Ólafur Arnalds – Ljósið (Official Music Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

This is so beautiful. It calms my racing mind every time I watch it. Enjoy!

1. Please tell us about your art and yourself: who are you, what do you do, how did you start your creative life?

My name is Liz LaFreniere, my work is ethereal, painterly Photography. I sell my work on Etsy at Ena &the Swan Photography. I started my creative life with a index card. I folded it in half, traced a half heart shape and cut it, then discarded it and made the leftovers two brown birds facing one another with beaks touching. I was 5 years old.

2. How do you come up with an idea for a piece ?

Like all artists’ on some level of consciousness I am inspired by other Artists of all types. But personally, probably because of my background as a Fine Art Painter, I start with a simple idea of a color or shape or even line. Also, stories, music and movies are in the mix.

3. Do you have living (or RIP) artists you are inspired from ?

Many of my contemporary photographers whose work I see on Flickr, no famous artists really, though my studio wall is covered with cutouts from fashion magazines, reproductions of paintings and the work of my 11 year daughter Audrey.

4. Do you have any creating ritual ?

Not really. Sometimes driven by a general concept I setup my tripod, dress-up in something (generally vintage), grab my remote and just click off 100 pics or so. Often though my work has been a derivative of a plain old snapshot.

5. Do you have a studio or creative place-room-corner ? How does it impact your art ?

Well yes and no. I have a ‘room’ but it’s in a sad state of limbo. We are reorganizing our house. But in it’s past it was a very pale pink room with French doors on both sides and a pale wood floor. Once stocked with a large easel and paints, then once I started shooting it gained a desk, computer, etc. It has always had a wall of inspirational art and Christmas lights surrounding the ceiling. My best work is done in a secluded, quiet, calming environment.

6. What would be your top 5 creative inspirations? (ie: websites, book, music, writer, people, etc.)

My life, my background as a painter, music, poems & books, and movies, in that order..

7. What are you into at the moment ? Do you have any art obsessions ?

No obsessions, I have always wanted to make a movie and I often have grand concepts that do not come in to fruition. I tend to stay close to home, I’m a bit neurotic in that regard, and my work tends to be sporadic. The ideas often come out of no conscious place or from a simple thing like the color blue or a piece of clothing.

8. Any dreams or project for the future?

Well there’s that movie (j/k), no clear projects currently though I’d like to do some collaborative work with other female photographers. I also hope to start painting again.

9. Do you have any creative inspirational –quote to share ?

How about ‘…and then I drew a new face and I laughed’.

10. How do you keep your creative-juices flowing ?

I surf the web, watch movies (it’s an addiction), make playlists from movie soundtracks and sometimes just buy a cute dress.

11. How does the online world impact your art? Would it be the same if you didn’t expose your art online?

The web is an odd bird. It can very easily create a virtual life when you’re an artist. Your works on this blog or that web-zine. You really don’t have to leave your home at all and you can gain fame. Weird huh? Not a good thing for a recluse like me. But, if it didn’t exist I would have never sold a single piece of art.

12. How do you promote your work?

This is not a area I like honestly. I have an online store that just re-opened after many years of personal hardships. I also submit occasionally to online web-zines and have been featured on them and blogs. I’ve had a few shows also. And I am now finally getting into social networking and have a fanpage on Facebook and Twitter.

13. Do you have creative pet-peeves?

Hitting a dead end, you know ‘writer’s block’. Also, it frustrates me when people think they are the first one to do something. So many artists existed before us and as a professor once told me, ‘there are no new ideas in art, only new interpretations’.

14. How do you manage the business-side of your art?

Well, some social networking, actually mainly that way via the web and word of mouth. I have also been involved with several groups of women that support one another through promotion via blogs, etc. and we have made collaborative books together.

15. Any advice creative-wise for our readers?

Experience as much of life as can. Be it through the ‘looking glass’’ of your house window or through contact with other people and don’t be afraid to put your life into your art.

Thanks Liz! Your photographs are gorgeous, I can really feel your painting background throught your use of texture and composition. Also, I use to sing that song to my son while I was pregnant; isn’t it a happy-vibes song? Intrigue and want to see more? You should go then to Liz’s Etsy shop, website, blog and more! See links below.

LINKS ::  enaandtheswan.etsy.com ::  Lizlafreniere.blogspot.com ::

Enaandtheswan/flickr.com ::  Enaswanphoto.twitter.com ::

Enaandtheswanphotography.facebook.com

When our cat Tokyo first meets baby-ninja, confusion and practicality saves an awkward moment.

Cheap Pop Song from Rhett Dashwood on Vimeo.

This made me smile! Enjoy!

{Photo from Cig Harvey}

Have a nice day girls ^_-  If you haven’t read Friday’s international women day themed post, you should check it out!

On a side note, I met with Marianne last week and it was interesting to hear her take on feminism (she is co-founder of the French blog  je suis féministe.com, and it made me wonder what women bring to the online world and how very few woman web-designer I have met (online or in person). So, any girly-geek out there? Take the comment zone to do some shameless self-promo, I’d love to meet you!

PS: Are you familiar with the Ada Lovelace day?

A quick update to let you know that you have until FRIDAY MARCH THE 12TH to vote for your favorite design/designer. So that’s 5 more days to vote! To add to the surprise, I now have hidden the results (some of them are SOOOO close! ).

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway by leaving a comment in the voting post (you can enter 6 times, one per categorie)!

Here are the links to the categories:

Back in the days, when I was a design student, I had to do a complete vector illustration, and quite frankly at that time, I just hated the whole process! Well I just spent one hour yesterday (remember, I have a 10 months old, so time is precious to me!) amazed by Ben O’Brien’s work. Hi nack with details & colors, not to mention his fun patterns (you can buy them as wallpapers), makes his work quite unique. What is vector art? THIS is vector art!

LINKS :: Ben the Illustrator’s website & Online shop

{Well Behaved Women Sign from Suzs Country Prims}
March 8th is the international Women’s day, so girls, this weekend, take some time for yourself and nurture your grrrl side! You could….

1- Read a pioneer woman.

2- Get on your sensitive girly side and go AAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!

3- Do some makeup cleanup.

4- Get on history’s streets

5- Play Safe and Use your rights

6- Listen to a Tiger

7- Be a FIERCE artist

8- Don’t be afraid of the F word. Nor here. Or here (French girls do it too!).

Have a great weekend ladies! Yay for us!

(click for larger size)

Being “brave” means doing or facing something frightening. … Being “fearless” means being without fear.
- Penelope Leach

( Illo from one of my all time fav illustrator, John Martz ; click on image for larger view)
Oh yeah! Fellow web designer, today is THA DAY! We have been waiting, hoping that this day would come. The end to our teary late nights, our banging heads on the keyboards, our swearing to our monitors, saying «Damn you, IE6! How I hate thou!»

Fellow Folks, Internet Explorer 6 is now NO LONGER supported by Google since Monday, and Youtube cuts off support on March 13. Though Microsoft don’t intend to stop supporting his dated browser, the whole web community, programmers and designers are uniting to stop the CSS madness. The IE6 end of life has been called by diverse web peeps all over the web-world. And now, yours truly is jumping the banned-wagon (tehee), I no longer offer support or web development for IE6. There.

What can YOU do?

If you have Internet Explorer 6 as a browser, upgrade to the latest version (you’ll see, your web experience will be EXTREMELY better), or better yet, switch to FIREFOX or CHROME (which are free, yes, FREE, I tell you!) FYI, Internet Explorer 6 holds now less than 10% of the web market.

Also, you can follow the IE6 Funeral on Twitter (a tong to cheek event hosted by Aten Design Group in Denver, Colorado), or sign the online petition.

Please spread the news. Oh gosh, are these tears of joy?