Archive for April, 2012
Maki is a hair stylist who cuts and styles hair in a cute little salon on the Lower East Side. When she’s not wowing patrons with her skills, she tends to her plants, hangs out with her daughter and makes adorable bunnies. Maki makes little bunny dolls under her brand Yume (pronounced “yu-meh” and meaning “dream” in Japanese). Her meticulous attention to detail is evident in her process, and is clearly visible in the end result. She says that it took her a while to come up with a template she was happy with, which reflected the cuteness of the bunny she had in mind. For the fabric, she browsed in vain for the right pattern in New York and finally settled on Liberty of London’s fabrics. She incorporates Liberty’s patterned fabrics with other Japanese textiles (including fine linen) to create cute outfits for her bunnies. As for the stuffing, she skipped over the cheaper stuff, which she says never bounces back once it is pressed down. She says the Japanese stuffing she has shipped over makes a huge difference. The bunnies’ pressed-in faces, the orange string to highlight their noses, the pretty fold by the base of the ears, and their cute little white underbellies are just some of the details that make this bunny unique.
"Carried Away"
When I look at Melanee’s work, I am immediately drawn to the energy and the movement in it. The bold brushstrokes of the background elicit the feeling that there is a wind stirring the leaves. The trees themselves are more elegant, with their curvy branches and the thoughtful textures which represent leaves. The colors make me wonder if the trees are on fire. All of these things serve to create an interesting contrast that leaves me feeling an intense passion emanating from the artwork.
"Treegamism"
Thanks, Melanee, and keep up the good work!
To get in touch with Melanee: melanee.ohagan at gmail dot com
“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.”
- A. A. Milne
Create an image or write something around this quote and send it to us!
Submissions for this creative prompt (Disorderly Discoveries) will be accepted until Friday, May 4th.
View previous Creative Prompt submissions here.
Jane and Mia always touched each other. It wasn’t necessarily romantic or sensual, but it was some form of comforting contact, as if they needed each other for reassurance every few minutes, the way a talisman is rubbed for strength or good luck.
Mia had long arms that could wrap around Jane twice in an expert grip. They covered Jane’s entire body the way a boa would if it ate an elephant whole in a Saint-Exuperie fashion, but without the choke hold.
Jane enjoyed being entangled in Mia, bound by her limbs and secured by them the way a belt does for a body in a vehicle’s seat. Mia wrapped Jane like a present, collecting loose ends and covering exposed areas, enjoying all parts of the ritual – a blanket for paper and arms and legs like the bows that found each other’s ends and tied knots taut for safe measure.
It seemed maternal, this swaddling of an otherwise independent adult. Mia wrapped Jane so diligently as if her life dependent on it, because truth be told it really did. Each stroke and knot, each pull and grip – to Mia these were the physical manifestations of how Jane actually kept her together. In securing Jane, Mia allowed no space for things to rattle or seep through, between them but mostly within her, where things were often flying, fighting for air, waiting for their turn to be shown.
It was as comforting to the apparent comforter, as separate and different as they seemed, their touches were reminders to each other of what they needed, and who they needed when they stepped out into the world undone.
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A response to the creative exercise “Relationships”
Relationships have always been a source of inspiration for artists. For the painter, use an unfamiliar medium to create an image of a relationship that is dear to your heart. For writers, use the third person stance to describe your relationship with your significant other. For photographers, describe loving relationships by taking photos of inanimate objects.
Submissions will be accepted until April 28th. View previous creative exercise submissions here.
SHARK asked, “Why am I a bad guy in pop culture just because I hunt well and eat a lot?”
CAT nodded. Although a small eater, her excellent hunting skills made her notorious — especially in Asia, where women are expected to be submissive, pale and skinny. That’s why she plays with her food a lot, sometimes skips them altogether. She can’t help the killing, but she can at least watch her weight.
Men keep telling her to stop the killing, saying it is cruel. There is no need to hunt. They would feed her and even dress her up. They promise her a good life thereafter, as long as she listens. She doesn’t trust them. Men change. Her claws and teeth stay. She constantly hones the skills she will need back on the street.
She usually kills behind their backs, sweeping the remains under the carpet or the dishwasher to save them the screaming and pretentious mourning at the crime scene. They can’t even sue her. Cats are not liable for murders in court.
“Men need someone to blame for the wrongs of the world. They are probably just jealous. You should be proud,” CAT told SHARK.
Megan Staley is an amateur filmmaker and the subject of WIP, one of the short films we previously featured. Megan submitted “The Pearly Gates” as her first class exercise at the New York Film Academy that used a digital camera and live sound.
More of Megan’s work may be found here. Don’t forget to watch a fellow filmmaker’s take on Megan’s inspiring artistic journey.
The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating. (Pearl S. Buck)
Creativity is an act of defiance. (Twyla Tharp)
Life beats down and crushes the soul. Art reminds you that you have one. (Stella Adler)
