No Art, Just Talk

Nothing to really show, since I haven't taken any pictures, and since I'm so busy with beading when I can sit down and work on anything, I haven't worked on the Native Steampunk artwork.
Like I said, I'm beading my regalia. I've been getting faster, but it still takes me awhile to bead. It took me most of the day to do the outlines of outside, the rose, and the leaves.

I might be starting my own business soon, one where I design websites, and make beadwork designs, and sell whatever it is I can make. It's kind of scary to think about, but I guess that's what artists got to do: sell whatever the hell they make. Right now though I'm with good people who'll help me figure things out since they live off their work while doing other things such as teaching beading classes at Humboldt. Exciting stuff.

Next time I'm sure I'll post some pictures of something.

Moccasins and WIP Beading

Alright, so while Native Steampunk California has gone a little by the wayside (a little, I was working on it last night) I've been working a lot on a couple different projects so that I can have regalia prepared for one of my tribe's big powwow, the Nesika Illahee powwow in August. The first thing I worked on were moccasins made out of white buckskin:
Aren't they pretty? I can practically make a print out of this picture because of the angles. They're made in a style that's supposed to be traditional for my tribe and other tribes of the northern California and Oregon, with a piece of leather coming up to make a high-top boot form. It has antler buttons and abalone shell beads to cover up some goof-ups on the sewing for the laces. And here's a crappy WIP picture back when I was still sewing and before I sewed on the top:
Because it's relevant and all that.

Next for me to do was to work on several beaded projects which includes a hairpiece (which will be a hair clip for now since I definitely don't have time to make a beaded crown), two beaded hair extender pieces, something to hold eagle plumes with (once I get one) and a necklace (which I probably won't do myself thankfully). So lots of beading, and let me tell you, it takes a hell lot of time to bead anything, whether it's just to make an outline or filling out a small part. Plus it's my first time so it's taking extra long. My half-sister's mom, the person teaching me to bead, has been beading for over 30 years and is pretty fast and can probably do at least one a night. Alright, so here's another crappy WIP picture to show when I was outlining the whole thing for my hairpiece:Haven't made anymore progress since I was working on a hair extender piece:Notice all the nice tiny holes on it, showing I have no damn clue about where the needle is supposed to go, flaunting the fact that I don't sew either. It's okay though, I'm getting better about where the needle is supposed to go, and the little holes get covered by beading anyway.
And finally:That's with the flower and leaf part beaded, which leaves just the negative space to be filled. And it took way to long to do already. Once I get the whole thing beaded, I'll make a photocopy of it and bead on top of it to make a matching piece. Hopefully the next thing I bead though won't have so many rookie mistakes, such as visible strings and uneven surface.

So that's it for now, since I haven't made enough progress on the Native Steampunk California piece to show a WIP of that one.

Art Block Review 1: Kiki's Delivery Service

It's been awhile since I posted, but I've been busy learning how to bead the Native way and the past week I didn't have an internet access so there you go. More posts soon displaying my newly made moccasins and beadwork if I'm not too lazy or if I don't forget.

Alright, one thing that almost all artists have happen to them at one point of their artistic little life is get an art block. Of course, as is the American Way, tons of people have made tons of books, videos, and other media for poor art-blocked persons to buy so that they would no longer be blocked. I thought I might try to talk about different stuff I've read, watched, or listened to that deal with the problem of artist's block, again with the caveat that I might not continue based on laziness/whether or not I forget. Of course, right now I'm not really in an artist's block since I've been busy with the Native Steampunk series and with working on making regalia for upcoming powwows, but it's still good to talk about what's out there.

So to start off this endeavor of mine, I'm going to review something that doesn't totally doesn't make sense as the first review, which is Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service, since I am that much of an anime nerd and I love writing overly-long posts about such things.

Kiki's Delivery Service is a movie about a young teenage witch who leaves her quiet rural home to move to a large city by the sea for a year of training that is required of all witches in the world Kiki lives in. Since her only talent as a witch is flying, she decides to run a delivery service in order to support herself. The major crises in the movie is when Kiki loses her ability to fly as she loses confidence in herself, indirectly because of a boy she likes (isn't that always the case for female artists? Okay maybe not since it certainly wasn't the case for me). In the end of course, she saves the day by regaining her ability to fly.

Although KDS isn't as great as Miyazaki's Spirited Away, the movie still holds a special place in my heart for the movie. It probably had at least to do with the fact that KDS was the first anime movie that I watched back before I knew what anime was but knew I liked the shows with huge-eyed kids in them. Buying the movie in the recent DVD collection I know I definitely like it because of the way it deals with art block. There are a lot of movies aimed at kids about following their dreams no matter what the naysayers say (one movie off the top of my head is Ratatouille, though there are plenty more), but I don't think there are a lot of movies for children about trying to follow their dreams, getting stuck and unable to move forward as things don't go as planned, then trying to find a way to get back to doing what they dreamed of doing. It makes this movie all the more special I think.

What's great about the movie is that it hits on so many points about art block. Such as when Kiki tells Tombo (the boy she likes) that she no longer enjoyed flying after she started flying her business. That's definitely a problem for any artist who tries to make living off of art (the making an activity you're passionate about into a job thing, not the flying thing).

The scenes where the loss of flight= art block metaphor is the strongest is when, after losing her powers, Kiki takes time off and goes to her artist friend's log cabin in the woods nearby the city. The artist, Ursula, gives Kiki lots of advice on how to move past her block and regain her powers, such as doing things that have nothing to do with flying such as talking long walks and enjoying the scenery. Ursula also talked about a time when she had a serious art block, and about how she had to find for herself inspiration and the reason why she wanted to paint in order to get rid of her art block.

The ending is okay, to be fair there aren't that many movies that have endings that impress me (I don't even like the ending to Spirited Away, which of course makes me a bad anime nerd), but Kiki does get her flying powers back because *spoiler alert* the boy she likes is in trouble and she flies to him in order to save him. So the lesson learned is that boys are the both the cause of art block but also the inspiration a girl needs to get beyond an art block. Okay kidding, Kiki regained her ability to fly because she dug reeeaaallll deep inside and discovered that her inspiration for flying is all the people who she cares about, which may or may not include boy she likes but certainly looks that way.

All in all I really like Kiki's Delivery Service and the way it deals with art block and growing up and such. If kids pay attention to the movie and it's message, it can definitely give them some ideas to think over when they get stuck in an art block and make them think about why they want to do what they like to do. I give the movie an A-, a minus because Tombo ain't that cute compared to other Miyazaki male love interests (hellooooo Howl from Howl's Moving Castle) and he's kind of annoying.