Unleash your creative superpowers!
Join me in ushering in 2025 with intention. Not a list of pointless resolutions we won’t keep for a week, but a commitment to approach everything in a fresh new way. Allow your artist within to find its way out. A minor shift in thought — that can lead to radical results. You may surprise yourself. Just imagine.
“Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.” — Bruce Garrabrandt, artist
Wishing you a spectacular year ahead!
(Pic #1) Inspiring color palette found on the side panel of a 1960s station wagon. I spotted this one at the Side Street Café in Newbury Park, Cal.
New life emerges from the weather-beaten shells of American classics.
It’s one of my favorite things: discovering patterns, textures and color shifts on cars and trucks who’ve seen better days. I love what Mother Nature has predetermined for these ever-changing works of art. I find that the more worn and scratched, the more personality they show. Sometimes they even help me conjure up a composition and color scheme for a painting. There’s something so rich and exciting about oxidizing auto paint. (Yes, I’m painfully aware of how seriously pathetic that sounds.) I hope you give these sweet rides a fresh look — and you too can develop a super keen, very satisfying, lust for rust.
(Pic #2) Side panel of a 1954 Chevrolet. Spotted in Los Feliz, Cal. Photo by Josh Kaplan.
(Pic #4) Photo by Josh Kaplan
(Pic #4) Detail, wheel well, 1949 Dodge pickup. Photo by Josh Kaplan
(Pic #5) Dodge 1949 pickup, Ojai, Cal.
(Pic #1) Facing South, Westlake Village, Cali. (Photo by Josh Kaplan)
(Pic #2) Facing North, Westlake Village, Cali. (Photo by Josh Kaplan)
These two shots were taken from exactly the same spot: in the middle of a field in Westlake Village. Josh stopped to grab the image of the sprawling bougainvillea, and when doing an about face, discovered the wispy tendrils of the dry brush. Kind of a double gift: twice the art — with the effort of one.
So I’m making it a point to take my 180 and find the opposing view. A bonus for staying open to all angles. The life lesson metaphor is not lost on me.
