Journal Entry: To Organize Passion

» Last year when I was working in my production rotation at Theo Davis—the printing company I work for—I was learning how to operate our press and we were printing an art book for NC State University. I was reading through it as the press sheets were coming through the press and found a quote that I identify with more than any other.

“Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.” –Claude Monet

Lily~ One of My Favorite Flowers

» I have written so many journal entries about how I want to do so many things and never seem to have the time or don’t know how to start.
 
That’s one of the reasons Kiss Kreativ happened, because I just wanted an outlet for my love for paper and design and sharing those things with people. 

» I keep a lot of journals where I talk about the random ideas I have and my frustration with not having time to do them. Here is a page spread from my journal that I did last year, that actually inspired the title of this blog:
 

Journal Entry · November 30th, 2012

» One of the things I wrote in this ‘entry’ is “Am I crazy? Sometimes I feel like it. Why can’t I just dream about “normal” things?” But then you have to ask, what is normal? The next part of my entry here is “I am this way for a reason. It is time for me to figure out why. I’m only 22—I don’t want to waste it.”

Right??

Simply for their Charm

My new favorite place is the Reader’s Corner off Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. It is a small used bookstore with 10 and 25-cent books outside and a treasure trove inside. It is there that I discovered my love for old books. The below illustration holds a few of the characteristics I love about old books and why they should be enjoyed by everyone of all ages, simply for their charm and strength of character. 

Funny Old Lady with a Bow in her Hair Drawing

I recently bought an old American Literature book and created an art journal out of it to give to my dad for Father’s Day. He is also an artist—a very good one—and we share a love of the unusual together. Pictures of this project will go up one day on this blog. 

When Fancy Strikes

»So… I’ve been doing a little blog maintenance. I’m so new to blogging I didn’t know you could change the banner image and some other things. As I am also getting used to posting, I will be prettying things up to make my page a little more welcoming and homey.

I met up with a friend this past weekend to get some blogging advice and one of the big things I took away from our chat was to keep my posts shorter. This will be a challenge as I can be pretty long-winded and I get really excited about things so that also keeps me talking. Anyways I will be working on that.

Vogue-Inspired Drawing

»I wanted to share a few things about one of the ways that I get creative inspiration. I challenge everyone else to do something similar for yourselves. Vogue magazines inspire me. Maybe that’s cliché? It has been a long-standing, consistent source of new, interesting art, fashion, and stories about the world. My favorite parts of the magazine are the ridiculous pictures of clothing that no one in their right mind would wear on a daily and the articles about people in other countries. I live in those other countries and dream in the crazy clothing through Vogue. As the above drawing represents, along with many more in my sketchbooks, the explosion of interesting pictures in the pages inspires my art.

One of my favorite articles is about a woman who started a company selling high-end fashion through the Internet all over the world. She understood the power of selling to women and how good we are at spending money on luxury. [Well, maybe not me. I’m still a poor-just-got-married woman.] Net-a-Porter is headquartered in London and was founded by Natalie Massanet, who just made $76 million selling her portion of shares in the ten-year-old company.

·Now I understand this isn’t the typical story of most entrepreneurs around the world, but it’s still very cool·

»My take-aways from this story and how it affects my new project with Kiss Kreativ:

• Following an instinct is risky but worth it
• Originality is something to protect and encourage
• Women will spend a lot of money on something with a notable brand attached to it
• Don’t underestimate beauty
• Even when other people tell you it won’t work, keep on it