Art

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Music I Heart: Azam Ali, Niyaz, Vas

Published September 21, 2012 by kurolace

I listen to a fairly wide range of music, and for a long time I’ve had an interest in middle eastern music. A few years ago I had the good fortune to stumble upon an album on iTunes by a Persian group called Niyaz. The self-titled album stayed in my car’s stereo for AGES because I loved it so much. It falls into the dance genre, I would think. (wikipedia says: “Niyaz’s music, described as “mystical music with a modern edge”, is primarily a blend of Sufi mysticism and trance electronica”)

Anyways… Niyaz’s female vocalist is Azam Ali, who also happens to have several solo albums as well as having been part of another group called Vas. Vas falls more into the “alternative world music” genre according to wikipedia, and the music usually features instruments like the tabla, goblet drum, dulcimer, and tambura (sorta like a sitar).

I found a video on YouTube with one of my favorite Vas songs, “The Reaper and the Flowers.”

 

And a Niyaz song from their first album:

 

I suppose it should come as no surprise that I used to take middle eastern dance classes… for about 2 years I was into it pretty heavily. Unfortunately there was a car accident, and a back injury, which took me a long time to get over. And since then I haven’t been able to get myself back into it…maybe someday in the future 🙂

Into the Abyss

Published August 29, 2012 by kurolace

Here’s a picture I made while playing around in my trial version of corel painter…. I tried to base it off a dream I had, but didn’t do so well…. Anyways, it was fun to play with though 🙂 …. I wish I could afford corel painter, I’ll be sad when my trial expires. Its a lot easier for me to use my tablet with than photoshop for some reason, and I find the brush tools to make more sense in corel.

As for the dream…. I’m prone to some really detailed and strange dreams. Not to mention the waking terrors that I suffer on a regular basis (I’m narcoleptic, btw…. and “waking terrors” or hypnagogia hallucinations / OBE / Sleep paralysis type sh*t is daily/nightly occurrence)…. This was a full on dream (not a hypnagogia one), but extremely detailed and stuck with me for a long time. In it, I guess I was on something similar to the astral plane…. except that I was locating “the origin of my soul”. Mine just happened to be out in the middle of the ocean, where all of the world’s energy was being sucked back down into the earth to be recycled (just like the tectonic plates, I guess). I had to stand facing the submersion zone, and watch all of the energy rushing past me and down into a black depth. In addition to the horrible pitch black, I was struck by a terrible silence.

The drawing is definitely off because its more of a birds-eye-view, as I couldn’t seem to draw it from the perspective I had in my dream, I suppose that’s because I wasn’t really “standing” (even though I just said I was), but more like just “being” in a particular location. I was aware of what was both in front of me, as well as what was behind me.

 

If a person were in this picture, they’d be a tiny speck 🙂

New Embroidery Machine

Published June 28, 2012 by kurolace

This cat arrived packed perfectly – complete with Styrofoam bumpers. 😛

Hello 🙂 …

I’m afraid I’ve been absent for a while, haven’t I? Worry not, sweetlings, I still exist! Its just that the summer heat has hit in full here… and I am busy wilting most of the day 😛

Its been a bit over a week since my 25th birthday… which was back on the 15th. I feel so old saying that… What ever happened to 20? or 17 for that matter? …. Well, besides thinking depressing thoughts about how my life isn’t nearly what I hoped it would be by 25… I did have a nice day. We didn’t make much of a big deal out of it. My mom baked a delicious pineapple-upside-down cake, and we went out to a Japanese restaurant for sushi. Seeing as I don’t really have many friends here in my hometown, I didn’t do anything besides hang out with my family.  This year I completely failed to think of gifts that people could give me, so I ended up with all monetary gifts, which was just fine by me. After a lot of consideration, I finally decided to buy an embroidery machine.

Actually its a sewing-embroidery combo machine. The Brother SE-400. It only can do small (4x4in) embroidery, but that’s fine. The larger machines are significantly more expensive (like $2,000 plus), so I figured I’d start small and see if I even like machine embroidery enough to someday invest in a larger machine. So far I haven’t had much luck with using the machine… I am completely new to machine embroidery, so I’ve run into my fair share of newbie-errors. Also, accumulating all the necessary accessories has taken some time and an additional few hundred (the machine was $300).

I’ve already indulged in buying some cool goth-y embroidery patterns … so once I finally successfully complete one, I’ll post a few pics!

I’ve also been working on some sewing projects lately, including a tiered skirt and a flannel children’s blanket (shaped like a flower). I went on a bit of a fabric buying splurge and now my room is stuffed with bags of supplies again XD … If only I could have a little studio or craft room!

“Foolish Human, this is MY sewing project”

 

Other exciting news: I’ve finally decided to open an Etsy store! It will have the same name as my blog…. and I ordered some business cards yesterday! 🙂 In the next few days I need to get my act together and photograph some of my items.

 

This morning, in the garden…

Published May 28, 2012 by kurolace

….I met an old friend:

Ever since I was a child, my mother has had these growing in her garden. I always loved the way they look from the side – like some creature with a snout.

… dreamed of eating cherries, just barely out of reach:

(some more pictures from this morning are bellow 😛 )

 

Rediscovered Sketches & Comic

Published February 29, 2012 by kurolace

A few days ago I found one of my old notebooks tucked away in my room. Its a grid-design, top-spiral bound note book that I used back when I was in driver’s ed to kill time (nope, not a single driver’s ed note in it – lol, so maybe THATs why I had that accident about 3 years ago). I was “in my prime” as an artist back then. Sad, I know, considering the quality of drawings. These days I’m not even this good, since I don’t practice often 😦 I really should get back to it.

Just for fun I thought I’d upload the scans here so you can see them. The highlight of the bunch is the 3 pages of comic-intro that I was making. I’ve always wanted to make a comic / manga but I often get stuck trying to figure out a good plot. After looking at these pages, I feel kinda like I want to restart PROJECT PEACH (which btw, was inspired by my love of peach-buns from the Chinese buffet! lol).

So… here are the pictures… lol. Tell me what you think of my mad16-yr-old drawing skills (other than the obviously lack of understanding in regards to human anatomy). At the time I was  trying to move away from manga style drawings… with a mediocre amount of success. Unfortunately, this notebook is from the time right around when I started to develop serious symptoms of narcolepsy… I pretty much slept through the last 2 years of high school and stopped doing everything.