The LifeArtDance of Liz Brent

There are several projects I’ve completed over the last couple months that I’d like to showcase. So I’ve decided to write about one every day for the rest of the week until they’re all up.

When I was working at Currents, on Valencia, I wanted to make something for my coworkers because they have inspired me so much in the business of arts and crafts. I’ve also been wanting to start painting again, but didn’t have a lot of money or materials to work with. The project I decided on was to do portraits of my coworkers on cardboard. I took photos of my coworkers when we were at work together to have images to work from.

The first portrait I did was of my coworker friend who was leaving for a long stay in Japan. That portrait I painted with coffee and wine, which was really fun, and I did accents with pens. Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of it because I had to finish it in a hurry. Hopefully when she comes back at the end of the month I can get some photos of it.

My other two coworker friends’ portraits I finished before I left Currents and gave them during my last couple days there. I used cardboard again, but this time my new roommate B let me use his tempera paints. It’s funny, I didn’t have a lot of colors on hand, but it worked out perfectly, as I wanted to paint the portraits using my friends’ favorite colors, and that’s what I ended up having! Sometimes, I really think having the challenge of limits actually makes art better. As scary as some of my limitations can seem right now, I have to embrace them as a chance to grow.

Here are the visuals!

My friends are artists, too – please check out their sites! You can see why I’m so inspired…

Chelsey Dyer

Rachel, aka Kokoro Kara

<3

A year ago, I was starting a major transition in my life. I was living in Japan, getting ready for a trip to Thailand before my move back to the United States. In September 2009, I moved to San Francisco to pursue dance as my professional career.

Now, almost August 2010 and a year anniversary with San Francisco fast approaching, I am in the midst of another transition. I’m on a break from dancing to heal a chronic lower back condition. I have quit one of my part time jobs to the tune:

“I am an artist! It’s time to LIVE it. BE what I am, what I feel I’ve been training for my whole life. No longer will I put art in the background as a ‘hobby,’ I want it to be my way of life. I want to be a professional artist.”

I have lots of ideas of how to make that happen, but I’m not going to lie: I’m a little nervous.

The week following my last day at the little shop where I was working has actually been incredibly stressful. This isn’t vacation. Now I start working for myself and that means working harder than ever. It’s a time of true dedication and discipline.

One of the tasks I’ve set up for myself is the reconstruction of this website, and in general my entire online presence. This too feels scarier than it should. I have to remind myself that it’s not complete reinvention, it’s the process of continuing to discover who I want to be, who I am, and how I present myself and interact with the world.

I’ve been online apart of various communities since high school, yet sometimes I feel very lost in a cloud of my own creation. But as I grow up, it’s important to remember that life, and the Internet, is an experiment. So my LiveJournal account is almost 9 years old – if it’s no longer really reflecting me, then it’s time to try something new! If I’m unhappy with Facebook, what I can I do to make it work for me? Online social etworks are a tool and they should work for me, not feel like they’re taking over my life. I want to present my creative life in a manner that is professional, focused, but still ME: down to earth, quirky, rambling, poetic, vibrant, dancing through life in various ways and mediums…

I’ve always loved writing, journaling, drawing, moving, photography, art, poetry… so many forms and ways of expressions. Instead of trying to define and categorize them, this next step in my Internet experiment is to simply showcase each project as they are born and develop. Blog and portfolio, growing together.

As always, this is first and foremost for my family and family of friends, to share my life with them across distances.