Tag: ideas

Posted on in ideas, Inspiration, Process

isn’t that pinteresting?

Since I was a kid, I’ve loved collecting images – tearing out pages from magazines or books.   Sometimes it’s simply a pattern or color that inspire me. Sometimes it’s another artists’ work from a magazine.  I also really love home design, so I’ve got binders full of tear sheets for inspiration. This summer, I wanted an area to put up an oversized pinboard in my studio to display the stack of art images I had collected.  I decided the inside of the garage door would be a great place, since it wouldn’t take up valuable work space, and it would help to beautify what was an eyesore.  I got a couple of sheets of foam insulation from Home Depot and cut them to fit snugly inside of the garage door.  Then, I just pinned up my image collection:  magazine pics, postcards, drawings, prints, photos and other sources of inspiration.   I’m constantly adding to the pinboard, which is about 70 square feet of awesomeness.   Here’s how it turned out.

studio pinboard

Ok, now on to my real image collection obsession:  Pinterest!   Not familiar?  Let me explain.  No, there is no time….Let me sum up…  Pinterest is an online “pinboard” combined with a social media site that allows you to “pin” images from the internet onto virtual pinboards.  You can also ‘follow’ any other pinner, and get ideas from others whose style you like.

In layman’s terms, it is visual crack, and I spend way too much time on there.  But as a visual artist, I justify it as “research.”  It is a fantastic way to find inspiring images (and too many DIY projects to count) without having to search all over Google.  What I love is that you can customize who you want to follow, and even which boards, so that you get the types of images that you want to see. Recipes and Workout ideas? No, thank you.  Color, Art and Gardening?  Bring it on!

Here’s a peek at my personal pinboard.  Click the image below to go to my Pinterest page.pinterest boards

By the way, there is a fine line between inspired and distracted.   I am happy to dance on both sides of that line.   -Misty

Here are some places you can find me online:  Pinterest :  www.pinterest.com/freshpaints   &   Facebook (fan page):  www.facebook.com/m.oliverfoster.art   &   art portfolio:  www.moliverfoster.com    &   murals/classes:  www.freshpaints.com.

Posted on in ideas, Inspiration, Life, Process

thinky things

Thinky Things

For a while now, I’ve been feeling the need to write. I used to love journaling. I’ve got volumes of poems, prose, stories of my life from when I was a teenager (Oh, the drama!). I used my journal — a very large three-ring binder — to let out my frustrations, my longings, my ideas, my passions, and all the things that I knew no one else would understand. These writings began as an assignment from my favorite English teacher. Most of my classmates would moan in disdain each time she announced a new set of writing tasks and due dates. But I relished every moment of it, and couldn’t wait to live life so I would have something to write about.

And so here I am, twenty years later. Haven’t “had” the time to slow down and write much. It has seemed like a luxury that I can’t afford. House. Kids. Job. Husband. Volunteering. Just too much to do. And then there’s this art thing. You know, I could be painting right now.

But I’m at the point right now that I don’t think I can afford not to write. As my youngest daughter, Sophie, said a while back, “I’ve got all these thinky-things floating around in my head.” As she said this, she moved her hands in a swirling motion on either side of her head. My husband and I laughed and he said, “Yes, I’m sure you do!”

I totally get that! She put into words how I feel about 95% of the time. These Thinky Things are so noisy that they pretty much drown out everything else, and keep me from being focused on anything. Even this morning as we were driving, we passed the art center where I’m having a show this month, and a million “to do’s” popped up into my head like spam in a trash folder. My husband, who knows me so well, heard my sigh, and said, “I can see the wheels turning. Are you thinking about all the things you need to do?”

Yep. And starting a blog was very high on my priority list. (check!) Sure, I think it’s a good way to communicate with my friends and “fans.” But more than anything, it’s going to be a way for me to put all of those Thinky Things in their place!

Julia Cameron would be so proud.