Hi everyone! So this week is going to be fun, crazy, and really busy! I leave for NCECA (national council on education for the ceramic arts... that is a mouthful) clay conference in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday and will be back home by Sunday.  I will be posting about my trip sometime next week (not messing with the laptop).  For now I have to pack and get ready for my trip!  Have a great week and I will be back (hopefully a little tanner) next week!  

Sometimes you come across something that just touches your heart, and even brings tears to your eyes.  Recently I was introduced to a design blog that really caught by eye by a friend and photographer Kara Mercer.  Promise Tangeman created her website and thus I was introduced to her blog and website.  Through Promise's website I have now been  introduced to Kate and her story.  She is a beautiful little girl that is battling brain cancer.  I don't know Promise or Kate or her family, but her story made me cry just looking at the pictures, the website, and blog her family has to reach out to strangers asking for prayers.  Read her story, and if you are a believer in Christ, pray and ask for healing miracles for this little girl.  

On the same note, I have a friend, David, that is battling lung cancer.  We found out in September 2010 that he had stage four lung cancer.  I also ask that you include him in your prayers for healing and miracles. 

Their stories, although different, put life in perspective for me.  The ups and downs in life that I have gone through are nothing to their stories. 

Every time I get a vacation from school and work, I turn into Super Kendra, (well at least I try).  I write an overambitious to do list that includes everything from cleaning, lots of art, to sprucing up old furniture and plans for my patio garden.  This spring break was no different, thus the reason for no updates at all last week.  I started with my closet and even if I did not start my yoga (that was on my to-do list); my closet got in shape and got skinny.  Even the hangers lost weight!

A little background on my apartment, I live in 586sqft (one bedroom, one bath) with my younger sister and my cat Ziggy.  My sister lives in the dining room and we are both artist, meaning lots of supplies and projects everywhere!  Thankfully the apartment had a fairly large walk in closet that we could share.  I had downsized from a much bigger two bedroom to the one bedroom about a year before my sister moved in.  So basically lots of stuff crammed into a one bedroom and then added my sister. 

The closet was first on my list because of a mess we had back during the deep freeze.  We had squishy carpet from a leak in the bathroom.   A majority of our clothes, shoes and other junk stored in our closet was strewed around the apartment for several days (felt like weeks), while a fan that was strong enough to be on a movie set blocked half my bedroom to dry out the carpet.  Needless to say, my apartment was in some dire need for some super cleaning action. 

I took all of my clothes out of the closet, tried a majority of them on and donated all of the clothes I didn’t need anymore.  I was surprised of things I had kept and knowing I didn’t have room for them… cut, they were in the donate pile.  I reorganized all of my clothes by color (easier on the eye when looking into a crowed closet space) and fell in love with some hangers my mom had given me.  They are non-slip, super skinny (I told you my hangers lost weight) and actually opened up some room.  I will be getting more of these as soon as I get the chance!

The closet was the biggest project I had for spring cleaning, although my sister and I did hit the rest of the apartment pretty hard and got a lot done!! It is a good thing we did, because we started our week back to class with her going to the ER.  Well it started with her going down to the school wellness center and her telling the nurse she had some pain in her lower abdominal area.  He recommended that she go ahead and go to the ER and not wait to see the doctor.  Her thought was… I could fit that in on Saturday.  He finally got through to her that she needed to go get some homework, grab a friend and sit at the ER and find out what was going on.

Even after all of this, I’m still unsure if we need to go to the ER because she is not acting like she is in a lot of pain. We packed a picnic for the ER (I didn’t know how long we were going to be up there), both of us grabbed a book, sketch book, I grabbed the laptop, and we headed around the corner to the ER.  It was several hours before they even got her back in a room to see a doctor.  Long story short, it’s a good thing we went because she had to have her appendix removed.  She is recovering now, in pain, but good spirits!  I want to thank everyone who already knew for the thoughts and prayers!  That’s the story for now… hopefully I can catch up on my blogging (also on my to-do list, having some ready to post)!    

Get a behind the scenes look at how I go from inspiration to a finished work of art.  Feel free to ask questions, I will include them in the next segment! Enjoy!

Where does your inspiration come from?
My inspiration comes from all around me, my environment.  I walk through the gardens on campus and will see a new plant or texture that I want to incorporate into my work.  I keep a portfolio of ideas that I rip out of magazines as a reference in my art library.  The past year or so, I begin to pray about my art, all aspects of it.  My prayers are answered at different times, sometimes I will go to bed and in the morning when I am not quiet awake I will have three or four answers to my prayer, and other times it might be months before I get an answer.  Praying about my work has been the best thing I could have ever done, my ideas are running over!

You have an idea... now what?
Sometimes the "now what" is the biggest hurdle to take inspiration to creation.  I typically start with a sketch or two.  I prefer pen and my drawings are usually very rough and gesture like.  I also do alot of writing, such as how I plan to approach the sculpture, coil, slab, newspaper form, solid to hollow out, into my sketchbook.  I also jot down what texture tools I will use, if I am including text on the piece I will write that as well. 

Where do you work best?
Every artist approaches their work with their own personal flair.  I have seen some that work best if it is quite and no one is around, some blair music and others paint to the sound of the snow on an old t.v. set.  I prefer to work to movies.  I work best to movies such as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings since they run over 2 hours long although I will watch anything in my collection.  Now I can only work to movies I have seen or heard a million times, new movies I get very distracted and end up watching instead of working! 

Do you have a favorite tool? 
Right now I am creating alot of organic texture, so my favorite tools have been my needle tool, exacto knife, a double sided tool that has two sizes of rounded scoops (not sure what it is called) and an assortment of paint brushes.  Although, I recently purchased a set of bowl scrapers from Target that come in bright colors at a great price!  I might have to write a fav. products review on them!

Well that is all for todays Q & A! If you have any questions, please ask and I will include them in Part 2 of Behind the Scenes: from Inspiration to the Finished Work of Art. 
 

Where did this week go? It is a mystery to me that the weekend is practically here!  Here are some highlights of this past week.
1. Attended Beauty & the Beast at the theater over the weekend! Gorgeous sets, makes me want to create something that looks like it came out of a story book!
2. Finished one of the sea pods to enter into the Texas Tech juried student show
3. Worked on 10 collabrative junk sculptures in mixed media
4. My new business cards came in!!
5. My new books from amazon came in... one of them is about high fired glazes!
6. Threw a bowl I actually liked
7. Did some image transfers on ceramic pendants
8. Plus the sun has been out the past two days so I have pulled out my sun dresses and flip flops!

Now I know today is Thursday, but with all that has been going on this week, there wasn't anything new for a sneak peek, but check back next Thursday to see what surprises I have up my sleeves! 

Tomorrow is going to be extremely busy, but if you are in Lubbock you should stop by the 3-D Art Annex on campus at Texas Tech.  The clay club will be participating in a throw-a-thon from 10 am until 5 pm to create as many bowls as we can for the Empty Bowls coming up April 16th.  There will also be demos in the metals/jewelry studio and other demos/sales at the art building.  Tomorrow night will be the reception for BFA studio seniors exhibition in the Landmark Art Gallery in the art building on campus from 5-7.  Everyone is welcome to come, meet some talented student artist and enjoy some refreshments.