So over the past few days I've put a whole bunch of prints and jewelry up for sale in my shop, including these lovelies:

We checked out the Farmer's market in Roslindale village yesterday; they've got a nice little setup in the park with a couple of local growers, some greenhouse supplies, baked goods, handmade soap and a handful of other vendors, as well as live music. There was a pretty steady flow of people browsing and socializing (including us), so we've just about decided to give it a go ourselves in a couple of weeks. Hey, why not? At the very least we get to sit outside on a nice summer morning and drink coffee and talk about art.

I did find a lovely pair of earrings from one crafter; i especially liked the way she made the earwires (she got all excited and told me she bends the wire around a sharpie marker to make the loop, and we all know about my affinity for sharpie markers, so....). Plus I'm a big fan of turquoise and gold, so i've been wearing them all weekend.

And i've been busy making more stuff, too. As usual. I seem to mostly waver between painting and drawing, alternating with days where all I want to do is pore over my bead stash. The bead stash is now larger than life. Sometimes i forget to make dinner, because i am so engrossed in whatever i am doing, and then the boyfriend and the rabbit start sighing and whining and hassling me because they are starving to death, and that's about when i tell them both to go eat some cookies or something and quit bugging me. hehehe.

So, here's two new drawings; they're a little more editoral and less idealized. I've been getting my inspiration from the different characters and realities in my day to day life, I suppose.

Fashion Sense

Baby Girl

I feel a bead craving coming on now, hah.

So I've been doing some leetle paintings. It's kind of stupid, the stuff that gets me going, and I'm always prowling around AC Moore of all places, thinking up wicked things to do with bits of wood and fake flowers and doll heads.

Eventually I just ended up bringing home the bits of [overpriced] wood. And then i painted stuff on them! And drew pictures on them!

Star

Aurora

Mariposa


Uncaged

They're all about 3x6"; I think i'll prolly put a couple up for sale and then make prints available as well.

And speaking of painting, I've had this big blank canvas (we're talking 24x48) just chillin' on my easel for an ill minute; in light of my recent endeavors I think it's about time I did something with it. So I thought maybe I'd pick a day, maybe Monday, and post pictures updating my progress throughout the day, in real time here on the blog - from blank canvas to ugly mess to finished masterpiece. I work kinda fast and sloppy (har!) so it's not like it's going to drag on and on for eons getting this thing done. Hopefully it will be a fun experiment, and if the results are good maybe i can do this more often; so if you're around on Monday, come check in on how it's coming along.

Ok, now for the rabbit; lately he's been obsessed with going OUTSIDE. As soon as he hears the front door open, he is immediately in the hall, nudging my ankles to get by and out into the yard. He has an excavation project he is working on, you see, and it is very important.

He dug this all by himself. He gets his little feets in there and is all like digdigdigdigdigdigdigdig, and then he pops his head up to scope things out and his wee face is COVERED in dirt.

This is a not-dirty face, shortly before starting his little project.

 I've been so gosh-darned busy running around these past couple weeks, it's a wonder I've gotten any drawings done. Which reminds me, I still have to share the lowdown on 1.)"Dirty Smelly Noisy" opening in Lowell two weekends ago, and the 2.) "Good Luck Bad Luck" show up at the ellO gallery on Friday nite. Both were pretty successful in the art-schmooze department.

But that will have to be later, because really i just wanted to do a lil show and tell of three new drawings.

Hey, Squirrelfriend!

Rare Birds

Owl & Moon

At some point I'd like to sell these as prints, but that is going to take a little more contemplation. I'm also thinking about divvying up my Etsy so it makes a little more sense; one for jewelry, one for art, and another for supplies. Right now everything is a mish-mash and doesn't really hang together, and i feel like stuff gets lost in the pile. But we'll see.

So i was a busy little photographer-bee yesterday, playing with my beads and taking pictures of things and drinking WAY TOO MUCH dunkin donuts ice coffee. Wheee!

And then I put a bunch of new stuff on the Etsy, including those button rings I made a while back. It's looking like a total mish-mash in there, photos, all kinds of jewelry, drawings, beads, beads, beads. I have to figure out a way to organize that stuff and pull it all together.

I've also been working on some more upscale jewelry pieces, using pearls and gemstones and semi-precious stone beads and sterling. I have nine gorgeous necklaces made up so far, and I spent the bulk of my day yesterday photographing them from every possible angle. I got quite a few gorgeous shots, which is really satisfying. Feeds my jewelry jonesing as well as my macro photography lust.

The amethyst and pearl one at top left is one-of-a-kind and available in my shop; there's also a grey green labradorite pendant with pearls and silver, too. More coming soon : )

Well, I've got everything framed and ready to go for the Good Luck/ Bad Luck show at the ellO; we're making a trip up to Portsmouth his afternoon to drop it off. I struggled a bit last night with writing my "Artist's Statement", because I kinda dread coming off as a pretentious snot (I mean, I am a snot, but i don't want to sound like a snot) and it's a pain in the ass to have to summarize stuff you've already spent weeks and weeks drawing. I mean, I'm an illustrator, for chrissakes, it's pretty much my job to make pretty pictures which are completely self-explanatory. And now i have to write stuff??

I think i did okay though.

So that's that. And here's a sneak preview of everything framed.

And that's with a capital "O", especially in regards to Crocs.

You gotta understand, i live in a college town, and a kinda stuffy fashionless northeastern one at that, so wherever there's a campus nearby you see the denizens rocking their sweats and some TERRIBLE examples of bad bad bad footwear. In winter, it's the effing Uggs, which need to be banished to the eighth level of Hades, pronto. (You suck, obnoxious mindless college girls in filthy Uggs!) And in the transitional seasons -let's face it, it's always transitional in New England- everybody rocks the crocs. Man o man, i hate those things- the ugly plastic duck looking ones, anyways. There's even a website and a flickr group dedicated to hating on crocs, so it's not just me. For kids (or people who work with kids) I'd say they're acceptable, since they're easy to clean and are comfy, but nine times out of ten when I see an adult scuffing around in them, it's clear they're just being a lazy slob. Lazy is okay sometimes, but you can tell most people wearing a beat up pair of Crocs aren't even trying, even a little, and keep on wearing them till they are falling apart and reeking and disgusting.

George, for example, rocks Crocs with socks. Enough said.

Then again, a gentle reminder form the chilled-out side of myself says: Hey, people can do what they want, don't get so bent out of shape. It's not that important. It's just shoes.

But it's not actually the shoes themselves that bug me; it's the mindless trendy herd mentality which gives me the heebie jeebies. And the way i see it, the shoes you choose say a lot about yourself. If you're too lazy or slovenly to get something decent, or to bother considering anything outside the default trend, or, at the very least, go out and get a new pair once the old ones get all jacked up...... well then, I will have an Opinion about your shoes. And by extension, about you. Sorry.

it's madness, i tell you.

But I caved, and i am now making my fashion confession public. I actually went and bought some Crocs today. But they don't even look like crocs! Well, not too much. Last night my coworker was rocking these pretty ballet slipper slingbacks in silver, and they made me do a double take. Honestly, i was surprised. And once she swore up and down how comfy and nice they were (this, by the way, was coming from a very stylish girl), and me being in need of a pair of comfortable flats, I resolved to investigate further.

Hey, I am allowed to change my mind. So, I found these in turquoise. Turquoise is all kinds of awesome, and they look comfy, and not too vulgar or plasticky. Yes yes.

I got inspired by my pal MuertaVida's charm bracelets, and since I somehow have a ridiculous amount of shrinky-dinks and beads around (whyyyy does that somehow sound dirty....?), I decided to try my hand at creating a cha-cha bracelet of my own. Which I will never wear, but still. This one features individual characters from my "Nine Divas" illustrations.

There's a glass birdie and a silver fish in there somewhere.

And this one has a hipster girl, and a plastic owl, and a big fat ORANGE pearl, yum.

I dunno if i'll make more of these, these sorts of projects are a little tedious for my taste. Plus I don't want to piss off the bracelet queen of southern california.... but maybe i'll stick this on the Etsy  anyways.

Recently I've been trying to figure out how to integrate all the eclectic things i like to do and make. At the gallery last week someone noticed, i dunno, something artsy about me, it happens, and we struck up a conversation; it sort of boiled down to "Oh, you're an artist? What do you DO?"

Oh, hell. I feel like such a cheesewad saying I "Do Everything".

I've always been this way, and not for lack of attention span; it's just tough to pick one direction and not wonder what else i could do with it. The short list? I draw stuff with sharpie markers. I make jewelry out of kitschy vintage stuff, and i make jewelry out of gorgeous silver and stone stuff. I paint and I make beads, I do mosaics with bits of smashed up broken glass, and sometimes I'm a photographer, too. I guess I'm a crafty go-getter, and I'm even a little cocksure around the fact that if you give me enough time and a decent guidebook, i can turn my hand to just about anything. However, there are not enough hours in the goddamn day and it is frustrating.

Like, i could take my drawings, right? And make them really teeny and put them on my handpainted paper beads. And then string those together with all the other baubles I've got.

Or a mosaic! I saw this thing where you can take smashed & crackled clear glass and embed images under it, and i could stick my drawings under there and.... baubles, yeah.

Or, or, or..... I could stick my pictures on a canvas and draw crazy ladies wearing the jewelry I designed, and paint all around it. Not as baubly, but still.

And it goes around and around and around. Maybe someday i will have time to learn to make soap, and  become a volcano scientist, learn to fix cars, and remember to make dinner on time. Until then, this is what i did today:

Hey, look. Some of my drawings on little pendants! I hand-drew each of these, wooo art.

Aaaand now i have to go stand around in the gallery (and not be in my studio making stuff, sigh) while I stare at the floor for a few hours. Buh.

Huzzah! the last illustration for the Good Luck / Bad Luck show at the ellO gallery.

Click here to see the larger version. Incidentally, I met Matty two years ago on the 66 bus; however, he wasn't wearing a bird on his shirt and my bike hadn't been stolen. But still, it's kinda funny how we make our own luck, isn't it?