Thursday, August 8, 2013

Living Creatively

What a bold statement to lead off with in title form, am I right? Most days, I find it challenging to want to clean my apartment, let alone make a point of living every day thinking about how I might fulfill my "creative quota" for the week.

But you're here because I directed you to this brand new blog in which I will write tidbits about my life and what it means to try and fulfill this very broad goal, so, here we go!

I started PageFree as a first step in giving some direction to my art as a hobby. One can say I have definitely dabbled in several different mediums: pastels, knitting, sketching, cross stitch, jewelry (this includes beading and metal work), but what has really stuck and made an impression with me was the first time I tried my hand at furniture decoupage. This was back at the end of high school when my friend Mallory asked me if I wanted to do a decoupage project with her; she had a collection of photos from high school that she was hoping to adorn on an old trunk she was taking along to college.


I am never one to turn down a new art project, so yes, I wanted to give this a shot! First, I found an old side table/nightstand from a thrift shop for around $12 (score!) that badly needed some new love. Also around this time, my friends and I had formed a pretty frequent habit of meeting at the local Barnes and Nobles for coffee. It was on one of these very trips that I stumbled across a book of Vogue fashion photos from the 1920s - 2000s on clearance for only $1! YES ONE DOLLAR! I had just found my subject matter for this decoupage project.  It was a challenging two days, but I loved creating something beautiful from something which had already had a former life; in this case both the nightstand and the book.

It's now several years later, and while PageFree doesn't focus on furniture re-designs (yet!), it has been extremely important to me to maintain the same general idea. I want to take old things and make them new. I want to tear up an old magazine that no one looks at anymore and find the perfect colors, textures, and lines to create the leaves on one of my trees. I want to see a fashion photo and think up an entirely new story for it.  I want to take this old book that is falling apart and show it some love by making it into a cute greeting card that will bring a smile to someone's face.

An example of me tearing up some magazine pages to make leaves.



I have said before that I am inspired by the things around me. Yes, this includes nature on some days, but often these inspirations come in the form of "What do I have in my house that I can make this happen with?" or "How can I change this into what I ultimately envision?" Example below: I did not have wrapping paper for my boyfriend Anthony's birthday gift, but knew in my head what I wanted, so I just made it happen with the resources on hand.



I can't promise that I'll always be successful, but the point is just to keep trying right? But of course we must always have fun doing so!

Cheers!
Joelle



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