{this moment}

inspired by SouleMama 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

  If you're inspired to do the same, leave your link in the comments below. Also visit SouleMama and leave your link there, too.

inside {process}

"how do you come up with these?", my father-in-law asked me this weekend.

i tried to answer with how i actually made them, materials i used, and sources of inspiration. but that's not the real answer. and it's been on my mind since.

i think that's actually what people want to know when they ask about an artist's process. it's not "and what stroke was next?", it's "how did you come up with this?" that's what i would want to know, anyway.

and i've actually been searching myself for that answer lately, too. "what am i trying to get across?"

the answer, the technique and the product is always changing, but one thing i realized that's vague but true: i'm creating what i FEEL when i look at something.

and thankfully (or not) the world around us, the sea, nature, is always changing. sometimes it doesn't work. sometimes it's perfect, beyond me. sometimes i'm not sure, for a long time.

even though he was just asking a question trying to further understand the mentality... and even though he has reason to be interested ... he was asking with such intention and awe that my heart lit up - he gets it. i am actually speaking a language that other people understand, even if i can't explain it. even the very abstract pieces. sometimes even jay will look at something and not "get" it. the whole process can be so individual and internal, that the validation of someone like my father-in-law "getting it" was awesome. 

people come at art from all different angles. they, too, have passions and a lot of them aren't as easily shared. i know it takes a lot to wrap your head around someone else's, even your own. that's why, when someone comes at my messy studio world with excitement and open eyes, i truly appreciate it. lighting up and asking questions and touching things like it's a part of them they've been missing since they were kids.

sometimes, a mark is made because i know that a color will balance something here, or a line will draw your eye there. but usually, the determining factors about "why" and "how" are the feelings i experience when i look at something that possess me to create and express them. i can't help but process them. i need to. i'm not always so open to it, and even when i'm not very inspired, it eventually comes back. which is why i continue to chase it.

littles on etsy

his favorite

this and below, new littles.

thanks for listening and looking.

for a cloudy friday

{this moment}

inspired by SouleMama 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

  If you're inspired to do the same, leave your link in the comments below. Also visit SouleMama and leave your link there, too.

a thing of beauty

as you may know, m&m ice cream with rainbow jimmies is my ultimate guilty pleasure, for my eyes and my tastebuds. some places do it well, some don't. recently, my sister did it ridiculous. she made me m&m ice cream in her ice cream maker, and its ratio of m&m's to rich french vanilla custard-like ice cream was over-the-top, perfect. i could sit and stare at a nice container of colorful ice cream for an obscene amount of time (at breathing points during the devouring process, of course). what is your guilty pleasure?

new website!

i have a brand spankin' new website. courtesy of my dad's skillz (aka indiefair digital arts) and a few good tablespoons of my brain. it's really fun that my dad is in the digital arts business, as we've been able to work on projects together. while we worked on this one, we schemed about other projects we can create as a team. can't wait to show you what we're going to do next! in case you haven't clicked already ... check out the new and improved

kielegregoire.com

let me know what you think!

last friday

i had some postings set up for last week but suddenly they all seemed so insignificant. and then before i knew it, i was flying to pennsylvania. i can't believe how our "planning" of when to visit turned out to feel like it was meant to be, out of our hands. as we all realize now and then, you can't plan on anything. you can make plans, it's necessary to move forward, but ultimately what's meant to be, will be, and sometimes, it makes absolutely no sense. and this time it put me right in keri's hug when she needed it most. i couldn't be more thankful for that. it's a huge testament to who keri and chris are as people and as a couple, as a family, that they welcomed me into their everyday during such a trying time. they didn't plan on showing me a little more about real life with their raw love, but they did.

{this moment}

inspired by SouleMama 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

  If you're inspired to do the same, leave your link in the comments below. Also visit SouleMama and leave your link there, too.

{this moment}

inspired by SouleMama 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

  If you're inspired to do the same, leave your link in the comments below. Also visit SouleMama and leave your link there, too.

{this moment}

inspired by SouleMama 

this friday's "moment" is a little different. with a lot of parentheses.

shameless plug: three moments from my weekend that show my (awesome) husband and his (amazing) band, (seriously, not even because i'm biased)... Bells Down. give a listen (and a like) on facebook, or listen here, and you will be belting it out with bayley and dancing at your desk. they performed at the opening of a band member's new tattoo shop, Grim North Tattoo and Piercing in Portsmouth, NH. (listen up- if you live in new england- even if you don't need a tattoo or piercing, just stop in there to check out how they've styled it! SO awesome... )

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

water is in my soul {full circle moments}

from the weekend- a show at east colony fine arts featuring verne orlosk and adele sanborn.

CAUTION: there is much more writing in this post than normal. brace yourself.

works below, by my very talented mom, verne orlosk:

"Soft Touch" (in a handmade driftwood stand!)

"Submissions"

"Resting Place"

"Quite Perfect"

"Within You"

"Touched"

"Outside Moon" and "Outside Inside"

"Generations" MY FAVORITE!

hands of the artist + model + mum

these were some minis. i don't have all the names, but they were awesome things like "octopod" and "snail ring".

i am amazed at her progress over the years and even more amazed at the theme that's emerging.

she was always excellent at drawing, from her old college work, to the skill and creativity of the crafts she'd do with us as kids, to the jewelry she made, and now into these glass pieces, that are a new form of drawing, her own form – on glass. (glass powder and wire).

and then of course, there's the ocean theme. but it's more than that. i love the way it's evolved into an expression of the relationship between us as humans, and the sea. the line between where we end and the sea begins is blurred, even non-existent. how we feel when we hold an offering from the sea is inexplicable and ever-so-natural. like a worry-stone that's had a perfect thumb groove carved by the sea.

the relationship is a visual one that alludes to other complex ideas -- an emotional, theoretical, ancestral relationship .... the possibilities are endless. 

"generations" is my personal favorite and is a great example. it tells a tale of so many layers. 

check this out: the innate pull i have to explore these similarities reflects her theme, and i never put the two together this much until now. after all, our backgrounds are similar (BU, graphic design, mother-daughter), but our mediums and skills and thought processes have differed and yet we still arrive at undeniably similar nudges toward a human relationship with the sea.

4 years ago, my senior thesis was...

"an exploration of the visual interface between the creation of human and oceanic life."

i've spent many days and many mediums on jellyfish. i made a book where they transformed into faint images of a brain and spinal cord. my thesis included a book and a series of posters that visually related human and oceanic anatomy, mainly in the creation of life, and gave way to conversation about the other endless relationship possibilities of us and the sea. (...as well as the classmate who asked me if it was about abortion. which is it NOT.) looking back, having more life experiences, more art aesthetic, more wisdom (i mean, can you get wiser than 26? yes. yes i'm sure i'll look at this in another 4 years and see how much more i've grown and how little i knew back then. that's why i could NEVER keep journals, i would try, but then rip out the pages later because i sounded so stupid back then. or i ruined a good memory by explaining i away.) anyway- i can see the connections growing and i would welcome an opportunity to do a new "senior thesis" every couple years on this topic. never thought i'd say THAT! full circle moments ...