Ending The Year on a Good Note

Well I finally finished the New Orleans piece! I actually completed it a few weeks ago but have been remiss about showing the final product. Here is how it turned out--the person who commissioned it seemed very happy with it and I hope his wife was too as it was an anniversary present. I loved stretching beyond my typical narrative to include a specific place like New Orleans-especially since I have such an affinity for that place. I hope to create more pieces in the future around a specific city or place perhaps. Although I plan on continuing my 3D work, for now I think I'm going to take a break from blogging to concentrate on my upcoming Surtex show in May. I might be starting a new blog under the name "Tammy Smith Design" but not sure yet when that will be but I will be sure to keep you posted! I want to say a huge THANKS for the kind comments and support you have given me since I started this blog--it really helped when I felt like I was working alone to know that someone out there was seeing what I did and it spoke to them. I SO appreciate you for that:) Please keep checking my website for new pieces-I still have at least 15 or so pieces under Artwork-Available. I wish you all very happy holidays and a wonderful new year! xo-Tammy

Creating A New Visual Narrative: Part Deux

Okay I'm finally back to working on the custom commission piece that I accepted many months ago. I hate to think of how long it's taken me to get started, but in my defense the client said they were in no hurry. Plus I actually have been making other pieces in between...okay, enough excuses!...here's where I'm at now. I'm FINALLY getting a solid, clear vision of what I want this piece to look like. It took me a long time and a lot of mulling over because, as I said before, I've never done a piece that depicts a certain city. Below I've listed the steps I've gone through so far. Next step is to actually roll out the clay and begin sculpting! Oh boy:)

What helped me most was finding the "stage". Many thanks to my friend Eric for bringing this wonderful old barn door over. I just love the thick, chunky bolts in the top! We had to cut it in half and add a small shelf at the bottom for the city to sit on.

Next I researched on the web-the pics I have here are an amalgam of many photos that I pulled from Flickr, real estate websites, etc. I cropped in tightly on these photos to get the detail of the wrought iron that is so specific to the French Quarter.

After looking at the research and building the stage, I started sketching the piece to scale. I don't have tracing paper large enough so I had to tape several together. I wanted to have the words "Vieux Carre" in there somewhere as that really says French Quarter to me in a romantic way. I also didn't want a realistic depiction of the Quarter-instead I wanted to give the flavor of it by focusing on the swirls found in the ironwork and the shapes in the peaks of the roofs, etc. I also wanted to get the large palm leaves in there as they are ubiquitous to that city--I ended up placing them within the context of the buildings, as when you walk by a courtyard gate and see nothing but a proliferation of palm fronds.

This is showing the trapeze couple that will hang in the upper right hand corner. This piece is to celebrate a 25th anniversary so I wanted to have two lovers flying over the city.

In this antique cheese box, I will have 3 sculpted heads, 2 saints and 1 "sinner", as NOLA is called the city of saints and sinners. The buildings will be constructed from a combination of all the mediums I use: clay, painted metal, twisted wire, and found objects.

60s Graphics Love

http://www.flickr.com/groups/georgesbriard/

Okay how come nobody ever told me about Georges Briard? I've been admiring his work for many years but never knew who was responsible for the cool graphic designs on a lot of the vintage bowls, mugs, and towels that I've seen in antique shops and thrift stores for years. These are just a few of his images but if you're as inspired by him as I am, just do a google search under his name and see what pops up!

On the surface design front, just sent in my payment for my booth so I'm officially committed to doing Surtex in 2012! I'm continuing to pull inspiration from lots of different places and am really having fun creating new collections. I'm also trying to research the places/websites that I think might be a good fit for my work. It's always important to consider your customer first (or who you'd like your customer to be.) I'm starting with the stores or sites I love to shop at and trying to target that consumer. Have a fun creative day!

Finding inspiration where you are

I went out in search of some visual inspiration the other day to help me get started on a Moroccan themed collection. Fortunately I didn't have to go very far because I live just a mile from a very beautiful place-it's called the Country Club Plaza. It's a Spanish/Moorish/Moroccan style shopping area here in KC and although I pass these buildings almost daily, I never stop to take photos of them. I thought you might find them interesting and inspiring as well! Is there somewhere near you that's also inspiring or different? If so I'd love to see it.

Creating A New Visual Narrative: Part One

I've been commissioned to do a piece for a friend commemorating his wedding anniversary. He has given me free reign to create anything I want (which is a gift but is also somewhat scary to me) but it does need to be about a city-specifically, it should be about New Orleans. This city holds special meaning not only to my friend and his wife, but also to me as I used to live there and still have family there. I've been mulling it over in my mind and I keep getting stuck...how do I create a piece that depicts a city yet is still in my style? I've never done a city before....I mean, what would it look like? I called this post "Creating a new visual narrative" because in a sense that's what you do as an artist when you set out to create something that has your unique look to it--and it's not always easy. I'm showing you my sketchbook here with some beginning twigs of an idea...(now you can see how bad a sketcher I am.) These aren't the first sketches of this piece by any means, but this is the first one that actually has promise-at least to me. To you it probably looks like chicken scratch, but to me I know what to start on now. A title "Saints and Sinners" popped into my head so I've drawn some saints flying overhead and also contained within boxes (Saint in a Box-THAT should be a product:). Now to create the scene: I'm thinking of trying to do a wrought iron gate along the bottom with a 3-dimensional Saint Louis Cathedral behind the gates. Not sure yet how to build the church, possibly out of wire with either fabric or papier mache over. I'll keep posting my progress here in case anyone else is interested in how a piece comes together. This is what I'd call "Part 1-The Struggle". I know something's going to work out, just not sure what yet!

Where I Get Inspiration (plus a new lamp)

Striped Lamp with Lovebirds

(in my Etsy shop)

Happy Friday! Thought maybe you'd like to see where I get some of my inspiration for my pieces, other than old carnivals. I live in Kansas really near the state line for Missouri and close to downtown. However, getting out to the country isn't very far away--in fact, scenes like these of old weathered barns are about a 10 minute drive from my house. I never really thought before about how they inspire and inform the way I create because they feel so familiar to me that they've just become a part of me you know? I guess I realized after watching this video from Kaffe Fassett that I'm pulling from all the patterns and textures around me every day. Try to notice at least a few things in your world each day that inform the way you create. What do you find around you that inspires?

(barn photo credit-Renate Smalley)

Aloneness 101

Hey there all you work-from-homers, how's it going out there? Are you relishing the solitude of your life? Or, like me, do you sometimes feel like you wish there was someone around....someone you could ask an opinion of, like "Should this be blue or red?" or "Was this email I just got a bit passive aggressive or am I being paranoid?"

I'm writing this because I realize that now more than ever there are SO many people who don't leave their homes to go to work--some, like me, might have had a job in the past and were used to seeing people on a regular basis. Others may not know any different but I just wonder: Do you get lonely working from home or do you not?

If you're like me, the answer is yes, you do get lonely occasionally (or more than occasionally). Don't get me wrong, I love what I do and feel so lucky to be able to do it but I do miss that casual back-and-forth synergy that can happen when you work around other creatives.

I can tell you some things that have helped me in case you're feeling this way:

1. Build a community--large or small--of friends who you meet with (in person) on a pretty regular basis. I have a small group of 3 other artists who, like me, used to work at Hallmark so we have that shared experience even though we worked there at different times. Sometimes we'll even plan workdays (I call them WTF days-meaning Working Together is Fun:). Everybody brings whatever they're working on and we each take a room in the house to work independently for awhile but we can come together and ask opinions if we need to. We don't do this nearly enough but it really helps me feel connected to something.

2. When you can't do face-to-face, do email chats. We will send jpegs of whatever projects we're working on to each other to get opinions via email when we can't get together. If the project is really complex, we may need to chat on the phone about it too.

3. Get out once in awhile. For me, when the walls start closing in I get out...literally. Even if the weather is really cold or rainy, I put on the coat and boots and get outside with my dog to remind myself how big this world is and how many other things there are outside my little world. This usually helps me to calm down if I'm upset about anything and also gain a better perspective on things.

4. Be with it. By this I mean, stop fighting the solitude and learn to embrace it. That means that when those voices in your head appear and tell you that what you're working on is awful, instead of trying to quell it you just say "Hmm, there's that voice again...how silly of me" or "Wow, SOMEone's being negative today"-- something that will make light of it and not make you feel worse. We all have those voices when we create-you just have to cajole them into being your pals instead of your enemies. That's the only way they get quiet for me.

5. MOVE. I know that alot of you have kids and can't always work out during the day but any chance you get, and I mean even for 15 minutes-take it. Move in a different way and cadence-whether it's running up and down your stairs in short bursts, doing 20 jumping jacks or going for a quick jog around the block, I am a big proponent of exercise. I think it rearranges the molecules. I work out six days a week and if I ever miss it, I feel different for the day (and not in a good way.)

That's all for now. I hope this little bit of advice has helped if any of you are going through some of the same things that I am. Please let me know how you deal with loneliness if you have different ways than mine--I am always looking to learn! Have a great day.

xo-Tammy

Inspiring and Practical Advice for Artists

Last night I heard this incredible speaker and I wrote down some notes from that in hope that what inspired me will inspire you also. I hope I haven't misrepresented anything that he has said. I thought it was very valuable for artists in any discipline. Take a moment and see if it speaks to you.

(And I know this may seem ironic that I'm posting this after my previous post about a holiday sale of my art, but I like to think that some of my pieces are made purely for self-expression. If the piece speaks to someone and is purchased by them, that's icing on the cake.)

Andrew Simonet-TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, NERMAN MUSEUM

Andrew is co-director of Headling Dance Company, Philadelphia, PA

Thanks for doing what you do. This culture needs you. 99% of what is out there today visually in the form of imagery is there to sell something. You are putting out the 1% that is not. The general opinion

out there is that there is the top layer of artists/performers who make scads of money and enjoy great acclaim, to the rest it’s just a hobby. Just because you don’t achieve that overwhelming acclaim or notoriety you wanted doesn’t mean that you failed. You can’t always say what has been accomplished. Andrew thinks his real mission is telling this message, speading these words to other artists.


Artists’ lives can be burdensome and relentless. Your goal should be to build a life that is balanced, sustainable and productive.

Things that stop artists are 1) workaholism 2)perfectionism/competitiveness and 3)poverty.

1) Workaholism-Plan downtime. You need it. All artists work too hard and are too hard on themselves (i.e. I’d be more successful if I only worked harder.)

2) Perfectionism/Competitiveness-Get used to “good enough”. Why are other things in our lives good enough, but not our work? On competing with other artists, repeat this mantra-“The success of other artists is good for me.” Repeat as necessary until you mean it.

3) Poverty-Figure out the amount of money you need to live on for one year without financial panic. Figure in time/money for vacation, insurance, savings.

Mission- Be rooted in why you’re doing it-people love to connect to your mission. Some may envy that you have a mission as they’re still trying to figure it out or don’t feel connected to theirs. The world really wants you to stay close to that mission.

Represent yourself well. We need to be able to talk about and write about our work well.

Don’t shortchange your skills. Conceiving, planning, putting together and delivering a project on time takes skills that are considered management level skills in the outside world.

Partner with people who get your work. Talk to them, have coffee with them, they can move your work forward.

Placemaking-People need a HERE. Be where you are locally and share, be interested and open to other artistic work outside of your discipline. It’s important to have a local presence as well as getting out globally with your work---what you do globally brings others back to your locality, and what you do locally opens others’ minds to what can be done globally.

Community is important. It’s a loop—give---get---give---get. Figure out something that connects people.

Keep making work that is visionary, dangerous, and interesting.

Ever Distract Yourself ??

Okay today I woke up with alot of plans to get alot of artwork done--I mean, I had taken most of Friday off (to see Men Who Stare At Goats and eat Indian food with my husband) and do a few errands (who else is going to buy the wedding gift and return the jeans), then Saturday was spent trying to figure out a way to add tiny lights to my cages....something that I always thought would take one hour and it took five....more trips to Radio Shack and the hardware store...then today came and I thought--I'm doing it-I'm sitting down at my table and finishing that last gallery order but then--I had to answer emails to friends(that can't wait can it?), go to the grocery store times 2(seems we don't go to just 1 store anymore) so 4:00 comes and what do I do instead of work? The answer is above....and of course I have to blog about it so that takes time. I'd say I feel guilty about it but I have to go put another sheet in the oven...What distracts you?