presumptive rantings on art and creativity

Residing somewhere in the corner of my psyche there is a wee beastie. He is only content when fed upon with bits of creativity. When the scraps are meager or sporadic, he gets frustrated and must be appeased. It is not wise to mess with a cranky beastie. It starts as a mere yearning, but if unfed, soon grows to a ravishing hunger. Perhaps my brain would explode with all of the ideas it is constantly getting, if none of them came to fruition. Probably I would just get rather depressed.

I have in my repertoire too many things that can fill my beastie. And many more I'd love to add. His tastes are quite eclectic. Some fall more towards craft than others. Which leads me to the interesting question. Where exactly do you draw the line between art and craft? First of all, I think very few things fit completely in just one or the other. To me, something that epitomizes crafty is a skill that can be learned and then executed, once you know it, you can repeat it (though improving each time). It is logical, analytical and has definite rules (left brained stuff). Art is something that cannot be easily explained, or reasoned (right brained 'intuition'), is unpredictable and sometimes fleeting. The actual DESIGN is art, the skill of whatever TOOL you are using is the craft part. Its a spectrum, with a built-exactly-by-the-rules kit of some sort on the extreme craft end, and minimalistic or nonobjective abstract art on the pure art end. I personally prefer things that utilize measures of both. Extremism in anything bothers me.

Doing things towards the craftier end is more relaxing to me. I don't have to think as hard. I'm putting less of myself on the line. My beastie is content. But when I really stretch myself and against all odds create a really beautiful painting that echoes truth to my soul it is much more fulfilling. And my creative beastie, swollen belly softly rising and falling, contentedly curls up, and is satisfied. Theoretically at least.

4th folder, 4th picture tag

I got tagged by my little sister Eve. I decided to check out what I actually did have in my fourth folder fourth picture.. and it turned out to be this darling one I took about a week ago. I was needing to post some pictures of my darling kiddo's anyway. So, there you go!

Max has been requesting 'faux hawks' lately. He see's me doing Sohvi's hair for pre-school, and of course because he wants everything she gets, he had to get his hair done too. It was a gorgeous day, Lucy was napping, so we went outside and snapped away. The biggest shocker was that Max actually held STILL. Sohvi is great at posing, she'll pose all day in front of a mirror just for kicks, but Max can't be bothered with it normally.

I'd better throw in a few others while I'm at it. Since who knows how long its going to take me to get my blog all decorated, organized and pretty. Its not really too high on the priority list right now.

Here are Sohvi and Lucy in their inadvertently matched dresses that I shamelessly took advantage of. Both were given to me, I swear. Not that I haven't put them in matching dresses on purpose before... It just so happens this is not the case this time. (and it was only once before!) I do love a sailor dress, though it has nothing to do with my love of sailing.


Here is the cutest pout you will ever see. (hey, its my kid, I can be as prejudiced as I want)


Actually Lucy is a really happy kid most of the time, usually she's grinning more like this one. My kids are my favorite. They're awesome little boogers. And how can I NOT think they are the cutest, funniest and best mini people ever.

My own little narcissistic corner of the blogiverse where I can spout whatever drivel comes to mind.

Hah, with a title that vague, I can blog about anything! But since my life pretty much revolves around my family and my art, chances are that's what you'll get.

I've debated long and hard about blogging... obviously it won out, but why?? (I'm sure you are all wondering with baited breath.) Because of course the mundane details of my life will be of obvious concern and great merit to all within the click of my keyboard. The funny thing is though, I really DO like to know about other people and see their unique take on life. Somewhere lost in the complexity of our deoxyribonucleic acid strands there is a specific genome that will someday be coded "the nosy gene". You know, the one that likes to look at car wrecks and peeks out the window when the neighbors are fighting.. So though I am certainly no oracle, I figure if you don't want to read it you won't. I claim no sage like wisdom, just my own stubborn and sometimes rather opinionated thoughts. You know; brain vomit.

The other rather large obstacle is that I am very lazy. And blogs are lots of maintenance. So if my blogs are rather sporadic in nature, well... you've been forewarned.