ever since the beginning to keep the world spinning

The last few weeks have been a blur... saying I work harder and longer since becoming self-employed is more of an understatement than ever before. My days start when the sun (and occasionally jackhammers on our street.. ugh) wakes me up and ends around 2 or 3am when all emails are replied to, all artwork orders are packed and ready to be walked up to the post office, all paint is cleaned up and everything else is checked and reordered and planned and done. It's exhausting but in a really good way... I can't imagine a more perfect use of my energy right now.

Outside of commissioned work, I haven't been painting as much as usual but I've been stoking the creative fires in my head often. I plan on taking a short break from painting after Christmas to create with some other materials and thoughts I've been collecting and dreaming about recently.

Things that have been inspiring me right now...

 

Self Portrait by Regina Pagles.. no explanation needed.

Still feeling that wanderlust I couldn't satisfy last summer.

Star Trails Over Boston by Nimay Shah

I started running in October and still do 2-3 miles once or twice a week after dropping art off at the post office if it isn't too cold... my favorite route to run is from my apartment to the Seaport and along the waterfront because it takes me right where this photo was taken. It really is this gorgeous at night.

"Vancouver" for EF International Language Centers' "Live The Language" campaign

(Sydney and Beijing are pretty cool too! and make me very disappointed that I didn't travel abroad in college.)

Spring Swatch dying over at Scout & Catalogue
also these tips on creating natural dyes on the Free People blog


"1st Round Compilation" by The Beauty of a Second

Doing a compilation like this would be a really cool way to record special events or a year of life/work.

Charmaine Olivia's workspace


"One Day Like This" by Elbow... you'll like this but you might have to click the link to watch it on YouTube.

 

My own Appalachian road trip journal in progress... also Miranda Lambert's new album, Four. I don't know how to embed it but you can listen to the first track "All Kinds of Kinds" here.

Have you found anything good lately?