Author Archives: charr

I LOVE Apps! I have so many of them they take up massive space on my iPhone and iPad. But I LOVE them!  There are incredible things out there for the creatively insatiable like us.

I’m a digital artist… duuuuh. But I have found some amazing apps that I think are brilliant and monster kudos to their creators who took their time and brilliant genius to get them into the app store so I can do and create ridiculously cool things even while in a coffee shop sipping deliciousness or waiting for whatever while chilling in a warm breeze on a park bench.

Perhaps late night insomnia has kicked in and you just finished a game of Words with Friends so the tools are right in your hands to create something artistic.  I’ve even posted some of my favorite self-portraits created during bouts of minor insomnia on instagram.   I usually hashtag it insomnia.  But really it’s simply a late night bursting forth of creativity and with device in hand and I succumb.  *BTW, I’m working on an APP CLASS I’ll be launching soon too so be sure to get on the mailing list and be the first to know.  🙂  (Sign up top right!)

This particular image is a hybrid of one brilliant app and a pretty amazing website I was turned onto– mrdoob–  http://www.mrdoob.com.  I did this drawing awhile ago on mrdoob and saved it to my photo stream so I could open it later in various apps. Then I opened it in Phototropedelic to add more artsy elements.  Phototropedelic is a super hippie flavored App that makes me insanely happy.  Simply do a little button and numbers selecting in there and bingo bongo BOOM.  Phototropodelic reminds me of Peter Max, one of my all time favorite artists.  Another is Erté.  Of course the two could not be more opposite.  Art is entirely subjective anyway.   And why am I suddenly singing Sly Stone Everyday People in my head?  🙂

OK, back to the image– In this case I did later open it up in Adobe Photoshop where I dialed in some color and a did few more minor adjustments. Though most of the time for app art I do it all entirely in apps.  You can too!

I keep learning more and more each day as I play with these fabulous tools and criss cross them all over the place.  It’s easy, it’s fun and the creative possibilities are mind-boggling.  I like to create for joy, don’t you? It’s also how I learn. Trying things out, seeing what will happen.  WHAT IF… That’s the game.  If you haven’t yet why not play it with me? I’d love to see what you’re “app” to, please share and I just may post it here! xxxooo  I’ll keep you posted on the app class too!

Interested in learning super cool stuff?  I teach wonderful classes/workshops all about photos.  

Sign up for my email list and get great stuff too.  You’ll get FIVE of my original art pieces turned into gorgeous wallpapers you can use on all your devices, be first to know about my upcoming classes/workshops and read The Legacy Project updates focusing on amazing people who make a difference in the world!  Sign up upper right!  ——>

This talented photographer, charming and adorable man Tom Myers is seen clowning around in his office surrounded by thousands upon thousands of brilliant images he shot over a career spanning decades as a stock photographer.   Toms life and his pictures are a wonderful legacy seen, shared and enjoyed all over the world.  Knowing him was a joy.  His office was not only filled with a lifetime of great pictures but it was filled floor to ceiling with knick knacks,  gag gifts,  hats and all manner of toys and silliness.  He recently passed away after a battle with cancer.  He was 88 years old.

Tom has this way about him.  He wanders around with his camera hanging from his neck like a typical tourist.  For all appearances he’s just a regular guy snapping pictures of asparagus at the Farmers Market or the Tule fog.  If you didn’t know who he was or ask what he was up to you’d never even guess he was capturing priceless moments with his camera that might later be seen in National Geographic or the New York Times to name just a few of the countless publications his images appeared in.  My heart goes out to his wife Sally and his son Jeff (seen in the background of this photo).  The power of Toms Legacy lives on in me too because he personally taught me a few things and I often think of him and those things when I’m working on assignment.  I’m forever grateful to and for him.  He is much missed by many.

You can read his Sacramento Bee obit here.

I’m feeling creative.  Do you know what I mean?  Do you have days when you are inspired and there is something bursting forth if only you will let it?

For me– today and last night were those kind of days.  Last night was the second night of my current Workshop The Artisans Lab and we went through this awesome exercise about thinking on the fly and combining elements not typically paired up.

On the fly demos are tricky but I sure was happy with what was created last night– this Blue Moon image.  Today my brain was still in it, the muse was quietly whispering to me for several hours before I finally got a chance to start a new piece. There is also something about the rain that brings a little joy out in me and makes me want to create.

The hunt for the perfect imagery to put together is also very interesting.  And pictures speak loudly. They tell us what they need, where to go, when to stop, when to go sideways– and sometimes when to say no no no and start all over again.  Such is the realm of creating.

This is the second one I just finished a few minutes ago. I was listening to Tori Amos while I was working and the lyrics “way down” just jumped right out of it and I knew that was the title.  The Way Down. It’s strange because the way the subject– Sarah– is looking up it seems out of place, but it’s perfect too.

How often do we do this.  A tilt of our heads, deep in thought and searching for a way.   A way out, a way down, a way in, a way through… And that is much like the act of creation.  We search, we taste, we experience, we wander, we wonder, we give it a shot and see if it works and if we like it.

Do you want to learn how to do this kind of imagery?  I’m currently looking at the calendar ready to schedule some upcoming workshops.  If you’re not already on my mailing list please sign up (top right) so you can be among the first to know.  Class size is very limited because these are very hands-on classes teaching you how to maximize your creativity.  I’m also launching a great new Photoshop Crash Course for those of you who want to learn the basics and get experience with simple and wonderful ways of making your pictures look great!  Even if you have never ever even opened up the program you’ll love this one and get tons out of it!  Works perfectly for Elements users too.

If you have any questions at all please feel free to get in touch and I’ll answer all your questions.  🙂

This video moved me.  Lady Gaga moves me.  The idea is empowerment, freedom, self expression, joy.  It also reminds me of Marlo Thomas who created a slogan “Free to be You and Me”, which is a majorly empowering message that anyone—boy or girl—can achieve anything.

But in this context I’m reminding everyone here that no matter what your creative expression is– art, photography, being the best mother, or a fantastic father, or a chef or a mechanic or a bus driver– if it’s what you love you can do it and do it beautifully.  Be Artful about it.

I am reminded every single day by either my own insecurities or those of others I speak to that we so easily hold ourselves back or we tell ourselves negative things about our abilities, we may give in to our need for perfectionism or we just give up and watch TV instead of doing what brings us the most joy.

What I love about the video is that everyone in it is just being themselves unabashedly. And they shared it publicly.  And Chrome made the video.  And I love how Lady Gaga embraces who she lovingly refers to as her Little Monsters.  How can someone not love people who use her song to blurt out their own glory.

Which now brings me to the legendary Clarence Clemons who performs on sax in Gaga’s video Edge of Glory.  Clemons said something so brilliant while reminiscing about his relationship with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

“Bruce and I looked at each other and didn’t say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other’s lives. He was what I’d been searching for.”

Perhaps the message for the day is, if you haven’t already,  find your own missing link. Find the link to your own joy, your own uniqueness.  We don’t have to be perfect.  We just have to do what brings us the most joy and allow it.

Uniqueness is clearly a theme in my own psyche so you’ll hear about that a lot.  And I’m good with that.  It’s THAT important.  Go Be Art.

It’s 2014, a new year and I’m still working fervently on my personal ambitions, long after the resolution keeping should be fading.  I’m determined.  So that’s made me take a good look at this website and I have decided to make some changes.  One is bringing the blog front and center once again.  I’m also in the process of getting my workshops scheduled and the pages that talk about them dialed in.  No small task I confess!  This is the tip of the iceberg.  For now…

THIS WEBSITE IS ABOUT ART, IT’S ABOUT PEOPLE, IT’S ABOUT LIFE, LOVE, ARTISTRY AND COMMUNITY.  IT’S ABOUT WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE DO AND WHAT WE BRING.  NO MATTER WHAT WE DO OR HOW WE DO IT WE LEAVE SOMETHING OF OURSELVES BEHIND, THAT’S OUR LEGACY.  IT’S ABOUT CREATING AND THINKING AND IMAGINING AND INSPIRING AND EXPRESSING.

I remember the first time I thought about art.  I mean REALLY even considered art.  I may have been about seven years old.  I was drawing grapes and coloring them with crayons.  My mother came to see what I was doing and got very excited.  My grapes weren’t just purple she exclaimed.  They were purple and blue and all the possible shades between.  I had expressed their color in a hyper reality and was coloring them with all their true beauty, all their amazing colors represented in varying shades of blues and purples.  By the way she got so excited I knew I had done something good.  That was my awakening to the love affair with art I would continue to enjoy from that day forward.

There have been many ways I’ve enjoyed art.  From drawing and painting to pen and ink and batik.  Fashion design, quilting, fabric design, silk painting, metal sculpture, wood sculpture, jewelry making including the lost wax process and glass bead making.  I’ve made clothes, pillows, scarves, greeting cards, clocks, wall art in the realm of photography, conceptual art, watercolor and all sizes possible.  I’ve written songs, melody and lyrics, written articles, poetry and haiku.  I can’t even remember what all else because it just never seems to stop.  I’m a constant doodler and I even capture everything imaginable– texture or event– with my phone as so many in our culture do now.

I think we are all artists.  I’m always shocked when someone tells me they’re not artistic when I can so clearly see artistry in all things, everywhere!  Just dig in to them a bit and all manner of artistry tumbles forth.  and that smile is such a beautiful thing to see when they realize yes, they are indeed an artist.   Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.  Andy Warhol   Andy Warhol got it right.  

Warhol’s quote is good but certainly not the story I was actually getting to.  He made the Campbell Soup Can iconic because he saw art in it.  As I interpret this I see how artistry is everywhere.  There is art in the design of a light bulb, design in the ball point pen, a t-shirt, a napkin holder, there is artistry in window blinds and architecture.  There is as much design and artistry in a iron skillet as there is in the most beautiful Faberge egg.

So that’s the new premise of my life.  Art is everywhere, we are all artists and we are all beautiful beyond measure.

Dr. Ernie Bodai, with Kaiser Permanente,  is the man behind the Breast Cancer Stamp. The stamp is sold through the United States Post Office and a portion of the sales raises money for breast cancer research. Currently the stamps have raised over 960 million dollars.              “This is the only stamp in the world that has ever saved a life.”  Dr. Ernie Bodai

This is the story of an amazing man with an idea, a powerful belief, the driving passion, confidence and determination in the face of opposition to make a dream come true.

It was Christmas Eve in 1995 and after everyone else was asleep in his home Bodai was preparing a lecture on the history of breast cancer surgery.  Breast cancer goes back as far as the egyptians in 4000 bc and he was looking art artwork to go with his lecture.  Suddenly an idea popped into his mind– To create a postage stamp and with a bit of added cost to consumers, raise funds for cancer research.

With that goal in mind he contacted the United States Post Office with a proposal.  They said NO.  But Bodai said so what!  He packed a bag and went to Washington DC to pay a visit to Congress and anyone else he could think of that would listen to his idea.  The answer was still no but that didn’t stop Bodai.  “I had so many patients behind me.  It got to a point that I couldn’t come back and face these ladies with failure.  There was no way in hell I was going to give up.”

At a local Washington DC library he found an 8th grade civics book, which taught him how to write a bill and he continued his quest.  Two years later and 15 self-funded trips to Washing ton DC on July 29th 1997 Bodai sat proudly in the gallery of the House of Representatives and watched as Newt Gingrich led the passing of the vote 432-3 to create the Breast Cancer Stamp.  Next stop the Senate, where the vote was unanimous–  100-0.  On August 10th President Bill Clinton signed it into law, which mandated the post office to sell his stamp.  The first print run was 10 million stamps and the first stamp issue date was July 29, 1998.

At this point the United States Post Office has sold over 960 million stamps that has raised over $80 million dollars going directly to breast cancer research.

“Stamp Money” as Bodai calls it, has allowed funding for research that has led to greater understanding of other cancers as well.  The popularity of the stamp has soared worldwide.  Currently 22 different countries are selling it to raise money for breast cancer research in their own countries.   Interested in more stamp facts?  You can check out the site at http://www.curebreastcancer.org.  Click here to Read Bodai’s bio here.  

We asked Dr. Ernie Bodai a few questions:

Who is one of your greatest inspirations? JFK and Leonardo DaVinci

What important things would you include in your things-still-to-do list?  Find a cure for cancer.

What is something you love the most about yourself?  Perseverance

What moves you and or touches you about your community?  How good they have been to me.  (Patients)

What are you most proud of?  The STAMP project

 What gets you up in the morning?  Excitement about who I am going to meet today.

If you have a completely free day what would you CHOOSE to do with it?  Be with my granddaughter.

What are you most passionate about?  Life

Are you surprised because your career is a happy accident or are you delighted because it’s what you always wanted?  I am lucky to have what I have.  Family, career, patients.

The Legacy Project Launch at Vanguard. Chris Goslow and Kevin Graft take a break after setting up the exhibit.

The Legacy Project Launch event officially began at 6pm but people began arriving at 5:30 and by 7pm it was jam packed!  I still feel dazed by the amazing turnout and great commentary.  It may take awhile for my head to stop spinning!  I’ll have some great video too because my friend Randy Allen did one-on-one interviews with so many of the people who came out.  I’ll be posting some of the interviews as soon as I have them in hand.  The honorees who showed up were Gregory Kondos, Russ Solomon, Jeff Knorr, Larisa Bryski, Michael Morgan, Jason Kinney and Bob Simpson.  Simpson is the owner of Vanguard who graciously offered me his swanky nightclub for the party and it was perfection.  The place is gorgeous and so comfortable.

It was pretty darn lively and Kevin Graft was snapping away too so can’t wait to see the pictures!  Randy Miramontez of celebrityexaminer.com came out and did a cool piece with some really nice pictures too. I’ve been on assignments with him and he’s so much fun!  You can see it here.   Another great local journalist Alex Cosper of sactv.com was there interviewing people, shooting video and there may even be event coverage to see on Monday.  Actually he took me outside and interviewed me too, which was a real experience.  I’m used to being behind the camera!   The charming Shell of RealitycheckTV.com came out too and did the same thing.  Wow, what a night!  Will keep you posted on all the coverage– video, photos and links– as they become available.

Despite the few paragraphs I’ve managed to write here I’m feeling pretty dazed and speechless about it all and even a bit shy.  So this is what I can muster up about how I really feel in the moment.  I’m in awe.  I began this project in April of this year and from the moment of conception I was on a passionate mission.  My fervor for this project has not subsided.  The event may have been the official public launch to show what I’m up to and to create awareness but for me it was also just the beginning of something that can and will grow in depth and richness.   I had no idea how it would all turn out but it was fantastically attended, bigger and better than I hoped for and I am truly humbled by the outpouring of love and admiration I received.  I was honored beyond words by all the remarkable honorees who showed up and shared this amazing night with us.  I’m so grateful to my husband Chris Goslow and a team of friends on site– Kevin Graft, Susan Holtgrave, Randy and Eric Allen and Cory Norris (who made dozens of delicious chocolate chip cookies) who helped set it all up on location and kept me sane.

So now we begin again.   The next honoree is…    You must stay tuned and we have one in the works!   And note we have a nomination form so please nominate someone you believe needs recognition.  We will feature a new person each month beginning in October and will be posting more info on that as we go.

Limited Edition Book: The Inaugural 14 Honorees.

The first 50 guests received The Inaugural 14 Honorees book, signed, as a gift.  I still have some books available for purchase.  They are $10 each (plus $2.50 shipping).  Just click the Buy Now button.

I just completed #58.  Amazing isn’t it!  What began as a fun way to show I had some photos that the cast might like for self promotion turned into it’s own big thing and never stopped. Sugar is #58!

Creating these posters is no small feat.  What I do is no secret because here’s the finished product for all to see.  But the timing and the details of it is what’s interesting to me.

Here is how it goes.  I shoot the Music Circus Live Dress Rehearsals on a Monday night.  Shooting thousand of photos is typical too.  There is such amazing action going on I never want to miss a single thing so I’m quite breathless by the end.  I also try to be sure to get everyone in the show, which could mean anywhere from 20-35 people or so!

I turn around a nicely selected “edit” of the pictures by 1pm the next day then back home for the next round.  Just 24 hours later, on Wednesday, I design and create a poster.  For the past nine years now I have created a poster from each show and get them signed by the cast.  It’s quite a collection at this point!  Maybe I am a bit crazy but I actually try to get every single cast member onto the poster.  This has cost me more hours than I want to say in design and selection time because I rarely have a list and just have to go through the photos and figure out who’s there.   Often people, especially ensemble, play several different roles and the costume changes, wig changes, role changes, yikes!

Mostly everyone is happy to see what I’ve done but not always.  Sometimes they hate the photo I choose, and I hear about it.  But no one tells me face to face with the exception of The Feather Duster in Beauty and The Beast who loudly told me she was the ONLY one left off the poster.  It was my first show, my first poster and I had no idea what I was doing really.  I just thought I was putting together a group of photos for an overall view of the show.  Not necessarily true for the cast so Feather Duster taught me something invaluable.  Turns out that getting on the poster has become a really big deal so I do my best to accommodate.  I make mistakes now and then and have to switch stuff out or add stuff in but thats ok!  I still love doing them.  The hardest part is coming up with a new design each time or at least some new variation.  Then it’s coming up with a defining image of a character, then placement and whatever tedious technical design factors that arise.  It’s a labor of love indeed, 58 strong and growing!

The first two shows of this Music Circus 2013 season were The Wizard of Oz  and Showboat.  Next week begins The King and I and the season finishes off with Chicago.  Stay tuned because I will share those posters as well.

Want to see more?  You can see a vast number of them at this link on my Photo Shelter site.  

The current ones aren’t there yet but will be soon.