Lightening Strikes

I'm so excited that I have to post again here. I've just spent the first part of my evening reviewing a travel guide to make a list of the places to see, shops, and restaurants I want to visit on my trip. Unable to sleep (that's another story), I began mapping out form I could make to organize and record that basics for these destinations that would allow me to journal about them and add photos later (for the ones I really visit). I had the idea of printing a basic information collection form on tags that would allow me the room to hand write my notes, bind them with a book ring, and then pull them out when I arrive.

The tag idea had two limitations. First, the tags I was imagining were too small for the generous envelopes that make up the honeycomb book. The ribbons will hold loose items, but only if they approximately fit the slots. Second, the tags didn't have enough room to paste in the info from the travel guide and a photo. So I was rethinking what I wanted.

Then I had a brain storm and lightening struck!

I just spent the last 2 hours designing three forms (restaurants, shops, galleries/parks) that organize the relevant information about each. The restaurant form even collects information about which meals they serve and recommendations of must-try menu items. They all collect information about what I would do differently if I returned in the future as part of the journaling.

I've just printed out the drafts, and after I make some tweeks, I'll be printing out multiple copies of each form on plain cardstock, distressing the edges, punching a binding hole, and slipping them into one of the honeycombs. I'll spend some time with the travel guide before I leave to fill them out.

I'm so excited to have a challenge and find a solution in time to take the journal with me on the trip! Now that lightening has struck, maybe I can win the lottery, too.

Better Living Through Art

I have a theory that our environment pulls out of us the things we have within us that match the requirements or conditions of the environment. For example, I make my living manipulating information, mostly words, to help people integrate software into the workplace. My inate skills allow me to do that well. I excel at this work. But if I had been born 50 years earlier, or 100 years earlier (or even 10!), I wonder what skills would have arisen from within me, and how these information skills would have manifested in that work.

Over the last few weeks, I've discovered some changes in my interests and a change in the activities that seem juicy to me. Activities that used to totally engage me, activities I've participated in for decades, suddenly seem dry and uninteresting. It's more than a passing phase. I realized yesterday that those activites fed my art while it was underground in my life. It was the place where I could study designs, break apart inspiring examples, and think about how to apply and reinvent techniques for various effects. Of course that was my art at the time. And now that my art is more mainstream, I don't need that outlet.

I'm wondering what else is going to change in my life now.

I am pretty burnt out from working too many hours last month, with no end in sight. I had a hard time focusing on work today, so I played hookey. Normally, a day of hookey means escaping from the house, shopping, exploring, and looking to the horizon. All fun things. But today, I stayed at the computer. I did some online shopping (for art supplies, of course). I reviewed some of the inspiring websites I've collected in del.icio.us. And I made the banner graphic for the site. It's not exactly what I had in mind when I started, but like any collage, I started by finding images that capture the meaning of what I want to say, and then I experiment with ways to put them together to tell my story. Today's story, the blog banner's story, is about the messy energy and vibrant colors of art, mixed with the joy of laughter and the freedom of flight. I had a blast looking for the images that captured the essence of these things. Of course there would be a crow, but what crow? And the watercolors seemed perfect as soon as I spotted them.

Perhaps I will soon be scanning a custom collage for the blog banner. But in the meantime, this one says that I want to say: I'm living my best life today by embracing my art.