ROB RYAN Show. Don't miss it!
If you're going to be in New York City in September please don't miss Rob Ryan's show! I wish that I could be there! Find more info HERE.
July 2012
A Wolf?
Natalie and Diego are attending Art Camp this Summer. What a great experience! They're both loving it. Here is an animal that Natalie drew the other day. She says that it could be a fox, a dog or a wolf. I love her colored pencil creations.
Wishing you a fun Summer!
Elsita :)
Shy.
Here's a little drawing that I created last night. It was inspired by one of the answers from the survey that I am doing from my previous post. Thanks a lot for participating in the survey! I will leave it permanently open. Each answer is important to me. I am taking note of everything.
See you later!
Elsita :)
Two Questions for you.
ART IS A WAY.
Today I want to tell you more about the new blog that I'm building. Art is a Way is more than a blog. It's a robust web-site and blog at the same time. I am so excited about this project. Art is a Way won't be one more blog on my list, it will eventually be the only one. Although I am thinking about leaving my blog about papercutting as a separate place. The content of all my current blogs will migrate to that new place. And then, there will be the new content that I'm creating with you in mind. Moving into that new home will be an organic part my personal growth. Planning this transition takes a lot of work but I'm enjoying every bit of it. I love progress and I love building new things. I see the new place as a custom made house with all the features of my dreams. From there this blogging experience will be even more enjoyable and rich.
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement,achievement, and success have no meaning.
From Art is a Way I will be: Inspiring you to get in touch with your full creative potential. I could say a lot more about my new project but let's leave something for the future. All I want to say now is that it will be great.
Below I'm sharing something that I wrote for Art is a Way. I needed to write that in order to communicate my essence and why I feel so inspired to share my passions with you. I'm planning to launch Art is a Way on January 1st of 2013. I'm so looking forward to that day!
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Me in 4th grade. I was the smallest kid in my class but my mind was a spacious place full of dreams.
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When I was born, the stars, planets, gemstones, and all those things were aligned in perfect harmony for me to fail. I was one of eight children that came into this world for no special reason. Neglected from the start, I was a victim of those bad things you hear about in the news.
All I had to do was follow my “destiny” and I would have become the fragile/invisible person that I was born to be. All I had to do was be one more lost sheep in my barrio, do what everyone else was doing and react to the terrible things that happened to me in the same way everyone else did. The mystery is that I did just the opposite.
Was I was slightly smarter than my peers? Probably not. Many of my screwed up neighbors and friends were smart, even though some ended up in jail, or even dead. Was it a stubborn gene in me? I can’t say because I’m not a scientist. Was it that I was touched by some special light? Not at all. Those stories about “special lights” are made to trick us into believing that good things happen only if something outside of us does the magic.
Then what happened? How did I get out of that black hole where I was born and raised? How in this world did I steer the wheel in the totally opposite direction? How did I end up being a better version of what I was supposed to be? The answer is only one: Imagination, lots of imagination and creativity.
I was able to imagine a better destiny. I made it happen, day after day, inside my head. I wrote that imagined world down in diaries, I drew it, I painted it, I modeled it in clay and plasticine, I sang it out loud in the bathroom, I day dreamed about it. That imaginary reality became my project, my experiment, my secret love, the only one thing that I could count on because it was all up to me. Everything else failed me but not my imagination.
I became so connected to my fantastic world, so familiar with it, so in love with it that I lost my way back into that other ugly world where I was born. I totally forgot how to get back there. And when I became an adult (and before I was even aware of it) I had moved full-time into that better world, a world that became real before my eyes. One choice at a time, one day at a time, one idea at a time I found my way into a better reality. One morning I opened my eyes and said: I MADE IT! I still say that inside my head once in a while when I wake up.
So I’m here because I have a little grain of sand to offer, it’s my way of being grateful with life. I built Art is a Way to share my passion for creativity. Through this place I want to help you get in touch with your full creative potential. I want to help you understand that imagination, creativity and art can save your life. If you don’t need to be saved, then Imagination, creativity and art can make your life dramatically better.
Hello Louise!
Just sharing this cute character created by Natalie. Diego wanted to know why Louise had 3 eyes. He saw the nose as a 3rd eye. Try to see the nose as one of three eyes and you will get to experience how Diego sees the world. I did it and it's pretty interesting. Suddenly you feel like there are 3 eyes in there indeed.
I hope that you're having a nice week so far!
Elsita
Natalie and I playing with Photoshop.
Natalie felt inspired to dress up a little bit just for fun. I took this picture of her with my new iPad and then we inserted a layer image with flowers . She's wearing one of my dresses, plus some of my necklaces and hair accessories. She's a mini me!
We did this after Art camp today. Diego and Natalie are attending some great Art camp program close to our house. They're having a blast. The teacher knows that Diego is Autistic so she's prepared for his jokes and unexpected ideas. He's doing great so far. The other kids have been nice to him and Natalie. That makes me happy.
I hope that you're having a nice summer.
See you soon!
Elsita :)
Natalie makes $ for buying a book.
Natalie wanted some book from the LACMA museum but we decided not to buy it because we have gotten too many books for her in a short period of time. Natalie's love for books has turned into a serious passion (almost an obsession).
But Natalie doesn't take no as an answer so she came up with an idea: I will make cookies and some cool cards and I will sell them so I can buy the book with that money. We said OK.
With Bill's help she made a big bunch of cookies. Then with Diego's assistance she tried to sell them in front of our house. This was her pitch: Delicious cookies for 1 dollar and summer cards for 50 cents !! And this was Diego's pitch: YES! buy these delicious cookies! Absolutely for free! Every time he said that Natalie had to correct him.
There wasn't a single soul on the street but a neighbor came and bought one cookie and one card. So at the right time Bill came to the house to pick up something. Seeing the situation in the kid's sales department he thought that Natalie should bring the cookies and cards to his office where there were some potential customers. She did it and guess what? Sold out! All the merchandise was gone in a couple of minutes.
Today I took the kids to the museum so Natalie could get her book and a gift for Diego. I felt very proud of Natalie. I see a good business woman in the future and someone who will get things done no matter what. She inspires me everyday :)
Car Accident.
Road report!
Right today, on Diego's 7th birthday, we had a car accident. I was driving the kids back home from their swim lesson when a (very young) driver who was parked on the right side of the street opened his car door suddenly, without looking in the mirror and them BOOM! His door attaked my car! Everything happened so fast. The young man was extremely sorry so was his Mom. I was very sorry about how sorry they were :) We didn't get hurt at all. A great part of the day was spent taking care of towing my car, renting a new vehicle etc. But in the end everything was OK. We had a nice family dinner, sang Happy Birthday to my prince and came back home tired but happy. Diego said that he was never going to forget this day. We asked: Why? And he said: Because I love our new (rented) car!
Events like this one make me think about how precious life is. I love life and I'm so happy to be alive! Thank God that we're all safe!
Hawaii.
I found these pictures that I took some time ago in Hawaii and I just had to share them with you. All this green makes my heart sing. I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life in that place :)
I hope that you're having a really nice Summer!
All my best!
Elsita :)