Inspired today

inspiration - images by Dana Tanamachi.

Today I watched Art21 videos and got inspiration from this lady. She's brilliant. I'm thinking of installing a chalkboard in my studio, no?

Here's a quote that's been inspiring me lately: get out of your own way. We have been talking a lot about 'the devil' in creative practices class and in chapel, and I'm convicted about his power over us. He tells us that what we want most is impossible. So what if I want to be an artist? What if that's what I want most? The world will tell me I can't make it as an artist. The devil, or 'Resistance,'  or the evil one, or (more commonly) the voice inside my head will tell me that I can't make art well. I can't do it.

BUT. I know that I can get better. And if its what my soul feels called to the most, the devil will put up the most Resistance (capitol 'R'). So once he gets out of my way, I'm the only one left.

Today I just sketched. That's all. 

Happy Thursday!

Shenanigans

Today I made this! And I did another page of small sketches/studies of Hebrew manuscripts. These guys... they are simply gorgeous. And what I love about them is that you can tell they are hand-drawn. They aren't perfect, and its awesome! Cause then there's less pressure on me to be perfect.

Day 2 of #artdaily has worked out juuuust fine. I'm starting to like this studio setup. I'm putting everything I do every day on my wall next to my workspace, and I like it. It feels accomplished. I tell you what, no place better to look for inspiration then stuff you've already done. ba dum.

Happy Tuesday!

The almost-daily experiment

Hey yall.

I'm in this class called Creative Practices this semester, where I have to do an hour and a half of creating 5 days a week. I thought this would be a fun challenge to blog about! Today I did my first hour and a half, and I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised with what I can do.

I had to pitch a proposal for a semester-long project to work on, and I'm REALLY stomach-hurts-can't-wait excited about my proposal. I plan to explore the beauty of words through the way they are written and the physical way they are designed. I'm exploring hand-lettering, typography and decorative design through drawing and painting, and using digital media as little as possible. Another part of my exploration is written words. I'm doing research on old-eurpoean illuminated manuscripts for inspiration, and to find a way to modernize this ancient design. I'm also studying modern typographers and graffiti artists. My written-word inspiration choice is everything by F. Scott Fitzgerald. And I'm STOKED.

So I'm going to try to post what I work on every day on here. The photo above is my first "experiment." You can also follow me on Instagram to see daily updates:)

Thanks for being with me on this, hope you enjoy!! We'll see how it goes.

emma

Peace out, America

The obligatory "2013 is ending I have to reflect on it properly" post. Here we go.

To be honest, this hasn't really felt like the end of something as much as it's the beginning of something else. I leave for Kenya on January 2nd, so there goes that whole reflecting stage, taken up by shopping and packing and preparing for summer weather in the middle of the coldest month of Minnesota weather. It's the strangest thing. I have almost no desire to even celebrate the new year because that has been consuming my thoughts for the past couple weeks. 

I'm preparing for healing, heartbreak, sunburn, friendships, and toilet trauma. I'm not prepared for school, American society, and not in the least prepared for celebrating new years the typical way. I sometimes feel like making a million little new years resolutions or one big unachievable one, but this year I just don't feel like it. And I don't think I will! So there. And that's okay.

I'm preparing for rest. For peace about my circumstances, for happiness in the moment, for loving people I'm surrounded by. I'm preparing to be uplifting, to be the one that comforts and encourages, to be the one that gives perspective and peace to myself and others. 

This year has been hard. And incredibly busy. The busiest of my life. And I'm ready to start off the new year in peace and relaxation, in no need to hurry along, to do things the Kenyan way. Take your time to make things beautiful, take your time to make something you're proud of. This is what I want to learn this year. And there is no particular goal that goes along with this, just peace. This is what I want.

xoxo

"Give me a museum and I'll fill it" -Picasso

I made these.

Enjoy.

xoxo

A single girl's priorities in a world full of couples

A somewhat unrelated picture, because blogging.

I live on a Christian College campus. Needless to say, I hear plenty about relationships. "Did you HEAR the news. You will NOT believe Matt and Sarah got ENGAGED!" (giggles/screams to follow). You know the drill. Give the appropriate amount of excitement and move on with your lives.

Yes, engagements and relationships are exciting! That's why we frikin talk about them so much. And they are interesting. The dynamics of relationships are complicated and fascinating. And, being Christians living dutifully on our Christian College campus, we go to the seminars and the chapel sermons about relationships, get adequately excited, and after it's been a sufficient amount of time, we pretend we aren't anymore, but secretly on the inside we still are. 

Don't tell me this is just me.

Lately, though, something has been bothering me. It happened a couple nights ago, and it was actually something I said to someone else. BUT, in my defense, it is something I have heard said to me and so many other girls countless times. I said to one of my friends: "you deserve a guy who is going to love you the way you deserve to be loved." If you are a girl, guaranteed you've heard something along those lines from another girl. 

Okay ladies. This is true, I'm not trying to say it isn't. But this is also true: our future guy deserves a girl who is going to love him the right way. The way he deserves to be loved. 

We spend our time dreaming about relationships and about the right guy for us, and we forget to develop our own loving skills. If we just wait around for a guy to come for us, once he does come, we will just be taking love from him that he's giving us. A relationship is about giving love to each other, not about just being loved. 

You are not in the relationship because you deserve someone to love you. You are in the relationship because your partner deserves love from you. 

If we just wait around, we will forget the purpose of a love like this. Be in a relationship with someone because you have the capacity to love them well. Not because you are searching for love. 

Next time you are feeling sorry for yourself, remember that your purpose is to love, because someone is out there for you and they deserve your awesome lovin'. Work on loving others well. Please, don't just wait around for "the one." They're not going to come until you're ready. And if you can love them well, it will be glorious. Bells will ring, fireworks, emotions, maybe tears, etc. 

Send your lovin' to someone who deserves it!

xoxo

In which we go up north to see the fall colors

I know, I know. You wish you were there.

In my last post I wrote: Knowing that it will all work out in the end. If not the way I wanted, the way it's intended.

This could not be more true currently. I am officially staying at school for second semester, despite all my excitement and dreaming about 3 different options, getting optimally excited about each one individually, and having them slip through my fingers. This has been the cause of many sleepless nights and application filling-out only to have to cancel or abandon them later. I am staying at school, which was the furthest from the original plan. But it's what's happening currently.

I was able to find peace with it this past weekend while up north. We went camping on the North Shore of Lake Superior, with the intent of finding peace, quiet, and brilliant fall colors. That's exactly what happened. These incredible views have helped me find peace about my future.

This sounds dramatic. I know. But so far, it's whats getting me through. Onwards.