Archive for September, 2008 Page 2 of 2



This weekend

chicago street, originally uploaded by robayre.

Saturday my sister and I decided to risk it and head into the damp streets of Chicago for the Renegade Craft show. We go each year and it’s something we really look forward to. I checked weather.com before leaving and it forecasted heavy downpour all day, except for a couple hours break where it just rained in the afternoon. We got there shortly after it opened and you could see a few booths were empty or still setting up. Several tents were leaking and most people had tarps over and around their tents. I was a teensy bit glad to know that I wouldn’t have to battle crowds and in all honesty, it was probably the best show I’ve been to so far. Best being defined by the wad of cash we both dropped. By the time we left the shopping crowd was beginning to grow and with everyone holding umbrellas it was starting to get crowded. Also noted: about every other girl there was wearing galoshes.

Maybe later this week I will do a post on some of the goodies I got at the show. That would be fun.

Yesterday was then one of those days where I got home drenched and experienced one of the world’s best feelings: Putting on dry warm clothes. Today, quite the opposite. I’ve barely left the house, It’s about 7 p.m. and I’m still in pajamas. I feel so grimy and worse than that, I feel so unproductive. I’ve barely stepped into my studio at all in days.

I’ve been going through this struggle where during the work week I tell myself “I’ll make time to work on things this weekend” and then the weekend hits and I can’t get myself in the mood to do anything then either, so I tell myself “It will be better to do it during the work week in the evenings.” and it’s just this never ending cycle of unproductiveness. Ugh, I hate it.

Sometimes I wonder if it is brought on by my personal need to be doing something always and never taking the time for productive breaks to go out and live and fill up on real life inspiration, etc. When I can’t get myself into the productive mood I just end vegging out in front of the tv or internet instead of perhaps going out for a bike ride or exploring in a park. One can only coast along for so long on empty tank.

Also, knowing that sometimes it takes a bit of time for me to switch gears and actually get into right brain thinking can be a chore on it’s own, especially after a long day at work. Feel familiar to anyone else?

edit: oh yeah, and just in case anybody noticed, I can say I feel like my well of inspiration is dry in this post and in the post directly before this say that the inspiration floweth over because . . . I’m a contradiction, oxymoron, I’m a paradox, as my brother says “Robyn, you’re so torn”. That’s me. Love me or leave me.

the inspiration floweth

Just a few things I wanted to share:

This afternoon was kind of slow at work so I created a new wallpaper for my desktop using my flickr favorites. Seeing all those images together makes me happy, happy, happy. I pieced it together with screen shots and so many of my cronies are in there as well.

Disclaimer: This is not a “sign” or meant to be a dropped hint, so don’t read too deep into it. I just read about this custom called handfasting, which is apparently a scottish, and now pagan custom for marriage, where the guests at a wedding bind ribbons around the couple’s wrists. One, it’s just romantic and two, I just love this image  I think it just looks so beautiful with so many different ribbons and colors.

Check out this video I found through boingboing.  Fanky Maloon. Once again showing my love for all things vending machine.

Okay now, I’m off to my weekly art meeting.

cirrocumulus clouds



sky 001, originally uploaded by robayre.

Today I looked up at the sky while driving to work and this is what I saw.

I finally did it

It’s Friday! It’s been a busy week, in a good way.

One exciting thing for me this week was that I, along with my best friend, went to a hair salon and got pink hair. One thing you might not know about me is that I’ve basically had the exact same hair style my entire life. I have dark blonde, light brown, super fine, limp, flat hair. I’ve always wanted to do something a little outrageous, but have been too afraid, or concerned about previous employers. When I told Erica how I’ve always wanted to do it, she immediately said “We’re doing it!” and has really made me take action by calling around and actually scheduling hair appointments for us. Matt was less than thrilled with the idea, but I figure I don’t tell him how to wear his hair, why should I care what he thinks. By my age (turning 31 this month) most people have probably already had fun and explored during their rebellious teen years. Not that I feel like I’m being rebellious, but just finally being able to feel more comfortable  and confident expressing myself, then I would have in my teen years. I’ve always said that I feel like I’m waiting for a midlife crisis before I can finally sink in and be happy with myself and do all the things that I wouldn’t do before because of my own personal hang-ups. I’m not quite at midlife for this adventure, but maybe that is a good sign that I won’t just explode at once from holding it all in for so long. Honestly, it’s so much fun. I was very worried that it wouldn’t “work” with my personal look, or that it would fry all my hair and it would just crumble off my head.  In a very wonderful surprise the hairdresser turned out to be an old acquaintance - a dear friend of a dear friend of mine, kind of a thing. I told her “baby steps” and so the pink is all underneath the sides and back, and with as straight as my hair is, it’s almost unnoticeable until I pull my hair back or wear it up like I usually do. Almost immediately after leaving the salon I felt like I had made that leap that made me comfortable enough to definitely do more next time. And Matt likes it too, I think he was worried it was going to look like I did it myself in the sink, but this is a very professionally done “do”. I told erica that I could definitely see myself as being the type of little old lady still rocking the crazy colored hair, and I hope that’s true.

And for those you who have not already read Erin’s blog announcement. She and I will be having concurrent solo Art shows this fall/winter at a local gallery. It was actually her goal this year to have a show and as fortune would have it, she was approached by the DeKalb Area Women’s Center to have her own show there. There are actually two galleries at the DAWC and so they asked her if she knew of anyone else that might be interested in showing at the same time and she invited me. The idea of having my own show is a bit nerve wracking, but I am trying to stay calm and keep it kind of casual for right now. I’m sure there will be plenty of time for panic closer to the show. To help alleviate any of that panic now, this weekend I’m going to work on putting together a time frame of deadlines for the show. Thinking back to my time in college, the idea of having my own show was so far fetched, it’s just amazing to me that here I am now doing it finally. At the time the idea was so scary that I think I might have even claimed that I would never have my own show because the fear of people looking at, summing up and wanting to talk to me about my own work was so petrifying. I’m not sure if it has really sunken in fully and feels like “Hi, I’m Robyn Wells and I AM HAVING AN ART SHOW.”

Okay, well, it’s time to wrap it up. It’s also that time of year where there are fairs going on every weekend and I am hoping to hit one up myself :)

Have a great weekend!

postcards

postcard 3, originally uploaded by robayre.

Tonight I followed a step by step in the Kaleidoscope book and finished with these 5 postcards. I took them one step further after it was finished and made them more me by adding in the painted white grass on each card. Overall, I don’t really think they are very “me” but I do feel like it helped to inspire me and get the ball rolling for more of my own work.

Be in the now.

Here is another Natural Graffiti video for my collection.

And if you haven’t seen this video yet from Sabrina Ward Harrison’s site, please check it out, it’s beautiful.