Camping and Hot Chocolate Shoot

I had the pleasure of photographing Sharon and her two boys Slater and Jackson.  They love to be outdoors and go camping so we set up a "Tom Sawyer" style campground and of'course we couldn't forget the Hot Chocolate!!!

Sweet and Silly brothers....love it!!!

Sharon told me that Slater always has a book with him so she wanted some pictures of him reading to remember this time in his life....they also brought their special stuffed animals....so cute!!

Last but not least....awwww......

For more information on my photography please visit my website at: Harmonypyperstudio.com

xoxo-Harmony

So much to say......

Woa.....has it really been that long?  Over a month since i've posted?  Wowza!!  What in the world is going on.....

Well, here's what's going on.....I've been waiting for the perfect thing to say, in the perfect way, with the perfect pictures, maybe even some perfect music, oh yeah, and of'course wrapped up in a perfect bow....but that's just not going to happen.  Life is busy and I'm just trying to do what I love with the people I love and if I wait until my house is clean and my art is perfectly hung and my photos are perfectly edited and organized, well basically you'll never see me again because i'ld be hiding in my room under the covers thinking about how imperfect I am.

SO.....i've decided to do it my way....it's the only way I know.....it's disjointed and late and somewhat basic, in a hopefully creative kinda way....but it's the only way I know....and it's just fine!!

I have launched my Photography Business here in Southern California...woo hoo.....here is my website: HarmonyPyperStudio.com, I sure hope you check it out.  I am still painting and drawing and taking care of my 3 sweet little monsters.  My health has improved greatly.  My marriage is twisting and turning and growing deeper.  Basically I couldn't be happier!!!!  Below are some photos of my friend, David's, 40th Birthday Party that I took (Part 1).  I am so lucky to have great friends.

Thank you so much for following along and supporting me and all my imperfections!!  Let's embrace imperfections, shall we??

Much Love, Harmony





Mother's Day Morning

Oh how I love being their mom!!!!

Family "Hiking" (more like a long walk)

We are working on stepping away from the many screens in our life (T.V., computer, i-pad, i-phone, i-havehaditwithscreens) and venturing into the great outdoors.  Now I consider myself a country girl at heart, except for maybe the bugs, dirt, sand, pollen, sweating and sticky sunscreen.....other than that, just call me "Nature Girl".

The boys are studying the rules (thinking about putting one of these signs up in their bedroom).

Yep, that's "wild animal" poop....any resistance that the boys initially had to being in nature has now disappeared and they think this is pretty much the coolest thing we have ever done together!!!

A little pre-hiking dancing is always in order!!!

Can I get an, "Awwwww....."

So, this is about the point where I headed back to the car.....

....but they survived....phew!!!

Picnic time (do you feel like you're being watched??)....

Some Family Football.....

Yes, even little sister is a fan of football!!!

The dirt is a sure sign that fun was had by all and we will be stepping away from screen time more often!!!

Be Well.



What's Up....

I know I've been a little MIA so I thought I would fill you in on "What's Up" with me....
A few months back I took a photography course and learned more about how to use my camera in manual mode....that would be the scary "M" on your dial.  Well let's just say that a whole new world opened up for me.

I have been obsessed with taking pictures for as long as I can remember really.  My dad was into photography while I was growing up and even had a darkroom in our basement.  I remember sitting in the corner watching as he dipped the paper into different dishes of chemicals until the picture began to emerge.  It was like magic.

In high school my best friend and I did our own photoshoot by setting up a tripod and camera with a timer.  I picked different spots in the yard where the light was good and set up camera and tripod, pressed the button and ran to get in place before it snapped.  My friend died 3 years ago last week and I treasure those photos, as a matter a fact, one of the photos is framed and sitting on my dresser and I glance at it every morning.

What I love about photography is the ability to capture the moment.  It is really the only way to stop time.  There are big moments to capture, such as weddings, pregnancy, newborn babies, a family that feels complete.  There are also the day to day moments like pancakes dripping in syrup, a child's proud face after making their first goal, the sun streaming in while your partner reads a book in their favorite chair.  I love capturing all of it.

So I am on a new adventure....trying to capture the moments.  It's exactly what I am supposed to be doing.  I can feel it.  I hope you'll come along with me and let me know what you think of the photos I share as I truly value your insight.

Here are a couple photos from the engagement session I just shot with Sarah and Josh.  They are such a gorgeous, dare I say "Hot", young couple who are so fun and so in love.  They met in the same beach community that my husband and I met so it was so meaningful to all of us to return to this place to take their engagement photos.  We had such a great day!!!

Be Well.

We interrupt this program to........

.....tell you that there are some changes happening for me.  With change come uncertainty, doubt and also excitement.  I thought maybe I would start with a little background....

I worked as an Occupational Therapist for 16 years and it will always be part of who I am.  I loved working with special needs children and their families.  What I loved most was being a part of their extraordinarily challenging yet rewarding lives.  They let me into their homes and often into their hearts and allowed me to do my best to help their most precious gift....their child.  And even though it is rather cliche, I can say, without a doubt, they helped me more than I helped them.  So why did I stop working as an Occupational Therapist?  Something was missing for me....I could never explain it.  Part of it was the pressure I put on myself and the insecurity that remains from growing up with a learning difference (Dyslexia).  I never felt like I knew enough, no matter how much of a demand there was for my services, no matter how many people told me I was so good at what I did....I just didn't fully believe it.  It was also quite a demanding career and required a lot of caregiving.  Once I had children I realized I had to reserve some of that caregiving to take care of my kids.  I just couldn't do it all.

I still can't do it all, which is a hard lesson to learn (over and over again).  The rebel in me loves to hear, "You can't do that," so I can say, "Oh really?  Watch me!!!"  And I do push forward and take on A LOT and then I have to regroup when I realize that I'm yelling too much, not sleeping enough, not breathing deeply and most importantly, not enjoying this one life I've been given.  It's kind of too bad that we can't carry around a crystal ball that can give us a look into the future so we can see if the decisions we are making are going to work out.  But we can't, so we learn by doing, and making mistakes, and then making adjustments.

So I am making an adjustment......I am putting the Friday Feature Artist interview on hold.  Now that I realize it is a lot to plan and organize I just don't have the time right now to do it.  So much to juggle....can't do it all.  I hope you enjoyed the ones I posted.....I sure did.....so let's just say...."to be continued," when the time is right.  In the meantime, I am going to post more of my art and photography and reflections on....."doing it all".  Hope you'll still stop by to say "Hello".....I like having you here.

Be Well.

Call For Artists!!!!

I am really enjoying the Friday Feather Artist interviews....I hope you are too!!!  I am learning (by making mistakes of'course) how to organize my "line up" of artists and doing my best to adjust to the bumps in the road along the way.  With that said, the artist I had lined up for this week had some urgent matters to attend to and can not complete the interview by Friday....which is completely fine because we all understand how life can throw you curve balls.  So I am learning that I need to have a few interviews completed and ready to post in case this happens, and, well, I don't right now so we will be skipping this week and in the meantime I will be completing more interviews so that they are ready to go.  With that said, I now would like to ask you to please nominate an artist that you admire and include a link to their blog or website.  You can do that in the comments or you can E-mail me at: Harmonypyper@gmail.com.

You can choose them because you love their work, their story, their smile....whatever it is, it counts!!!!  I can't wait to see the names that pop up and then I will contact the artists and let them know that they have been nominated and we will hopefully get to learn more about them.

So here we go......

Be Well.



Friday Feature Artist: Cathy Bluteau

Cathy is a self-taught artist experimenting primarily in mixed media and any and all types of mediums.  She is mother to a teenage son and wife to a wonderful husband.  Cathy manages her time between a full time job, a blog, and an etsy shop called  Cathy Michaels Design.  Little known secret is that her shop name is a combination of her first name and her son’s first name.  The shop is stocked and restocked often, based on her latest creative obsession.  Cathy also develops and creates online workshops or e-courses  which she offers through Creative Workshops.  Here she teaches and shares her techniques in journaling and doodling and drawing.  She has been published in many of the Somerset Publications including, Artful Blogging, Somerset Life, Art Journaling and Sew Somerset. She has also been a featured artist on many blogs including Spoonful and Crescendoh where she writes a heartfelt piece for Jenny’s Art Saves feature. You can preview more of Cathy’s work on her blog at http://cathyb.typepad.com as well as in her shop. Cathy loves to hear from her readers so let her know what’s on your mind.

Hi Cathy!!!  Thank you so much for being here this lovely Friday.  You were so kind to move up a week and get me your interview answers quickly.  I told you I would give you "Bonus Points" so please readers (all of you;) leave a nice comment for Cathy after you are done reading her insightful and inspiring interview.  Let's get started....

When did you start doing art?

Like many artists, I have been creating art for as long as I can remember.  And for the years before that when I was too young to do art myself, I spent time watching my mom create things.  I remember making paper flowers long before there were as many beautiful papers as there are today.  I would use anything I could find to make these flowers – if a magazine had a page with beautiful colors I used that as my paper, if I found paper that had a nice texture but was white I would dye it pink. Anything to make things beautiful enough to inspire me.   If I wasn’t working with paper or colored pencils I was sewing, if I wasn’t sewing I was writing poetry and stories – there was always something.

What is it about your art process that you love?
There is nothing else that I do in my life today that brings me to the same place that creating art brings me to.  When I create I really live in that moment, I live in the now.  The “now” for me is a very relaxing, very peaceful and calm, and very exhilarating place – a place I want to go to everyday in everything I do. 

Can you share one of your favorite techniques with us?     
Well I love to get messy and most of my techniques, especially as they are being developed tend to be very messy.  When I work I have to have everything I need around me and that may be many things until I figure out exactly what it is I want to do and what it is I am going to use to do it.  I love layers.  I love the look and the feel of layer over layer in a piece of work.  Most of my journal pages start with a very rough coat of gesso followed by a very rough spritz of paint.  From there I add the main or central piece of the project – the “thing” that made me want to start a new page.  Sometimes this is a picture, sometime just a color.  Once I’ve added this focal piece I work around it adding more color and more often than not, more bits and pieces of paper.  These other bits and pieces usually complement the central theme either through color or style or sometimes just because it feels right.  I may stamp or doodle in some of the blank spaces and then I always add some shadow to that central piece of the collage.  I usually add a final coat of gel medium and then I will probably go over the page again and add more color and more bits of paper.   I often make it up as I go along just with some intuitive sense that tells me what to add.  That’s why it a real challenge when people ask for my techniques.  When I develop my online workshops for example I always have to work backwards from a finished piece to get understand how I got there.  I can’t develop my workshops by starting at the beginning and working to the end – that’s just not how my mind works (lol lol)!

In your Art Saves story on the Creshendoh website you tell a moving story about how Art helped you during a difficult time in your life. Can you tell us why you think art is so healing?

There is no question in my mind that art is healing.  It is somehow related to what I was saying about the fact that creating art allows me to be in the present moment without any distractions from future or past thoughts.  It’s as if your mind is at its calmest and quietest when you create.  And because of this your subconscious is left free and open to work through any troubled parts in your life without you even being aware.  It seems to me that if you leave your mind in this state long or often enough, resolutions seem to form on their own and then seem to move, very quietly, to your conscious mind offering you answers to your problems.  For me this is really healing – and it is a very soft and gentle way to heal I think. 

You have been published numerous times, what tips can you share with us that may help artists get published?
Two things – the first is don’t give up, keep submitting items.  The second and maybe more important tip is always make sure that the work you submit is of the highest quality of your capabilities.  Don’t submit anything that you don’t feel absolutely great about or that you yourself do not absolutely love!

Can you share some business advice that may help artist sell more of their work?
It may seem like a strange response but I would say that what I have learned is that the best way to be successful in your business is to be honest with your customers and true to yourself.  For me integrity and sincerity are really important in business and perhaps even more important in the art business.  For example, I don’t think I have ever wanted to sell a piece of art solely because I wanted to make a lot of money.  I create and sell art because I want to know that other people “get” what I am doing and love it as much as I do.  If I look at it from a business point of view I understand that no one buys art because they “need” it.  Art is an emotional purchase.  You buy art based on some sort of emotion – either the piece makes you happy, makes you  smile, makes you think – whatever it is it evokes an emotion.   It is that emotion that drives you to actually make the purchase.  And that works for me because I could never say I need to make money and then create a piece of art, the art always comes first and then I hope the money follows.  I think that it is really important to have integrity with regards to your art.  I believe customers sense that integrity and sincerity and that makes for loyal customers who stay with you as your business grows.

What do you know to be true?
What a great question!  This is what I know to be true:  I know that passion is a powerful driver.  I know that I choose passion over all else.  I know that passion will drive me to where I want to be.

Oh my goodness, so many good points here.  I can completely relate to that feeling of being present with a calm mind while doing art....it's my best time for mindfulness.  Also, I think your advice on wanting to sell art because it is so rewarding to know that someone else, "gets it" and not only because you want to make money is a wonderful perspective.  Integrity and Sincerity are two words I am going to carry with me this weekend.  Thank you so much for taking the time (and I didn't give you much) to give us such authentic answers.  Remember, Cathy gets bonus points for acting so quickly so please everyone leave a positive message for Cathy in the comments.  To learn more about Cathy visit her website and Etsy page here:
http://cathyb.typepad.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/cathymichaelsdesign

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!!!

Be Well.