From Business Card to Office Wall

This week I completed a project for a local event management company, What Do You Run For?. They wanted to brighten the walls and enliven the office atmosphere. Their current business card (pictured below) was the inspiration for what I created. 

The bold logo and bright colors translated very well to a larger scale. I really enjoyed this project. My personal style is very bright, bold, and energetic- working on this just felt natural.

The finished product even goes with the existing disco ball decor- perfection!

If you are interested in having a customizing painting done for your home or business, please email:
sarahkshearer@gmail.com

Signage for Platetone Printshop + Turnip Green Creative ReUse

One of the projects on my agenda last week included painting signage to go above the exterior doors of Platetone Printshop and Turnip Green Creative ReUse. They are building neighbors- with entry doors that are side by side. Both are organizations have a clean, organic aesthetic which led to the choice of keeping the signage simple- logo on unfinished board.

Hand painted signs in-progress

If you are a visual artist and are interested in connecting with Nashville's creative community, I highly recommend connecting with either/both of these organizations. Great people doing good work!

TGCR + Platetone= 2 excellent creative orgs sharing 1 building

Looking for an opportunity to check them out and/get involved? Turnip Green is hosting an art show & benefit on August 3:

"Join us for Reclamation on August 3rd! All proceeds will benefit both Turnip Green Creative Reuse & Untitled Artists Group and will help us continue our missions. All art in the show has been donated by artist that believe in our missions. How great is that!? You buy great art, and you get to feel great about supporting 2 local organizations? YES! WIN, WIN, WIN!"

For more info on the event, click HERE.

Chattanooga Waterfront Duathlon

This past weekend I took a quick trip to Chattanooga with my brother, Seth, and my good friend, Cristina with plans to race the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon. The preceding week of rain resulted in a flooded river and thus, cancellation of the swim portion of the race. The swim portion was replaced with a 2 mile run. 

What we ended up doing was an intermediate (or Olympic distance) duathlon in this order: 2 mile run, 26 mile bike, ended with 6.2 more miles of running. It was all in the downtown riverfront area which made for a very scenic and somewhat hilly course. The weather was ridiculously ideal- overcast with cool (for mid July) temps. 

tourists!

We missed packet pick up on Saturday evening (driving down after a full day of work) and opted to go straight to the Crash Pad and check in; we followed that up with a little walk around the Chattanooga Choo Choo and a delicious dinner at the Terminal. I normally don't drink (alcohol) the day before a race, but decided at the last minute it sounded good so I had wine with my meal. In the same spontaneous decision making vein, we thought ice cream would be a good conclusion to our big dinner with drinks and went to Clumpies. That was fun while it lasted.  Holy crap y'all. I woke up race morning to sharp stomach pain, bloating & gi issues. Awesome. Lesson learned. I do not have a stomach of steel. 

daniel, me, seth, cristina pre-race

The bike portion was rough and hilly and I just set my mind to get through it as best I could. My stomach just got increasingly nauseous and I couldn't keep any fluids or nutrition down so I just gave up on it and didn't eat or drink anything during the race. Was that a bad decision? Maybe, but there wasn't anything more to do so I just tried to go with it and take it as a lesson learned on what not to do when it comes to days leading up to a race.

done with the bike portion, headed out for 6.2

The run following the bike was rough as well, with my ever tight IT /glute/ hip kicking in shooting pains. It was, however, super cool to hear cheers from friends, like Eddie, who were out watching the race and snapping great pics like the ones you see here. They and the crew I train/race with can take a crappy race and turn it into a pretty good experience. Their healthy perspectives, encouraging words, and adventurous personalities inspire me to let go of the frustration and negativity that I'd let build up during this race. I'm not going to lie- I was pissed for a good couple hours because of how awful I felt, and how much better I know I could've done. But, it was a good lesson learned. I am not an athlete who can "wing it" pre race. I need to rest. I need to eat well. Basically, I need to do things by the book and that is OK.

Nashville represents!

The weekend whirlwind ended with an awesome white water rafting trip down the Ocoee. I couldn't really ask for much more- and am very thankful for what I have. Moral of the weekend: be thankful for and respectful of the life you've been given.

Dig Into Nashville

 Nashville Public Library's summer community programming, "Dig Into Nashville" features a series of creative workshops called "Dig Into Gardening". The workshop description reads "Turnip Green Creative Re Use [TGCR] will show you how to create newspaper seed starters and garden journals". I have partnered with Turnip Green Creative Re Use on past workshops and was thrilled when they invited me to be a teaching artist for this series of workshops. TGCR's mission is to divert materials destined for landfill to use in creative endeavors. 

Below are photos of how we made journals out of up cycled materials donated by TGCR.

Wall paper samples work as durable journal covers.

Participants chose from a variety of papers to use for inside book pages.

For the binding: needle and choice of thread- heavier duty thread such as embroidery floss preferred.

A few additional supplies used were: scissors and awls to punch holes for the binding stitches.

Pamphlet stitch binding: HERE is the process used.

Participants customized by varying material sizes & colors,  some also added fabric  embellishments to their journal covers.

Thank you TGCR and the Nashville Public Library for promoting green, creative activities within our community!