Monday, September 27, 2010

On The Darkside by "Mimulux"

Avatar's  are powerful little creatures, and when I saw the one shown  above the other day on twitter I just had to find out just what laid behind it, one click and I was immediatley transported into this amazing lady's work and I want to share it with you. The following is minu's own words and so I will leave you to decide for yourself if you want to open the door into her wonderful world of the "Darkside"

I was born in the USA.. but grew up in europe and africa.. later on I lived in asia, returned to europe and here again lived in various countries. now I live in the south of hungary and love it!


I am ‘varied’… and so is my art. photomanipulation, digital paintings, fractals, photography.. I love it all.. I use it all… my main style of art.. or rather my recurring theme though is the dark side… the dark side of life.. of living.. of situations .. of people.. places.

I have lived through many dark moments… from having a very severe form of a phobia, nearly losing my life in a car accident, abuse both physical and mental., but I pulled through it all and came out a stronger person .. to me all these incidents were lessons to be learned, negative things that also have their positive sides from which I could benefit in my personal growth.




I am a happy person though.. I am optimistic, but also realistic. I love living.. I love people.. I love life.. perhaps because I have been given the gift to create art.. to re-create and thus rid myself of those dark and sinister moments in my life.

Music has also played a big role in my life, always has and always will. music is energy, medicine, living, breathing,

 
 



I highly recommend that you go and check out more of her amazing work here
http://mimulux.artistwebsites.com/

www.art-by-mimulux.com


Having experienced some terrifiying momentsin her life, she has not only survived but come through them and is stronger for it. I have exchanged emails with  Mimu and find her to be a very warm and caring person. I can only say Mimu I for one am delighted to have had the chance to discover your work. Thank you. xx

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Feature with Mixed Media Artist Cathy Savels + Giveaway Value $28


“Nature is art, in absolute detail. A never ending paradox that tears me from reality. Everything has a spirit, a voice that needs to be listened to. Creativity is my passion. This was the journey of my childhood, as I watched my father create wonderful furniture in wood and observed my mother sewing beautiful garments with fabrics.

When I search for inspiration, I look over the vineyards surrounding my studio in south-west France and ideas engulf me. Dreams evolve into reality, midnight sketches become my driving force. Before my canvas, I see the world through a lens. I’m interested in what escapes me.”



Well if that does not get you hooked to find out more about Cathy’s work nothing will.



Cathy’s works combine the traditional medium of painting with the use of other materials such as string, paper and cloth to create beautiful textured works which are both striking and accessible for the viewer. The nature of the works invite viewers to touch and become involved on many sensory levels.

Cathy’s work was greatly influenced by both her father's cabinet makers skills and by watching her mother's work as a seamstress. She absorbed information about materials such as wood, fabrics, wool and paper, learning about their qualities, which has become a vital influence on her work today.



Her biggest inspiration is nature and organic structures. The textures, patterns and details created by nature are a driving force for her creativity. She remains fascinated by nature as art in absolute detail and strives to engage the viewer through the observation of nature's tiny details.

1.Was there anyone in particular who gave you inspiration?
My inspiration for starting to work with string and other textures came from an exhibition I went to see by Eva Hessa in Vienna, Austria. She didn't live a very long life due to a brain tumor but in the latter part of her life, she started to work with 3 dimensional shapes and forms. She used a lot of string as well as recycled materials. It dawned on me that here I was painting, and here I was making home decorations but if I was to combine all those skills and materials, I could have something truly unique.

My very first textured painting 'logs' was sold at Christies, London. Imagine how pleased I was since this has really just been an experiment. This painting was inspired by being stuck behind a logging truck. The ends of the logs were kind of mesmerizing and this painting just appeared in front of my eyes along that journey.

2.When did you discover your creative talents?
I've been creative really since I was born. Music and art have been my life. Alas it was not encouraged when I was younger so I never really believed I could do this for a living. It wasn't until I was hit by lightning in 2002 that it dawned on my that life really is too short and too fragile to not do what you feel passionate about.

3. Who are your favourite artists of all time?
It has to be Eva Hesse for inspiring me to find a way of working which is really unique and personal to me. O'Keefe also although I did not discover her works until I was already painting botanical subjects.

4. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
To not be such a perfectionist. I literally drive myself crazy and I'm never happy with any of my work. This means I lack confidence in showcasing my work and it really holds me back. I'm really trying to just go for it but it's not easy! Ha!

5. Describe yourself in 5 words!
This is quite a difficult question. I don't give myself that much thought. OK, here goes. Creative, musical, sociable, perfectionist, nurturing. I'm sure my partner could think of a few more!

6. What makes you laugh hard?
My partner. Him and I laugh a lot, mostly at the most ridiculous things you can imagine. I'm sure no one else would laugh. We have what we call a 'happy hour' most days, usually after lunch when we sit and chat and it general descends into total nonsense.

Early this year Cathy along with her partner Joe came up with the idea of creating a free platform for all artists. It has been a tremendous success story in a very short period of time and Totalartsoul (TAS) was born http://www.totalartsoul.com and continues to grow, with already 1454 registered members, and last month saw 97750 unique visitors to this site.

Their vision of the platform was to encourage artists to share and expose their works in a personal gallery. Members would have a personal blog space; a gallery to showcase their work, a chat room, a forum and a video upload function. The discussion boards would serve as active halls to grow in the creative process while networking and connecting to international like-minded artists.

Cathy and Joe have written some step-by-step tutorials on how anyone who has to market themselves online can achieve similar results. The tutorials are inexpensive and are also a way to keep Total Art Soul free for its members. You can find them here http://www.totalartsoul.com/

Cathy is offering a set of 5 off her beautiful note cards value $14, in addition the winner will recieve a $14 gift voucher  to spend in my shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/Krishenka


How to enter! it's easy, all you have to do is this (Leave your name and a contact address) and your almost done.......





1. Please follow my blog, it’s not mandatory but you know it makes me smile!

2. Please visit Cathy’s shop and drool for a few moments, all hearts are welcome.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/cathysavelspaintings


3. Cathy is also offering a generous 10% discount on any item from her shop, so if you would like to make a purchase, just add Krish in the buyers message to her, and she will adjust the price.

4. You can enter as many times as you like.


6. This giveaway is open worldwide and will close on the 29th Oct.


Finally a huge thank you Cathy for sharing your beautiful work and along with everyone else wish you continued success and happiness.

Lastly I would like to apologise for a technical problem that caused all previous entries to be deleted and I do hope you come back and try again.

Friday, September 24, 2010

TOTALARTSOUL Magical Finds



I am delighted to be a member of this  amazing team and thought I would let you see a few random finds picked from the gallery off Total Art Soul, where you can find  pottery, felting,wonderful array of artwork,  imaginative jewelery and much much more. I hope you enjoy them and if you would like to join it's Totaly FREE, follow the link below to see many  more beautufil items.

http://www.totalartsoul.com/

Follow on Twitter
http://twitter.com/TotalArtSoul 






Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Still Recovering

Well Stevie and Poppy arrived for the weekend, and were more than ready to release their energy on anything and everyone who was within a three mile radius of them. I was going to take them to a grotto near here until I discovered that it was closed for the season :( (this seems to be happening a lot to me  lately)! Still the arrival of 4.9 tonnes of wood made an impact and they were very happy to help with the the stacking of it.

Following day we did face  painting always a winner. Stevie wanted to be a chocolate dog and Poppy wanted to be a black and yellow Zebra but with pink spots! who am I to argue and I am no artist but tried my best and Stevie 4, looked about 12 with his face painted and Poppy  2 looked about 8 I was more facinated by that than the finished result.
With several more hours left to entertain a trip to the park was needed and they did the usual stuff kids do at a park, at least I got a chance to sit down for a few minutes.

I decided not to take any pictures off them whilst they were eating their dinner
 for more reaons than I could possibly  list!

The following day we went off to a car boot sale and they managed to find a few goodies to take home with them, fishing nets, ( the fishing nets will be used for them to catch grasshoppers to feed their abandoned owl at home) a huge bag of mini men (mum will be so pleased ) a talking computer  and a doll.
Poppy about to go into a sulk as her brother Stevie was amusing himself and refused to let her near  his newfound pinball game, she very quickly recovered and very soon found a little talking computer and was happy again.

I am not a lover of MacDonalds but have to hand it to them when it comes to entertaining  kids they win hands down, we passed a good 1.5 hours there and apart from Poppy getting stuck on the stairs and me having to crawl throught the tunnels to bring her out which was not easy and  amused several people around us, always pleased to help!


So finally it was time to take them home but have to say they were great fun to have around, it's hard work and I had almost forgotton what it was like to have little ones around 24/24 but I tell you what I won't ever forget again.

Till the next time

Monday, September 13, 2010

A Touch Of Spain - Hola

Well despite the intention of staying in Tarrogona for the first night of our holiday we ended up in a small city called Sitges 35 klms Southwest of Barcelona and if you knew how bad I am at map reading you would understand how that came about:! Sitges is  very pretty and within a few minutes of arrival you soon realised that it is shall we say a gay-friendly sort of place:) Saw some amazing sand sculptures though, but my camera was not even unpacked and anyway it was dark. Thanks to good old google I found this great shot of an Indian and Jazz player curtesy of Travelogged.com. The ones we saw were, crocodiles, Hommer, Snow White, castles and were just amazing pieces of art.

The following day we headed of this time for L'Ametlla de Mer where we had rented a mobile home, settled in and ready for some exploring. Beautiful coastal paths with  mad looking plants and hidden coves where you could swim and had the place all to yourselves ah bliss.


We found a leaflet which was inviting us to explore the "Coves Meravelles" so we had a drive over to Benifallet to discover they were not so marvellous as they were closed and we were really dissapointed , seemingly they date back to the neolithc period. Well had the caves been open we probably would have missed this wonderful place called Tortosa. But if any one has any pictures of the caves I would love to see them.

Tortosa's castle (La Suda) which looks down on the town from its lofty position, dates from the 10th century but incorporates part of a much earlier Roman acropolis. The castle has now been restored and turned into a  'parador' with the most stunning views of the town and the River Ebro.



Tortosa suffered badly during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), when the River Ebro formed the front line between the opposing forces, the town eventually fell to the Nationalist forces in April 1938 after a bloody battle which cost some 35,000 lives.
Tortosa cathedral which dates from 1347 was built on the site of a Moorish mosque built in AD 914, it is mostly of Gothic design but had a Baroque façade added in the 18th century, the stalls in the choir were carved between 1588 and 1593 by Cristobal de Salamanca.

So I was really pleased to have missed the marvelous caves.
The next few days were filled with going to various markets,walking visiting the ports eating and drinking (would be rude not to) really.

Friday, September 3, 2010

INTERLUDE

Off to Spain for a well deserved break back soon, be good and stay safe.





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