1. A parnter or partners to work with and balance me in the development of my project
2. Openess of my project with others, which would make me more committed to the project since I shared my project with others.

I'm a freelancer and it can be a lonely life even with all its freedoms. It can also be creatively isolating. But people do this everyday so I know I can. That bring me Detroit100, which is my poster project. The first series went pretty well and I thought I had some people that were amped to be a part of it, but after the first series or event, it went flat. No buy in at all.  Well, I decided that I should try to move this along and just develop some posters on my own for this poster project. You, know, fuel for the fire. The past few months, that is what I have been doing.

Right now most of my pieces are still in sketch form. But I made a promise to myself that by next week those sketches must become digital creations. Maybe the new work will ignatie this slow burning fire. I hope so.

I will keep ya posted.

Visit David's web site when you can. After seeing his presentation, I started to pay more attention to signs and I think I am going to start incorporating some of the colors and styles in my own drawings.  Doing my sign research, I came across this one flickr account full od signs from all over Detroit.

This photo is special to me. It is the sign of the supermarket that was right across from my familes home. I use to walk over there to get bread for my parents, and sometimes candy (smile). It closed about three or four years ago and just re-open this year (yippee).

Signs are more than signs. They are reminders of our life and who we are as people. In this case – my life and Detroiters. Food Farm

A couple of days ago I saw this video by Detroit300 calling out for people to stand up and fight back. Lately there has been some horrendous crimes done to young innocent children in this city. This is a part of my city I am not proud of yet it exist. Since September we have heard of children being caught in cross-fire and even kidnappings.

What is the cause of this violence? Our economic issues, the hopelessness or just plain craziness. It is a little of all, but I think the biggest problem that we face as a city and as people is the lack of love. No one that loves themselves and their fellow man would dare take the lives of anyone, especially children.

WATCH VIDEO – Detroit 300

I am not one to support vigilantism – but I feel the passion of these men and agree that the madness that is happening in Detroit has to stop and soon. We need to find love and live a life of love and if any city can do that, it is Detroit.

I’ve been working on these small 3×3 illustrations for the past year and have decided to create and exhibit 500 of them by the end of 2012. I enjoy the basic process of drawing, inking and coloring with no more than markers and crayons. Will anyone outside of myself find this interesting? I am learning that it is most important that I enjoy what I do and create first, and if others enjoy it, I appreciate it.

I always heard and heeded that a true artist should schedule time to paint, to draw to create. I do. I sketch everyday – I design something everyday – but this is different. This incubation comes from the instinctual need to create. These are very powerful moments of creativity.

While I am writing this, I am looking out of my window. It is snowing…silently. I see the white flakes covering streets, top of cars and naked tree branches – and that,  for some reason pulls me even further in to my space. I never know how long these incubation periods last. Sometimes it is a week, other times months and months. However long they may be, I dare not waste them or ignore them. I look forward to this one and will enjoy what hatches from the heat of my creativity.

Starting today, January 1, 2012, I am launching a new web site – Colorful Women.
It will be the home of  artwork, campaigns and products from the Colorful Women Series. I hope that you take some time to visit.

THE WEB SITE IS COLORFULWOMEN.DMJSTUDIO.COM

As an artist I think every painting is a step for you to learn how to express yourself in you own words or brush strokes and until you can do it with your own techniques, you lean on others.  I see Picasso in this piece and I see Van Gogh in the strokes. I think the color scheme of this painting and the drawing are uniquely mine. I took me about six months of going back and forth with this painting before I felt it was complete. It was so strange looking. I didn’t want to be the creator of something so damn strange. What would people think of me when they see it. “Something is wrong with that girl.”  I painted it any way because in the state of real true creativity you are creating and thinking and doing simultaneously and before you know it, a painting like this stands before you.

Here in front of these canvas, I cannot hide the truth of how I feel, who I am and where I want to be as a human being. Even when I wanted to, even when I was scared of how people would judge me as a person, I could not change what I was doing. Now, though painting is still very hard for me to do, I find joy in the fact that what I paint on the canvas is not contained by others perception.

The blue woman is different. She has one eye and her body morphs into these spaces of color and lines; but she is beautiful, strangely so. I think this is when I start realizing too, that I am painting emotional and mental moments of womanhood and femininity – and not just a physical form. That opened my art up more.

Last year I became a member of a great community organization – Detroit Synergy (DSG).  I was, for the past year, a part of the steering team with the title of Design Chair. I’ve taken on a new role this year. It has no title, but it allows me to do something I always wanted to do and that is work with a team of productive, passionate people who want to get the job done while creating a good product. I’ve only been working with this new group for a few weeks, but it has already been so productive. I think that what DSG does this year will really be amazing. This will be our 10th year and we are going to do it big, so I will keep you all posted.

Visit the Detroit Synergy web site and come hang with us Thursday, January 12, 2012 for our first event of the year – DSG RECONNECTS.