Congratulations Immi!

I just wanted to give a shout out to Imogen Heap for winning a Grammy today for Best Engineered Album for her new album “Ellipse”!  For those of you who are new to me this summer I was honored to have a work of mine chosen to be a part of the artwork for the album booklet (check out this post to learn how I got to do that). It was one one of the most exciting moments of my life and, after tonight, it’s kind of just as exciting because it won a Grammy and, if you stretch it far enough, then you can come to the conclusion that I was part of a Grammy winning album ( :D ).

So to Imogen:
“Congratulations!  You are such an amazing artist and, as I said earlier, I am truly honored that you allowed me to be a part of such a masterpiece of an album!”

Mood Music: Artist Style

To me, all forms of art coincide whether it be visual art, music, poetry, ect.  I have  a hard time working with or exploring one form of art without another presents. I’ve been working on some charcoal drawings for a class of mine (three to be precise) and I have made a nice playlist of songs that are, for me anyway, great for late night drawing time.  It’s a very moody, retrospective playlist and, unless you are wanting to go to a more vibrant, strong place, works great with me while just sitting down and drawing.  I do some of my best thinking while working on art so these songs help get the mind moving. For all my fellow artist in the world, give them a try:

“Ranger” by A Fine Frenzy
“To Be Alone” by Adam Agin
“Make You Fell My Love” by Adele
“Poison & Wine” by The Civil Wars
“I’d Do it All Again” By Corinne Bailey Raye
“The Blowers’s Daughter” by Damien Rice
“Go To Hell” by David Ford
“The Storm” by Elenowen
“Love, Save the Empty” by Erin McCarley
“How the Day Sounds” by Greg Laswell
“Soldier” by Ingrid Michaelson
“Say” by John Mayer
“Boy Lilikoi” by Jonsi
“Where Will You Be?” by Josh Johnson
“Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop” by Landon Pigg
“To Ohio” by The Low Anthem
“Merrimack River” by Mandy Moore
“Where I Stood” by Missy Higgins
“Until The End” by Norah Jones
“Her Morning Elegance” by Oren Lavie
“Ink & Tight Jeans” by The Real Efforts of Real People
“Junebug” by Robert Francis
“Winter” by Shawn McDonald
“Fantasy Man” by The Swell Season
“There is No Rose of Such Virtue” by Sting
“Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming” by Mikky Ekko
“Your Side Now” by Trent Dabbs
“I Will Come Alone” by NeuLore (feat. Adam Agin)

Fun Quote!

I found this quote a few days ago and it just makes me smile and be in wondrous awe at the unmistakable brilliance of classic literature:

“A man may break a word with you, sir; and words are but wind; ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind.” -William Shakespeare

Abstraction

For those of you who have been by my blog before you will probably have noticed a few changes.  For the past many months I have been absent from my blog.  Those months of absentee were very life changing times for me and it seemed like this blog wasn’t following those changes (mostly because I wasn’t here to help it).  My views of life and art are in transition and my mindset has literally changed so much that it seems like I am a completely different person than who I was when I was full on into this blog (and I just noticed that I started this blog in September 2007, just over 2 years ago!).  My priorities in life are starting to piece themselves together and for the first time in a long time I feel like I am moving forward in my life at a decent pace (mostly thanks to finally choosing a major and working hard in it.  This evening I returned to this blog after a literal 2 months absence from even signing in to my account, I looked at it and decided I am gonna change things.  I’ve missed blogging too much to just let it waste.

So, here I am, beginning a new chapter in my life.  I’m 21 an I feel like I’m starting to act my age (scary thought, but don’t worry, I do that only when I have to) and the future is this frightfully thrilling adventure that is gonna be interesting.  My life right now is my art so that is what this new ‘theme’ for my blog is.  Thought it’s always been about art in my life, now it’s more of the main theme of it all.  I want to use this blog to share my art, my thoughts on art and beauty, and as sort of a storyboard about the evolution of my art (that last one is more for my own personal gain as this could be a place for me to stop and view my own art).

I hope you enjoy it and stop by often.

The Civil War: “Poison & Wine”

I’m back!

I have been on what seems like a very long hiatus (last post was back in August..I would say that’s been a while). During this long absence I have been doing what I seem to do best lately…school work. Something about this semester has just been absolutely crazy! It’s been hard so sit an think let alone come up with something to write. I have considered trying to start back up the blog again but I just didn’t know what to write about. I feel like things are calming down and I might have a bit more to say. I might play around with the blog visually just for the fun of it and see if it will help me get some inspiration to write.

Okay…confession…there is another reason why I return and write this posts. I have lately fallen in love with a new band called The Civil Wars (made up of Joy Williams and John Paul White). I find their music very elegant and powerful and their new song & video “Poison & Wine” is absolutely beautiful (some might recognize it from the background of the latest Grey’s Anatomy episode). I hope you enjoy the video and get to check them out! (You could at least get their live album for however much you wish to pay or maybe even FREE!!! Visit their website from the link above to learn more)

ELLIPSE!

I just can’t Find the Strength to Pull You Up and Keep You Taught

glimmer

Okay, it’s been long enough. I can go ahead and let out all the wonderful excitement!

If you don’t know I am a big fan of Imogen Heap and her music. I loved her song from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and have been hooked ever since. She has a new album coming out next month (August 25th). Well, if you happen to buy that album (which you surely must!) you will find some of my art in it :D !!!

The picture above (Glimmer from my Genesis Series) was one of eleven chosen in a flickr contest and will be a part of the album artwork for the new album called Ellipse!! I was absolutely, excruciatingly estatic the morning I got the email saying I won!

The Album Front

The Album Front

Here is how the artwork is going down.  For images in the album sleeve, Imogen and Jeremy Cowart (one of my favorite photographers) took parts of the winning images and projected them on the wall of Imogen’s house and her to create some cool art. Now don’t ask me how because even I won’t know how they used it until the album comes out.

I got the official announcement close to a month ago and have been wanting to scream it to the world but I wanted to allow her to make the big announcement first. After-all, it was her contest and album.  But the finally announce all the winners on here website here a week or so ago and so now I can finally shout it out.

Each winning image correlates with one of her songs off of the new album. She took a line from each song and you could submit one image per song that you thought represented the verse. The verse I submitted Glimmer for was from the song Canvas and the line is the the title of this post (if you were curious about it). I have heard the song and it sounds amazing. Wanna know how I heard it, because she has made an amazing video for it and you can get it for free here. The video is beautiful and I strongly urge you to check it out.

Remember, the new album Ellipse come out in the states August 25th. If you want to, check out her youtube channel here to watch her video blogs (she’s been doing video blogs ever since the beginning stages of the album so you can watch over them all and learn more about it & hear some early musings of most of the songs), a trailer for the new album, and her first single First Train Home.

International Justice Day 07.17.09

to learn more visit the Mocha Club.