Right Brain Redux: Project 23 of 30: We're baaa-aaack!

Right Brain Redux: Project 23 of 30

We're baaa-aaack. Sorry for the gap between posts. Lots to do and colds to fight (life with kids. Someone ALWAYS has a cold to share). So, post number 23. 

For this challenge, Jessica pulled out the one-line challenge "Draw something using only one line" in which she had to draw a picture without lifting pen from paper. Kevin (that's me) drew "Write a one-page story based on a random dictionary word."

Kev: Well, I don't have a paper dictionary available, so I used a handy-dandy random word generator and got "Sloughed". For me, the challenge was writing a one page story. I just realized writing this that I missed the spirit of the challenge, sort of. I did USE the word in the story, but I was so focused on limiting myself to just one page that I forgot the story was supposed to be based on the word rather than just including it. But it is already written, so I submit to you:

"Exponential"

Brannix cracked open the containment unit, raising the internal temperature by more than a degree. Working quickly, he shaved off a razor-thin sample from the specimen inside and hurriedly resealed the cap. Transferring the sample to a petri dish, he carried it over the high-powered  microscope manned by his colleague.

"Are you certain we shouldn't be working this under full containment, Ardon?" he asked nervously.

"What are you so worried about? This things dead for at least five thousand years. The only reason we keep it chilled is so it won't break down before we can study it."

The sample slid into place and Ardon adjusted the focus on the viewer as he continued "Something killed this thing outright, and it wasn't an EMP. The planet is covered with remains of them. Figuring out what kind of weapon did it will be a real boost in the fight, not to mention our bank... oh..."

Brannix looked up from stirring the noodles he was boiling in a beaker "Oh? What's Oh? Oh doesn't sound good. That was a bad Oh."

"Look here," Ardon tipped the screen around so Brannix could see "There's one nanite functioning. Barely. It looks like its eating one of the inert ones."

"Wow," he replied, slurping his noodles, "Guess after five k, he's pretty hungry. Why would it do that?"

"Reproduction cycle, you boneheaded idiots," boomed the voice of Professor Xedos through the intercom, "Who authorized you to open one of the alien samples?"

"Uh, we just thought we'd do some hands-on studying while we..."

"Look at the screen."

On the monitor, the first microscopic machine had already become more than two dozen. As they devoured the corpses of their ancient fellows, the number doubled every half-second. Then the screen went blank as a silvery mass surged up out of the dish and around the camera lens of the microscope. Within seconds, it was boiling out of the top of the cylinder. Plastic components sloughed off like dead skin as a form took shape in the center of the writhing mass.

"I'm sorry," the lab shuddered as Xedos explained, "Containment protocols have been activated. The lab has been sealed off and ejected from the station. You two... you knew better."

The lights went out as the lab was disconnected from the station's power, leaving only the red glowing eyes of the fully formed alien robot standing amid the ruins of the microscope.

Jess: Jessica's task for today was a true challenge for her: Draw using only one line. My love is a perfectionist, and using the single line means you can't fix mistakes. She is trying hard to embrace the imperfection, but it drives her nuts at the same time. I think she did great. Here are a few of her pieces.

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Right Brain Redux: Day 3 of 30 Day Creativity Challenge

Sundays are busy days for us, so time for the challenge was definitely part of the challenge. My (Kev) Jar pull for today was to write a poem (length and type unspecified) on a subject chosen at random by Mini-me. He chose for me "Spider-Man". I debated for a while over what kind of poem to try. Now, I'm no poetry aficionado. I do enjoy a limerick every now and again, and I can appreciate good poetry. As far as writing goes, I'm merely a dabbler. So here you have it:

Superhero when he crawls the walls

Peter Parker when he walks the halls

Intent for evil brings his attention

Dumb crooks in police detention

Extra headlines for Triple J

Really makes for big payday

May never knows where he's been

Always honors his Uncle Ben

Never lets evil doers win!

C'mon, Monday! Bring it on!

Kev

Jess // Day 3 Challenge: Take a Photograph of Something Intriguing

I had originally thought I'd try to ride around to find my photography subject. I had an idea of something involving old bricks, unexpected pops of color, and/or something you'd most likely pass by with no second thought. Those subjects will surely find me another day though as I'm always looking for them. Like Kev said, Sundays are our busiest days, and by this evening, I was also feeling rough... that sinus infection is coming for me. So I grabbed my camera and headed outside before I lost the daylight. Hope for a couple of pics, probably macro shots, I had, but what I didn't expect was later choosing 1 of 80 shots.

I find unattractive things intriguing. I'm obsessed with rust and chipped paint. Algae, moss, and rotting things make for perfect subjects. Maybe it's drawing out their intriguing qualities that makes me feel like I've redeemed them in some way. I'm sure I could analyze why that's so, but to make this blog entry a little more succinct, I'll move on. Here's the picture I finally decided to post (no small task due to incurable indecisiveness.)

Here's where that indecisiveness hits again... what I like about it: color, rust, paint chipping, something you'd likely pass by or not notice, a bonus spider web, and even a hidden spider to find. Do you see it?

I might get this one printed, and I'll probably post a few of the other 79 shots at some point too. Day 4, I'm ready!

Jess



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Right Brain Redux: Day Two Updated Projects

Right Brain Redux: Day 2

Today was one of those days. You know the ones: those days where everything comes up and goes haywire (especially the toddler) and by the time that you've done all the errand running and putting out fires and hidden the matches (Jess, not really, this is a hypothetical situation) from the toddler again and maybe chased down a bite to eat (that the toddler carried through the house) there just doesn't seem to be any time left for, well, anything. Well, that's where we found ourselves today. Between the errands and getting ready for Kid's Church tomorrow, there really didn't seem to be time to squeeze in a creative project this evening.

We started this little experiment as a way to kick start our creativity after it's been idle for so long, but today it has also shown us that you CAN find time to create. You just have to want to. Maybe you give up something else for it. The relaxing bath. Another episode of Dr. Who. Part of your sleep. You just decide which one is the most important to you.

Today's challenges were:

Jessica: Create a piece from/ inspired by an everyday object.

Jess took her inspiration from something most of us see every day, and incidentally our studio name. She began with a stove burner/ eye from an electric stove and stripped it down to its basic shapes and curves.  Framing a portion of the eye in the image and stripping out the colors, she added some old-fashioned halftones and created an image that I would almost swear was a domed city from one of my old Buck Rogers comics I had as a kid. I love it.

Kevin: Design a T-Shirt based on a visual pun.

I actually thought this one up yesterday without having any idea I would draw this particular challenge today. The phrase I punned was the title of the old hymn "Power in the Blood". I took the image of a blood bag and simply placed a universal style power button in the middle of it. I had thought of doing a blood splatter with the button in it, but I just didn't have time. I went old-school in the creation of this image. Light pencil sketch, inked over and the pencil erased, then colored in with some Twenty-year-old Prismacolor markers I bought way back in art school. The red one gave me its last I think. After coloring in, I went over the red with alcohol on gauze to feather it out a bit and blend.

Neither of these pieces took and extremely large amount of time to create. In fact, I'd guess about an hour apiece. Proof that you CAN find time to create. They may not be perfect design, but they are perfect imperfection. And that's art.

See you tomorrow for Round 3!

Kev

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Right Brain Redux : Day 2 Project Challenges

Our challenges for day two have been drawn from the jars. 

Check back to see how the challenge goes! 

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Right Brain Redux : Day 1 Projects

Today marked the first day of the thirty-day art challenge we set for ourselves as outlined in our previous blog post. Jessica's first draw from the Challenge Jar was to take a scribble/doodle drawn by our toddler boy and turn it into a finished drawing.  My first pick was to fill an entire page with doodles. Mini-me (our older  son) joined in as well, being allowed to choose between our projects. He chose to do the page full of doodles with me.

Jessica has titled her piece "Sad Flower". The first image is the scribble by Little, the second is her finished drawing. On a day when she draws out a simpler project, she intends to go back and color this one in. I love her line work on this. She gave Little a sharpie and a sheet of paper and let him doodle for a few minutes (Had to take it away when he started drawing on the high chair and his hand). Then Jessica let the paper stay on the table for a good part of the day, looking at it as she passed by, occasionally turning it to different angles until all at once the image leapt out at her. "Once I'd seen it, it couldn't be unseen."

It took a few minutes and a couple of false starts to get Mini-me to understand what I meant by a page full of doodles. The idea we went with was no plan. Just put your brain in neutral and draw whatever popped into it. He was reluctant at first, worried about it being "good", or if it was as good as mine. I told him that he didn't need to compare his work to mine. Only to himself and what he had done before. As he loosened up, he really got into it, and I think he turned out a wonderful piece. It's really a big deal for him to create something so abstract and unstructured, being where he is on the autism spectrum.  I was delighted when I looked at it after he went to bed and followed all the patterns around to the "Bad Wolf".

I began my piece in the top left corner and worked my way down and around the page.  I spent a little time trying to hard in that first crowded corner, but as I went counterclockwise around the page it began to flow a lot better. The last part came out less detailed (top right corner) because time was slipping away from me. I put my project off till the evening because I was gone a large part of the day, and then Little decided he didn't want to go to bed. Lately, he lays down when big brother does and goes right to sleep. Tonight he decided to fight it for over an hour, and I finally had to hold him for half an hour before he gave it up. I know that's not artistic information, but it is life with Spectrum kids. It's part of our process.

It's always surprising to me the things I find in the shapes when I start to doodle. I don't always end up with what I think I'm starting to draw. BEWARE THE BANINJA! (Bananas are ninjas. Really. You ever heard one sneaking up on you? That proves my point.)

Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

P.S. If you have any suggestions for challenges, put them in the comments section.  We may just add them to the jar for the next round.

Jess needed our toddler to draw a picture for her challenge. 

Here's what he gave her to work with.

And here's what she produced from Little's drawing, "Sad Flower."

Our older son joined in on the challenge. He chose "Fill A Paper With Doodles."

Kevin's Challenge for Day 1: "Fill a Page with Doodles"

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Creativity Challenge: Day 1

Right Brain Redux
30-Day Creativity Challenge
Day: 1

Kev: Fill a page with doodles

Idea Source: Emily Potts, "5 Drawing Exercises to Turn Anyone Into an Artist"

Jess: Complete a drawing based on a toddler scribble

Results to come, so check back later.

Right Brain Redux

Right Brain Redux

(30-Day Creativity Challenge)

Redux- adjective 1. brought back; resurgent; 1650-60; < Latin: returning (as from war or exile)

In honor of back-to-school, Jessica and I have decided to subject ourselves to a creative experiment. I know, School started yesterday and we are a day behind. Trust me, that's early for me.

With so many things going on in our family life over the past year (Moving to a new house, moving to a new state, Starting a Kids' Church Ministry from scratch, Remodeling a house in the new state, moving into the new house in the new state, major surgery-- all while juggling the rest of the usual stuff of living and working and raising two awesome autistic boys.) our creative lives have really taken a hit. We've tried to eke out time to art here and there, but often we just haven't been able to find it. Or we're too worn out from chasing a toddler who has decided he will only answer to "Hurricane" for the day.

So here's the challenge we've set for ourselves; together, we have created a list of creative challenges to be performed one per day over the next thirty days. There are about forty in all and have been printed on slips of paper which are folded and placed into Challenge Jars.

Each of us has our own jar with the exact same set of papers, but to keep it interesting we will each select one challenge per day from our own Challenge Jar. This way, we probably won't be doing the same challenge on the same day, but we should have done most of the same projects over the course of the challenge. The projects cover everything from drawing and painting to photography and writing. One day I might have to write a haiku on a subject chosen by my son while Jessica draws a friendly robot or finger paints with the boys.

The randomness of the challenge is designed to flex our creative muscles and give us a workout. The projects are simple enough to complete in the course of a day. The one-day deadline is to keep us moving. We will be posting our challenge for you to see each morning, and the results each evening. You can feel free to join in and try your hand at each day's challenge if you'd like.

It's gonna be a crazy-fun month!

Kevin

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Etsy Treasury // "Just a Georgia Girl"

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Etsy Treasuries

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Selling Our Stuff to Buy Our Dreams

As our bio states, we're a husband & wife team who’s spent most of our adulthood so far putting artistic dreams on hold. We put off those dreams for various reasons. Life has a way of doing that, taking over. The Backburner Studio is a dream awakened to reality.

We decided we wanted our dreams more than we wanted our stuff. Help us out by taking a look. If you see something you like or think someone else might like, pass the link along! The Backburner Store Thanks so much for taking an interest in The Backburner Studio. We hope our continued story encourages you to take your dreams off the backburner. 

Stay tuned! (:

Checkout our Etsy shop. 

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New Site is Up!!

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Oh Klout, I have yet to figure you out...

Klout so graciously attempts to "explain" how they determine our little studio's internet importance; however, the graphs supplied don't exactly paint a clear-cut reasoning. I'm sure there's plenty of scientific reasoning and/or mathematics  involved, but seriously, how can a person/ entity gain or lose 20+ increments of "klout" in one day?

Was that last blog post seriously that good (or bad)?

The mystery remains veiled...



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We're having an Etsy Sale!!

Check it out now! (: 

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