IF - Artificial

Artificial Cityscape - 6"x 4" Altered Postcard, Acrylic and Collage

This went somewhere I wasn't expecting. I'm really liking working on this slick surface. I have an entire box full of old postcards from a Freecycler and plenty of paper and curiosity. Wonder what will come up next week.

Performer

Always Performing - 14"x11" Acrylic and Collage

Finished this one for ARN. I rarely go back to a piece. I usually put it aside and move on. But with the annual group show coming up, I really need pieces to contribute!

I'm not sure it's entirely successful, but I'm ok with it. The last "real" painting I did was for Salad months ago. I want to get back into doing self portraits using all the collage, transfer and textural techniques I've learned over the last several years.

I had a bunch of self portrait ideas lined up just after graduation, but then shit hit the fan with Boy#1's behavior, pregnancy, birth, and finally Boy#1's diagnosis with Asperger's. It's taken me 6 years to get back to the point where I feel like painting something personal.

Illo Dump - Summertime Edition

Over 6 years after graduating with my art degree and I'm finally getting back my motivation to make art on a regular basis.

Mondays seem to be a very good day for this. I've been working on what I hoped to be small, quick pieces for Illustration Friday for the past several weeks. Except with the boys home from school quick gets its own new, shiny definition (ie it won't take you long, but the time you actually get to work on it will be stretched out over several days and/or weeks.) You'd think by now I'd know this and would plan for it. I swear I developed a very persistent version of postpartum ADD that becomes exponentially more severe with each child birthed. Sigh

Double

Scrambling eggs is sometimes the most satisfying part of my day, 6"x4", Acrylic and collage

Breakfast

Breakfast is Coffee, 4"x6", Acrylic and Collage

Diary

What if her goth friends find out that she has a crush on Justin Bieber?, 2"x3", Acrylic and Collage

Root

Carrots notice everything - 6.75" x 6" mixed media

I'm really happy with the subtle textures on this one and glad I did the initial quick and dirty sketch.

IF - Slither

The snake attempted to slither through the carrots without notice. Unfortunately, carrots notice everything.

I vowed in September to submit something to Illustration Friday every week! The shop has been so busy (a good thing) and finding the time to pursue two careers at once while being a work from home mom is challenging to say the least. I'm doubling up again with this quick and dirty sketch. My art group theme for June is "root." I'll be doing a more finished mixed media piece for ARN. I'm looking forward to lots of layering and general glue messiness!

Salad

Tossed Salad - Mixed Media

The Art Right Now! group meetings are up and running! Tonight was our first real meeting for 2010 and it went great. Despite our initial aversion for the theme, every one made some great pieces. I've decided to start taking my illustration work more seriously and worked up a mixed media spot illo perfect for a magazine ad, stock illustration or as a member suggested - grocery store tote. I really enjoyed painting again and surprised myself by falling right back into it without much trouble.

Decisions, Decisions...

Here we are, 3 days into February, and I still can't decide what colorways to dye up for this month's Randomness series. It's going to be an all Maki month; I have so much "regular" yarn in the shop and the Maki are really lacking.

I love choosing colors randomly over at colourlovers.com and seeing how they work together in a palette. I let the random color chooser pick the colors and I line them up in the order I get them. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. But I LOVE the combos that I probably wouldn't normally choose. These are the reason I'm having such a difficult time deciding - I love them all.

Look for popular colorways that have sold out - Umeboshi, Winter Outing, Twinkle Lights and more!