5 Simple Steps to Happiness/Meditate

5 Simple Steps to Happiness-Meditate

Magnolia

Magnolia Flowers

First signs of spring is here already in Northern California: Magnolia flowers.
The original photo lacked the lightness and warmness I wanted to evoke. I started out adjusting levels and saturation, and finally changing filters and hues to get the final result.

Adding Warming Filter

Original Image

Adjusting Levels

Self Portrait

This self portrait project is created in Photoshop.  I photographed 21 objects that have present or historical significance in my life...horses, clocks, palette, cooking tools, paint brushes, apples, suitcases, leaves from spring to fall, fabric... and can't live without butter. This is the result:

Self portrait "Imagine", digital photo collage

Pesto

Fresh Basil from the Farmers Market

Pesto:

Pine Nuts and Olive Oil

1/2 cup pine nuts
1 clove of garlic
2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper 
                       Mix it all in the blender              Enjoy with the best italian pasta you can find     The town of Vernazza in Cinque Terre      has a little tower with a restaurant that serves the best pesto I've ever tried     this  recipe takes me there    and all the memories

Weekly Trinity Journal, October 7, 1882

Spring Open Studios- Highlights & Ice Flowers

Next weekend we have our annual Spring Open Studio event at SOMA Artists Studios. For more information please go to www.somaartiststudios.com or visit my website (www.jennywantuch.com)

During this event I am showing works on paper created in 2012. I was inspired by the images I saw on my trip this winter to Sweden; Ice, frost, darkness contrasted with high key values of patches of snow. I call the series "Highlights & Ice Flowers". The art work is mixed media (charcoal, ink, graphite, acrylic, tape and pastel) on paper. Here are a few of them:

From the
top: Ice Flower II, Ice Flower III, Ice Flower IV, Highlights II, Highlights VI, Highlights VII   www.jennywantuch.com

A Certain Place of Indecision

The Road Not Taken- by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

A Certain Place of Indecision- Oil by Jenny Wantuch, 2011

When I showed this painting during Open Studios, someone told me how it reminded him of the dilemma that Robert Frost  describes with his poem "The Road Not Taken". We all recognize this place. A place we will come back to "ages and ages hence".

Improvising an Animated Story

 Novelty creates excitement by discoveries from exploring the unknown. Last week I walked into my artist studio to paint only to find myself uninspired to pick up where I had ended the day before. Instead I wanted to make a short animated story and play with new ideas.

In 4th grade we used to draw figures on each page on small notepad and by quickly scrolling through the drawing sequence the figures appeared to be moving. That was fun, and could have been a good creative outlet even now. But "pen and paper" just wasn't safe for the time being. "Pen and paper" are tools for a Serious Artist with a Sudden Critical Voice. A clever way of getting rid of this serious artist with a critical voice, is to improvise and through it off by introducing a novel tool. And it worked!

I began a simple line drawing using my index finger on the screen. It was like drawing with my left hand (another great technique). The iPad app, Animation Creator, was easy to use. Acting on positive impulses, trying new possibilities and feeling free. Stepping into the unknown, what an exciting place to be! What a scary place to be! But I wasn't scared. I was having too much fun, and joy kills fear.

A bird appeared and it was exactly the bird I didn't know I was looking for; playful, fearless and cool. I now had a stage (my screen), one character (a bird) and an audience. Yes, I created this audience because I needed them to help me move things forward. They wanted action: "Hello! We want to watch an animated improvised story. We want to see it now. We really don't need for it to be perfect, and we don't have time for you to edit and delete and have a better idea or fix every flaw you see!"

A few improv techniques helped to keep the audience content and the creative flow going; setting a time limit, "first thought, best thought", accepting offers from your animated figures and letting go of mistakes. The audience response was fantastic! They cheered, they laughed, they accepted every new move. And when it was done they wanted to see it again and again. Nothing was perfect and so everything was perfect.

Here is the fully animated, totally improvised story titled: "The Bird Who just Wanted a Clear Sky":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKQFgkVU1lc

Postscript:
If you take time to analyze the story a bit, it is interesting to see that the Cloud resembles the Serious Artist with a Sudden Critical Voice.
She didn't make it in the end. But what happened to the bird? This is a Foreign film so the ending is left sad and obscure. But I can tell you the bird is enjoying the clear sky and can fly and dig that Euro techno music, any time she wants.