Old Is New Again

Yup! More "Brown Bag Specials" designs. I had a whole mess of designs created for this line, and truth be known, I could completely go back to this and run like crazy with it.





When I started Art College, my original intent was to go into Graphic Design. I quickly discovered that I was just not very "quick" at coming up with really snappy concepts. My first love had always been fibers. After a year and a half I changed majors and played "catch up" for my Fibers degree.





I love color (I aced color theory) and patterns. So, I am drawn to fabrics, and dyed yarns and design plates. A lot of the early sketches and designs were primarily for fabrics, then something happened. I found out that Hallmark Greetings were hiring surface designers to create gift wrap and bags for the company. That changed how I looked at my designs. I love all the little accessories that go along, bows, tags, the extras. I had ideas for those too.





I got away from working on that, when I found out I was pregnant with my first son. My priorities completely became focused on the new life within and I obsessed over him and he became my world.





As I look back on these designs now, I am amazed at how ahead of my time I was. Realistically, people were talking recycling and reusing, but this next generation are really more conscious of it. You go in the stores and can by organic and recycled anything, just about. So, my Brown Bag Specials would fit right in. I may have to give my concepts another try and actually market them.
Maybe, I will research some firms that might take a look at them and give me feedback. I am working on copyrights now.

I still haven't given up on my beautiful seashell. I just don't have the resources to implement it right now. I have my colored pencils and some design markers and that is about it. Hopefully, I should be slowly getting more of my supplies together as I begin my teaching job.

Well, it's Saturday and I need to get something done around here.

My thought for today? Old is new again.

kat

Looking Back So I Can Move Ahead

( a page from my personal sketch book circa.1990)

I was reflecting on my art work, or lack of it, over the past.. *cough*... 20 years. My portfolio is, well, non existent and I have nothing to show in the way of weavings, oil paintings or even photography. All I have is my sketch books, which are, well, just that, sketches, ideas, doodles, and misc. projects from over the last 20 years. So, I decided to go back in time and rethink these designs and see what I could do with them in the here and now.

Behold, the seashell you see above. This was originally going to be used for a wrapping paper design (when I was trying to put together a portfolio of design plates for Hallmark, yes, Hallmark Greetings.)

If I can decipher my own notes, I think it was supposed to be for a bag design. I was looking at it this morning over a cup of coffee and thought, this would be incredible as an oil painting. Then I sighed, remembering that I no longer have any of my oil paints, brushes or even canvases to work with. It made me feel melancholy, "Rats." I said and shoved the book away from me.

Somehow though, that seashell keeps beckoning to me. I keep looking at it and thinking about how beautiful it would look against a washed cream background in oil paints. It wants me to paint it. I need to paint it. I feel like if I don't, I will be haunted by it. Like it will mock me like the Tell Tale Heart, "See? I am another beautifully inspired idea, never fullfilled, never to see completion, kat. Paint me."

I want to, but no paints, no canvas. So, it must wait until ... until I can. Money is tight right now, and anything extra, is having to go towards braces and all of the other everyday things a parent's money goes to. Not complaining about taking care of my family, just, "le sigh", it would be lovely to be able to whip out my paints and create.

The brighter part of creating a new portfolio for myself, is the little issue of photographs. I use to have to take the old PENTAX, several rolls of color film, photograph everything and take it to a photo lab and have the pics made into slides. AH, but NOW, with the age of digital cameras, desk top processing and POWER POINT, you can totally have everything done, right in your own home, for just your time. You can email galleries your art work, send cd's or dvd's of your work, or do a power point presentation. It is absolutely heaven! My digital cam finally gave up, but my daughter got one for her birthday and you can actually change the pixels, so you can have the highest quality pictures available. This will keep documenting my paintings so very easy for me.

For now, housework is calling to me and I have things to do. Stay tuned for more sneak peeks into my personal sketch book. It is a very intimate thing to me and to actually show it publically is huge. You won't see everything but you will get to glimpse into my inner thinkings and inspirations.

my thought for today is, you can't redo the past, but you can learn from it.

kat