A Good Movie With A Side Of Snow

Well my friends, the year is nearly over. And what a year it's been! Lots of new leaps have been made, with many more yet to come. I'm so excited for the new year and what lies ahead (I have quite a few surprises to show you!), and of course, I am so terribly thankful for all the love and support from all of you. It's pretty mindblowing--I'm a lucky, lucky gal indeed.

My Christmas was splendid and I hope all of you enjoyed (or are continuing to enjoy) your holidays! Living in the Pacific Northwest, my holiday was spent under a foot and a half of snow after a week and a half of snow and ice storms.It's a rare occurrence for us to get so much snow in such a short period of time, and the cities definitely showed the unpreparedness of it all...but I really enjoyed just staying home and being completely shut-off from the rest of the world.When I opened the backdoor, this is the ominous view my cat was confronted with: The snow is practically all melted now (a big benefit to living around these parts), though there's still a few lingering cat tracks... Nothing beats watching a good film while the snow comes tumbling down. I received a copy of The Fall (at last, at last!) and I must say, it is by far the best film I've seen in the past year or more. And has made it head-first onto my "Artistic Inspiration Movie" list. I absolutely loved every minute of it... The shots, the colors, the *costumes*...sigh. It really is a beautiful, enchanting, heartbreaking, and dreamy movie. And almost no CGI effects--which is a feat all in itself.

My favorite character is Charles Darwin (of course!) and his costume is so, so perfectly insane and amazing. I mean--look at those boots! And that coat! Damn.

I hope you all have a fabulous New Year's! I'll see you loves in 2009...

Little Scenes Of Wonder

These brown paper packages tied up with string (with little wax seals added for extra pizazz and flair) were paintings mailed out last week. They looked so cozy, I had to snap a picture.

I've put a few "old-but-new-to-the-shop" paintings in my online store today. They've been hanging around my walls long enough!

"The Forest Floor In Grandma's Room" acrylic on canvas, 5x7" {sold}

"Light In The Deep" acrylic on hardboard, 8x10" {sold}
"New Years Resolution" ACEO, acrylic on illustration board, 2.5x3.5" {sold}

Now I can get to work on some new pieces I've been pondering in my sketchbooks. I had plans this week to get caught up on having new prints made...and then I ran out of blue ink while color correcting print files. Ain't that always the case? And that's the one ink color I, unfortunately, do not have a replacement on hand for. Luckily, I recently discovered Office Max is now carrying my particular printer's cartridges, which is awesome since before there was only one store a good 30 minutes away that would carry them (...and typically never had them in stock when I needed them). So Office Max, you are now my temporary best friend. You better have the blue though. That's all I'm sayin'.

I thought I'd also share some images of an artist who I discovered earlier in the year and really dig. Thomas Doyle creates these amazingly strange miniature dioramas that pack quite a visual and emotional punch:

His website has many pictures of his different projects that you should really check out. I get such a kick out of miniature scenes, and as a kid, was constantly sketching and planning different dioramas and room boxes that I thought would be pretty wild and out there. It's almost like Thomas Doyle crept into my brain and created them himself. So cool.
I'm hunkering down for more ice and snow on the way! Time to get some more coffee ready and double up the socks...

Take care of yourselves, loves.

A Pinch of Gothic-y Goodness

Hello, hello!

How's everyone doing? Are you all surviving December? I'm taking a little "lull" in art production to focus on what I love best about this time of year: spending lots of time with friends and family, cozying up under blankets with a good book and hot cup of coffee or cocoa, working on "nesting" projects (*cough* finish quilt *cough*), and doing lots of crafty-holiday-creating (baking, making paper decorative thingies, setting up the tree, etc).

This isn't to say I'm not painting...just slowing down a tad to enjoy the end of the year. I actually hope to have a few more original paintings listed in the online shop over the weekend (barring, of course, the natural light--which has been a little pathetic as of late for picture taking).

I have some sharing to do as well! This is a painting finally completed a few weeks prior:

"Bats Loom Among Us" acrylic on hardboard, 16x20"

{detail}

{more detail}

It's really big. I never paint this large and struggled with this one as a result. The sketch has been in my book for a year now, and I started planning the painting months ago...before I got overwhelmed with the size. It just couldn't be done any smaller. I'm happy with it, but will be more happy when I can find a good frame for it. I'll be frame hunting next month and have plans on putting it in the spring show I have set up.

Also, since it is December and all, I finally made my two "unusual" ornament purchases for the season. I collect odd and unusual ornaments, with a focus on handmade ones, and like to splurge on a couple every year for the collection.


First, I saw and fell hard for this typewriter one from Sundance.com:
It's so perfect. So utterly perfect. And I just got it in the mail today! A swell addition (I'll definitely vouch for the quality of glass ornaments through Sundance--the details on this are amazing).

And brace yourself for this bit of awesomeness:
!!! I lucked out in scoring this one from timberps.etsy.com (picture above from Timber). Words cannot describe how insanely cool I think this ornament is. And the heads even *move*! My tree this year has a bizarre story-like feel to it--lots of black and white ornaments of early 1900s men, sea critters, gnomes, typewriters, felt keys... I'll post pictures here real soon so you can all see what I mean.

Alright, kids. My poor unfinished quilt is calling my name, despite the desperate pleas from my sore fingers. And snow is a'coming...

Keep warm, cuddle your pets, and drink lots of tea!

Two Perfect Mates

Just popping in briefly to let everyone know all the paintings in the previous post are in the shop (or have sold) and also this one was just listed as well:

"Nesting Possibilities" acrylic on 1930s newspaper on glass, framed 4.5x5.75" {update: sold}

{detail}

And now I need to do some scanning and printing, which alas, is not nearly as fun as the painting bit but needs to get done. I hope everyone is having a pleasant week!

Diving Headfirst

Hello gang.

So terribly sorry for not getting the new work in the shop on the dates promised. I've had a pretty tumultuous week at my day job. I won't get into the complicated details, but lets just say that there have been some drastic managerial changes, not necessarily for the best, and as such a good chunk of the work responsibilities (like, three people's worth) have fallen squarely on my shoulders. Quite unwillingly, might I add. Combined with the added stress of being understaffed, and sadness from having two of my dearest and beloved friends moving east yesterday, I hit a bit of a wall on Sunday. And as such, gave my notice at work (my last day will be the 23rd) and shall be preparing for a much-anticipated move to Portland. I'm completely excited and scared at the same time, as I don't have a job or apartment lined up yet down there. Eek! But I feel like I need to be there and have felt that way for the past year, so I guess I'll make the dive.

Any Portlanders that have any advice on good locations/bad locations for apartments? I'm all ears.

Anyway, enough work talk! Indeed, I have been super busy on the art front and have pieces to show you that will be available for sale online over the course of the next couple of days. I'm so excited about them.

"Stella's Dive" acrylic on cradled hardboard, 6x12x1" {detail}
"My Best Friend Was Jacques Cousteau" acrylic on cradled hardboard, 4x4x3/4" {update: sold} "The Oceanic Matinee" acrylic on wood laminate sample, 3.5x4.75" {update: sold} {detail}

"Woodland Symphony" acrylic on wooden plaque {update: sold}
{detail}

And here's a little wall vignette with them hanging up for display:
Finally got an appropriate frame for this one ("The Forest Floor In Grandma's Room" acrylic on canvas, 5x7"):
Alrighty...I have noodles cooking on the stove that I must tend to.

P.S.: All sketchbook ornaments in the shop are now on holiday sale! Originally $12 each, they're now just $8. Sweet!