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Ten New Sketches

by Happyart
Categories: Big Idea 10+
Tags: , ,
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Published on: January 18, 2012

About a week ago I posted a note saying it was too bad I couldn’t draw well, but I didn’t let that stop me. I got such friendly response from my ever extraordinary friends and connections offering their support and telling me, basically, that I was full of beans. They thought I might have sort of been looking for bolstering. But actually this was an incidence where I simply didn’t express myself well at all.

What I meant to convey was that I don’t draw:

  • traditionally
  • nor with a lot of accuracy
  • nor depth of field
  • nor three dimensionally
  • nor in any ways that typically cause people to get “A’s” with it in school…

And yet I don’t let any of those supposed limitations stop me from expressing myself and ideas this way. These ’limitations’ are, in fact, my voice! My unique spin on the concept. I’m hoping that by demonstrating my willingness to embrace this drive in this public way – rising beyond what I thought was the definition of what ‘good’ drawing is I might embolden others to tackle things they also don’t figure they do too well.

So with that – my next Big Idea 10+ drawings:

Sum Up Your Life in Two Words!

by Happyart
Categories: inspiration
Tags: ,
Comments: No Comments
Published on: January 12, 2012

One of the hazards of selling your work on Etsy is that you’re constantly exposed to cute stuff. This si how I came across a super cute ring design. It’s a silver band with an inset tiny opal and it’s customizable! You can see for yourself about how much lettering you have. hat looked like about 2 medium sized words to me. So I posted the following on my Facebook page:

Working on summarizing my Life path in two medium sized words.

Knowing my friends as I do I figured some of them were not going to be able to resist commenting with their own ideas. Of course they didn’t let me down! Let me share some of their ideas:

  • Edie said: how about “f-ing awesome”!
  • Kandace said: Here are two words: onward, upward!
  • Jorge said (and it’s one of my faves…): ”Still living”
  • Chris in pure Chris Fashion demanded: define medium-sized?!
  • Leann offered: Animated Creative
  • Alan (an ironic Kentucky art car pal) said: Nas Car
  • Timothy shared: I suspect, My Lady, it will never be “wrong turn”.
  • Rebecca said: Absolutely Fabulous
The sample ring

And then Timothy went off kind of in the same direction Chris did:

Well, I look at the original caption from Ms. Marti and I’m confused. Is medium a “medium” sized word? If it is, than what is “Big”, cause although it means, well, big, it’s smaller than the word “medium”. Then of course, you have “minuscule”, which, of course, means small, but as a word, is larger than medium and big. Aw crap, I’m confused…..this is a bigger (Oops!) topic than I intended to contend with, but I shan’t think small, nor medium…..well, unless of course, I was a medium of the psychic kind and was trying to provide you with gargantuan thoughts. See, now that word makes sense. Its the right size to its meaning.

I started a list:

  • hopes
  • dreams
  • balance
  • animals
  • infinity
  • connection
  • optimism
  • quantum
  • gardener of hope
  • inspire)d)
  • mindful
  • notice
  • share
  • gratitude
  • nice moment

What I ended up with:

BE • NOTICE • SHARE

And yes, I know I went with three words. That’s what having an artistic license can do for you. :)

Want your own? Here’s the shop I ordered mine from. They call themselves “ArtisanImpact“. They’re two artists who live part time in Montreal and the other in Israel. Their work is exquisite! I’m excited!

Nice Moments = The Meaning of Life

by Happyart
Categories: inspiration, Nice Moments
Tags: , ,
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Published on: January 9, 2012
Applied religious principles can create 'nice moments'

The meaning of life, well the meaning of life to me came whooshing into my consciousness yesterday in such an unremarkable and gentle fashion I almost mistook it for a passing fancy. But somehow I paused and absorbed what I was ‘getting’ and it slowly dawned on me that I was poised to experience a major >pardigm shifting< awakening. I’m not kidding.

Want to know what came in? Just this:

A high quality life is experienced through its acknowledgement of nice moments.
Some we consume.
Some we provide.

That’s it. That’s all there is to it. Works on every level. No exceptions. This explains why people who seemingly “have everything” might be unhappy, and why people who look like they’re getting by on “almost nothing” are full of joy.

Happy people, people who are largely content train themselves to notice nice moments.

  • • A gorgeous full rising moon
  • • a funny video
  • • the taste of rice
  • • the meeting up with a friend
  • • water
Nice moments can happen under very ordinary circumstances

They also tend to notice situations where they can personally provide something that may well create a nice moment for another and do what it takes, when they can, to make that happen.

For a billionaire maybe that means setting up no-cost medical clinics across a continent. For a regular joe maybe that means buying a starving dog on the streets in a small town in a poor nation a succulent chicken breast from a vendor as maybe the best — maybe the last –meal of his life (which brings hot tears to my eyes still  when I realized then and remember now,  the skinny fellow couldn’t believe I was handing it to him. Then he did and took it politely).

It’s not about the size of the gesture, just its intent. This is like magic. I think its why it gets misunderstood so much. By me, too – it’s not like I’m Buddha.

This also explains why we get confused by the power of appreciating what’s in our lives at the moment. We get spellbound by the striving to do more, have more, be more and forget to pause and appreciate what is.

For me nice moments often have animals in them

Weird example: I almost always feel like I look crappy. The hair’s wrong, the face; goofy looking and the bod, flabby. Then, almost without exception, I look at a photo of myself from, say, ten years prior and I’m like “Hey I wasn’t so bad looking.”. This is a constant. So one of my own personal challenges is to appreciate how I look right now so I can remove the exertion of thinking about it negatively out of my day’s equation.

That’s my own “True Confession” Achilles’ heel – other people have theirs. The looks thing is pretty common — hello plastic surgery, botox, hair dye and dieting. But so is getting caught up in creating The Perfect whatever thing too.

Nice moments usually just require a little refocusing to see

The perfect:

  • • Family
  • • Home
  • • Career
  • • Vacation
  • • Body
  • • Artistic Vision, etc

OK, the striving to do so can be good, healthy even, if we’re remembering to pause along the way and appreciate stuff, conditions, moments as we do so. But the end goal isn’t the life lived – it’s the moments getting (or not getting) there that is.

That’s it! The Secret to a Life Well Lived.

Build a daily string of nice moments:

  1. Pause to appreciate what’s right about how you’re living right now.
    Your breakfast – how was that? Your pets, love them? Your family – what’s good there? Your recreation – doing some fun things? Glad you can? Your job – got one? Like something about it?
  2. Make a nice moment for another.
    Let someone you don’t have to into the line of traffic ahead of you. Notice the fancy nails on the check out girl. Donate five bucks to an animal rescue. Donate a million to a hospital. Bring your miniature horse to an assisted living center.

Really I think it’s as simple as that. Though I will add that if you’re having a hard time coming up with something to be happy about or to appreciate at any one moment for whatever reason then probably what you’re meant to be doing at that time is working on making a nice moment for someone else.

Winter Sketches From a Happy Artist

by Happyart
Categories: Big Idea 10+
Tags:
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Published on: January 8, 2012

The theme of these next images definitely were being derived from the impact of the onset of the thought of winter. Where I live (Kentucky) there hasn’t been a lot of actual winter weather yet – but the mood somewhat permeates the thought process at the mo.

When HappyArt Isn’t

by Happyart
Categories: Behind the Scenes
Tags: , , ,
Comments: No Comments
Published on: January 6, 2012
Eeyore is often blue.....

Sometimes I wake up on the ‘wrong side of my optimism’. When that happens that day begins with a gloomy tinge to it. This happened yesterday. I felt like Eeyore. That there is a children’s story character already designed to portray these rather common moods tells me they’re not all that uncommon. So I spent some time today thinking it through:

“Why do I wake up in a crumby mood from time to time?”

As I pondered this, going through with everything I had planned for the day – including having lunch at a new Mexican restaurant (yum!) with a great friend (Danielle!) I came across a very reasonable explanation towards the end of the day.

Of course the lunch was awesome, it was great catching up with my pal and she gave me an insane gift that would elevate anyone’s mood. (She has a shop on Etsy) Well, here, see for yourself:

Danielle uses stuff she's already got to make these crazy dolls!

Of course my mood was getting better and better as this splendid day unfurled. But I still wanted to get to the root of why I wake up out of sorts from time to time.

The Answer!

Then after a delightful walk along the “Unicorn Path” in the woods by our house with my dogs it dawned on me. Most of the time I wake up fine, and sometimes I wake up filled with an inexplicable joy.

Eureka!

The answer! It’s not just that I wake up sort of blue occassionally – more often I wake up slightly giddy! I think the small trade off I’ve made somewhere down the line is that for every, say, 10 times I wake up inexplicably happier than usual, I get one ‘bluer than usual’ time.

This is mood math I can live with! I’ve written about here so I can refer back to it next time it happens. I’m sharing it with you in case you haven’t made this connection yet either.

I would love your feedback on this.

Bear Pathway

by Happyart
Categories: Big Idea 10+
Tags: , , ,
Comments: No Comments
Published on: December 12, 2011

In my morning explorations with drawing I get to put pencil to paper when I’m still relatively fresh from the Dreamworld. What I like about this is I seem to have a clearer channel tuning to collective consciousness. Sometimes I get to capature an image that really makes my heart sing. I don’t believe this is something I own, but rather something that more owns me – or uses me to express itself.

This morning it was this image!

Sky Bear
How Days Travel Through Space-Time

This is number 63 in a series. Generally I post these as a set of ten drawings – but starting today I’m going to post special ones that spark something in me like this one does.

Big Idea 10+ NEW Sketches 51 – 60

by Happyart
Categories: Big Idea 10+
Tags: , ,
Comments: No Comments
Published on: November 24, 2011

The HappyArt Blog-o-Sphere!

by Happyart
Categories: Behind the Scenes
Tags: ,
Comments: No Comments
Published on: November 22, 2011

Blog-a-Riffic!

Besides making my HappyArt I also write several blogs. This one obviously, a couple that highlight my work and fun with horses: MerryHorses, Little Horse Big Trip, HorseJourney and my marketing tips one at martimcginnis.com.  I also write and draw one on the creative process called “QuantumSparks” that is based on my concept of ‘animal assisted inspiration’. Wow, six blogs. I shouldn’t have counted them up – now I feel tired! Hahaha!

DrGreene.com

This week a wonderful healthy living website for mothers is highlighting me as a guest blogger! They’re featuring some of the work I’ve done for my QuantumSparks, animal assisted inspiration posts. It’s a real honor and helps get the positive messaging almost every single blog post I write tends to touch upon sooner or later. If you’ve got kids or have an interest in their well being you should click over to the DrGreene.com site and take a little tour of the operation. Good stuff there!

I Felt, You Felt, We all Felt Great!

by Happyart
Categories: Behind the Scenes
Tags: , ,
Comments: No Comments
Published on: November 17, 2011

People wonder:

“How do you felt?”.

It is almost a magical process. I am constantly amazed that it works! At its very basic, it is a 3 step process.

felting process cartoon
How it's done!

1. Preparing the Fiber

First you have to get some animal fiber. I use super soft alpaca and merino wool. I buy it usually as roving. Roving is when someone has cleaned the fiber and run it through a roller so the fibers get organized in a linear way. It is super easy to work with from this stage. But I also use raw fiber, where I get to do the cleaning and organizing. It adds to the work load but helps keep the fiber’s cost down.

Then I’ll dye the fibers. I use eco-friendly acid dyes. My acid is regular old vinegar so it’s non pollutant. I like to steam the fiber over a water bath for about an hour to really set the dyes. Then I rinse them well and let them dry.

dyed roving ready to steam
Ready to steam

 

At this point I may turn these colorful fibers into something called an ‘art batt’. This is when you combine fibers onto a specialized piece of equipment called a drum roller. You get to mix types, colors and add in fun little embellishments like sparkle fibers, or silk threads or cotton nubs. What you end up with is something gorgeous to behold! So wonderful to look at I am forced to call it “Unicorn Fiber”.

Unicorn Fiber!

 

2. The felting process

Now it’s time to get started with laying out the fibers into the sort of finished piece you have in mind; a scarf, purse, vest – whatever! Once you’ve got it how you want it – you wet the whole thing down with soapy water and agitate the heck out of it in one way or another for a bit of time. I often use the roll it all up in bubble wrap method and hand roll it hundreds and hundreds of times. A friend of mine lets her dryer bounce it around – but that didn’t work too well for me when I tried it.

When you’re done agitating it – what’s happened is the fibers have become rather disorganized and have started grabbing onto each other. This is felting! Right here! It’s a very time honored method of creating man made material. One of the oldest actually.

3. Crafty Hand Work

felted cupcake
A Cupcake Sweet Scarf!

This is another important part of the alchemy of felting! This is where creativity can really come to play. This is where I add decorations to my felted foundational pieces. If it’s a scarf I may add symbols, animals, flowers or hearts. If it’s a wall hanging I’m going to be creating a whole scene. I use specialized barbed needles and this part is referred to as needle felting. I’ll get more into that on a later post. Here’s a picture of a recent scarf that was needle felted.

Once you have your designs the way you like them – guess what! You get to wet it down again with more soapy water and get back to your agitation process. For me, hundreds more hand rolls. So felting is a bit of work – but like I said, there’s so much magic involved I find it quite addictive!

4. Viola!

When you’re done – then you get to take it out and show the world. People are always amazed at the colors, the softness and the durability of felting. I know I am. I love it!

Bounty vs Booty

by Happyart
Categories: Art Shows
Tags: ,
Comments: No Comments
Published on: November 15, 2011

Money Talks

This holiday season you can make a terrific and positive impact on the state of the economy by how make your present purchases. Doing so will help turn this country back in the absolute right direction and set a new standard of living and gifting that sits well atop your lofty goals of living life well.

I know, it seems easy to do a one-stop shopping trip to the Big Stores and tick things off your list with what look like inexpensive prices. You park in ginormous parking lots around warehouse looking buildings staffed by underpaid, deflated or otherwise unsupported even just seasonal employees. These folks are charged with facilitating your purchase of cheaply, questionably sourced goods that got to the US in bloated plastic blister packs jammed into shipping containers. Most of these selections end up in crummy garage sales in a couple of years anyway. All that just doesn’t feel as good as presenting a gem of trinket that may even become a treasure or family heirloom you discovered in a shop or at a place where you actually got to connect with who made it!

Money Walks the Walk Too!

So with this in mind, here’s a list for you to consider when assembling your must-buy lists for holiday gifting.

  1. Make it Yourself
  2. Buy Local
  3. Shop Regionally
  4. Buy Nationally + Ethically
  5. International fair trade
  6. international small business

1. Make it Yourself Almost everyone loves homemade stuff. So if you have a craving to play with appealing arts and crafts media then by all means have at it! You will be upcycling all the materials you’ll be using and what you produce is going to be super local and 100% American-made! Yay YOU!

  • • crafts
  • • canned goods
  • • baked good
  • • art
  • • certificates, coupons, promissory notes

2. Buy Local Wherever you are, you are surrounded by tons of amazing and super talented makers of things! Artists, craftspeople, artisans, and other creatives have explored ways to turn stuff into collectibles, heirloom objects and other wondrous, unique objects d’arts. You can find their pieces at holiday bazaars and sales, craft and specialty shows and in local stores that open themselves up to the finely crafted, one of a kind items.

  • • church sales
  • • school bazaars
  • • scouts’ sales (wreathes, wrapping paper et al)
  • • craft sales
  • • art and studio events
  • • mom and pop businesses
  • • tickets to up coming community theatre and other cultural arts events
Gorgeous One of a Kind pieces!

If you’re in Lexington, KY – there’s an awesome First Annual Juried Fine Art + Craft show coming up this weekend! More info. Then on December 10 & 11 there’s another 1st Annual Art on the Farm sale in rural Woodford County at an amazingly gorgeous farm, more info here!

3. Shop Regionally If you can’t get what you’re looking for from a local source then expand the search out a layer – don’t give up and go somewhere you’ll need a shopping cart just yet. You can search for stuff using Google and limit the results by state for example. Or you could hop in the jalopy and head over to the nearest metro area and have a look in their local-focused specialty shops. This is a fine idea because it usually means you get to gift yourself a nice lunch out and see a bunch of things you otherwise wouldn’t have discovered any other way.

  • • museum gift shops
  • • art and craft stores
  • • grocer’s local offerings shelves
  • • cultural events etc…..

4. Buy Nationally + Ethically So, ok, no one has what you want anywhere close to you – so look nationally, but look in smart places. Hello Etsy.com! (http://www.etsy.com) This website highlights the art and craft of people nationally – even worldwide. They’re all there representing themselves, this isn’t a conglomeration of middlemen, these are all individuals with great work they’re offering for sale directly to you! This also could include uying from stores or web sites or brands that stand for stuff you believe in and treat their employees well enough for them to make decent livings. Reward that behavior! Buy from them! (My Etsy shop is here.)

Might consider highlighting stuff that’s:

  • • upcycled
  • • recycled
  • • hand made
  • • sustainable created

5. International fair trade So what if you have a sort of exotic want – what then? Look for websites and stores that specialize in international imports that are based in the concept of fair trade! These exist and they are awesome! At Overstock.com they have a section they call Worldstock Fair Trade it’s really a nice way to work through a big guy to reach the little guys. http://www.overstock.com/26549/static.html

Overstock.com World Craft Section

Might highlight choices that are good for the local community from which the items originate however YOU define that.

6. International small business As a last resort choose International small or boutique businesses that hold to a value system you agree with. Just like shopping Nationally and Ethically above nationally – hold them to a high standard or move on.

When you make conscientious choices rather than allow yourself to be bombarded with clever marketing maneuvers everyone benefits in subtle and sublime ways.

Midnight Madness……is

Final Notes: Please be aware that when a store suggests (screams at you) that midnight is an awesome time to coup “Big Savings” that you’re being manipulated by retail specialists who delight in creating a false sense of urgency.

I kind of threw this together so I would LOVE to hear your thoughts, comment and your own shopping plans and philosophies!

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