Through My Eyes - Putt Putt Golf

I've been going to this Putt Putt golf place since I was a kid. It hasn't changed much except for the many coats of paint. I've probably played there hundreds of times so it holds a special place in my heart. Here's what I saw the last time we went there:



I couldn't figure out why I kept getting holes in one until I realized I had picked the lucky smiley face ball! No matter how hard I hit him, he just kept smiling!

Be Inspired to Play with Light - Part 2

Here's part two of my marble and light exploration. All of these photos were taken in direct sunlight instead of utilizing a lamp which creates a totally different color and some fantastic shadows. After adding all the photos, I realized this post could also be called "Be inspired by grouping subjects". The lighting is a prime feature, but the different groupings create a lot of the interest too. I went from more organic groupings to much more structured ones.























So utilize that summer sun, get grouping and see what you find!

Be Inspired to Play with Light

A few posts ago, I talked about looking at things from different angles in order to see new inspiring shapes and colors. Another way to make things look different is to adjust the lighting. Adjusting lighting can create interesting shadows and colors. Depending on your subject, it can look totally different in the sunlight than it does under a lamp. As usual, I'll use some of my photos to better express what I am trying to get across to you.

I started a new reward system for the boys that involved using a large quantity of marbles.I had them all stored in a plastic container and set them on my desk under my lamp. What I saw excited me. The reflection of the lamp created a great "eye" effect. Suddenly a bunch of marbles with eyes were staring back at me. I was intrigued. I started moving the lamp around to see how different the marbles would look with the light shining from different angles. Here's what I saw:















Notice how the colors changed as the light source moved. As you can imagine, I took a ton of pics of these marbles as I continued to experiment with light, so this will have to be a 2 part post. Next we'll look at how they look in bright sunlight.

Now find a subject, grab a light source and get experimenting. As always, feel free to share your results. I'm afraid most of my readers are very shy (I know you're out there, I see you in my stats), but don't be afraid to link to your photos or artwork. I'd love to be able to share some of your ideas, photos and creations too!

Daily Dose of Inspiration - Cicadas Continued

I may have shared these photos before, but I thought it would be cool to post them after yesterday's photos so you can get the full experience of beauty of the Cicada:

Today's Daily Dose of Inspiration

Cicada Wings



Update: Coincidentally, Kyle brought me this lovely expired cicada this afternoon, so I thought I'd add some pics of it to the post:

Be Inspired to Pimp your Ride Artscape Style

Well I managed to survive Artscape again this year. It was crazy hot and humid, but I still had a lot of fun, met some great people and sold some of my favorite pieces. A special shout out to the ladies of BEST for making it more like a party than work. Also, thanks to my repeat customers and those that came by actually wearing their purchases from last year. I can't tell you what a thrill it is to see someone walk up to the booth wearing a Block Party Press item.

I didn't get a chance to take many pictures since I was in our booth most of the time, but I did get some pictures of one of my favorite Artscape feature, the "Art Cars".

Without further ado, here is the Artscape Art Car Parade:





























I love to think about what might have inspired these fantastic creations (some inspirations were more obvious than others). I'm seriously thinking the boys and I will do something to my old car instead of trading it in. Kyle suggested we make a Lego car and Trey suggested we make a Super Mario car. I was thinking of making an animal car gluing all of the boys animal figurines all over the the car. It would be like a giant animal stampede. What kind of art car would you make? Let me know your ideas in the comments.

Don't have a car to create upon? Maybe just think about creating something on a larger scale. I make lots of tiny art, so the idea of making something large can be a bit intimidating, but I'm also thinking it can be a bit freeing. Maybe cover a chair or piece of furniture or just get a big piece of plywood and go to town. Sometimes bigger is better!