The Potbelly Pixie

NEW POTBELLY MICE

Just posted to Etsy and available now, three new pincushion mice. I had an especially fun time making the Frida Kahlo one.

I hope you'll pop by my Etsy shop for a peek. 

PS:  There are more pictures available on my website.

Moleskine madness

Today I finished three new Moley entries, each of them 3.5 - 4 pages wide, for a couple of Moley round-robins at IllustratedATCs.com.  We're using the Japanese accordion-fold style Moleskines.

I worked in marker, with a touch of white gel pen.  The blossoms on the Asian-themed page are paper punches!

Artist themes were:  Hands, Artist choice/book of colors, and Scapes.

THE DECK PROJECT

I'm hosting a very cool non-swap swap at IllustratedATCs called THE DECK PROJECT. 

Member participants begin with a deck of ordinary playing cards and alter one card per week for 52 weeks (one year,) creating a "deck" of original works of art.  Although most mail art projects result in swapped art, for this project, artists keep their decks.

The project runs October 2009 - October 2010.

I created a list of weekly themes for participants to follow if they wanted, but because this project is so personal, artists are free to create their own themes, too.  One member is creating an oracle deck.  I'm making a Loteria deck, myself.

Here are my first three Loteria cards.  And away I go!

Dark Hansel & Gretel

For a Moley swap at IllustratedATCs.com.  The theme was "Fairy Tales in the Dark."

New POTBELLY stuff available now!

Just posted to my website:  Two -- count 'em, TWO! -- new teddy bears, plus an adorable wee mouse pinkeep, and a mixed media canvas.  All of it, themed around fall, with a nod to Halloween.

I hope you'll pop by my website for a look.  And if you do -- thank you so much for your interest. :)

Mondo Bizarro

For a Moley swap I'm in at IllustratedATCs.com.

Marie art

Long time, no blog.  Enough of that nonsense!  Time for an update!

For a Marie Antoinette journal swap I'm in at Marie Antoinette Mail Art, two spreads for two participants-->

And coming soon... TONS of new POTBELLY bears and stuff, including two bears and a darling pincushion -- my new love affair! -- among other things.  If you'd like to be notified when new goodies emerge from my studio, please join my Mailing List in the box, upper right.

Thanks, and hello again!!

Tattoo Moley

For a Moley swap at IllustratedATCs.com that will run September 2009 - April 2010.  My theme is Tattoos:  Figures & Flash.  I decorated the opening pages; the first spread of the book; and the back cover.

Marker, ink, colored pencil, gel pen.

Be sure to click for a larger view!

Holy Moley!

My new mail art obsession is Moleskine journals, known fondly as "Moleys."  The correct pronunciation -- I looked it up cuz it was driving me crazy -- is, "mole-uh-SKEEN-uh," because it's Italian (I guess.)  I think most Americans probably Anglicize it to "Mole-skin," though.

Anyhoos...  I'm hosting one Moley swap at IllustratedATCs.com, and playing in two others.  We're using the small Japanese accordion-fold Moleskine; it measures 3.5 x 5.5 and has two pages up front and a pocket at the back, plus one incredible huge, fold-out accordion-style page which is perfect for an endless stream of awesome art to be laid down. 

The Moley swap I'm hosting began August 1, with eight participants.  Our Moleys will circle the globe, traveling from person to person in round-robin style, until March 2010.  I chose the theme, "Burlesque" for my first-ever Moley swap, and painted a watercolor of gorgeous, fleshy Beth Ditto as the portrait centerpiece of my Moley's beginnings. The corset-and-tassels Betty covers the first two, separated pages, and my contact info (and close up -- yes, that's me!) are on the back pocket.  I can't wait to see what my artist friends do with my theme, in my book.

 

Tonight, I finished my first-ever spread in someone else's Moley. This one's for Katilady, worked in her book; Kati's theme is, "DARK GODDESSES." I am so stoked about how this turned out! The section on the far left (with Kali) is Kati's start in her journal, and my image flows from there. I chose to depict Yuki-Onna as my dark goddess. Her write-up reads:

A Japanese goddess of death, the Yuki-Onna appears during snowstorms. She is known to lure unsuspecting wanderers toward her with an infant; when the child is taken from her, the victim instantly freezes to death. Other times she kills by breathing frigid air onto her victims, or by leading them astray to die of exposure. Betrayed by her husband and left scorned with an empty heart, she brings freezing death to those made cold by bitterness.

I'm participating in two more Moley swaps which begin September 1 and October 1.  My themes are "Tattoos" and "Vibrant Asia" (that one's a color-based swap with an Asian sub-theme.  These are a BLAST!!  

Geisha Bow

Prisma marker, teensy bit of acrylic.  For HmmNbrd if she wants it. :)

I based this on a beautiful reference photo which I really want to (and should) credit, but I have stupidly misplaced my notes and can't find the image again on the web.  Ack!

Pussy Willow

A reference to spring, for inkleaves.  Watercolor, teensy bit of gel pen.

For Kati

"Poppy Trio."  Watercolor, ink, gel pen.

Japanese-y

Three cards for the "13 Minute" swap at Illustrated ATCs.  Ink, watercolor, gel pen.

Watercolor WOW!

Japanese Gothic Lolita artist TAMA has a gorgeous way of using sheer, watercolor paints in glorious, bright colors to depict the sweetest, most odd and gruesome of scenes in the prettiest of ways.  I'm a huge fan of this diffuse softness amidst so much bright color and weirdness.  Every piece seems to glow!  Visit TAMA's website and see for yourself; a wondrous gallery of work can be found here; just click ILLUSTRATION , then click through the little square boxes on the left.

Saffron

RAK (Random Act of Kindness) for a friend's mom, who's injured and could use some cheering up.

Marker, pencil, gel pen.

Gothic arch/vocabularly card chunky pages

For a swap at IllustratedATCs.com.

I find that the more my hand-drawing/painting skills improve, the harder it is for me to "think collage."  I expect it's likely some sort of decluttering that goes on, mentally, when you imagineer a drawing or painting, versus the additive nature of collage, which is (for me anyway) more organic and less planned.

Wonder if other people experience this... ?

Summer PAT

The boys are with their dad for a few weeks (freeing, but also, mournful), which gave me time to create four new cards for the Summer Pick-A-Theme swap at IllustratedATCs.com.  These are ATC-sized repros of pieces by Macke, Shapiro, Botero, and Modigliani, all worked in Prismacolor marker & colored pencil. 

I've been missing my drawing table, so it was good to sink so many hours into playing there today.

Marie Antoinette book swap

I'm part of an altered book swap at the site Marie Antoinette Mail Art, and these are the first pages I've done for it, in Round 1, for Becky S.  The top photo is my 2-page spread, and the bottom is what I did for the sign-in page.  I went with a slightly clean, contemporary feel and used a picture of Versailles I took myself, last summer.

There's just nothing like the satisfying feel of a big ol', fat, altered book in your hand, dripping with chunk and embellishment.  Ephemera lust!

More to come soon...

Bear making books on eBay NOW!!

Keeping busy here with mail art and lots of mom & home concerns; school's wrapping up for my sons, and there are academic scheduling needs, extra curricular needs, summer needs, and driver's ed needs for my oldest -- yikes! -- pulling at me of late.  I'll be back with more bears, and some new art to post, soon, though.  Playing catch up for now...

I'm also busy cleaning house (ack!) now that we're well into Spring.  And part of that housecleaning is thinning out my bookshelves, including my bearcraft library.

I'm a totally self-taught bear maker, and just about everything I've learned about this furry craft was delivered to me via the written (and photographic) word, in books.  After six years at it, though, I've pretty much learned the lessons these books have to offer.  So I thought that, rather than letting these volumes collect dust, I'd offer them at a huge 50%-off-PLUS discount to other would-be bear makers out there -- and that I'd give my mailing list first notice and first shot at nabbing these great volumes at such a great price.  Many of my collectors and mailing list members also make bears, I know... or have expressed a desire to learn how to make bears someday. 

Most volumes are priced starting around (and some under) $5.  Bargain city!

If you're looking to learn about bear making or to improve the bear making (and costuming) skills you already have, I hope you'll pop by eBay -- I'm potbellybears there -- for some truly great volumes at even greater prices.

Thanks. :)

New bears!

I posted new bears BUTTERSCOTCH and CHOCOLAT on Sunday and I'm just thrilled with the really warm reception they've received.  Thanks for your interest!  CHOCOLAT has already sold from my website -- thank you, K!

BUTTERSCOTCH is doing well at auction and nearing his reserve.  He'll be on eBay until Sunday, May 10.  His auction ends at 7pm PST.  I hope you'll give this caramel-colored cutie a peek!!  He's kinda irresistible, if I do say so myself.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Hello again!  Long time, no post, I know. An idle blog, though, does NOT mean idle hands -- or an idle keyboard, graphic tablet, or studio.  Nono!  Au contraire!  I've been busy, busy, busy, creatively speaking.  Finally, it's time to go live with it all.

First... You've probably already noticed that I've completed another blog (and website) redo.  I just LOVE digital design -- the colorplay, the compositional challenges, the image manipulation, the creation of graphics.  And since I'm not a professional graphic designer (yet; maybe someday?), redesigning my blog and my website is a relevant and accessible way to practice, experiment, and dive into that oh-so-pixellated joy!  I hope you'll enjoy the new designs as much as I enjoyed creating them.

Part of what drives me to rework my online branding is that I'm trying to find my design "voice" just like, long ago now, I found my teddy bear one.  It's something that, I know from experience, simply takes practice and time.  It's a process; a discovery.  In terms of my graphic design experiments, I've tried romantic, blurry styles and stark, clean styles; neutral color schemes and brights.  I've tried soft-edged treatments and blocky layouts, both.  And I think I'm finally narrowing in on what I like, and do, best.  There's a little whimsy in there.  A little scroll-y romance -- but not too much.  A definite contemporary vibe.  And color, color, color!  I admit, I'm loving the unfolding of it all.

Second... Announcing something entirely new from the POTBELLY ARTS studio.  PAPER DOLLS!  Read here to learn how I stumbled into this magical, paper-y world... or visit my Etsy shop to view my available sets.  My first paper doll offering, SUKI, was inspired by the fashion-crazed youth culture of Tokyo's Harajuku district; a theme that's been inspiring me for a while now.  Fun!

Third... Announcing three new bears, almost ready to debut!  Wheeeee!  I'm completely done with one of them (he looks like a brownie and just needs photographing;) almost done with a second (in golden brown, and a cutie, with a few seams left to close;) and ready to begin work on a third, which will be an entirely different kind of POTBELLY BEAR.  Here's a preview of the finished brownie bear; I'll notify my mailing list when he becomes available for sale.

I tried something new for the last bear I mentioned.  Knowing the exact silhouette and proportions I was after -- small, squooshy, schlumpy, with a biggish head and short, slim, simplified limbs -- I decided that, rather than hand-draw a pattern like I usually do, I'd SCULPT the entire bear in the way I wanted the finished teddy to look.  When it was dry, I used pattern draping techniques to create a pattern in-the-round, right on the dried clay sculpture.  Although I know a few other bearmakers have used this method successfully, it was my first time trying it.  We'll see how it goes!  The bear I hope will result will be the kind of teddy you prop against a pillow, because he's just that floppy and sweet and old and tired lookin'.  Cuteness!

Fourth...  I've been busy creating mail art, too!  I've just received the first of nine round-robin Marie Antoinette journals from a peer at Marie Antoinette Mail Art, and will be completing a two-page spread and then shipping it on to the next person, over the course of the next week.  And I recently finished three cards for an "Erotic" swap at IllustratedATCs.com.  You can view all three on flickr, but here's a zexy taste:

Fifth... speaking of IllustratedATCs.com... some news.  The site has changed!  It's still a juried trading venue for illustrators and fine art hobbyists, but there's now a second, mixed-media dimension to it.  One of iATCs sister sites, Mail Art World, is closing its doors, so iATCs is "absorbing" MAW.  If you're a mixed media artist of talent and you'd like to swap art on a juried site -- trust me, your returns will be excellent! -- please consider submitting your work (via link to your flickr, Deviant Art, etc.) for review by the art panel.  We're looking for new members for the mixed media division.  Come join us, and trade!

Sixth... I'm so excited to share that I not only wrote an article in the current issue of free, downloadable webzine ARTTrader, but am also the featured artist.  My article covers the practical aspects of prepping and shipping mail art -- fairly well, if I do say so myself! -- and the artist profile is just plain fun, and features some of my art cards and other mail art work.  I hope you'll give it a peek or download it for reading at your leisure, or even printing at home.  The PDF is a high-resolution, printable document.  And this issue, in particular, has some really useful information and gorgeous, gorgeous art.  Give it a look!

Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves

I'm hosting a swap with this theme at IllustratedATCs.  Here are my three cards.

Marker, colored pencil, gel pen, rubber stamp, patterned paper, ink.

Catching up

Three cards for friends who sent me great art in 1:1 trades.

1890's Goose Girl

K.M.D.A.F.M. Shoes (if you're dying to know what this NC17 acronym means, write me!)

Pink Fringe

Favorite Artist PAT

The first three of four cards for a Favorite Artist Pick-A-Theme swap I'm in at IllustratedATCs.com.  Both were created "in the style of..."

After Oleg Zhivetin:

After Kinuko Craft:

After Graeme Base

The Greatest Show on Earth

Six chunky book pages for a CIRCUS themed swap I'm in.  So, so fun.  I hand-drew the characters on Bristol, then collaged them to acrylic painted backgrounds.

LONG TIME, NO POST

We're finishing up wrestling season for Noah here at home -- he finished 4th in sections and goes to the Tournament of Champions soon, which covers all of Northern California.  He's done amazingly well, especially for a first-year wrestler; we're so incredibly proud!

Ski season ended with Toby seriously injuring his wrist one race shy of finishing the season (he has "skier's thumb," a ligament tear in the webbing space between thumb and forefinger.)  It was a disappointment to him, as he was a potential qualifier for the state finals if he finished well in his last races. He has two years left in high school, though; I think his time will come.

What a wonderful whirlwind of a time in life it's been, despite the frenetic pace, with the boys so active and successful and happy -- and Tim's birthday just past.  I've really enjoyed being immersed in it.  Although the constant 4 a.m. wake-ups, I could live without... !

It's nice to have a few moments to refocus on art and online life now that other pressures and commitments lighten up, though, I admit.  I go a little bonkers when I stay away from the studio for too long.

Last week I completed my pages for a chunky Pick-A-Theme book swap at IllustratedATCs.  Great fun!  My chosen theme was "Dark, Seductive Masquerade" and I'll be receiving ten chunky pages in that theme to create my personal book from this swap.  The other themes were as follows:

CAKES & TEACUPS

EXOTIC FRUIT

GARDEN GNOMES

HALLOWEEN

GODDESSES

GODDESSES (again)

QUEEN OF HEARTS ("different")

SERAPHIM

HALLOWEEN TRICK-OR-TREAT

WINGED CATS

For Lemurkat

Cuckoo Fantasy and Teddiursa Explosion.  Marker, pencil, gel pen.

Crowned

An ATC for EraserQueen; by request, after Kelly Vivanco, whose art I also adore.

Marker, pencil.

Happy (late) Valentine's Day

I spent early Valentine's Day on the road to San Francisco, where, once arrived, my husband Tim and I visited the SF Museum of Modern Art.  There was a particularly interesting exhibit there -- the 1000 Journals Project was visiting the museum -- and I even got a chance to add my own personal note to one of the journals (#872, to be exact) which is like being a part of art history.  Very cool and meaningful!

Later, we picked up my sons Toby and Noah from their dad (who has them this week) and we continued south to my parents' house, to meet up with my mom, who celebrated her 74th Valentine Birthday yesterday.  The six of us enjoyed a leisurely meal at mom's restaurant of choice -- Chili's -- complete with too many appetizers, too much food, and too rich desserts.  Lovely!  I think mom had a great time.

For the Valentine holiday, Tim gave me a card; a GIANT box of Godiva chocolate (yum!); and a lovely art book I wanted.  I gave Tim scads of yummy candy -- including some in a heart-shaped box, from See's -- and an altered children's board book I made into a multi-page Valentine, that I'd been working on, off and on, for a month or so.  I was touched at how much he loved it; it brought him to tears.  That guy's a keeper.

I hope YOUR Valentine's Day this year was full of love and wonder, too!!

Three Women

Skinny pages (3x7) for a skinny page swap at IllustratedATCs.com.

Patterned paper collage, acrylics, charcoal, ribbon.

Online Whimsy Art Video Workshop

A handful of my friends at IllustratedATCs have developed an awesome online workshop that begins April 1.  So if you're interested in developing your whimsy art skills, be sure to check it out!

Stop motion miracles

I recently saw two wonderful stop motion films:  CORALINE and MADAME TUTLI PUTLI.  They both feature amazingly expressive and original maquettes, incredibly creative set design, and wonderful animation. 

I wrote brief reviews of these films for one of my art card swap sites that maintains a movie rating thread, and said:

Coraline
I'm a sucker for stop motion animation, especially when cute/eerie visuals abound, as in this odd flick. Glorious maquettes at first underwhelmed me with their simplicity but ultimately won me over with their overall fit into a very complicated, almost overstimulating set design. The garden scenes are a delight and somehow the voices in this one (Dakota Fanning as Coraline and Teri Hatcher as her mother and other mother) really hit the mark. The 3D is AMAZING; well worth the price of admission (even on a Friday, for $10.50/person, like we saw it!) I loved the very end credit scene, too. Incredible!!! The music is so incredibly weird and awesome. I want the soundtrack! Can't wait for the release of the DVD; I LOVE the "making of" mini-features they always include for stop motion films.  See this!

BONUS:  The Coraline website takes a while to load but is amazing and interactive once it does, so be sure to wait long enough to see it.  To view a truly amazing mini video on the creator of Coraline's teensy star sweater, visit this page and then click the TOP dresser drawer to play.

Madame Tutli Putli
An Oscar-nominated stop motion 17 minute short I ordered from the National Film Board of Canada. Weird and cool. An odd story. Too short. Confusing ending, but left me thinking. The maquette of MTP was really original, kinda rough-hewn, had AMAZING eyes (looked post-production to me) -- very cool! Worth seeing simply for its originality in design. The train effects (movement, flickering light on windows) are top notch and the mood/tone very effective and clever. I hope to see more from these film makers!

Flurry

Another diptych.  Marker, gel pen.

Moonlit

A new ATC diptych, for my friend Chronata at iATCs.

Prismacolor marker, colorless blender (for cool mottled watercolor effects,) white gel pen.

Fantastical Dragons Coloring Book

A supremely cool gal and one of my very talented mail art friends, Tabitha Ladin, has just published a wonderful dragon coloring book that's now available on Amazon.  For all the dragon aficianados in your life -- maybe even YOU?? -- it's a perfect purchase, at a really great price (under $10.). 

TabLynn (her mail art world name) has an amazing talent for depicting dragons with just the right blend of reptilian realism and fantastical might.  Her line art is detailed and meticulous, making for a sophisticated outcome no matter what your coloring skills.  And each drawing is published with a blank backside, creating the perfect coloring experience; one that even allows you to remove pages for framing or sharing with others.

Please visit Amazon and check out what talent and drive can create... and maybe even to bring home this bit of dragon-y goodness for yourself, or someone you know. 

The book is also available at CreateSpace and at LuLu, where you can buy the softcover version OR download it immediately as a .pdf for just $5.  Whee!!

Tag -- I'm it!

I've been tagged almost simultaneously by two same-named friends:  Tami of Dolls N Dreams, and Tammy of Beckoning Bears. My assignment is to share six random things about myself with you peeps, my blog readers.  So here goes -->

1. I love Disneyland.  Seriously.  I could, like, live there.  It's magical, and the happiest place on earth, and there's so much to see and be inspired by, and I love the sounds of children laughing, and their blissed-out, awe-struck grins.  It's imagination overload with joy on top! 


2. I can bend the very tips of all eight fingers downward while keeping my fingers otherwise stiff and straight.  It looks icky.


3. I love all things snuggly and cuddly, and would choose fleece blankies, a crackling fire, turtlenecks, and warm soy mochas over summer days, shorts and tank tops, and iced drinks any day -- hands down.


4. I am a cat charmer.  Cats love me.  I'm being completely serious.  Sometimes, three sleep on me at once, even when there are four other human bodies near and available to rest upon, and they could spread out instead.  They always choose me to lay upon, even if they have to sleep on top of each other.  It's funny -- and odd.


5. I have a tattoo.  It is not small.


6. I think cooked broccoli smells like poo.  I want to like it because I know it's good for me.  But I can't manage to eat it, because of the poo-ness and all.  Bleech.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now, *tag* -- YOU'RE it!

• Joy:  Princess Gene's Creative World
• Dina:  The Faerie Factorie
• Ang:  Where Life and Art Meet
• Anne:  Anz Art
• Mary:  Artsy Musings
• Lisa:  Altered Journey

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THE RULES

1. LINK TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU

2. POST THE RULES ON YOUR BLOG

3. WRITE SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF

4. TAG SIX PEOPLE AT THE END OF YOUR POST AND LINK TO THEM

5. LET EACH PERSON KNOW THEY ARE TAGGED AND LEAVE A COMMENT ON THEIR BLOG

6.LET THE TAGGER KNOW WHEN YOUR ENTRY IS UP

7. DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN

About SnapShots

I just updated a nice little tool on my blog called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.  Just roll your cursor over any link on my blog, and a SnapShots preview will appear.  To avoid triggering SnapShots previews, scroll in the gutter (at the far sides of my blog, outside the area where text appears.)

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you just the information you most want and need, without your having to leave the site.  Other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.  This is really handy when you're deciding which of the many art sites and blogs I've got in my sidebar to visit; the choices are plentiful and dizzying!

Should you decide SnapShots isn't for you, just click the Options icon (the little sunshine-y looking thingie) in the upper right corner of any Snap Shot and opt out.  You can disable SnapShots for just this blog, or for all sites -- you get to choose!

Happy previewing!

Coming soon...

There's a new POTBELLY BEAR nearing release; this one, with a romantic Valentine's Day theme.  Here's a Photoshopped sneak peek at an earlier stage, to whet your appetite.

If you'd like to be notified when bears become available from my studio, please join my mailing list.

Sports logo queen

This year I'm being a good "team mom" to my sons in part, via the donation of my design services.  I admit, I've been really honored to be entrusted with the job!  Toby and Noah think it's pretty cool, too, which is really special. :)

A while back, I posted the wrestling logo I did for Noah's jr. high team.  Tonight, I mocked up some designs for older son Toby's high school ski/snowboard team. 

Toby and I couldn't decide whether we liked the backside logo better with icicles, or without, so I gave the team both options to choose from.  Click the picture, for a bigger view.

What do you think??

No apologies

I am afflicted with the most wonderful ailment: creative discontent.  It gets under my skin.  It makes my shoulders tense and my legs fidgety.  It itches me, but good.  And it demands to be scratched.

It also drives me to create; to make things -- my life -- newer, bigger, brighter, and better than before. 

It's interesting.  My ex-husband used to label my creative discontent a form of "negativity;" an unwillingness on my part to accept things as they are and, ya know, get on with life, already.  When I wanted to rearrange the furniture in our home, for instance, I was overflowing with joy and hope over the gorgeous, novel, heretofore unexplored possibility of it all.  Where might the sofa sit next?  Just how wonderful will our house look, bathed in sunlight from a newly uncovered source?  Pure bliss, that.  The unknown of it all.  To me, that IS the stuff of life; the unknown.  That process.  That evolution, from pre-birth to birth to end stage to rebirth all over again.  What is the point of living in a world of possibilities, when we limit ourselves to exploring just a few?  How unimaginative.  How stagnant.  How... dead.

When I wanted to shift the coffee table to the left or the hutch to the right, my ex would fill with dread.  It's a lot of work to move furniture, you know -- and if it ain't broke functionally, well... why fix it?  Or so his thinking went.  I spent 16 years with this well-meaning, if blindered, man.  Is it any wonder I didn't embrace and discover my creative self until after we split?

Fortunately -- and I'm certain, not coincidentally -- my current husband, my children, and all my artist friends (no matter what their discipline or temperament) have reached a completely opposite conclusion.  Creative discontent, to them, is that burning fire-in-the-belly that leads in a straight line to outcomes of beauty, wonder, and awe.  It's that inner push every artist feels, to birth what's lovely; or, at least to TRY.

Yesterday, I redesigned this blog and my online branding; I think, for the better.  Today, I'm working through an extensive, gorgeous, graphics-intensive redesign of my website.  Before today, I felt a growing creative discontent about it all, you see.  And now, mid-process, I feel bright and sunny and elated and full of wonder, not knowing exactly where it will all land, immersed completely and happily in my do-over bliss.

I make no apologies.  I am afflicted.  I accept my disease. 

I create.

We want you!

If you'd like to swap art with like-minded creative folk, but don't know where to start, give these three sister sites a try.  I promise, you'll have the time of your life, and collect some really fun art in the process.  What could be better?  (Okay... Maybe a mint chip brownie sundae.  But you can't hang that on your wall or flip thru an album full of it!)

ATCs for All
Non-juried | Open to everyone
Come play!

Illustrated ATCs
Juried | Submit your art for review by the art panel
Focused on hand-drawn, illustrative "flat" artist trading cards (ATCs)

Mail Art World
Juried | Submit your art for review by the art panel
Focused on mixed media mail art, including journals, chunky books, altered items

These three sister sites and their members join forces each quarter to create and publish an online webzine -- also coming soon in softcover as an annual publication!  Be sure to check out the colorful eye candy we call ARTtrader Magazine.  It's full of tutorials and artist profiles; ideas and inspiration.

One more

For the host. 

ROBOFLY
Elements:  robot | clock | insect | false eyelashes

New ones

For a really novel swap at Illustrated ATCs, three new cards.  The swap was called, "A little from Column A, a little from Column B."  Each person who signed up for the swap got to choose two elements; one for column A, one for column B.  I happened to choose (1) voodoo dolls and (2) lilies.

The point of the swap was to creatively combine at least one element from Column A with at least one element from Column B.  So fun!

Here are my contributions to the party.

BIG LOVE
Elements:  fat girl | in love | tiara

UNWELL
Elements:  bacteria | balloons

TEETER
Elements:  pink stilettos | striped socks | lilies

France, Italy, Germany

I'm feeling the need to update my blog and post something here, but I've hit a creating dry spell this last week.  So in lieu of my usual handmade goodies, or "lookit!" posts about pretty stuff made by others, here's a montage of my sons in Europe last summer. 

We had the BEST time there, and covered a huge amount of ground in a short two week period.  I'll treasure the memories forever, which I figure is just about how long it will take me to pay down the credit debt I incurred, financing the trip.  The dollar was at rock-bottom when we travelled;  Murphy's Law.  Blarg.

Clockwise from upper left:

• St. Sulpice cathedral, Paris, France
• Colosseum, Rome, Italy
• Murano, Italy
• Neuschwanstein, Germany
• Venice, Italy
• Bridge of Sighs, Venice, Italy

In Moonlight

My first try at a complex digital collage/painting.

Stark

I'm slowly, surely seeping back into the creative life after a few wonderful, focused, and chaotic days with my family this holiday season.  It always feels so good and grounding to get back to it.

The first project to clear my desk post-Christmas (because it has a deadline attached) is a logo design try for my son's jr. high wrestling team.  I have no idea whether this will fly with the coaches and team members, but I rather like it, myself.  I was going for a very solid, stark, boxed look with a nod to linocut prints, whose carved edges I quite like.  They'll be ordering black sweatshirts, so this design can be economically screen printed using just one color if they go that route.  That's a tangible plus for their starving team budget.  We'll see what they decide...

More

Creating renews me.  It's been wonderful to spend the last days immersed in craft.

For Judithian; a hostess gift. 

"Ride the Sky"
Acrylics, ink

Two more

"Bugs"
Acrylics with high gloss varnish atop

"Pink Marie"
Mixed media collage and hand drawn art, 4x4

New art. Finally!

Man, I have been so behind, with sick kid and school events and all-day-Saturday sports starting up in winter!  Finally, some new art.  I swear, I start going a little bonkers when I'm away from creating for too long.  It feels so good to get something MADE.

For the Fall Pick-A-Theme swap at IllustratedATCs, an ATC with the theme, "Still life with reflection."  Seriously, this thing about killed me.  It is SOOOOO hard to draw reflected objects, and I only did a mediocre job of it despite absolutely wracking my brain and hands to do my best (several times, actually.)  I hope this works.

"Matchbook"
Colored pencil on colored paper

And for one of my Secret Santa partners, a 4x4 chunky page for her bird book in progress.

"Masked Lovebird"
Acrylics

Turn it up!

What's not to love about these darling kids?  Their sweet rendition of "White Christmas" would melt the Scrooge-iest heart.  And just look at the beaming face of their instructor.  Could a teacher BE any more delighted with his students?  It's all about the joy here, people.

Happy Holidays, everybody!  God bless, us, every one.