Returning February 1st

Due to health issues I am forced to set the blog aside for a while. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers while I get this figured out and hopefully start feeling better. I have some great guests lined up for the blog for when I come back. And REMEMBER, Feb 1st is the deadline for being entered into a drawing for a $75 custom piece of wearable art. All you have to do is email me about how you use color in your designs. Anything you have to say about color as it applies to your own work, or other thoughts about it qualifies. Thanks for your patience and understanding. I truly appreciate it. Dawn

2008! Best year of my life!

You may be thinking, "Oh, jeeze. Another synopsis of someone's year.." click! No, this won't be that. 2008 has been the best year of my life though. It's not that anything really newsworthy happened, or that nothing really awful happened. I had several really awful things happen this year. That's pretty much normal for everyone, isn't it? I can't really say anything really off-the-scale incredible has happened either. The big thing that has anchored the success of my year this year is being able to experience what I believe is a "normal" life. Daily living, free of the severe depression that has ruled my life as long as I can remember. Finally, after 22 years of trying different medications, treatments, and therapies. A doctor has finally found a drug combination that has given me relief from a life of constant worry, sadness, pain and grief. The things I have been able to do and achieve this year are completely unremarkable to the average person. But for me, they are major milestones. I have done things this year that I never dreamed would ever be possible. I stood in front of a group of people and talked about my art jewelry while giving a slide show. I have given classes. I talk to people I don't know without fearing humiliation and rejection. I actually believe I can make a difference in other people's lives. I am confident and don't experience embarassment when I do stupid things. It's not that I am just "happy" all the time. It's that I am not sad and in pain all the time. Just having relief from it is what I consider happiness. Having this tremendous burden lifted from me, I feel that I can conquer anything in this life I set my mind to. And I am grateful for every opportunity that comes my way. I can set goals and be confident in my ability to achieve them. I readily accept the help of others, and offer help to others when I am capable of it. I am sharing all of this because it might help someone out there not to give up the fight. It has taken me 22 years. Who knows, my body chemistry might change at some point, and I'll have to start this process all over again. But for now, I am content being able to say that I have had a year of objective thinking, free from misery. My new year's message to you is FIGHT THE FIGHT. Never give up. You deserve to not be trapped in a prison of hostile (and very real) thoughts being created by your own brain. I am thankful to the people in my life who have stuck by my side, tolerated my irrational thoughts and behavior, and believed in my future enough to not give up on me. I would not have made it without their unconditional love, support, patience, and understanding. So, I write this as an offering of my support to you, whoever you are. I want to give you this as a message of hope and encouragement. Make YOU a priority and keep trying new things, no matter how difficult it seems, until relief arrives. YOU are worth it. You are probably wondering...... What's up with all the kites? Well, my goal for 2009 (sort of a wish or desire, really) is to go to one of these giant kite festivals. What could be more fun and happy? All the color, pleasant climate, people having a good time... definitely something I want to experience live, instead of just looking at cool pictures of other people's fun. All of these photos, and may more cool shots can be viewed at the Flickr group pool Giant Kites.

90 New Jewelry Kaleidoscopes!

That's right! 90! You can check out the whole collection on my website, Dawn Blair Jewelry, or on my Flickr photostream.

Yummy Copper Jewelry

End of a Long Road 2, forged pendant by Vagabond Jewelry

Egyptian Cuff copper chainmaille with hand made glass cartouche beads by Redcrow at Corvus Chainmaille

Pretty Pearl Pod Necklace, electroformed seed pod with set pearl, by Tigerlilly Shop

You are probably thinking to yourself, "Yes, it is!" These featured artists are part of a Flickr Group Pool called Yummy Copper Jewelry. Last week, I was invited to join the group pool, and am so excited. The artists in the group do beautiful work. It is an honor to be included. Plus, what could possibly be better than copper?! Check out the whole photostream. And go back often. New jewelry is added to the group frequently.

Quilling!

Paper Treasures! Right here in Topeka!

A very special surprise at BizBaz. I was doing the sprint in an effort to visit all the booths and see what other artists we making, while my mother watched my booth. I nearly fell over when I saw the quilling! I had been on Kathie and Gregg's site, Paper Treasures, many times over the past many months. I've been wanting to do a feature on the blog about quilling to honor my mother and one of the unique crafts we did together when I was a little girl. Kathie's designs are clean, well made, beautiful works of art made of rolled paper. I feel so happy to own one of her mum brooches. It is totally adorable on my vintage Lee jean jacket! What's even more exciting is that they are local- right here in Topeka! I still can't believe it. Please visit their site and consider one of these unique pieces for Christmas.

snowy gray inspiration

Yesterday light snowfall inspired me to to bring the camera to work and shoot this picture of our now hibernating garden. I wanted to capture the moment in a piece of jewelry. So here is your first look at "Snowy Day", which I created last night.

Graphic artist, Gregor Volpert, on color

On November 10th, I sent out a call to artists to submit their thoughts about color. And for doing so, your name will be put in a drawing on Feb. 1st... (see Nov. 10th post). Anyhow, Graphic Artist Greg Volpert took the time so share some of his thoughts about color and it's various roles in his work.Beaders and jewelry artists, draw inspiration from Greg's color palette. And please do share your new creations with us. I promise to do the same. Okay folks, here's our mini interview- * Do you believe the region of the country you live in, or city vs. country, influences your chosen color palette? I know that the earth tones, trees, water, fields, and vast skyscapes of my beloved Kansas countryside influence my choices. I spent a lot of my childhood exploring the woods and lying on my belly, peering into creeks at crawdads and pickerel frogs. Frogs, and goats, have the most beautiful eyes, like gold-flecked jewels. An autumn walk through a field that looks uniformly tan from the highway uncovers a whole unexpected world of colors: reds, purples, greens and golds, blues and grays and whites. And totally unexpected juxtapositions, and they work. I'm beginning to think there's no such thing as "a color that doesn't appear in nature". I live in a city where a spectacular rainbow, towering miles into the sky and spanning the eastern horizon, made the front page of the newspaper this summer. Crowds of shoppers were pouring out of the stores to see it and take pictures, calling their friends on cell phones, "HURRY! You've got to see this!" In the east, an electrifying triple rainbow, neon-vivid against a slate-gray sky; turn 360 degrees; and in the west, a breathtaking sunset. No skyscrapers to obscure the view. * Does your color palette change because of current color in fashion or media? No, In SPITE of it! Retro is the new black! (...Sometimes I'll ask myself, "What would Thomas Kinkade do?" Because whatever Thomas Kinkade does, it's precisely what I do NOT want to do. Thomas Kinkade is the Antichrist!) * Are you challenged to find a color palette that defines you as an artist? Hey. I used to be. But I got wise. All I had to do was get me a Grumbacher color wheel. "Okay, I like golds and oranges. Why do blues and purples work so well with those? …Aha."* Are you challenged to constantly redefine your work with color? Once in a while I'll revisit an old project and go, dear god, what was I thinking? ...OR, I'll pat myself on the back and admit that I was a lot more sophisticated back then than I gave myself credit for. So ... sometimes yes, sometimes no. The enclosed piece (email me to view this image) is an example of an older project revisited and major coloristic changes made. The original was fine, but it was time to move into a new area. I can't wait to see what I do with it four or five years from now. * Are the colors you choose to work with influenced by the type of media you work in? Oh, definitely, definitely. If I'm working in colored pencil I tend to use subtler colors and gradations; but switch to paint and I become the Iron Chef. And having millions of colors of digital paint at my disposal gives me the whole symphony orchestra to play with, and the amphitheatre, and the recording studio. In fact sometimes I have to force myself to limit my palette, there's just too many choices.* How do you choose the colors you work with? Frequently I'm trying to achieve a trompe-l'oeil effect so obviously, the appearance of the object dictates the colors. If there's a specific mood or feel I need to convey, I'll make color choices accordingly; taking liberties with values and contrasts and whatnot. * Is your color palette chosen based on personal taste, or your perception of your own self? Well you see, that's one of the wonderful things about being an artist! You can impose your own tastes (or lack thereof) on the world. I'd say most of the time it's based on my own tastes, but wouldn't those be an outgrowth of one's self-perception? "I'm a witty sophisticate, hence my color choices shall reflect that." "I'm a worthless wretch, the world is a cold gray tomb, and my colors reflect that." "I'm an outrageous maverick who prizes shock value, and that extends to my use of color."* Do outside forces like music, politics, seasons, job environment, friendships etc. influence your color choices? You bet! All of the above and more. But you know what? Many times it's like a self-hypnosis thing, for instance: okay, I'm going through the most horrible time imaginable, I need to cheer myself up, I will consciously use happy, sunny colors even though I feel like something you scrape off your shoe. OR, I'm in a good state emotionally and spiritually, I can afford to explore the DARK SIDE.Music is inseparable from my creative process. I've gotta have music be it vintage jazz or Jefferson Airplane, whether I'm drawing or cooking. Music influences my colors, and it influences my spices! * Is your choice of color completely random? A matter of whatever is available to work with at the time a project is begun? Since most of my work these days is onscreen it's not a question of what's available. It's ALL available. And Hobby Lobby is only three blocks from my home, so if I need a different acrylic paint or a Prismacolor, it's just a matter of making sure I look presentable and marching down the hill. Except on Sundays of course. I may do some experimenting while I'm creating a piece but I usually have a good idea where I'm going. (Especially if I'm working under a deadline.) It's in those final, piddling-around, tweaking stages (where I'll move a line of type half a point[*], study it, and move it back) where I may make some arbitrary choices, just to see what effect they'll have. After all, there's always Command Z. [*] I'm not kidding about that half-a-point business. That's One 144th of an inch! Like anybody's gonna notice? * Are your color choices formulaic, or based on spiritual meaning of color? Ummm, maybe a little of both? Maybe there's a spiritual formula, a Golden Section for Color. A Divine Color Scheme: A Red scene is Mean, while Green is Serene? And Yellow is Mellow, but...what the heck rhymes with Orange? By way of winding up, I grabbed this paragraph out of my earlier e-mail to you, Dawn: Although I don't really consider that there's a typical Greg Volpert Color Scheme, I definitely have a signature style; and occasionally when I'm trying to jump-start the creativity I find myself using familiar colors, and combinations of color, that have worked for me before - kind of my Color Comfort Zone, I guess. I want to be more like the Mexicans when it comes to color. You know, BOLD. SURPRISING. FEARLESS. Greg Volpert does freelance work from his home in Lawrence, Kansas. --You may visit him at either website below. PORTFOLIOS: http://www.myspace.com/smileymurdock http://www.creativehub.com/users/Greg-Volpert