My blog has moved!

Hey guys!  My personal blog is now at wonderstrumpet.com (or wonderstrumpet.wonderstrange.com) - Come on over!  Xo!

OMG DONE

This has been a crazy month. My kid turned 18, I went and spent a long weekend with some of my favorite girls in Savannah, came back just in time to have a lovely week-long visit from my mom for my kid's graduation, then went to Cape May, New Jersey for a week. In the midst of all of this, I decided it would be a good idea to rearrange and reorganize my mad scientist's lab. I AM SO SMART.

Check out the before:

So messy. The tables are movable, which is awesome for my short attention span when it comes to furniture arrangements, but having them all spread around like that was irritating the crap out of me. Now, though... lovely.

I bought some new shelves and a cabinet for my fabric...

My daughter promptly covered it with handprints, which makes it even more awesome. Now I have three individual areas with all of the appropriate supplies - one for painting...

One for sewing...

And one for sculpting...

YAY!

I even have this awesome pegboard on a lazy susan that I got from the owner of the local convenience store that I'm using to corral my ridiculous stencil collection.

Now maybe I'll go paint something.

BUT FIRST!

I'm going to give away some stencils!

Artistcellar recently had a giveaway, and I won Mini Steampunk Pocket Stencils, which I already have thanks to my tenure on their design team! Leave a comment on this post (if for some reason it doesn't work, comment on or share this Facebook post), and I'll pick a winner on July 23rd!

Okay NOW maybe I'll go paint something.

xo!

Sarah

 

Radiant!!!

There have been SO MANY exciting things happening in my life lately, with my own workshop hosted by Community Thrive, my kid graduating, an impending Drunk Vacation to Savannah, visits from family (including my mom, who I haven't seen in WAY TOO LONG), and my cup is completely overflowing. Like completely.

One of the ridiculously exciting things that has been happening behind the scenes is that the lovely and talented Effy Wild asked me to teach in her Radiant: Art Journals course. SWOON. Not only is Effy one of my soul sisters in every way conceivable (we may as well have hatched in the same mad scientist's laboratory), but the teachers are just RIDONCULOUSLY STELLAR. Check out this lineup!!

• Tamara LaPorte
• Tangie Baxter
• Dyan Reaveley
• Sarah Trumpp (holy crap that's me!)
• France Papillon
• Micki Wilde
• Juna Biagion
• Iris Fritschi-Cussens
• Marieke Blokland
• Nolwenn Petibois
• Jeanette Montero
• Kelly Hoernig
• Felicia Borges
• with bonus lessons by Andrea Schroeder & Chelle Stein!

Click here for more information about the class and the instructors!

The lovely Effy will work along with us by posting her take on each lesson, so you get 31 lessons for one price. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!? The answer is SO AWESOME.

I'm going to be taking you through a week in my art journal, my own personal style of journaling, incorporating art, photography, momento-keeping/scrapbooking, and general craziness. Here are some samples of what I'm shooting for!

If you decide to join us, it would be amazing!! If you sign up using my links above, I'll get paid, and that will also be amazing!!! Either way, amazing!

 

 

How it Feels to be the Mother of an Adult, Officially

There are too many feels.

My oldest kid turned 18 on Monday after a whirlwind weekend of too much catering to drunks, fair food, live music, and general business and crazy. The following days were filled with present-buying (a new bass for the birthday boy), workshop-filming, and visiting with my sweet adopted daughter, and today, in the shade of the porch on a balmy spring day, I have finally gotten a moment to myself to just... adjust.

Let me tell you, I am mildly overwhelmed. The sweet little boy who would cry when my band stopped playing, would fall asleep on my lap to the soothing sounds of Xena: Warrior Princess, would throw the Rock Fist in his car seat as we barreled through the desert is now officially a Man. MIND BOGGLING.

He is a wonderful kid. Kid? YES KID. He is smart, witty, hilariously awesome, kind-hearted with enough cynicism to keep him from being a doormat. A hard worker (when he wants to be... hahah). A joy in every way. Seriously. Even when he's driving me crazy. He graduates in less than a month, and I can hardly believe it. I can hardly believe I was given the gift to be able to share my world with this beautiful soul.

Adorable.

So, Jerod, on this, the day of my daughter's wedding (WINK), I wish these things for you:

May you always have enough adventure to never be bored.

May you always have the courage and tenacity to seize life with those pointy little teeth and take everything it has to offer.

May you always love more than you hate.

May you always have enough.

May you always have confidence and unwavering determination.

May you always find it within you to laugh, even when life isn't very funny.

May you always find moments of serenity, moments of fierce joy, moments of hope and wonder and love, always love.

 

Love you more than Sriracha, kid.

 

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

Woot woot! We have a winner!

Kearston Brown!!

YAAAAAYYY!!

Congratulations, lovey! I'll contact you through Facebook to get your details!

In other news, my Soul Food lesson has inspired some fantastic art, just fantastic!!! It has been so exciting to watch, I can barely contain myself. Here's the full non-sneak-peek version of it in case you're interested and/or curious and/or humoring me.. ;)

I will probably be offering it as a stand-alone at some point, so stay tuned for that. Also stay tuned for more announcements in the next couple of weeks. EEEK.

Also, I am sunburned and it itches. That is all.

CONGRATULATIONS, KEARSTON!

 

 

A Giveaway and Crawling Out of a Hole

Greetings lovely lovelies!

Depression is a weird beast. I haven't dealt with it much in my life, and I have a whole new understanding and heavy dose of compassion for people who suffer with chronic depression. After my friend died in October, I had so much crazy to keep me busy with birthdays and holidays and other madness that I never really dealt with the fact that she was gone. In January, it hit me hard. In February, it hit me harder with the added bonus of having absolutely no artistic energy available to give, which led to the inner slavedriver admonishing me for not getting anything done. So I had artistic constipation and a constant stream of yelling and insults inside my own head. FABULOUS. I eventually admitted to myself that I might have a problem and that no amount of name-calling or self-flagellation was going to fix it.

Finally, I just decided to cut myself some slack, do what I needed to do to just BE (which included organizing yarn, playing lots of ukulele, and not forcing the Art Issue), and take time to mourn and recover. I haven't done much art and have been telling myself that that's okay. Now, in April, I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. I've painted a bit, have managed to finish stuff that had deadlines, and helped host an Art-a-Thon in March with three lovely ladies which found me painting things for no other reason than just to paint. A huge step in the moving-forward arena.

That same Art-a-Thon had prizes, and that's what brings me to today's post! One of my prize winners never claimed her prize, so I'm giving it away here, this Dazed Dolly:

 

Just enter using the Rafflecopter widget below, and I'll pick a winner next Thursday!

I also have some exciting things coming up that I want to touch on - my Soul Food lesson goes LIVE tomorrow! WHEE!! Here's a sneak peek of things to come:

I also have a LIVE IN-PERSON workshop coming up in June in Paducah, Kentucky at Ephemera Paducah with the amazingly awesome Sunny Carvalho! She will teach you to paint awesome things, I will teach you to sculpt awesome things, and it will be awesome. Have I mentioned awesome? Awesome.

You can find more information about this workshop here. I hope to see you there! There may be a glowstick rave. Just sayin'.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Surprise Surprise, I'm behind

I go into these challenges with dreams of success and then fizzle.  But I will attempt to persevere!

I have a couple of faces, anyway...

So it's a tomato and a chunk of fresh mozzarella, but it counts cause I say so.  SO THERE.

I also did this page in my Recordings journal:

SO I guess I'm up to 6.

My plans for the day (studying until my eyes bleed and then painting until I can't stay awake anymore) got totally derailed by the realization that I may have to cook a bunch of fish tonight at the bar where I'm occasionally enslaved/employed since it's Ash Wednesday and apparently eating fish is a thing.  I'm so out of touch on religious traditions.

Triangle Heads

'allo!

One of the billion projects I'm doing right now is called Recordings - I've posted about it before - a circular journal made out of an old LP with music-based spreads.  This week my song is Tessellate by Alt-J:

The song is haunting and beautiful and strangely erotic.  I absolutely love it.

The spread I made is not haunting, beautiful, or erotic, but WHATEVER.  FACES:

TWO of them!  Whee!

So that brings my count up to a whopping 3.  I am kicking so much ass. ;)

There's a video from The Water Bearer on wonderstrange if you want to check it out:  ClickyClicky.

There are closeups and more babbling about this spread also on wonderstrange.  There will be a video probably late tonight since I have to work and go to class in the meantime.  Real life, you suck.

I'm going to go tessellate.

29 Faces and some Soul Food Pimpage!

Greetings and salutations, money-maker-shakers!

I'm trying really hard to do 29 Faces this year.  I'm trying really hard to finish the 50 Canvases project that I left hanging last year.  I'm trying really hard to manage to stay at the art table for more than 5 minutes at a time, too, so we'll see how it goes.

All of that aside, here's my first face and first catch-up canvas:

I'm doing a series of Zodiac paintings, and this is The Water Bearer (aka Aquarius).  I decided to start all of the canvases the same way by gluing down some random papers then stenciling a heart with modeling paste.  I've been putting some extra modeling paste down for some awesome texture, too...

Since texture makes me so happy...

I will be teaching something like this for Soul Food, something with modeling paste and texture and crazy color.  Yay!

Speaking of Soul Food, it started yesterday!  I'm so excited about the opportunity to teach with such an amazing lineup of people, like Ayala, the innovator behind 29 Faces.  Her work is full of color and texture, and she offers mixed media workshops on her site.  Give her a click, you know you wanna.

Since I started the Recordings project (it's music-based art journaling), I've really started to acknowledge the effect that music has on me while I'm painting.  For example, I found myself painting along to the beat earlier today, and I'll catch myself zoning out during a part of a song that I really resonate with.  It's no wonder I don't get anything done. ;)

This is today's theme song:

Happy New Year (three weeks late)

Greetings, lovely lovelies!

I hope the first three weeks of your year have been wonderful and fantastic and joyful and not at all plagued by locusts.

I am still having a hell of a time with the making of the arts, so I've been watching a lot of Desperate Housewives and drinking a lot of tea.  Hey, at least the tea is aesthetically pleasing.

The Manflesh (the psycho from the previous post) has grand plans for my clutter corner, including countertops and cabinets and all sorts of crazy awesomeness (as soon as the money fairies decide to visit), and I'm excited but sad about losing all of those layers of paint.  I can go into the garage and fondle them, though, so all is not lost.

Since the last three months of 2014 were horrid ugly assholes, I never finished the 50 canvases project.  Boo.  I am going to try and finish them in the next couple of months, though - it's time to kick myself out of this funk and work through it.  I miss inky fingers and paint-splattered glasses.  I wish I was kidding.  I'm messy.

In the meantime, I've started a new project!  A music-oriented art journal project in a journal made from an old vinyl album.  I like beating the hell out of a dead horse, apparently.

Anyway, sneakpeek!

.OH MY CIRCLES.  Circles make me happy.  A circle-shaped journal makes me EXTRA HAPPY.

I mean.. look at those curves.  Dangerous.

The blue under the Gelli print is the record sleeve from an old Tubes album that I liked a lot.  I destroyed the album trying to figure out how to properly chop them in half.  oops.  Clumsy me.

Speaking of clumsy me, I started this project by impaling myself on the blade of my circle cutter.

It's been christened in blood.

There will be video by the end of the day that I'll post on wonderstrange tomorrow!  Wootwoot!

Onward!

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!