more than just paper...

new and improved..

lucky15creative — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:28:57 +0000

so ME of all people knows what a powerful tool a blog can be!… but I also know that they can be VERY!! time consuming. So I haven’t made this blog priority for a while but now in light of my participation with Parade Magazine’s What People Earn Project I know that now is the time to leverage this outlet, like it should be… So I am in the process of redesigning the entire blog! that’s right peeps.. I am learning the language of CODE. So in a few days (maybe a week) this blog will be completely new and reorganized to act as a visual resume for me.. Meghan Olesen and lucky 15 creative.. So in the mean time check out my progress on Parade Magazine…

what i love about hand crafted…

lucky15creative — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:07:44 +0000

is that it doesn’t matter why you did it.. or what someone might do with it after you make it. it’s about the idea that came to mind, the process in which you the owner of two hands came to the end product, and the reaction of those who will encounter your piece. i have often struggled with the idea that somehow making something with your hands is secondary work… only left to the unskilled and the uneducated. i have met many an educated person whom which never learned to thread a sewing machine. or who know how to repair a broken toy. at first i would throw my hands in the air and declare what a loss! but as we all can’t (or wouldn’t want to be) doctors, not all of us can be craftilly(someone help me please!) inclined. don’t get me wrong, i am completely scared with the state of our human animal to “make it’s own tools” for survival, but in a way it does bestow a bit of higher achievement to know that when the world goes to shit i will be able to charge $200/hour to knit a sweater…

(spider hat is from christine grant’s etsy shop @ (click here)

here’s my take. (well one of them)

lucky15creative — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:30:26 +0000

here’s what’s really wrong with phoenix.. how can the mayor (and congressman mitchell, won’t leave you out) “kick off” buy local week on nov 27th, and on nov 30th i find this very large (and well sponsored) poster on the 5th floor of the burton barr library? what you can see is “shop phoenix! your tax dollars support this service/program (which would be the library)” . what you don’t see is that the list following that statement are all big corporate “malls” filled with non-local stores. tell me city (and state) management… do you think that taxes generated from big box is more important than small and local? the problem with phoenix is that it’s left hand doesn’t know what it’s right hand is doing…at the very least there should have also been a list of small (and sometimes really big) local businesses that also bring in tax dollars that support those services/programs…

still working on it…

lucky15creative — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:00:51 +0000

once upon a time i used to be really good at opening the blog and writing… now i have to get back into the habit. i think really i am still trying to decide where i am going with this.. so i guess to start with, i;m figuring things out here on these pages (well, figuratively speaking)…

please join me…

lucky15creative — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:56:04 +0000

tomorrow night for the first friday reception for the 10th annual dia de los muertos exihibtion… i will be at the burton barr library from about 6 to 7:30 ish.. but the reception goes until 10.. i hope that everyone has had a chance ( or will have a chance) to see my piece.. it comes down and goes hope on sunday..

lost…

lucky15creative — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:52:02 +0000

today i had a bit of a crisis… went to collect love letters and discovered that the rosary was gone… anyone on my facebook was privy to the drama… i shouldn’t get so mad.. no matter how beautiful an object it is still just an object. i think that it is the idea… even though this is one piece at the library it is something that i poured everything into. and it means so much to me… really, when i see someone who is grieving for a child or a husband (of wife) it breaks me… i can imagine what that is like and the reality is that we are all just a moment away from that situation… and so this altar is sacred to me and to think that some one doesn’t see it the same way hurts.. i feel violated that something was taken from this sacred space… it’s like something is missing now. but again it is only a object, i can not (or should not) pass judgment on the person who took it… perhaps they really needed it..to me it was just a symbol.. to someone else it may have been salvation… this has been harder than i thought it would be…

lost love is up!

lucky15creative — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:40:53 +0000

ok so my plan to take all these pics and walk everyone through the process just didn’t work… i think to really accomplish this i need a staff photographer. … the truth is, i am not one to be able to stop in the middle of it all to take a picture, when i am in it i am in it! so here we are. the piece is up and i have been visiting it everyday. it is kind of strange… i miss it. taking up my studio, seeing the pieces every morning, dragging half sewn bits to work..hoping for a few moments here and there to get just a few stitches farther. so i have been visiting it, and i have been collecting the letters that have been left for lost loves. some are just acknowlegements of a loved one, some are people that aren’t taking it seriously, but some are true letters to those that have passed. the ones that are particluarly moving are the letters to loved ones who have taken their own lives. i wasn’t even thinking of this when i was making the piece and it has taken me totally off guard. maybe in a good way….

a brief synopsis…

lucky15creative — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:31:53 +0000

the following is the brief description i wrote to accompany this altar. i was going to go in to personal stories of lost, then i was going to talk a lot about technique and the physical parts of the altar… but in the end this is what i came up with. i didn’t want to lead any one person into seeing the piece the way that i do… so here goes…

There are not many words that can describe the empty vacuum that is left when a loved one leaves this world for the next. There is a sense of helplessness on the part of those left behind, a sadness that in one way or another will always be there. Yet death is a natural effect of living and we all know that one day it too will be our turn and that our loved ones will in turn feel the void where we once stood. It is in the tradition of Dia de Los Muertos that the living can find comfort in the celebration of the deceased. To many this holiday is strange and morbid, however strangely enough the need to keep a memory alive has been strong even in our own culture. Here enters the theme of this altar; Momento Mori. In the early history of photography having one’s picture taking was a huge expense and was reserved mainly to the wealthy. However, many families made the financial sacrifice at the time of death to have one last memory of their beloved before they were returned back to the Earth. In the same spirit of Dia de Los Muertos these post-mortem photos were a way for families to continue honoring those that had passed on.

To me the deepest sadness when one looses a love one is the inability to tell that person how you feel. At the moment of death all that mattered the moment before is no longer important and anything you had wanted to say in now for your ears only. An Altar to Lost Love is an interactive opportunity to reflect on this reality and to express thoughts and feelings to a Lost Love. Please take the opportunity to write to your Loved One and leave it in the drawer of the altar. In the spirit of Dia de los Muertos let your letter to a Lost Love comfort your soul.

short and sweet…

bruised and beaten but not defeated!

lucky15creative — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:25:48 +0000

although my heart is not fully complete. the main (scary, not sure if i can do this!) parts have been constructed and put together. i still need an atrium and four pulmonary veins as well as a the finishing touch embelishments (oh how i wish i had a year).. an then i can declare victory!…more to come…

the daunting task…

lucky15creative — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:51:17 +0000

one if the main parts of the lost love altar is an anatomically correct life size model of the heart that i am making from various fibers… not only is the heart a very weird and complicated organ, making a 3-d model from 2-d pictures is making my head spin… I think i am going to have to break down and get a plastic model to use…either that or a real heart, but everyone i know is using theirs at the moment so the plastic one will have to do! at least i have all the fabrics and assorted fibers worked out..set backs! in the end i may have to take some creative licence with this good ol’ ticker… i just hope it looks like a heart when it’s done. so off to ebay to look for a life sized model (a plastic one). in the mean time… acetate sheets and beeswax!