Surprise Brownies

I have a scarf and a headband to share soon, but first let me tell you how you can simultaneously bake delicious brownies (from mix) while finishing off that can of black beans in the pantry!

You puree the can of  beans, then mix them into your brownie mix and bake. See? It's so easy.

These brownies have more of a cakey consistency (and I prefer mine to be fudgy-thick) but they taste the same as normal brownies do. I mixed in some chocolate chips and added some sprinkles on top for fun, but otherwise just followed the recipe I linked above.

Nathan probably only put up with such "healthy" shenanigans because we were out of oil anyway and couldn't follow the box directions, but even he agrees they're tasty. :)

Rebirth

Spring is upon us, and in the spirit of the renewal of nature around me, I feel a desire to attempt to work on this blog again. Similar to last time, I'm about to move (in exactly one month from today, eek!) and I'm eager to get my household simplified before we leave. The ideas behind this blog keep coming back to taunt me ("Oh, this would be SUCH a great post idea!!") so I'm giving in, with the hope that posting regularly here will motivate me and keep me on track.

Restarting this effort two years after initiating it, however, requires some restructuring of my purpose:

I hope to document how I reduce, reuse, or re-purpose things as we prepare to move, and before we move, how I make the most of the things we already have.

After our impending move, I will see how much I can do to establish a home without buying new from stores, "eliminating" unnecessary waste by using old things. Along with this, I plan to continue to use up my trunk full of art supplies, working through them to satisfy my creative urges and to rediscover my artistic abilities.

I have several re-purposed clothing projects coming up, as well as an art project I'm teaching the 5th/6th grade class at a local school, so check back in soon!

Excuses, excuses

I have been trying very hard to get some work going on this blog, I promise. I have a couple of paintings I started recently, and one project that was done but I ran into a problem at the very end so I had to undo part of it. I will get back to this elimination soon, and hopefully with more focus because I am in the process of training someone new at work so I can quit! I love my work but with circumstances as they are, it's best for me to quit (for myself and the company) and I'm looking forward to more free time.

Sheepish

Here I am, finally getting around to posting about some work! This was created before the idea for this master project came about, but I used materials I already had to make these, so the "elimination" concept was already at work. And while I get other items started this should prove that this is an endeavor I'll be pursuing consistently.


Last winter I did some substitute teaching, and on one occasion the whole day was spent administering math tests. I had not anticipated this so, for lack of other diversions, I started doodling to pass the time. The clouds I sketched inspired me to create simple sheep based on the same design. It's a silly whimsical thing, but I like how the sheep kind of mirror the clouds above.

Then over the summer I wanted to make some decorations for the baby's room and thought it would be fun to make the pen drawing into a painting. Adapt the sketch to a bigger, better, and more displayable idea, and use a small canvas and wood panel in the process!

I was really pleased with how the sky turned out in this painting, since I got just the effect I wanted with the palette knife (in the lighter blue above the hill top).

This was a "detail" painting. The original wood panel had a layer of green paint on it already, so I wanted that to come through the blue paint I added so it would complement the original painting well. I'm really pleased with the sheep's "wool" in this one - I like how it has a good amount of texture and how it echos the clouds from the original painting, too.

As far as the materials go, I think I enjoyed painting on the wood panel (single sheep) more than the canvas. I think that's because the panel surface started out smooth so I could completely control how I wanted the paint to lay on it. Canvas has its own texture and I tend to thin my paint out a lot so it's hard to not have that texture show up in the painting somewhere. I used acrylic paint, which I loved. It dries quickly and I'm familiar with its qualities so it was easier to get the overall results I wanted. I worked with the palette knife more than I have in the past, so I did get some of the paint down in nice thick layers. I learned that I do like the rough, choppy texture that can be achieved easily with the knife too.

I'm a little obsessed with texture on this one, huh? What do you think of the paintings - are they suitable only for a baby's room? And the signature - is it distracting from the painting (or just vain)?

The Project

I have many art supplies. Too many. About eight boxes worth - the boxes vary in size - and I have a desperate desire to simplify and organize my home right now. Maybe it's a control thing. But rather of chucking them, which I can't bring myself to do, I want to use my supplies for Good.

I've typically been bad at motivating myself to practice art-making, but now I have about six months in which to practice (a.k.a. productively clean out my closet before we move later this year). I'm not sure if I'll keep the projects, sell them, give them away, or burn them, but my aim is to make the best things I can with the materials I have. Maybe I'll end up giving some of the supplies away in the end. My main hope is that the process will help me to sift through the supplies to see what I really like and will be able to successfully use, and to see if art is something I should keep as a lifelong pursuit. I studied art education in college, which I loved, but found little time to practice art apart from the classes I took that focused on that. Now is the time, I think, so I'm plunging in and hoping for the best.

My purpose:
Minimize the art supplies I own
Find what art media I most enjoy
Recover whatever artistic capabilities I have
Try a variety of materials in the process
Make/find good use for anything I create
Whatever leftover materials I have as of August 1, 2011 will be given away or saved for specific later use

So here we go.