weekly smudge 18-7-07

weekly smudge! - things that have interested me during the week
This week i have had a few things interest me, alot of them to do with webdesign and programming which i wont go into too much here, but one thing i came accross in my travels is a free wiki!!!

PBwiki.com
Now i like to think that i am pretty much up to date with whats going on in the land of the web but i only recently found out what a wiki was about a month ago when a client said they wanted one!

So for those of you who dont know a wiki is a webpage/site that multiple people can edit. The most famous one is Wikipedia - the free encylopedia which i now use all the time.
A wiki has hundreads of uses, you can use a wiki to keep lists or photos with just your immediate family or with a circle of friends you can use it to arrange meetings or get together or just updates on whats happening in your busy lives. A bit like a blog but one that all your friends can update :).
I created a wiki and was surprised by the functionality and how easy it was to use. So if your interested in having your own wiki i can reccommed this free one. Check it out

> http://pbwiki.com/

Stepping out of your comfort zone
These past few weeks / months you may have noticed i have been struggling abit, just with finding out where my art/life is going and being stuck in a bit of a rut. I have realised that a good way to get out of this is to discover new things, getting out and about and finding new ways of doing your regular things. So consciously and subconsciously i have been doing this not only in art but in all areas of my life.

Some of the things i have been doing are: Shopping at different shops, making an effort to seek out friends, going to artshows (when previously i would have found some reason not to go), trying new recipes, moving the house around, trying out new mediums, trying new supports & subjects, doing new fun things with the kids, learning new design and programming techniques and wait for it... Allowing myself to at the beginning of each week ... use a brand new spanking dishcloth and throwing the other one in the bin ... yes not reusing it !!! Why .. i deserve it !! (its a pack of 20 for a $1- i can afford to get a new one each week i don't have a dishwasher it makes me feel cleaner and better !!!!)

All this has helped to have a renewed energy of late which has translated into my art so here are a few things in particular i have done with stepping out of my comfort zone.

Browsing with Firefox - ok this is kinda a no brainer but i have realised as i get older i am becoming a creature of habit .. and past years of trying to design for multiple browser versions made me skeptical and resistant to new browsers . Of late i have had more and more people talking about Firefox .. so i decided to give it a whirl... So the verdict - i really like it and am going to stick with it... of the main reason is that i don't have to type in my username and password each time i want to post to my or someone else's blog ..Its got other features too if you up for a change give it a whirl.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

New colour palettes

Another thing i realised do particularly when i paint is stay close to my usual colour palette which hasn't really changed over the years - of lots of bright colours. Recently i have also been looking at many artists' websites and different styles of work .... i realised that I find i often like a particular set of similar earthy type colours and artist styles ..... two inparticular i have looked at are:
Cathy Nichols - http://cathynichols.blogspot.com/
Valaine- Silent Dreamer's Art Blog - http://valaine.blogspot.com/

Obviously each are their own individual styles but i noticed i tend to like that type of thing :) So i decided i wanted to use those types of colours ... so i have started a few little oils with these colours using these colour palettes as an inspiration and its been great it feels really fresh and new !!!