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.

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!

An eventful weekend for sure!

I've finally done some work outside of school! I took a 30x40 canvas I had previously gesso'd over and did another experimental drip painting. Overnight the rain got to it, and holding it upright to let it dry gave it a massive drip-in-one-direction effect, which kinda looks neat. Looks like magma, really.

However, I feel like something is missing... something more could be added to strengthen this. What do you feel it needs?

I got some precious girl time last night with a few art major buddies. It's so neat how much Merrilee and I have in common, artistically and just personality-wise (we see faces in loads of things!). I showed her and another friend Etsy and they were pretty flabbergasted. They did a lot of web-window shopping, and I may purchase a little gift for one of them (she loves turquoise jewelry). Once life dies down for Merrilee, she'll look into marketing herself as well. She has beautiful landscape paintings, including a cloud series she did that I absolutely love. Hopefully you'll be seeing her soon!

I hope you've all had a great weekend. Everything was going smoothly until I got my first flat tire today. :( Big bummer, really didn't need that. Patrick came to the rescue and hopefully will get it patched at work tomorrow.

The holidays are getting too close!!

The End of August.

And so, the month comes to a close. Summer is slowly winding down. And, for me and many others, school (college) is about to begin. I'm excited but not excited, as usual. I'll be happy for the "motivation" of art once again, though it'll be mandated and graded. But, hey, those critiques help an artist grow.

Great news about the Sketchbook Project: mine came in today! It helps that Atlanta, GA is not too far from here, haha.


Isn't it cute? :D I can't wait to start working on it. Actually, it wouldn't really be "working." I dislike it sometimes when my brain translates making art as "working," but sometimes, that's what it really is. Hopefully someday that will transition to just FUN ART TIMES. ;) I can't wait for my Twitter friend Leel to get her book. I'm hoping to track progress on here and the Art House Co-op website; maybe she will do the same.

If you visit my flickr you'll see the art I've been trying to keep up with... managed to fight through my stuffy sinuses to work more on the gas mask painting. Lately Patrick's been getting semi-addicted to Snus, really gross, but they make awesome mini palettes. ^_~

I better go and relax... big day after tomorrow. One good thing about this semester is Printmaking will hopefully supply me with good items to sell on Etsy; I don't think my paintings will do very well. But as always, I'm optimistic.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone. And to those who share my fate: enjoy your FINAL summer break weekend.

My Craft Corner - Contest!

Hey guys. I just recently joined a website, My Craft Corner. I think it's a neat place for crafters to unite: talk, make friends, exchange ideas, etc. Etsy users would especially gain something from it!

But also, MCC is currently running a contest. First entry is simply signing up! How easy is that? I probably sign up for something new every day, more so when it's free! :) However, there are ways to earn more entries, explained here.

The prize, you ask? The Cricut Expression by Provo Craft.

Even I'm not 100% sure what all it can do, or necessarily what all I would use it for, but it certainly looks exciting. (And expensive, hah!)

So don't miss out on this exciting event, and go make some craft buddies while you're at it! :) You can also follow MCC on Twitter for daily updates. Good luck!

Advancing.

So, I've finally broken out of my art block. Pretty exciting! (Though the main motivation came from bribery, aka my fiance promising O'Charleys, haha.) I've worked on my mother-in-law's commission, covering the entire canvas. Just need to figure out what she likes and dislikes in the composition so far.

Also, I'm very glad to have been introduced to Moonfruit, thanks to Twitter. I didn't win their giveaway prizes, but I've come out with a simple yet elegant website to host my art. I hope it'll grow with fans and customers. It's perfect for now.

~ LaurART ~

Slowly but surely, I might lean away from eduFire. It's a great service, no doubt, and I've earned some cash, but eventually school will take up too much of my time, so better now than later. I'll keep it within reach, of course.

In the meantime, I leave on the note of a wonderful artist on Youtube, named Gary Reef, who recently has taught me some exquisite things dealing in textured art. The foil technique is my favorite, I can't wait to try it out on my next painting!