative genius 

Contradictions are us

Are you in complete charge of your life right now? 

BlogFEST day 4  

Stuart asks the question, "Are you in complete charge of your life right now?"  He even followed the question with a brilliant post... 

 but I think I am going a different direction. I guess we will see where it all ends up when I done typing, eh? 

Okay, first of all - it seems just when I think I have it all under control, the world shifts. I think it does this to shake me up a little. There is no good to come from being complacent. 

'Getting too big for your britches are you?' 'Think you have it all under control?' 

Well, I will show you how much you actually control ....uh ha, that's right -
 

NOTHING 

I don't mean that in a fatalistic, why bother sort of way - just that, the world is so big - and I am so small. 

 - not only are we only a speck in the vastness of the universe....

(you know I had to add Horton here....)

 ...there are so many fascinating things around us 

and at the risk of sounding annoyingly cliche .... you really never know what is around the next corner. All you can do is keep moving - doing your best - enjoying where you are right now - and if you can do that with a friend at your side, all the better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally - this quote may very well contradict everything I just said - but the world -and my own life - is big enough to hold all sorts of glorious contradictions. - the best one ever is that we are in charge of anything, really.

 

A wish with a deadline

Prompt of the day, from Tree Girly - (er, me - that is my art blog) …MAKE A WISH 

I wrote, "Everyone has a select skill set. Some are wired to be organized, others are inherently messy… of course there are plenty of skills and talents you can work towards – and with practice you may even master. But what if you could simply skip all that and just DO something, and do it well.  Yes, I am asking you to MAKE A WISH.  What talent would you wish for?"

awesome wish tickets from Everyday Beauty

Okay, so I am going to answer myself, again  (I posted my artistic wish on Tree Girly)....but this is not a problem because I am a BIG wisheroo. Wish wish wish - I take birthday wishes very seriously - wishing wells - wishbones - dreams - imagination - it all runs through my soul.


My son's long time girlfriend is Practically Perfect    (you can read my previous post on that...
 - or just trust me)

Not only is she adorable, incredibly smart - (she tested out of math in her private prestigious college, and moved a full grade ahead, in a very tough field)- she is also funny with a great family that I adore - and loves my son....   but the thing that really has me in awe is -

The girl has PERFECT PITCH. 

When she sings - I tear up- involuntarily...even if I really really try not to - I do.  She sang Ava Maria at one of the school concerts and I am pretty sure the majority of the audience had tears in their eyes. And before she was even dating my son, I chaperoned her 9th grade class and had a bunch of the 9th grade girls in my vehicle - they put the Wicked CD in, and this incredible girl and her friends sang the entire musical PERFECTLY. I am not kidding here, she, especially had the entire thing nailed.


Can't get no satisfaction

Just like curly haired people often dream of straight locks and straight hair people curl and perm their way to bounciness - pitchless me, dreams of opening my mouth to sing Happy Birthday without just mouthing most of the words. Or singing along to the radio even....


It is like a curse - I hear all the words to songs, even really crazy fast rap or the loud obnoxious stuff - my brain captures the words...I can practically recite the words to any song I have ever heard.... I can even read music very well, but good God do not ask me to sing.

Now, I am not screechy, my voice is fairly low ....but I just can't "hear" what I am singing - I have no control over the notes, can't modulate pitch, my volume control button is broke ....

So, my wish would be to be able to sing, on tune...and while I am wishing, it would nice to be able to imitate accents - I cannot do that either, not at all.  Really, not AT ALL.  I can imagine what I want to sound like, can hear it in my mind - but there is no wire connecting those thoughts to the sounds that come out. I guess I am forever stuck with my Midwest accent UNLESS, my wish comes true. Then I will be able to recite lines from movies (that I involuntary remember) in the right accent. Monty Python will be first



My Wish as Outlined for the Wish Fairy

It's all very simple really, I want to do the following things -

1. Sing happy birthday -that is number one because * I LOVE BIRTHDAYS
2. Sing in the car, sing while dancing, sing along to motown while washing dishes 
3. Insert humorous anecdotes into conversation in the proper accent

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pleasure only

And just so the wish fairy is completely clear on my purpose - I will not be using this talent for personal gain. I have no desire, perfect pitch or not, to jump in front of a crowd, there will be no microphones in this girls hand... so when I put that way, you can clearly see I am not asking for much. 



Deadline

I cannot wait until Thanksgiving, no, I will be expecting this gift anytime now - at least before the end of the month, I have a wedding to attend, and know that dang crowd mentality will take over and I will be expected to join in on singing the Meatloaf song "Praying for the End of Time."  yes, of course I know the words, all of them  - but no I will not sing unless you come through for me.

Thank you, from the bottom of my pitiful pitchless heart.

 





 

Practically perfect in everyway

BlogFEST day 2 - Susan at Today's Working Woman threw this prompt at us: Sleepless nights

"Over the years, I have gone through periods of insomnia, but I know that one person's reason for a sleepless night can be wildly different from the next person's. So when was the last time you couldn't sleep? What was the reason for not sleeping? What did you do to overcome it? I hope you all have fun with this one and don't lose any sleep over it!"

Every 6 weeks (or so, if I remember...) I see the doctor for a check-up on my wacky thyroid. This has been going on since my daughter was born, so I have had roughly 18 years of hearing one or both of the following questions... "Have you been taking your prescription?" "Have you been feeling tired lately?" 

Yes, I take the medication - it has been 18 years Doc, you should know by now that for whatever reason sometimes I am UP and sometimes I am DOWN....

As for the second question. Seriously?  Yes, I am tired sometimes. Sure, maybe it is because of my wacky misfiring thyroid or maybe, just maybe it is because I love that double shot of energy that hits in the middle of the night - the one where I can suddenly write 3 or 4X as much or figure out how to teach a certain project or feel suddenly inspired to completely clean the entire house..... or read a book from cover to cover just because I can.

Insomnia?

 Nah, it is just my super powers firing back up tis all.

Reminds me of one of my favorite Mary Poppins scenes;

Mr. Banks: Will you be good enough to explain all this?
Mary Poppins: First of all, I would like to make one thing quite clear.
Mr. Banks: Yes?
Mary Poppins: I never explain anything.


.....and irrelevant, but classic "

"As I expected: 'Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way.'"

Sleep or no sleep - body working properly or not - we should all have a tape measure (scale, report card, progress report...) with our name on it.

*insert name* Practically Perfect in Everyway.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...and here is post #2 on my art blog
Insomnia = Inspiration

Parties are my fluffy unicorn

Just as I warned you, the BlogFEST begins today. There is still time to join the party - just join the gang on the BlogFEST 2012  facebook page. 

 Jenn from Wine -n- Chat is the hostess of the day and is the fabulous blogger who planned this month long story fest. 

 The prompt for today is appropriately about parties. "Are you the life of the party, or the one sitting back being entertained?"  

I don't really fit in either category, I am a party planner. I love, no, I NEED to be continually planning the next event. When there isn't a "reason" for a party, I will come up with something....after all there is ALWAYS a reason to celebrate.

The past couple years have been full of BIG parties, graduation parties, going away parties, milestone birthday parties - love them all, the bigger the better... house too small, pshaw, no way, no such thing. When my son announced his grad party on facebook, a normal mom would have freaked ... 300+people showed up - they simply spread out over the front yard, backyard, inside, and driveway. It worked. 

I have few marketable skills, but I am creative and love to make people happy - what better way to showcase my only talents than throwing parties.

So, while I love seeing people have a good time, and have had my share of spotlight moments, for the most part I play a supportive role. Laughing at jokes, taking pictures, chit chatting.... 

This is also why I am involved in planning my high school reunions. I am not nostalgic about that time in my life - high school was uncomfortable, plain and simple. But I love a good party so when I was randomly asked to help out -

 "you know, since you are home all day and all"  

-* ahem, I WORK from home thank you very much * -

 but okay, whatever - I GET to plan a big party - oh yeah, I am on it.

Jenn also asked us to share a party story. The following short anecdote will give you a better idea of who you are dealing with here ...

* There is one fella I am sad to say will probably never come to another reunion - all because of me. Like I have been saying, I LOVE PARTIES ....and get a little um, intense. 

Think Agnes from Despicable Me..... 

"It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" 

 

 I was HAPPY - the turnout was fantastic - people were talking - laughing - and hanging out AFTER the actual event....this was my fluffy unicorn. A successful party fires me up.

So...I um, started talking about our 75-year reunion....and ended up getting in a bizarre argument with a former classmate - that I didn't really know in school, or out - my intensity sort of freaked him out a bit....and he is not likely to attend the 75-year, let alone the 25-year....

(not that I expect him to be following my blog after that weird incident - but if this sounds familiar - I am really sorry - please join us, I will try to "tone it down" around you)  

Definitely not the "life of the party" but not exactly a wall flower. :) 

 

Work is even a party - "Party in Room 208" is my other post on this topic