Impressions of a PowWow.

I always try to attend the Spokane Falls Northwest Market, Encampment, and PowWow which happens at the end of August each year in downtown Spokane, Washington. It is held for 4 days in Riverfront Park which was traditional fishing grounds centuries ago for the Spokane Tribe. I have many traditional PowWow photos from years past. So many that I felt like trying to do something different this year, something that was aided by the low light conditions of the evening dancing competitions. So, after taking some more traditional photos and candid type shots.



I decided to let the low light, fast moving dancers, situation create a "painterly" effect and go impressionistic in style when it came to my photos. I was pleasantly surprised by the results and they really appeal to the artist
within.

 










You can see more here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shadownlitephoto/sets/72157635238106708/

I shall be posting more traditional photos at Flickr in the next few days.

Also posted: http://caughtwithinframe.wordpress.com/

Caught Within Frame and Creativity.

The Caught Within Frame blog project continues to grow and grow. I am happy with this and hope it continues to move into new areas of content. It will start to do this when I introduce the "Artist Spotlight" this coming weekend with the first guest post that will feature the art of a friend of mine who paints. I am hoping it will be the first "Artist Spotlight" of many.

http://caughtwithinframe.wordpress.com/

I am the next poster after the guest artist so am trying to think of what to take photos of for my post. I have a little time to think about it and hope that something will come to mind soon.

Personally, my photography and art have been at a stand-still due to too hot weather, visiting family friends, and just trying to get some life things done. I am hoping to dive back into being creative starting this coming Saturday. I am going to attempt to make a Spokane Sketchers meet-up in Manito Park. I need to have that kind of structured yet loose setting to start focusing on my art again.

I also have been thinking of painting again and am merely awaiting cooler weather to do so. It is just too hot in the house since it does not have air-conditioning to really dive into painting in a room. I would have to have the door almost closed to the room I paint in to keep the cats out. That would up the "too hot" factor right now. So, I will start mapping out a painting and then get painting in Sept. sometime most likely.

Yes, summer has been a mixture of being busy and not. I am not complaining at all and hope that the Fall will be full of activities as well.

Caught Within Frame

The blog I have started is really starting to take off. There are three posts now and I have three more pending plus the repeat of the first three photographers posting new photos.

http://caughtwithinframe.wordpress.com/

I have a new "Artist Spotlight" starting up in two weeks time where I will feature a more traditional artist. The first will be a painter and I have another pending. It is quite exciting!

I am so glad that the blog is really taking off and it is helping get involved in an online art community with people (artists/photographers) all over the world. I like that aspect to it and hope the blog continues to attract interested people from all over the world.

This is one of the photos I have contributed to it.

I am trying to decide what I will take photos of for my next time posting at Caught Within Frame. I have a while two weeks to decide.

New Photography Project!

I have started a new blog project which will feature photographers' work from all over the world.

I made the first blog post tonight:

http://caughtwithinframe.wordpress.com/

I have 3 other photographer friends that will be posting at this blog and will be trying to get quest blogger photographers involved as well. It should be quite fun and I am hoping it will grow, and evolve as it does so.

Yes, this is what I have been organizing the last week or two and it is finally moving forward! My friend Nek in Greece is to be the next blogger of photos and she is very excited!

I will keep everyone updated on new posts to the blog and everyone cross your fingers and toes for me that it continues to progress forward.

A sneak peek at one of the photos I posted there:

Japanese Gardens and Project Planning!

I attended another sketch group meet-up this past Saturday. It was held at Nishinomiya Tsutakawa Japanese Garden at Manito Park. It was a cloudy day but we did not get any rain which was a change after a very rainy week. My sketches turned out awful because it seems I was not in the sketching mood. I did take a few photos of the gardens while I was there and will share one or two in this blog post.

Nothing real fancy since I was using my Sony Cybershot camera to take quick photos. I just want to share a few photos of the location.

I will be joining the group off and on for sketching meet-ups in the future. I still feel super rusty when it comes to sketching. I am going to try and find a style and stop trying to make complete drawings. That is not what sketching is about. I just need to relax and focus on "simple is better".

I have other plans brewing. I am planning a joint photo blog project with other photographer friends. I just sent the proposal out and am waiting to hear back from the three friends I have approached for the beginning of the project. It should be a lot of fun and it has possibility for turning into a great way to promote people's photography and to share photography from lesser known (and hobby) photographers I know. I will definitely post on how the project goes and provide a link for it when it gets started.

So, this has been what I have been up to lately. Exciting stuff in the world of Brie for sure.

Life Update.

My life has been pretty slow this month. There has just not been a lot going on in it which is fine with me after having a very busy April. April was full of Sketch Group meet-ups, Analog Photo Group meet-ups, heading to see Flashdance on stage, checking out the Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Jundt Museum at Gonzaga University, attending Jess Walter's reading during Get Lit! Events, and, finally, going to a Suds & Cinema movie at the Bing Crosby Theater. To think that I had planned for none of this going into April, things just happened to pop up and keep me busy. I guess you can say it is nice to take a breather this month.

I know that having nothing going on this month has allowed me to get caught up in my postal correspondence and read quite a few books that have been sitting around waiting for me to make time for them. I haven't anything big planned creatively this month because I am entering that point before I start projects. When I gather lots of influences and experience a lot of different entertainment to get inspired. People who are not creative don't understand this mindset and assume the creative person is just being lazy. Actually far from it, my mind is running at 100 mph and soaking in so many different things through various outlets. It is shuffling them around and then shuffling them again to find what will inspire me. What will fuel the next direction I take in my creative life. So, I am far from just sitting idle and doing nothing. It's just all that I am doing in inside my head at the moment.

It will be fun to see how it all explodes out in creativity because I can feel the build-up. Will it be through painting or photography? I am curious to find out. When I do start working on whatever materializes, I will definitely post about it here.

Getting Back In Touch With My Art Roots.

I have been wanting to get the artistic side of me kick-started again since it has been dormant for far too long. I have a painting I need to work on and am afraid to touch beyond laying down the background because I fear I ma have lost my touch for painting. I have been trying to get going on sketching or dabbling in art in some way but had been unsuccessful. I decided I needed to make a change this year so joined a group on Meetup.com.

The Spokane Sketch Club is a very non-threatening meet-up group on Meetup.com. I decided to give it a try and see if I could not start to get back into artistic mode this way. It is much easier to be sketching when you are around others doing the same. It is similar to being in a informal class without an instructor and where you can show up -or not- depending on your schedule. The people that come to the meet-ups vary according to day and time...and are friendly.

So, I have attended 2 meet-ups and have two sketches  I admit they are not the best sketches in the world and I need to get back in sketch mode to really do something impressive. They are a start however and I am not one to be shy so am sharing them here.

Sketch #1:

The above sketch was done of part of the windows in Riverpark Square. I had limited time for that meet-up because it was during a day of museum visiting, lunch with friend, and then a Get Lit! author reading. It could be better but it was the first sketch I did in a long time so I am okay with it's issues. I do need to loosen up a bit in style.

Sketch #2:

This was at the duck pond at Manito Park this past Thursday. I am more toward my painting style but just using pencils in it and it seems a bit messy and dark to me. I feel like I should be working in colour for sketching but that never works out for me because then it becomes a colourful mess. I am thinking I will keep playing around with sketching style and materials until I find one that I am totally comfortable with...and lighten up on the pencil when I do use it. I didn't get a chance to address the water in the pond because my ride showed up early cutting my sketching time down to just over an hour. I hope to spend more time there next time I show up for a meet-up.

I am liking the meet-ups because they are so informal and you can chat off and on to the other people or just draw on your own. I am glad I found the group.

I have also signed up for The Spokane Analog Photo Group and attended one of those meet-ups. I just haven't been able to get the film developed yet and plan to do that next week for sure. I am not sure the film will turn out since it was expired but I shall see. There should be another meet-up of this group soon and, of course, if I have any interesting photos turn out from the last meet-up, I will post them in this blog.