Artfully Meandering: Campbell's Covered Bridge

A century-old relic of South Carolina's history. The last one in the State.

Artfully Meandering: Greer, SC

I am expanding on an idea spawned from My First Hong Kong-er-versary. I was re-reading the post as I was cleaning up my blog and cataloguing my Hong Kong adventures and liked the phrase, "Resident Adventurer." When we get used to living in a place, we forget to be adventurers. We stop looking around and stop seeing what is right under our nose. 

I love where I live in South Carolina with the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop and lovely foothills to meander through. I did a Resident Adventure tour of Greer today. The above is a floral arrangement from by Joy Felts at Greer Florist. She claims she is an amateur floral designer, but I love this sweet bouquet and took it on my Adventure today. I'll post a few pictures later, but just wanted to post the first result from today's little adventure

Artfully Meandering: This Little Chickadee is a Reformed Northerner

I grew up in Wisconsin. I am now a Reformed Northerner aka A Southerner. I was in Denver two weeks ago and went from 55 degrees in Greenville to 5 degrees in Denver. In a single day. This New Fangled Southerner's blood is too thin for this! I like southern winters. I believe snow should be viewed from the comfort of your home, with a roaring fire, and a mug of hot chocolate. I believe in snow days. This little chickie's blood thinned right out as soon as I hit Texas in 2000. I visit winter. I don't live in it anymore.

But, in spite of that, I am okay with visiting. For a little bit. Snow is purty. The Rockies are spectacular. And the hotel I'm staying at (Hotel Boulerado) is a throwback to the early 1900's. In fact it has one of the remaining original Otis elevators, still operated by a bellman. So cool. Yeehaw!

Also, this week of learning has made me realize I'm not as daft as I thought I was! I know I have a quirky mix of thoughts and bring an electic mix of skills (business and artistically) to the table. But, through this week, I'm finding there are other souls whose mind is in the space mine is at... and that there is hope! I've been noodling on the idea to combine my art and consulting business... or even using and leveraging my art business in the professional consulting world. Businesses are starting to recognize the need for a creative approach. What better experience to offer than that odd mix of change agent for a process and an artist who uses creative processes? Most creatives are bringing their business knowledge to the table. I'm thinking about bringing my creative knowledge to the business table. I'm going to experiment with this voice for a bit. I don't know where it will lead. I have slowed down in the jewelry making for a while this year. I've been struggling to re-establish in the US, and I found my usual inspiration taxed by a tough year. 

So, I think the next year is going to be an experiment: seeing how an artistic approach and inform the new face of business as knowledge (aka creative) work. I'm in the process of thinking how the two can cross-pollinate...like an article on Agile for Artists and articles on Art for Agilists. Plus, I've had an idea for a journal I've been wanting for a long time. It's going to require stepping up my photography skills. If I get a day job, I'm going to work on my photography skills when it comes to florals. I loved the original Victoria magazine for it's floral photos. I never thought I was a big floral girl...my house is really decorated that way, nor do I wear them. But, I'm a sucker for the real thing. 

My goals are to work on lighting. I'm adoring the color palettes other artists are doing like Design Seeds and BrandiGirlBlog. For the journal I have in mind in the long term, the floral photography is a theme of one version and the color palettes are just a piece of it. After the year, I'll gather up the photos and palettes into this journal I have in mind. 

Along with the journal idea, I'll probably intersperse a little jewelry in there. I'm sticking with the Cotton collection. I'm thinking up another line that needs to be developed. But, I think that's all I can manage on the jewelry side for now. So, I'm scaling back a little bit and have some changes in the works for 2012. A new journey! Let's see where it goes!