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Now that I have a minute to sit and process...even though it's almost 2am on June 6th...I am going to rewind and go back to June 5th. One of the first things that was significant was checking my email to find that my angel paintings from my first Etsy order made it to Missouri and Nevada- and that they liked my work. (see pic below) More important- the work served as a tribute to their friend. Awesome. Looking at that email, and seeing my work in the hands of the folks that I made it for, and feeling like it really did serve the purpose for which it was created...truthfully? I teared up. I got a little verklempt. I.love.sparkly.flamingo. And then it was on to my adventures in flamingo embellishment, which I wrote about in the previous post. (scroll down) I really would love to go all Sandy Skoglund style and fill an entire room with an entire flock of these fabulously sparkly fowl. Hmmmmmm...maybe I will. I started off really motivated...worked on the flamingos and then, well...there was some lost time. But I did get back into my creative zone, started pretty late, but I made some art nonetheless. Well, let me back track...I figured out what I wanted to do for the next ANE show. It's a Star Trek theme and I had some ideas, but I wasn't 100% sure of what I wanted to do...and I will post more about it later as I start creating the work, but let's just say that the pieces will fit my pinup theme for the month of June. Back to my CED #157. It's done. Found a cool picture of Bettie that really inspired me...and well, here is the work, shown as I worked on it (below) Bettie+ flamingo. While I was working on my CED I had the idea to combine my Bettie-esque figure with the pink flamingo that I worked on earlier today. It isn't finished, but it is well under way. Just something for fun. Or maybe this is a small-scale study for a larger work? Either way, you can bet that there will be some sparkle. And finally...when I was getting my workspace ready I found some old sketches in one of my pinup books. I have no idea what I was planning, or when these three pages were completed...but I felt like I found buried treasure. Even though these may not go with my current projects, I may revisit them for future inspiration for works.
...made some progress on the 8 angel paintings today...but thinking that I would be mailing them off today while getting my classroom ready for summer and packing for NC...somewhere in the midst of all of that I did get to the final stages of the works and certainly did not get to the post office. My new, more reasonable goal is to get them in the mail by the end of this week.
Tomorrow...10+ hour drive up to NC...looking forward to seeing family and friends...NOT looking forward to the drive! Here are some pics of the art happenings of today... ...sketched 'em out and got the backgrounds painted in. Unfortunately...this is where I have to be patient and leave them alone til tomorrow. Which is kind of tough for me, patience...not me...which is weird because I love working with watercolor...I digress... going to start laying in the other colors tomorrow. Hoping to get these finished and mailed off by tomorrow, but if not will mail on Wednesday when we are on the road to NC. Fingers crossed for tomorrow, though : )
...and now...got to work on my CED #149... My husband before lunch today. He said, get that Etsy side made...and I did. So it's official. I have an Etsy shop. For real. I sat down and did it. Now, all I have posted is the CEDs from last month. So if you visit the site it is a bunch of shoe madness...but it is a start. Twenty-four items posted, right now at three different price breaks. It's live. It was tough to get started. ...ummmm...will it sound lame if I admit that I was just kind of scared? Makes me think of this quote from a speech by Nelson Mandela written by Marianne Robertson; "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? ...There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. ...It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." It is scary to put your work out there. But you know, if folks don't like it they just won't buy it...and somebody else will come along that appreciates my point of view and will want the work. It is scary to think about failure..but success, or the potential for it, is just as frightening. Another thing that was tough...making the decision for prints versus originals. Maybe I will go to prints one of these days. I did make some for the last ANE show and some sold. But in my gut I just can't get away from wanting to put the original work in the hands of the people that want it. So for now, the work on my Etsy shop is all original...not just my own ideas...but the actual piece of art. You can see where my hands have touched the work. That felt like the right thing to do...along with keeping the prices affordable. I just have to make the art, to get it out of my head and onto the paper, or canvas, or cloth...whatever. I just make it and once it is out there as long as I have a photograph of it I don't mind sending it out into the world. So...it was a very busy, beautiful day. From drawing way up in the sky on my way back to Florida...to a meeting with a client for an upcoming commissioned portrait...to an awesome lunch and afternoon in downtown Lake Worth with my amazing husband.. my cup runneth over. Regrettably...all of this excitement will not turn back the clock to give me more time to sleep. (Sigh) |
AuthorArtist and Art Teacher
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