Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art and Writing

Patron.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this post

This is an interesting blog post, the idea of finding an investor for potential college students to counteract the outrageous cost of tuition.

You know, like....a patron. Where is a de' Medici when you need one?

Patronize me, without being patronizing, I say. (Is that possible?)

Labels: art, links

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Hello, green monster.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I look at blogs like these and I weep with envy:

I mean, just look at the sketchbook slide show! Aaargh!

Labels: art, links

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

As the crow flies.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

One of my artist friends, of Prairie Oaks Artisans, informed me of a little project she's got going that has me intrigued:

Details:

1. A limited edition hand bound book called Three Poems on Three Crows.

2. It will feature more than three poems and a few black and white images of one or more crows, so the title is not literal.

3. If you would like to share a poem or a drawing, it will considered for the book. The poem should not be terribly long and the drawing should be something that can be scanned and printed out, as the pages will be printed by computer.

4. You will get a hand bound copy of the book for yourself. The edition of 50 will be sold. Your copy will be marked as A.P. - and artist's proof. You will not be reimbursed monetarily; the copy of the book will be yours to keep.

5. If you send a poem or drawing be sure to note how you want to be credited if you want something more than just your name. Pseudonyms for the book are fine as long as you let the project leader know your real identity.

6. The deadline is April 20.

--------------------------------

So, writers and artists, get busy eating crow.

If you're interested, email me and I'll get you connected with the project. I hate to post other people's email addresses on my site, so I'll just funnel it through mine for now. Or, use the contact information found on the Prairie Oaks Artisans web site.

Labels: art, promotions, writing

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Agate the moose.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I saw this book in the local bookstore (which I habitually wander around in during my 15 minute breaks from work): Agate: What Good Is a Moose?

The story was fine -- kind of your standard message of "like who you are, because you are important and no one else is like you" that most books tell kids. But the art work.

The art work was beautiful.

Phenomenal.

Really amazing, loose, haphazard watercolor "accidents" which really did the work of depicting animals with nothing near overkill.

I'd get the book for the artwork.

Labels: art, books

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Cheap art supplies from the Orient.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Oriental Trading Company, that grand purveyor of cheap junk used by educators and Sunday Schools and camps everywhere, has begun selling art supplies. I have weird feelings about Oriental Trading Company, generally tied up in the "great, more cheap stuff made in China -- should I be supporting that trend even further?" Still, for those of you interested, you might want to take a look and compare prices. They seem to have a blog where they offer art ideas, projects, and tips. So that's something.

I still prefer to buy my paper (BFK Rives is my favorite) from Daniel Smith. I use Dick Blick for a lot of stuff, especially when I'm teaching a class. They have supplies that range from fine art to educator quality, as well as items not typically thought of as an "art supply" but useful in crafts or other projects. I get some items pertaining to shipping from Uline. I get my clear bags that I package cards, prints, and all other items that I ship from ClearBags. I get my frames from Westfall Framing (usually the cheaper poplar wood, which I order unfinished and unassembled to save myself money -- they're easy to assemble and stain or paint).

If you have a supplier that you'd recommend, be sure to list them in the comments section.

Labels: art, supplies

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

An art review of childish things.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

My friend sent me a link to a review of a Minneapolis art show.

The review is quite a read. One of a the reviewer being unimpressed with the show. What caught my eye (and the reason behind the sending of the link to me) is the little stuffed creation at the top of the page.

It's cute.

In my reply email thanking her for the link, I briefly mentioned my own foray into the world of plushies and bizarre "toys" that grown-ups are more attracted to than kids.

"I'm not a good sewer. That puts some sand in the developmental and final product gears. Bah."

Kids seem to like normal, cute toys. Grown-up women seem to prefer the bizarre "toys" that I've made. It's a curiousity to me. Perhaps it all ties into a recent book on grown-ups, but I'm not so sure it's that easy. I like the strange-looking creations myself (which is why I make them). I also make them with "mouths" so that they can sit on desks and hold pencils or candy or business cards, two plushies I know for a fact are serving just such a purpose. The Neglectable Pets each come with a story, and people seem to get a kick out of the stories and "personalities." So, story and function, all in piece of squishy, soft, sewed fun.

Yes, it's a curiosity to me.

As is the show that this reviewer panned.

Labels: art, links

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Using spam for your artistic benefit.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I already talked about using spam for your writerly benefit. How about for your art?

A friend emailed me a link to some wonderful images on Flickr in which spam one-liners are used to create colorful, fun art. Check them out: Spam One-Liners

I rather like the ideas that come to mind.It's kind of a new "poster art" in a sense. I think I may need to make some spam poster art for my own room...

Labels: art, internet

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Links for photographers.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this post

I haven't done a post on photography links, because though I enjoy photography, I don't consider myself a "photographer." However, with digital cameras and all the available online print/process options, if you even have a beginner's eye for a good shot, you could almost consider yourself a photographer. I hope this is a useful post, whether you're just into having fun, sharing photos with family or friends, or are thinking of making a business of your photography.

Print Orders with ROES:
One thing I think any photographer who is serious about getting prints, selling prints, or offering their photographs in any commercial form should look for is a Remote Order Entry System (ROES) from their online supplier. This allows them to crop, rotate, and generally prepare their photographic orders on their own computer, uploading the complete order when ready. The software runs on Java, and can be used on any computer. You don't have to be online to get all of your photography orders ready, but you download a simple, free bit of software from the online retailer and go from there.

iprintfromhome.com (My personal favorite, and what I use. The quality is spectacular.)
Nations Photo Lab

Photo Storage/Print Sites for General Use:
There's no real reason not to have an account online where you can store and print photos, sharing them with family, friends or even the general public. Some of the sites listed below have free options, with paid upgrades. Others offer only paid accounts. All are easy to use and most let you take your uploaded prints and customize them. You can make Christmas cards, calendars, and even books from your photos with just a few clicks.

Albums, Books, Prints, Sites:
These sites let you make high-quality full-color books or albums out of your photos. Some even let you make your books available for sale online. There is a fine line here between these "photo-only" sites and self-publishing. Cross that line! Get your photos in a book!

Cards (Holiday, Greeting, Corporate), Announcements:
Most of the links to sights that offer print services also offer various photo cards. The sites in this section specialize in it.

Put Your Photos On Stuff Sites:
It's easy to put your photos on T-shirts, mugs, stickers, containers -- anything. And these sites will help you do it.

Professional Photographer Sites:
These are sites that host photos and offer things like online proofing, print services, automated software, help for getting your photography business online, and more. They are meant for photographers who are serious about their commercial business. (See the list below; there is some overlap here, between the general professional and the event professional.)

For Event or Other Specialized Photographers

One-Click Wedding
Spitfire Photo
Citizen Image
BackPrint
ImageQuix
PhotoConnect
Blish (could be used to sell stock photography)
Digital Railroad (stock photography)
PhotoShelter

How-To and Help Sites

Photo Secrets (The article on setting up a photo storefront is particularly useful.)
Photo Secrets Links (Find links on albums, postcards, photo sharing, laws, tips, classes -- links on everything)
Photo Secrets: Online Courses and Downloads

As always, if you have good links or want to be added, email me and I'll consider it. Or, include them in the comments section below. Andrew Hudson's Photo Secrets is a site where I found many links, though I had compiled some of these earlier for another web site. I'd recommend a visit there for a lot of great resources. If you're into photography, that's the place you should start.

Labels: art, links, photography

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Facing up to self-portraits.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

How do you go through life disliking a functional and non-deformed object attached to the top of your body which everyone sees? It is very difficult.

When nearly all of the family was home recently, and people were seeing me with all of my siblings after all this time, they made comments on how I looked like them or like my grandma -- things like that. My first reaction was sadness to my siblings or relatives that were being compared to me.

"You look like your sister Janet!" they might say, to which I would respond by promptly turning to Janet and saying "I'm sorry."

That's sick.

But I don't like my face.

My face is more than a list of current blemishes, crooked eyebrows, pointy eyeteeth, weird cheeky-cheeks-upon-cheeks, double chins, half dimples -- it's more than that. The same for anyone out there doing the same thing to themselves (and I know you're out there!) -- the face is a kind of alive thing and I always find that, in person, people are nothing like a dead photo.

But...I hate trying to do self-portraits, because I sort of nearly hate my face.

I groan when I think of the stupid self-portraits all the instructors kept trying to make me do when I was in college. I managed to either paint myself partially hiding behind objects, or draw something entirely non-human and BS my way through it with enough art-speak to confuse even the most ludicrous performance artist.

When Sabine was visiting from Germany this past week, I let her go through my art and take a bunch. She pulled one from the pile that she liked and asked me what it was.

"It looks like shells," she said. "There are different -- what is that, faces? -- inside the shells."

"It is. Actually, it was a self-portrait."

She looked at me strangely.

"I hate doing self-portraits, so I made this. I was trying to say that we all live in some kind of shell, and so the larger shell has all those other people's faces in it. This shell over here, by itself, is me. That's my obscured face inside that shell. Not only am I in a shell like the rest, but I'm not even with the rest."

"Julie..."

"Bah. I don't like looking at myself and drawing myself. So I did these assignments with fairly wide and farcical interpretations. Ah, forget about it. That drawing is eleven years old. Take it."

But tonight, I was looking over my list of personal goals and the many "to-do" lists I have. Two seemed to say that they belonged with each other:

start doing self-portrait sketches -- private only! in sketchbooks! -- and stop being afraid of your face; try to understand it for what it is instead of hating it!
stop being so hard on yourself and allow yourself some grace once in a while

Self-portraits as a class assignment are still lousy. I'd still hate them. But for self-study and practice -- they can be the ultimate form of art-as-therapy.

I'm going to cheat a bit at first. I have photos of myself that I shot (badly) for my blog which I took down during a time when all of a sudden I didn't want just anyone to be able to look at me. I'm going to start sketching from them. I can't take the live-face-in-the-mirror just yet.

See this photo at the start of the blog post? It's been a little while since I've had a photo up, and a long time since I've even broken a grimace, the first time a little wee bit of a smile started to reach my eyes, in a photo.

It's a start.

And I am happy that I look like my dad and my sisters and brother and mom and grandparents... beauty is the history, not some symmetrical alignment that wears makeup and the camera flash well.

I will, of course, forget this tomorrow. Hence, I need to do a quick sketch tonight, before I go to bed.

Labels: art, art life, personal

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

New Bohemia revisited.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this post

On my old blog, I wrote about New Bohemia. If it weren't for Dustbury.com, I'd not remember what I said at all. I give it a brief mention here, but that's it. I should probably try to find that old post somewhere on my hard drive...

One thing that always drove me nuts about New Bohemia was the lack of a seriously professional email list system. The emails from the North Dakota Council on the Arts drive me crazy, they being massive forwards with glean-able recipient email addresses. The emails for the early New Bohemia list were almost as annoying. It looks as if that has been dealt with at this point.

The other thing that caused me consternation was the lack of a web site. It seemed silly to have not serious web site in this day and age. There is now a web site: New Bohemia, North Dakota.

I'm not sure I'm Bohemian enough, though technically speaking, I have the genetics.

I have a stack of notes from a recent arts/community conference in Langdon (one of the rare moments I ventured out of the house as an "artist" and took part in such a thing) and as I page through them, I realize I'm not a joiner. I'm not involved in any of the arts groups, clubs, organizations or communities in this state. I just don't take part. I don't try to connect to any artists around me any more, nor do I offer to teach others about art. I don't want to take part in excessive conferences or conversations or dialogs or discussions or anything that floats theories and possibilities. I don't want to be mayored-over in the imaginary town of New Bohemia. I don't want to haul around art to set up for mildly interested looky-loos. I don't want to "celebrate" the arts. I don't want to be part of a hierarchy. Total loss of any interest whatsoever.

Jaded? Bitter? Lazy? Uncooperative? Mildly misanthropic? Deaf to all the 'what-ifs?'

I don't know. I've learned that if you express interest in something and show that you can help, eventually, you...end up doing all of the work. And I've long since stopped seeing North Dakota as the place or market where I will sell or make money off of my art.

My concern is that by making art so special, it will never become every-day. I will likely work on that theory more in the future, but suffice it to say that if something is up on a pedestal, people get tired of looking up all the time and pretty soon turn back to what's directly around them. Phrases like "New Bohemia" and "artist colony" scare or annoy the crap out of some people while bringing in their exact opposites via tourism. The decision comes as to whether art becomes a sort of festival or irregularity, or if it becomes every-day and nonthreatening enough that it can be found next to the baking soda (though I can't imagine why it would be put there).

Despite my virulent distaste for wildlife art, I'd like art to become less "extra" and "special", and more every-day. I'm undecided as to if I think New Bohemia is proposing that or not.

Meanwhile, I'm going to hole up in my studio and not talk to anyone.

Labels: art, north dakota

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Nefarious dried tube of paint which ruineth thee.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I'm working on painting a portrait of David's dog. All sketching and foundation drawings went well. Then I reached into my haphazard and messy container of paint tubes (following my usual expert-colorist system of grabbing a random tube of paint and basing the entire piece from that) when I pulled out the Sand In The Gears, Wrench In The Plans, Befuddler Almighty tube of paint.¹

The paint was basically on its last moist legs, thick and disgusting, and squeezing it out of the tube would have made many juvenile males, ages 14 - 36, laugh at what it looked like.

I'm so cheap. I couldn't just throw it away. And, since it was the tube I pulled out, habit was to use it as the "central" color (if Old Gold can be thought of as that). I hacked and squeezed and pinched and cut that metal tube, finally getting a significant amount of paint out on the palette. David had ordered a large portrait. It would take a lot of paint.

I then began experimenting with various acrylic mediums and water mixtures, and soon found myself spreading and brushing and scraping the paint into the paper. It was then that I realized I was having what I call a New Technique moment.

New Technique moments are generally terrifying and destructive to projects that would normally take me much less time. They consist of some slight change in controlled setting in which a brush goes haywire, I spill something, I grab the wrong mix to use, or I get it in my head to "fix" a mistake by using some odd material (for example, wall paper paste - very unusual results). Suddenly, I must confront Something New Is Happening Here, and figure out how to work with it. I have to change and adjust my absent-minded way of going about things.

"Should I maximize the effect with resist techniques? Preserve the undertones using gloss mediums? Paint over it and let it show through faintly?" I thought, mulling the second layer of David's painting.

New Technique moments are absolute musts. If you don't have them as an artist (or writer), you've happily entered the sad land of Rutville, a place where everything is done the same as before. A comfortable place. Very boring. Usually ends in beige.

I must apologize to David for how long this painting is taking. He probably won't even notice the Excitement! and Amazing Effects! and New Techniques! since, if it is to be a good painting, it shouldn't have all those exclamation points. In fact, it should have only one: "Julie, I like this painting!"

So, I struggle to come up with a way to handle the foundation left by the dried and fussy Old Gold, very much interested in what will become of this metallic-sheened painting which differs highly from the normal dog portrait route I've traveled in the past.

I think it will be lovely. And different.

(Is "lovely" allowed, for dog portraits?)

-----------------------------
¹ Technically, it was Winsor and Newton's Galleria Series, Old Gold.

Labels: art, art life

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Wonderful small art presses.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

On my recent trip, I found myself picking up a number of postcards and notecards in various shops. I certainly don't need more -- I generally suffer from an overabundance of stationery and no one to send it to (that is, no one that will write back). I often, as was the case this time, buy such unique items for their imagery and because it's like finding small treasures.

My most recent small-press finds include:

Kenspeckle Letterpress (Wonderful imagery and designs.)
Saturn Press (Not the actual, official website, but information on this press and the fabulous hand-set letter press products can be found by visiting the site linked.)

I'll add more to this post as I discover them. If you know of one, please leave information in the comments section of this post.

Labels: art, stationery

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

The foundation you don't see.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Too often people gush about how great a drawing or painting is, ruing the fact that they can't draw that well. They miss understanding the foundation not seen: sketches.

I could expound on how life is a series of sketches until the end, but I'll just keep this strictly about art and not get poetic.

I have piles of bad drawings, sketches, and ill-thought out ideas. I obviously don't show those to many people and hence, my percentage of good vs. crap is seriously skewed. It might appear that I have some good stuff.

Oh, the iceberg below the water, the badly drawn figures and animals, with incredibly off proportions, bad perspective, ill-conceived layouts. There's so much bad art in my collection of efforts, hidden away like my own Frankensteinian monster, lurking in the dark tower of hideousness.

On an older version of my web site (maybe four years ago?) I had my sketchbooks online. Then I took them down. Too embarrassing. But now, with very little pride or self-respect left (a handy thing that starts to kick in as I get older, I've found), I've put them back up. Or at least, I've put up those older sketchbooks that I had online earlier. There are a few new ones that I haven't bothered to badly photograph and waste time putting into a gallery.

So, have a look at those old, embarrassing foundational...drawings. Here.

Labels: art, journals

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Trees are worth drawing.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

Last night I decided to go out and do a little watercolor sketching. I took my Sennelier Le Maxi block of sketch paper (6"X6") and a set of Prang water colors. I prefer using what some might think as "cut-grade" art materials for some reason. I have a small Windsor and Newton traveling watercolor set, but I prefer the vividness of Prangs colors and how quickly they react with the brush and water.

The light was fading fast. What to draw?

I walked across the road to my grandparent's farm and sat at the end of the driveway, just off the main gravel road. I decided to paint a couple of my grandparent's evergreens. When my grandparents were still alive, the evergreens were in much better shape. We lost quite a few in a storm a few years ago, and those that remain just look a little tough.

But they were worth painting.

Evergreen trees are fun to draw and paint. The way their boughs jut out from the tree, like interlocking scales in a sense, makes them a perfect lesson in overlap and organic line. As I was painting, a truck came down the road. It was one of those club-cabs, and had quite a few people inside. I suppose the sight of me sitting on the ground, painting, was an odd one, and so the truck very noticeably slowed down and the people inside began looking in the direction I was looking. The wanted to see what I was painting.

I've had it happen before, when I'm outside drawing or painting, and someone comes up to see what I'm working on.

"What are you painting?" they ask, after scanning the area I'm looking at and evidently not seeing anything that stands out and seems worth painting.

"The grass," I might say, or trees.

"Why would you want to paint that?"

I sometimes think people believe only buildings, tractors or things other than the mundane are what ought to be painted. But, as in this case, the old trees are worth painting.

Having just a few more minutes left before I knew I'd have to head back to the house, I turned around and faced the opposite direction, our farm yard. I decided to paint the old chicken coop and a tree growing up behind it. As I was painting, a doe and her fawn wandered into the grass near it.

I confess, then, that I've officially created my first deer painting. I have opinions about "deer" art, but in this case, it was unintentional. And they don't really look like deer. More like brown blobs with legs and ears.

All in all, a good evening of watercolor sketching. I know I need to get out and exercise my on-site painting and drawing skills more; I'm a little rusty. I like using watercolors because the results are fast, but they also require a little more planning than when working with other paints or with pencils since they are transparent and "mistakes" (which I prefer to call "creative license") are difficult to cover up.

| You can purchase these sketches: Evergreens, Chicken Coop |

Labels: art

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Blue dragonflies.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Dad had just taken off in his Cessna from the grass runway out behind the yard, and dipped a wing in answer to my wave from down on the gravel road.

I usually, when going sketching outside, carry my supplies in a five-gallon bucket. Upon arriving at the site, I use the bucket, flipped upside down, as a chair. It's very handy. However, I couldn't find a bucket last week when I went out to draw what had caught my eye on my evening walk.

Small, blue dragonflies, hundreds of them, latched onto the thick grass in the ditch by the slough, jutting out like spikes. If I squinted my eyes just a bit, the breeze against the grass made it all appear holographic, a splash of blue covering the green for just a moment.

I ran up to the house, trying to beat the setting sun, and grabbed my Moleskine sketchbook and a set of colored pencils, the Moleskine pages being a great, smooth texture for the soft, waxy pencils.

No bucket to sit on, though. I sat on the road, right at the edge where the gravel flaked off into the dark slough. I hoped no cars or pick-up trucks would come roaring down the road in a blast of dust like they usually did.

Trying to find a comfortable spot in the waning light, I took off my glasses and started sketching.

As always, I find the most amazing worlds right there in the ditch. The smaller picture is almost always more fascinating to me than the huge, grandiose version.

It's not the greatest sketch, nor the most accurate, but that is not the point at all. This was about stopping and noticing and learning, through the use of a pencil, what these dragonflies and this grass was all about.

Two days later, the grass in the ditch was cut and this opportunity was gone for the year. I'm very glad I took the time to sit down in the dirt and sketch, biting flies and all, when I had the chance.

Labels: art, journals

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

If you're into Manga...

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

(which I'm not, really)

...you can find some decent how-to-draw help here. This is provided to you by the creators of the Manga Bible.

Labels: art, free stuff

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Great journals and sketchbooks.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 4 comments link this post

I've added two new sites to the blogroll, Moleskinerie and Notebookism. All I can say is that you should really visit these sites, but only when you have a large open block of time on your schedule. Because, if you're like me and are an obsessive hoarder and collector of journals, notebooks, paper, and pens/pencils, you'll find yourself completely drawn in.

And, speaking of journals and notebooks...

Moleskines
I have to admit that though I love Moleskine notebooks and sketchbooks, there are two things that I have a mild problem with:

The price tag is a little prohibitive. I only have a few of the books, and I mostly lean towards the soft cover versions (brown or black) because they are more affordable.
The paper. Moleskines have wonderful paper for ink, but for some other methods of sketching, such as watercolors or something that requires a little tooth to the paper, the pages are too smooth. My watercolor sketches tend to pool and not be absorbed well.

Finding a good journal or sketchbook
There are few things worse than a cheap journal or sketchbook that you have to fight to keep open. One of my policies (if there is such a thing in this case) when I buy a journal or sketchbook is to be sure I can open it in the store to see if it has a binding that literally falls open, as well as feel the paper to see what kind of tooth it has. So, the things I look for when shopping for a journal or sketchbook are:

That it opens easily to all pages (front, middle, back) and that it lays open on its own without a fight.
That the paper isn't too thin so that ink bleeds through to the pages behind it. Also, I like a stronger page that can take a little abuse in the form of scribbling, erasing, or water-based media.
That the paper has a surface quality that feels good against my hand. This is highly subjective, and that's why I won't buy a journal that I can't open and touch in the store.
That the journal isn't bound in such a way that it is tightly filled with pages. I often glue things like tickets or post cards or other items that are visually interesting, and journals that are so packed with pages end up not closing well or, worse, with a broken spine or binding. They don't close without me tearing out pages every so often to free up space for the addition of glued items.
I don't like journals that have pre-printed writing prompts, quotes, or images on the pages, generally. There are a few journals in my collection that have interesting art printed on the pages that I find fun to work with, but in general, I don't like a lot of canned "prompts" from some publisher.

Other great brands
A few of my other favorite journal brands are Rhodia (with its bright, orange cover) and Claire Fontaine (often seen in plaid or block-color covers). Both are French brands, oddly. They have the most amazingly smooth, plate finish paper that makes your pen seem to fly over the paper. Really, writing in them is a lovely experience. The feel of the paper against your hand is one that paper lovers like myself can really appreciate.

Videos
I have a few videos (somewhat grainy videos, so I apologize) over at YouTube of me flipping through a few of my journal/sketchbooks. You can get an idea of what I use them for if you are so inclined.

You
What are your favorite journal or sketchbook brands? Why? What do you look for in a journal or sketchbook?

Links:

Kikkerland: The American distributor of Moleskine, and other extremely cool stuff. Period.
Moleskine
Exaclair, Inc.: This site offers both Rhodia and Clair Fontaine, as well as a number of other favorite stationery/pen brands of mine.
Basic French Online: This site offers a variety of "French" products, and in the stationery section, you can find a decent selection of notebooks and stationery.
Paper Blanks: Decent journals that kind of mimic Moleskine. The plus is that they fall open easily and are a pleasure to write in. I'm not always keen on the printed covers, but they are a nice journal.
Chronicle Books: This publisher puts out a large variety of books and products. They have a number of great stationery and journals that are fun and unusual.
Exaclair, Inc.'s "where to purchase" list is a fabulous collection of great web sites offering pens, paper, journals, stationery and all things wonderful.
Papyrus has a lot of nice stuff. My favorites are the simple Marcel Schurman notebooks on this page, which look like something from many decades ago. I have a few in tan, though they only show red and blue now. The look like the notebooks from the movie "The Interpreter" (notebooks that I wish I could find and have been trying to figure out the brand -- anyone out there know?)

Labels: art, journals, links, stationery, supplies, writing

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Church mural.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

This past week I spent four rather intense days working on a mural for a Methodist church in Fargo. I've gone to Nicaragua on missions trips with a number of people from this church, and since I had painted a mural for the church in Nicaragua, the missions group at the Methodist church in Fargo wanted me to paint their mural.

I was honored to do so. (Even though I admit that painting murals is not a favorite thing for me.)

Painting a mural is interesting in that the reactions to people walking by while it is being painted are always the same. From my experience, here are a few general reactions:

"I can't even draw stick people."
Stand in silence, watching for a long time.
"It's looking good!"
"What kind of paint are you using?"
"Wow. That actually looks good."
"Are you an artist?"

That last one, the 'are you an artist' question, always throws me off a bit. I am never quite sure how to answer that. I assume the person is wondering if I am a professional artist, making my living off of art, but then again...I don't know. I often wish I could answer something like "No, I've never been able to draw before in my life, but somehow this week I got really lucky."

That would just be rude.