punk rock flyer archive at http://www.tcpunk.com/flyers/flyerarch.html 

A New Gocco Print

Here's my print for the postcard exchange. I made 30 of them with my Gocco today. I'm going to make more in a different color way tomorrow. 

Illustration Friday "Crowded". I had so much fun doing this, I think I'm going to give it another try. Acrylic, Sharpie, and Pencil on old ledger paper. 

This is how I think about projects. These are from before the "Hearts on Fire" show and I knew it had to be about love, and I did all these doodles and then the paintings I made had nothing at all to do with the little drawings. 

procrastination bites again

Last minute deadline time again. I think it's worse on things that I really want to do well on. I need to make postcards for this exchange, and I haven't even started, no sketches, no nothing! The theme is supposed to be "garden", and it's not suggesting anything to me. Nothing that's not totally lame and ordinary.

I need to make 40 of them, so I'm planning to use my gocco, and because I'm broke, I'd like to just use one screen, two at the most.

Photography homework needs to be done too!

with all of the organizing I've been doing, and thinking about my "workflow" and my "productivity" it of course brought to mind those cheeseball motivational posters, all shiny with the eagles and stuff. But Right Brain Terrain has made these lovely "alternative motivational posters" Nice, huh? 

Easter Bunny Pancake 

I was going through my papers and I found this old sketch...to me it looks exactly like George W Bush. Ick. 

Bridge score pad from the 30's, this one is a little glassine covered booklet. I got a whole bundle of various bridge score pads from the 30's and 40's for .25. 

weekly thrift report

I didn't post this earlier in the week, because I've been busy. Also because what I've been buying lately has been a bit dull. Those of you who need a little extra cash, take note, it's easy to sell clothes on ebay. People like to buy regular, unremarkable brand name clothing. This week I sold a pair of jeans for $62.00! So I've been combing the thrift stores for new looking clothing, with at least a little style.

The things I found to sell this week are okay, nothing extraordinary: some banana republic work clothes, ann taylor stuff, j. jill, oh and one hot little prom dress from the 70's.

I did find some stuff that I may have to keep. I got a Hundertwasser silk screened exhibition poster, and I've loved his work for a long time, and it's such a cool print. I got a pretty lotus engraved wooden box that is perfect for colored pencils (and already had some in it). I got a pretty Frankoma jar and a copper sauce pan, and a lego table for the kids. ($17.50 total)

Another photo from Saturday 

Scalding hot bedlam, monkey to man needle time

Tom Waits' 20 favorite records...I have only one of them, which is pretty good considering my tiny sad record collection.

And yes, Scott, I am obviously wasting time doing unimportant stuff....

Time to go read stories to the wee ones.

flyboy action figure comes with gas mask

I read the book Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gas Mask by Jim Munroe a few years ago and I loved it. It's about a shy Canadian guy who has the power to turn into a fly. He falls in love with Cassandra, a punk rock single mom waitress, and finds out that she also has a strange "super power". So they decide to become super heroes and do all kinds of subversive stuff together.

Jim Munroe used to edit Adbusters magazine.

He's now giving that book away as a free ebook on his website! His other book "Everyone in Silico" was really good too. "Angry Young Spaceman" I didn't like so much.

His website, nomediakings.org encourages diy publishing.

rss feeds are good

This week I downloaded the Sage feed aggregator for Firefox (the best browser), and it's great! It's fast and easy to use, and it's so handy for keeping track of all my blog reading. So whenever any of my bookmarked blogs has a new post, I know about it!

Yay!

Thinking About Illustration Friday

I like doing Illustration Friday, it's challenging, and fun to look at all the other work. I have so much to learn about drawing. I love it, but it doesn't come naturally to me. I want to try out different approaches and techniques and really work on my artwork so I can actually tell some of the stories that I want to tell. So that I can feel happy about my work.

Does anyone have any good resources for learning to draw outside of school? Any book or website recommendations? Scott has sensibly recommended that I do two drawings a day. I want to start a practice of morning sketchbook work.

Have you ever noticed that some artists have lots of self imposed impediments to working?? We need assignments and prodding and lots of incubation time. Other artists seem to have no choice about making art, they need it like water, and make art every day, and feel funny if they don't.

festive weekend

I went to three parties this weekend, and they were all really fun. Saturday was my friend Lacey's baby shower. I saw lots of good friends that I hadn't seen in a while. Everything was beautiful, and the food was delicious, and we even played games. Hopefully Lacey got everything she'll need. This has been a really rough pregnancy for her.

My friend Justine hosted the shower and her house is so great.

Sunday was Spring's birthday, her mother arranged a surprise birthday party...caused some stress in the household because she planned it for 10 am on a Sunday, but it was nice, and then we went back there later for a bbq. I should have taken photos of her house too, her house is also incredible.

This is Lacey. The baby is due in April. 

Spring made the yummy cake with creepy babies stuck in the frosting...mmmm.... 

Justine hosted the shower. Her house is amazing, so I took lots of photos. She has a great sense of style and lots of cool vintage stuff. She's actually starting a staging company. 

Z. designed this toy for my friend Lacey's baby shower present. We made it together. It's even got a rattle in it. The back is the same vintage fabric as the ears. She got orders for two more! 

Drawing for Illustration Friday..."bloom". I think I'll try another. This is a departure from my normal style. It's watercolor/collage. I painted some paper in lots of oranges and yellows and cut them into thin strips and then glued them down in the shape of a poppy. The leaves and stem are made the same way.  

Zelia's (age 7) Illustration Friday "Bloom". Shows the growth of the plant from seedling to blooming flower. Crayon on paper. 

poor unwanted ghosties

These three are some of the few wood block paintings I have left from the shows I did last fall and winter. The rejects of the bunch, I suppose.

little orange ghost 

one of my old small block paintings 

I found one!!! Super sweet handmade address book with Illustrations by Jen Corace, made by if'n books

decisions decisions

I've spent the past few days working on organizing my life from the ground up a la 43 folders and the somewhat cheesy but helpful book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.

You know that post a few days ago where I complained about having so much to do, and not knowing how to proceed? Well, I'm now doing something about it. I realized that I had so much of a running to do list in my brain that I didn't even have the capacity to do any of it really because I was thinking of all the many and varied things that I should be doing. It's a work in progress, and I have to say I feel much better than I have in a long time, and my house is looking pretty good too.

We'll see if this manifests itself in more and better artwork.

I'm making decisions about how to proceed with my business venture, and that feels good and scary at the same time.

uh oh, no illustration for me

I was going to do another quick sketch type illustration for this week's theme, but the posting cut off was moved to Thursday, so no illustration for me this time.

Zelia's Fragile Illustration Friday

Zelia's (age 7) "Fragile" drawing. A flower in front of a stained glass window. Crayon on paper.

This sneaky guy, laid devious plans for early morning pinching...making sure his sister had on nothing green when she went to bed, so she'd be pinchable first thing in the morning. He got me too. 

Z wanted to be very green for St. Patrick's Day...green dress, green shirt, green jacket, green face paint, green stripes in her hair, and sparkly green hair clips. So cute. 

I like tree shadows 

address books

Who makes cool handcrafted address books?? I need one and I want to buy one that's made by a small business/artist type person.

Do you know?

Sylvan, the day he got his braces off. Z is in the background. 

painting..."Monster with Blossoms" 

organization is key

It has taken me forever to learn this, as anyone who has visited my house can attest to. As I'm adding more and more to my life, I'm finding it harder to manage and get anything done and it makes me just want to go to sleep.

What was I thinking, signing up for college at this point? Homework is piling up, and frequently turned in late. Business plans are stalled. The kids are still home schooling part time, and we should be doing more stuff. I've got art deadlines and I need to get more artwork done anyway.

So I was thinking, that this could all be solved with some simple tools...

1. setting up efficient work space and storage
2. scheduling our time some
3. regular work times
4. calendar with homework due dates
5. getting rid of clutter in the house

I've known this for a long time, but it is somehow so tricky for me to do.

sigh

secrets

Secrets and confessions are inherently fascinating. This project is very cool. People are invited to make and anonymously send in a postcard with a secret on it. Not just deep dark and nasty ones, but happy and optimistic ones as well. Take a look at Post Secret.

another postcard from "Post Secret"