It only took a few months! I am finally creating again. Partially it is getting closer to the time of year when I am most active creatively. Partially I think I was not just uninspired, but depressed. I'm feeling a bit better mentally, which has been helping with my creative output. I have new paintings, new journal pages, and lots of new little projects going on. I joined a web site called atcsforall.com. You can join swaps to trade homemade art with other artists. I've started making artist trading cards and chunky book pages for a few swaps I joined there. My etsy shop is finally up and running. So, lots of exciting things going on.
Some of my favorite images of what I have been doing lately (you can see more photos on my flickr page):
A page from my journal. I've been really obsessed with mermaids lately, and this is my favorite.
A journal page with a paper doll in a pocket. Isn't she cute? I spent an entire afternoon creating her and then my rabbit ate a piece of her crown!
A mixed media painting on canvas. I collaged magazine pages, phone book pages, and tissue paper, then painted over it all with acrylics. It's available in my etsy shop.
A mixed media painting on art board. Also available in my etsy shop.
I recently hosted a post card exchange. My theme was, you guessed it, mermaids! I used a combination of collage, acrylic and watercolor paints, and altered magazine photos. Here are a few of my favorites:
And finally, my favorite artist trading card I made for a swap called "Whimsey Girls Cupcakes and Crowns" on atcsforall.com:
There's actually a lot more where this came from! I am going to try and update the blog more regularly with pictures of my artwork and not let as much time go by between posts. It feels really good to be creating again. Hopefully I can keep it up.
For those of you who don't know what moo mini cards are, you should check out the link. They are little mini business card type things. The cool part, though, is that they will print high-quality photos on the front of them. I have seen pictures of other moo cards artists have made and I really like them. They have pics of my art on the front and all my contact info on the back. Usually when I tell people I am an artist they ask what type of work I do. And most people are kind of in the dark about what, exactly, mixed media art is. Plus I feel like my art can be kind of hard to explain. So now I can just whip out my mini cards and show them!
I chose ten different paintings to use. You get 100 cards so I got ten of each one. The photos get cropped, but you get to choose the position of the crop, and still I think people will be able to get a good idea of what I do. When they say mini cards, they really mean mini! They were a lot smaller than I had even expected. But something people will remember, I think. The cards are kind of expensive at $19.99 for 100. Especially when you consider you can get business cards made at vistaprint for free. I really like how unique they are, though!
I figure I can start including them in swaps and send them to my pen pals and things like that. And hand them out to people I meet. Just to get the word out about my art a little bit more. I will probably end up having to order more soon because I suspect I will run through them quicker than I originally thought.
