We Have a Winner!!!

HUGE congratulations and confetti-flinging goes out to Kate K who won a free spot on Soul Food thanks to the Gods of Randomosity at random.org!  A tweet took it!

Thank you to everyone who participated and commented and filled my inbox with joy and loveliness this week!  You all rock my stripey socks off.

NOW.  Back to Super Secret Projects and Thera-Flu.  Happy Holidays, sweet things!

If I sent Christmas cards, this is the picture I would use.  My husband the psychopath. <3

Soul Food Giveaway!

I am honored and amazed to be part of the awesomeness that is Soul Food 2015, and it's my turn for an interview and giveaway!  YAY!!  *cue music and flailing*

If you're not savvy to the Soul Food, it's an awesome three-month-long course that starts in February!  Here are the pertinents:

• 3 Head Chefs: Mystele Kirkeeng, Heather Santos and Jeanette House
• 17 Sous-Chefs
• 2 video instruction mixed media lessons per week for 3 months
• Each artist’s favourite comfort food cooking recipe
• All downloadable videos
• Classroom access through Dec 31, 2015
• Registration will open on January 1, 2015

You can register at Community Thrive (it's free!) where there are a ton of freebies, challenges, and paid workshops to tide you over until February by clicking here!

Here's my awkward interview video (ah, vimeo, could you have picked a more attractive facial expression to use as the thumbnail?  I think not!):




SO now the fun part! The contest! You have four ways to enter, so get to clickin'!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wearing Out my Gelli Plate

Okay, I'm not really wearing it out, but it would be smoking if it could!

Since Roni died, I've found myself lacking in the artistic mojo department - I'd like nothing better than to sit and art journal or something, but it's just not happening.  I've crocheted a bit and have updated my Etsy (with only about a quarter of my stuff, but, hey, progress), but, every time I've tried to do something creative, I've floundered.  Big time.

This seemed like the perfect time to do some Gelli prints!

I'm doing this out of order, but that's okay. ;)  I dug through my pile of cast-off prints and found these three:

They are not pretty prints.  They're mostly ghost prints and cleaning of the brayer or the stencils, but I figured it would be a good challenge to make them into something that I might actually use.

Several pulls, adjustments, and layers later, I have these:

Holy cow so much better!!  I absolutely love the one in the middle with the leaves, although I generally like the whole "cover most of it with paint" thing, so that's not much of a surprise.

After two days of pulling print after print after print, I feel a little more like my mojo is starting to come back, which is a relief.  I'm feeling a little artistically constipated.

Have some Gelli Print eye candy!

With every print I pulled, I cleaned off my brayer on a page in my art journal, and I am absolutely IN LOVE with how it looked by the end of it.

SO MUCH YUM.

Now I need to decide what to do with this enormous stack of prints..

Adventures and Sorrow

Hello!

October is historically my favorite month, but this year I swear it tried to kill me.  It started out so innocently and fun with a trip to Stamford, Connecticut for vending at Art-is-You.  It was awesome to reconnect with some of my favorite people and make dollies do drunken things.

Ah poor drunken dollies.

I came home from Stamford and then immediately loaded the kids and the dog into The Manflesh's truck, and we drove to North Dakota, a 1600-mile drive.  Along the way I officiated over my brother's wedding, which was awesome.  I make goofy faces even in an official capacity.

I spent two days with my favorite cousin, which was amazing, and picked up a Harley.  I also made some skulls for her kitchen since I can't seem to leave anyone's house without leaving art behind.

On the way home, I entertained myself by listening to Welcome to Nightvale, too much Sirius Octane radio (developing an unhealthy obsession with the song Moth by Hellyeah in the process), and a twerking T-rex..

Three days and many miles later, we finally crawled our way back into the homestead, unloaded the Harley, returned the trailer, and passed out.  

My 17-year-old and his Harley.  Yikes. 

The next morning, we got a surprise houseguest, my adopted daughter Jenny.  Even the dog was happy to see her, and he hadn't even met her yet. 

This was two weeks of utter bananas crazy business followed by the gut-punch from the Universe, the shocking passing of my very best friend and soul-sister, Roni.  I've eulogized her, mourned her, consumed too much wine, rum, vodka, and Kahlua in honor of her, and I can't even begin to explain the mad ache in my heart without her.

I'd say rest in peace, but neither of us wants that.  Tear shit up, you crazy bitch.  <3 <3 <3

Artistcellar Stencil WINNER! Plus zombies.

Greetings, lovelies!!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

From the loving hands of random.org to the loving hands of our winner...

NANNER!!  WOO!! *confetti* 

Congratulations, dollface!  I'll ship your info to the Lovely Lisa of Artistcellar, and you'll be making skeletons do lewd things with Mr. T in no time flat!!

In other news, welcome to October!!  It's my favorite month of the year.  There is nothing quite like sitting on my porch at 2 in the morning with a cup of something hot (tea? coffee? coffee spiked with Pumpkin Spice Liqueur?  maybe all of the above) in the quiet and the fog with the leaves falling loudly enough to make my pulse pound.  I think there's a possum living under my porch which makes it even creepier. ;)  This was the view yesterday behind my house... picturesque as hell, right?

In honor of October, I'm going to be doing spooky/creepy-themed paintings for my 50 Canvases videos all month.  WOO.  The first challenge is to paint a zombie...

I'm doing a series of Sideshow Zombies for a gallery show I'm participating in this month.  I'm super excited about the show (it's my first!) and nervous.. and stressing out.

LOOK MY NAME IS ON THERE OMG

Since I'm going to be participating in the Art Trunk at Art is You in Stamford, CT, I won't be able to go to the opening, which is a super bummer.  BUT I'LL SURVIVE.  Maybe. ;)

Okay these sculptures won't sculpt themselves.  Onward!

Weirdos Abound

Greetings, Glow Clouds!

I received a fabulous comment on Artistcellar the other day from Amber K... HI AMBER!  Here's what she said:

I’ve already been following (stalking really) your blog and Wonderstrange and I just adore you guys! I’m always excited to see when you have a new canvas video up!! I would love love love to see a post that just shows your studio table/art area and how you “organize” your stuff. In all your pics/videos you look like you work in a narrow space b/c you have so much other wonderfullness on your table, I and a lot of others out there end up working the same way. I’m always scanning the outside edges of your pictures to see what kind of supply I might find laying around. How about a tour! And not a fake, my studio is clean and pristine and never gets used tour. The real, bare all tour.

Ask and ye shall receive!  I say "crap" a lot.  I'm also a little scatterbrained.  WHATEVER.

In other news, I just designed this pattern which is my new favorite thing.  I swear I would be happy just designing patterns and stitching all day, but that's not so financially lucrative.  Bah.

I should be working on pieces for a gallery show (gulp!), but clicking stitches into boxes was really the sum of my energy.  And remember, in the immortal words of Cecil of Night Vale:

as you watch the sun rise again tomorrow morning, think to yourself: past performance is not a predictor of future results. And then force a smile, drink another cup of coffee, and try not to look down as you walk across the soil that will eventually fill your lifeless lungs and repurpose your corpse

With that cheery thought, I am off to bed!

New Artistcellar Stencils, Blog Hop, and GIVEAWAY!! WOO!!

HEY GUYS.

Today marks my final post as a design team member for Artistcellar and my very first post as part of a blog hop!  Confetti!  Tears!  Confetti!  Tears!

Those clever kids over there managed to snag an amazing papercutter, Béatrice Coron, as their newest signature artist.  She has done a couple of awesome TED talks, check them out here and here!  She is 12 kinds of adorable.

SO ARE THESE STENCILS!  OMG!

                         
They are, in order of appearance, Painter, Housework, Online, and Dancers.  So SO so cute.

I decided to go with a funky canvas and chose the Painter stencil.  I started by brayering black paint onto a 6 x 6 canvas panel:

I love how grungy that looks!  I laid down my stencil and carefully applied white acrylic paint with a makeup sponge:

And then, without moving the stencil, dabbed on some turquoise acrylic with the same sponge:

I removed the stencil and was left with this lovely bit of lovely:

I LOVE how shocked and/or awed the lady skeleton looks.  I sort of wanted to keep it like that, but then this would be a really short post, so I started filling in bones using the flat edge of a paintbrush:

I also gave them big heads.

I used acrylic paints to give them little skully heads and gave the guy a Dali mustache just because that is the kind of mustache I would have if I could grow a mustache. 

One of my favorite parts of Day of the Dead art is the flowers (sometimes I am SUCH A GIRL), so I gave her a flowery headdress and gave him a flowery boutonniere: 

I could not get over the idea that the lady skeleton was scandalized over whatever Dali Guy is painting, so I thought long and hard about what would scandalize a skeleton and came up with this:

If you can't make it out, it says, "his portraiture was scandalously fleshy" ... hahahahhahahaaaaaaa!

I finished it off by using Distress Stain to age the text a bit:

And there you go!

HEY SO NOW A GIVEAWAY!

You can win the full set of stencils by leaving a comment!  I will use random.org to pick a winner on October 1, 2014!  WOOT WOOT!!

For more chances to win, be sure to visit the other blogs on the hop!  VISIT THEM REGARDLESS because they are awesome, every last one of them!

September 20th – Lisa Cousineau, Artistcellar www.artistcellar.com/wp
September 21st – Jill K Berry – jillberrydesign.com/blog
September 22nd – Janet Ghio – www.janetsartplay.blogspot.com
September 23rd – Cheryl Sleboda – http://blog.muppin.com
September 24th – Sarah Trumpp – WHOA that's me!!!
September 25th – Diana Trout – www.dianatrout.typepad.com

Don't forget to leave a comment with a working email address to win!  GOOD LUCK!!

Ack one day!

Last week when I posted I was three days from a show (a show that was not so good, unfortunately) and freaking out a little bit.  Now I'm one day from a three-day show and freaking out a lot.  So I'll blog.  What the heck.

Here, have some eye candy!

I FINALLY got around to painting those zombie cupcakes who have been lurking in the shadows for weeks now.  My painting process is always a little crazy - there are tons of layers and drying and blah blah.  I always tell myself that I'm going to start using colored clay so that I don't have to spend so much time painting, but I never actually will.  I like the look too much, even if it is a pain.

This is where I'm standing right now...

Uhhhhh.  Yeah.  I guess I need to tidy up a little before I get working, eh?  I have a printer's tray that I am planning on filling up with tiny geeky sculptures on alphabet blocks for this weekend's show (which is Rochester ComicCon), so I guess I should get busy.  I have to be done by 2:00 tomorrow.  :-/

I spent most of this week putting together costumes for my kids.  My 6-year-old wants to be the 11th Doctor, so I spent an entire afternoon wandering around an enormous antique mall trying to find a fez.  I finally succeeded in finding one in the VERY LAST ROW.  Of about 100.  Sheez.  My 12-year-old wanted to be the Empty Child, a gasmask-wearing creepazoid.  SO CUTE!

Are you my mummy?

MAN I need to sweep.  My dog sheds like he's going for a record or something.  Sweeping sucks, though, so that probably won't happen.

Stay tuned next week for fun stuff!  WHEE!  *throws confetti*

Three Days

Three days was the morning
My focus three days old
My head, it landed, to the sound of cricket bows…
I am a proud man anyway…
Covered now by three days…

It has been bananas around here, all sick and with bonus migraines.  YAY.  Today I'm sort of feeling human (sort of), but now I have three days until a big show.

Three days was the morning
Three lovers, in three ways
We knew when she landed, three days she’d stay
I am a proud man anyway…
Covered now by three days…

SO now I have to play catch-up.  I painted an abstract today for the 50 Canvases challenge, and now I am off to sculpt.  But YAY NUMBER 30!!!

Abstracts are hard.  It was a crazy sort of struggle to not actually paint THINGS.  It still looks kind of like a city.  You can find more images (and the video) at wonderstrange!

We saw shadows of the morning light
The shadows of the evening sun
Till the shadows and the lights were one
We saw shadows of the morning light
The shadows of the evening sun
Till the shadows and the lights were one…

An announcement or three!

Greetings, pickle chips!  Welcome to September!

This is my favorite time of year.  I was sitting outside on the porch having coffee this morning.. It was about 48 degrees and foggy, mystical, fabulous.  You can already start to feel the thinning of the veil.

Anyway.  Woo woo mysticism aside, I have some announcements!

First and foremost, I just turned 40 on Saturday, which was a weird sort of transition in my head.  I have also been dragged down by my annual Labor Day Cold, so I didn't really notice the transition until this morning.  Expect to see more of me around here!

Announcement #2:  Soul Food!

I'm going to be one of the Sous Chefs for Soul Food in 2015, and I am SUPER CRAZY EXCITED.  It starts February 1, 2015 and offers two lessons per week for three months.  Jam PACKED with awesome!  You can read more information about the class here and get information about the instructors (and see my goofy mug) here.  Woot woot!!

Announcement #3:  I like you!

I have so much other stuff to talk about, but some is secret and some is overwhelming, so I'm just going to leave you with a picture of a painting I've been working on with my daughter, who is 6.

She thinks those ladies are awfully cute.  She's such a little creeper.  The pink things in the background?  Zombie cupcakes.  BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

I'm off to walk the dog and enjoy the quiet house in between bouts of lung-wrenching coughing.  YAY LABOR DAY.  

More challenges

I decided on a whim (as in AS I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A PROJECT) that I want to do the Summer of Color challenge.  Yeah, I know.  I haven't finished a single challenge I've started ALL YEAR.

This one, though, speaks to my inner Delirium.

Delirium from Sandman: Endless Nights

COLOR.  I love color.  And insanity.  But mostly COLOR.  So this one should be easy-peasy, right?  Well, we'll see.

I did a tutorial on making a book-canvas on wonderstrange along with a video demo for this painting if you want to head over there and check it out!

The color challenge this week is turquoise, yellow, and a splash of pink.  It's pretty yum.

In other news, I'm still in a weird sort of rut with my paintings and frustration with not being able to take them where I want them to go, but I keep plugging along.  Also, it's show season, which means sculpture, which means less painting, which means an endless ugly cycle of frustration.  Argh.

Deep breaths! Onward!!

I'm so bananas.

I had this idea on April 1 that I would TOTALLY have time to participate in Effy Wild's blog-along.  HAHAHAHAHAH oh man I'm hilarious.

As you can tell by the lack of posts this month, that obviously hasn't happened!  Right now I'm in the middle of prepping for the Art Trunk at Art-is-You next week - if you're in the Memphis area, you should come see me!!

I'm on a needle felting kick:

And as soon as I make one more I have to clean up real quicklike and start working on my Artistcellar blog project.  and then make 10 journals.  And then more dolls.  And then.. then.. then.

BUT.  In the meantime, I got two awesomes today!  I won a spot in Micki Wilde's Imaginary Creatures class - I went right to the creepy section and watched her make a super cute wee creeper.  It is a really fun class, you should check it out!

Thanks Micki! :D

Then, I saw that the lovely and talented Denthe gave me a Liebster Award.  Thanks so much, Denthe! 

These are the rules for the Liebster Award:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you.
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you.
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers.
4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination.
5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer.

Denthe happily 'adjusted' the rules (thank goodness!  11 questions is a lot!), so I'm going to do that too.  But first, I'll answer her questions :D

Which kind of art do you like and why?  I like art that has a lot going on.  Whether it's patterns or textures or a bunch of crazy cross-hatching, I am most drawn (har) to art that is full of surprises.  Plus anything with florescent pink or painted by Jesse Reno.

Is there something you really want to do in your life that you haven’t done yet?  There is SO MUCH.  From visiting The Louvre to the pyramids to firing a crossbow and mastering the rice-on-the-outside sushi roll. 

How would your best friend describe you in one word?  Funny.  (I think that's what she says most, anyway.. haha)

Do you do any kind of sports? (just want to see where I stand compared to other people ☺)  hahahahah nooooooooooo.  I do love yoga and just remembered yesterday that I really like badminton, but I don't think they count as sports!

Do you sell your art, or would you like to?  I do!  I'm staring down the barrel of Show Season and freaking out a little already.  I sell on Etsy, too (link to the right!).

OKAY, so now, my nomination is YOU.  If you're reading this, I would love it if you answered these questions - you can do it in your blog or in the comments here, and you can pass it along according to the rules above if that turns you on. :D  I'm only doing six questions because OMG I HAVE TO GET TO WORK. ;)

1.  What is your favorite quote?

2.  What would you love to learn to do?  

3.  Have you ever gone sky diving?  If not, would you?

4.  Coffee or tea?

5.  What word makes you cringe?

6.  What is your favorite art-related tool or technique?