I'm Feelin' Artsy

Hey everyone!

So until now, I hadn't taken an art class or even drawn anything other than a doodle in about five years. This makes me sad. In elementary and middle school, art was always my favorite subject because it felt so natural to me. I was thrown into painting at a young age; my grandma was an avid watercolor painter, and when she lived with us yearly during Springtime, she would teach me all that she knew. Those days of my childhood spent painting on the porch with her are some of the best memories I have. Once I got to high school, I didn't have time in my schedule to fit an art class, so creativity began to slowly slip away from my life. I decided to take an art appreciation class this year, in college, which has honestly been the easiest grade of my life. But I have enjoyed it, mostly due to the fact that we were given an actual art assignment to draw a self portrait. I was finally given an excuse to fit art back into my life! And it felt so good!

Below is the self portrait that I turned in to the teacher. 

Please give me your opinions on it, I would love to know!

 

Created with a #2 mechanical pencil and some effort!

Drawing this felt like meditation, it freed my mind from stress.

I loved it; maybe I should try to draw and paint more often now.

How do you feel while creating things?

 xo, Caylee

When Darkness Illuminates

My journal passage from last year which describes my fascination with all things nocturnal...

Enchanting.

        The word conjures up thoughts of my deepest loves and fantasies stemming back from when I was young. For a week during the summer of when I was nine years old, my mother and I drove to West Virgina to visit an old friend of hers. As we neared Myra's house, our car climbed low mountains shrouded in mist, and the thick forest covering the land around us was lush yet ominous. We arrived at the wooden cabin at dusk, greeted by Myra and hundreds of twinkling fireflies. They seemed to be like white lights strung about the property, flashing in the trees and bushes. These insects were a rare phenomenon to me... and still are. I grew up in South Florida, never spotting one of the beautiful lightning bugs until that moment.

        While Myra and my mother migrated inside, I became lost in the realm of twilight. I waded through tall feathery grass and sat down beneath the darkening trees to admire my magical surroundings. The fireflies danced around me to an unheard waltz, one giving me the pleasure of landing on my palm and lighting up in greeting. As the creatures of twilight came out to play, the dark cobalt sky gave way to sparkling stars, light years away, but just as magical as my earthly delights here. My nine year old imagination pictured little fairies waking up from their day-long slumber and flitting out of their hiding places in the trees. They would swirl and fly amongst the fireflies, creating a symphony of light for only my eyes to witness. But then eventually, to my dismay, the glow of the lightning bugs would slowly fade away. Little by little, they all disappeared for the night, and the fairies of my imagination danced away to a forest world that my human soul could not enter. I was left alone in the darkness to stare up at the beautiful infinity until my mother finally called me in to the warm flooding light of the cabin. After that moment, all I could think about was the next evening when I would be able to escape into my world of enchantment once again.


         After ten more years in Florida, I had forgotten about the effect of twilight on me... until this evening. As I walked up to the door of my new apartment in Georgia and began to unlock the door, I saw a twinkle of light in the corner of my eye. I turned and was met by dozens of blinking fireflies glowing in the impending darkness... and then all of the magic came back to me.

---

        As you can see, fireflies will always be a source of delight and wonder which most adults don't seem to have enough of. So why don't you sit outside in the silence of the oncoming night and watch for the beautiful blinking bugs? Maybe catch a few in your hand? Or how 'bout you visit the Elkmont area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to witness this amazing natural spectacle of lights:

I can't wait to go see this one day! I would be in heaven. Anyways, let me know your thoughts and tell me something that you find completely enchanting! Photos are from Firefly.org and knoxnews.com.

To Secret Hideouts and Being a Kid

Hey Everyone!

To kick off the start of my blog today, I wanted to share with you some of my very favorite pictures from a contest on booooooom and Spike Jonze's We Love You So. This contest was inspired by the new film Where The Wild Things Are, and I completely love it. The point was for people to create a fort or their own mini wonder world out of materials that they love from their daily life. I wanted to make my own fort too, but unfortunately, I found out about the project right as it was ending. I think I'm still going to make one though; it looks like way too much fun to pass up! I'll post pictures of it on here when I do! Anyway, here are the most awesome ones that have stolen my heart.

Matthew Wickham

Bunty May

Dennis + Hildi

Caitlin Frunks + Ellie Glen

Donnel + Paulo + Francis + Tim + Lou

Adi Sideman

Ausia Lauts

Sara Berntsen

Carrie Willits

Jamie Shaw

Eric Rice

Heather Minto + Steven Garrard

Aren't they amazing and creative?! Let me know what your thoughts are! When I was younger, I always used to make secret hideouts, usually inside the house. There was this little closet underneath the staircase filled with winter coats; I would take out all of the clothes and then fill the space with piles of pillows, blankets, books, and then tape up my artwork all over the walls. It was pretty nifty. My mom let me keep it like that for a couple of weeks, and let me tell you, I was in that closet whenever I didn't have school! When I was six, I created a fort outside from branches and leaves. My dad has a picture of me crouching in front of it with a messy sign I had written, "No boys allowed, only daddies!" He got a kick out of that sign, and still loves it! :)


I believe that the above project embodies the main idea of this blog; I'm going to post up things that inspire me (and hopefully you!) to always want to stay young and spirited at heart. Maybe you gathered it from the title as well, but this will be a fun website for those of you who never want to grow up. Keep checking back here for more posts! I'd love it if you wanted to contribute anything as well, just leave me a comment! Also, if you want to make a fort (like me!), send a picture of it to caypugh@gmail.com and I'll gladly post it up on here.



- Caylee