On hold

Do you ever feel like your real life is on hold while your work life takes over? Well, that's how life has been for us lately, only with a few little trips dotting the landscape.

September and October have turned out to be very busy months at work. I had already started working on a very exciting all-graphics video for the ADEPT program at MU. Working on this introductory video which explains why healthcare providers (and really everyone) should care about alcohol and drug abuse and what can be done about it. Adept is a grant-funded project that teaches healthcare providers oh-so-important tools for addressing substance abuse in patients. I have learned so much on this project and the passion of our clients has rubbed off tremendously. I will share it when I can, as it's not fully completed yet.

September brought another interesting project to our team. The president of the university was responding to twitter questions via a video we produced. I got to work with new software to customize a virtual set for the president. I also made graphics and did the video composite for this video:



Last week we took a quick vacation to Orlando. It was my first trip to Disney World and it was a great time! Next week we're off to Washington DC again for work. Hopefully soon after I'll find the time to finish going through my pictures from this summer's Grand Canyon/Zion vacation and be able to post more of those pictures, and then I'll be sorting through Disney World and DC. Whew, when will I ever get to complete that quilt?

Summer 2011 Vacation Photobook

I finally finished the photobook from last year's summer vacation! Yay! I hadn't realized that I was only a few pages away from finished back in the spring. I'm looking forward to seeing how it prints.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

Done! Or at least almost Done!

So I finally finished up the mountains in the front of Glacial Recession. This means I either start re-doing the sky or set it aside for a while to create the back - this is what I'm thinking of doing. Anyway, lets just get right to it. I think this is the most exciting of my timelapses so far:
Art Process Timelapse 6 from Katrina Kouba on Vimeo.

Glacial Recession Timelapse #5

Slowly, but surely, I'm making progress on "Glacial Recession". Last week I uploaded a new timelapse and this week, I'm getting closer and closer to having the top "done". Of course that means I need to get on the ball about getting the back designed and done...
Art Process Timelapse 5 from Katrina Kouba on Vimeo.
My original plan to have the whole piece done by the end of the year is a tight deadline that I'm not sure I'll make it. Regardless, it's enjoyable work - for the most part.

Re-designing Glacial Recession

This is why I seem to have so little to show from my studio work of late:

It's the re-design of the sky and foreground of my Glacial Recession piece. All those little blocks of color were drawn out and colors chosen from a limited palette. Was it a pain? Yes. Why did I do it? Because I think it's the best way to make this come out like my "vision." Each of those pieces has a number and letter(s) to distinguish it from it's friends, and each one will be cut out and pieced together. The whole quilt is designed so that all I have to do is sew in straight lines. Yay!

Ok so why did I redesign the sky? (If you haven't and you want to see the timelapsed progression of the sky as I've worked on it, go to my last post on this subject.) Well, it's currently a little too "Picasso" for me. It's supposed to be a little blocky- abstract- if you will. And it just feels weird to me. I am taking my friend Mindy's advice and waiting until the rest of it is together before I re-cut the sky, but I have a feeling that's what's going to happen.

Just tonight, I've finished cutting out pattern pieces for the foreground and started some more dyes specifically for that area. This past weekend I spent some time picking out more fabrics for the green mountain on the right and I'll get that timelapse posted when I get to it.

Final Day in the Grand Canyon

I realized recently that there was something I left out of my previous post... Walking the 1.5 miles from Plateau Point to the Indian Gardens campground after sunset it's almost pitch black out as you enter the campground. As you cross the creek, the crickets and frogs create a symphony of music which I stopped to capture on my phone. Perhaps I'll use it as a backdrop for a video in the future.

We could not have asked for a more perfect day hiking out of the Grand Canyon. It must've been in the 70s at Indian Gardens when we started out. The clouds and haze kept the North Rim almost invisible. The wonderful weather made for a good restful night of sleep, so I was ready for the hike. And it was a great hike! The first time we did this hike - six years ago - this was the worst day for me. Fortunately, we didn't have the weather to contend with and I was in much better shape.

By the time we were on the last couple of miles, where almost everyone who comes to the canyon and decides to hike just a bit crowd the trail, we were seeing people in down coats and hats as if it were snowing at the top. When we reached the top, we knew why. The wind was whipping right through us and we found ourselves quickly heading for the car for warmer clothes! Didn't expect that!

One would think we might skip our ice cream tradition, but you can't mess with tradition! So there we sat, shivering and eating ice cream.

Next Up: Zion, Our Three Year Tradition

This is a series on our 2012 trip. In case you missed them, here are my previous posts:

• Little Oases in the Grand Canyon - Day 3
• The Sky In the Grand Canyon - Phantom Ranch Part 2
• Rockin' the Bottom - Phantom Ranch Part 1
• Trekking the South Kaibab Trail into the Grand Canyon
• Petroglyph National Monument and the Painted Desert

All photos copyright Katrina Kouba Boles

A book on Mindful Creativity

Before I read Imagine: How Creativity Works, I was about half-way through a book on creativity told from a very different perspective. I came back to On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity by Ellen J. Langer after finishing Lehrer's book and am still really enjoying it!

Langer is a psychology professor and a painter. The book begins with the story of how she became an artist and her references are often personal, and it reads more like a self-help book, which I like. Each chapter and sections of chapters begin with a quote, and it's segmented into easily digestible sections. The title led me to think this was going to be a book about how to become an artist, to which my response is: I already am an artist so why do I need this book? But that is deceiving. It would be more accurate to say that it's a book about mindfulness for creative people.

I think the parts I have enjoyed the most are dealing with evaluation, comparison and criticism. For example, I really grabbed on to this quote on page 59:

"The important thing is never to let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries; to continue steadfastly on one's way without letting oneself either be defeated by failure or diverted by applause." - Gustav Mahler

Langer goes on to talk about how compliments can act as confirmation of the artist's worth, but that is just as dangerous as not receiving compliments or winning awards. Later in the book she comes back to evaluation in the chapter on social comparison. I really liked this part:

"Social comparing is one way for us to gain validation. But there are other ways that are not so costly. Because a work of mindful art has so much of the person in it, it is no wonder that artists are eager to show their work and are so disappointed if it does not receive approval. It is hard at that point to separate oneself from the work." Langer, 142

She goes on to suggest that we consider asking better questions than "do you like it?" to learn more about how others see our work. Some of her suggestions include:

What does it mean to you?
Would you have added something (or left something out), and why?
What does this tell you about me?

The book as a whole is an encouraging lesson, one that all art school dropouts should read, that anyone who creates from the soul should read. It's so easy to talk yourself out of creating, so why not let someone who's been there talk you into creating? For me the take-away is: Don't be afraid to create. Create for yourself and don't be discouraged by others. They may not understand the work in the same way you do and that is ok.

If you are stuck in a mental block, trying to free yourself to be more creative, as I often do, search out and try keeping a list of sources for inspiration and encouragement. I keep a list of books/talks/etc to encourage myself to just go out there and create. You can find my haphazard study of creativity on this page. Now what are you waiting for? Go create something! Do it for you!


(If you are one of those people who were frustrated that Jonah Lehrer failed to cite sources in Imagine, and the fact that it used some of the same studies and stories as Malcom Gladwell's Blink, you will be pleased that Langer references her material and the bulk of the stories shared come from her own experiences as a psychologist.)