any opinions?

I was thinking of using this image for the fronts of my postcards for one of my shows in October. It's a detail of a painting that I actually really like. Does anybody have any opinions about this? Should I use an entire image instead of a detail? Something more bold with fewer layers of color? If the yellows are off in the printing, it could be really bad.

Etsy Shop Update

Finally! Monster Pouches are listed in my Etsy shop. Only $10! And each is one of a kind....

a few things

I finished a few more paintings, and have some ideas for more. I'm going to work on some silk screen prints today too. I have come up with two of the three shirt designs for Martina, and a few ideas for my friend Erik's new shirt company, which is going to be super cool.

My kids go back to their part time school next week, so I will have more time to work without distraction (at least from them) and without feeling as if I should be doing something else. Their school is beautiful, it's on over 60 acres, with trails through a beautiful forest.


And a creek with a waterfall where salmon swim upstream.

And a beautiful garden where they grow organic veggies and all the kids help to take care of it and every week they spend time there and also harvest and prepare something from the garden.

illustration friday---dream

a dream giant

project for after the art shows

I want to start a photoblog like this with Scott. Those photos are beautiful, and remind me of the photos that Scott and I take, or aspire to take.

I am sort of freaking out about the shows and it is a bit paralyzing. I subjected my dear friend Spring to a stream of consciousness ramble about how I'm feeling about it. (sorry Spring!). You see, I felt so confident and bouyant about art in general when I was in the city. When I sat down to work, it transformed itself into panic and self loathing. Not good.

new plans

*draw constantly and without judgement
*starting next monday, computer off all day
*try not to panic
*encaustic for open studios preview by end of week (remember to check for deadline)
*develop series ideas

lovely

Skull Building lomo-ized in photoshop

I'm back home and I'm happy, relaxed, inspired and ready to get to work. I love my boyfriend, I love San Francisco, I love making art and taking photos with my new camera. I'll write more soon, and post more phoots, but some new work habits need to be developed ASAP. I've got lots of art to make!

be calm

I am soooo excited about this mini vacation. The day is probably going to crawl by today. I'm looking up all kinds of things to do in the city. There are so many choices! Scott and I seem to have the same ideas about what we'd like to do, so that's great. Museums, city wandering and exploration, taking photos,and eating in restaurants. He also seems to be willing to go and partake of some nightlife. I wasn't sure, because he generally doesn't seem to enjoy it (he doesn't drink and he doesn't dance), but I think we'll find something to do that will be fun, maybe hear a band or some stand up comedy. My sweet ex-sister in law Sarah is going to be in town, so I'm hoping that she will come down and see us. Maybe Jon too.

I'm not going to bring my computer and Scott said no projects either...that's hard! How can I watch tv in a hotel room with no projects?!?! I did make a new sketchbook to bring along.

Also I'm picking up my new camera tomorrow morning on the way to the city. I almost got a great deal on a Canon Digital Rebel, but the only one left was the floor model and they couldn't get it to work, and it was non returnable, and had fingerprints all over the mirror inside and I had to say no. I'd love to have a digital SLR, because I really do love photography and I'm so covetous of Scotts Nikon D70. I ended up buying a Sony CyberShot DSC-W5. We'll see how it compares to my old one (I don't expect it to compare well to the D70).

Oh, and speaking of electronics and consumerism, look at this.

first vacation for real

This time it's really happening...the first vacation of my entire 11.5 years of parenting. Granted it's small and close to home, but I'm still very excited! Their grandma is going to come and stay with them for two days, and then they'll spend their normal day and a half with their dad. Giving me three and a half days with no responsibilities at all.

Scott and I are going to San Francisco for the weekend and we're going to wander around and go to museums and eat in restaurants and I'm going to make him go out with me at night.

news

Week of headaches for me, keeping me from my production plan. Only 8 more weeks until my two art shows and I really have NOTHING that I want to show! (will not panic). Scott helped me and we made three panels for encaustics, but I need to make many many more than that!

I'm considering finding someone to share the show with at Moxie in October, so that I can concentrate more on open studios.

My digital camera died today. Now it will only take photos that look like this:

Which is kinda neat, but yeah, not really practical. (that's a photo of a brown purse that I made).

oh sad

The craft show was a flop. I kinda suspected it might be. There was lots of cool stuff there, but people just don't have money to spend. It was good to see people who I haven't seen in a long while, and to just be around people. Desiree and Spring helped me table, and that was fun. Spring's art vending machine was a big hit, and I'm excited about that project.

I drank two beers and had no dinner, and so I got kinda tipsy.

I'll post some photos soon. And now I've got lots of stuff to sell on Etsy. I sewed like crazy this week.

budget gallery

Budget Gallery time again...open call for submissions.

The Budget Gallery organizes gallery style art shows in the unused
public spaces found in urban areas. From empty walls to empty
buildings, the Budget Gallery uses any space that is available and
highly visible during the day. Space is often prepared with white
paint and signage so work will be as professionally presented as
possible. Pieces will be labeled with the artists name, materials
used, and asking price for the work. We host opening receptions that
are attended by hundreds of people forming a sort-of block party,
garage sale style art show right on the sidewalk.

ow

I sewed my finger with the sewing machine while making monster pouches for tomorrow's craft show. Also, I got iron on adhesive stuff on my iron, and the emulsion has worn off of my favorite images on my silk screens, making them unusable. Can I cure some new ones in time?

Luckily other friends are coming through with amazing goods. Jacqui dropped off a bunch of her beautiful polaroid transfer cards and a whole bunch of Dude's shrinky dinks for a ridiculously low price, sadly tempting me to buy the whole stack of them.

some days

Some days of crafting are really frustrating! The sewing machine fights you, needles break, screen prints come out with light patches, or smears, or ghosty prints, and you ruin a bunch of shirts. Things that seem like good ideas turn out to be bad ideas, and then you get a weird headache from spray laquer. Then it's time to go to bed.

pictures from last week

This is a photo I took last Monday on my way to see Mati in San Francisco. I also got to check out Laurel's latest work which is amazing.

Here's a rare blog appearance from my son.

A shirt that I made last week.

A wrap skirt that I made two weeks ago.

Scott has been telling me that perhaps this craft rampage that I am on is a way of avoiding working on my artwork, and he's been dropping the occasional "wow, October is right around the corner isn't it?". He's right though, October will be here before I know it.

reproduction zine

Today I found a cool thing, "Re: A Guide to Reproduction" it's a freely downloadable PDF zine about xerography, offset printing, and silkscreening by Ron Rege Jr. ,Dave Choe, Jordan Crane, and Brian Ralph. It's geared towards printing mini comics, but it seems like a good primer for anyone.

Some of other zines on that site are going on my list of zines to buy, for certain!
There are some amazing prints as well. Jordan Crane's artwork is so appealing to me. I think that this one is my favorite, but it's out of print. The other ones are great too.

spandex and onesies

I wanted to take photos of the super cool super sparkley dress up skirts that I made for my daughter and for my neighbor Madi who said she wanted it to be for every day, not just for dress up, but I couldn't get the girls to pose. So here is my ebay model, headless torso, wearing a few of the other things I made.



This one I might actually wear, it's pretty subdued, considering how sparkley it is! The back is pretty neat too, with three strips of different fabrics.



This one is not my style, but I think it would look pretty great on someone else! The dress up skirts are much like this. Another thing I like about this top is that you can twist it around and show different sides of it!



And today I made these little screenprinted onesies. I wanted to take a photo of all the colors of them on a clothesline, but I couldn't find enough clothespins! Three of them are up on my etsy store.

sewing challenge

I'm all excited because I've been using my serger and a huge amount of crazy fabric that somebody gave me. A crafty girl at the video store who knows that I'm crafty too, asked me if I wanted some fabric scraps. She said that she was decluttering, and it was hard to just toss it. So of course I said yes, and she dropped it off for me.

I was a bit dismayed when Scott and I picked it up. It was something like 6 garbage bags full of odd scraps of sparkley spandex. Not my cup of tea. I tried to pawn it off on the neighbors but they said it was "god awful".

Tonight I decided to see what I could do with it, just for fun, and surprise!...I made some really super fun stuff! It's too dark to photograph right now, but tomorrow I will! Spandex can be fun. Oh, and sparkley.

my niece's artwork

My niece is really into making digital art right now. She posts a lot of it online in a Teen Titans fan community. She was pretty embarrassed about me seeing it though, I think that might be because she is twelve. But look at how good it is!

Her dad just got her a drawing tablet, so I expect they'll get even better!