Blog Archives

Update...accessories...patterns...palms...

4/18/2018

Still at it...keeping the same color palette, pinks, lime greens, bits of yellow and lavender. I ventured off into the palm motif in accessories...sunglasses, hat decor, tiered earrings and a statement necklace.

Makes me wanna MAKE some palm jewelry...just gotta think of HOW....

...then I started just playing around with the palm shapes by themselves, and made some new tropical leaf stencils to add to the mix...I was thinking that these could be nice coordinating pieces with the 'fashion gals'...thinking ahead to our show at CGMS next month, planning wall displays...

Finally...new series intro for April...and my 100th piece of daily art for 2018!

4/10/2018

I know, I know...it's day 10 of the month...but here is the info behind the series.

It took me a while to come up with the idea for the theme. For starters, I always like to look and see what I have done during the same month previous years, just for reference;

So far this year, I have been revisiting some themes that I have done in the past. Many times it feels like I am just getting into the groove, maybe even figuring something out- and then I stop and move on to the next series. Many times I am ready for something new, sometimes I do want to keep making a few more pieces. When I was trying to decide my theme for this month in the back of my mind, I was thinking- 'what, if anything, do I want to revisit?'

Another consideration is that for the past couple of years, my April series has been the series that I pull work for the show that Bludworth and I put on at CGMS in May, with the exception of the first show in 2015 where I pulled from my May 'Mermaid' series and just hustled to get the work done for the show.

When I plan my work I don't think about what will sell. Maybe I should. Yikes. I just make what I want to make and hope that later someone may like it and want to buy it....but if they don't at the end of the day I made the heART that I wanted to make, and I am fine with that. However, when you do work for a show you do feel a sense of internal success or failure based off how many 'red stickers' you see up on those walls at the opening. Like it or not- it IS a thing. I don't want it to be...but...it is.

Thinking back on the previous bodies of work for the CGMS show, I always strive to go with a beach or ocean related theme because I know it will pair well with my colleague's work. Our color palettes always mesh, we're both into vibrant colors, so that is never an issue. In the past, my mermaid themes have done pretty well at the gallery and just selling them myself. Truth be told, I can't swim and I am deathly afraid of ocean critters. So you won't dare catch me in the water unless it is crystal clear and basically no deeper than my waist...but I do love to be right there by the water, watching the waves, and people watching.

Back on the topic of 'success and sales', I did have one series that I didn't feel was as commercially successful, my #BirdsOfParadiseJLG series. I focused on tropical foliage and bikini clad ladies, and even created some extra pieces- cute little bikini watercolors, fun tropical drink paintings and some small square foliage paintings.

Well...I still have a ton of those. I came back from the gallery with most of those pieces, and lemme tell you- storing a month plus worth of stretched canvas paintings is tough. Some of them I painted over. Some I sold later, some I gifted. I still like the work. Heck, I might bring some out of the vault for this show- the colors will go well with what I am doing now...and I like those pieces.

With all of that in mind...I decided that this would be a good series for me to revisit, at least a little. I started to think about what I wanted my focus to be this go'round. For starters, I do love a good tropical print. I mean, this is probably one of my favorite dresses, I just keep accessorizing it differently;

I decided I would look again at the palm/tropical leaf motif, but maybe go more with pinks and lime greens.

And Lord knows, I do love and some big ol' glasses.

A sure, maybe a big hat.

...and I just started making the work. Working with the palm leaf, even made some stencils...started to think about patterns and fabric design...then resort fashion...and...it's all still coming together but thanks to my girl Jen Moff the series has a name, and here it is;

Here are the first 10 pieces in the series;

...and that last piece is daily piece #100 for 2018!!! Yayyy!

Green Goddess

4/9/2018

I doubt anyone is looking at this beautiful gal's feet...but I customized those shoes for her- again. (I think I this was the third time on this pair of shoes, I also did a pair of boots for her!)

She's off dancin' at Carnival in Jamaica.

And I'm here posting about the shoes I made her :)

Yay, Nicole!!!

4/6/2018

Congrats to my sweet and talented artist friend, Nicole Gallucio on her solo show at the Cornell Museum in Delray Beach!!!!

#TBT ...and FINALLY getting something off my to-do list!

4/5/2018

This is so long overdue...it's about my Wonder Woman angels that I made for a special #AngelDropART. Long story short- I invited folks to comment on a post on my FB art page to nominate a lady that they feel is WONDERful and give a comment or two to explain why. It went with my #WONDERfulWomenJLG art series from November 2017.

Original post about the Wonder Woman angels from December 5th

I received a TON of response, which was great! I actually received even more that my original number I had planned on making- 40 for my 40th birthday.

Typical me, I decided to just make angels for ALL of 'em. So it ended up being around 65. (Gotta check that number again, but it was at least that many.)

So anyway, that post was back in December. I started them all and then they were put on the back burner as I worked on my daily art and other projects, prepped for an Art Show and traveled back home...and dealt with the death of our little cat, Scooter- which really hit hard. After I came back from the holidays it was back to work, time for a new series...more time to grieve...and time just kept passing. And the angels just waited.

But no mas. Checking this OFF that ever-expanding to-do list.

In the past few weeks I have been finishing the actual painting of the angels, just anytime I had a chance. Then my next challenge was contacting everyone to get the addresses- that took a while. I decided that I would mail the angels to the folks that did the NOMINATING. I attached a little note for the nominator, sep paper(s) for them to write a personal message to the recepient(s)

The nominators can choose to give them to the 'WONDERful Women' in person of via mail.

And today...I mailed the angels off.

I should have saved my original lists...but from what I can remember the angels will be heading out to places here in Florida, back home to North Carolina...and also California, Delaware, Massachusetts...and I even mailed one off to ENGLAND!!!

But that's not all- I also mailed off packages to two folks from Project Runway All Stars- Merline and Ken. I decided a while back that I would contact the designers who created the pieces that I sketched each week, and if they wanted the art I would send it. It really made me excited last season of Project Runway to send art to Kenya, to see her reaction and to just give her a gift for being such an inspiration...so hopefully I will hear back from some of the other designers to send them the illustrations from this season.

Wonder Woman Angels and a couple of PRAS fashion illustrations are OFFICIALLY in 'da mail...and crossed OFF of my to-do list! Yay!

April series in progress...

4/4/2018

Slowly taking shape...updates/more info to come...

Stu-stu-studio...revisited

4/4/2018

John and I have been in the new place for almost a year now and I never have posted any pics of my new creative spaces. I always like seeing other artists spaces, and I took some pics the other day to post when prompted in a post from my girl Cassie Stephens...so I'm gonna post mine here, too.

But first a couple of thoughts. For starters, the new place has it's pros and cons. My old studio was one-stop shopping, it was bigger than the new one so I could pretty much fit everything in there. We were in a first floor unit and I had one large window centered on a wall. I loved the natural light, but I hated having to constantly open and close the window...'cause folks be creepin'. However, the space was really roomy and I came up with many DIY organization solutions (on a budget!) so it still makes me happy when I look at images of that space.

Here is a blog post with pics from the old spot;

https://www.jenniferlovegironda.com/blog/stu-stu-studio

So the new place is smaller. It's on the third floor, so peepin' and creepin' aren't a concern. There is an attached bathroom so I can change my paint water and wash brushes easily- definitely a bonus. I really had to plan this space though, due to the size...and, can I be honest?

I didn't feel like shlepping ALL of my art supplies up all the stairs- so I didn't. More about that later.

There, I said it. Feels good to just admit it.

The third floor studio (and office space) are for my 'clean' work. I keep my sewing stuff up here, some drawing materials, my resources, beads and jewelry making supplies. I originally had two tables set up but after my time at the Hermitage this past summer (read more about THAT here...it was SO AMAZING!!!) I came back determined to have a chaise lounge in my space- regardless of how small it was. So I found one that I could afford (I love you Wayfair!) did some rearranging and, as Tim Gunn says, I made it work.

Why did I need the chaise lounge? For napping. Obviously :)

Anyway, here are some pics of the new space;

Okay, so I mentioned that I was too lazy to drag all those art supplies up the stairs, right? So on the first floor we have a large room with a bathroom. We had decided when we found the place that this would be the perfect gym, but since it was so large I was able to talk John into agreeing for one wall to house some of my art supplies, etc.

You know, I think that maybe he didn't want to have to help carry all the stuff up the stairs, but that's cool.

This is the main storage area for my art supplies in the tall cabinet that we found. (super easy to construct, we actually bought two more shorter ones and created a counter/bar space in another area.) I reused two of my 'DIY vertical storage' pieces from the last place (didn't have room for all of them...so converted the others back to regular ol' shoe racks in our closets, #winning) I added a table and my easel- I figure that it makes more sense to paint down on the first floor because it's a tile floor so it would be easier to clean up paint drips, and the table is for random drawing/painting projects.

So that's it. Well, besides a little pull-up table I use to draw at the couch.

My art supplies and creative spaces are spread out over the three floors, but each has it's purpose and I try my best to make sure that they are fun, functional and organized :)

4-1-18

4/1/2018

...ya'll already know this is an April Fool's Day joke- ain't no way I can stop creatin'!

Easterin'

4/1/2018