Using Art Explorations To Relax My Anxiety

Feminine Mystique ©InnerSpirit

Creative Play With Technology

I have been playing for the past year and a half with the various art and painting apps that have come out for the iPhone. Every time something new comes out I have downloaded it and played to see which of the apps out there work the best, are the most versatile, and which ones can be combined by importing and exporting into each other to create further creative options, etc. I have been creating drawings and paintings on the iPhone for a while now, as I have been testing these new apps out. Up until now, I have posted most of these art explorations on my InnerSpirit facebook page in a photo album called "iPhone and iPad experiments" (see the link to the right of this post) if you would like to check out more of the artwork I am working on at this time. 

It has really been a lot of fun playing around with these apps and it has been therapeutic for me at the same time. Since I have not had a lot of time this past year, doing small projects such as these, have really helped me to feel creative without having to make a really long time commitment to a larger scale art project. I have also found that these new art apps have gotten me to explore and to play a bit more than normal and in the process, I think that I have gotten some pretty cool art out of the deal, along with helping to maintain my own sanity in a very trying time professionally and personally.

Untitled Work In-Progress ©Innerspirit

My Tax Refund Treat To Myself

I recently bought an iPad so that I could work with a little larger canvas (well, in reality, the canvas SIZE is not actually bigger since it is the same pixel dimensions in both the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2, but I don't have to enlarge it and reduce it as frequently in the iPad 2 as I do in the iPhone 4, so it FEELS larger). I also purchased the iPad 2 to explore using it for art therapy interventions with my hospice patients since I don't have a long visit time for setting up and tearing down of traditional media. I am in the process of getting together some initial interventions that will meet the goals of my patients using this medium, so it is a new adventure all the way around. 

I thought it might be interesting to post some of my iPad/iPhone work here on my blog and future updates on how things are going with my patients as I introduce some of these apps to them. I usually draw on the screen with my fingers, but I purchased a Pogo Sketch Stylus and two different Nomad Brushes (a long hair and short hair) to give my patients some personal preference options in addition to the fingerpainting option).

The first art piece on this page is titled "Feminine Mystique" and it was created on the iPad 2 in two different apps. I love the mystery of this female figure and it's apparent vulnerability . The second art piece is a "work in progress", so it is untitled currently. I imported a photo that I took on my iphone into one of the art apps and created and added some textures to it. I have recently moved this art into another app and I am currently adding some handrawn effects to it that I will post in another blog...stay tuned for more of this second one as it evolves.

Do you have any new art experiments you are working on? I would love to hear about them.

Much Love And Blessings,

D.

 

Christmas Season Is Unfolding And My Gifts Are Naked

It's the night before Christmas Eve and not a creature is stirring...not even a mouse...though I hope I don't have mice! My dog Cocoa is crashed soundly in his bed after suffering through a much needed bath, a combing and then his "special" treat for putting up with all that whole ordeal. My daughter, who just arrived home from driving in from her apartment in Chicago, rushed in, gave me a quick kiss and hug, changed her clothes and zoomed out the door to meet friends who were also home visiting their families for the holidays. Such is the empty nest life I guess. So here I sit...alone with my dog and cat, listening to Christmas carols and wrapping a few gifts. 

I started out fully engaged in this gift wrapping extravaganza until I decided that I needed some photos for this blog, being a "past life" graphic designer, I know these things are way more enticing if there are some photos to draw visual interest of the reader. That's when I got diverted!...and MUCH more interested in playing with my iphone camera — using some of the cool photo apps that I don't always get to play with as much as I would like to. Off I went, the artist in me at play...the next thing I knew an hour had gone by and no gifts were wrapped! I did get these photos from Hipstamatic that I liked the gritty edge filter and the film that I was playing with though. As you can see, I have candles burning to go with my Christmas music wrapping mode.

As I am contemplating the stack of naked gifts yet to be wrapped, I am reminded of the "upscale" client of my mother's that allowed me to spend 3 days at her house wrapping Christmas presents one year in high school for a pretty good income! Her whole living room was stacked high with extravagant gifts and I got paid well to wrap them and make them look gorgeous. They made my little grouping of gifts for my daughter and other family members dwarf in comparison to volume and expense. But, Christmas is not about the commercialism that our economy tries to dazzle us with...it's about love, grace, and a miracle! 

As far as miracles go...I am hoping one comes my way and helps me get these gifts wrapped! I could use some help myself right about now. If you are crashing and burning yourself trying to get last minute shopping done and all the gifts wrapped in time, consider "downsizing Christmas"  and focusing on the love and intention behind each gift and not on the volume of the gifts. Take a minute to reflect on the true meaning of this season and don't let the "advertising group" convince you that you have to buy, buy, buy. Simplify your holiday season and lower your stress. Take it from an artist who was an art director for 25 years, it is all about creating "want" in the consumer, no matter how unneeded the item is! 

Have a safe, happy and blessed Christmas! If you do take time to ponder the real meaning of this holiday season or you decide to actually "downsize" it this year...I would be interested in hearing what your thoughts and/or actions were with this. I really am curious.

Blessings and Love,
D.

Decay From The Inside Out

On Day #20 of the Art Every Day Challenge I found myself thinking a lot about about my friends and/or their friends and loved ones that have been either recently diagnosed with a serious, life threatening illness or who are suffering from chronic illnesses that they have been dealing with for a very long time. I found myself thinking about the cells in our bodies and how they are both very strong and very vulnerable at the same time. They are susceptible to so many things, nutrition, environmental threats, chemicals, stress, lack of exercise, limited hydration, the list goes on and on. It seems what frustrates me most are all the things that are not easily within our own control to change such as environmental issues and toxins in our foods etc.

I get really angry sometimes when I think about all the people that I care about that have illnesses that they cannot control and sometimes they can even feel like the illness wants to control them, or worse, kill them. Sometimes it actually does kill them. This iphone painting is about those feelings that I was dealing with today.

This piece is called "Killing From Within" and it is my visual representation of all of the internal wiring (or various body systems) that go "haywire" in the body when it's cells start to break down and a disease spreads. The disease grows and spreads outward and things break apart from within. The dark splotches are like rotting, spots of decay that is spreading into the body but might not normally be seen from the outside. Sometimes disease is seen externally and sometimes it isn't.

My prayers to all those who who suffer from disease. May God watch over you.

Blessings and Love,
D.