I’ve been away too long from my blog… And Monday Moodboards! Here are some beautiful things from some of my favorite European Street Team designs at Etsy.

Clockwise from left:

“Swallows on the wire pillow” by Atelier Pompadour (Italy)
“Autumn one” by JKphotography (The Netherlands)
“Bridal satin bow brooch with round locket” by Lilo Shop (Austria)
“Cotton top – in grey with floral print” by ThongbaiTatong (The Netherlands)

More Monday Moodboards at Fleurfatale’s blog.

Wow! How long since my last entry… I’m sorry, I’ve been quite busy lately.

You will understand why taking a look at what the postman brought this morning:
“Felt to Stitch: Creative Felting for Textile Artists” by Sheila Smith and ” PHP for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide” by Larry Ullman.
(The package arrived from my beloved Amazon UK, of course).

These books are opposites of creativity in my own opinion, both interesting but so different.
Of course my love goes to the art part and I’d rather spend all my day felting, stitching, drawing and painting… But I have to learn PHP, along with a lot of other stuff, for my job.

That is why I’m feeling torn between those opposites and not much time is left for blogging!

The day is here. I could say I didn’t post for so long on my blog to preserve energies, but the truth is – I have been too lazy!

I got my Moleskine, my pens, recharged my laptop battery, re-read all the “No Plot? No Problem!” book, put music in my iPod, I took a refreshing nap this afternoon, and I’m ready to go to my first write-in to start the writing marathon that is Nanowrimo.

I really don’t know where I’m going to find the time, and I don’t care if I’m going to write the 50,000 words that is the Nanowrimo goal or not.
I need a creativity challenge and – let’s face it – what’s best than committing yourself to this crazy idea?

All I have to do now is pack all my writing supplies and remember the words of the great american writer Ernest Hemingway:
“The frist draft of anything is s**t”.

Note to self: throwing hot tea on your laptop keyboard is never a good idea. Unless you want to write without “o” and “l” for a while…

The invitation to the exhibition / L'invito alla mostra

Friday! A busy and hectic week is almost ended and I’m still overwhelmed by my to-do lists.
From going to the bank to send the last invitations to the exhibition, I feel like a spinning top trying to stay up as long as possible.

The event is almost here and I hope I did everything and didn’t foget something really important.

Like… Painting the artworks! I was sure there was something missing.
I painted three of them, one more is on the go and I have some plans for the fifth one. The sixth – I planned to have six made for the event – is still a mistery.

I printed the invitations for both the event and the exhibition and they are going to be sent by snail mail today.
It is amazing how much time it can take to put together addresses, print labels, put cards in envelopes and so on!
And I still have to buy the stamps and stick them on each envelope! Anybody willing to help?

It took for me a lot of effort to put together this little exhibition, and I really hope people will come and enjoy a pleasant time drinking a glass of wine and looking at the artworks.
Of course I didn’t have to do all the organization alone: Softing organized most of the event.
However, taking the leap into painting again has proved quite hard for me.

I forgot how much I love painting and drawing, after years of neglecting this part of myself.
Since my oil painting days at school, I didn’t do much with my hands.
My creativity was soon transferred on computer work, and put at use in graphic design projects.
I felt that something important was missing, but I didn’t realize exactly what since I found myself happily covered in charcoal during the drawing course I took in London.
I love messing around! Simple as that.

I really don’t know where all this painting and drawing and sketching will lead me. I don’t care much.
In the meantime, I enjoy the process!

My drawing for the new year / Il mio disegno per il nuovo anno

Yesterday it was the first day of the new year – in my personal calendar – and I was overwhelmed by the amount of projects I have to complete and incredibly angry at the whole country that stopped for one month.

I couldn’t accomplish any of my tasks, I tried to run errands but with no success.
The icing on the cake: the art store didn’t receive their canvas supplies yet!
It seems their order just vanished and they don’t know where it is.

I was so stressed, I decided to make a drawing.

I had some ideas about a serie of abstract drawings, and I decided to start right away, because I wasn’t really able to do anything else.
Here you can see the result of my efforts.

It was ages – I guess since elementray school! – I wasn’t using pastels.
Of course, that doesn’t stop me by buying a lot of them anyway.
I really enjoying the process of drawing this abstract subject with pastels.
I love touching the colored surface with my fingers to spread the color on the paper, seeing it sink in the fibers, mixing the different shades to see a new one emerging.
I added some touches with a crayon, one of my favorite Derwent crayons, and I tried a different pastel for the white lines.

I have to work more and more to master the use of pastels and to understand where this kind of drawings can lead me.
This drawing opened a lot of possibilities and it also reached its goal: I calmed down right away, focusing my thought on the color and paper, with no space left for anything else.
That is a really big result, given that I’m constantly trying to focus while my too many thoughts run around in my head like happy children.

Today I plan to go to a bigger art supllies store to buy my canvases and – uhm – more pastels!

Welcome!

Here I am, writing the first post of this new blog and site… That is my personal blog and site, actually!

I decided to use this space to show off my work as an artist, given that my work as a graphic designer will be moved on the new Reingard Design website (now under contruction).

It took me years to realize – to admit – that what I really want to do is following my creative path, even if it is often obscure, misleading, full of low moments and few successes.

In the last 13 or 14 years I directed all my creative energies toward my graphic design job, only to realize that… is not enough!

After a long gap, I took my pencils and brushes again in my hands and went back to the old arts of drawing and painting, along with some other skills as collage, knitting, sewing, embroidering, attempting to use – and eventually blend – all that to create something beautiful.

In this pages, I would like to pour my rambling thoughts about creativity, inspiration, passion, and whatever crosses my mind.

You are welcome to express your opinions and comment on what I write and do!

But first, I have some acknowledges to make.
I want to thank Sam Sekhar for his web developing skills, his suggestions and his patience in following me in the project of this site.
My husband Alessandro is my personal supporter and I couldn’t do anything without him.
I know that my mom, my dad and my sister will always be there for me, even if I can be a quite eccentric daughter and sister to deal with.

The site is constantly changing, so I don’t know what is going to happen next…

That’s all by now… Keep visiting for updates!