Connections

Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.

-- Albus Dumbledore in JK.Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

I saw that flighty temptress in Chicago, in this sculpture at the edge of Millennium Park. I know it was her, because I've seen her before, in the work of my dear friend Carissa. She introduced me to that quote above and the temptress in her painting below, started at the Do What You Love retreat in May.

The Flighty Temptress, Adventure by Carissa

Isn't that cool? I love to find connections like this. Similar themes or styles or ideas between artists in dramatically different places and times. It makes the art I found on the streets of Chicago more real to me, because I saw a connection to a friend in it. And then, of course, I had to capture it, edit it and share it - making my own art and my own connection to the flighty temptress as well.

Here's another cool connection I've been meaning to share, between my online friend Angie and I. She created this lovely stitched piece, inspired by a photo I posted here. I love how she took the basic elements of color, line and shape from the photo and interpreted it in the fabric and stitching.

Bollards and Ropes by Angie

Creating art is a cycle of connection and inspiration. There is nothing wholly new, we are all influenced by the world around us. Our contact with other art and artists can't help but show up in our work. The cool thing is in how it shows up - we change it, give it our own twist. We share our own unique vision of the world.

Do you have stories of connection and inspiration between yourself and other artists? It would be fun to have you share them here!

Inspired by...

I've been wanting to share how my studio is shaping up, with some lovely art to inspire me. It is so exciting to get things up on the wall, making the whole space more complete. 

The top painting is by Diana Mulder, a mixed media artist I met online over a year ago. She created this work of art from a photo I took, you can read the story about it here. I am enchanted by this piece for many reasons. It is from an image of my son, which endears it to me, but also for the connection it represents with Diana and other artists I've met online. I love how she took my original photo and added brighter colors. This image does not do it justice, there is a lot more texture and layers than is visible here. How perfect the color scheme fits right into my studio, too!

The middle painting is by local artist Jennifer Lommers. I found her at the Corvallis Fall Festival, a wonderful local arts festival held every September here in town. It turns out, Jennifer lives in my neighborhood and knows my son from the school bus stop. Small world! I am entranced by her colorful, swirly style. I absolutely loved the large original of this peacock, but settled on the print for now. I am happy to have it framed and gracing my creative space.

The bottom painting is an original watercolor, purchased in Burano, Italy. As Burano is my favorite place for color, this was a perfect add to my studio as well. Other little bits of inspiration on the shelves are a Murano-glass clock, a cute cat figurine purchased in San Marino, and a little die cast scooter I purchased for my son on my first business trip to Italy, before we ever thought about moving there. Everything in this space is a source of inspiration.

Do you have a creative space? Do you fill it with things that bring you joy?

Linking in to Paint Party Friday, to share the art of these inspiring painters with others this week! Kristin and Eva, I hope that's ok.

The Loner

One lone flower, tossed aside. 

It makes me ask, can an image of a "thing" evoke emotion? As a "thing" photographer, I would answer yes. This image speaks to me through the isolation of the flower, discarded for not being perfect. The flower is not even in the bunch with the other discarded flowers, it is off on its own. Truly alone. But in its isolation, the remaining beauty of the flower can be seen. The gorgeous color and the shape, jump out at me against the concrete in a way that would be lost in the group.

It seems there is a message here, that can be brought into my life. It's ok to be less than perfect. It's ok to be out there, on my own once in a while. Once in a while, being outside the group can help me shine my unique beauty. My unique view on the world.

What do you take away from this image?  Does it speak to you too?

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What's going on around Kat Eye Studio...

• The current Exploring with a Camera theme is The Color Wheel: Part 2. Check out the post and join in the exploration.
• Registration is open for Digital Photography Basics! Class starts October 16. Visit here for the details.
• Want to know what's going on in the studio? You can subscribe to the Kat Eye News to stay up-to-date on all the activities.

Expectations Lost, Happiness Found

What is it about photography, that makes me happy? I've noticed lately, that whenever I go out and photograph, even if it's just for a walk around the block in the rain, that I return in a good mood. I am smiling and there is a spring in my step. I feel buoyant. The sheer act of capturing photographs, whether they end up good or not, makes me grin.

Thinking more on why photography makes me happy this morning, I found that photography is one area of my life where I don't have huge expectations or plans. I've learned to embrace the fun of letting myself be surprised. I follow my intuition and interests, as they pull me along in new directions. I find great joy in discovering what catches my eye on any given day. Amazing things have resulted as I follow those internal nudges - in photography, writing and my study of art in general.

Take Saturday's photowalk visit to the Farmer's Market, for example. Of course I photographed the colorful vegetables, but what really interested me were the flowers on the ground as the vendors sorted and tossed and created beautiful bouquets. Normally I would be attracted to the finished bouquets, but at this moment I was captured by the haphazard nature of the flowers scattered on the concrete and in the buckets. To me, on this specific Saturday morning, these images were the most interesting to explore and compose. These were the images that held a story. Next Saturday, in the same place, it will be completely different.

This gets to the "heart and soul" aspects of photography, or any art. Creating has the power to change how we feel. When we let go of expectations or plans, wonderful things can result. There is an interesting parallel here to the rest of my life I've needed to focus on as well: Letting go of control and expectation. It's something that I am slowly, and surely, learning to do. It's been a long road, but I am lucky to have something like photography to show me the way, with a smile on my face. 

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What's going on around Kat Eye Studio... 

• Linking in to the Creative Every Day today. Hello everyone!
• The current Exploring with a Camera theme is The Color Wheel: Part 2. Check out the post and join in the exploration.
• Registration is open for Digital Photography Basics! Class starts October 16. Visit here for the details.
• Want to know what's going on in the studio? You can subscribe to the biweekly Kat Eye News to stay up-to-date on all the activities and have more great information, delivered right to your email inbox.

Fascinations

There are a few surprising things that I have found interesting to capture since returning back to the USA. Newspaper boxes, mailboxes and parking meters. Lovely parking meters, like this set, all by themselves. Or parking meters with something else, like my scooter. I didn't see these beauties in Italy, there was usually a box where you would pay down the street and print a receipt. That was boring. These are interesting.

The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. 

-- Marcel Proust

Linking in to Texture Tuesday today. Here's the recipe I used:

- First, adjusted levels and converted to sepia tone.

- Next, added Kim Klassen's crackerjack texture, blended with soft light at 88%.

- Erased this layer over the parking meters.

- Finally, added the crackerjack texture again, rotating 180 degrees. Blended with soft light at 48%.




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What's going on around The Kat Eye View of the World...

• The current Exploring with a Camera theme is Process of Elimination. Check out the post and explore with us.
• Do you want to deepen the connection between your heart and soul and your photography? Registration for the fall series of the Find Your Eye e-course is open! Visit here for more info.
• You can subscribe to the Kat Eye News to stay up-to-date on all the happenings.

Heart Message, Acknowledged

On Friday, I wrote a Message from your Heart. Turns out, that was a message from my heart. After two months of living in a whirlwind, the time to pause had come. I needed to listen to my heart this weekend, slow down and do what I love. Some photography, some painting, some time with friends and some organizing. (Maybe the organizing wasn't something I love to do, but my heart thanked me just the same.) I had some general, wide open ideas of what to do with my time, and a lot of flexibility within my days. My whole being seemed to give a big sigh of relief.

I have realized, once again, I can only go at warp speed for so long. It's time to focus back in on the basics, listen to my heart and not try to do everything under the sun. If I could do it over again, I wouldn't plan so much for right after our move home from Italy. The great news, though, is the whirlwind is past and I can set my pace going forward. That pace includes photography excursions, like yesterday's, which yielded this lovely photo from downtown Corvallis. My heart sings with all the yellow! The pace includes time to paint, and to hang out with family and friends. Time to write and create new classes.

This message really hit home as I was preparing my guest post for Ashley Sisk today, on The Care and Feeding of Inspiration. You have to listen to your heart, in order to find and keep inspiration. You can't expect it will always be there for you, if you are charging ahead, ignoring your heart.

Message from my heart, acknowledged.

Linking in to Creative Every Day and the Creative Exchange today.





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What's going on around The Kat Eye View of the World...

• The current Exploring with a Camera theme is Process of Elimination. Check out the post and explore with us.
• Do you want to deepen the connection between your heart and soul and your photography? Registration for the fall series of the Find Your Eye e-course is open! Visit here for more info.
• You can subscribe to the Kat Eye News to stay up-to-date on all the happenings.

Deeper than the Eye

The heart sees deeper than the eye.
- Found on my Yogi tea bag Friday

Inspiration... sometimes elusive, other times abundant. As a creative person, I'm always aware of my sources of inspiration. It comes from the reading I do, the playing in my craft. It comes from exploring the world around me. Inspiration is everywhere.

Let me repeat: Inspiration is everywhere.

This weekend, inspiration was found in crab pots sitting along the bayfront in the coastal town of Newport, Oregon. Aren't the colors and textures just amazing? I spent quite a while exploring the crab pots with my camera. A few years ago I took one picture of a stack of pots in this town, and for some reason that image popped into my head before my excursion. I was on the hunt for crab pots.

During my hunt I found a number of other things... some interesting texture, brought on by the salt water and proximity of the ocean. I found interesting colors, from the quaint buildings to the stacks of containers in the fish processing warehouses. I found interesting contrasts, in the people working in the processing plants in their rubber boots and the tourists in their flip flops. I found inspiration in the process of taking pictures, with three new Exploring with a Camera ideas coming to me. Thank goodness for my little notebook and pen, always with me in my camera bag.

Most of all, I found a deeper truth, finally understood with my heart instead of just my head. My inspiration comes from the process of creating my art. It is found when I am out and about, hunting for photos. Seeing the world through my viewfinder and lens. Translating something that just catches me out of the corner of my eye into something that is beautifully presented. It is the process of photography -- of exploring, capturing and then making those little tweaks in post-processing to perfect an image -- that matters to me. It is the process of creating that is the whole point to all of this artistic stuff. Sitting at home, inspiration doesn't come for me. It takes getting out and doing.

For some reason, a year ago or more, I had this idea that I would move back to Oregon and still share mostly photos of Europe on my blog. I have gazillions of photos from my two years of living in Italy on my hard drive - many unedited and just crying out for review. Who knows, I might even have ones I like better than my favorites hidden in the folders. So I've had this idea stuck in my head, that's what I would do... Edit my photos from the last two years and continue share them here. For some reason, I thought it was Italy and Europe that was inspiring me photographically, and that just the sharing of the images would be inspiration enough to carry me a good long while.

Not true. I know now: It's the creative process itself that inspires me. What living temporarily in Italy did was get me out regularly with my camera, to new places. It exposed me to new and different things. It got me out and doing. It got me writing and sharing. Trying new things, like painting. Once I was doing all of that, the rest took care of itself.

Inspiration is everywhere I go, because it's found within me. 

That lesson, learned with my heart this weekend, may be the most important one I've learned to date. I hope you can take it to heart too.

Linking in to Creative Exchange and Creative Every Day today.

Planting Flowers of Generosity

These lovely flowers grace the doorstep of a store in Carbondale, Colorado. They put here for all to enjoy, freely shared with the passersby. They are meant for everyone, not just one, hence the sign in them, "Thank you for not picking me." I found this sign cute and amusing, but it's a polite little reminder that by a simple inaction - not picking the flowers - you can give the beauty to others as well.

Today I am thinking of generosity and service and how this fits with creating our best work and our best lives. I started thinking on this from an idea in Twyla Tharp's book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, which I am still reading and loving. She writes:

How to be Lucky: Be generous. I don't use that word lightly. Generosity is luck going in the opposite direction, away from you. If you're generous to someone, if you do something to help him out, you are in effect making him lucky. This is important. It's like inviting yourself into a community of good fortune.

Doesn't that quote just feel right? Generosity is luck flowing out. We get as much, or more, from that outflow than when things are coming to us. And I think the kind of generosity she is talking is not about money, it is about spirit and heart. What do we have to offer others? Is it a smile, a phone call? We can be generous with our time and our attention. Our knowledge. Our encouragement, support and enthusiasm. There are a million ways we can be generous every day, and the first step may be leaving the flowers alone so that others can enjoy them too.

Building on this, another idea came my way this morning, via the Brave Girls Club "Daily Truths"emails (you too can sign up for these, go here). The email says:

Dear Influential Girl,

There is a beautiful and little known secret to happiness that it sometimes takes us way too long to finally learn....and it is one that we can start practicing today, fabulous friend.

When life feels overwhelming, upsetting or grim...we can instantly change our outlook on things by getting out and serving someone else. Somehow, when we turn our focus to someone else, and especially to making their load lighter, or their day brighter...it comes back to us ten times stronger even than what we put out. That is some sweet math, isn’t it?

If things are tough right now, even if you feel like you don’t have time......just try it out. Make a phone call, write a kind note.....bake some cookies or make a piece of art for someone. Take time to really visit....help someone do something that is hard for them and easy for you. Something so beautiful will happen that you will forget about your own sadness for a while...and when things start feeling tough again, you have the power to get out and serve mankind in little ways all over again.

Just try, my friend. It will be worth the effort.

This is one of the most magical facts of life....and it works every time.

I like what they wrote, "...do something that is hard for them and easy for you." That feels right to me too. Generosity and service don't have to be hard. They don't have to be a huge sacrifice in order to "count." Maybe it's as simple as sharing something we are good at with others. Maybe it's just sharing a piece of our art in the form of a postcard in the mail, or a technique on a blog post. I think of these things, because they are how I share. They are what I enjoy doing. I hadn't quite thought of them quite in the light of generosity and service before.

At the moment we give of ourselves, we are outside of ourselves. We become part of the larger world and are contributing to a greater good. We make the world a more beautiful place. And, while it's not often our intent with generosity and service, we gain too. We forget our sadness, our own personal issues, and make room for that good fortune Twyla talks about to come our way.

If the first step toward generosity is not picking the flowers, the second step is surely planting and tending a few of our own. I'm pondering what flowers I'm planting today, through simple acts of generosity and service. How about you?

One Step at a Time

Today I'm doing something a little different, sharing this awesome and inspiring video from YouTube, which comes to me via new Mortal Muse Lindsey. Tell me how you feel after watching it! I'm going to try to share it with every woman I know.

Potential of the Day

Yesterday morning, on my walk in Parco di Monza, I saw this. Such amazing light and mist, and mystery. It seems an infinite path, you wonder where it ends.  What a difference a day makes, the intense rain of the previous day contributing the moisture for the mist in this otherwise sunny morning, making this image possible. A moment where you can sense the potential of the day.

Would you believe that this is straight out of the camera, and a point-and-shoot camera, no less? This supports my fundamental belief that it's not the equipment that makes the photographer, it's the eye. I keep coming back to this quote, "The best camera you have is the one you have with you." I keep my Canon Elph with me at all times in the park, so I'm armed for whatever inspiration is shown to me. And lately, things are shown to me often. I must have just started to see it in a different way, because I doubt the park has changed substantially in the year and a half I've been here, but my enjoyment of it has deepened substantially and it's become a wonderful source of inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, have you been keeping up with the 9 Days of Inspiration on the Mortal Muses sites? If not, go right now and read this post by writer Cara Lopez Lee. Her words are incredible. And while you're there, look around and leave a comment or two on the different sites to win some of the cool giveaways (including a set of my postcards - I have more on the way!).

I hope you have an inspirational day! The potential is there, in every day.

What Inspires You?

Maybe it's light coming in through the window, maybe it's color, maybe it's a wonderful quote. What is it that makes you want to perfect your craft, become a better person, explore new things? We all have different sources of inspiration. I was inspired a few weeks ago by this random composition in my window after I was done playing around with capturing the plant shadows. Lines and light and plants peeking out, it was interesting to me.

Today I'm musing on inspiration over at Mortal Muses. We're in the second day of 9 Days of Inspiration, with lots of giveaways - every day! Come on over and comment to enter. Also visit our More Musing site, where today's post of Muse University - a repost of this week's Exploring with a Camera on Rain - has an awesome giveaway for rainy day photography! Every day for the next 9 (well, now 8) days you will see inspiring posts from amazing women around the internet on the More Musing site in addition to the usual daily inspiration from Mortal Muses. Hope to see you all over there.

Today's update on the piles: Thanks for all of the advice yesterday, last night I took it easy and just talked to a friend, then put my feet up and watched a movie and read for a while. Today the piles are slowly disappearing as I work through the house, but I've also made pancakes with my son and done some other organizing, so it's all been good. In the words of one commenter: What needs to get done, will get done, with plenty of time. :)

Visiting Home

Today I am heading to Oregon for a two week business trip, probably my last one before we move back next summer. I am soooo looking forward to some good Mexican food and visits with friends. It is always a whirlwind trip of work and socializing and shopping, since I'm there for such a short time. I'll be here on the blog off and on, a few scheduled posts, a few live posts, whatever I can squeeze into my frantic schedule.

Today's photo is of the wreck of the Peter Iredale, on the northern Oregon coast near Astoria, taken in early 2008 before there was any inkling we would ever have the opportunity to move to Italy. For all that I love the travel and the unique places we have visited in Europe, along with the photographic inspiration that it has given me, this image is a reminder that beauty is everywhere around us. No matter where we live, we just have to seek it. It is there for us to find.

I have sometimes thought that I "found my eye" here in Italy, but when I look back at a photo like this I realize that's just not true. I already had the vision and the passion, long before this move. What has happened during my time in Italy, is that I have recognized it as my own. I have learned to see myself as the artist I am. The artist I have been, unknowingly, for quite some time.

The Power of Persistence

Nothing in this world can take the place of Persistance.
Talent will not; nothing is more commonplace than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistance and Determination alone are omnipotent.
                                                   - Calvin Coolidge

Isn't that a wonderful messsage? Persistance is the key. You might not be the most talented, a genius, have the "right" education... but none of those things in itself is the key to success. It is true isn't it? So when we tell ourselves that we don't have what it takes to reach our dreams, when we compare to others and say "I don't have the education" or "They are so much more talented," we need to stop and remember this message:

"Persistance and Determination alone are omnipotent."

And continue working onward, upward toward our dreams.


P.S. Today is one of those "out of the blue" blog posts, that I find myself drawn to writing instead of what was planned. Maybe I'll be inspired to write about Oktoberfest tomorrow. :)

Symmetry and Conformity

"Georgian townhomes of Bath stone standing row upon row." I wrote that in yesterday's post on Door Personality, so today I thought I would show you what I meant with an image. There is wonderful symmetry in this place, the Circus in Bath. (Circus really just means "circle" for us American English speakers. No trapeze acts here.) A circle of houses, all built to the same design, using the local Bath stone. I originally tried converting this to black and white but you lose the warm color of the stone, so instead I just did some selective black and white to take out a tiny bit of distracting green from a few plants. I love the repeating patterns and lines along the curve of the street.

But in this place, there is no door personality. In this place, to maintain the original heritage of the site, the doors are all the same white, with very little room for personalization. This was a high end area ("posh" to use the British term) in it's day, and still is now. Isn't it interesting, that when you get to higher end neighborhoods, even in the USA, they are protected by covenants and rules and regulations to keep the look of them the same but also that reduces the opportunity for public expression. Granted, that is nice when you are a home owner and want the value of your property to remain high, but it's also limiting.

So while I really love the lines and geometry of this place as art, it doesn't give me the same heart-warming feel as yesterday's door. I'll add personality and non-conformity to the list of things that inspire me, like texture and peeling paint and imperfection. One more ray of light shed upon my soul through my photos.

PS - I forgot to mention on my Postcard Giveaway that I will be selecting the winner via random drawing. I am enjoying all of the convincing appeals that are coming through with the comments, however! You can still enter to win here until Sunday 5-Sep.

Inspiration is in the Wind

Inspiration is all around us, we only have to see it, to feel it. The shape of things, the light, the patterns, the analogies they hold for our lives. Notice. Archive. Tap into it. Create. Share.

Why share this photo of a windmill in Sloten, Netherlands, with this message? No idea! It's just what came to me today as I looked at what image to post. I am working on bringing awareness and exploration into my everyday life, similar to what I experience on my travels, and what inspires my photography.

What might this image or these words inspire you to do? I am curious. You don't have to answer this today. Archive it away, and let me know someday.