I need to update my blog more....

I do. I know this. I need to set a goal of updating at least once a week, I think. And then maybe go buck wild and start updating a few times a week. Can you imagine?????

I haven't taken pictures of anything in the past couple weeks, and usually I like showing pics of what I have been up to. Which, honestly, is nothing incredibly exciting.

My grandmother won some cash at the casino and has been giving away money like it's going out of style. So I decided I am finally going to break down and buy myself a table and chair so I can actually have somewhere to sit and make art and leave all my supplies out. I *HATE* having to clean everything up when I'm done and having to drag it all back out when I want to create again. It compltely stunts my creative process. So, nothing fancy--but a table. And a chair. And maybe even some plastic bins to put art supplies in. It will be wonderful and I will take a picture of my new "studio" when I am finished.

Downtown Art

I delivered my art for the May Family Arts Festival the weekend before last. It is now hung and looks great! A. and I visited my paintings and took lots of pictures. For any of you that are in the Springfield area, the art exhibit resides in the front window of the Tower Square building facing Main Street. The actual festival is this Saturday; I will let you know how it goes!













All of the paintings are available for sale. Whatever doesn't sell during the festival will be going back into my Etsy shop at the end of the month. Or, you may contact me directly if interested in making a purchase.

Sneak Peek

I've started work on a new series of portraits. All told, it will be a series of 12. I'm not quite ready to say any more about it now, but wanted to share a picture anyways. I'm pretty happy with how things are coming along:

I'm on the front page!

Somehow I ended up in the "Artist Spotlight" on atcsforall.com even though I'm brand spanking new. I don't know how long it will be up so click here soon or you might miss it.

Look for this picture:

May Family Arts Festival

I had five pieces chosen to be hung for a family arts festival this May in downtown Springfield. Oddly enough, the Cultural Council didn't give participating artists a whole lot of details about what this festival is really going to be like. What I do know is this: there's going to be a festival taking place the weekend of May 17th-18th. It coincides with the big annual pancake breakfast. I'm not sure what the rationale for that is--maybe because lots of people will already be lured downtown with the promise of free pancakes. And pancakes and art are both yummy. Anyway, pieces will be hung May 1st throughout the downtown area. There will be opportunities for sales and also to be part of ongoing exhibits in partnership with downtown businesses. There's going to be a reception May 17th as well as two artist workshops on grant writing and growing your business. Both I expect to be very helpful.

Apparently there's going to be a few more art festivals throughout the summer and fall. I will keep you posted. Hopefully I will be able to show more work for those. I'm not sure where exactly my work is going to be hung, but I will keep you posted on that as well. This will be my first "official" public showing as an artist. Very exciting!

The following works were selected:

I Finally Got Inspired!

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.

Some new journal pages...

I've been looking at lots of art lately, trying to get inspired. It's a catch 22 because I do get really inspired looking at other mixed media and journal artists--but then there's always the danger of comparison. I start feeling page envy and feeling like my stuff isn't as good. Which I guess every artist probably goes through. I also sometimes feel like my style isn't as cohesive as I would like it to be right now.

With that being said, I did create two pages in the past week or so that I really like. They are a little bit more free and messy than what I have been doing for the past couple months. The pictures aren't the greatest--we have had very little sunlight lately which makes taking nice pics difficult. Every day is dark and grey. But you should get the idea: