Making Music from Machines, Trees or Whatever is Handy

This one falls under the "music" section of "art, music and other shiny objects"... or does it fall under the "art" section? While music itself is an art form, it's easier to recognize the art in some music rather than others. (Did I just say that??)

I found this NPR piece on Diego Stocco today through stumbleupon.com. (If you're not familiar with stumbleupon.com, I suggest you check it out. But fair warning: you may get sucked into a vortex of groovy, fascinating, funny or informative websites. It's pretty dangerous.)

In a nutshell, Diego Stocco makes music from things that you wouldn't normally think of as instruments; sand, trees... a dry cleaner. Oh - and he also cuts up traditional instruments and Frankenstiens them with others to make something entirely different. It's some cool stuff, I must say.

What really caught my interest was the dry cleaners music, because I like to listen the rhythms of machines; like my dishwasher, or even the tapping of fingers on a computer keyboard. (I do miss old fashioned typewriters: tap tap tap-tap-tap ding zip!)

Check out Music From a Dry Cleaner:
And... Music From a Bonsai:
You can check out the full NPR article here, including an interview with Stocco.

Where does the city meet Mother Nature? In art, of course!

"Chicago" Tabetha Landt Hastings 30"x40"

Sometimes I feel torn between my love for cities, and my love nature. Between the grandeur of tall buildings mixed with the urban vibe, and the serene beauty of the forest. My art tends to be either/or... I've got my nature paintings (which mainly tend to be trees) and my city buildings.

Well, a few days ago I decided to let those worlds collide. Partially because I got a new canvas in a size that I've never painted on before. It's long and narrow (I'm guessing it must be 48"x12"), and I'm finding that changing up the canvas size can really shake you out of a routine.

"Forest for the Trees" Tabetha Landt Hastings

My new painting is still in it's first stages, and therefore a bit camera shy. It's been trying to decide whether it was the city taking over nature, or nature reclaiming her ground. The struggle is in me of course, because I want them to coexist.

As luck would have it, I came across an artist today who combines city and nature so beautifully, that I just had to share. Also, I'm wild about her technique - she doesn't use paintbrushes, but instead she squeezes the paint out of bottles, and tips the canvas to get the paint where she wants it. Her name is Amy Shackleton, and you can check out her work here.

Below is a time lapse video of Amy in action. It's pretty amazing to watch! I finally noticed that there were words on the screen in my third time watching it!

The Prosperity Game: Day 3

I've been quite busy this week with First Friday prep, and have slacked off in the Prosperity Game. That is no good. I must say that I'm only consistent in my inconsistency. But I get there eventually.


For day three I've decided to get some bills paid off, after which I had $560 to spend. So I bought my mom a Kindle and some accessories ($193.98) a gift card so she can download books ($75) and a snappy pair of boots for me ($284.94.)

That left me with $6.08 to spend on lunch.

Tomorrow I'll work on spending $4,000. Man it's nice to dream, but this is getting to be work!

The Prosperity Game: Day Two

Today I have two thousand dollars to spend in the Prosperity Game. I think I'd like to hire someone to paint my art studio. And while they're at it they can paint the common areas in the building too. I have no idea how much this would cost without a professional estimate, but I'm going to say that someone could do it for $1000...better make that $1500.

The $500 left over will go towards my car: brakes, oil change, tune up... just enough to get me through the next few weeks until I'm further into the game and can buy a new car.

So, no "stuff" for me today, just stuff that needs to be done. And actually... getting stuff done feels just as good (if not better) as getting stuff! But then I am a very practical person. (Maybe I need to learn to be more frivolous?)

The Prosperity Game: Day One

I'm crazy about this clock! Click on pic to link to Etsy store.

The purpose of this game is to feel prosperous, and to get specific in the things we want. How are we ever going to attract what we want if we don't even know what it is?
I have to admit that I am a lazy imaginer. I really don't like to shop and I'd rather not think about this stuff so I make really big generalizations. Such as "Oh I just want to be happy" and "I want a car that runs". But I don't take the time to specify what makes me happy. And I always have cars that run, but they don't always run well.

Then there's: the "What if I win the lottery?" question. Well... I'll pay off my bills, buy a house and a car and travel Europe for awhile. Yep, that's pretty close to what most people say. I want to narrow it down and see exactly what is out there and what I want.

"My" new earrings! Click to link.

To play this game (please play it with me!), we pretend that we have a certain amount of money to spend each day. And we must spend that amount each day. Day one we get $1000, day two $2000, day three $3000 and so on. I've played this game in the past and never get very far because believe it or not, it gets hard trying to spend all that money. Once you hit day 30 you get $30,000! Okay fine, spend it on a big ticket item, but remember: the next day you get $31,000 that you have to spend!

I'm not sure how long I can keep this up, or keep up being so very specific, but I'm going to go as far as I can with it. So today I purchased an iPad (64GB) with a cover, a keyboard and the protection plan. Grand total: $954.40 with tax. That left me with $45.60 to spend so I headed over to Etsy and got a groovy clock that looks like the moon ($20) from CyberMoon, and a pretty pair of earrings ($22) from ModernTrinkets.

And "my" beautiful new iPad. Ahhhh....

Now I have $3.60 left, and I'm quite sure I can spend that at Starbucks. :)

Tomorrow I have $2,000 to spend...