Julie Pippert: Using My Words

I keep driving past the lake---that opens to the bay that opens to the gulf that opens to the ocean---and gasping at the beautiful sunsets. Next time, I promise myself, I'll stop and photograph it. On the way home, Christmas Eve, I finally stopped, and photographed the stunning sunset. The light changed with each snap of the frame. I felt a precious part of the beauty, fulfilled. It was my best gift. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints Artful by Nature Fine Art and Photography Galleries The Golden Orchid: Original and Unique Wearable Art © 2006. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

She felt so big in my belly, and yet was so tiny when she was born. I barely had time to think about and get to know her because life during my pregnancy as so all-consuming. When she was born, that showed. Who was she? Perhaps it was best because she came into the world and got to be herself. And in one year, one short year, well, one month short of a year, she has turned into a walking, talking, playing, laughing, crying, snorting, eating, honest-to-goodness person with opinions (that she voices strongly) and experiences. With each step---both literal and figurative---she moves one step away and simultaneously one step closer to me, our relationship. I learn more of her, of who she is, and so does she. We're on a great journey together. But with the walking, she can walk away too. And she will. And she'll want to. Want to know something? I want her to. I treasure each stage. I treasure this clingy baby time (usually). But I'm awfully glad with each new stage of independen...

In pictures, our bad luck in evacuating (photos of where we abandoned the cars, and a hint of our harrowing 36 hour journey) and our great fortune in very little damage from a major hurricane... We left as we were supposed to. To carry out our entire family, pets included, it took both cars. So yes, we had two cars on the road. But that's not where the real fault in the horrible evacuation lay. It lay in too many towns evacuating---officials telling people to evacuate who didn't need to. It lay in not having a well-established evacuation route that could handle the number of cars that would evacuate, especially after Katrina. And mainly, it lay in not opening the highways for contraflow BEFORE the evacuation. Not to mention closed stores, closed or empty gas stations, and not enough supplies. In record heat, we parked on major highways, inhaling exhaust and sweltering from heat, moving maybe a foot an hour. The baby got very sick, but recuperated quickly once we got medical att...

When I was younger, I wondered---and I don't mean in a blithe, Doris Day que sera sera way---what my life would be. I knew, from early childhood, that I had a fire in my belly. As I learned about the marches on Washington, the war protests, the womens movement and watched much of this happen, I thought, it will all be settled by the time I'm old enough to do anything about it. Ah naivete. I feared I would have nothing left to do, nowhere to use this fire in my belly. It spurred me on in life, that fire. And now it has found an outlet. I am mad, very, very mad now. I have seen a city (cities reall) destroyed, sucked under water and watched a government stand by---their biggest action pointing fingers about who is to blame. Ultimately, it will all rest with Mother Nature I am sure. Sure, she sent the hurricane, but that wasn't the biggest killer. Immobilization was. Disorganization was. Funding cuts were. Too much manpower abroad was. And so on. There is a need. There is a hu...

My mother in law renovated her kitchen. They've lived in this house for over 30 years. They hired a designer to do it, and oversee the process to some degree, and it looks fantastic. She asked me to provide the art, the wall decorations. I came up with this series: I'm thinking I want to shift them into a different order though. I need to see them on the wall. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints Artful by Nature Fine Art and Photography Galleries The Golden Orchid: Original and Unique Wearable Art © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert . Not to be used or reproduced.

For grandparents day---which I have missed---I planned to give new portraits of the girls. I tried to come up with portrait to match the baby's below, but I just wasn't as happy with them for my older daughter. This one, she dressed herself, posed herself, told me when to snap and we got it in one take. She's begun drawing in detail. Animals and people and I can tell who she is drawing. Amazing. Here's the one to match the baby's portrait. It is sweet. And in motion, very much her. But, maybe I'm not as keen on matching as I thought. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints Artful by Nature Fine Art and Photography Galleries The Golden Orchid: Original and Unique Wearable Art © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert . Not to be used or reproduced.

I agreed to present at Mother's Group on Tuesday. When I read the selected base text, to me it said, "God is in the details." To me, that meant, no matter how big or small, everything you do can be a contribution. I've thought a lot about this lately, on many fronts. After Hurricane Katrina and the floods devastated so much of my Gulf Coast neighbors' communities, I didn't even hesitate before springing into action. I knew it could have been me, and I knew what needed to be done. Evacuees immediately began arriving in my town and we quickly mobilized our community to provide food, housing, and resources. People are the most valuable valuable resource. Therefore, I felt the need to do more than simply donate (as valuable as that is), and was fortunate to be in a position where I could also give of myself as well. I solicited, sorted and distributed donations, and volunteered for the Red Cross at an area shelter. I got to know the people behind the stories, and ...

She's an amazing and beautiful baby girl. She has more facial expressions than any baby I know. She uses her eyebrows and lips grandly, eloquently and with verve. Laid back doesn't apply. Happy as a lark and giggling with gusto turns on a dime to furious and blowing raspberries to signal her strong disapproval. Her sister gets away with little; this is no shy, follower of a second child. She's strong, a strong presence who won't be forgotten or ignored. She not only tries to keep up with but also tries to outdo her sister regularly. In the car, on Sunday, she sang a chorus to her sister's song. As her sister---frustrated to share the limelight---got louder and louder, so did she. Smart as a whip, stubborn as a mule, precocious, curious, mobile, sensitive, going in two directions at once, clinging to me and yet moving away as fast as she can...she's not yet a year but she's a lifetime away from a mere eight months ago.

Mothering and photography are my loves and my work. It's nice how they mesh together to display that. I do all that I do from love; my doing is an outward manifestation of that love. However, once I put it out there, it is no longer just mine. It will be viewed from a different angle and perspective, and might be missed, or misinterpreted. At the end of the day, I always hope that I get the benefit of the doubt or suspension of disbelief and all that I do is understood as being done from love. With kids, though, you don't always know. Lately, my daughter has been convinced I am so mean and out to ruin her day. Perhaps she thinks I lie awake at night plotting. It's okay to laugh. I have to, but I admit, a little piece of my heart breaks every time. Why can't she know that all this work is done from love?

A quote from Pearl Buck: "Order is the shape upon which beauty depends." My stock in trade is making things look lovely; or rather, it is to capture and preserve then display the beauty that is already around us. There are many studies about beauty. And it all boils down to the point that all humans, regardless of race, ethnicity, culture, etc. find balanced things beautiful. Order, balance, beauty. Is disorder ugly? Or is it uncomfortable? A friend recently looked around a room and sighed happily, "This is beautiful, wonderful. I love this." I looked around the room and felt tired. She saw beauty in the chaos of fifteen young children running, screaming, crying, laughing, and yelling. She saw a pattern, order. Her quilt was woven and beautiful in that room. I saw disorder. My quilt was unraveling. In the end, it is all about point of view, so beauty is quite dependent not upon order, but upon the perception of what shapes order holds. I find this beautiful, do you?...

I got a show! Very, very excited! At the end of August I'll be showing about 20 pieces in a dedicated exhibit. I am frantically busy readying all the pieces, and coordinating what feels like an overwhelming number of details. Under it all is this surreal excitement that I am a Real Artist and people like my art, want to spend time viewing it. I truly hope this opens some doors. It might be already... No new image for now, but I promise to add in some I've worked on recently, soon.

A gallery won't show my stuff because she says floral art doesn't sell. Ironically, someone from my art group posted that same day an article from Decor magazine that says flowers are, always have been and most likely always will be, top sellers. It doesn't matter...I don't choose my subject matter like that. Also, I think that this lady really was honest when she said she didn't really have an opening just then. I could see the truth of that. Plus, as diplomatically as possible we agreed that our styles weren't a fit. She did give me some nice information so it was well worth the time. I'm sorta kinda thinking about entering a juried exhibition..well submitting to compete in one anyway. Also, maybe some festivals. Towards that end...I created two framed, large giclee prints (At Ease and Steel Magnolia). It's somewhat of a random choice...but also two I really like. I'll be opening them up to auction hopefully this weekend. Here they are: Ironically...

We're a business...a real, honest to goodness business with an EIN, and all that jazz: Artful Media Group, Inc. We'll be putting up the master/parent page soon: artfulmediagroup.com. I got the logos done and now just need to create text. Oh, and one more logo. Links coming soon! By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints Artful by Nature Fine Art and Photography Galleries The Golden Orchid: Original and Unique Wearable Art © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert . Not to be used or reproduced.

It's a hibiscus . I promise! I know some like to call it an azalea, but really, it's a hibiscus. I like photographing hibiscus...hibiscii? I like arting them up. I also like oleanders . I actually have some hibiscus, oleander and magnolia images I need to finish. Instead, I've been doing logos. I'll post soon about those. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints Artful by Nature Fine Art and Photography Galleries The Golden Orchid: Original and Unique Wearable Art © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert . Not to be used or reproduced.

It's the lone seagull. I won't ever leave flowers behind, but my confidence is growing and so is my interest. Now, I go with whatever catches my fancy. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints Artful by Nature Fine Art and Photography Galleries The Golden Orchid © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert . Not to be used or reproduced.

Pure, unadulterated, flat out enjoyment...spraying fountain on a hot day on the boardwalk. Ever notice how unadulterated's root word is "adult?" Ever wonder about that? What do you say to children when they say how they can't wait to grow up? Do anything they want? Do you tell them the price of that freedom? Someone once said that motherhood is like this super secret club and nobody tells you the membership rules until after you join. I think adulthood is like that. Would you have been so anxious to get here, if you had known? Yes and no. I tell my daughter, when she says she can't wait to grow up, that adulthood is a lot like childhood. Sometimes we get to choose and sometimes we don't, sometimes we can and sometimes we can't, sometimes we are free and other times someone is looking over our shoulder. Don't be in a hurry to grow up, I tell her. Enjoy childhood. You'll never get to do it again. I'll never get to see her do it again. It goes muc...

I was so excited to get the opportunity to create a piece for someone else, for someone else to use no less. This was the one not used: You can see the one used at Salon On The Go. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints Artful by Nature Fine Art and Photography Galleries The Golden Orchid © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert . Not to be used or reproduced.

I'm learning a lot about living in the tropics. In the tropics you don't turn off the air conditioner in your car (a must by the way) or the lines will mildew and mold. You leave it on, despite that story about the battery, so it can drain. In the tropics there are random cloud bursts. In the tropics, you can't sweat because when you step outside the humidity settles on you, taking up all your skin surface area. Some days I think if I hold too still I'll mildew. In the tropics, you spread vinegar on your window sills and doorways to turn away those many nasties that live here, such as ants, stink bugs, roaches and other creepy crawlies. In the tropics, if your windows aren't properly insulated you live inside a glass shower, with the outside blurred by condensation. In the tropics, something blooms year-round. And there are incredible animals like chameleons. In the tropics, you combine all of these and get this through the kitchen window: By Julie Pippert Museum Qu...

This is from someone else's garden...my sister-in law's to be honest. Her garden is full of amazing, healthy, vibrant plants. She has such a green thumb. At a birthday part there, I had my camera and the photos I took are split not quite equitably between the children and the plants. I couldn't capture this butterfly that kept teasing me, a swallowtail I think. But I did capture this: By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com The Golden Orchid © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

I am trying to gear up for a presentation to get my art hung on walls. Public walls. Not just my own (currently) private art gallery . Ideally the place would buy them from me. Otherwise, I can hang there on commission. Or just to be seen. This plan, of course, hinges on their agreement. I've pulled four frames and now need to choose the best images that will hang well together. Something about the peach one above haunts me. Although they definitely have their merits and I like them, I worry that these watercolors are too common...too mainstream. I don't know why I say that as if it was a bad thing. Maybe because I'm also thinking of entering a competition. My daughter's art teacher---either in truth or that good teacher knows how to make mom come back for more---enthused to me this week about my daughter's talent and creativity. I don't hear her say this to every mom every time but then again my hands, ears and eyes are usually pretty full. Apparently my daugh...

Today I had to take an art break...I mean a break from art. That's the fun work. I had to do real writing for a Web site. That's still cool too, but I wasn't ready to tear my attention off of art. Luckily I have a commission, so to speak, for a design so I can justify playing with art some more today. It's a cool design idea, if I do say so myself, and I'll link to it when it's finished. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com The Golden Orchid © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

Look what my daughter found in the backyard yesterday! This photograph is cropped and spliced but just to make it smaller so you can see it. There really were four out there all at once! The dog went crazy but I made him wait inside until they were finished. It was a big excitement for everyone. How very cool is the armadillo. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com The Golden Orchid © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

I love huge trees draped in Spanish moss. My daughter and her watercolors , her mixing and blending, inspired me to create a somewhat abstract view of a tree and Spanish moss. My husband finally said "very cool" about artwork I did. Speaking of...my daughter starts art school today. She's used to being freeform and multimedia. It will be interesting to see her reaction to having a sort of discipline imposed. At her first preschool (Montessori) she could spend half the day at the easel while the other children moved on to other activities. They always let her do whatever she wanted artistically. Other children brought home cute little handprints with cotton balls glued on and she came home with finger paintings glowing with passionate reds and blues roiling on the paper. I could look at her art and see how she felt that day. All this talk of her art...I'll have to post something. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.Art...

People ask me what my babies do while I am working on my art and blog. Well, they work too. They are very industrious; they love art and computers. Must be in the genes. Here is my proof....look at my gorgeous lovey go: By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

Everything is a huge bloom of inspiration right now. I am amazed at the mass of images I've collected. My camera must be exhausted from all of the photography . I love this one. I got it outside of an Outback Steak House. See? Everywhere. I love the composition and am thinking about where I'd like to go with it artistically. I can create some fine art out of it. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

The dog is loving the long weekend. He's a fine specimen of doghood, we say. He's handsome and happy, just look: By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

Our Web site, artfulbynature.com , is still under construction but almost real. The foundation is in, the frame is up, and now we are tackling drywall and hanging wallpaper, as my favorite architect would say. I tell him he is a double-whammy architect: he can build buildings and Web sites. I'm excited, like a child waiting for Christmas. I can't wait for the site to launch, to see it myself and tell others about it. A virtual gallery for art. A dream come true. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

We had planned to go take some shots of a gorgeous orange flower, tropical variety, today. Unfortunately every time we had time, it got dark and dreary. Such is life in the tropics---always the imminent threat of afternoon rain. And the full heat of the season is here to stay, which means my motivation for being outside certain times of the day is very low. We even had some concrete plans for the exact photos. So I didn't make any art today, but I was creative in other ways. I might try for an evening shot. I'll add in a different angle of my red flower watercolor. This one I didn't put up on cafepress. I didn't think it was mainstream enough. Okay, nevermind, my husband didn't think it was. I put up this one instead. I like it very much as well, and put it on a wider variety of products than I have before. Plunge By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com © 2005. All images and text exclusive pro...

He liked my new piece, my periwinkles. It surprised me. I've always prized the pieces I consider more complex, the orchids and tropical flowers. I'd thought he did too. The periwinkles are so sweet and naive to me. This color has a traditional meaning of "early friendship." That is sweet, and hopeful. Maybe I feel that today. I do like their bright faces popping out from the dark green background. It does appear optimistic. Periwinkles By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

With the kids, the house, the pets and work, I feel submerged. Plus we are working to make our life different, better. Changes bring good but also confusion and fear. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Lifeline By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

Before the spring completely ended, I decided to photograph the remaining flowers in my garden. This bloom reminded me of a bouquet of red roses so I worked the photograph until the image came across as dramatic and romantic as I wanted it. I wonder if the original photo alongside the finished image would make an interesting contrast. The funny thing is, as gorgeous as I find red and red blooms, I always prefer to get coral or peach roses. The small poster looks great, so does the mousepad . And the coasters will be very cool. I think you can take a wild guess what my office and desk will be sporting in the next week... By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

The Golden Orchid is pleased to announce a new line of fine art clothing , gifts and home accessories - White Oleander Gorgeous and deceptively simple, the white oleander catches a play of light and shadow to display its more complex beauty in this unique, custom art piece. By Julie Pippert Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography Limited Edition Prints www.ArtfulbyNature.com © 2005. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

Artful by Nature is proud to present it's new online store- The Golden Orchid. The Golden Orchid is a fine art gift shop specializing in fine art poster prints , wearable art apparal , hats & bags , baby clothes , fine art housewares , keepsakes , journals & cards . Here is their Press Release: Welcome! Welcome to artfulbynature.com's The Golden Orchid ! On this site, we sell our stunning art as quality apparel and merchandise, such as t-shirts, home accents and gifts. It's the same eye-catching, elegant and dramatic natural art, interpreted imaginatively and digitally. The only difference is that you can wear it, use it and decorate with it! The merchandise is high-quality and comes with a 30-day guarantee. Also, we'll consider any request for customization, such as monograms, slogans, or alternate styles/colors---as much as is possible. Subscribe to our newsletter and we'll send you notices about our art, merchandise, sales, and news. By J...