{James <3’s Kelli} Engagement Photos

Here are some of my favorite shots from my photo shoot for my friends James and Kelli. We went to the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis, this is the same place that he asked her to marry him, so it seemed fitting, also the scenery is just so beautiful.

I had a lot of fun on this shoot, I have known James for years so already having a rapport with him helps, since its usually harder to get the guy to look sincere in photos. I took about 300 photos through out this whole process because I wanted to make sure that I had captured the right expressions. I think this is very important when taking photos of people. I want to make sure that they are truly represented and they look like themselves. I know that this is something I would want, therefore I carry that same ideal through my work.

I had a lot of fun with artist touches in Photo Shop as well. I think that it enhances a photo and makes it a little more unique. Which is also something I try to accomplish because everyone knows I don’t do anything plain or basic.  I like to make sure that the photos are up to art quality and can look just as good as a painting.

I can’t wait for this wedding and I hope they love their photos as much as I do. ❤

Just some thoughts

   Good Evening! Today I am just going to write about some random ideas that I have been thinking about.

For example, I would like to have a more successful blog/website. I know to do this I need to write more, craft more, take more photos, in general just constantly be doing more for that to become a reality. I constantly have so many ideas about different things that I should be doing and making and creating. I need to dedicate a time for me to be able to explore these thought and dictate them out on to paper. But… see with this thought, there becomes the instance of all of the random thoughts that pop into my head at random times…. I am over thinking this. Here is one of my main problems… I think really fast, get a lot of ideas and than I over think them and still never quite get them done. Maybe yoga or something like that would help me focus better, or maybe just less caffeine. 🙂 Never!!! 🙂

Other things that I have been thinking about lately are a lot about making my own ideas into reality. Like setting a plan and executing them until finished polished and printed. I need to start holding myself more accountable. There isn’t anyone else that is going to do this for me and if I want to be some kind of artist, I owe that to my self and my art. I know that everyone uses New Years as a starting point to renew your life on a new fresh page of the calendar, but why can’t I just pick a random day or month? I think that I should choose something more random, a date more like me, maybe Sept 1st? Have this as my new beginnings, a new chapter in this book. To really start holding my self to a standard that is going to get more things accomplished. I know that so far I have done a pretty good job, way way better than I have in the past, but there needs to be more, more action, more work, more effort.

All in all I guess the summary of this blog was about me and making more time for myself and my arts, well….  now to get to it! ❤ ❤ ❤

5 Petal Paper Flower Design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are my new paper flower designs!!! I love these!! I am so happy now to have two different designs, I am going to make about 30 of these and than try another one. I have a couple modification in my head that I want to see if they will work out. I want to make more lily like ones too that are slimmer.  I am going to be working on making bouquets too, I think that those would go over nice.

🙂 🙂 🙂 So many different projects to be done!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

I haven’t been very good about posting things on here. Not that there isn’t quite a bit of different things that have been going on in this artistic area. I still have about 5 different photo projects that I need to post on here and on the Facebook page. I think that I will hopefully be getting more and more of this kinda thing done and up for the world to see.

Over 200 “Likes”

I just wanted to write a quick note on my thoughts about my achievment today, to show people that I really do appreciate every comment, like and job that I get. Today was  a milestone for a little starlette, I reached my
goal of over 200 people “liking” my art page. That makes me so happy that I have over 200 people that like
what I do and create. It just helps me continue to try hard and keep striving to be better by putting out new
art and photography. There are so many more things that I want to make/shoot and I hope with the continued support I can make this come true and maybe even someday only work for myself. It does get hard to balance all of the jobs and try and work on my own things and still have a life but I am doing my best and this helps me see that it will all be worth it someday. ❤

Home

St. Paul, Minnesota

I took this photo from Harriet Island on Sunday afternoon after the Grand Old Days parade. I was on the drive home from Mom and Dad’s house and thought… I don’t have a good photo of the city that raised me. I was literally downtown St. Paul everyday, being an only child and having two working parents I often would wander around the sky-ways, between both of their jobs. I did so so often that most of the local shop owners knew me and would look out for me. Now Dad works down at Harriet Island and I just love the view when I stop by to say hi. I know that a lot of people from the twin cities that think that each of the cities are far apart but coming from St. Paul and now living in Minneapolis, I think I couldn’t be luckier than to live where we have to major metro area so near, I guess that river side fear never got to me. So when I drive home from my many road trips, seeing this skyline means I’m home, at last.

Current thoughts on life

I found this image yesterday and it really struck a cord with me. I think that it sums up all of the things that I need to remember and strive for each and everyday. I think that those are the keys to being happy and leading a life of love.

Now the goal is to think about this image and try to live accordingly. I have been in a transitional period of time since December when my world got shook up. It has been a time when I needed to really think about the direction my life was headed and decide if where it was headed I was ok with, which or course I wasn’t. I was headed in a direction to work in a bar for the rest of my life and that would just be a sin to waste this talents that I have been blessed with.

I needed to take this time and try and focus my energies into my art and photography. There of course was still things that I needed to learn and just get out there and try. You can’t fail or succeed if you don’t even try. I am finding some to be amazing adventures that are taking me to places and meeting people that I would have never met and also to a lot of hard work and frustration. I understand that following a dream like this is going to take a lot of work and constant marketing and putting myself out there. I just hope every night that it works and something just clicks at the right time.

Right now I think I just need to start producing as much work in all of my specialty area as possible. One of them is bound to get me somewhere and possibly even all of them. I know, think big right? I need to have my camera with me at all time, no excuses, you never know when you are going to come across an amazing moment that you were just lucky enough to have your camera with for. Also I need to start exploring “the list” This is something that I have been adding projects to for years, dating all the way back to college dorm life. The more you create and experiment the further you can take your imagination and it should show through to other area of my life as well as things that I have been doing for years may come into a new light. ❤

New Wedding Photo Ad

This is the ad that I came up with today to start advertising my wedding/engagement photography. These are some photos that I have taken at a couple of weddings that I have been in attendance too. I really hope that something comes up because of this ad and maybe I can start making enough money to live off my creative passion. Only time will tell I guess… Here’s to Hoping!!!! ❤

A Very Holi Party

This weekend I had the pleasure of photographing my friends party of year, at Chateau Fremont. This is a celebration that Hindus greet the turn of winter into spring with a splash of color — in some areas, a geyser of color. They call their celebration the festival of Holi, and Hindus across India and throughout the world share prayer, camaraderie, special food, and a general sense of mischief as they douse each other in dyes and colored water. It was a blast, I loved all of the colors and all the fun! Here are some of my top photo’s. If you would like to check the rest out they are on my art Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/alittlestarlette

My 1st Art Show

I recently had my 1st art show at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Downtown Minneapolis with RAW Artists. I brought most of my fine art paintings and one sculpture. I finished most of what I wanted to bring with me on time, the only thing missing was the photo work. I wanted to bring a photo album of some of my photography work but I didn’t make it on time to get those printed with some of the issues I encountered.

I had been worried about bringing some kind of “wall” but was told that it wouldn’t be necessary and I didn’t worry about it any longer, but when I got there and saw what some of the others had brought to display their work I was a little saddened. I wish that I had been a little more prepared as far as presentation goes. I think that would have made all the difference in the world. At least my dad came and he was on the job to look at the other displays so that we could create something that would be more visually appealing and with lighting.

Another thing that I learned is that I need to have price tags on the items for sale and prints for sale. I have been looking into this part and it will defiantly be apart of my next show.

But overall I think that this was a pretty good showing, if not for anything more than the experience and the show of my supporters. I have gotten many Facebook, texts, call, emails from people wondering how the show went and to let them know about upcoming shows. That helps me feel better about the decision that I am making to move towards being an artist. I know that it takes a lot of time and dedication and I am now ready to put this effort in. I am so happy by the amount of people that did actually make it to the show and got to sign my memory board. I think that these are going to be great keepsakes and hopefully someday will have a whole room’s worth of supporters signatures and notes and when i am facing a hard day I can look at them and remember all of the people who are supporting me and appreciate my art.

******NEWS*****

I just bought my hosting site today and hopefully in the not to far distance future I can purchase my website and than i will have a whole new look and be able to better market myself!! I hope all of this old posting transfer. but if not I will figure out a way to make that happen! 🙂

 

Coral Sculpture

Here are the photos of the final product. This project took such a long time. I actually made the wire structure about a year ago when I lived in the studio downtown. Then never really got the motivation to build the clay around it. When I finally decided to wrap the clay around it, I realized why I waited so long! I would say just the clay process alone took over 12+ hours. Than after showing some regulars they told me that it looked more like coral, than a tree. I did some research about coral and found the type, stag-horn coral. It’s a hard coral that grows throughout the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and the Great Barrier Reef. It’s rated critical for extinction as well, which is horrible because it’s so pretty. I have to see thing in nature go extinct, its something that we as humans on this planet should be taking better care of. Anyways, back to the actual subject. While applying the clay, I forgot that some kinds of clay crack and the maintenance of that took some patch work but once I got those under control it was painting time. I primed it with a white based coat and then after hearing the input about it needing bumps on it if it was going to be coral I made up this odd mixture that worked really well. It was kind of hard to adhere in the beginning but I got the hang of it with my trusty paint brush. After I let that dry, time for the colors! I choose to use blues, these were the best combination of colors that I had at hand to make the light to dark effect that I wanted to achieve. I think that it turned out really amazing! I just keep looking over at it and I can’t believe that I made that!!!

I hope that everyone else who sees it loves it as much as I do, I realized today that no one has been over here to see any part of this process, they would have thought I was crazy anyways with how much work was put into this project. I do admit it got a little lengthy at times and I did get a little tired some nights, but now with the final product done, it’s amazing. I am really happy that I actaully carried out this idea and brought it to life. I am starting to get a little better at this, oh it must be age and the fact that I am starting to believe in myself a little more with each project, person who praises my work and fan on the Facebook page. I think the more and more positive feedback I get the more that I will continue to produce work that frees my soul and lets me express my inner thoughts and ideas through various mediums. I am thankful that I am not pigeonholed holed into one medium or one single talent, and that I am able to create many different things and  follow my heart and soul where ever it may wonder. ❤