Author: Katy Kelleher

Ira Glass on how to be successful in a creative field.

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Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Ira Glass is a personal hero of mine. I am completely obsessed with This American Life, and as a writer, I strive constantly to imitate his interviewing style. I think he’s funny and engaging and so good at what he does—which is why it’s a complete surprise to hear him say that he “took longer than anybody [he’s] ever met” to create the kind of work he wanted to make. His advice for beginners (animated above by David Shiyang Liu) is exactly what I’ve been waiting to hear. I’ve been frustrated with my own work lately, feeling stagnant and as though I would never get to where I want to be. But Ira once felt that way too! I find this immensely comforting.

{Via the fantastic website Brainpickings}

John Stortz’s delicate drawings.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 2 Comments

John StortzI came across illustrator John Stortz’s work on Pinterest, and I absolutely adore his style, particularly his work in pen. Each piece is so intensely detailed, almost to a microscopic level. I normally find pointillism and its ilk to be very static and flattened, yet somehow he makes these tiny dots seem fluid and lively (particularly in his images of wildlife). And as usual, I’m drawn to the surrealism in the images, something that is present in his undulating portraits and his dreamy watercolors.

Like what you see? Check out more here.

Winter flowers.

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winterflowers“April is the cruelest month” said Eliot, but I think he’s full of crap. February is the cruelest month. It’s brutal and harsh and lacking in color. I feel starved for yellows and pinks and dark, lush greens.

To combat my winter blues, I’ve started buying fresh flowers every week. These are the ones that seem to stay the best (I can never remember their name) and though not normally my first choice, I’m coming to appreciate anything alive and blooming and these bloom forever. Like that rose in Beauty & The Beast except for instead of keeping some monster prince alive, they keep me sane—at least until the snow melts.

Nature makes the best art.

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A 59121Artist Letha Wilson explains her slightly surreal, mildly creepy manipulation of the natural world:

I like the idea that the piece takes the interior gallery wall, where you might see an image of nature on it, and instead places it in the tree itself where its flat plane and white wall sets off the amazing branches, leaves, and shadows created by the moving sunlight. I have created several pieces using drywall outdoors and it is surprisingly resilient. Plus I like that the drywall will succumb to the movement of the branches, and will deteriorate a bit over the duration of the show. The wall faces almost due west so from about 12:30 on the sun casts shadows on the wall from the tree limbs and leaves. This particular tree is fairly late to leaf out, so the piece will change considerably throughout the season.

Simple, but very cool. On view at The Morton Arboretum.

{via}

Two Nice Things.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 1 Comment

jeremyKool_poses1. I absolutely love foxes and I’m a sucker for anything made out of paper, so when I saw Jeremy Kool’s Paper Fox Project, I fell pretty hard for the rascally little guy. Sadly, all Kool’s animals are made digitally, so this didn’t actually involve any origami. Does that make the entire thing more impressive? Probably! But for me the best part is that the little fox—and Kool’s other critters—are part of an interactive storybook for iOS devices. Neat!

2. There are few things that grate on me like the phrase YOLO, though I do appreciate the idea. Carpe diem, while epically cliche, is fine with me (Latin makes a lot of things more palatable, I think) though my favorite grasp-life-by-the-horns phrase is probably “gather ye rosebuds while ye may!” because no one does pastoral parties quite like a metaphysical poet. Anyways, this is a roundabout way of introducing my current favorite song: “Yawning” by Pearl and the Beard. Listen closely and you’ll understand why I’m talking about it like this. Plus, it’s very, very pretty (as if you needed more reason to check out my musical recommendations, right?)

Yawning

Resolutions.

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NYE2I have a lot of little resolutions (blog more, floss more, run a 5k, work on more projects I love, stress less, etc) but every year I have the same two big resolutions. Be braver. Be kinder. It’s a lot harder than it sounds.

Oh, and another resolution is to learn more about photography, photoshop, and typography. This is one of my early attempts to combine all three. I took this picture at Sebago Lake, created multiple layers for text in photoshop, blurred the background, and added fonts downloaded from fontsquirrel.com. I know I still have a LOT to learn, but my coworker/friend has agreed to teach me the basics of photoshop, so I have a little guidance. Here’s to the new year!

Educate Me.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 2 Comments

5a29e7834750I have a confession: I know embarrassingly little about art outside the Western world. I can tell a Titian from a Tintoretto (not a huge deal, but still) and I can hold my own in a conversation about American art. But when it comes to art from virtually anywhere else, I’m practically a novice. I took a few semesters of World Art, but they were overview classes, with a chapter on each location. Nothing in depth, nothing particularly fascinating.

Not only do I feel slightly guilty for my crappy art education, but I also have started to realize recently just how much I’m missing out. Take, for example, the work of Ray Morimura. He’s a contemporary Japanese artist who makes gorgeous, detailed, breathtaking woodblock prints. Depicting both urban scenes and rural landscapes, they’re really captivating. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, he doesn’t have a website. But you can see more here.

RFBgi

Color Me Happy.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 3 Comments

street_art_yarn_crochet_1I adore street art, and I own about a thousand knitted items—though I can’t seem to get into knitting… too much commitment! And I don’t have enough patience—so it makes perfect sense that I freaking love this. Guerrilla art, girly and totally awesome. Found here.

Seasonal.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 2 Comments

hennensnowcoveredpond12x12oilGregory Hennen makes beautifully two-dimensional paintings of the natural world that remind me of what would happen if Alex Katz and Egon Schiele met for an impromptu wine-in-the-woods session (something I didn’t know was a fantasy of mine until I just typed it, but oh man, wouldn’t you love to attend that drunken picnic?). I particularly love his winter scenes, which seem so perfectly New England to me—stark, but pretty, once you look closely enough to notice all the gradients and colors that hide in the shadows and the glinty ice. Sadly, I couldn’t find a place to buy his prints, though the frozen pond above would be perfect in my bedroom.

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More here.

p.s. Look at these while listening to this. Especially “See Green, See Blue.” Pretty, pretty.

Logophilia.

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As a professional blogger/punner/wordsmith, I spend a lot of time thinking about words. At work, I sit around thinking up pithy prologues and alliterative titles; I think I have an entire section of my brain devoted to the many ways to allude to alcohol. Sometimes I get tired of it, but for the most part, I’m pretty thrilled I get to practice word play all day, every day.

Given that introduction, I don’t think I have to explain why I love this blog: Extraordinary Words. So far, I’ve learned words like wamble, logorrhea, and zenzizenzizenzic. Some of the words are obsolete, but all of them are awesome. Czech it out.