iPhone photography : Spring!

Spring is here :] Judging by the thick yellow dust on my everything, Spring intends to make it's mark this year, too. Here are a few iPhone photos from the last few weeks:

[sunset @ tribble mill park]

[weeds and sunshine]

[light on the dock]

[easter gift from my mommy]

[chai and notes with Betsy]

[a door and a direction]

[starbucks date]

[i so want this cow coffee cup]

[and one of my all time favorite text messages, again from Bets]

can't get enough [photos from the first day of spring]

I don't know what's changed.

but i can't get enough.

not enough food.

not enough sunshine.

not enough coffee, or happiness, or sleep, or greif.

i feel like there is an itch for life inside me that will never be scratched all the way.

i am content, but i feel like i will never have enough.

of life, you know?

i feel like i could swallow the moon, and still want more moonlight. i could read every word ever written, and still want to buy more books. 

can't get enough, won't get enough, need to get enough.

late night + Big Woods

depth of field love ...

love these tiny, itty flowers in my front yard right now:

photos on the go

favorite recent iPhone photos. rest of the set can be found here.

I'm in a funk this week; one of those where I can't stop listening to the same forty-five seconds of one song. Over and over and over. Ever feel that way? 

January/February Journal

I closed the cover of my January/February journal-slash-life-book. I really didn't think I could finish a whole journal in two months, but apparently my life has been really really full the last few weeks!

I did a little styled photo shoot instead of scanning my pages. Natural light is my love!
The rest of the set can be found on flickr, here.

january digital journal pages

I'm trying something new with this digital scrapbooking thing, and I have to confess ... I'm addicted. I love scrapbooking/art journaling, but sometimes just getting supplies out is more time than I have. But since I'm almost always mobile, and almost always have my laptop with me, I can find little scraps of time to put spreads together [or like last night - I finished this set while laying in bed and watching a movie at midnight]. I'm liking how this is fitting my life, and helping me learn all-important Photoshop skills!

I learned a lot from this pretty lady: www.shimelle.com

And gathered some supplies [paper backgrounds and stamps] from here: www.twopeasinabucket.com

and most of the supplies I used were by Erica Hernandez.

growth

(c) quietworldcreative/katie holley

office days + studio nights

Happy Friday all :] I'm about to go and spend a happy friday night in my basement studio. You can expect to see a little of the following over the weekend:

+ A new vlog!
+ A new stopmotion [well, it's new to this blog :]]
+ Photos uploaded to 365project on flickr
+ Progress made on a new scrapbook [note to self - print some new photos!]
+ A few tries at some digi-scrapbooking. Spent some time researching and looking up tutorials [ps - this lady here is brilliant and i'm learning a bunch! i might sign up for one of her online classes soon, i love it!]

... or i might just sit in my space and watch a movie and eat chocolate. either way ... it's a good day!

life journaling

So I have this habit. And I'm not going to say whether it's good or bad, but just that it exists and I'm trying to break it. Because there is better for me, at least in this season.

My habit revolves around journal angst. Do you guys ever have journal angst? I have journal angst that involves several layers of grief.

Layer 1 [one] is a layer of 'the-book-has-to-be-just-right' syndrome. I only enjoy journaling on graph paper, in hard-backed journals, with certain pens, in certain light ... it goes on. And on. And on.

Layer 2 [dos] is a layer of 'the-book-has-to-be-just-right' PLUS 'i-have-to-have-specific-books-for-specific-things'. Last year, that meant each of the following:

a.] a journal for PWI teaching notes

b.] a journal to carry with me everywhere, and record odds and ends

c.] a planner, with more odds and ends

d.] morning pages, to dump journal angst [and all art angst] in the mornings

e.] a song-writing journal, for all of my incomplete songwriting ideas

f.] a visual journal, for all of that art journaling i needed to do

g.] a sketch book journal

h.] a brown-paper journal, for white chalk, black ink and the occasional splash of red

i.] artist's way journal, for artist's way notes

Uh, that's crazy. I'm aware.

Layer three [trois] of the crazy was all of the above PLUS PLUS a layer of 'i-have-to-be-in-the-right-space-[mental and physical]-for-this-to-work.'

Meaning that yes, every time I had something songwriting to write down, I had to wait until I was with my songwriting journal, in a songwriting headspace, ready to think songwriting thoughts. Which, of course, meant that when I got to that place, which was never perfect enough, I had lost the thought I originally was going to write down in the first place. Same with EVERY SINGLE JOURNAL I OWNED in 2009. Crazy - again, I'm aware.

So here we are, in 2010, and something has to change. Here's the plan - one life, one journal for said life. Everything caught in one book: inspiration, snippets of poetry, lists, budgets, notes, sketches, prayers, confessions, stories, calendars ... all in one book.

My life isn't perfect. It isn't neatly packaged, by any stretch of the imagination. I am coming to terms with the fact that I will be 'in transition' for the rest of my life. This is the life I want, though, and I need to stop wishing it was anything less. And in an attempt to mark and record an unperfect life, I need an unperfect journal ['imperfect', i know, but i like unperfect better. even though it's not a word].

Marking my unperfect life with an unperfect journal. Sounds perfect, huh?

what i'm excited about today

My brother and I have been working on a new short video for Water's Edge. I'm super excited about it, and can't wait to share it with you in a few weeks! I also made a short behind-the-scenes vlog to go with it, but I'll wait until the video goes public to post the vlog. So much fun!

Until then, though :] My dear blog friends get a sneak-peek at some screen-caps from the video! I think they're just lovely. Don't laugh at me when I tell you that the video is going along with the song Amazing by Kanye. It's going to rock so hard.









ps - you can see a version of the last stop-motion we did over here: http://vimeo.com/8433109

quiet world

I took some time out last night to go shoot a stop-motion sunset. It was freezing yesterday, and something about the cold makes the air and the light so clear! It was breathtakingly beautiful out there. So many shots in this video remind me of why I am quiet+world+creative. I became who I am in this place. As much as I look forward to leaving here someday soon, to live closer to my life, I will always have a spot in my heart for this place, this land, this light.

enjoy :] all photography copyright paul holley and katie holley, 2009 and original music copyright katie holley 2009.


my quiet world from quietworldcreative on Vimeo.

late nights

Most nights I go to bed pretty early [10.30-ish, if I make it home from my LIFE that early. This week, I've been eating DINNER at 10.30, which is ridiculous, but beside the point.] These last few weeks, I've been staying up late. I've had this little project pouring out of my pen, and I can't seem to stop it. So I'm going with it! You can see two weeks worth of illustrated sketches over on my flickr. They make me happy :]

 

back + forth project

there's a new spread posted on the Back&Forth blog :] go check it out!

http://backandforthproject.wordpress.com/

here's a sneak peek:

journal + pages

i just recently finished a journal and thought i'd share some of my favorite spreads [i just typed 'favorite friends' and i don't really know why? but i guess they're friends? anyway. it's been a long day!]

Back + Forth

Earlier this year, my beautiful friend Betsy and I decided to start a journal collaboration. She completed the first spread in the journal (her blog about which can be seen here) and mailed it to me. My spread took it's formation clues from hers, and her next one will take it's cues from mine, and so on. We have very different styles, so the cohesion of the look of this project is going to be so interesting.

Jumping into this spread was so much more difficult than I had expected! I battled lots of fears to get this color on the page: fear of Betsy not liking it, of nobody 'getting' it, of it being too scattered, too 'much', too odd. I like to be assured of the outcome of the things that I attempt. I have often been accused of taking a "Ready ... Aim ... Aim ... Aim ..." stance in my life. I don't often take explosive action. I don't often try new things.

Then Betsy sends me a beautiful spread surrounding the idea of daring to dream new Dreams. As I was pondering what that looked like in my own life, I happened upon an article about Marissa Mayer, a female creative exec for Google. She had a quote in the article that I fell in love with, because it embodied so many of my thoughts about my own fear. So my pages were born around that quote - it answered, for me, the questions that Betsy's pages raised in me.

Okay, enough words, onto an image: collaged ink sketch + acrylic paint + handwritten text + type-written text.

click image for large version

About fifteen minutes after I put the final touches on these pages, I found myself muttering the words, "I never really try new things!" with a little laugh. I caught myself in that phrase, then quickly wondered if journaling can work retroactively. Yikes bikes.

shots from the studio!

I'm so excited to have been able to take a few days during my 'staycation' and reorder my world. My bathroom's never been cleaner and I've never been happier. Happiest of all, though, is a renewed studio space! I've never been that artist who can live and work in chaos. I like to work in a clean-ish space (I know that 'clean' in a studio space is pretty relative, but you know what I mean, right?)

Some shots of my renewed inspiration boards!


my inspiration boards hang over my drafting table, where most of my creative/writing work gets done during the week:
Since I've been on 'staycation' I've been catching up on podcasts while I paint.

Coming up this weekend: sneak peeks of some new creations + thoughts on creative process :]

--k