Treasury: Beautifully Abstract

It has been so long!

Life has really caught up to me. A year has already passed where I have struggled to be the best high school art teacher I could possibly be. I hope to do better this next year coming up.

I have also struggled to create. But the dark cloud of insecurity is slowing drifting away.

I am going to put more paintings up on Etsy for sale. Please feel free to look! :)

I also hope to add more nail polish rings to the listings, since I have found more materials to use. Keep an eye out for those!

Bernheim's CONNECT 2012 highlights

 Not even one minute before I finished setting up, a line formed with lots of kids wanting their faces painted.

I set out two tip jars with "__ vs. __" on them, as suggested by a website on how to encourage more tips. For adults, I put "Romney vs. Obama" on one side. A little girl threw a dollar into the 'Romney' jar, and her dad immediately says, "No honey, put it in the Obama jar. My daughter ain't a Republican."

After mentioning that story to another customer, she said, "When my brother finally came out, my mom exhaled and yelled, 'Thank god, I thought you were going to say you were a Republican!'"

This cute, curly-redheaded-n-freckled boy, probably around 11 or so, sat down and began to ask me about sci-fi movies he had seen. He asked if I had seen Terminator, and asked me questions about it. Then he told me, "Did you know that Neil Armstrong died today? That makes me really sad." His mom mentioned something about winking at the moon to remember Armstrong, and the boy replied he'd do that as soon as I finished his cheek.

Funny teenagers and their funny words.

Lotus flower

The last customers were so nice: a happy little family with a little girl and older boy. They were a cool bunch. The parents talked about their fun adventures, doing a Zombie Walk in the future where their little girl will be a three-eyed princess, and the older boy asking if I could just do a mustache and a soul patch. LOL! They were even kind enough to walk me to my car and help carry my stuff to it, since it was so dark.

Hearing the music from afar was neat, too. I wish I could've seen the other exhibits going on, but maybe next year I'll just be a spectator instead. I also made some decent tips. :)

Night time!

Hooray, I sold a painting!

I picked up some of my pieces I had shown at Earthsoul Gallery this summer, and found out this little guy sold!

How exciting! It wasn't $1,000 or anything, but any money is good these days. For me, and everyone I know around me, art seems to have taken a dip... the purchasing of fine art, at least. There's so much competition going on, it's hard to get really good sales all the time unless you do purely decorative art. (Nothing wrong with that, it's just not my style for being a future serious artist.)

I hope to sell off more works next weekend during the Miscategorized show, where 50% of my profits will go to the Lupus foundation; I'm always down for giving artistic donations to charities.

Tomorrow night I'll be doing face painting at the Bernheim CONNECT event; so excited!! Kids love it. Hopefully the tips will be generous as well. If you're near the Louisville, KY area, please come! Just $5 to get in; all the events within are free, including WHISKEY TASTING at Jim Beam nearby. "Alcohol, you say?" Sign me up!

Artist of the Day

Katie MacDowell, ceramic artist.

Her work is just so beautifully crafted. The medium used -- porcelain -- definitely adds to the content of the work: beauty, fragility, and phantasmality. My favorite pieces have to be where light is involved, hidden inside the works to give it a certain glow, which adds to the ghostly imagery of our collision with nature.

From her statement: "In my work this romantic ideal of union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment.  These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops.  They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones.  In some pieces aspects of the human figure stand-in for ourselves and act out sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous transformations which illustrate our current relationship with the natural world.  In others, animals take on anthropomorphic qualities when they are given safety equipment to attempt to protect them from man-made environmental threats.  In each case the union between man and nature is shown to be one of friction and discomfort with the disturbing implication that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices."

Simply wonderful. I encourage you to visit her website and view her work.

Work Completed

Gemino

Mixed media (watercolor, felt pen, graphite, coffee) on watercolor paper.
9" x 12"

The Artist's Way

I managed to find a copy of this book, untouched, for just $1.99 at my local Goodwill. It's an interesting read, and some of the exercises are quite informative of one's own subconscious. But it also seems a little lofty, what with the talk of God/the Creator, even though the author states a person who is not of that faith/faithless can use different terms that apply. The morning pages don't really seem to be doing anything for me, because I'm not a writer, but a painter.

I don't know why my creativity fluctuates so much... one day I want to paint, draw, whatever, the next day I want nothing to do with it. I got a nice easel for my birthday, and I bought myself some new oil paints, but I resist my newest painting for some reason. Am I afraid that it will turn out bad? I'm seeing all of these shows and possibilities, but hate the idea of rejection and failure so much... perhaps I am hindering myself on purpose to avoid these things.

I wish Patrick's trip to NYC to try comedy was inspiring me to get over these fears.. but alas, I don't think this is so. At least not today.

How to rid of this creative block? I must do it soon.

Summer 2011

I'm so thrilled to be back in America! My home.

This summer will consist of anything I can do artistically before my final school year begins:

• Working on unfinished/older pieces
• Creating one to two new pieces
• Drawing more/work with photography
• Applying to exhibits/galleries/publications
• Getting an A in my online Art History course
• Updating my website and store
• Updating blogs!!! And writing more
• Odd jobs

Suomi in Springtime

Finland is such a different country when the snow is all gone. The greenery is wonderful. Flowers are rearing their pretty little heads.

The plainest of birds are actually not that plain-looking.

The bumblebees I've seen are black and orange, not yellow.

I enjoyed walking outside without a jacket, or big boots. No gloves or scarves. Girls in tank tops. Kids with ice creams.

I've had an incredible, stressless time here. I'm quite happy with the work I've made, my interim paintings that were mostly for fun and experimentation. It's definitely going to be the big thing I'll miss (besides my friends, of course) when I go back. I've been so happy at school. I will miss that happiness. :P

Hopefully I will kick it up a notch this summer. Start making prints; marketable works.

Ooh, Finland. Now that your weather is gorgeous, I almost wish to stay. ...almost. ;)

SkinMD winner, and things.

I'm disappointed by the turnout of my giveaway, but I guess it's to be expected from my absence. It might be this way for a while, until the summer. Then I'll only need to worry about a job; blogging will be more frequent and hopefully making art, too.

Anyway, the winner of the SkinMD lotion was Sarah, or #3, as selected by Random.org. Congrats, Sarah! I hope she enjoys her free bottle of lotion: it really works! ;)

Lately I've been under a lot of pressure, and personal issues have come up. I find myself in a bad place frequently. This spring break was a nice breather, helping my family paint walls and seeing an old friend again. However, it's back to the real world, so please bear with me as I miss posting or aren't able to leave you guys lovely comments! I promise this is not the end of my internet presence.

I hope you are all doing well, and, if you Etsy, that you're finding success! Much love.

My apologies!

I know, I know: where have I been!?

Trust me, there are good reasons for my lack of posting. School has really been grinding down on me; Drawing 3 especially. Also trying to get together info for the art tour trip, and filling out scholarship applications. I even have to prepare two works to be featured in the Student Exhibit later this month. (Yay!)

Very soon I promise I'll post up a giveaway for wonderful lotion that truly has healing powers. Stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, if you have the chance, I'd appreciate any viewers to visit ArtRaw's online art competition. I've entered and voting is currently open. Please take the time (if you can!) to visit my three entries and rate them. I'm not asking you just go and vote 5 stars, I encourage honesty... but someone already voted 1 star on all three, which is a bummer, so I ask for a little mercy. ;( If you truly believe my work to be so low, please leave a comment with constructive criticism for my improvement.

You can visit my entries here: http://ifontis.com/index.php?option=com_simgallery&func=viewalbum&aid=78

Thank you for your all of your patience! ;)

Pillows & Cupcakes.

Hey everyone! Well, this weekend certainly was eventful. Friday classes were canceled -- however, I don't have Friday classes, haha! Oh well. Congrats to my fellow undergrads who did for their day off in forever at our school.

I played in the snow, as seen in the post before this. Patrick got some time off from work and rehearsal, so more snuggle time! :)

I certainly did not procrastinate my Drawing 3 homework... ahem. Cough. While not procrastinating that, I worked on my t-shirt pillow: I sewed the sleeves and top hole, and have stuffed it halfway. There wasn't any real alteration I could do otherwise to wear it, so this seemed appropriate. I might even sell it when I'm done. (Can I do that??)

Also, I'm so very proud to announce that I satisfied my itch to bake goodies today. I looked up a semi-simple recipe for orange cupcakes. When I looked in the fridge, I found the OJ was almost empty and 6 days expired. Ew. So instead, I used lemonade with a mix of limeade as a substitute. For icing, I did a simple limeade-sugar glaze, since I don't have anything for proper frosting. Sprinkled on top was green sugar from Christmas cookies I've had for a while.

I took them to the theater of Patrick's play while they were fresh, and everyone loved them! I was so happy at the success that I braved the snow and ice to give the players treats. It made the baker housewife in me glow. Hooray!

Hopefully this week of school won't be too hard on me. I have an ongoing series for Drawing 3 to do, self portrait in painting (yuck yuck yuck), Art History test possibly, and a periodical review for my educational class. Wish me luck, and I wish you the same for your endeavors! :)

The Winter Storm.

It may be frightful, but it is also beautiful. I felt somewhat like a child again. I couldn't help but play around after checking the mail. Here are pictures I took.

Felt a little inspired by Andy Goldsworthy...




However, good things must come to an end. I'm sure by Monday this will all be gone, and it'll be back to work.

I'm going to South Korea!

For Art Education majors, we're required to take up to 4 Art History classes: Art History I, Art History II, and two upper division courses (History of Craft I/II, 20th Century Art, Mesopotamian, etc.). Luckily, one upper division "class" is called Art Tour, which is basically a trip to another country to study its artistic culture.

This year, a resident artist for our Metals course, who originally comes from South Korea, offered an Art Tour class to his native country. It's an 11-day trip to South Korea during May, after school is done. It used to be during spring break, but both students and professor were too exhausted coming from the tour straight back into classes. The Art History professor is going to Italy, but I've been to Europe before; I lived there! I've never been to Asia, though!

We had our first meeting last night, and I am so pumped! We'll be traveling through Seoul, GyeongJu, DaeGu, and even staying overnight in a temple! How exciting is that? He showed us pictures of what you do there, what you wear, and eating etiquette. The country is so beautiful, and their art is even more beautiful. My university will reimburse the airfare through a travel scholarship (which pretty much every full-time student in good standing gets), so the trip itself is cheap! And I get 3 credit hours for it. Instead of a big paper, we simply write a little paper on a cultural aspect of South Korea, and keep a notebook/journal of our trip.

I'll definitely enjoy this immensely. Despite the trauma of France, I'm ready to travel again. This time it won't be all business, and we'll have guides. And money. This will be a great opportunity for blog posts, too. ;)

Has anyone here been to South Korea? If so, what did you love most? What delicacies are worth trying? Please, let me know!

New Arrivals!

I'm so happy, I got two parcels in the mail today!

After a long wait, I finally got my harem pants from thaimodish. They're lovely! So wide and comfortable, and stylish! I tried to take the best pictures I could, so forgive their lack of quality. (It took forever just to find the camera, haha.)

I just need to wait for warmer weather, because these don't look good with uggs or anything. Sandals only. And right now, it's snowing.

I also couldn't resist Rachel's deal over at talk2thetrees, so I got one of her adorable crochet headbands. It is custom, with a choice of two colors. I just love it.


School is already starting to sink into my head and pick at my brain. Drawing 3 is very independent, and our first assignment is open concept. Aah! I'm still stuck on what surface to use for my concept and critiques start next week. Oh boy. Here it comes.... at least I have my pants. :3

The 2010 Handmade Olympics!

Over at the amazing rikrakstudio blog, you'll find an event that is a first, in my eyes, for the Etsy blogging world. The 2010 Handmade Olympics! There are over $2000 in prizes!



There are 8, count them, 8 different events, so if one of your items doesn't fit a category, you can try another. The point of this event is to "nominate" one of your items that best falls into any of the categories (you can enter all of them!), as well as nominate another person's item from their shop that really speaks to you of that event. Prizes are involved for the top 3 of EACH event, so imagine winning more than one! There is even a random drawing prize for each comments section. Here are the 8 categories:

{ event 1 } :: our favourite handmade goodie with an innovative design
{ event 2 } :: our favourite handmade goodie for kids
{ event 3 } :: our favourite handmade eco friendly goodie
{ event 4 } :: our favourite handmade item that inspires lovelieness + wellness (in our homes, for ourselves, etc.)
{ event 5 } :: our favourite handmade personality/group forwarding kindness thru handmaking
{ event 6 } :: our favourite thrifty-forward, sustainable-minded blog, shop or site.
{ event 7 } :: our favourite FUN-FILLED handmade OR vintage goodie
{ event 8 } :: our favourite handmaking-focus blog

Please visit and give it a look over, it could change your Etsy shop! I myself have entered one and hope to enter more. I nominated my tea bag prints for event 4, or "items that inspire loveliness and wellness (in our homes, for ourselves, etc.)". So maybe when voting time comes around..? ;)

Happy nominating!

Back in the game.

So, the first week of school has come and gone. To start off Painting II, we did an alla prima of a still life specifically for each of us. I wasn't too happy with mine, but then again, it's hard for a perfectionist like me to feel great about uncompleted paintings, which alla primas essentially are. I forgot to take a snapshot, sorry! (Not that anyone is too interested, hehe.)

Art History class is pure lecture, and frankly, boring to a right-brained individual like myself. I need to be stimulated. At least in my other education class, the teacher is peppy and non-monotone. Oh well, I shall get by.

I've just received a bottle of SkinMD lotion and am very excited to review it! After doing so I'll post a review, which will contain a giveaway for a full-sized bottle, so stay tuned for that. :)

Speaking of giveaways, please check out this lovely lady's blog: A Blonde Walks Into a Blog... She is giving away an IPOD NANO!! Can you believe that? Wow! Don't miss it!

It ends on Febuary 1st, so get those entries in! I wish I had a cool gadget to give away to you lovely readers, but I don't, so that's why I posted this.

Wednesday Wishlist.

(Because internet window shopping is just as fun, and I'm honestly blank right now about a blog post.)

Fancy Swirls Dark gray leather diary, $32

Faux Boot Legwarmers in black, $49.50

Deco Dragonfly Mug, $25

Shakespeare's Sister, $395

Fawnia Oak Leaf with Aquamarine Glass Beads, $16.80

The Stalker 10x8 black cat print, $27.00

Full Agenda Dress by ModCloth, $47.99

London Fog by Piperlime, $119

What are your Wednesday wishlist items?

Friday Featurette.

Just a quick little featurette for you fine folks. (...Friday!)

Here comes my first fine artist featurette, dedicated to donnadidit. We were in a chat together and she was very nice to me; she gave me some lighting tips. Her paintings have a lovely, pop art feel to them. Very vibrant and accessible.

Orange Bliss, $54.99

She has original paintings, ACEOs, handbags/totes, and even painted shoes. I definitely am a big fan of her animal paintings.

Boxer, $50.99

Please don't forget about the lovely giveaway & review of Orglamix mineral makeup, just a few posts below. Ends Monday, so don't miss out!

Sunday Shares.

So, I finally found the time to take some pictures and post new Etsy listings! About time, right? Sometimes I wish I could make clothes and jewelry because it'd be faster with more quantity. But, you know, you stick with the gifts you were given.

Let me share them with you. I've posted several prints and one customizable drawing! That's right, a commission drawing, and it's not as expensive as you'd think. ;) Here are some pictures of what's up:

Hopefully some fish will bite before soon! I'm still weary of posting numerous listings and paying those fees ($.20 accumulates fast!) with no sales to show for it.

So please, take a look! Show your friends (especially if one is engaged or to be married). Post a comment here with some of your new listings for me to view.

Most of all, though... Christmas is near!! Hooray! :)