AN ARTIST'S LIFE AND JOURNEY THROUGH THE UNIVERSE OF CREATIVITY.
My online journal of the process of making goals, turning negative to positive, artistic visualization and practicing gratitude for the talents I've been given.
Be the creative person you are by practicing The Secret of Universal Law, visualization and gratitude.
Without art life is gray - Art brings color to the world!
Here's where I blog about my newest art pieces, how they came to be and how I am creating a better life as an artist through a new attitude.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

YUP, REDESIGNED POP ART DIVA DOT COM'S HOMEPAGE AGAIN


I redesigned my website a few months ago and I've been bugged by the busy look to the home page since I did it but I wasn't inspired until just this last Friday morning!

Suddenly the lightbulb went on over my head! I needed to use retro iconic images that fit with each division of my business or section of my website! Wow, a vintage lunch box for my pop culture art, a retro pop bottle for about the POP! And it would give me a cleaner look AND graphics for navigation!

Nowadays, you have to KISS - keep it simple stupid - and put up pictures so people know where to click. You've seen the cash registers now at fast food joints? They don't have numbers they have pictures! Want a hamburger - the clerk pushes the button with a hamburger on it, duh-oh!

I'm tickled pink because not only is this way more fun and in keeping with my "quest" but it's animated - I even have a rocket blasting off! So, take a second (you folks with dial-up might have to take a minute), click over and take a look - WAIT FOR IT! The animation takes about a minute or two to get to the rocket blast off - PopArtDiva be a retro happening cartoon station now!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

REALIZATIONS = CREATIVITY = HAPPINESS: The Secret To Being A Happy Artist

ABUNDANCE COMETH:
I finished this commission for a pop art sixties style portrait for Eileen William's Boomer Blog, The Feisty Side of Fifty which she will be using on her masthead there soon.
This turned out so wonderful and Eileen was really pleased and excited as it will work for all her media needs as well as for her new book. I loved this pop portrait because it was right up my pop culture art alley! This will definitely bring in more portrait commissions and I loved doing it! See, follow your passion and success will follow that!

Though I have been stressing over money (who doesn't these days?) I am holding fast to my belief that the Universe/God will provide. But that worry creeps in, doesn't it? Though the Universe/God did bring me another graphics job, plus I finished a logo so that check is coming, and another graphics job check is due any day, my past worry patterns insist on sticking little worry thorns in my side. "But what about tomorrow???" used to be my motto! This from someone who did art shows for a living and relied on the fickle art buying public?!

I was talking about this stressing behavior with my friend, Audrey, and she said I was "blocked". I understand that - I do have some serious brick walls to hurdle in my journey to trust. But, as we drank a couple of my Orange Julius Martinis from The Martini Diva.com, Audrey showed me an exercise to unblock myself (an EFT from the Boundless Living Challenge) - it's a simple mantra that you speak as you tap your pressure points. I thought - hey, it can't hurt and started to practice the exercise that evening.

The very next morning I got an e-mail about possibly getting a celebrity guest on my retro pop culture talk show. That is so huge for a show that's only been on for a month!

Plus it's not just one comedian - it's a flock of them I might get to interview - fun and business all rolled into one - I love it!

(BTW, here is the image/brand/logo I created for my show "Trippin' Down Memory Lane" - it's kind of my own
pop art logo for my show and I really like the retro microphone, radio and player juxtaposed with the contemporary pop image of myself.)

Next thing? I sailed over my block about my creating how to videos on making various designer martinis and did my first video HOW TO MAKE A KEY LIME PIE MARTINI!

I've been wanting to do these videos for ages and just never "got to it" though it was a simple matter of making a video while I made martinis - something I do quite often!

This will not only create more buzz for TheMartiniDiva.com but the
y're fun to make and I get to drink the martini afterwards to celebrate! Love your work and it will love you back!

VISUALIZE VISUALIZE:
I have wanted my own home for ages - since I sold my house in California some time back. I miss having a real studio where my work does not overflow into my "life" constantly. As an artist I need to get away from my art occasionally! But I have been finding it hard to visualize where I want to live because ....... I kept putting conditions on why I couldn't go where I wanted (I can't afford that area!). You know what I realized this week? I realized that how I get my home I want where I want my home is not my worry! I have limited myself and God/The Universe by putting real life conditions on my dreams! You bet I know where I want to live and I don't have to worry about how I get to live there! I just have to visualize it and give power to my dream! That realization gave me back my dream of my perfect home and studio. Why do we let our dreams go? They are so important to our quality of life!

IT'S ALL IN HOW YOU LOOK AT IT:
I couldn't get into the dog groomer and decided to clip Pixel myself. That's about as stupid as cutting your own hair, lol! I spent all day Sunday shearing off her coat - she wiggled, I slipped, each time she wiggled a little more fuzz came off until I had a naked dog! I mean all the way down to nothing! I have a Yorkipoo that looks like an overgrown chihuahua now! It's not the best look for Pixel. I am not an artist with dog clippers, mea culpa, my bad, poor Pixel. But her beautiful fuzzy look will be back in weeks, it's hot and she seems to like the Paris Hilton look for summer, lol! She's cute no matter how much or how little fuzzy she's got going on - I, on the other hand, am not and thankfully I was smart enough to pay a professional to give me my punk spike look!

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE:
I am grateful I was smart enough not to take the dog clippers to my own hair (as I have been known to do!) I am grateful Pixel is cute enough to survive a bad haircut! I am grateful I was able to twist my body enough to do a French manicure on my toes and that, as an artist I am able to do it without guides. My toes are really cute now - for an old broad.

I am grateful that I decided I needed a Key Lime Pie Martini and said "oh, heck, let's just set up the video and go for it" - I am now started on my video series for The Martini Diva - and it's really fun! Next one is being done over at Audrey's - funny costumes and a few martinis make for great laughter and bring the energy level very high!

I am truly grateful for the realizations and breakthroughs I've had this week - they dragged me out of my money-stress-slump and brought me to a great level of business acumen this week!

I am grateful I woke up today, I am grateful for the friends I have, I am grateful for the family I had and I am grateful to be living in a world where I have a chance to change myself into a better person and a better artist.

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Post images Copyright 2008 by PopArtDiva.com. All rights reserved. No permission is given to copy, distribute or reproduce without written permission from PopArtDiva.com.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

THE CREATIVE USE OF ROCKS AND BATHROOM VISITS

TODAY'S PRACTICE OF UNIVERSAL LAW and POSITIVE THOUGHT as it relates to my life as an artist:

ABUNDANCE COMETH:
I did a new Martini Recipe Art (for products on the PopArtDiva Boutique) - Jackass, The Martini - it's a joke martini that was inspired by my dislike of the sophomoric film Jackass, The Movie - see even things you dislike can spark your creativity! My humor at work again.

I also wrote several post drafts my Retro Pop Culture Blog, and created the recipe cards for The Martini Diva™ and The DIVA of TINY FOODS™ - I'm finding my positive thought practices also seem to be giving me greater focus on all the creative aspects of my work - my writing as well as my art, interesting! I wonder - does a more positive mindset clear the cobwebs and let the universal muse through easier??

VISUALIZE VISUALIZE:
I need to have a lot of dental work done. I don't have dental insurance and, frankly, don't have tens of thousands of dollars for the proper work. I have - in the past! - gone in to the bathroom, looked at my teeth and despaired. The other day I was doing just that and realized I could use this time for visualizing a beautiful mouth full of sparkling, shiny teeth instead! This is a giant step forward for me because it means that my mind is beginning to train itself to think on a positive track! Plus what a great use of the time spent oogling myself in a mirror, lol! I think I'll photoshop a great set of choppers onto a photo of my mouth, size it to my actual mouth and paste it on the mirror where my new smile will be!

IT'S ALL IN HOW YOU LOOK AT IT:
As a digital artist I spend a huge amount of time editing large files in graphics programs. No matter how large a hard drive, how fast a CPU, how much RAM, there is still a great amount of time wasted in waiting for filters to process and files to save - especially at the size files I work on. Friday I was sitting there swearing at my computer "hurry up you bloody box - I haven't got all day!" - my usual rant at the time wasted. For some reason I looked over at the area where my mouse and Wacom tablet were and there sat my "Faith" rock. How it got there is beyond me, I keep it by my bed! But there it was and then I realized that I could use that "wasted" time by grabbing my rock and practicing some belief and faith exercises as well as a few gratitudes while my computer slugged away instead of grumbling and strumming my fingers in agitation! Another breakthrough in my thought patterns!

I also did a quick little graphic for the masthead for my Boundless Living Profile - I've joined the 45 day challenge there with some specific goals in mind. Interestingly enough, I was invited to it about the same time as I decided to take a left turn on this blog by adding my universal law practices to it - hmmmmm.
ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE:
Speaking of rocks, I also have a "gratitude" rock I use in helping me focus my mind during the time I practice being grateful for what I have. For some reason this rock helps me focus. I do not allow myself to think of anything but gratitude while I hold it or stroke it. If I find my mind wandering I put the rock down until I can refocus! (I sort of don't want any energy there except gratitude energy - yeah, hippy-dippy but, hey, energy is energy!) This particular rock is actually a piece of amethyst crystal cut into a very odd shape by a friend of mine who has since left this plane of existence., so I also feel a closeness to him at the same time. A double whammy of good stuff!

So today I am really, really grateful for my sense of humor, my creatively warped brain and the synchronicity of the mechanisms of the Universe/God. I am also grateful for the fact it is raining and cooling down, I am grateful for my friend Audrey and her invitation to the Boundless challenge, I am grateful I am not sitting at an art show during a monsoon and I'm grateful for my pretty rocks that serve a higher purpose for me.

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Post images Copyright 2008 by PopArtDiva.com. All rights reserved. No permission is given to copy, distribute or reproduce without written permission from PopArtDiva.com.