Sunday, September 12, 2010

Shout out!

I was looking at my good friend, Tong's new website... And i came to realise, i have some REALLY artistically talented people in my life - that i am privileged enough to call friends!! So i thought i'd use this space to show-off some of my friends amazing artistic endeavours [click on their names to be taken to their site] ♥

I'll start off with the one who inspired this post...

Ladies & Gentlemen...

TONG ZHOU

Chinese born & raised, Tong has to be one of the most amazing free-hand artists i have ever met. I stayed with Tong for 2 weeks while in Vancouver, and was lucky enough to witness his talent first-hand. We'd be sitting there talking, laughing & being silly, and Tong would have a sketch-pad in front of him just drawing away like its no big deal. And these were no sketches... these were incredible works-of-art! And he just pulled them straight from his imagination. He didn't have to copy from anything... every crease and wrinkle on an old ladies face, every twist & curl in a poodle's coat - straight from his imagination! INSANE! I stole these images from his website http://www.tong-zhou.com/. OH, his website is 100% Tong-made too. ANDDD he's an origami expert!! Talent seeping out of his pores!




Love how these 3 beauties show his diversity as an artist. Check out his website (noted above) for more. He is drawing everyday, so keep your eyes peeled for new Tong!



Ahh i adore the guts out of this girl!!
Karynn Brown - creative mind behind 'Karynn's Keepsakes & Kupkakes' - is possibly one of the most genuinely sweetest people you will EVER meet! Even sweeter than her gorgeous 'Kupkakes' ^.^ (that's a Karynn smiley). Her kupkakes are so exquisitely beautiful, that i don't know how one can bare to eat them. In fact, my friend Michael just said to me, after i showed him her page "wow, do you get to eat those or do you have have to keep them?!...seriously, because i'm not sure" I guess they just smell so scrum-didli-umptious, that they just magically make their way into your mouth (yes, i'm speaking from experience) whether you want to part with them, or not!
Not only is Karynn THE cupcake MASTER, she also has mean photography and photo-editing skills! This is where 'Keepsakes' comes into play! Her shots all have a romantic and whimsical feel to them. Now since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm going let her photo's do the rest of the talking...








The Canadian Keepsake & Kupkake Kween conducts her magic in Vancouver, BC. She bakes Kupkakes and makes Keepsakes for all occasions. Check her facebook fanpage for deets.



One of my favourite quotes is "Beauty dwells and is awake in each thing... we must look for it." by Rainer Maria Rilke, and i think you can apply this quote to many of Henry's photographs. That's one of the things i think seems so romantic about being a photographer, that seeing and living life through the eyes of a photographer must be beautiful. Beauty truly IS everywhere! You just need to open your eyes, put on your rose-coloured glasses and look for it! Or, if that's too hard... just head to Henry's website and let him show you how it's done.

This is probably my favourite Henry Murphy photograph. I can't put my finger on why, but I can just stare at it forever!
I feel the same about this one.
"Beauty dwells and is awake in each thing... we must look everywhere." - Rainer Maria Rilke



LOVE the contrast in this one!
Dreamy

SITJI CHOU

Sitji, like Tong, is an absolutely amazing artist! I've never had the privilege of watching Sitji at work with my own eyes, but i can only hope that one day i will, and in the meantime lose myself in his masterpieces. Sitji encompasses an imagination that most people, even artists only dream of having, and it shows through in his works. Check it.


Self Portrait

LLLOOOVVVEEE


This is all i can get my hands on for now, so will have to suffice. But as soon as i can get more, they'll be up! Isn't he brilliant?!!!

Now I do have many other amazingly talented friends, but i've been working on this blog for wayyy too long now due to super duper slow internet. So how about i do a 'Part 2' with everyone else on it?! Cool? Cool!

Well I'm finally tired enough to go back to sleep now (I had a 'nap' from 4p-9p this evening, that was full of nightmares and has kept me up til now - 3:40a) so i'm going to peace out & pass out!

I hope you've enjoyed my friends artworks, and have been inspired by them just as much as i have been :)

We live in a beautiful world, all. Take a minute to stop, and smell the roses!

Nighty night

Monday, September 6, 2010

Implode.

Someone dear challenged me to conquer the world today, and to me that translated to 'pull your finger out and get crack-a-lackin with E L I X I R (my forever 'up & coming' jewellery line for those of you who don't know)'. It could have meant a number of things, but me being right-brained, opted to take the colourful & dreamy route. Now you're probably thinking, 'that doesn't sound like a challenge at all', but when your creative juices are involuntarily set to 'overflow' mode, and you feel like you're about to implode, you're suddenly faced with a new challenge - where do I start?!?

My brain.

Now, I originally started by flicking through over 30 fashion magazines (Russh, Oyster, Vogue, Frankie, In Style and Yen just to name a few) and throwing together an inspiration board. And inspire me it did. Not only do I want to be a jewellery designer. I now want to be a painter, swimwear designer, furniture designer, interior designer, landscape designer, AND I want to add a second line to my jewellery endeavour, 'ROSCO'. BAH! If only I could be/do all of the above... Don't want to be a 'jack of all trades, master of none' though!
I need some of this!

So now I'm trying to steer all my artistic energy into one direction, but it seems to want to veer off every time I get it on the straight & narrow. I know my main focus should be Elixir, and I want my main focus to be Elixir, but something in the back of my mind is nigling at me, telling me not to ignore all the other ideas protruding my brain just because they bare little, if no, relevance to Elixir. So what do I do?! Do I allow a little left-over juice for these other concepts (which may in-turn generate more creativity/inspiration), or do I just solely concentrate on Elixir and give time to these other ideas when I've made substantial progress with my number one endeavour?!

E L I X I R
E L I X I R
Ohh I don't know!!!

I think this little pickle calls for bed time. I'm tired, and I'm sure being this sleepy can't be good for such important decision making :P Ahhh you know life is good when something like this is your biggest problem (if you can even call it that)!

Nighty night all!
To the one that challenged me.

Sunday, September 5, 2010