Author Archives: charr

Never Give Up. Great Things Take Time. Image © Charr Crail, 2014 and created using apps on her iPad.

We all have dreams and desires, right?  I admit I got caught up in the current holiday season with it’s bustle and cheer and a hearty dose of many wonderful things and slacked off on my own dreams for a minute or two.   Now, I’m trying to catch my breath and as I sit back to reflect a bit it seems the idea of time keeps coming up.  I’m face to face with the time is NOW!  This is it, this is the time to do whatever it is you want to do, whatever your hearts desire is.  Act now and go for it!  As the brilliant marketing team at Nike says “Just Do It!”  At the very least take a single step towards it.  One step, one action, something.  This is not about the New Year.  This is for everyday of the year.   And just remember this… If you’re hungry the refrigerator won’t get up and come to you.  And just in case whatever it is you’re after doesn’t show up immediately simply have a little bit of patience.  Yes, Patience.

Think about the ingredients in the refrigerator that you might be combining into a lovely stew or zesty pasta sauce.  You have to put in some effort to cut up the veggies, measure the spices, the liquids, stir and simmer for awhile.  All things take time, a dash of effort and a little patience– and the yummmm factor is always well worth it!

So about this image– I was at a wonderful old theatre recently with this big beautiful clock on the wall, which I photographed with my cell phone.  Later on I took the clock image a few steps further to turn the clock picture into art and then created this meme– an image with words on it.

Are you interested in learning how to do this– make meme’s or create sumptuous digital art?  I teach virtual classes in creativity around photography, art and lots more.  I can show you how to do this in Photoshop or with some of my favorite apps on mobile devices.  I’m kind of App-sessed too so I know some pretty rad stuff.   🙂  Get in touch, comment, share.  I’d love to hear from you!  xo

Click Here for more information and to learn about some of my virtual classes and workshops.  I work with individuals and groups of all sizes.  Interested in me coming to speak to your group?  Get in touch!  charr@me.com

Art in the Everyday– it’s everywhere you look!  (This may be why I appreciate Andy Warhol so much.  It’s largely where he came from in creating his own art and I so respect that about him! You can read more in this older post— https://charrcrail.org/2014/02/06/lets-talk-art/)

I teach and speak to classes on a regular basis and one of the things I talk about is how we are all creative and art is everywhere even if we don’t really pay attention or notice it as we go though our days.  I actually use the example of a wall switch.   We flick a switch to get light into a room and we go on our way and never even pay the slightest bit of attention to something so seemingly mundane.

But that wall switch was designed by a creative mind with multiple considerations for functionality and appearance.  Someone had to actually put a lot of thought into what it would look like, how it would be shaped, what materials it might be made of, how it would attach, where the nails go, the size of the holes, it’s specific size, what it might cover or surround, how something would plug into it and what color it would be coming out of the factory.

And that’s just the considerations of person sitting in the seat as the designer mapping it out.  There were many many people involved in this item prior and probably many more in the actual manufacture of it.  There were supervisors, testers, research and development types and ultimately there were people involved in the actual moulding and creating of it.  There were people who made the first working model of it before it was approved for the public and went forward to the production line.  And then there was the actual production line.

At the core of even this one small item there were many many questions that had to be carefully considered and answered before it could even be manufactured.  And it’s something we need and use everyday, each and everyone of us.  Yes, there always is someone— some ONE person, designer, artist, creative— who first conceives of something, probably makes a sketch of it before we even know it exists.  And then it exists because someone created it.

Wow, what a long way around such a simple idea.  Just start noticing what you see.  Start noticing the art in the everyday and soon it will be illuminating itself to you regularly and you will delight as much as I do in the beauty that creativity is.

We will keep talking about this and how it relates to us as creators.  Because Art is Everywhere and Life is Art.  We create.  Humans were born to create.  We simply can’t help ourselves and we will talk about that and about the extraordinary Art in the Everyday a lot more on this blog!

Have something you want to add to this conversation?  Please comment and share!

There is no book or story to read as the title alludes to.  That’s the TRICK in the Trick or Treat.  The TREAT is this art piece inspired by Edward Gorey and his gothic take on the darker side of life.  I love his work.  One day while allowing the muses to play I drew the strange woman standing in the foreground with her bat-like hat.  The rest of this image was found and added piece by piece over a few weeks.  I don’t think one has ever taken this long to fully arrive.  It was close on that first day but I knew something was missing and I simply had to have the nerve to wait and watch for it.  And wait and watch I did.

The bits and pieces were captured during daily doings.   The old victorian buildings were found on a stroll through Midtown.  The birdhouse and an actual fledgling bird showed up during a backyard garden party at a friends house.  Finally, on a typical grocery shopping trip, the skeletons appeared.

The point of this?  The bits and pieces are everywhere.  Even if you are doing the most mundane things at the seemingly most normal places the extraordinary will show itself.  Being aware of your surroundings and allowing the muses to guide you is the first half of the battle.  The second and most important half is taking up the challenge and stopping to capture the ideas that present themselves.

You Are Loved, a Collaboration:  Something created by working jointly with another or others.

Chris:  “Baby Cakes, let’s make a music video, will you do the artwork for it?”        Charr:  “Yes, I will snookie pie!”

And so began this music video collaboration with my extraordinary husband Chris Goslow who wrote this beautiful song “You Are Loved”.  It’s on his album of love songs“I Love You”.  Special thanks to Larisa Bryski who brought her extraordinary talents on piano and such beautiful vocals to the song!  It’s a great collaboration all the way around.

And yes, Chris really does call me Baby Cakes and I call him Snookie Pie.  🙂  I joke that if we ever begin a company together we can call it Cake and Pie– even though we don’t bake!  But we sure do cook in our own special way- creatively through music, art and love.   When Chris came to me with the idea of turning this song into a music video using my art as the visual backdrop and I love shooting flowers and making art and time-lapse pieces it seemed like a good fit.  Some of the flowers in the video are local to California and some from as far away as Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.  The time-lapse imagery was captured using my iPad and a favorite app.  I think it’s fascinating when you get an insiders view stroke by stroke of an art piece being created.

To me this song is a true anthem.  An anthem of love and the richness and beauty of who we are.  I think this is such a beautiful reminder of the good in the world I wanted to share it with you.  I hope you know that you too are loved, more than you will ever know.  🙂 You can Watch the Video Here.

As the end of summer nears and we are back to a fall and soon winter schedule I hope you are making the most of your life and embracing the love all around you with family and friends.   There is much to be grateful for.  I am grateful for you and thank you in advance for taking the time to watch this video, listen to the moving words of this song and enjoy the artwork created just for this.  We are both, Chris and I, are eager to share this beautiful collaboration with everyone possible and share the message of heartfelt love.  Please feel free to forward to someone you love and share the message with them as well.

The release of the video happened to coincide with the tragic loss of Robin Williams, to whom the song has been dedicated by Chris Goslow who wrote this beautiful song.

In a long series of small moves you can see how this image, Flirty Bantam, went from something pretty plain in a pretty messy and bleak location.  I was shooting through the bars of the birds cage with my iPhone. When I looked back at what I had captured what inspired me about this charming bird was his attitude, his bravado.  And I loved his profile body stance with his head tuned directly my way.  Finally, the capper– his intense and steady gaze. Sold!  I knew he had to be immortalized.

This kind of image transformation is being able to see beyond the obvious.  It’s about taking a few steps forward in the minds eye to conceive of a new realm of possibility for the image you are working with.  Sometimes it takes courage to imagine something new, elevated, different.  In my experience the minds eye never lies.  It’s tough to capture what the minds eye may reveal in the form of a vision or a brief insight perhaps and it may take a bit of practice.   But if you’re open to it it is always a great guide into what can come next.  It has many many times led me to just the right place– or at the very least just the right starting point.

Thoughts?  Comments?

Watch The Making of Flirty Bantam HERE.

Do you want to expand your creativity?  Do you want to learn more about making amazing art on your mobile devices like your iPad?  Do you want to learn Adobe Photoshop?  Beginners and pro’s welcome!  Check out my workshops here.  If you have any questions at all please get in touch!  Be sure to sign up for my Newsletter too and get your free gist as well as being the first to know about special events and classes.

cre·a·tiv·i·ty   [kree-ey-tiv-i-tee]

And the Clock Ran Away With a Swoon…

Heaven, I’m in heaven… My iPad allows me to float dreamily in the realm of creativity wherever and whenever using nothing more than my finger and a few truly artful and dazzling apps.  Just last weekend I was at an antique shop in Santa Cruz and photographed the clock face in this image with my cell phone.  I love capturing interesting images and textures with my cell phone everywhere I go.  It makes great fodder for my works of art.  I never know what I might need or what will inspire me in the moment so I keep collecting. Later that day I had a yen to draw and somehow the two images– my drawing and the golden clock– arrived into the same piece together and it worked.  I think this piece took a couple of hours of noodling this direction and that to get to where I felt it was complete.  You just kinda know.

There are definitely techniques involved, knowing the quirks of the apps and how to get something particular done.  One app does this, another does that.  I’ve spent countless hours learning it all via experience and just trying things out.   And I’ve tried more apps than you can imagine.  I’m especially fond of the ones that give me some actual control and allow me to manipulate the image.  The one click wonders mostly leave me cold.  But there are a few that do such special things that they sometimes become ones I can’t live without–  but those are rare.

In my iPad class I will reveal to students just what I do, how I do it, which stylus I use (there are several) and my favorite apps for creating some pretty cool art pieces!  Are you ready to sign up?  sign up for my email list to be the first to know and if you have questions please drop me a line.  I’d love to chat with you and learn what you are up to and see if I can help you in any way!  charr@charrcrail.com.

On a more personal note when I was putting this video together I asked my brilliant husband (www.chrisgoslow.com) if he would write me a piano piece as the soundtrack.  Within one hour there it was, this gorgeous piece of music!  I’m so lucky!  Gorgeous original music created to order!  Heaven, I’m in heaven…

Here is the final image.  I used three apps to create this image.  Titled:  “And the Clock Ran Away With a Swoon”.

Here are two brand new digital paintings created over the last couple of days from cell phone images I shot at the 2014 California State Fair in the Fur & Feathers exhibit.  The animals are always are so amazing and I was especially struck by these two beauties– a rooster and a bantam.  Seems like there is great potential for art everywhere I look and even if I don’t have my pro camera with me I know I can capture and create something anytime and anywhere!   You can see the before and afters in the image here.

Creating digital art is a realm I am completely passionate about. It’s so great to see someone of David Hockney’s caliber making art on his iPad!  Hockney is a world renown artist from Great Britain and his influence is felt all over the art world.  Early on he started making art using apps on his iPhone and iPad. Personally, I love seeing such an important artist embracing the digital art realm and breathing life into this fresh corner of the world of art this way.  In a recent article he was asked where he saw the art world going.  He said “I don’t know where it’s going, really, who does? But art will be there.”  Yes, and art always has been there since the beginning of man–  we humans have always sought ways to create.

So, it makes me think.  Art is expression and no matter the medium it’s an expression that speaks, often loudly.  From practical invention to object of joy.

I love an original one of a kind piece of art.  But even more I love the minds eye that speaks through an artist.  iPad, napkin, scratch paper, recording, oil, pastel, clay, word, marble, sound, food…  Does the medium really matter?  Art makes you feel.  No matter the vehicle used to express the singular point of view the artist speaks, reveals, sings–  in their own unique voice.

Art is something that never previously existed and now because a creative soul pushed past fear or hesitation, confusion,  rapture, spirit or joy and brought an idea to life.   That intangible, now captured in some form, exists.

To the brave creative souls of this world– I thank you for I have been moved by you.

You can read more about artist David Hockney in two separate and really interesting articles– One on Huffington Post and the others the NYT blog.

If you’re interested in learning more about creating art with apps I’m teaching a workshop about it — creating art on the iPad and iPhone called The iPad Artist.  You can learn more about it HERE and sign up too!  For the first five people who do sign up I’m cutting the price in half!  Be one of the first five and join this amazing digital realm of art at your fingertips– whenever, wherever inspiration strikes! SIGN UP!

I knew I talked fast when happy, passionate or excited.  What I didn’t know is just how fast.  Now I do!  I recently did an interview with Chamira Young, the brains behind a wonderful photography website–  Zenjoyable.com — and oh goodness I talk fast!  Chamira is a brilliant host and does these remarkable podcast interviews with some of the coolest photographers in the business.  There is such depth of knowledge and points of view about all aspects of this creative business.  What a great honor to be chosen!  She and I had a fun and lively conversation covering all kinds of things related to being a professional photographer and the business of it.  You can listen to my interview podcast with her HERE. Please leave me comments here too.  I’d love to know what you thought– crazy fast talking and all!  🙂

This video is all about examples of what you can do by sharing some of my own art created solely on my iPad.  Amazing and endless possibilities for artistic expression using a bounty of fabulous apps.  Use your photos, make drawings and embellish from there. Use your finger or a stylus.  It’s a world of extraordinary creativity in your hands at anytime and anywhere you go.  Amazing creativity at your fingertips!  Wanna take a workshop and learn how to do this crazy fun stuff?  Sign up for my email and I’ll be sending out info about the next class happening very soon!

So excited to announce my SUMMER WORKSHOPS 2014!

The first two summer workshops have been scheduled! (There are a couple more workshops coming too–Retouching and an iPad class! I’ll be keeping you posted the moment the dates are announced on those as well.)  

It’s been kinda awesome on my end developing and fine tuning these courses.  I never tire of the creativity Photoshop offers and love teaching it to others so they can experience the same kind of delight in the artistry and practicality of this powerful tool.  My personal commitment is to get you comfy from the bottom up with this tool and all you can do with it– from the basics of making a picture look good to the fabulous realm of artistic expression that is possible. 

As with all of my courses my aim is to share everything I know to help you learn and apply the tools and these courses are carefully crafted to do just that.   You can visit the main Workshop page to see the courses currently listed.  Below you’ll find links to the specific pages for the ones currently scheduled.  If you have any questions at all please get in touch and I’ll gladly answer any question you have.