personal » Asja Boroš

Je li netko zainteresiran za razmjenu dobara? (razmjena dogovorena :))

Feb 212012

things to trade

Potaknuta nedavnom Isidorinom razmjenom pomislila sam da ne bi bilo loše da i ja ponudim neke stvari na razmjenu. Naime, nedavno sam počela snimati seriju portreta i autoporteta i stalno sam u potrazi za rekvizitima za fotke, tako da mi je palo na pamet da ponudim neke stvari za koje vjerujem da bi vam se mogle svidjeti u zamjenu za handmade rekvizite točnije handmade nakit koji mogu korisiti na fotkama

Dakle, za razmjenu nudim: smeđu kožnu torbu. Torba je iz njemačkog second hand shopa, ali po svoj prilici nikad nije nošena i u savršenom je stanju. Ja je imam više od godine dana i nikad je nisam nosila jer u nju ne stane veliki DSLR fotić kojeg uvijek teglim sa sobom. No, zato u nju stane puno drugih stvari. Dimenzije torbe su 36×26 cm. Nisam sigurna koje marke je torba , ali na prednjem dijelu je sitnim slovima utisnut logo Santa, pa postoji mogučnost da je došla iz radionice Djeda Mraza

bag

Druga stvar koju nudim za razmjenu je tamno crvena Moleskine teka. Naslovnicu sam oslikala akrilnim bojama. Dimenzije Moleskina su 13×21 cm, stranice su prazne i idealne za crtanje, skiciranje itd.

customized moleskine

Treća stvar koja ide na razmjenu je print, verzija moje ilustracije Flawed koja mi je posebno draga jer jer je svojednobno bila pick of the week na Illustration Friday Print je velićine 28×23 cm i isprintan je na 200gms photo papiru.

flawed
Što bih voljela dobiti za uzvrat? Voljela bih dobiti veliki handmade broš u obliku cvijeta i ogrlicu koja također ima nekakav cvjetni motiv (ali nije nužno). Nakit namjeravam koristiti na portretu na kojem bi trebale dominirati žuta, plava i zelena pa bi bilo idealno da je nakit u istim bojama, ali , naravno ne mora biti.

Dakle, ako ste zainteresirani za mijenjate handmade broš i ogrlicu za retro torbu, customized Moleskine i print pošaljite mi fotku onoga što biste mijenjali na asja@asjaboros.com i javit ću vam se što prije da dogovorimo detalje.

things to be traded

things to trade

Photo diary: more snow, doodles and getting awesome things in mail

personal, photos 4 Responses »

Feb 172012

Wow! I can’t believe it’s Friday already! Time flies so fast, I’m almost ready to believe in all that “2012. time is speeding up phenomena”, hehe. Anyway, here is a second installment of my photo diary:

small red fence

small pine tree
Last weekend Winter was still in full force, it was freezing cold and snowing like mad. Walking outside felt like taking a stroll inside of a snow globe. It was so beautiful!

doodles 01

card01

Even though everything looked so pretty covered with snow, a true Winter Wonderland, it was also extremely cold so a lot of time was spent inside. I worked on some more demanding drawings but also did some casual doodling in my Moleskine and on card paper which you can see above.

sunshine outside

At the beginning of the week sunshine lured me out. Again, it was so beautiful, surface of snow sparkled like millions tiny crystals! I love this kind of weather and as you can guess I don’t mind the cold much

winter 01

We went into the nearby woods to do a little photo shoot that you can see in my previous post!

harry octane chapman

Yesterday I got super happy to get this amazing package in mail! Last year Christian Papazoglakis asked me if he could use some of my textures on his upcoming comic book project and of course I said yes. He promised to credit me in the book and to send me copies when they’re out and he stayed true to his word. He sent me copies of Harry Octane and Chapman, both of which you can see above.

P2156972
P2156968

…and how awesome is the way he autographed the books for me? Seriously awesome, I’d say! It really made my day!

You can see more of his work here:

Xtian’s Illustration Friday

studio pakap

www.papazoglakis.net

I wish you all wonderful weekend! I will spend my weekend drawing, shooting, photo editing and generally being crazy busy (but in a good way!!). What are your plans?

Sometimes

musings, personal, photos 6 Responses »

Feb 132012

after the rain

Sometimes I feel an inexplicable sense of longing. An unexplainable, irrational longing for something (or someone), elusive and mysterious that continually slips away from me, always keeping me a step behind from feeling entirely satisfied, complete and centered in present moment even though I am generally happy person and love my life.

This sense of longing is hard to define. Sometimes it manifests itself as a feeling that “something is missing in my life”, a piece of a puzzle, so to speak that, if found would make my life more meaningful.

Often this irrational longing makes me pick my camera and take hundreds of random pictures as if some secret knowledge is locked within my camera and it can only be discovered by pressing a shutter button over and over again.

flowery dream

Every once in a while, a feeling of longing, this subtle yet persistent force makes me go outside to wander and photograph the world as if whatever is I’m looking for will reveal itself to me through images of misty roads, Autumn leaves, parks, beautiful afternoon light…

Often it makes me take self-portraits and look at them as mirrors reflecting back to me insights into my own psyche showing me that answers to my longings already lay within me just waiting to be discovered.

5:40 am

This feeling of longing can at times be described as an insatiable desire, a constant restlessness of spirit, a need for change just for the sake of it but sometimes it can be very motivating, pushing me to create, learn and explore the world through camera lens. Even though I might never feel fully satisfied or complete, on one level I am grateful for it

Photo diary: cold weather, hot drinks and a furry friend

personal, photos 9 Responses »

Feb 102012

Since I take a lot of snapshots of my daily life, I thought it would be appropriate to post some of them here every Friday, in a “this was my week in pictures” manner. Here is the first installment of my photo diary (after all this is my personal blog):

pug This week cutest dog in the neighborhood came to visit!
snow in zapresic It snowed. A lot. But I didn’t mind. Everything looks nicer cover with virginal white blanket, to say it poetically
snow in zapresic mr d It got cold. Extremely cold. I did mind it and I wasn’t the only one.
coffee time Hot coffee was necessary for my well being this week, but it seems it usually is.
arlnolta Mr Dean who came to visit recently(!!), among other things brought a Minolta and a role of expired film with him. After walking around in crazy cold weather for 2 days in a row we finally purchased matching batteries for the camera and started shooting. Can’t wait to get the film developed.

novi dvori snow Sunshine+snow=a perfect reason to go out for a walk and take pics.

How was your week?

Here and now

musings, personal 4 Responses »

Feb 082012

abstract pattern

Sometimes I catch myself thinking how wonderful it would’ve been if I lived in one of past eras which art, photography and design I admire . “It must have been so exciting and interesting to live back then, if I could’ve only experienced that particular time in history my work would have been so much better.” Then I remind myself that, the reason a particular era looks so appealing, magical, inspiring in photographs and art is not because it actually was that way but because photographers and artist of that time were talented, skilled and driven enough to recognize beauty, magic and power in world that surrounds them and transform (quite often grim) reality into something meaningful and beautiful through their work.

That thought makes more motivated to live in the present moment, to be fully aware of my surroundings and to push myself harder to develop ideas and skills.

I choose to embrace the present moment as it is and to recognize beauty and potential in often distressing circumstances that surround us. I choose to accept this (seemingly difficult) moment in history as it is and I choose to find beauty in it and strength in me to transform it into something positive and inspiring through my work.

After all, all we have is here and now

In mood for making art

musings, personal 2 Responses »

Feb 052012

happy world

In 2008. when I began re-learning how to draw, the most important thing for me was mastering the technical side of drawing, I was concerned with re-gaining control over pen, I obsessed over quality of my lines, I was trying out different tools and techniques. The more I’ve practiced and the more confident I became the more my focused shifted to expressing certain feelings ( joy, happiness and innocence) in drawings. And I discovered, to be able to depict such fun, carefree feelings I need to get myself in the right mood before I start drawing. I need to feel happy, carefree and playful myself in order to convey same emotions in an image. I’ve also learned that, for the type of imagery I make, it’s very important not to take myself too seriously and to adopt and innocent but slightly off beat sense of humor about everything (not a hard task for someone who can’t stay on the serious side for very long anyway and thrives on all things silly and oddly funny).

And getting into mood for drawing chubby critters and whimsical doodles turned out to be rather easy and fun process. I would simply start making up silly stories about my imaginary characters like ok, so here is a Wolf, he likes candy and pinstripe suits and fancies poking Bear with a stick, his main life goal is to bake biggest cupcake in the world and then dive into delicious icing…. and just thinking like that would make me happy and I would start drawing the day away.

Few years back, when I got into photography I got caught up in technical side of it, I wanted to get to know my camera and I wanted to experiment. I was focused on establishing some kind of picture-taking routine, reserving few hours every day just to go out and shoot (pretty much anything, trees, flowers, people, myself etc) and then edit photos hoping to learn as much as I can.

As I was learning about photography I was also learning about myself and what photography as a medium meant to me and also what kind of feelings and atmosphere I’d like to express in photos. Once again, I found out that getting into a certain mood (or a mindset) in order to take a good photo is more important to me than technical details of photography. And right now I’m in the process of trying to get my self into that “right mood” before setting off to shoot. It’s a process a bit more difficult and complex because, unlike in my illustrations, I wish to create more serious and complex worlds and to succeed at it I feel I need to become a little more mature, a little more grown-up and wiser myself. To me creative work always seems to end up being (as corny as it may sound) a process of self discovery and self development

Do you need to be in particular mood to be creative or do you just decide you’ll make some art or crafts and do it?

Thoughts on self-portraiture

musings, personal, photography 7 Responses »

Feb 022012

mosaic287569f461d2ea81f910afc9e0b613a3bbb45a29

Ever since I read this blog post on self-portraiture (which I highly recommend) I thought of writing something on the topic myself. Why? Well, because I’ve been regularly shooting selfies for almost 10 years and even though I never considered myself a self-portrait artist, a habit of taking pictures of myself on almost daily basis became very important part of my creative expression and helped me grow as a person in many ways.

Even though I’ve been the subject of my own photos since 2002. I haven’t started posting my SPs online until 2007. when I’ve created my first flickr account (that got deleted very quickly) and I’ve always been very selective about self-portraits I decided to post. Mostly because I was doing it for personal reasons, it was my visual diary, a way to document my life and emotions. Over the years my reason for shooting self-portraits changed and right now I’m in the process of approaching self-portraiture as an art process and not just a personal documentation of my feelings

So, I’d like to share some of my thoughts on self-portraits and what I’ve learned in last 10 years of being on both sides of the camera:

Being both photographer and model gives you complete control over entire process of creating an image. From idea to its realization to editing of a photo you posses full control over your work and it’s (at least from my experience) the fastest way to learn and develop your own style. It also a process that gives you complete freedom to express yourself however you please.

It appears that more than any other genre photographers, self-portrait artist (especially female ones) feel need to continually explain and even justify their choice of genre. Maybe because of prejudice that shooting pictures of yourself and posting them online (especially if you’re a young woman) makes you narcissistic and vain.

Have you ever heard, for example, someone calling a singer/songwriter a narcissist just because she performs songs composed by herself? Do singers/songwriters usually apologize for performing their own music? If anything, musicians who write, produce and perform their own music are even more respected for it and considered more talented. Yet, photographers who come up with their own ideas, portray them by using their own face and body (they own image) and are in full control of entire creative process, are considered vain? It never made much sense to me.

From what I’ve learned shooting SPs is hard work and it takes a lot of imagination to come up with interesting images. It also sometimes takes a lot of introspection and self-work to be able to continually play a role of a subject in your own photos.

Also, it always seemed more honest and genuine, when expressing a raw intimate emotion or an idea you hold close to your heart, to use yourself as a subject of an image than using models and trying to direct them.

Taking pics of yourself can be very therapeutic and it can very helpful in any form of self-work and self-discovery. It definitely helped me love and accept my body as it is, I feel very confident and comfortable in my own skin. The more comfortable I felt in front of the camera, the more accepting I’ve became of my body image. I didn’t start taking pics of myself because I was in love in how I look, I learned to love myself partly through the creative process of taking SPs. I’ve learned that our body image is just that an image and we can choose to own it and re-create it and better ourselves just as we can with any other aspect of our being.

Do you take self-portraits? What do you think about it?

Do you listen to music when you draw?

musings, personal 5 Responses »

Feb 012012

boombox

Do you have a habit of listening to music while drawing/painting/crafting/making art/etc? Is it easier for you to focus on creative work while something is playing in background or do you prefer complete silence? I used to enjoy listening to my favorite records while drawing, it helped to get into the flow and draw for hours and hours at a time.

When I started making first illustrations for the book I had OneRepublic playing on repeat and it was a perfect soundtrack for creating happy, light, simple and cute drawings. Every time I was about to work on the book I would play the same songs and it would help me to set the mood for working and concentrating on illustrations more easily.

But, after I finished the book I couldn’t find any suitable, enjoyable tunes to listen to while sketching and editing images. Since I’m not a fan of total silence I resorted to watching tv series, Midsomer Murders in particular. Well, I haven’t actually watched TV, I would kind of simultaneously draw and listen to the show and take a quick glance at the screen every few minutes. After seeing every single episode approximately 5 times it was time to move on and find another pleasant distraction.

So, I began watching documentaries. Genius of photography was the first series to entertain me while working. I continued by watching various culture, history and politics related documentaries, latter turning out to be a bad choice of content to expose oneself while trying to create happy, fun, care free worlds Apparently I got subconsciously influenced by what I was seeing: suddenly all of my chubby critters were looking like world political leaders . Not good.

Currently I’m in a phase of listening to podcasts, topics varying from astronomy to contemporary art and I’m loving it! It suits my efficiency loving nature, I work and at the same time I’m learning new information.

What do you prefer listening to while being creative (if anything at all)? Is there any good series/ movie/documentary/ podcast to you’d recommend as backdrop for making art?

Bears and Maksi

illustration, personal 9 Responses »

Jan 182012

bears collage Bears were drawn last year.

Latest issue of Maksi magazine (that features my work) came in mail yesterday.

maksi
maksi

All is well in Asja-land.

Redecorating frenzy and other things that kept me busy

DIY, personal, photos 7 Responses »

Jan 142012

So far 2012. has been very good to me. I spent December 2011. mostly planning, setting goals and writing so seeing my plans turning into reality so fast feels great! I’ve been very busy last couple of weeks enjoying new work opportunities, setting foundations for personal art project and redecorating my apartment.
I didn’t actually plan to redecorate my place, it happened quite spontaneously. On Monday I had a little incident involving spilled ink and pinkish wall which propelled me into some sort of redecorating frenzy and resulted with repainting walls (and some pieces of furniture) bright white, painting flowers on closets, cleaning like a mad person and rearranging art pieces.

redecorating01
As I mentioned before, on Monday night I spilled some ink on orange/pinkish wall in my computer nook and naively wanted to wash it out with water making an ever bigger stain. You know how it goes, the more you try to clean it the bigger the stain so I thought well, I might just remove all the paint and repaint the wall.

Removing the paint was pretty tedious and messy but, I believe, totally worth it because white suits my little corner so much better and makes it lot brighter.I also rearranged art pieces and put them above my desk, I have quite an Alkaline collection, 6 original pieces by Alkaline Samurai, photo print by Isidora and two of my own pieces.

redecorating02

Also, I repainted my little cabinet white and painted some pink flowers on it, now I call it sakura cabinet hehe.

redecorating03

Recently I made a little drawing of a bear on a round piece of wood so I thought it would be appropriate to display it as well.

redecorating bear drawing

Once I refreshed my computer corner I moved on to the living room and repainted my old wooden wall white. The whole room seems bigger, much brighter and more pleasant to be in.

redecorating04

I have a big, really old closet in my living room that I plan on kicking out very soon so I thought it would be fun to paint on it before it gets moved out. Years ago, on one part of the closet my Mom applied some flowery decoupage that I never liked so I decided to remove it. And I learned a valuable lesson, decoupage is ~~hard and messy~~ impossible to remove but also nothing that 4 coats of white paint and strategically painted blue flowers can’t cover up.

redecorating05

The rest of the closet got some new, blue flowers as well.

redecorating06

After that I painted my kitchen cabinets white as well and did A LOT of cleaning and I’m still in the process of cleaning and rearranging stuff just at a slower pace (it’s weekend after all).

Last weekend I felt like doing something fun yet simple so I played a bit with white watercolor and blue, lined paper getting subtle and understated drawings.

blue and white

Before that I experimented with dying plain, white paper with coffee and spices to get interesting textures to scan and use as textures for layers in PS. I found my old high school biology homework and though I might scan it as well to get some “objects” to use as PS layers as well.

making textures

I also made some simple notebooks to fill with photo ideas, I’ve been writing and sketching so much I already have 4 little notebooks overflowing with ideas!

precious ideas notebook

I rediscover how fun it is to paint on brown paper!

it's raining ideas

Other great things happened as well in first 2 weeks of new year. I got great news, my partner in ~~crime~~ art and all things awesome is coming to visit in early February and we’re planning to have amazing time together as always. I started looking for props for my soon-to-happen photo shoots and scouted some very inspiring locations. I went to much needed shopping for clothes as I realized my sartorial choices could be described by this. I started working on a wonderful commission and even though I’ve been seriously sleep deprived I’m having a blast! I have a feeling 2012. will be the BEST YEAR EVER!

How did your year start?

Older Entries

Je li netko zainteresiran za razmjenu dobara? (razmjena dogovorena :))

Photo diary: more snow, doodles and getting awesome things in mail

Sometimes

Photo diary: cold weather, hot drinks and a furry friend

Here and now

In mood for making art

Thoughts on self-portraiture

Do you listen to music when you draw?

Bears and Maksi

Redecorating frenzy and other things that kept me busy

My book

Hello

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