Excercise your vulnerability...

When painting or photographing someone, I feel the best work comes from being vulnerable. It is in these captured moment we allow ourselves to show our true emotions. For a moment, we show the side of ourselves we keep hidden from the world, what we dare not admit. We fear if we let ourselves be vulnerable we will be viewed as weak. Some fear that these feeling will engulf us and that the heavy ooze of dark honey like emotions will be too strong to free ourselves from; simply lost and too weak to fight. I feel that flaunting vulnerability at appropriate times empowers a person. Owning who & how you are. Truly accepting oneself and showing it off for the world to see.

All my work is pretty much about a moment in my life or a thought I was having at a time that I wanted to show others in a visual manner. This one in particular is from a day I was just feeling a bit down and frustrated. Unlike most of my paintings, this one was done on impulse in a moment. I like to have canvas and my supplies in front of me while I listen to music appropriate to how I am feeling and just allow myself to feel the overall vibe of myself & the music so I may freely let all of it move me around in the canvas. I don't really think at first until something clicks and I vaguely get what I'm trying to do. This is an excellent exercise I recommend to anyone because I love doing this.

You don't have to get all fancy, any paper or supplies will work. If drawing isn't your thing, maybe you can write instead. Whatever you craft, try to allow your mood and/or your environments vibe to guide you and you might stubble across something new.

Fluorescent Female

So after several failed attempts to photography my cousin, Emily, we finally got around to it about 2 weeks ago. YAY!!! The enthusiasm was there but the ideas definitely weren't. With supply limitations but a surplus of imagination, I photographed her in black light. This is something I've never tried this before but was totally up my alley and I didn't even think of it. Attempting this feet is tricky with multiple difficulties to take into account:


1) Possible but pretty much definite long exposures depending on your light source,etc.
2) Possible but almost pretty definite grainy images depending on ISO
3) Sharp images VS. Soft images
4) Higher ISO.....(its the devil and a saint)
5) Finding things that glow fluorescent under black light


Once the black light bulb in my brain lit up, it was freaking on! Being a fan of color, I loved this photo shoot and I am definitely putting it in my books for a redo. It was awesome photographing Emily and seeing her get comfortable in front was a surprising privilege. I love playing with light and just trying out something new. Overall it can be intimidating & exciting but I love the figuring out process; once you know your onto something that you like its a giddy rush that encourages you to push more. Now that it's all done, I know what I would change and will definitely play more in my next attempt. I hope you guys enjoy it and voice it! Let me know what you think. If you want a session of my random creativity hit me up via Twitter, GMail, FB, etc. Trade offs, pay offs, we can talk about it.

Until next time, Toodles from DiTzyDoodle1  ^_^

"Maneater"

Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you, the "maneater." This piece was inspired by being called that name one too many times. I figured since some people like to call others names like that why not flaunt it in my own way.

Personally, I do not think I am a maneater. However, I understand how having a good sense of who I am, knowing what I want and discarding people I don't need in my life in my expedited manner can be portrayed that way. There's no reason to draw things out if I know your not it. Besides, I try to conduct the chucking process as nice as possible because there's no need to be a jerk about it. I appreciate the time spent, I just don't want to waste anymore.


Maneater - (man-eat-er) noun. a woman with a threatening yet seductive attitude of readily taking & discarding male romantic partners.
Reference: "Maneater," By Daryl Hall & Oates; "Maneater," By Nelly Furtado;


Overall, this loud piece was executed to draw the audience into this playfully vivid but dark theme which you can help but love. I thought my maneater would be cute and innocent looking displaying viscous behavior with a loud innocent yet harmless but love me anyway attitude.... like a Disney Tim Burton meets Pop urban girly art feel.

I hope you guys love her as much as I do. E-mail me for prints if desired. Keep your eyes open for my other dolls coming soon!

High Museum: ANDY, I LOVE YOU! ^_^

Hola Everyone!

Just encouraging everyone to go to the High Museum of art to experience their

Picasso to Warhol exhibit as well as their KAWS: Down Time exhibit. There are other things going on at the High Museum but these are the two that interested me the most. I LOVE Andy Warhol! As kind of evil as it seems, he become famous for his ability to explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement. To me, he was genious and I know this is going to sound horrible but he exploited and cashed in on how simple minded we are as consumers. Read the quote below and tell me he didn't apply that same thought process to his work.

"What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca-Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca-Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."

 

Sorry I only took pictures of Andy's work, he's just one of my faves and what I really went to see! He's just so WIERD and I love it!  okay last quote from him and i'm gone like a criminal at a crime scene. All quotes are from Wikipedia and both quotes are links to the Wikipedia's link about Andy Warhol.

 

Warhol had this to say about the attempted murder attack: "Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television."

United Way Shoebox Project

2012 United Way Shoebox Project 




Homeless women and children need our help. Create personal care packages by donating a decorated shoebox filled with toiletries. Shoeboxes will be distributed to homeless women and children on Mother’s Day.

Go wild with your box. No decorating/design limits.
Visit them on Facebook, United Way.

Anyone in GA interested in participating in this as a group, please e-mail me, DiTzyDoodle, so we can discuss a SHOEBOX PARTY!
If you would like to donate some shoeboxes please e-mail me as well.

Please submit all boxes between March 1 and May 1. Please make sure your box can be opened for safety inspections.

FedEx will pick up from locations that collect 150+ shoeboxes. The last day to schedule a pickup is April 20.

For more information about having items picked up, drop-off locations or to volunteer:

Visit: unitedwayatlanta.org/shoeboxproject
Email: shoeboxproject@unitedwayatlanta.org
Call: 404.614.2911

Items needed:

-travel size shampoo
-deodorant
-travel size soap
-toothbrush and toothpaste
-travel size lotion
-hair comb/brush
-sun protector
-lip balm
-adhesive bandages

-hand towels
-antibiotic ointment
-socks
-tampons
-panty liners
-travel size water bottles
-rain ponchos
-resealable zipper storage bags
-prepaid phone cards

We cannot accept: medicine, food, sewing kits, used or opened items
                          

Puttin you guys onto some good stuff!

Hello ALL,

So I've been trying to prepare myself so I can start an etsy shop for all my work, find as many opportunities to paint & photograph. Despite the changes that have occurred in my life, I feel that focusing my energy on really establishing a productive business is a better distraction than watching horror or sappy movies eating ice cream and stacking on the pounds. JKing But seriously, im outsourcing energy of my personal life into preparing myself for all that. So I know I'm notorious so going MIA on my blog but recently it has been for good reasons which will hopefully allow my followers to not only hire me for projects but to also purchase my photography as well as art work and random creations online in additon to real life business transactions which is run by luck and pursuit.

Well along the way of gathering myself for my venture, I have encounter some really good information sources that I am dying to pass along to you guys. We all know sharing is caring and I love to put my friends up on the latest stuff I find even if you have guys have maybe found it already.

http://www.diyphotography.net/
This website is for photographers on a crafty budget. There are articles from lighting, home studio, shoot ideas, techniques, etc. The articles give step by step instruction; sometimes even diagrams and/or video. This website is needless to say SUPERB! Not only is it a great resource for information but inspiration. Reading the innovatively inexpensive but uselful equipment alternatives and techniques fully encourages its audience to always remember that limits do not apply when a person wants to push the envelope enough to think outside the box despite their financial or space limitations.

How to Sell Your Crafts Online
This book is muy bueno! ^_^ Similiar to the website above, this book is also very resourceful. If the idea ever crossed your mind of selling your creations on etsy, this book is a must. It walks you through the entire process of establishing an Etsy store, plus it supplies you with the knowledged needed to have your shop recognized. People,...it mentions photoshop; it ever refers you to FREE websites where you can do some work for your shop and walks you through the instructions.....HELLO PEOPLE, AWESOME!

The Creative Entrepreneur: A DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real
This book is good if your not quite sure which direction you would like to take your work AKA finding yourself from artist to entrepreneur. Ever had that moment where you love a hobby so much you daydream about what it would be like to do only that for a living? Yeah well this book encourages you to keep your day job as you fantasize about the dream in a graphic journal which is supposed to spark your creative juices and envision your work more in a business manner.

Becoming A Life Change Artist
I recommend this book to EVERYONE!!! I selected it because I was interested in how they would relate art and life. I must say, I was impressed with how they related an artists approach to a canvas TO one's approach in life. I'm young and obviously gonna mess up along the way so I'm ALWAYS willing to acquire a new perspective which I feel is a neccessary attribute as you age. You don't need to be an artist to read it; just open to the approach. I heavily related to this book and highly feel everyone I encounter should read it because it encourages happiness in one's life through personal fulfillment and introspective evaluation w/honesty. Like my motto, "just gotta be honest with yourself about who you are."(copyrighten!)

Evernote
And lastly, Evernote is an planning app and ggggreaat! I have this on my nookie snookie and its perfect for a  scatterbrain like me. I get random ideas, thoughts, tasks to do, link websites/images to entries, even sketches and it'll take it all. I can make check lists, guys!......i got a thing for check lists. ^_^  The only thing about the app is that you need an SD card or a memory space to save to AND in order to sketch you gotta get Skitch which is a sister skecth app. Once you have all that, which isnt much and free, it is pretty bueno.

So that is what I have been up to lately. Sorting your self out is a long slow process which requires patience, commitment, and a strong desire for the finish line. Don't expect too much from yourself and appreciate yourself for what you do accomplish no matter the task. Just gotta have a good foundation to proceed forward and I'm trying to make sure mine is super sturdy. "Don't dream it, be it..."

Good luck to all my hard knock lifers!
XOXO,

Lynn AKA "Lynniada" AKA DiTzy!

Where's Lynn?

I know, big surprise im MIA. I've had good reason but I desperately need to update. So I recently lost someone very important, got 3 jobs, got my heart broken by another cowardly idiot, gained weight, got a new view of the world, got depressed, found stuff to be happy about, and caught up with my laundry. Needless to say I now have tons of life experience material to pull from for my projects! ^_^
I've been sketching, re-finding myself. I noticed my style had changed a bit. Well Im working on paintings but my junkie lovesick cupcake its currently my focus. Its pretty awesome visual personification of someone from my dating past. I wwould like to finish soon because 1) I would like to entertain the little but much appreciated audience I have and 2)my dying to be married cupcake is gonna be so nasty on big canvas (can't wait to work on it).
Ok so here's a little of the latest from my sketch book. Let me know what u think or write me random Q&A.

El Mes De Amor!!!!

February is known for Valentine's Day, hence, also being known as the month of love! If you haven't heard that then get with it! Why just have a day when we can be about the LOVE all month. Not just love for other people but for the things we love also. I thought this would be great time to show my love for great artists and most definitely my favorite, Frida Kahlo! She was did tons of self-portraits and the best were in a surrealist style. She used her canvases like dairy pages in a book.

BIO TIME: Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954; born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón) was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán. Perhaps best known for her self-portraits, Kahlo's work is remembered for its "pain and passion", and its intense, vibrant colors. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.

With that said you guys should tell me what you love! You never know, could be interesting enough for me to blog about it. ^_^

Out of Hibernation!

I wish I could tell you some story about how I turned into a bear & that I've been hibernating which would explain why I haven't posted.... but I can't, I just got completely caught up in the holidays (Halloween and on) and in fat ass mode. LOL Yes people, the food made me do it! Aside from putting on some weight, I actually did do some pretty cool things. I'll just update you guys on the most interesting aka what I want you to be interested in. ^_^

OCTOBER: I photographed for the PhotoClinic float in the PRIDE parade.  The PhotoClinic offers sophisticated online photo retouching services to give your photo the look you want, whenever you want it. Please feel free to check out the PhotoClinic & the PRIDE images I photographed for them at the parade. It was a great experience accompanied by great people! I had a blast photographing as I strutted my top model walk through the streets. How many people can say they experienced the parade from being in it! It was quite an honor!

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER: I wish I could say I was creating up a storm but I wasn't! Just like everyone else my life was consumed by that black hole that is the holidays! Plus, I was getting myself together after I killed my car, met some super interesting people, and got myself into yet more odd personal situations. Then Domenico Narcissus walked into my life...to photograph him, that is. We met on the PhotoClinic float and just like when we first met, our shoots were just as much fun! He is an exotic private dancer who wanted to make a portfolio of his wardrobe for his clientele. I thought this idea was genius and so our project began. People, not only can he be photographed well but this guy can move! He even has wonderful wardrobe varying from cop to gladiator, paramedic to Scottish costume, etc. Feel free to contact him, Domenico Narcissus,  for adult parties.

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-do!

"Loompa" by  DiTzy

So the night after I finished "Covet," I was watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and was completely inspired by the colors, especially the orange oompa loompa skin. I hit the canvas with some color to make a female Oompa Loompa, Lynn style, and she was the product! Hope you guys like it, if not then let me know...i'll see what I can do about it ^_^