Love Yourself for Art!

So I've been keeping myself a little busy. Probably too busy. But as long as I'm getting the things done that I need to get done I'll consider it a success.

I've started my first ever contest on DeviantArt. Actually, it's something a little bigger than a contest. Here I'll share:

“So I’d like to do a contest.

WHO: This is a contest for people who currently self injure or have self injured in the past. Self injuring is any time you do something knowing it will deliberately cause you harm. This can be any number of things.

I want to trade you a mini piece of art (about the size of a playing card) for one month of you going self injury free.

As you can imagine this contest will run completely on the honor system. I’ll have no way of knowing whether or not you’ve actually kept your word. But of course, I ask you to do so. This contest will be run again in October. So there will always be another chance for you to try again. It’s not a contest of who can go the longest, more of a contest against yourself.

PRIZE: A small 64 mm × 89 mm piece of art work. Something small enough to keep with you. In your pocket, or maybe where you keep your blades, or whatever it is you use, where ever it is you go, to self injure. Something that will remind you you’re not alone. That you’re loved. That you’re strong. And that you have other options. Each piece will be hand made and unique. Some may have similar looks or messages, but each one will be different.

DATES: The contest will start August 1st and will go until the 31st.
You have until the 1st of August to notify me in some way that you wish to participate. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this in a public way – feel free to note me. No one else will know. I want to know everyone that’s participating before the 1st, because the entire month of August I will be making the prizes.”

So that's the gist of it. If anyone that reads my blog is interested... feel free to write me on here and I'll gladly accept you. Or if you have a DA account you can find me there.

I hope everyone is well.

Artist Trading Cards

Cards 5 and 6 are still up for trade.

Unfinished Pages

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Artist Trading Cards

So I'm planning on giving these artist trading cards a shot for a little while.

There are a few friends from DeviantArt that are going to give it a shot and I'd like to try it with them. So here's the post - copied from hogret's journal :

"Let's go ATC trading, guys ...

There seem to be only two basic rules:
(1) Size is 6cm by 9cm (either portrait or landscape orientation)
(2) Cards are never sold, but always traded

And two guidelines:
(1) Each card is ideally a one-off original - ie preferably no multiple reproductions
(2) Back of the card has the artist's name, contact detail, name of the card, and date created.

Otherwise, it seems the sky's the limit - any medium (watercolor, photo-manip, fabric, metal, collage, lithograph, etc etc) and any message.

(I'm sure you all know about ATCs, but a useful starting point for resources and links is at [link] )

~KysPerspective suggested the idea to me, and she and I will be trading, and both of us would be delighted to trade with anyone else who's interested."

* * * * *

I want to try something new. And I'm all for getting original art in the mail - no matter how small. <3

I would love to do them aimed at a specific person... so if you'd like to do a trade with me, let me know here. Or somewhere - and I'll get working on them soon.

Yay! I'm so excited.

"At times I am so self destructive"

"With no intent or motive
But behind this emotion,
There lies a sensible heart
A sensible heart"

May 30th

There's only one thing I hate about you.

You make me feel like I'm not good enough. I know that I'm not ever going to change - at least not in the areas that are so obviously annoying to you, SO I feel as if I'm never going to be good enough. I'll never be that person.

May 31st

I ask who she is
We both feign disinterest. Make it casual curiosity. But we both hold in our secret breaths, wondering how this will play out. Will you call my bluff? Will I call yours? Do I want to?

June 6th

Female objectification

Saint? Naked? Red back with dried glue. Too sexual? Too gross?

June 8th

Death and decay is beautiful when it's natural.

I found a baby bird that had fallen from the nest. It had maggots moving beneath the skin, I thought it was still breathing.

Road kill is the worst. For months now I've watched the death of an animal become something more... flat. Pressed into the concrete over and over. Rained on. Just a pelt of something that at one time wasn't flat. Something that was breathing

Escapism. Fantasy as a parallel for everything we're too afraid to face.

June 17th

My crimes are written on your body.

June 18th

On rare occassions, I think two wrongs do make everything right again. Are we even now?

Dear me,
I'm taking over. Holding your love ransom until you're able to handle it yourself again. Love is a strong emotion, one I'm beginning to doubt all are capable of, and you're just too weak.

Love is for the brave.

STOP BEING A COWARD!

Words connecting and words tearing apart. Writing people together.

Rule one for a conversation.
There is no right answer. No one wins a conversation.
Two. When someone is talking to you - stop thinking about what you're going to say in response. Do your best to put yourself in their place. Do your best to really understand what they are saying, and what they aren't saying.
Three. Choose better words.

June 22nd

With these words I whisper, I will guard your heart.

New Orleans

The hubby and I spent the weekend in New Orleans with our friends for a wedding.
I took 245 pictures total.

"We can eclipse all that came before us."

"We can control the medium.
We can control the context of presentation.
Is there anybody on the receiving end?
Reaching out for some kind of connection.

Come on and wash these shores away.
Come on and wash these shores away.
I am looking for the crest,
I am looking for the crest of a new wave.

We can be the bands we want to hear.
We can define our own generation.
Is there anybody on the receiving end?
Are you ready to brave new directions.

Come on and wash these shores away.
Come on and wash these shores away.
I am looking for the crest,
I am looking for the crest of a new wave.

Let breathe new dawn this art is dead!
No signs of original thought in the mainstream.
Is there anybody on the receiving end?
We can eclipse all that came before us.

Come on and wash these shores away.
Come on and wash these shores away.
I am looking for the crest,
I am looking for the crest of a new wave."

-Against Me!, New Wave

I hate the word "kitsch".

Here's a brief summary brought to you by wikipedia...

"denoting art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art. The term kitsch was a response to the 19th century art whose aesthetics convey exaggerated sentimentality and melodrama, hence, kitsch art is closely associated with sentimental art. Moreover, kitsch (art) also denotes the types of art that are like-wise æsthetically deficient (whether or not it is sentimental, glamorous, theatrical, or creative) making it a creative gesture that merely imitates the superficial appearances of art (via repeated conventions and formulae), thus, it is uncreative and unoriginal; it is not Art. Contemporaneously, kitsch also (loosely) denotes art that is æsthetically pretentious to the degree of being in poor taste, and industrially-produced art-items that are considered trite and crass."

Who can judge art like this?
Who could say this about someone else's art?

We are all products of our surroundings. Things we are exposed to, things we've chosen to expose ourselves to. But we are not original. Not really. An original mix of things maybe... and our creations, whether music, art or otherwise, will be the same. Combinations of things that have already been. We take what we've seen... mix it with something else and try to do it better. But is there ever anything new?