November 10th, 2009

Art Every Day Month

Note to self - colored pencils in a collage journal = ick.
I may go back through with some acrylic.

Unfinished.

November 7th, 2009

Art Every Day Month

Novemeber 6th, 2009

Art Every Month Day.

Another unfinished sketchbook page.

Excuse the bad photo, for some reason the computer our scanner is connected to isn't working.

November 3rd, 2009

Art Every Day Month, Black Butterflies Book Pg. 53 & 54 - Unfinished.

(I already skipped a day - November 2nd. but I had creative thoughts...)

"You know that I could use somebody..."

So the plan is to send around a traveling journal. Having different artist doing different pages. And then when it's completed, posted - some how, some where.

(I've always wanted a website where there was a bookcase sort of thing, and you could select the "book" you wanted and the pages would turn, ect... As close as you could get to actually looking through my books on the computer. So maybe I'll put that in motion once with is finished so that I have a place worthy enough to share the work of others. I just know nothing about website design. Maybe I'll make an art trade with someone who's willing to help in that department.)

Anyway - I'm looking for people who are willing to participate. I say willing because unfortunately there are a few requirements.

1. I want you to be honest with yourself that you'll have the time, motivation or inspiration to do a page. I'm thinking a two week max in any one place. If nothing happens in a 2 week span - that's completely okay. Things come up, but I'll ask that you pass the book along so that others have a shot.

2. There's a bit of a financial factor, as I won't be able to provide funds to mail it each and every time. So when you're finished I'll need you to mail it on to the next person on the list. I'm going to collect addresses ahead of time and move it around in a way that hopefully the financial burden won't be great, but there is a chance that you might be asked to mail it to a different country.

Other than those two things -

The idea behind the book is a game of telephone. Have you ever played that game as a child? You sit in a circle and one person starts by whispering something in the ear of the person sitting next to them, and that person whispers what they heard to the next person and so on.

The last person in the circle says what they think they heard out loud and most of the time - it comes out completely different than the original phrase.

The book will work in the same way. I'm starting by doing a page. The next person will get the book and create something "inspired" by what I did. And so on. THERE ARE NO REQUIREMENTS ON WHAT YOU DO.

Writing a story, poetry, drawing something, collage, music... (I would LOVE it if someone that was into music joined this. They could write something inspired by whatever the person before them did - and then record it, burn it to a CD - it wouldn't have to be CD quality or anything... then the next person would create something inspired by the music. It would be lovely.) ANYTHING.

The only restriction is that it fit on a two page spread of a 8x10 spiral bound journal.

If you want to participate... send me an e-mail at JFordham84@gmail.com your name and address. Depending on how many people are interested I'm going to get this going pretty soon here. Any questions, feel free to ask!

Thanks for reading. <3

"I've been roaming around
Always looking down at all I see
Painted faces, fill the places I can't reach"

A little rant on boobs...

Liberty Leading the People, 1830,
Eugene Delacroix, (1798-1863), French

This is just going to be a small little rant regarding censorship on breasts.

I briefly thought about putting a maturity filter warning on my last submission to Deviantart. (It was Page 58.) After all there *is* nudity in the piece. But I dismissed the idea because I thought that was silly. It was just boobs. With no sexual content. Nothing obscene and nothing unnatural - just a pair of boobs.

But - to my surprise I did get reported and the setting was changed.

And I'm not upset or disappointed about that. I'm on the site and I will willing follow their rules because that's what I agreed to when I made the page.

I guess I'm just saddened by the idea that it's not okay for breasts to be exposed.

I think it takes me back to my breastfeeding in public days.

I was one of those women that was going to breastfeed where ever I was. I was not going to make my child scream and cry and wait until we got home. And I CERTAINLY wasn't going to go to some disgustingly dirty bathroom to feed my child.

The only exceptions I made were for male friends and family.

But if you were a stranger... I didn't care.
At that point breasts were not a sexual thing. They were a functional thing. And I was relatively discrete not that I felt I should have to be.

I fed on planes, restaurants, malls, and parks...

And I actually did run into people that asked me to stop. Or go somewhere else.
Once I was in a mall women's bathroom - they had a nice little sitting area with couches and a table... you know the type? I had a lady who worked there come in and ask me to use a stall.

How horrible is that?

I guess I just don't understand where this fear comes from? If you happen to sit on the opposite side of this view, please... explain this to me. I promise I'm a very open person and I will do my best to understand where you are coming from with nothing but respect for your opinion and views.

So...
Yeah...
Go boobs!

Novemeber 1, 2009

Black Butterflies, Page 55

Art Every Day Month!

So I've decided to see if I can keep up with "Art Every Day Month".

I should be putting something up everyday.
Ideally, I'd love to be able to complete a sketchbook page a day, but that's not realistic for where I am at the moment. So it might be unfinished work that progressively gets finished as the days go by. It might be writing. It might be a bigger piece. (I'd like to start doing those more often.)

So we'll see what happens. And if I can keep up.

Luck, Love, and a Lonely Soul

Art is the Cure!

Art is the Cure!

(I know I've spoken of hem before but I wanted to do a piece on them for a while now. They/He shares some of the core beliefs of what I would like to be able to do with my art.)

Started by a guy in the UK by the name of Rich about 2 years ago. AITC aims to help people use their creativity as a cure for mental health issues. Basically promoting art therapy in it's many forms.

His story and the story behind AITC can be found on the page.

It proves that art is powerful. It can help. And it can change the world.

<3

Invisible Children

This is the second page in the Aware book -

This one highlights the group known as Invisible Children.

"Our approach to humanitarian work is founded in the strength and intelligence of the Ugandan community. We learned early on it was not only important but essential to heed the wisdom of people that had not only lived in the war, but were surviving it. People who would know better than anyone what the greatest needs were and the best ways to meet them. What we came to find is that while there have been many efforts to address the issues that stem from living and fighting in such a long-lasting war, the people of Uganda are asking for a future beyond the conflict."
-Taken from the site.

Invisible Children is pretty big. They started in Uganda with child soldiers but their work is pretty wide spread these days. They have a film coming out. They've been on Oprah and have held several nation (US) wide events involving hundreds of people.

They are about to launch something they are calling "Mend". I think it launches Nov. 2nd. (This explains the woman and sewing machine on the right.)

Mend will be a business launched in Northern Uganda that employs former abducted child solders. (mainly women) Each bag will have the name of the woman who made it stitched inside. From their site you can read about the person who made your bag and see how she is "on the mend."

AWARE

I started a project at the beginning of September, but it's taken quite a good deal longer to do than I anticipated.

The plan was to do an altered book.
One page a week.
Each page highlighting a non-profit.
Thus spreading awareness about that specific organization and whatever their cause is.

I haven't managed a page a week. More like 2 pages a month.
But I like where it's going...

Here's the cover:I'm pretty excited about it because I get the opportunity to research non-profits and groups I've been interested in for a while now, but haven't really had the "excuse" to find out more about them.

"She could take your life with one good kiss."

Page 49
Page 50
Page 46

Lace

Recently, I submitted this piece to be considered for publication in a book called, "In Our Own Words". The book is to be published by a non-profit in the UK called Harmless. Harmless is an organization that brings information to the masses about self injury. They even go as far as to include training for those dealing with people who self injure. I think it's a lovely group and an incredible site. You should check it out.

http://www.harmless.org.uk/

Anyway... the submission was accepted. So YAY! I'll have published art work in the UK at least. I'm pretty excited.

"What is REAL?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

-Margery Williams, "The Velveteen Rabbit"

* * * * *

So - counting all of the donation cards I've received so far and the ones I've completed, I have a total of 20 cards! Which is wonderful! I should have no trouble at all getting to the 40 goal.

I'm so confident that after I received some cards from a friend on DA that looked stunning in ATC sleeves - I decided to make some of my own from old photo sleeves I had lying around. They look so much nicer now.

So the contest is moving right along.

Here's a few of the cards I've made so far:

The Saint and The Snake

Confess.

Page 22

Ever since I was little my biggest dream was to make a difference in the world. Not to be famous. Not to be wealthy... I just wanted to be somebody that helped someone. I would pretend I was a super hero - of course, I couldn't tell anyone. It would jeopardize my life. (This probably went on for far too long in my life... I dreamed of being a super hero long after I stopped believing they existed. Maybe I was the only one.)

As I got older, I started looking for other ways to help. Feeding the homeless. Volunteering places. Mission trips. But none of it has ever felt like enough for me. I've never really really connected. I'm not as outgoing as I'd like to be. It takes me a really long time to warm up to people. Especially in situations where I'm am so humbled.

Art has always been... "my thing". And it wasn't until recently that I considered doing something with art to benefit others.

The hardest part about making a difference is really knowing where to start.

Once I realized I wanted to help - I realized I was afraid to do something on my own. What if my project had the reverse effect. What if I ended up giving the wrong idea. What if I ended up hurting instead of helping.

I have been doing tons of research on non profits and other helpful organizations. And I've stumbled upon The Love Alliance. And I think they have it right. It starts with Education.
They give helpful bits of education on different social situations. Then they list what you can do to help. Definitely a step in the right direction for people that just don't know where to start.

I've also stumbled across this lovely lady's blog and site, Social He(art)
For anyone involved in art that would like to get involved in social issues... this is the place.
I'm so excited about seeing other artists helping. I hope one day my name will be on her site somewhere.

And lastly...

What I'm watching:



Want to see it desperately. It looks absolutely beautiful.