Creativity Boosting Prompt #15 - Change Things Up

Sometimes moving to a new setting is good. I love my art studio but there is still something unique about going to campus and creating art with the people that I went to school with.

Here is a list of ten places that you could try creating artwork, journaling, or sketching.

Garden + Greenhouse. Instagram for more pics.

1. Outdoors - Garden, green house, back yard
2. Indoors - Coffee shop, restaurant 
3. Your home - Different room
4. A friend's house
5. In a hotel or other lobby - Random
6. Somewhere while on vacation
7. An Art Gallery or Museum
8. A Sporting Event
9. Class
10. A Dance Studio

Shadows: Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks  Weekly Photos Challenge was "Shadows: Intricate or Simple Patterns

This photo was taken one our first full day in New Delhi. We spent half of our Day at the block printing studio and half at Humayun's Tomb. We rented out the studio for the day and had an absolute blast. I really enjoyed chatting (haha well trying to communicate however possible) with the young boys and learning about a traditional Indian art technique. As the trip went on we saw block printed fabric, saris, and craftsmen making the blocks.

The red is my practice fabric, the blue is a wood block with ink and the multi-colored table below is where all the inks have bled through fabrics in many layers. My actual fabric was turned into a shirt and I printed a matching dupida in addition.

I will share my block printed creations in the near future... 

Distant: Weekly Photo Challenge

I have so many photos just lying around and I figured it would be fun to share some of them. I found this meme called the Weekly Photo Challenge. It is simple. All you do is share a photo, newly taken or old, that fits the given theme. This first week's theme is Distant. 

Distant 

This image is from Bishnupur, West Bengal, India. It was taken inside of one of the many temples we saw while touring India.  A couple Bengali artists went with us on the overnight trip to Bishnupur.  It was funny because the artists we went with kept offering to help us find rides from temple to temple. We tried to explain it to them that we in fact were enjoying the walking....just walking around was great.

It was neat that once they understood that part of why we wanted to walk was because we were artists. We wanted to see everything and had been in cars plenty. We wanted to enjoy the little things in between point A and point B.

As the guys began to understand what we were going for, they seemed more at peace with the fact that we were just walking around Bishnapur taking photos of temples, textures, colors and so much more.

I think that the textures and patterns from the temples would be neat in some of my artwork for my upcoming show. Be sure to pay attention and see if you spot similar shapes in future work :)

World Water Matt Damon Press Conference Response

World Water by Felicia Follum

Matt Damon recently put out a video with Water.org. The video really made me start thinking about what I saw in Haiti.  I created this poster in response to some of the children....

...and I created the video response below to talk more about my experience in Haiti, why I think it is important to help other abroad as well as locally and to show off my graphic design world water poster.

You can view Matt Damon's video here.

13 Beautiful India Moments

I know many of you have seen either my artwork in response to my time spent in India, snipits of my Hindi learning experience or photos from the workshops we participated in while in India. For those of you who have, this will hopefully a wonderful review and for those of you who have not seen, I hope you enjoy and check out my work regularly to see more of what I am creating in response to my time spent in India.

Laughter, Madhya Pradesh, India

I truly believe that laughter is the universal language. It transcends race, culture, religion and almost anything else that separates people. Though these ladies didn't speak any English and I didn't speak any of their languages, having my hair wrapped in a traditional style was a very special moment for me.

There were three of us in our group that had our hair/heads wrapped by a couple of women returning home from a wedding. Though, I am not sure anyone else noticed. The only three from our group that participated in this were all Christian.

I think this is significant as a simple action against the typical, or maybe I should say stereotypical, animosity that people often possess towards those who are different. And regardless of beliefs I was blessed with the opportunity to share life and laughter with this beautiful woman.

I am a huge believe in people from all backgrounds coming together to build meaningful and beautiful relationships and this moment was a symbol of that for me.

Wedding, Village near Santiniketan, West Bengal, India

Not trying to brag or anything, but I think I was the only one from our group that participated in two wedding celebrations while in India. Julia, Ajeesh, Sunil and I went to a village just outside of Santiniketan, West Bengal.

After joining our friend Ajeesh and sharing some home brewed rice beer and some stories in his neighbors village style courtyard. A bit of this strangely sour, yeast, and strong drink went a long ways...next we walked our bikes by all the rickshaw drivers having a party of some sort. This explained why all the rickshaw drivers in the middle of the night in Bishnapur had been completely drunk. It also would have been good to know before bartering with drunken rickshaw drivers...as we walked we began to hear drums in the distance.

Ajeesh stopped "hear that?!?" he asked....of course we did.

Ajeesh asked if we wanted to go to another small village for part of a wedding. Of course we did. So we rode our bikes in the dark with our headlamps. We came to know that this wedding party was at the brides home. The groom and his mother were there. We were served puffed rice and another serving of fresh brewed rice beer....after this we decided it was time to head back as we thought we had completely missed supper. 

Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India

Another one of my wandering adventures. I have more of this story on YouTube. 

Madhya Pradesh political rally. 

I think that this was one of the two times I was uncomfortable being a woman and was incredibly glad I had convinced another from our group to join.

Train Station, Madhya Pradesh, India

Wandering the train station at night was another wonderful adventure. Mark, the Printmaking professor at the University of Wyoming and I had fun taking pictures of some old beautifully textured posters.

Train Station, Madhya Pradesh, India

We also slept in the train station for most of the night...Our train was about 4 hours late. I honestly really enjoyed this part of the trip. It was a very unique experience even though I experienced it with hundreds, probably thousands of others.

Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India

The lobby of the Khajuraho hotel was just about the most peaceful experience ever...especially since the bus ride prior had been so miserable. We were greeted with delicious juice. I had never tasted anything so delicious prior, nor have I since. In addition to the juice we were given jasmine and lavender scented moist face towels.

I typically not one for luxury but I had gotten used to that moment quick.

Haha comparing this hotel to our Bishmapur room...

3 people 2 towels 1 bed....ugh zero patience.

Barber Shop, Village in West Bengal, India

I had so much fun joking with these guys as I took their pictures. We were separated from our group for some reason so I was just goofing around as they posed and as our car waited.

This little shop just screams India to me.

Kitchen, Village in Madhya Pradesh, India

Another very special moment was going on a tour of this village home after a morning hike to a lookout area just above.

The tiger preserve was filled with fun, dace party to Punjabi hip hop blaring from car speakers, beedis, village flower wine, village dances, hiking, safaris and this little home.

Wedding Procession, West Bengal, India

Another Bengali wedding party. There were several different wedding marches while we were there.

Boys Playing Cricket, India

Boys playing cricket was a lot of fun to watch, however, I do wish I had understood the game before going.

Hooka, New Delhi, India

One of my sneaky solo adventures in New Delhi. This is the same adventure that I found the McDonalds.

Block Printing, New Delhi, India

Block printing was the first day in India

Devi Goddess Temple, New Delhi, Delhi, India

not sure why no one else in my group would walk through the temples but I found them fascinating from both a religious studies perspective and an art history perspective.

Pooja, West Bengal, India

This photo was taken during another one of those "Oh shoot, I really need to use the restroom moments" though you might not think so. I had asked one of our Bengali friends if there was a restroom nearby and he asked on the the people who lived in the village.

The family led me right to the...family shrine in the middle of a pooja...they invited me in so I took of my shoes and said "hello"...but only for a moment or two as I really needed to use the restroom. I thanked them and went back outside. I asked my friend again "is there a rest room, that was their shrine room" so he asked again and some how there had been translation confusion. So they led me to their restroom.

I hope you enjoyed a snipit of my India trip...What are some beautiful moments from one of your recent travels? Tell me in the comments below.

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Art + India + Trash

My artwork inspired by India has taken on many new forms and new media. A major goal and motivation behind going to India was to learn how to transform an incredible travel experience into a body of artwork. I am proud to say that this goal has already been accomplished. Upon return we were required to have at least two pieces, one for each of two exhibitions.

The first exhibition was a bit more mainstream and located at The Honey Bee Gallery in downtown Laramie, WY. I had a painting in this show. The second group exhibition was titled "An Even Dozen" because 12 students went on the trip. This exhibition was in the Visual Arts Building on the University of Wyoming campus which allowed for a bit more freedom. I included an upcycled trash piece as well as a tryptic playing with the mixing of religion and culture. Though these shows were required, I continued to create artwork on my own.

I am currently preparing for a solo exhibition that will include work from both previous shows and several more pieces.

100 Henna Designs

Create a series of 100 images!

Pre-India Dandia Night Henna

I found this idea in a book called 37 Assignments. The assignment is to create 100 images on a specific topic. The images can be photographs, drawings, digital. 

My Challenge:

As I continue to work on my India inspired art I will create 100 Henna inspired drawings (and as always I do plan to be creative with the definition of drawing). I plan on participating in the Thursday 13, I'm excited to get back into that (you can click the label/link below the post to see my other Thursday 13 posts). I'm sure I will share on some other online venues as well...any suggestions? Let me know below.

You can find my henna images on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #FFHenna100

Deadline:

I will have this series completed by my India inspired art exhibition, East Meets West, in March. Some of these designs may even be included in the exhibition.

Why not join me?

Complete this challenge for yourself.

Just a bit of Henna for me. Dandia Night 2013

What could you create 100 of? If you are an artist working on a specific field or topic like me, create 100 sketches on that topic. If you are a stay at home mom, try 100 new recipes this year? Writers, write 100 pages in a given amount of time. What ever it is that you want to do, set some goals, make a time line, and do it.

Let me know in the comments below what you would create if you took on this project or what you plan to create when you take on this project.

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Graphhics and Art Jobs

I absolutely love it when people are inspired by my videos and/or my art and take the time to comment. Here is a recent comment on Google+ that made me smile.

Check out the comment and video below.

“Watching you and listening to you has rekindled my interesting in art--I've been feeling lost and was starting to doubt whether or not I should continue majoring in graphic design while in college--but you reminded me that there is so much to be done with graphic design and art. I especially love that you mentioned how you liked working with people because I do too!! Thanks and I'll check out AmeriCorps”

Wow, this comment was so kind. I really hope to share valuable lessons that I have learned from my own experience. I am currently editing a series of videos based on my volunteer experiences and what I learned. If there are any other questions out there, please let me know as I would love to create some video responses to your questions.