Closing, Opening, Beginning….

Look at this…a blog post! Amazing. Wow, what a year. I’m in that phase where you review the year, good, bad and indifferent, and start looking toward the next one. I would go out on a limb and say I’m not the only one! I can’t even begin to talk about all the changes 2013 has brought, and already I am anticipating many more in 2014. If you remember a whole year ago I had selected two words to focus on for 2013, Haven and Explore. I had no idea that my haven would be in an entirely new zip code, in a new home! Although I still have walls to paint and work to do it is more assuredly become a haven. I’ve explored things I didn’t anticipate and didn’t explore much of what I thought I would. Life is an adventure!

Although I’m still deciding on words for 2014 there are a couple that keep coming up over & over – the first being “simplify” and the next being “transform”. Have you thought of any word or words for your focus during the next year?

I’ve slowly been getting back to art and creativity,  like the new fractal art at the top of the page. Somehow closing out the year with a blog post feels right too, I’m out of excuses – if I’m blogging I need to show up consistently. So here I am! Speaking of blogs, I’m a using that word “Simplify” already and, at least for this year, closing down my “Digital Art Daily” blog. I’ll leave it online as an archive for now but new digital art will be posted here.

So that’s it – my thoughts for ending and beginning of another year. I hope yours if full of love, blessings and happy surprises!

Lynne

I’ve renamed this summer…

I’ve decided that this summer needs a title to sum it up, a long awkward title. The best one I’ve come up with to describe it’s effect on this blog is “The Summer in Which a Sudden Move was Decided Upon and The Artist’s Blog was Left to Die”.  Eh, not too catchy but VERY appropriate. 🙂

Yes, we are still in the midst of it…hope to sign on the dotted lines yet this month then follow that with a month of labor-intensive relocation and settling in. After that? Then the building begins…which includes a new studio space for ME. Happiness! I’m guessing that to be a many-month long process. In the interm I will be creating art when and however I can…be it outdoors, at the kitchen table or spread out on the bedroom floor!

Recently I’ve been experimenting with using spray paint as a medium. I’ve used it with metal and wood before but not as a painting medium. It’s been fun, and I’ve also emptied several cans that won’t need to be packed & moved (multi-tasking at it’s best). The background material was all re-purposed and donated so I’ll be able to show these pieces at the new upcycled/recycled show I’m participating in! Here’s a section of one piece that I’ve been adding pencil & pen details too:

Work in progress, spray paint, pencil & pen

I still need to edit and share all the images from my last show…I just can’t seem to make myself sit down at the computer and do anything right now. But you WILL get to see them sometime, I promise! In the meantime I will try to at least touch base here once a week so the poor blog doesn’t feel so neglected.

If you’d like to visit my home studio before it’s totally dismantled then stop by THIS Saturday, August 10th. It will be open between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. as part of the Second Saturday Gallery Tour – my last one until the new studio is up & running!

Hugs,

L.

New Fractal Play!

Although I’ve declared 2013 my year of exploration, at this point I’ve not got anything new ready to share with you. So the next few posts will be wrapping up the projects from 2012. Today I’m sharing a few new fractal images that I created in December.

“Fractal #71” 2012 Digital/Fractal Art © Lynne Medsker

Of course if you want a larger selection be sure to visit digital+art+daily, my blog dedicated exclusively to digital art, that features a new/different image each day of the year. Amazingly I made it through the first year keeping up with it, let’s see how the second year goes!

“Fractal #78” 2012 Digital/Fractal Art © Lynne Medsker

For 2013 I am going to be titling all my digital art and fractals, I’ve begun to confuse myself with the numbers, especially by starting at 1 each year…if I don’t note the year in the title as well – yikes! I spent a few hours the other day starting a list of title names to draw from.

“Fractal #69” 2012 Digital/Fractal Art © Lynne Medsker

Sorry, but these images you will have to deal with the last of the numbering system! I had fun playing with these…I’m up to three fractal programs on my computers now, plus I’ve discovered some for my tablet as well. Between all of them and a photo/digital project that I’ve put off for way too long I shouldn’t have any trouble creating a year’s worth of images.

“Fractal #81” 2012 Digital/Fractal Art © Lynne Medsker

What projects are you going to tackle this coming year?

Lynne

Artists! Kick it up a notch!

The “Web Presence for Artists” workshop today at Sugar Creek Art Center was great! Information was flowing everywhere and, as always, I gathered some great tips as well. I loved the energy of having 10 artists together at the same time, sharing and learning! If you were unable to attend I hope to schedule another of these workshops in late September (I’ll post the info as soon as the details are worked out). In the meantime I wanted to pass along this information for you to take advantage of! Be sure to read about the limited time offers at the bottom of the page and contact me by September 5th to take advantage of those special prices. I am currently scheduling session in late September and beyond, when would you like me to help you improve your online presence?

A Special Offer – Just for Artists!

More smart phone art & a reminder…

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately! Life’s been full of busy-ness and the last couple of days I’ve felt kinda lousy too. Hopefully both those things will improve soon and I can get back here on a regular basis.

kaleidoscope #5, digital art via smart phone © lynne medsker

In the meantime I thought I’d share a few more images created with some smart phone programs and then enhanced a bit in Photoshop. I’ve gone a bit crazy with these but since all I’ve done the last few days is lay around on the couch it was an easy thing to get obsessed with.

kaleidoscope #13, digital art via smart phone © lynne medsker

I think they appeal to me because they remind me a lot of mandala artwork. Plus my laptop is out for repairs so I haven’t been able to create any fractal art lately, I had to find an outlet somewhere. 🙂 These have really but fun, even though the files are so tiny they aren’t really applicable for much as far as reproduction. Sometimes art is just for the sake of creating it!

“kaleidoscope #11” digital art via smart phone © lynne medsker

Now for the reminder portion of the post!  If you enjoy digital art, or just want to see some samples of what it’s all about – don’t forget to check out my other blog – digital+art+daily! I’ll be posting these newly created images there for the next several weeks.

Signing off

Just needing to take a breather after the last few weeks full of activity. I’ll be back online and blogging by next weekend, so you shouldn’t get too lonely without me in that amount of time. I was going to be responsible and set up auto-posts for the entire week but I’m just too tired to do more than one. I’ll have lots to share with you once I recharge my batteries for a few days! Here’s a few images from the “Mixed Well and Served Fresh” show for you to enjoy in the meantime:

© lynne medsker

© lynne medsker

© lynne medsker

Peace & Love,

Lynne

New Fractal Art

2012 fractal #8 © lynne medsker

Earlier this year I announced that I had started a second blog, digital+art+daily, that features one of my digital art images each day. Reviewing the collection of digital art I’ve created over the past few years inspired me to create some new pieces. Last week I featured these new fractal art pieces at digital+art+daily and thought I should share them with you here, too, in case you hadn’t been to visit the new blog yet. Enjoy!

2012 fractal #9 © lynne medsker

2012 fractal #12 © lynne medsker

2012 fractal #18 © lynne medsker

2012 fractal #16 (monochrome) © lynne medsker

2012 fractal #14 © lynne medsker

2012 fractal #23 © lynne medsker

♪Happy Blog Anniversary, To Me!♫

"art of friendship" © lynne medsker

That’s right! Today is the anniversary of my first blog post on January 20th, 2008! Four years, 562 posts, 1022 comments and 336 subscribers later, here I am! Still blogging away, plus starting a new digital art blog this year. I don’t think I imagined I’d do this much with it but it sure has been fun! I re-posted the image from my first entry today, on that post it is very tiny and I was excited to even have gotten that much figured out. 🙂 Heck, I’m still figuring out things!

Thanks for reading, commenting and passing this blog along to your friends. Your support and feedback are awesome!

Blessings,

Lynne

Turkey Run State Park

Last October we took a two-day camping trip to Turkey Run State Park here in Indiana. For some reason I overlooked putting these images on the blog! So, in the middle of winter….here are some fall images for you to enjoy!

As you can see, Turkey Run has some wonderful scenery and the hiking trails are very adventurous! We had a lovely time. Looking at these images makes me anxious for camping season again!

Kind Words & Happiness!

I had in my head earlier today that I was going to write about how much kind words mean to each of us. I don’t know if artists need more of them that anybody else but they mean a lot when they are given to me! This morning on my Facebook page I had a friend post “You are so amazing, Lynne!” and I could just feel the smile beaming off my face. She didn’t have to post that, she could have just hit the “Like” button or ignored me altogether! I’m so glad she decided to post it though. 🙂

I also took a trip to a nearby town today to pick up my art that had been on display there for the last month. The gallery director was so sweet and appreciative that I’d shared my work with the staff & public in their town. I can’t count the times she thanked me for accepting the invitation to show my work there. Since I had sold several pieces during the show I had the choice of donating either money or artwork to them. I choose to leave a piece of my art there and she was like a kid in a candy store choosing which piece they got the keep for their collection. It made me feel like a million bucks! I even got a heartfelt hug. Makes me feel warm & fuzzy all over again, just thinking about it.

Now honestly, that’s enough goodness to last me for days and enough to prompt this post. But my day just got better! I’ve been creating artwork for a musician’s new music room over the last few weeks. We’ve met frequently to discuss colors, direction and mood of the piece and it’s getting very close to being finished. He stopped by this afternoon and was thrilled with the progress! We played with the last small details of the composition until we were both excited about the piece all over again. I can’t wait to finish it! Creating something personal for someone is such an honor! He also admired another piece of my work enough that it went home with him. 🙂 Could this day get any better?

It DID! I checked my email and there were a dozen or so emails from my blog account saying I had “Likes” and comments on one of my blog posts. It’s always a special occasion to me to get blog comments so having more than one was awesome! When I checked my email an hour or so later, 47 more emails! Something was going on, so I went to look at my stats for the day and traced it back to the fact that I’d been featured on the “Freshly Pressed” page of WordPress!! In addition to the nice comments I’ve had people subscribe to my blog too! Double-awesome! The comments keep coming and I am simply overwhelmed with the amount of people that will take the time to say something nice to a stranger. Thanks to all of you! You have no idea how much it means to me. The next time I have a bad day, I know exactly where to look to cheer myself up again!

I’m also going to re-double my efforts to pass along kind words wherever I can. How could I not want to share them after feeling their impact so many times?

Spreading the love,

Lynne