Illustration Friday: Quiet

How I do love quiet, which happens to be the theme for this weeks Illustration Friday. This is Camille2, a piece I finished yesterday. This is the kind of image that makes me think of complete peace. The kind where your mind is so empty that you find yourself noticing the dust that is floating in a ray of sunlight, like little dancing granuels of pixie dust or something. I like those moments. I imagine that this photo was probably taken early on a Sunday morning, before the neighbors are up making noise. I can envision the steaming mug of coffee on the table in front of her, and imagine the smell of eggs and sausage in the air. TGIF!

Stephanie

This is a piece I just finished. Her name is Stephanie. She is on a super deep 2 5/8" canvas which is awesome, in case you were wondering! It gives the piece such great weight and presence. I am so excited by the finished image! My favorite part? On the upper right hand side is a piece asking How much longer will you have to beg? Ha!

SPC-With Someone-wk 4

I am sure that everyone and their mother has now played around with the new Photo Booth feature that comes with the new Macs. A friend of mine recently got a new iBook and we decided it would be fun to experiment. This is a photo of me with my friend Lanas neighbor Chas. I never knew my head could be quite this square!

This is my post for week four of the with someone Self Portrait Challenge theme. Can't wait to see what the new theme will be for October!

Designers Who Blog

Thank you to Designers Who Blog for featuring my blogs in the last couple of weeks!

Lovely Collection!!

Have you seen the Etsy homepage today??? There is an awesome collection of collages, and I think the page looks fantastic! So colorful and vibrant! There is a lot of movement and expression. And yes, that is Helen peeking out in the center of the bottom row . . . but I am not biased! ;) All of the artists are really great and I am proud to be listed with them!

Illustration Friday: Phobia

It is so funny that todays Illustration Friday theme is phobias! Yesterday I was working on this piece, Claire, and thinking about how close to the hedges this poor woman is standing. I kept thinking about how there were probably 100 spiders about to jump on her, cover her in their webs and drag her off to their dungeon! I HATE spiders, any bugs really. Insects are one of my main phobias! I have stopped gardening carefree ever since I started noticing 2 inch long meaty grasshoppers in my roses! It is sad. And then last night, on the 11 o'clock news, there was a whole segment about how the spider population is booming this year because it has been so friggin' hot out! Ah! So yeah, it is funny that today phobias is the theme. . . .

You could be a winner!!

Jessica over at Funky Finds is holding an awesome contest. If you leave a comment on her blog between now and her 500th post you will automatically be entered in a drawing to win really cool prizes!! I am excited to say that a couple of my products will be included, as well as goodies from Insurgent Muse, The Black Apple, MaryMo, M. Patrizio and The Paper Princess!! Sounds like a super cool way to discover new indie artists and designers!! (Thanks Jess!)


I posted about the first ever decor8 contest on Creative Swoon last week. Holly, in conjunction with Fabulous Stationery, is holding a workspace contest!!!!! They want to see where you do all the things you do! There are fantastic prizes and there is still time to enter! You have until Sept. 29th. Click over to for more details!

SPC-With Someone-wk 3

My week three with someone portrait for the Self Portrait Challenge is a quick shot of me with my cat Charlie. Although not the only cat in the house, Charlie is my pal. He loves laying in the sun, but as the heat has been so crazy here this summer, Charlie will lie with just his paws, or the tip of his tail in the warm spots of the sun. He is dark brown, so I am sure he gets too hot very quickly. On days when my brain is over loading, and I need a few minutes to gather my thoughts, I will go and lie down next to Charlie. If my hair isn't pulled back, he will roll around in it and tug on the strands. It's too cute!

I feel like I am now one step closer to being the crazy cat lady! Oh well, at least they are entertaining!

Happy Client!

Today I got a wonderful email from a client in the UK. She recently purchased 6 pieces while on vacation in LA, and sent me these wonderful photos of the work in their new home! As you can see, she has a wonderfully ecclectic space, and I am so excited to see how she has chosen to display her new art!


I have been a little hesitant to make this request, but I am so darn (censored for blogland) curious to see where my art ends up, that I am going to throw caution to the wind! I have been thinking about this for months, and now have a great idea!! I have mentioned in previous posts about the Art In Your Home group of Flickr. I would love to see were my work ends up hanging, leaning or resting. If you are up for it, and have purchased on of my pieces, please add a snapshot to the group! This is almost a morbid curiosity, because I may find that no one offers up a glimpse, but, I wont know if I never ask!

I figure that if people are already on Flickr, this will be easy! If not, then maybe you will be inspired to join and share. Either way, one day I might get a surprise when clicking through the groups pool, and that possibility is exciting enough!!

Notice the yummy Henry Road pillows on the bed?? They are lovely!

(All 3 photos courtesy of Debbie Smail)

You Beta Bet My Ass!

I dont know what it is about lovely little blinking buttons saying "New and Improved" that make me think it is a good idea to click!

Blogger recently released a beta version of their new features. I am not sure when this happened. I only noticed it a couple of weeks ago. Of course I was curious! And that curiosity almost cost me my sanity! I came within 2 or 3 clicks of eliminating this entire blog! And that would make me sad! Because you see, I heart my blog!! So somethings are missing, and somethings are new. Hopefully one day soon all of the kinks will be ironed out. If you notice anything fishy, like a missing link, please email me or leave a comment. I want to make sure that the only thing that is annoying on this blog is me!

BTW-If you are having a hard time commenting on this blog, it may because of this upgrade. I dont think non-beta accounts can comment on beta accounts. Blogger says that this is something they are trying to remedy. It is a total bummer because I cant comment on other non-beta blogs, and you know how I like to put in my two cents! Oh well, I will just have to be patient!

Illustration Friday: Change

This week, the Illustration Friday theme is Change. This is "Allie", my newest piece. She is this weeks submission because the style is a little bit of a change from the norm for me.

The background is awesome antique pages from an old scrapbook I purchased at a flea market. I love the linear shapes created by the yellowed edges of the paper. I have been collecting the metal rings mounted to the canvas for a while now. The smaller ones are all found from all over. Overall, I am very excited with the end result!!

Rose Bowl Pics

Sunday was a great day at the Rose Bowl Antique and Craft Fair in Pasadena, CA. My friend Hannah and I got ourselves a booth there and it was tons of fun!!! We want to thank everyone who came out!! It was a great day. We met lots of people and everyone had such kind words for us. I love getting to interact with people and explain my work to them. Hearing first time reactions is always fun. You can see more images from the event here.

We had so much fun, we will be doing the event again in October. More info to come. We will be in the same spot we were in Sunday!

SPC-With Someone-wk 2

My second with someone portrait for the Self Portrait Challenge is a pic with my husband, Tom. I like to poke fun of him on my blog, with his funny bath bomb mishaps and the whole pond on top of the car schpiel , but really he is a good guy! Obviously he keeps me laughing! And if it weren't for him, I wouldnever have had the opportunity to pursue being an artist. All in all, I would have to say that I am a very lucky girl!

This picture was taken on a quick trip we took last month for our 1 year anniversary. We spent a few hours on a whale and dolphin watching tour, which basically turned into a really nice boat ride! Not a whale or dolphin in sight! We did see sea lions which reminded me fondly of when we lived in North Beach in San Francisco and could hear the sea lions from the wharf all the way up the hill in our apt just below Coit Tower. Their voices carry!!



The trip was lovely for us because we got to be lazy, sleep in the park, and walk around Dana Point with no distractions or pressures, schedules, deadlines . . . I can go on and on! In the evenings we got to sit out on the hotel restaurant deck bundled up while being serves Irish Coffees. It was a great, relaxing adventure!

(This was the only dolphin we saw!)

Even those of us without kids seem to still make a mental note of the time of year when school starts. I enjoy going into an office supply store and seeing the racks of folders and pens, rulers, staplers, and colored pencils. A few days ago I saw one of those sketch pads with the few solid lines with dotted ones in between, the ones in which most of us learned how to write our letters. I remember that there was a huge open space above those lines to draw whatever it was you were spelling. I loved these books. I really wanted all of my letters to be perfect. Wanted that back side of the capital B to be straight as a rod, and the two bumps to hit that dotted line just so. . . . I know, I have issues!

The drawing part, above the text, was always so fun! That was a time before inhibition. A time when if someone asked you to draw a tiger, you would draw the purplest kangaroo-looking animal and shout "ALL DONE!"

The best class I ever took in college was in my sophomore year called "Visual Literacy." I think back to the crazy projects all the time. Most of the assignments asked to have a phrase, or image, graphically depicted in several ways. It was always so hard to get the huge sheets filled in, to not automatically go for the obvious solution and to take the time to really solve the problem! The purpose of the assignment is much appreciated today!

I still get serious jitters every time I unveil a new piece, not knowing how it will be received. But one thing that I have realized is that individual aesthetic is a huge part of how each person reacts to art and imagery. I do not have to worry about the absolute perfect "text book" depiction of an image, but that the image I see in my head is equally as valid and that the final result is my expression and interpretation. I need to make sure that I am still, today, as carefree and un-jaded in my expression, as I was in those handwriting books! It is not always easy!

Illustration Friday: Farm

Yay! This weeks Illustration Friday theme is Farm! This piece, Ride, is again, not a newbie, but one of the ones I have grown immensely attached to. In the background are farm income tax papers from 1918, old personal letters and awesome horse images. It is 30"x 40"x 1 1/2".

Rose Bowl this weekend!!!

My friend Hannah, who I wrote about on Tuesday, and I are going to be participating in the Rose Bowl Flea Market this Sunday, in Pasadena, CA. Hannah is an amazing jewelry designer and we will be sharing a space in the Arts and Crafts section, which is located at the back of the stadium, as circled on the map above!

There are generally 2500 vendors, and 20,000 shoppers at this event each month. It is an awesome way to spend the day! If you come out, be sure to say hi!

Skirt! Magazine

Thank you so much to Skirt! Magazine for including my bookplates in their 7 Ways to Find Your Way article!

SPC-With Someone-wk 1

This months theme for the Self Portrait Challenge is with someone. After all that my friend Hannah did to help me prepare for my first photo shoot yesterday, I would be insane if I didn't take my first opportunity to say "Thank you Hannah! I could never have done it without you! I probably would have been a disaster without your steady hands and calm, soothing approach to reigning in my craziness! You take no crap, and no prisoners, and for that, I admire you! You are a strong beautiful woman with spunk and pizzazz! Your talents know no end! You are my soul sister! The good girl to my evil twin. I love ya like I love glue!" This girl rocks!!! Get it?

New Interview-Artist, Emerging

Deanna Wood was kind enough to want to interview me on her blog Artist, Emerging. You can see the post here.

Illustration Friday: Safe

I am posting one of my favorite pieces for this weeks Illustration Friday theme Safe. This is Edna. She is not a new piece. In fact she was one of the first 10 pieces I did when this all began in 2004. She hangs in my house and I am not sure I could ever sell the original piece. There may be an Edna2, or 3 someday, but Edna is mine. She has always seemed a bit sad to me. Her eyes say heartbreak, lonliness and despair. I feel like in her large black oval she has found a sort of sanctuary. Peace. Saftey. If we tried to coax her out, I am sure she would fight us. She is home.


Here is pic of where she lives in my home.