Amanda Briggs

Dear Ada - chapter 2:
I started writing this blog dear ada in 2006. Some 3,100+ posts later, in August of 2010, I found myself at a crossroad. What started out as a love letter to a dear friend, over time has also became a personal exploration and celebration of amazing art and artists throughout the world. Phase 1 of dear ada turned out to be a wonderful journey where I met such lovely people, all of whom share a deep love and appreciation for art in the world. It has been such a joyful ride.

Also, in the process of writing dear ada, I found a new energy and desire to make art again myself. Inspired by all the amazing work I've discovered over the years, I started to make my own art after a very long hiatus. And what a wonderful and joyful gift that has turned out to be. I think that the real Ada would have been very happy with that outcome indeed. I know she would have been encouraging me and celebrating my making of new art every step of the way. Maybe in fact, that's exactly what she's been doing, as I've written this blog, and written to her, almost every day for 5 years. Yes, I think she'd be quite pleased with how it's all turned out.

After taking a break from blogging, and spending more time in the studio, I've decided to launch dear ada "2", this time focusing solely on my own work. I'm continuing with cataloguing all the artists who continue to inspire me over at my dear ada site on tumblr, so please check it out for ongoing artistic celebration. Over the coming months, this blog will start to feature more of my own work as well as updates in the book love section. My art and books here, other people's art over at dear ada on tumblr. I hope you enjoy it all! Cheers! Amanda

Dear Ada - chapter 1 is a creative exercise as well as an exercise about creativity. It is also a tribute of love. Ada was a very important person I grew up with and shared a love for art, nature, design and culture. She was the most positive, curious, interested person I've ever known and this blog is a bit like a series of letters or notes to her, and everyone else, about some of the things that seem pretty amazing to me about the world. Or funny, sparkling, sweet, strange, mundane, random, thoughtful, or beautiful too. I figure, you can never have too much of this kind of stuff in your life, so I'm always looking for more of it. It's as simple as that. In the spirit of looking at life the way that Ada did, I want to keep holding up stuff and saying, "isn't this amazing"?