What is Steampunk?

What is Steampunk?

I get this question more often than you may think.  It's become more mainstream just in the past 5 or so years it seems.  But the term was coined more than 20 years ago in 1987.  The popular show Castle (some of us followed this as Nathan Fillian was our favorite space-cowboy in Firefly) even did a great Steampunk episode.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/184337/castle-punked

Starting out mostly as a cult favorite sci-fi book subject and evolving into fashion, design and popular-culture phenomenon. Steampunk combines futurism, time travel, and the Victorian Age. Authors such as K.W. Jeter, Tim Powers, James Blaylock, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Scott Westerfeld all pull their influences from Edwardian authors H.G. Wells and Jules Vernes that have Victorian-era technology and ideals.

These authors have inspired artists, musicians and the like to bring these ideas into their painting, drawing, jewelry, and great music.

Phoenix Oddities (the studio for Phoenix Rising Designs and Embered Designs) have enjoyed making our interpretations as well.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/69391457/steampunk-floral-hair-or-hat-pin

If you're in the Cincinnati area there are even a few wonderful events you can enjoy. 

Here are just two: The Time Traveler's Ball: September 24th, 2011 @ the Southgate House

               Old West Festival: September 10-October 9th, 2011 (make sure to come on Steampunk Weekend!)

Hope to see you there!

Wine Tasting @ 20 Brix

Some of you may already know, I have a night job as a bartender at 20 Brix.  I get to work with my sister-in-law Cambrey Hastings and Tuesday we worked a great wine tasting. 

This time I had the pleasure of meeting Hunter Vogel, the label owner of Treasure Hunter wines at the 20 Brix wine tasting brought in by Purple Feet Distributors.  They featured 5 red wines.  My favorite right now is the Man O' War Cabernet.

Chef Paul Borraco paired a 5 course meal to pair with each wine.  Grahm, Dylan, and Josh assisted Paul in the kitchen to prepare and plate this for 25 people while still taking care of all the normal restaurant business as well.  Between each course, Chef likes to come out and talk to our people at the tasting.  I think my favorite quote of the night was after one guest told him how great the food was he says, "I enjoy creating mouth adventures."

Hunter Vogel was one of the funnest people to listen to of all the wine tastings I've worked there.  After the tasting and bottle signing ("Thanks for letting me put my Pinot in you."-hahaha!!) I was able to get some pictures of him with our General Manager Clay Mitchel, Cynthia,  and Chef Paul. 

Yup, I also get paid to work there.

Reduce. Reuse. UPCYCLE.

Earth Gathering has really got my thinking about the different things people can do to help look after our planet.  Most people have a trash can or a box specifically for recycling.  Recycling is very important, but even better is Reusing!  By Reusing an item yourself you save time, energy and fuel, as well as producing less emissions.

As an Artist the idea of upcycling is both fascinating and beautiful to me.  I love that you can take something that originally would have been thought of as trash and turn it into something useful and creative.  For example my Owl piece was an upcycled plank of barn wood. Even though the wood had dents and paint splatters on it, it didn't matter because it gave it character.

Funnily this piece sold at Earth Gathering.

Here are some more artists i found on Etsy.com that Upcycle -

Upcycled Word is an artist that works in a Library.  All of her creations are made from unwanted or unloved books that needed a new home. 

Upcycled Book Earrings

Beer Can Darl upcycles vintage recycled Americana.  I particularly love his use of vintage beer cans to create maps of America and famous quotes.

United States Map - Vintage Upcycled Beer Can Collage

Smokin Axe creates beautiful Guitars out of upcycled Cigar boxes. Even the guitar necks are made from recycled and re-purposed engineered wood.

Las Cabrillas 3-String Hollow-Body Electric Cigar Box Guitar

I do not know, personally, what attracted these Artists to Upcycling. It could have been the interesting characteristics of the items they use, it could be that they enjoy hunting for those uniquely aged objects that need a new home. What ever their reasons they are all helping the Earth by not contributing more unnecessary waste to landfills across the world.

The Power of Nature



Artist's Block- Same thing as Writer's Block which we are all familiar with, Artist's Block is something you don't want to run into EVER.  But all creative people eventually do.  Whether you're painting, drawing, making a pattern or writing a paper for school; all of us need our creative thinking to be in high gear to make something of value.

My living is based on my creativity and I can say it is hard to stay creative and not just fall into a rut of making the same thing over and over.  Sometimes I may just make things that aren't quite up to my standards.  I know I've experienced this loads of times and had to take apart or just start completely over with a project. (Just ask Rozena, she has seen my "To Be Finished/I Threw This Against the Wall" drawer.)  I never let these pieces out until they've been properly yelled at and reworked....

Ahhh...but there's hope.  One thing I have found to keep this at a minimum is to be in the Great Outdoors.  Just sticking your bare feet on the grass can do wonders.  I find that studying the Greatest Artist helps me to stay creative myself.  I have pulled out my phone to take a picture of a sunset that had a great color palate that helped me blend my colors better, thrown rocks down a river to take out frustration only to be inspired by the shapes of them and figured out a new way to weave a necklace.  Like the one shown here:   "Wisdom" Owl Necklace

It's not always oooh aaaaah I was just inspired!!  Sometimes it's just about being, just relaxing with the people you care about or on your own.  Don't underestimate this time.  We live in a culture that doesn't play outside all day until street lights come on (honestly it's just not safe for our children to do this anymore), and most of our shopping is done in a large mall rather than at an outdoor market, and a lot of our human contact is done virtually.  So now we must make time to enjoy outside, I'm just sayin'...love that dirt!

In Cincinnati, where I live, it's been raining like crazy!  Getting outside is difficult.  So this week I enjoyed a trip to Krohn Conservatory where the Brazilian Butterfly Show is currently going on through June.  Just fantastic!

So that's what I do to get rid of Artist's Block... the Power of Nature!  Hope it helps you if you give it a try. :)