Wednesday, February 27, 2008

New Stuff

Good grief.

Sometimes (a lot of times, actually) I get so caught up in my own wee projects/happenings/work/catching up with old friends and family peeps, that the blog gets duly neglected. Poor poor blog.

How is everyone doing? Are you all eagerly anticipating spring as well? I must say, winter is my favorite time of year, but I'm so so ready for some sun. Up here in the Seattle area we've had an amazing week or two of sun breaks and it's hilarious how everyone's mood is instantly lifted. Light! Sun! Warm rays of life!
That mushroom sketchbook painting made it's way, at long last, into print-form in ye old shoppe. You can find it here.
And, after spying these neat shadowbox frames, have put together a couple shadowbox scenes with both the mushroom print and a small narwhal print. I'm super excited about these and can't wait to do a couple more! Both can be found in the shop as well, for a very limited time (I only have one of each at the moment) **EDIT: Both are now sold. Thank you!**.
And I simply must update you all on that Bearded Lady. She's done! I'm so happy with her too (as usual, my picture-taking skills here are seriously lacking and she was doubly hard to capture right due to the gold leafing, but at least you can get a general idea). Hooray! I'm doing a series of these strange sideshow figures, and am already ambling along on the second piece (an 8-Legged Octopus Man!).That's all for now, ladies and gents. Happy mid-week! Time for some thrifting and antique store meandering, me thinks.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Narwhals and Bearded Ladies

Why, hello there.

I'm busily making plans and preparations for perhaps some shows this year (I'm still undecided on whether or not to do a farmer's market and perhaps one large arts/craft show...or if I should skip the farmer's market idea and do maybe three big shows and call it good). Decisions, decisions. We shall see, I s'pose. I'm really excited about some new project ideas, though. Including...screenprinted totes? I'm looking into that possibility at the moment (so far, it's looking like a "go"!). If they do happen, you guys will be the first to know! I'm sketching out the design as I type, and I'm super thrilled with it. They should be quite the show-stopping little numbers.

Anyway, a new painting eeked it's way into the shop earlier this week (a bit sneaky of me, I admit)...
Narwhals! A *black* narwhal! This idea had been flitting about in my sketchbook for a while now. For some reason, the very thought of a unique black narwhal sent me into a frenzy. I have no idea if this has ever happened in real life (or if it's even possible), but seriously. How cool would that be?

And this is what's on the painting table at the moment...
Uh-huh. A bearded lady *and* gold leaf (composite gold leaf, actually--the real stuf is hard to come by around here and heftily priced at that). I'm so excited about this piece. So excited. She's quite teeny as well--5x7" on canvas panel. And I have the perfect frame for when she's all done.I had been studying an old textbook I still have from college Art History days on the Northern Renaissance and gawking at those freaky-talented Flemish painters (seriously--Van der Weyden, Campin, Van Eyck... what planet did these guys fall from?). Jan van Eyck is by far one of my all-time favorite old school painters. His pieces are *perfect*. And when you see his works in person, your jaw drops--they're so small for all those teensy details and perfectly painted figures. It's humbling, really. So, I guess you can say that's what inspired this lil' number (though, as far as I know, Van Eyck wasn't really well-known for painting bearded ladies).

Off for a quick coffee! Happy Valentines Day, everyone! I think it goes without saying, I love you all deeply. Enjoy your week!
--PS: Just a wee reminder that if you've been pondering over it, this Valentine Special on the narwhal & white sperm whale prints will end at midnight tomorrow, so hop over there and snag one before then. :)

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Recent Sketchbook Innards

I have a bit of free-time this fine Saturday morning before heading off to work a closing shift at the ceramic studio. For the past two days I've been locked in my house, sketching and planning and painting and having a glorious time in my creative zone.

Somehow, during that time, February crept in.

Huh. I checked my work schedule this morning to make sure I was on the same shift today...not realizing I was looking at the January schedule...and made my way to work, only to find out I wasn't expected until later in the evening. 'Cause it's now February and all. Wow. I feel like a complete idiot.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few sketchbook pages with all of you because I know that I love checking out other people's sketchbook innards. Yesterday I spent two hours on Flickr ogling over sketchbook images from other folks (I must warn you--don't search "sketchbook" on Flickr unless you have a healthy amount of time to look at the results). So inspiring! Mine is a mess of pencil and ink drawings along with a lot of vellum paper, paint samples, and old book pages loosely taped and glued in place. It really runs the gamut from quickly scribbled sentences/ideas, composition ideas, final tracing paper templates, and paint experiments.
A long time ago, back before college and even a bit into it, I made oodles of sculptural maquettes and figures. My goal for a long time was to go into film special effects (I still have a strong urge to some day work a bit in the film production industry) and so I'd spend a good amount of time working on my sculpting skills to make maquettes for imaginary films. Sorta pretending I was employed in an FX art department. I'd like to get back into it a wee bit, only this time make them into puppets with loosely moveable joints. The two sketches above are rough planned puppets (one is a bit Steve Zissou inspired--big surprise there!).Fanciful narwhal sketches and templates and a whimsical little mushroom study, which may wind up as a small print. For one reason or another, my most recent sketchbook pages are teeming with mushrooms.
Well, ladies and gents, I'm off to mingle with the general public. Happy weekend! I hope you all do something fun, creative, or relaxing...or better yet, all of the above!