Blaugust, as envisioned by Belghast of Tales of the Aggronaut, is a festival of blogging, a celebration of content creation of the written word variety, and a community-building activity for people participating in a medium that many consider to be dying or already dead. Although Blaugust awards are granted for established blogs who put out at least five posts during the month of August, I’ve set my sights on the Rainbow Diamond award, and am planning a post per day for the entire month.
One of the things I really love about Blaugust is how much we all boost each other up. Sure, part of that is that when you’re on a posting marathon, you’re looking for inspiration where ever you can find it, but I think that we also just really appreciate the work that other bloggers are doing and like to highlight that when we can.
Previously, week three had been focused on talking about game developers whose work really impressed us or had an effect on us, and after my first Blaugust, it was a theme I usually skipped. With this year’s theme being open to all sorts of creatives, I probably could have written a week’s worth of posts on it. So get comfy – I anticipate this being a long one.
Digital Art
I had wanted to get a portrait done of my dogs for quite awhile, but I finally pulled the trigger last year when I saw that Matt had donated a commission slot to the Play Better Be Better fundraiser for St. Jude’s Children’s hospital, put on by Twitch streamer Malkarii. Matt is someone who I didn’t know personally, but knew of because of his ties to the World of Warcraft Community, and I really loved his art style. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the finished product, which I recently had turned into a canvas print to hang in my room.
Matt focuses mostly on art of animals, both real and fantastical. You can commission him on his website, or purchase his art through RedBubble.
Nature Photography
This creative is another person I met through World of Warcraft. Kirsten takes absolutely stunning photographs, and I’ve been needling her for awhile about making some of them available for purchase. She does travel quite a bit, but she also finds the beauty in the little things close to home.
Seed to Table – Video Content on Homesteading
Some of you might be inclined to argue that gardening, cooking, and canning isn’t really creative, and I at one time, I might have agreed with that. But if you take a gander at everything that Mailer’s Landing has got going on over on YouTube, you’ll see a family putting their everything into making something that’s sustainable, educational, and truly beautiful.
Art for the sake of art itself is super important, but there’s something exquisite about the art you can make that nourishes both body and soul.
Painting – Magic: The Gathering Card Alters in Acrylic
So, there’s a little story here. In the early days of the pandemic, I thought that maybe I’d try my hand at doing some Magic: The Gathering card alters. I ordered a bunch of acrylic paints, and we already have far more land cards then we’d ever need. I figured it’d be a fun distraction, talked about it a whole bunch, and then, as I have a tendency to do, never actually followed through on it.
But my husband (and fellow participant in #Blaugust2022) decided he wanted to give it a whirl, and just … taught himself how to paint. Sure, he’d been painting tabletop gaming models for years, but I think the work he’s done on these tiny canvases is mind-blowingly good. If you’re not familiar with the game, these are about the size of standard playing cards, so there’s not a lot of room to work with, and there’s a lot of detail in them.
This is mostly something he does for the love of it, but he’s also taken a few commissions. People are playing with these cards or hanging them up on their walls, and I think that’s outrageously cool.
Cross Stitch Pattern Design
While I really enjoy working on cross-stitch projects, and the results are often really gorgeous, the real creativity is on the part of the pattern designer. Etsy is absolutely bursting with fantastic patterns, but a lot of my favorites are the work of one person – Lior Zochovizky. They maintain two separate Etsy storefronts, one for tiny patterns, and one for patterns that are more standard sized.
Originally, I was a Patreon subscriber, getting me 10 large patterns & a handful of tiny bonuses every month, but when they released full shop bundles with lifetime updates, I jumped on the opportunity. Of course, I now have more patterns than I would ever be able to make in my lifetime, but it seems like every few weeks a new batch of patterns drop and I get excited all over again.
I think my favorite thing – other than how stunning all the patterns are – is that they are also suitable for new stitchers. There are no complex stitches included in these patterns, so if you can make an X you can make any of these patterns.
Poetry Films
Combining art forms to make something that – in the end – is so much more than its individual parts is a skill that very few people have. I’ve always been fascinated by the art of film making, and poet and musician Rachel Kann is one of the best at making lyrical words into multi-sensory experiences. She puts all of her into everything she does, and she does it all beautifully. Every piece is carefully planned, and contributes to making a moment that will take your breath away every time.
I feel like I’ve gone on far too long already, and I feel like I’ve barely touched upon the many different forms creativity can take. There’s so much art and beauty, and people continuing to push through an unkind world to add light to it.
I’m putting this entry together quite a bit in advance of its post date, but I am really looking forward to seeing what other Blaugustians highlight during Creative Appreciation Week.
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