Artsy Geek

with a powerful "Rejoice and Be Merry" by John Rutter! We've done it! Countless hours of practicing with the choir and individually at home paid up and Mississauga Festival Choir delivered a great performance on December 7th, 2013.  The concert was a start of the 30th season of the choir that initially was assembled to celebrate Mississauga's 10th anniversary.  Today the choir is 105 voices strong and constantly growing. When the time for the concert comes near I always get anxious and nervous. When the dress rehearsal and a last warm up before the performance are completed, the temperature rises.  There is always something that will go wrong during a life performance and I always want to make sure it is not me.  There is always a piece that I should have practiced a little bit more, but the time is up and no turning back. After we finished the magnificent "Gloria" by John Rutter everyone had a feeling that all went well.  Everyone backstage was chee

I think everyone is at such stage at least once in their life where they decide to do something new and different.  The lack of bread at home gave me an idea to bake one myself.  Unfortunately I also lacked the important ingredients: the bread flour and yeast. Next time I sent my husband shopping I asked him to pick up the ingredients I needed.  Now with extra butter, bread flour, yeast and eggs I was ready to make bread from the recipe I found in a baking book. 1 egg 1 egg yolk 1 cup lukewarm water 4.5 cup bread flour 1.5 tsp of salt 2 tsp of sugar 1 tsp of yest 2 Tbsp of butter I worked my way through the recipe, however the bread came out very dense. It was tasty and baked well, but it did not resemble the store bought bread. That did not discouraged me to try again.  This time around I tried to make a soda bread from the same baking book. 4 cups of all-purpose flour 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 1.75 cups buttermilk Lack of buttermilk did not discourage me as I f

This passed Friday and Saturday with Mississauga Festival Choir I completed my first ever recording of a CD.  We were preparing for this moment since June with extra choir practices, listening to the music every day in the car, and yes I was also practicing signing while driving to work.  Preparations also included countless tries on the piano to make sure I get the correct pitch and timing. Monday of the recording I caught some nasty cold and by Wednesday I still felt that bed is the best place for me to fight the cold off.  I was disappointed that after spending so much time preparing for the recording mentally and physically I would need to call in that I cannot make it.  I also gave the cold to my husband who was also supposed to record with the Choir.  To my surprise both of us felt a little better on Thursday and felt like we can record on Friday. :-) Our Studio Runnymede United Church has been designed by R.B. McGiffin and constructed in 1927.  The church provided grea

Yesterday I found my old package of Oven-Bake Clay and I decided that maybe I should sculpture what I wanted to draw.  I was struggling for about two weeks to draw a lion in the position I wanted it to be.  I did a research on-line for photos of such lion and I was unable to find any I was satisfied with.  Then why not a 3D prototype of one, I thought to myself. The lion sculpture was to be a prototype only, so I took the clay I had the most of.  I made the lion all white :) A little albino lion! Just after few minutes of putting the lion together I was satisfied with what was coming out the white clay.  A jumping lion just as I wanted it to be... Back paws firmly standing on the stand with front paws in the air attempting to hit the enemy. (I had to put some support in the form of a stand and support pole as the lion was too soft and a little tipsy.) The mane took a little work as each of the hairs needed to be rolled individually.  This also caused the lion to dangerously fal

Beginning of September feels just like the beginning of the year and I always think of doing something new or different. My first choice is often education, since it is the beginning of the new school year and more institutions offer classes that will help me my artistic and personal development.  I checked OCAD ( http://www.ocadu.ca/programs/continuing_studies.htm ) for their Saturday courses and I found that the "Portraiture fundamentals" course is offered this fall.  I want to take this course as I never did any formal sculpting and the idea of this course is very appealing to me.  The course starts with 3 classes of sculpting of a human head and then 3 classes of drawing. Unfortunately I realized that I cannot take any Saturday courses due to the recording session in October for the new CD with Mississauga Festival Choir.  I also find the weekday courses very tiring as I would need to go to these classes right after work with practically no dinner and get home very lat

I had been often told on many occasions and by many people that I need to keep selling my art as it is good and people will buy it.  In this post I would like to explain what are the pros and cons of going to art shows to sell your art. Shows are able to provide the artist the needed exposure and help in being notice.  Artist hopes to sell the art piece or at last meet a potential buyer during the show hoping that the person will call later and eventually make a purchase. Indoor shows are easy as they are usually cheaper, but are often juried and limit the number of art pieces to one or three. Let's say that you decided to participate, you pay the nonrefundable entrance fee, send photos of your art and your CV and you wait.  You got in?  Excellent, your entry fee did not become just the jury tax. You follow the instructions and bring your art to the gallery, you stick around and watch if there is any interest in your art.  If your painting was hang in the wrong place, no one no

I started a blog long time ago, but I was not sure why I wanted to do it.  It was just cool to have a blog at a time. This time around I have a purpose.  I wanted to get close and personal with people on-line and I will be implementing the blog into my website (www.ewaromanowicz.com) at some point.  Eventually I will get Ruby and I will get Rail and create the website as I want it to look like.  For now this Google provided blog needs to do the job.  There are several reason I want to get the blog up and running. 1) I want to get a distance from the social websites such as Facebook and also get a brought audience. 2) I want to be able to still communicate what I'm doing in my personal life and art life to be in touch in people that are interested in these kind of things about me. 3) Be able to present where I am in my life and where my personal development is leading me to. The reason to start my blog early before I am able to complete my neat looking website in Ruby on Rails