Thursday, September 23, 2010

bad, bad blogger

my sweet husband informed me today that i have not posted a blog in 6 days.  i have not verified the truth of his statement, but it has been far too long since i have posted and i feel awful about it.

what's been going on?  life!  we baptised the boy, then i had to detox him from all the holding and cuddling and attention he got over the weekend.  both the kiddos have colds.  the little girl lost her first tooth today!  my back is completely out of whack and i'm coming down with a cold.  the art walk is in barely over a week and i am freakin out a bit.

breathe.

so, it is not that i haven't been doing thing.  i have.  i just don't have oodles of time right now to post it all.  and also most of the stuff i am doing is not finishing.  it's production stuff - making parts that will later be a whole.

so what i did today . . .
felt beads!

i have great gooey gobs of this roving and i should explore other uses for it, but it makes such lovely beads.  in a couple of days they will look like this:


also working with some purples, greys, blues, peaches, and yellows.  very exciting stuff coming up.

but don't be expecting much more posting in the next week.  produce, produce, produce!  i will take pictures along the way and then i'll have oodles to show you after the 2nd.

goodnight.

jo

Friday, September 17, 2010

oh yah, what did you do today?

it has been a long day.  and yes, i did not post yesterday because it was long, too.  yesterday i got to visit with my person (yes, a grey's anatomy reference as i watched all of season 6 in the last 3 days) and when we get together for the first time in many months there is very little time for much else.  so yesterday was awesome, and i made nothing and was unproductive in most every way.

and today.  today i made something, but i cannot show you.  it is rather mean of me to tell you about something you cannot see, but it's my son's name and there's that whole "announcing your kid's name on the internet" thing, and you understand, right?  to tell the truth i cannot even tell you about what i made, yet.  damn these rules!

but i also made dinner.  a fabulous dinner!  a dinner that classy ladies in ruffly aprons toil away for hours making.  we had stuffed pork chops, brussel sprouts, hawaiin sweet rolls, and apple sauce.  we also had dessert from a local bakery that we patronize far too frequently.  i always feel accomplished after a good meal, especially when my 6 year old picky eater gobbles down her brussel sprouts without argument.  woo hoo!

it isn't your fault that i cannot show you my loveliness for today, so i am gonna find something to show off.  ah - i know!  helen . . .

helen
2010

detail

i have never, ever liked skulls.  i thought they were creepy and morbid and gross.  and then i started looking (really looking) at sugar skulls and the dia de los muertos stuff, and i kinda fell in love.  you might have noticed that i heart bright colors and joyfulness in my stuff, and it turns out that sometimes these dreary/morbid/creepy skulls are all that colorfulness that i love.  love!  helen was my first real effort, definitely not the last.

satisfied?

busy, busy weekend coming up.  our little heathen is getting baptised, so no promises.

have a good one!

jo

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

feeling blue . . . and red

bliss!  i got to paint today.  i set a clear goal for myself.  there was something i had never painted and i wanted to challenge myself. 

a rose. 

i have drawn a rose, but never a 'finished' drawing, and surely never a painting.  it is only as of late that i have been brave enough to paint anything.  i'm falling for it, and what better way to express my new love for painting than to paint a rose?

here she is . . .

elizabeth

i don't know how correct of a rose it is, or even if i did a decent job, but i kinda love it.  does she need some flair?  i am not definitely calling her done just yet.

these colors - red and blue - they are dear to me.  it has to be this blue, and this red.  not patriotic blue and red - bleck!  caribbean blue and blood red.  this is not the first time we have met.



it seems i have been searching these colors out for some time.  i wonder if it is coincidence that this blue is my favorite color and this red is my husbands?  ponder that.

i believe it is time to retreat back into season 6 of grey's anatomy and cleaning like a mad woman.  my person is coming over tomorrow and i have missed her immensely, so i don't intend on getting much done other than heaps of catching up.

jo

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

boring

i know that they are not the most exciting thing, but all i have for you tonight are headbands.  more massive cleaning today (courtesy of hoarders) leaves so little art-making time.  no more excuses, on with the pretty . . .

 
 front and back
heart and peace sign

i am really loving the idea of the reversible headband.  i have to get clever with it, but i enjoy the challenge.

more . . .


not very exciting, but still lovely.

goodnight.

jo

sidebar

this post is not art related at all.  i merely want to share with you some simple excitement from my day.

yesterday i had noticed a large caterpillar hanging on the front of our house.  i assumed it was caught in a spider web, and i marveled at how it managed to get that high to get caught in the first place.  today i walked by and saw this . . .
it's a cocoon!

i was tickled.  and it's so pretty.  it has these gold specs on it (you can see them in the photo - those aren't reflections of light).  i could not wait to show the little girl when she got out of school.  she was equally tickled.

she went out to play with her friend, and not 5 minutes later she runs through the door yelling "come look!"


a friend of his must have come to visit!

the first caterpillar was all greens when i saw him, but this second guy is just as big.  perhaps later i will have another cocoon to show you.

that is all.

jo

Monday, September 13, 2010

i am a very, very bad blogger.  have i mentioned that i have had 3 other failed blogs before this one.  i guess they weren't so much 'failed' as 'completely abandoned and of little value to anyone'.  that being said, i missed my post for yesterday and on top of that i had promised to make something new yesterday and it quite simply did not happen.  bad blogger.

i would like to place the entire blame on the show hoarders.  i don't have tv, but i found this show on hulu and i watched all 5 episodes yesterday.  i don't know if it is possible to watch this show without becoming obsessive about cleaning your own house.  so i watched, and cleaned.

then today i got my acceptance letter from the upcoming art show, and with it my assigned location.  now i am freaking out a bit.  i have 3 weeks before the show and i need to get in high production mode.  but wait, i have to go to pta meetings, and take care of my family, and walk kids to the library, and my son gets baptised this weekend, and craft fairs i was planning on attending, and first grade spelling words to practice, and and and.  mini panic attack.

breathe.

so tonight is going to be the first in a series of featured artist posts.  now, don't gag, but today's featured artist is my daughter.

this is one of her paintings from last year.  lovely, no?

and here is a collaboration that we did:

at the age of 2 she drew a remarkable set of scribbles.  i took those scribbles and made a silk screen, then printed and dyed my own fabric, then sewed this dress.  she then modeled the dress.  we make a great team.

no promises for tomorrow.  i am still horrified by hoarders images and need to do some more housework.  i may post tomorrow, i may wait a day and wow you with my productivity.  oh, the suspense.

let's go to sleep.

jo




Saturday, September 11, 2010

inspired?

it is late and the day has been so very long.  having nobody to care for my wee one (too long and boring a story to tell) i was forced to call in to work today, and in lieu of going to work i called a friend, packed up the baby, and went to the st. louis art fair.

i have not been to this particular fair in several years, for several reasons.
1 - it's huge.  overwhelming, really.  you have to really love art to get through the whole thing.
2 - it's not terribly close to my end of st. louis
3 - parking in non-existent
4 - all the work being shown is very high-end, and therefore i have no delusions of ever purchasing anything
5 - it is normally in mid-september and that means h o t for st. louis
this year proved that #1-4 are still true.  i like my life, but today left me feeling unsuccessful as an artist and terribly poor financially.  no more st. louis art fair for me.  to top it off i was not terribly interested in any of those showing.  and their website sucks.  there.

wait, i take one thing back - the not being interested in anyone showing.  there was a local gal who was doing and art demo that we caught the very tail-end of.  i was quite taken with her style of painting and her down-right ballsy use of color.  then when i looked in the program i found that her name was not listed.  boo!  boo st. louis art fair!  luckily, she mentioned her name while she was speaking and it stuck in my head.

jennifer hayes

check her out.  you'll thank me.

the busy day has not allowed for much more than sketching.  my honest hope was that i would come home with so much inspiration that i would get right to work.  what actually happened was i hopped into my pajamas and cuddled up with the babe to watch the new star trek movie.

alas, in the spirit if artists inspiring other artists i do present a small collection of my atcs - artist trading cards.

(left to right, top to bottom)
i see roses in these weeds, meadow, hanging on a moment, she brings grace and beauty,
stand tall, twirl, true love

if you have not heard of atcs, they are 2.5"x3.5" pieces of art that one creates and trades with other artists. 

i originally got into the trading to do just that - i wanted to have a collection of art.  what i found was that it is an awesome way for me to create 'rough drafts' in miniature with little investment.  atcs are an awesome tool and tons of fun besides.

this series of atcs i call 'sweet nothings'.  i was experimenting with embroidering on photographs and paper.  these actually lead to a larger series of pieces that i'll show you some day.

greener grass (framed)

tomorrow i promise something new.

pleasant dreams.

jo

Friday, September 10, 2010

guess what!?!?

my blog has been viewed over 200 times (according to google analytics), and by nearly 60 different persons!!!  i am very excited to know that i am not blogging to myself everyday, and even more excited to know that most of those visits are repeat offenders.  now i need commenters and followers - hmmmm . . .

i am planning a give away in exchange for comments and followers.  it will be awesome.  stay tuned.

anyways.

have i mentioned that my day today has been effing crazy?  i am exhausted and i feel like i have done remarkably little.  i did make a new headband today, and it's pretty darn cute and different and i love it.  alas, i am too tired and too busy to scan it and load it, etc.  so, despite my having made something today i am going to dip into archives to show you something i haven't showed you before.

felt jewelry!

i hand felt all my own beads.  if you have ever felted before you know that it takes for-ev-er, but it is eerily calming for me.  i haven't worked on these in a while and now that i am looking at these lovelies i think i'd like to bust out my wool this next week.

more . . .



this bottom one i call 'happiness'.  i heart bright colors.

so that's all for tonight.  very sleepy.

jo

ps - personal note in case she is reading.  my most awesome cousin is driving home today and i cannot wait to see her.  it's been 6 months, or so, and i have missed her dearly.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

mission complete.

so my goal was to start and finish something today in order for me to go out tonight, and i did it!  confession - i was not terribly ambitious.  i added another errand to my plate for today and it will consume my afternoon.  so, somewhere between walking the peach to school and getting my little fox and i ready for the day, i watched a movie and made this:


i told you i wasn't ambitious, but it's still cute.  i made one similar to this for a craft fair last year and it sold before i was finished setting up.  i don't really like making duplicates of anything so i intend to find ways to stay with the christmas colors and make them all special.

here's a couple others i have knocked out this week amidst the chaos:


front and back

i cannot get away from this color combo!  it makes me smile.


have i mentioned that nearly everything i put on this blog is for sale?  i am building inventory right now for some upcoming shows, so my etsy shop is practically empty.  if you are interested in anything you have seen (or something custom) leave a comment or send me an email.

oh, and if you're following, my little man is back to his happy self.  only got up once last night.  we are all thrilled.

jo

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

found!

my heart wants to paint.  i have been walking by my pile on empty canvasses and bare wood discs all day long and i know (i know!) that if i even try to get one out that something terrible, like a spontaneous brush fire in my living room, will occur.  it's not that i have a large amount of incredibly dry brush in our home - it's that these last 24 hours have been hard.  i would rather wait for this 'whatever' to pass.

part of the 'whatever' is my little fox who is slowly getting back to his normal.  i cannot wait.  i miss my happy baby.

my free time today has been dedicated to the business side of art making.  pricing and inventory-ing, and figuring out how i will package and so on and so on.  it is tedious, but it is the kind of thing i can drop quickly and for hours if need be.  painting seldom allows such interruptions.

in my diligent (and at times ocd-like) inventory-ing i rediscovered something i had painted a few months ago.  it got put on a shelf because it was larger than the others and wouldn't fit in the same box.  she's pretty so i will show her off.

calliope

i have a thing for peacock feathers but had never painted one before this.  i think it went well.

i am setting a goal for myself for tomorrow.  there is this small town mini-event happening tomorrow evening.  i want to go, but i am requiring that i start and finish something art-esque tomorrow before i can go.  fingers crossed.

jo

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

is it time for bed, yet?

apparently my little fox has a very sensitive stomach and even mild changes to his formula make him very irritated.  i got about 3 hours of sleep last night.  i function like a swiss watch on 10 hours.  i can survive on 5-6.  3?  3 simply does not do.

we have the formula issue figured out and hopefully resolved, but it is 7:30 and it feels like boulders are pulling my eyelids down.

today did have some highlights . . .
1 - brunch with an old friend.  we are in different places in our lives, which seems to be a common thread in all my 'old' friendships, but it's really great to reconnect.  one of the perks to staying planted in one place is eventually everyone comes home and you get to see them again.
2 - i mailed off my application for the upcoming art walk.  i actually took the whole packet into the post office to make sure i put the correct postage, and then realized that the address i was sending it to was a p.o.box in that very post office.  i paid $1.50 to deliver the package myself, and i was told that it would arrive tomorrow.  really?  it'll take until tomorrow for you to walk it into the next room?  i digress . . .

my peach had her first sleepover at a friend's house the other night.  this particular friend lives directly across the street, which makes for a great first sleepover.  it was her friend's birthday so she asked me to make her a headband for her gift.  my daughter - she was like a regular customer.  she picked out the colors and everything.  turned out pretty cute:
 
front and back

i just recently started adding a little something on the back side, so i guess technically it is reversible.

some other headbands i've got lying around:






i am always working on new ideas for these and they are super fun to make.  they are also completely adorable when worn.


did you know that a sleep deprived state can feel like you're drunk?  it's not all bad, but i need to wrap this post up before it gets indiscernible.  tomorrow is slated to be a lazy, pajama wearing day.

goodnight.  wish me luck.

jo

Monday, September 6, 2010

happy labor day!!!

church picnics are like a slice of heaven for me.  attendance prizes, games, plant/craft/cake stands, face painting, quilt bingo, running into old friends and making new ones.  i got to spend my day with my family and friends.  can it be any more awesome?  as i sit here typing one-handed while holding my exhausted little boy in all my sun burnt glory i can assure that yes, there was one way the day could have been more awesome - i could have won a quilt.

i love quilts.  i do not actually own any quilts because i love them too much to ever use them but cannot bare the thought of the loveliness sitting in a chest somewhere not being loved upon.  some day i will have a quilt in my life.

so today you get to see the closest thing to a quilt that i have ever made:

it's just a little pillow.  more patchwork than quilt, but that's all i got.  even this is too precious to use and thus it lives in a storage tub in the basement.  so, so sad.

apologies for the short post today.  nothing ends a day with family quite like cuddling on the couch.  i highly suggest it.


jo

Sunday, September 5, 2010

meet dorothy . . .

it has been a very busy holiday weekend so far!  my yesterday was so jam-packed that i didn't have a chance to get on here.  i guess it's a good thing that i never vowed to post every day, huh?

so i have come up with a plan for those days when i have nothing or no time to post . . . i will feature another artist.  it seems that over the years i have surrounded myself with creative people who are extremely talented in their chosen media.  these 'featured artist' posts will start soon, as soon as i get it all organized.  i know you'll love it.

in honor of labor day i will be sharing with you my labor of love for these past two weeks.  allow me to introduce 'dorothy' . . .

dorothy
2010

i know there's a lot going on.  she's bright and colorful and busy and she makes me happy.  hopefully she will make somebody else happy, too.

some in-process pics:

background and first flower.

some flowers done, others in-process.

more done.  more in-process.  wondering if it's possible to run out of color.
(here you can see one of my layout tricks - little wooden discs with different colors on them to figure out what color flower should go where)

flowers all done.  time for the flair and highlights!

done!


details of the final piece:



i hope that i didn't let you down.  she took me a while to finish but i am pleased to move on to the next project.

tomorrow is our church picnic.  it's a pretty big deal for my family, partly because it is held about half a block from our home, and partly because the weather tomorrow is supposed to be unbelievably gorgeous.  today i am hoping to make something to donate to the craft stand, depending of course on my little boy and if i can keep myself from wasting the day away on long walks on this lovely st. louis day.

we'll see.

jo

Friday, September 3, 2010

redemption

to make up for my missed post yesterday . . . 2 posts today!

really big news - i believe i may have finished my big painting project that has tied me up all week.  no, you cannot see it, yet because it is late and i have some small details to clean up.

rather, by numerous requests (yes, more than one person has asked me) i am going to show off a little of my airbrushed stuff.  very little, actually. 

my husband asked me last year to help come up with a logo for his company.  i was working as an airbrush artist and had some down time so i make some examples for him on t-shirts.  here they are:



i just realized how obtrusive those watermarks are with a grey background, but you get the idea, right?  ignore the chalk marks all over the shirts, as i took these photos before they were washed.

hmmm . . . that didn't really show you too much range, did it?  okay, okay.  just a few more.  these are just random shirts i made out of boredom.  the flower one i made for my mom (aren't i a good daughter?).

 

tis past my bedtime and i have to work (yes, occasionally i do go to work) in the morning at the same stand where all these lovelies were made.  who knows what i'll have to show you then? 

sweet dreams.

jo