Launching into 2024
It’s becoming less popular, and some would say, ‘Hooray for that!’ The family ‘Newsletter’. Every holiday season, we receive a couple of family newsletters. I take the time to read them simply because someone has taken the time to write them, and it’s a nice way to catch up without having to actually talk. They remind me of Dad. Each year, he loved to write a newsletter about what we had all been up to. We took the piss, of course, because bigging yourself up isn’t cool or British, but bigging up your offspring is even worse. I can hear that cynical voice when I’m writing this blog. Who cares? What is the point? Hopefully, someone will find it helpful. I’m not about to start spouting on about my children’s achievements here. A paragraph in a blog wouldn’t cover it anyway. My kids’ achievements are so fantastic they need a Netflix doco . . . . haha!
As the new year comes around, I reflect like everyone else and have a go at goal-setting. But is there any need to share this with anyone? I guess you’d never share anything if that was your attitude, and as an artist, sharing your work is the whole point, icky as it might feel.
Big Ambitions
Last year was my first full year teaching art and design to adults. Teaching does inspire you to learn. This Summer I’ve been motivated to paint again, with real paint on real canvas. I’m super excited about it. My clever husband built a massive frame for me from entirely recycled wood, genius. Then, we stretched the canvas together and hadn’t filed for divorce by the time it was finished. If you’ve ever done this, you’ll know it’s a huge achievement in itself. The canvas is 2oo cm x 160 cm. I know, it’s ridiculous. I’ve had a lot of fun with the ‘under-painting.’ This means preparing the surface of the canvas so that it’s the texture you want to paint on. It’s messy, which is probably why I enjoy it.
I’ve got my ideas set and a colour palette, so watch this space. I’m going to create something with paint!
Summer Market Season!
If you’re looking for a delightful day out on the Mornington Peninsula, it doesn’t get much better than this. Emu Plains Market in Balnarring is a magical stroll amongst the gum trees with delicious food and a chance to see and buy some of the best local arts and crafts. The next one is twilight, you can picnic and enjoy live music too! Why would you miss it?
Delightful Local Printing
I was thrilled when my greeting cards arrived from Print Together a few weeks ago. It might seem odd to get so excited about this, but when you work hard and think carefully about the images you’re creating, seeing them in a high-quality print is the best feeling. You can see in these photos that the colours and definition are fantastic. But what you can’t see is the slightly soft texture of the card that makes them feel super high quality. It’s great to feel proud of the products you’re selling.
AI…..it’s a bit of fun
Here’s something completely different. I stumbled upon some time-wasting fun yesterday that just delighted me. There’s an awful lot of chatter and catastrophising about AI in the creative industry. It’s probably something to be very worried about, but I can’t be bothered. Especially when there’s silliness to enjoy. The app ‘DaVinci’ is an AI image generator. You can download it, and enjoy exercising your imagination for three days, ‘free’. Put in a ludicrous prompt, choose a style, and wait for the results. If you have no creative moral conscience, you could even save it and share it on social media, claiming it as your own work.
My first prompt here was ‘dancing chicken wearing a hat and big boots’. Not sure what happened with the water. The next prompt was ‘elephant dancing with flowers’. Then ‘hedgehog drawing a sword’. I discovered that AI doesn’t like words that have two meanings. Through my mindless silliness, I stumbled across a teaching point! Not such a pointless waste of time.
