Vacations and Root Canals

I'll bet you've been wondering where I've been all this time haven't you?
If you haven't been, then lets just pretend that you have been...

I was blessed this year to be able to take three weeks off of work to spend some time in North Carolina with my family. My little niece, Coralie, is two and a half years old and I was able to spend over a week of that time with her. I just love that kid so much!

                                                  Storytime with Aunt "Bocky"

The mountains have always seemed like a second home to me and it was wonderful having the time to reflect on my life and to recharge my inspiration battery.

Upon my return I promptly began the process of having some much needed dental work done. This has quickly become worse than my worst nightmare. So far, in about 5 weeks or less,  I have had three root canals. Inbetween these root canals I have had a variety of painful toothaches that were started after my dentist began crown work. The latest root canal was finished about 8 hrs ago. Despite this physical and emotional ordeal, (I hate and fear dentists with a passion) I have been busy working on several projects. Some pieces are inspired by my recent trip and some are from my imagination. I've also been hard at work creating jewelry components for some upcoming art shows that I'll be attending.

 

'Misty Mountain'  8x10

Acrylics

Sketch of Coralie in my sketchbook for an upcoming painting

Sketch of two ocean sirens for an upcoming painting

                                        Some fall inspired jewelry components

I only have one more crown that needs to be done. Therefore there is only one more possible root canal that I might have to have. Once all of this is over I should have a lot more time and energy for posting on here. I'm also looking forward to working on some new videos for my youtube channel.

Hope that you have all been well! Have any of you ever had a nightmare dental experience?

Latest Painting and Hooray for Summer!

Summer is here and that means that I can FINALLY start to focus much more on my art! Every year for about six months our "season" is in full swing. This means that I am working full-time at my day job and am usually so exhausted that I rarely have enough energy to work full-time on my art. My creative energy is usually spent working on commissioned pieces for Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc..  During the summer months things slow down, shifts are cut and I begin to work on my art full-time instead of my day job. This season was particularly hard as I spent a lot  of my time working with a physical therapist on my neck after my accident this past December.
The first order of business? To finally finish my painting of Autumn in my Four Seasons series!

This was the color study that I did for her early on...

And here she is finished....

Autumn

acrylic on panel

6 x 6

        She's surrounded by mums, chinese lantern flowers and a colorful bounty of fall leaves.
              I love all of the colors and textures in this one!
                                   

I have the sketch done for Winter so I should be completing her pretty soon as well.

If you would like to see Summer from this series, click here.

If you would like to see Spring from this series, click here.

Art Prints of Autumn are available here.

Stay tuned to see Winter and have a wonderful week everyone!!

                                 

The Journey of a Photoshoot

I mentioned in a past blog post that I had been hired to do costumes for a photoshoot in L.A. Well that project is finally finished and I wanted to share that experience with you.

My director, Drew Bates of Unique Publications LLC, wanted something reminescent of the 1950s. (Not necessarily historically accurate but inspired by this time period) He mentioned Katy Perry as a possible celebrity to grab inspiration from. The words that were bandied about during our initial conversation were flirty, fun, slightly innocent but still sexy. Taking all of these things in mind I developed an idea of what I thought would work best in terms of style or silhouette, pattern, color, etc. Drew had chosen a kitchen location for the shoot that had quite a bit of color in it.

 He had also created some brightly colored 'products' that our model, Camille, would be holding.

Also Camille, our model, was going to be dying her hair a bright red for the shoot. Seeing how much color would be in the scene I chose to go with minimal color for my costume choices. I directed my focus more on getting the right silhouette and to find pieces in fun patterns .

I was so excited when I came across this apron!

 It was absolutely perfect for what I had in mind and I felt as if it had been created just for this shoot. Once the apron was purchased I let it inspire me for the dress that Camille would wear underneath. Seeing the fun stripes in the apron, I decided to contrast those with some polka dots. My finished choice was this.

To bring in some of the fun colors of the scene and especially the products that Camille would be modeling with, I found some fun vintage bracelets to use as accents and tied in the bright yellow from her bracelet with a bright yellow petticoat to add the full skirt that was so common in the 1950s.

The end result is this.

 Everyone did such an amazing job with this photo shoot and I am just so honored to have been a part of it!

Take a minute to check out Drew Bate's new and improved website.

As you know, I always try to support my fellow handmade artists whenever possible so several products for this shoot were bought from etsy shops.
To find your own fun retro apron, go here.
To find fun bold bracelets, go here.


Thanks for reading and I hope that everyone has a wonderful day!!

Jewelry for Easter

For Lent this year I have vowed to watch less TV and spend more time praying, purging my house of material goods (it's a crowded mess!) and creating. It only seemed natural to spend time creating Easter inspired jewelry too. I have, of course, created some more secular pieces such as my Easter Bunny illustrations, but I have also created some new cross necklaces.

I have to say that my favorites from my Easter line are the eggs. They were inspired by Fabrege eggs and are super fun!

While I definitely find myself regressing to older bad habits, I do find myself creating a lot more since Lent began so that's a very good thing.

Are you celebrating Lent? If so, what did you give up this year?

The Easter Bunny is On It's Way!

In preparation for Easter I have created a couple of whimsical Easter Bunny illustrations. For these illustrations I spent a lot of time reminescing about how I used to feel about Easter when I was a child and what my the Easter Bunny used to look like in my head. In the end, I came up with these.

I feel pretty happy with the end result and think that they were pretty successful because I get a small jolt of recognition when I look at these illustrations. Certainly nothing as big as when I was a child though. Oh if only we could have that ability to believe unfalteringly and to get so excited about things! When we're a child we can't wait till we grow up, but once we're an adult we wish that we could be a child again. Ah the ironies of life!

My Easter Bunny illustrations are available on a variety of merchandise including postage stamps, notecards, stickers and grocery totes at zazzle.com

Check it out and put a smile on someone else's face this Easter season!

A Crown for a Faerie Queen

It's always a disappointment when plans falls through.  I had made plans to attend this year's Renaissance Festival. Got a costume together, paid to have my dress taken in by a professional seamstress, created makeup, a headpiece, etc. In then end my plans were derailed.

Since I couldn't wear my costume to the fair, I decided to do a photo shoot with the costume on so that I could at least wear it a brief time.
Here are some photos from that shoot.

I also created a video showing how my headpiece was created.



One of my friends, who is a photographer,  saw my photos and has asked me to be a model for a fairytale inspired photoshoot. I guess that I'll get to wear my costume for a bit afterall!

Do you like to dress up for Halloween, Renaissance fairs or costume parties? If so, what was your favorite costume that you've ever worn?

Spreading the Love to other Artists

I have always believed that if I want others to buy my art, then I need to buy others' art. I recently made a few purchases, AKA investments. The first was a commissioned piece by German artist, Luisa Kelle.I am a fan of her artwork as it is quite reminescent of Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham. (two of my favorite illustrators) I asked her if she could do an art deco inspired Titania from Midsummer Night's Dream. This has always been one of my all-time favorite Shakespearean plays and I myself have done many pieces inspired by it. She was very excited with this concept and this was her end result.

Isn't it lovely? The traditionalist in me is a bit saddened by the lack of wings on Titania but it's still lovely nonetheless. You can't really see it in this picture but there are even gold accents throughout it. Just love it! To see more of her whimsical artwork check out her deviantart site

I also recently purchased a piece entitled "Primroses" by the Spanish artist, June Uriagereka. I love the style of her women and fell in love with the innocent and magical feel of this small piece. It's had painted on a small piece of polished wood and is just breathtaking!

For more of her fanciful work, check out her etsy store.
As for my personal work I have been quite busy creating some images to use for Easter related cards as well as some Easter jewelry. I'll be sharing all of that with you soon!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!!