Month: December 2014

Song of the day: Miley Cyrus – Climb

The Climb (song)
The Climb (song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I can almost see it
That dream I’m dreaming but
There’s a voice inside my head sayin,
You’ll never reach it,
Every step I’m taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
Got to keep trying
Got to keep my head held high

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what?s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

The struggles I’m facing,
The chances I’m taking
Sometimes they knock me down but
No I’m not breaking
I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I’m going to remember most yeah
Just got to keep going
And I,
I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on, cause

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I’m going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

There’s always going to be another mountain
I’m always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you going to have to lose,
Ain’t about how fast I get there,
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

Keep on moving
Keep climbing
Keep the faith baby
It’s all about
It’s all about
The climb
Keep the faith
Keep your faith

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My second favorite media after oil paints are watercolors. Even though it is considered as one of the most difficult media, the lightness and washed out effects that you can achieve with watercolors are beyond beautiful.

I’ve done two landscape paintings inspired by the watercolors that my art teacher saw in her hotel room on one of her recent trips. This one is winter, another one is autumn landscape, which I’ll also post shortly.

Winter Landscape by Natella MammadovaI love the layering technique used in this painting and the transparency of these layers adds depth and perspective.

I had to change my signature and you’ll notice that I only used my initials – NM – on the recent paintings – I didn’t want it to occupy too much space and distract from the painting.

Do you like this painting? I’m planning to explore more of this technique and I prepared a few photographs that I’ve taken during my walks around the town. I want to turn them into multilayer watercolor paintings. If you have any suggestions, or your own photos that you would like to provide to turn them into watercolor paintings, please send them to 1happyblog@outlook.com.

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App of the day: Pocket for Chrome

Do you often come around interesting articles posts and cool pictures or videos that you want to read or view later?

Pocket is a simple and beautiful solution for that.

home_splash_ultrawide@1x

About Pocket

Pocket was founded in 2007 by Nate Weiner to help people save interesting articles, videos and more from the web for later enjoyment. Once saved to Pocket, the list of content is visible on any device — phone, tablet or computer. It can be viewed while waiting in line, on the couch, during commutes or travel — even offline.

The world’s leading save-for-later service currently has more than 12 million registered users and is integrated into more than 500 apps including Flipboard, Twitter and Zite. It is available for major devices and platforms including iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac, Kindle Fire, Kobo, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera and Windows.

signup_graphic@1xAs you can see, you can get Pocket on your Mac, browser and lots of mobile solutions are available here.

If you don’t own a Mac, you can still get Pocket on your desktop thru Chrome Web Store.

Pocket is really easy to use. If you install the browser extension or if you have Pocket on your phone / tablet, whenever you find something you like, just click or touch the Pocket icon. That’s it – it is saved now and you have an option to add the tags for easy searching in the future.

unnamedPocketWhen you open the app, you’ll love the beautiful design and how your articles are arranged in it.

App of the day - Pocket for Chrome - 1You can also have a list view and once you roll over a post, you’ll have an option to Share, Archive, Delete, Edit tags or to save as Favorite.

App of the day - Pocket for Chrome - 2If you’d like to get a Pocket Premium, you’ll find even more amazing features, like suggested tags, personal backup and different search methods.

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5 Positively Transformative Reasons to Write a Journal

Great thoughts here…

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I’ve been long fascinated by public art. I love the concept of making something that will hopefully be seen by the future generations, the ability to make something that compliments the environment in a playful way and that public art is free for everyone to see.

One of my favorite pieces are by Amos Robinson. I love all of his works and hugely admire his talent. “My bike” is the first work of Amos’s that I came across and I fell in love with the idea and this kinetic sculpture.

publicart-mybike-1
Kinetic sculpture Stainless steel, polished and painted, on aluminum pole 13’ H x 8’ W (approx.)

publicart-mybike-2publicart-mybike-3publicart-mybike-4I love this carefree bicyclist that cruises on Tidelands Park, Coronado, CA. I can imagine him whistling a song, while he enjoys the sun and the breeze in his face and I love how the wheels spin with the wind.

Amos’s skills with metal and mechanics come from a field unusual to an artist – he spent many years collecting and restoring old sports cars and motorcycles and his 30 year career in large-scale air pollution process equipment laid foundation for his artworks.

“Bring the metal to life. This is my mantra as an artist.” Amos Robinson

Amos tells an interesting story of when he had his ‘aha’ moment:

In 1964 while visiting our grandparents in New York City, my brothers and I were taken to the Calder exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum. To that point, whenever we entered a gallery, museum or antique shop, the words we heard were, “Boys, put your hands in your pockets and do not touch anything.”

Then came the Calder exhibit. As I stood before one of Calder’s sculptures, the docent said to me, “Go ahead, son, make it move; bring it to life.”

The docent’s invitation was both a delight and a revelation. In that moment the world of art expanded to include more than objects hanging on walls or sitting on shelves gathering dust and admiration.

That’s where it started for me as an artist. Bring the metal to life.

I also love what Amos told Pacific San Diego about “My Bike” because I think it goes well with the theme of One Happy Blog and the way I feel about art:

Amos Robinson knows about the impact public art can have. A local metal sculptor—he is a featured artist at this year’s Mission Federal ArtWalk in Little Italy—Robinson was relaxing at home with his wife one Sunday when a woman visiting from Washington called.

“She was down at the (San Diego) Embarcadero with her girlfriends, and they called just to say how much they appreciated my work there. It’s stuff like that that makes me a big fan of public art and what it can do,” Robinson says.

The women were viewing “My Bike,” which depicts a bicyclist in mid-air, strands of stainless steel hair flying back in the San Diego Bay breeze. It’s one of five sculptures Robinson has created for the Port of San Diego’s rotating “Urban Trees” installation. Now in its seventh year, the annual exhibit includes 30 commissioned tree interpretations along Harbor Drive, from Hawthorn Street to the Cruise Ship Terminal.

“I want to bring something to the public that is positive,” says Robinson, a self-taught artist and former designer of industrial air pollution control equipment. “I don’t care for dark art; I want my art to be fun, put a smile on your face or bring back a memory from your youth.”

If you want to take a Public Art Walking Tour in Coronado, here’s the guide.

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