Ezine Blogs: February 2010

Up in the air review

Now I know why this movie get so many nominations.....Because it's simply a great movie.

At first, I was like feeling bored at the beginning part at the movie, but when you following up with the storyline till the end, I'm actually touched by this movie and what it tells is soooo TRUE.

Again, Clooney made it. Another Clooney's movie that I love. He actually playing himself in the movie....(As himself say that, and what I think.) A guy that love freedom, no connection bond with the others, no marriage concept, no kids. He's a person who specially hired to fired the others. There are some funny parts in this movie too, a simple one but is enough to be a lighting up for the movie.

I mean there's been a long time I didn't watch a movie like this. Very interesting. This movie show things that happened in our life.Like this, how you feel when you first told by your failure? Disappointment? Anger? Hopeless? And how do you feel when you're told with your biggest success? Happy? Proud?

Let's think again. Just let's us put this in this way. Put the two condition in the same situation where you family and friends are gone and not with you. When you feel hopeless, anger.....you can tell no one and nobody is going to give advice or help you. When you feel proud and happy for your success, no one actually there to share the happiness with you.

Human connection is really important and cannot be replaced by anything and human cannot live alone. Somebody need someone sometimes. This is what happened in the movie where Clooney's role and Anna Kendrick's role, which is a really funny connection between them but yet it change the point of view of Clooney. As well as Vera Farmiga's role.

And I found out one thing that everyone in this movie that get fired except for the actors, is actually real people that get fired in real life. And the director want them to show actually how they feel when they first get informed that they're fired.

Jason Reitman is GREAT!!! The director and the writers. Thanks for producing such a meaningful and realitic movie. I LOVE this movie and RIH!!! highly recommend it.

(PS: I love this film when it first released,I'm so eager to watch this movie. THUMBS UP!!! Now I understand why Keith is writting the song of Why It Feel So Long.....)

A Sea Witch Pink Saturday

Pink is a color of subtlety for me. Too much pink and I feel like I'm in a Pepto Bismol nightmare, so I have been fighting the urge to join in on "pink Saturday" because of the visual pink overload that comes with it. Still, never one to stay on the sidelines for long, here are a few offerings for pink saturday that this sea witch can relate to:

Natural pink pearl nestled in oyster shell.

Queen conch shell, brilliant in its sunset interior.

Sweet clown fish hiding among a neon pink anemone.

Sea Witch on a good day. (haaa, in my fin tail dreams)

Swim gently all. Sea Witch

Hummingbird Hunt

This was a post from a while ago, but what the heck, a classic is always in style, and I am beginning to have visits from these lovely creatures in my backyard again.

Many a seemingly complicated drawing project is really simple if you just break it down into steps. When teaching a lesson, I always start with a black line coloring book style drawing. Most details and color blending is done as the last steps in a project, but tends to get seen first and can distract you from finding the "bones" of the drawing. I obviously used a still picture to do this project and drawing from life is much more challenging, but the principle is the same. Practicing gesture drawing in quick sketches is the best way to get the structure of your drawing and then go back and add details later.
This blackline came from the Jan Brett website and is available as a free coloring page.

I tried to break this down into manageable pieces without making too many steps.
If you find it confusing, just try to break it down into even smaller steps. What does a shape look like to you? Do you see a triangle or maybe a Hershey Kiss. Do you see a sideways letter C or maybe a rainbow or happy face? Making those kind of connections is what turns you into an artist, not simply following someone else's steps.

The finished hummingbird at the top of this post was completed with watercolor pencil and white oil pastel for highlights.

Below you will find some images of real hummingbirds to reference for color ideas.

And now, not quite as small as a hummingbird. but just as beautiful and amazing, in my opinion...

Emberjayne Grace
Seven Weeks

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living

I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon...I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals, or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain -- mine or your own without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy -- mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful be realistic to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure -- yours and mine and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes."

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

The Invitation - Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Hello beautiful friends. I may not be blogging daily at this moment, but please know that I am thinking of you all. As noted in my last post, I have much that I must address right now and have had to "tread water" with some of the things I adore...this blog being one of them. I'm making headway and hope to be back posting on Monday again. I want you to know I have missed your funny words, bittersweet stories, hilarious adventures, glorious photography and most of all the creativity that each of you so willingly shares with the blogging community. I wanted to share "The Invitation" with all of you. The Invitation was a declaration of life by Oriah Mountain Dreamer and how she wants to live it with others and one of those small book titles that caught my eyes many years ago. It stopped me in my tracks and had me gasp, "Wow." If only I could express myself in such a powerful way. Her book is an interesting read, although I found I did not agree with her choices based on her "Invitation." I felt they conflicted, however, it was that declaration that captured my heart. I was thinking about all of you and how much I missed reading your postings when my eyes came across her book on my table and so I share her Invitation with you.

Have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to rejoining the community next week. Sea Witch

You Know it's Spring When the Zinias Zoom and...

oil pastel and watercolor resist

the art teachers start pulling out lessons
on Georgia O'Keefe's flowers.

Yes, spring has sprung where I live and the rainbow
in my backyard is blooming again! In art class last week and the week before we focused on Georgia O'Keefe.
She has a very interesting biography and you can read more about that here,
but for now I have two projects for your consideration
and a little surprise at the end!

Project # 1 Oil pastel and watercolor resist

Materials needed:
black oil pastel
water color paint
brushes
watercolor paper
masking tape
a flower of your choosing

(before you begin, use masking tape to attach your paper to a board. Go all the way around all four edges, the end result will look like a crisply edged print!)

1. Start by looking at your flower, really looking at it! Look inside as far as you can, notice the parts and their shapes.

2. Sketch out what you see. Remember O'Keefe's flowers were done in a tightly cropped and very "zoomed" in composition. Use oil pastel instead of pencil and try to capture what you are seeing without worrying about mistakes. The point of this is not total drawing accuracy, but connecting with what you see through drawing.

3. Once your sketch is done, decide what colors you are going to use- they do not have to be the same as the original flower. Paint right over the pastel which will resist the watercolor.

4. Once the painting is dry, remove the tape and enjoy!

Project # 2-(intended for older or more advanced students)

pencil floral element composition

Materials needed
Pencil
drawing paper(3 sheets each)
flower or picture of a flower of your choice

1. Sketch the flower as accurately as you can. Really look at the shapes of the petals and the details of the leaves- are the veins prominent? Are the edges straight or serrated?

2. Once your drawing is done, look at that shapes again. Try to pull out at least ten elements of shape or pattern and draw them on another piece of paper.

3. Using these elements, create a new design or pattern. It shouldn't really look like a flower, just a composition made up of floral elements.

4. Once your the basics of your design are in, then shade. Really try to create an array of pencil tones and shades that go from very light to very dark. The more shades you have in a drawing then the more interesting it will be!

Have fun!

Now for the surprise...

Emberjayne Grace

Six weeks old

Cyril Simply Magic : Kuala Lumpur

Finally, got the chance to watch the replay for Cyril Simply Magic at AXN during chinese new year (Gong Xi Gong Xi.....)

Two words to describe......Simply Magic (No sarcastic meaning in it, I mean simply magic, back to the purest magic....just simply magic)

Well, Cyril went to plenty of places in KL. Batu caves, Bukit Bintang, KLCC, Kampung Banting...and actually he went to Genting as well (Not in the show but he did went to genting, don't ask me why I know about it....because I'll tell you, because this is SIMPLY rock it heartless!!! Haha, okay not funny.)

He did some really cool magic, transforming daun daun (leaf) into butterfly, making KLCC puzzle which is in 3D, the orange-lemon-egg-chic chain (chic mean simply chic, baby chicken, don't get it wrong....I love this MAGIC, cyril prefer we called it as magic instead of trick.)

When cyril come to KL, Pop Shuvit is the one to welcome him (Pop Shuvit is kinda huge in japan....) They made a song called Magic Man for Cyril (Ehem, honestly i think freakshow is better, no offend!!!)

Hari raya, Cyril with Pop Shuvit...

Cyril did some magic where he perform in Japan before like the express cloths changing, the indian jasmine threads (he did the express scarf in Japan, same concept) but I love the orange chic chains magic he did. Cyril speaks some Malay when he performing the magic, like AYAM (there's AYAM in Cyril's name which is Cyril Takayama...haha I know it's sound stupid....oh ayam mean chicken) The magic he did is he tranform a chick into an egg, an egg into a lemon, a lemon into an orange, and when he cut the orange, there's a lemon, when he cut the lemon, there's an egg, when he break the egg, there's a chick!!! (@_@) COOL!

He attend and perform at a Sony Ericsson event in KL as well.

Cyril is one of the coolest magician I saw so far. He's really creative, of course this is efforts from his crew and Enrico too (One of magic X member and consultant for some of Cyril's magic). Well, you guys should check out Cyril Simply Magic because it's simply magic, watch and enjoy the magic.

(PS : The ring magic performed by Cyril is so funny, visually or magically but he's kinda cool)

Feeling Belly Up

Yup, this is one of those days where I am feeling like a fish... belly-up.

Of course, it is all my own doing and now I am dealing with the consequences of my own actions. I have a tendancy to take on more than I should. My honey often says I have oars in many oceans and he is correct. About once or twice a year I realize I have taken on too much and it then overtakes me...which makes me feel more like a bloated fish with all of the activities and responsiblities I have piled on myself.

Oh, yea, that's me!

So, between preparing income taxes for family, the items I have to price and get in the shop, prepare a proposal for a website build, returning my home to its original setup following a delightful visit from family, get out birthday gifts to family, send care package to son in Afganistan, catch up on all of my blogging favorites and friends (of which I am shamelessly and woefully behind), dealing with all of the crisis's that just happened to float to the top at work (it's what happens when you herd engineers for a living) and finishing up some jewelry commisisons, I am that puffed out puffer fish.

Well, I'm preparing a pot of "gun powder" tea...nope, it is not deadly, just the opposite, it brews up as a nice, smooth tea and just what I need to feel unpuffed again. Thank you for each and every time you stop by for a visist and your wonderful comments. I promise I will catch up with all of you later next week. Have a wonderful weekend my frends and stay unpuffed! Sea Witch

White Sea Turtle Wednesday - New Header

It is Ash Wednesday today as well as a White Wednesday. Go with peace to those who celebrate this beginning of the Lenten season and to all those who stop by. I changed my header out last evening with a photo I shot of a sea turtle that I came upon in the warm waters off of Cancun. He was comfortable with the divers and I was fortunate to get this close of a shot of him resting in a coral bed. His photo got me thinking about white sea creatures and I came across these lovely photos of albino sea turtles. How dramatic and extraordinary they are.

Every year around 15,000 Green and Hawksbill turtles are hatched and housed at the Thai Military Sea Turtle Conservation Center on Khram Island near Pattaya, and every so often an albino turtle turns up. The hatchlings are kept at the Center until they’re about 6 months old, at which point their shells have hardened enough for them to have a better chance of survival in the sea.

White amongst a sea of dark green, almost black siblings.

Sea turtles can live to surprisingly long ages but they suffer from high mortality when they’re young. Albinos are especially vulnerable due to their bright white color. The inquisitive-looking example above top was photographed at the Sea Turtle Sanctuary at Isla Mujeres near Cancun, Mexico. Such sweet faces on these wondrous creatures.

Wishing everyone a kind and gentle White Wednesday. Sea Witch

Snow in Atlanta

We don't often receive snow in the south and when it arrives, it truly cripples the city and metro areas surrounding it. We don't have plows or sand/salt trucks, we don't have snow shovels (I've never had to shovel sunshine while living here). So when it begins to snow, you learn to wait it out and let mother nature catch up with her gentle heat from the next day's sunshine to melt it all away. These are the photos of the snow storm we received on Friday afternoon into the late evening. (all photos enlarge upon clicking them)

The tops of the trees from the view on my back deck.

My neighbor's deck is covered in snow.

The branches on this tree are heavy with wet snowfall.

Just returned from picking up family from the train station. It snowed through the night and I took this shot from my driveway looking at the falling snow against the street light.

Fine tree branches become three times their size from the wet snow that would stick to them. It snowed throughout most of the night.

Crisp blue sky and the sound of loud, popping and crunching snow as a few 4-wheel drive owners made their way down the neighborhood streets early morning. It was a winter wonderland not often seen here.

The view from my front door.

This Yankee gal needed fresh bagels so I hit the streets with my vehicle and headed out. Thick ice was everywhere but bagels called so off I go.

The tree tops from my back deck. The snow scenes were lovely to look at and by 10:00 am the sun had begun to melt the streets clean from snow and ice. Most places remained closed until Sunday when the streets, roads and interstates were filled with travelers and shoppers for Valentines Day. Have a wonderful Monday everyone. Sea Witch