Busy Busy

I'm sorry I have not posted at all last week. Things have been kinda crazy on my end. I plan on picking things back up again this week, don't worry! There are a few things in my queue for this week plus one big piece of goodness that won't be ready to share until a little later next week. But, I'll be back again soon to share a new Post-it Portrait, some thoughts about self-portraits, a recap of episode 2 of Work of Art 2, and probably another thing or two this week.

Hope you didn't miss me too much!

Office Desk Steez: Pirate Mascot

In my department we had a pirate theme going on for our fall peak weeks at work. Sooo this is the flag that we made with our team mascot, we just used felt, tacky glue, and silver paint (for the hook):

Our team's mascot, a fat orange dinosaur.

Creeper's in the spirit too!

Art Beats and Lyrics DC

Yes, that is an alcoholic beverage I'm holding.

This past Friday night I checked out Art Beats + Lyrics, an art exhibition that oozes hip hop culture. I couldn't resist checking it out since it promised two of my favorite things: art and dancing. Oh, and things that cost Free.99. Yes for what the event had to offer I was really surprised that it was free! It also stands to mention that it was sponsored by Jack Daniels (mmhmm, the whiskey) so you even got a couple of free drinks! Which is great if you're into that kind of thing. I am! ...but only because it's free - ahem. haha

Office Desk Steez: Post-it Portrait #3

Been having some MUCH better hair days lately. Actually I just dyed it too but didn't have a red pen handy to add a red tint to it. Maybe next time.

SN: The color is visible finally!! Yeah so apparently sometimes there is a bit of a difference in using some "ethnic" hair products. I've just used "standard" hair products for years with no issues, I prefer it actually. But I'm starting to see that hair color might be one of those things where I should really go by the picture, haha. But I digress...

And the winner is...

And the winner of the Art Supply Warehouse giveaway is...

Timothy Lynch!

Thanks to all of you for supporting Purple Paintbrush and being here with me to celebrate its first bloggerversary! I will be doing more giveaways in the future so be sure to stick around!

Expression Live This Sunday! **UPDATE**

Edit 10-02-11: Sorry ya'll, I just heard that Expression Live been cancelled due to the 50% chance of rain later today. :( I'll keep you posted on when it's rescheduled!

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More info at www.expressionlive.org

Looking for something to do this Sunday and are in the DC/MD area? Come check out this FREE event happening in Downtown Silver Spring hosted by local church The Bridge which is also based in the Silver Spring area. As the flyer above says, there will be music, art (complete with live painters), giveaways and much more. It should be a really great time, and the weather is looking like it is going to hold up! So bring yourself, bring family, or whomever you want and be ready to see some wonderful things.

It's also a back to school drive! So if you're in the giving spirit, they will be accepting lightly used clothes and new school supplies. Think backpacks, winter coats, notebooks, pencils...the whole nine yards. The Bridge has partnered with the Montgomery county based non-profit organization, Hearts and Homes for Youth which serves troubled children and youth. It is an amazing organization that has given hope and comfort to so many at-risk youth in the area, helping them achieve second chances at life when the odds were stacked against them. Any participation would do so much good for this great cause.

Oh and by the way, Yours Truly is going to be one of the live painters that I mentioned above. :) Would love to see you there!

ASW Giveaway!!

...And now so do I.

A few posts back I mentioned that I just had my first bloggerversary. So to celebrate I thought that I would do a giveaway for you all. Why not, right? I'm going to give away a $25 gift certificate from one of my favorite places to buy art supplies, Art Supply Warehouse! Hey, I share when I can. If you've never heard of that site then definitely check it out, they sell a lot of quality art supplies and brands at decently discounted prices. So if you're an artist, or know one, or are in the doghouse with one, you might want to get in on this.

In order to be eligible to win, all you have to do is "like" the Purple Paintbrush Facebook page (if you're already a fan then you are automatically entered). OR if you're an artist and would like to show your work on Purple Paintbrush, then send in your submission to apurplepaintbrush@gmail.com to be featured! That's it! Those who do both will have twice the chance of winning. :)

I'm always happy to see what other artists are doing, even it it's stick figures. I would be honored if you chose this space to be another platform to get your work out there! So if you're interested in showing your work on Purple Paintbrush, please check out the Star Artists link in the left side menu under Pages. I'll take whatever you'd like to show!

The deadline to enter the contest is Wednesday, October 5. I will randomly choose a winner of the gift certificate next Friday. If you're a family member of mine then you are ineligible to win. Sorry. (See you at Christmas!)

But Is It Art? Fair in DC

On Friday I checked out a DIY art show at Wonderbox in DC (near NY and FL Ave, NW). It's called But Is It Art? Fair and they showcased over a dozen local artists and their efforts in the contemporary art scene. I didn't get to take any pictures inside because I felt weird taking pictures of the artwork without permission, but I got a couple of shots of some cool things outside of the building. It was raining though so I couldn't get everything I wanted. :( Might have to make another trip to that area again someday.

This dude shows you the way.

A mural leading up to Wonderbox.

Office Desk Steez: Post-it Portrait #2

Hey, sometimes you just don't care.

I doodled another "post-it portrait", complete with raggedy head of hair. The tank top I completely made up, but the scruffy hair was about right. haha

The blank face was pretty much how I felt at the moment.

Cool Stuff: April Harrison Journal

April's Song, April Harrison.

Recently I had to stop into the bookstore to buy a new journal. My recent one is getting down to its last pages (it's been an eventful year!). If there is anything that I can say I actually "collect" it'd be journals. I've been writing in them since about 8th or 9th grade and I still have all of them. I get embarrassed for MYSELF sometimes when I go back and read some of the things I wrote, haha. But it's also great to see where I've been, remember good/bad times, and compare it all to where I am now. I've found that there's always room to learn about yourself. Writing in journals is such a habit that it's something that I NEED to do in my life. So helpful.

Office Desk Steez

"self-portrait"

My name tag at work.

I don't know, I've always wanted to to a "portrait" of the back of my head. So I just did it. I'll probably do more of these post-it portraits...

Where it all started...

I've been really preoccupied with work and homework lately so I haven't had too much time to post like I want to. Sorry!! But I did want to push myself to make time for this particular post because it was around this time last year that I started up this blog. Soooo I guess that would make this my 1st Bloggiversary!! (is that even how you spell it?!)

Cue the confetti and triumphant horns.

Anyway, I thought that I would take things waaay back and talk about the first piece of artwork that truly inspired me. I was about 20 years old I think and I went to the National Gallery in DC for a field trip with my art history class. The main exhibit featured English artist Thomas Gainsborough and a vast collection of his portrait work and landscapes. In one of the rooms was this painting of a famous dancer in the 1700s:

Giovanna Baccelli, Thomas Gainsborough 1782. Oil on canvas.

Entranced, I was. It was the first time I felt a connection to a particular piece of artwork or artist. It also inspired me to make my first real decision about a career as an artist: to be a portrait painter. Though I had no idea how to make that happen, seeing that exhibit made the dream seem so possible. It literally changed my life!

Found Art: Animal Portraits at Gentle Barn!

Also while I was away on vacation, my friends and I visited The Gentle Barn in Santa Clarita. The Gentle Barn is a farm sanctuary for abused animals. The kind folks there spend countless hours dedicated to rehabilitating the animals, restoring their spirits and their trust in humans. It was a really nice experience because it really did feel very peaceful there. The animals were really hot because the weather was scorching that day, haha, but they looked happy. I was surprised at how at ease they were around so many people. Even chickens and turkeys allowed people to pet them! I'd never seen that before. I also had never been sneezed on by a horse before then, but hey I guess there's a first time for everything. As it turns out, it isn't any better or worse than getting sneezed on by a human - I'd still just rather not get sneezed on.

Hellooo Introverts

Ha

Can I rant for a sec? Then we'll get back to the regularly scheduled program, I promise.

Okay so yesterday I had briefly mentioned being an introvert, and immediately I thought of a post from Magnet For Foolishness that my friend shared with me a few weeks ago. If you're reading this and you're an introvert, I think that you will appreciate the things that the author, Sonya, brings to light.

To piggyback off of her points, I do think that introversion is something that gets misunderstood time and time again, often being confused with shyness. And I think it's worth bringing up because many, many artists are pegged with the stigma of being socially awkward, brooding, anti-social personalities when in a lot of cases that's not the truth at all. I take great offense when people treat introversion like a behavioral or psychological disorder, and think that by pushing an introvert to be more outgoing is the way to "fix" them. Uh-huh, that's nice and all...except that we actually don't need to be fixed. It's very insulting. I've dealt with that many times throughout my life, from family and friends alike. So Introverts, trust me, you are not alone! Mama knows. A shy person that's afraid of people, is overly self-conscious, and insecure might need some outside help; but not an introverted person. An introvert is simply self-contained, self-satisfied, and independent. We are thinkers.

Found Art: Downtown LA

Shakespeare?? Is it thou?

I went walking around downtown LA recently on a "food crawl" (delicious, by the way), and came across this intriguing piece of work on one of the buildings. Please forgive the image quality, I had to use my camera phone haha. In case you can't tell, those are birds coming out of the guy's arm and on his chest is a heart kind of combined with an engine.

As a typical introvert, I appreciated the introspective expression of the face and posture. Overall I think it's one of those "weird, in a good way" kind of paintings. It looks like Shakespeare to me, though obviously not an exact interpretation of the poet we're used to seeing throughout the years. I'm thinking it might be a portrait of the artist as Shakespeare + The Thinker? I don't know, I'm definitely taking wild guesses! But that's part of the fun when looking at some pieces - trying to pull some sort of meaning out of what you're seeing, be it your own or what the artist wants you to see. Either way, whoever did it is certainly a talented person and really had something to say. It wasn't necessarily part of our tour, but it made us all stop and talk about it at least for a few minutes. I thought it was worth sharing!

If anyone knows who did this, please let me know!!

Grinding

I really want to post that classic song up by the Clipse, but I decided that I'll keep it clean on here because the grinding that I mean isn't the "grinding" that they were rappin' about. haha...But, if you need a fix I'll direct you to the site that has no problem sharing it! Please be warned, it's not safe for work so keep the volume on low or use headphones...

Anyway, so I just got back from vacation (**sadness**) and I must say that I have come back with a new resolve. I have hit on 9 out of 10 goals that I've set for this year but I think that I need to take those goals to the next level. The first thing though: I have a ton of classwork that I need to catch up on! haha...Not always fun but it's necessary. So tonight I will definitely be grinding on that.

Coming back refreshed and refocused had me thinking about what it is that truly gets me in "grinding" mode. I've been able to get a lot done over time, but have had tremendous trouble with consistency. Isn't this a typical problem for some of us that call ourselves artists? I've just accepted that this will probably always be something that I struggle with, haha. However, I think it's just as important to know what that thing is that gets you back on track and motivated. For me it's a combination of an internal need to live up to my potential and having good people around that encourage me and hold me accountable. Sometimes it also helps me to see what other people are doing with their talents.

What's that thing that gets you motivated to work towards your goals? Is it as simple as a "Hang in there, baby?" poster?

Or are you someone that needs a more hands-on approach?

Which one are you??

Really think about it! It's good to know because then you can start to make conscious efforts to keep whatever "it" is around to help push yourself. The sooner you figure it out the better!

That was just something that was on my mind today as I am about to start getting caught up on my homework and get more stuff to show you on the blog. Don't be afraid to take that next step towards what you want to do!

Checking in!

Shout out to all my east coast people (if you have power and are able to read this)! I literally feel like I'm in another world right now because I was able to dodge the crazy tropical storm. Really hoping that there's something left for me to come back home to!

Today is my last full day out here on the west coast **tear**, but I can't wait to come back and share a couple of the things that I've seen and experienced out here. I think I've been able to gather at least a few blog posts already based on what's happened. :) So assuming I have power when I get back home, lol, I'll be able to share some pictures and thoughts very soon!

LA bound!

Ahh...vacation time has crept up on me so I will be out for a a little while. :(  But I hope to come back with lots of good stuff for ya! :) I'm off visit a very lovely, wonderful, AMAZING friend in California and I can't wait. She also has a blog about her lifestyle as a recently transitioned vegan, it's called Vegan, What?. Please check it out! You'd be surprised at the options that she's found so far. And if you're wondering, yes I will be eating all vegan options with her while I'm there. I know...I know. It's definitely not my normal thing (I made Wendys run that I made at 10:30 pm last night because I just HAD to have a spicy chicken sandwich), but hey, when in Rome right? I will be sure to Tweet it up though! As much as I can at least, haha. If I get a chance I might sneak in a blog post or two as well. :) And I shall return with pictures and a recap of the overall trip. Stay cool ya'll!

So Much for Some Kid Art...

I had my niece over recently, and I thought that we would be able to get in some artistic/creative time together...Hmm yeah, so much for that. I put this picture up of her because it pretty much says it all. She was not blocking the sun from her eyes either, although I know that it looks like she is! Didn't want to do take a picture for me and didn't want to make any artwork. The most that we made together was a batch of sugar cookies (which were delicious!). However, I did find out that she likes to draw hearts, stars and people. I might be rubbing off on her after all! You see the big hair she's rockin', right?! Baby steps.

Purple Paintbrush is on Twitter!

FINALLY!!!!

So as a part of my attempt at building my online presence, Purple Paintbrush now has a Twitter page! Actually, I've had it for maybe about a week. It's just now ready to be shown, haha. After MUCH trial and error and a Google search that lead me to this link, I now have a background design that actually is consistent with the look of the blog. I don't have a proper Facebook name yet, but I will as soon as I get at least 25 "likes" so Like away! At this point I think the address is something like facebook.com/purple-paintbrush3412357blahblahyousuck or something weird like that. haha...DEFINITELY not worth putting out there! So hopefully I can change that soon...

The Purple Paintbrush twitter page is just another way to find out about blog postings, see what I'm up to, share resources, get and give shout-outs...you know, stay in touch! So show love on the Facebook page and/or follow @PurplPaintbrush so we can keep the conversation going!

Purple Paintbrush Now on Facebook!

Mmmhmm...Can you smell that? I think it's called productivity. With the temperatures turned up to Hades in my area, I'm taking full advantage of this time spent inside. And I don't even care who sees me in my drawers because as the title and accompanying graphic says, the Purple Paintbrush blog is now on Facebook! Boo. Yah. So please, "Like" away, post on the Wall, Tweet a link...all that! Check out the info page to learn more about the site and how to get in contact with me. See you there!

Soon I'll check back in with another update, as well as a full recap of what's new.

Blue Flower

Blue Flower, T. Turner 2011

Even though I was gone for a while, I wasn't COMPLETELY unproductive. I was lucky enough to be able to get some time at work to create a piece of whatever I wanted as long as I used our computer software. I'm more confident in my painting skills, but I had never made a digital painting before! That's a whole different set of rules than I'm used to, but I understand the basics. In some ways it's almost better than using real paint! You can't ctrl+z standing at an easel or magically have an endless supply of the perfect paint color you mixed. I was particularly proud of this piece, so I thought that I should share it.

This was made solely with Adobe Photoshop. I've never considered myself someone that needs to achieve super realism, but I'll be damned if that doesn't look like a rose haha. I found a picture online

What the fudge!?

Yeah so today I realized that the last post that I did was in March...Unacceptable.

I didn't realize when I started this blog how much I would have to dedicate to it. I certainly don't want this to be a project that I let drift by the wayside, at least not without proper warning lol. But I think it stands to mention that I get easily distracted, so there you go. I've vowed to put myself on a tighter schedule...so we'll see how THAT works out, haha. And that includes making sure that I post more often. I need to be more productive! I've recently been inspired by a friend of mine. She runs her own blog, Vegan, What?, and has been posting a lot of great content pretty consistently (check it out!). I then decided that I need to get back on track with mine, plus I've missed you so...

Coming soon, Purple Paintbrush on Twitter and Facebook! Oh yes yes ya'll. It's about to get serious up in here. I'll let you know.

And finally, more art!

New Design Finally Here!!

Yes, I've finally been able to polish things up here and I am very happy to be able to present a newer look to my blog. I'm still VERY new to this web design and coding stuff so what I have right now still isn't the exact vision that I had, but it's really darn close! Expect little tweaks along the way as I learn more about what the hell I'm doing, haha. I'll be back with an update on what to expect here, but I just had to give a shout out to the new look! Stay tuned!

Change is a-comin'

Good lord...it's been a while.

But don't fret! This only means that there is new stuff in the works...New content, new look, but...same blogger unfortunately. Or fortunately, for the 5 of you that check in on this space (thank you by the way). Anyway, there are a couple of things just around the corner but I had to do a check-in to show that I'm still alive and wanting to post. I've been working out what I want to do. You've gotta admit, all of this has been pretty random so far. Entertaining...but random. Look forward to something that's a bit tightened up. Stay tuned!

Laziness...

What a life.

Can't sleep, and oh yeah...Happy New Year.

Why am I still up at 4:00 am?! Just can't sleep. Work is going to be a loooong one today I'll tell you that. At any rate, I just realized that this is officially the first entry I'm writing in the new year! Cheers to you all! I'm looking forward to a lot, but mostly I'm just looking forward to life. Damn I mean, if I get to see the end of the year I'd say it was a good one. I have to admit, I've never really been a "new year's resolution-y" kind of person. Not that I'm opposed to change or self-improvement, and I'm not saying that I don't have any goals, but I pretty much make them up and adjust as I go along - and depending on the situation...not necessarily because the next year arrives. Honestly, things are pretty calm right now. And that can be either a good thing or a bad thing, haha. Too soon to tell though...

As far as the painting from the last post, it's still not at a point yet where I feel like sharing the progress BUT I will as soon as I feel that it's done. Now that I've become preoccupied again, it might be a little difficult to try to make time for painting...but it will get done though. Until then, here's a little something that I completed as a class assignment: A photo correction exercise, but man this one was a doozy. We had several pictures to choose from, and my dumbass decided to pick a really hard one to challenge myself. It took a couple of hours, but it was a labor of love. I believe it turned out great in the end - not perfect, but definitely good. The hardest part was removing all the grainy dots, and repairing the torn piece at the bottom right of the original image. You have to make it believable and natural! Good lord...Well hopefully with more practice, I'll be airbrushing the Kardashians' cellulite and Alicia Keys' acne before I know it.