"At night I die, but in the morning I am born again."

I found this video through another blog, http://www.storyofarealboy.com, and was so inspired and captivated that I wanted to post it on my blog so that I could always have it close on hand to refer to.

Rebirth, reinvention is something that the best artists are capable of doing without fussing over too much. The most famous and most mainstream lady of reinvention is Madonna. She has never apologized or explained her different phases/routes and I think it wasn't until recently that people stopped questioning it. I wonder if that means that artists have become mainstream. Are the quirks and habits of an artist becoming more "understandable" or "sympathetic-al" as the world become more and more instantaneous and anyone with an observation can become an artist in a variety of medias.

Something New from Something Old

Flea market find! I found a pair of these brass frames and decided to do a little DIY project at home. After googling "how to clean brass" I found that ketchup works. So I gave them a nice scrub with good ol' Heinz. That was interesting.
I made one into an earring hanger for a friends birthday. She had seen my plain black photo frame that I manipulated the same way and love it. To give the antique style frame a modern feel I spray painted it in a high gloss red. Using a high gloss color really brings out more of the detail work in the brass.....I love it! For the clear screen to hold the earrings I cut down a plastic cross-stitch/needlecraft grid to fit inside the frame, I hot glued it into place.

And the other frame from the pair? Stay tuned.

Just Jump In

After discovering that a friend -- whom I admire and look up to -- had a blog, I got to thinkin' that, 'Hey! Maybe I can do that.' (I had always loved the idea -- of writing my thoughts and having someone read them -- but I always thought it was way out of my league, 'who wants to read what I've got to say?')

You see, I have a tendency to fully immerse myself into the "How To's" of things and get deeply involved with the inner workings of a fabulous idea. But I get so involved that I'm burnt out before I even start that idea or "thing" that I was so fascinated with. A few months ago my best friend gave me a short and sweet reality check (don't you love when they do that...it's like they pinch you just hard enough to wake you up again). She looked at me with a smile and with 100% confidence written across her face said, "Nicole? Just jump in!"

So I'm taking her advice! I'm going to figure this blog thing out as I go along. It's going to be an adventure!

So what's this blog going to be about?
An adventure into the world of Design....interiors mostly...but I'm a European....we view design as all encompassing so everything from architecture to industrial to graphic....they will all be guest starring here. Then there's the fine arts...including print, brush, photo...consider them in the bag. I'm also hugely influenced by travel, world cultures, food, and fashion (what kind of girl would I be if I wasn't influenced by fashion?).

Consider this my way of flexing my creative muscles. Consider it a memoir of inspirations and observations with a little trial and error thrown in the mix.....just to keep it interesting.

Please ALWAYS feel free to leave me a comment....be it an anecdote, praise, constructive criticism, or even just a big ol' rant. Let it out.

-NZ

P.S. Observation: I noticed, as I was gathering ideas for this blog, that a lot of people seem to start blogs in the summer months....wonder what that's about?