Capturing "The Moments" No. 1, 2, + 3

I just found out about the October photo challenge on Tammy's popular site Daisy Yellow Art. The goal is to share an imperfect moment each day by creating a square Instagram-style photo. You can read more about it here. I plan to snap some random shots this month, but to get started I culled from recent photos. I'm diving in and sharing my first three moments.

#1

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” 

Thomas Edison

Homemade Shoebox Lightbox

I was on a time crunch trying to meet a deadline for a wedding invitation design. I desperately needed a lightbox, but didn't have the funds to purchase one brand spanking new. Enter the homemade shoebox lightbox! I had a piece of tempered glass that came from a dorm fridge, a bendable task lamp, but was fretting on a how to design something that would be usable. My husband and I put our heads together and settled on a sturdy box my Teva sandals came in. He used a box knife to help cut a space for the glass to rest on the lid, and a hole on the side for the lamp to fit inside the box. A little electrical tape to hold everything in place, flip the switch, and viola! I was back in business. I met my deadline and have a nice lightbox for small projects. I still haven't cleaned the fingerprints off the inside of the glass...hey, I was in a hurry to get my wedding invitation commission finished! But who cares? That's the messy side of creativity!

#2

“Art is a kind of mining," he said. "The artist a variety of prospector searching

 for the sparkling silver of meaning in the earth.” ~ Jane Urquhart

 Birch Bark Treasures

My second Moment centers around my art scavenger hunt on one of my evening walks. Every day I passed a birch tree in my neighborhood and eyed the beautiful paper-thin birch bark rippling in the wind, tempting me. I finally gave in and gathered a few fragments. I held them in my hand like a child tightly clutching a treasure, and found some other objects along the way....a seed pod, a stalk of grass, a wooden checkered fragment from who-knows-what. I looked down at the birch and saw tiny white spiders hanging my spindly threads in the breeze. I gently shook them off and and I was stunned by the sheer poetry of it all. If I had a pencil, I would have maybe wrote down a few ideas on my newly found parchments, or perhaps a scribbled a sketch or two. The pile now sits in my studio, ready to be used in a collage or mixed media painting. 

#3

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" ~ Monty Python

Kitsch at the Cemetery

I regularly walk in the cemetery across the street in the evenings. It's a quiet place to think and chew on "life's gristle", and sometimes even sketch or journal. I smiled when I saw the decorations on one tombstone...a row of those kitschy solar-powered dancing flowers waving at me behind a patriotic windmill. It almost makes me want to start whistling a happy tune....

Some things in life are bad

They can really make you mad

Other things just make you swear and curse.

When you're chewing on life's gristle

Don't grumble, give a whistle

And this'll help things turn out for the best...

And...always look on the bright side of life... 

Always look on the light side of life...

 A little video (I'll have to add the whistling later!)

Artfully yours,

Sandra