Hello all! I am home from San Francisco, and I had such a lovely trip. I was hoping to get some sketches done in my drawing book so that I would have some stuff to post when I got home. Of course, I got too caught up with everything else going on, I really didn’t have the time.

It has been almost a full week since I did any painting, or anything artistic at all. I am really looking forward to Tuesday. I plan on spending the entire day working on my current painting. Right now though, I am going through some Flickr favorites that I have saved trying to find some inspiration for new pieces. Here are a few that I am especially in love with at the moment.

This image is from one of my favorite Flickr users, Lulu at Home. She has the most amazing photostream filled 100’s and 100’s of images from her collection of vintage childrens books. There are so many different styles of artwork she has posted, that it is easy to get lost while scrolling through all the images.

I love when I come across an image like this. This young girl has such an intensely sad look in her eyes. The snapshot is absolutely beautiful (oh, and I want her hair!), and she looks wise beyond her very young age. It is so hard to capture such a strong emotion as this girl is portraying, so finding a photo like this is really special.

Lately I have been craving nature. I have been really wanting to go up to the mountains just outside San Diego and snap some of my own photo inspiration. I love this mushroom photo by Brian Hathcock, it looks so magical to me.

What can I even say about this photograph?! It is absolutely amazing. It was created in 1875, which totally blows my mind.

Whenever I am dry on ideas for art, the first place I turn to is Flickr. I regularly spend hours doing searches or browsing various groups.  Lately there have been two groups I have been enjoying more than others. They are 100 Years Old and The Smiling Victorian.

I have hundreds of images saved in my favorites on Flickr for future inspiration. Every now and again I come upon an image that I just can’t get out of my head and stands out among all others. This image is one of those. I came across it in the 100 Years Old group, and can’t stop looking at it. The look on his face is so eerie yet serene. It is pure perfection.

Ralph Snider in Mirror

This morning my sister and I wathced In the Realm of the Unreal. It is about the artist Henry Darger. I only heard of him recently, after I saw this amazing tattoo, I had to find out more about him. I went on Wikipedia, and found out a documentary had been made. To the top of my queue it went!

It is a fascinating story about a recluse type man, who created amazing stories through his art about children and wars and all the likes. It wasn’t until after he died that they uncovered all these amazing works.

Welcome to my new blog, Bed in Summer. I was previously blogging under the name Girl Wanders. I have felt disconnected from that blog for some time now, and a recent site hack only confirmed my desire to change names.

I feel as though I have been an aimless blogger. I blogged about whatever caught my eye that week. So some weeks it looked like a food blog, other weeks an art blog, and others a fashion blog. Too much.

I want this blog to become centered mainly around my art work and creativity. I plan on pulling together posts not only about what I am working on, but also what inspires me along the way.

The name Bed in Summer is the title of my absolute favorite poem as a little girl. It is by R.L. Stevenson from a Child’s Garden of Verses.

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?