50th post and beyond...

I just realized that this will be my 50th post for my blog. I've been writing off and on since 2004, first with Myspace, then with with Blogger and finally (drumroll please): I have a website up.

It isn't anything overly fancy or special, but I decided to go ahead and secure the domain and upload Wordpress. I found a theme I like that will work for the time being, before I change anything. I'm proud that I'm moving forth with my original plans and making them happen.

The website will work now to collect my thoughts and showcase some travel photographs. I might change the theme later once I start graduate school to put emphasis on my new studies.

Also, I have finally updated my Etsy and listed the first item on there. I have created some new little booklets in a set.

I may or may not update this blog as often as the website, so for your information is the following:

http://www.redhotflame.com
http://redhotflame.etsy.com

Thanks for reading...

My feet won't quit...

...the lid is stuck, the screw won't fit. My days off are filled with errands and cleaning.

Slowly but surely, I've been hanging my favorite photographs I've taken in my travels over the years on the walls of my new place. A few paintings are making their way onto my walls as well. I have a framed Snoopy picture I got years ago in my kitchen. A cupcake themed apron I received for my birthday perks up the white walls near my stove.

I have my arts and crafts things organized into bins. I love any chance I get to haul those things out and work on projects. Lately, I've been hand-cutting my own stamps out of rubber and printing with them. I hope to add a mini Speedball press to my art supplies to help me print these stamps. I had initially found rubber stamp supplies in a Japanese bookstore in Los Angeles. Little cutting tools and mini slabs of rubber are not unlike cutting linoleum or wood blocks in printmaking in design. However, the ease of cutting the surfaces makes it such an enjoyable process.

I remember when I took a Precious Metal Clay workshop in Tennessee four years ago, I loved creating little stamps out of hard rubber erasers to press into rolled out PMC. The designs were crisp but also had a handmade aesthetic.

It's been gratifying to take an opportunity out of my busy schedule to work on something artistic. I'm very sure it's keeping my brain healthy as I meander through my day to day requirements and activities.

Eric and I are taking a trip to Arkansas next week. It fit a series of parameters for a vacation for the both of us. We wanted a road trip to a place neither of us had visited. He had an opportunity to visit friends in Conway, and thus a vacation was born. We found an affordable bed and breakfast north of Little Rock and we'll take day trips to other places around Arkansas for an extended weekend. Hopefully more photos for my wall of travel pics will be extended.

Coming up for myself, I am hoping to visit Los Angeles with my sister to visit my grandmother. Trying to squeeze this in before school starts seems like a viable option. With a full-time job and 2 classes of graduate school, I will probably have little time for travels, let alone a social life. However, I'm very excited at beginning this portion of my life. I love school. I love education. I would have been a professional student if the option had been extended to me.

On the other hand, I'm grateful for my time off between my undergraduate and graduate degrees. I'm glad that a semblance of my life makes a bit more sense than before at this juncture.

To say I'm happy could be a simplistic or loaded statement. But I am very happy indeed.

Here is one of my favorite photos from Amsterdam in 2007. Their bikes are rad, to say the least...

Stop & Start: Progress

A few hectic weeks.

Famished thoughts and recollections.

I'm all moved into the new apartment in Dallas. Within weeks of being promoted to a manager at the bookstore where I currently work, I find myself getting transferred to another store, but thankfully in North Dallas, and therefore a closer commute.

I'm in the middle of deciding where to go to graduate school, but alas monetary reasons have convinced me to go to UNT, where I hope to specialize in Digital Image Management. I still have a soft spot for Young Adult librarianship, general library research, and the possibilities of working within public and academic libraries. However, I think working in the digital realm will satisfy my artistic side, especially as I pursue work within an art museum setting.

I still have a million ideas buzzing in my head art-wise, but I've had to take a break to allow myself the time to move in properly and maintain a semblance of organization as I adapt to a new life. However, these adjustments do not lack positive things; I'm elated that things are beginning to come together. Days may not be perfect, but they seem to make a bit more sense.

I'm excited that the fragments of myself are coming together to create some kind of cohesive whole. Perhaps this will change later, but I will welcome it. I feel more comfortable with the idea that things will evolve.

As I continue to get settled, I will go forth and become more ambitious artistically again.

Stay tuned.

My nebula.

It is time for a bit of "start again".

I will be a resident of Dallas in less than a week.

I have been accepted to all the graduate schools where I applied. Now, I'm deciding where to attend locally.

I'm currently listening to French Pop music (check out Dumas!).

I completed the book Columbine, by Dave Cullen, which was astonishing. I also finished Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick to add to my Young Adult reads. I am currently reading I Am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby, about a former Canadian journalist who lived in a Hutterite Colony in Canada until 10 years of age, when her family decided to start a new life outside the colony. So far, it's been fascinating and reminds me vaguely of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

I have taken a small break on creating art but will begin again once my studio is set up.

My internship is winding down and I will (sadly) reclaim my Sundays this upcoming month.

That is all.

New work.

In between a promotion at my job, cleaning out and packing in order to move, graduate school this-and-that, and an internship, I've managed to actually work on some new art. This piece, like its predecessors, is a product of a slow process. To me, cutting tiny pieces of paper with various colors and textures and composing them on a blank canvas is therapeutic. Seeing the work unfold over the last few weeks has been a tremendous joy to me.

This particular new piece is intended to be a representation of something jewel-like. In my frustration of not having the ability to fully work in metal, this piece is supposed to look like baubles arranged in a general space. The strips, hopefully, appear as facets or at least create the appearance of something three-dimensional.

For scale, the entire canvas is only 12 inches by 12 inches. So, while I'm not producing art like crazy, I will continue in this vein and maybe, just maybe, move the concept onto something more three-dimensional :)

To be continued.

I miss hitting metal.

It has been 2 1/2 years since I've had access to my former school's metalsmithing studio. Granted, I have used my jeweler's saw and a few other hand tools in order to make some random things in my garage studio. However, I've created nothing of substance and miss the tactile qualities of hammering metal greatly.

Something about hammering metal in an actual space that has a fine coat of metal dust and gear lubricant seems less obtrusive than hitting metal in my garage. The concrete floor of where my half-assed studio is now just echoes the blow of metal with a ring not unlike hitting a tuning fork.

I have friends who still work in metal and ultimately I'm envious that they can work often in the media I enjoy. Perhaps some of it is timing, since I've been pre-occupied with things that do not involve metal at all. Part of the envy is also that I finally removed my diploma from the Fed-Ex envelope that was sitting behind a bookshelf and actually framed it. My diploma declares proudly: "Bachelor of Fine Arts Metalsmithing and Jewelry Magna Cum Laude". I look at the framed piece of paper fondly now.

In other news, I've been accepted to 3 of the 5 schools I applied for graduate school and hope to hear from the other 2 soon. A portion of me is torn about where I'll end up in the next few years, but I feel confident about the progress.

As I move forward into exploring a career and another degree relatively unrelated to my past studies, I hope that working in metal can be slowly incorporated back into my life. Perhaps as a solace and something to ground my creativity.

For now, I continue to work in paper, for its accessibility, but I still plan to dream in silver :)

Thank you for not damaging me.

I am continuing to work on the ankle-deep paper trail called graduate school applications. However, I am finishing the last few essays and applications to UNT and TWU as I write this. Wish me luck.

Lots of bits and pieces are in the mix. I've been reading like a maniac and just completed This Book is Overdue! by Marilyn Johnson. It is a book on librarianship, specifically contemporary issues and practices within librarianship. I flew through this book, loving the chance to absorb all the aspects of librarianship that will become part of my future. Enlightening, as much as informative, I don't know if I've ever become more confident about a decision. Specifically, this book made me realize the positive decision to pursue library science in graduate school. Perhaps I will change my mind once I'm in the crux of the degree. However, half the battle was getting up the proverbial mountain to see the next valley to conquer. I'm proud to put a flag at the top before descending into the newness of graduate school.

I'm still working on a new project based around my experiences in the information world. This will include, hopefully, a zine of my own creation, a new blog, and links to information of interest in the world of library science. Stay tuned, I hope to develop this into the summer.

I have also been working on creating some handmade books. A new design below is based on the soil stratigraphy I studied in archaeology as an undergraduate student. This should be coming to Etsy very soon, once I develop a few more designs.

See Jane make books!



Thank you for encouraging me.