Pancakes and Booze - Take 2!

Hey I know all things art (and I in general) have been off the radar. I've had some fun this summer and done some shows here and there and am currently gearing up for the Pancakes and Booze show again this coming weekend! I really loved doing this event last time, it was such a great intro to the displaying-art world.

Something that will be a bit interesting about this go around will be that I'm not showing a complete set. The last few months  my work has been transitioning from melted wax as my base medium to acrylic paints. I've dabbled with drip paintings, basic acrylic techniques, watercolors (again), pastels, wood burning, even some portrait drawing... I honestly really struggled the last few months with figuring out where or how to take the next step in my art, how to stay true to what I personally want to explore and how to maintain my style in the process of learning.  Its been a trip and I'm really excited to share some of the things I've done, even if sharing an incomplete, mismatched, set is a bit outside my perfectionist comfort zone. This is the REAL stuff... the experiments, the new growth!

I tossed in a couple of my drip paintings... I'm having a hard time deciding which to hang... there's a giraffe that I think is trying to make a debut... I just got my elephant and goldfish prints up in my etsy shop. The goldfish original was one of my first to sell in this set...S/he got shipped off to California last month sometime. :)

Stay tuned for an update on the show!!

New art is underway

Well I made it home from Hawaii - talk about an adventure! I can't wait to write my entry about it and share that adventure with you but tonight its about art. I came back from my trip feeling really revived - encouraged to pursue my biggest dreams, to broaden my horizons, and embrace where I'm at.

I have to take a moment to say, I am so thankful for everyone that has supported me up to this point, especially to those in the beginning that really believed in me when I doubted myself. Without your faith and encouragement I may never have considered myself an artist, I may never have reached out to share my work with others; I may have never learned to freely give my heart and soul to those around me. I am so thankful to those now, who are with me in this fresh beginning, who see what I've been doing inside my shell and are calling me out into the light and finally I am SO incredibly thankful for those who will be there in my next beginning, my next project, my next style... I'm thankful for all the blessings that are already on their way to me. THANK YOU!

OKAY sappiness is over.

LOOK! I drew something ugly and mean looking!

 Its an angler fish... creeepy eh? it's not the cutest thing I've ever drawn but I like the idea of doing a small series of somewhat "rough" looking creatures and really, what better subjects than deep sea animals..... fish with razor teeth are pretty rough if you ask me.

Also, I sold my first mermaid girl... Maybe it just the fact that she was kind of different from my other paintings... maybe it was just that she didn't get to hang out very long.... but she was a hard one to let go of... I know there will be more but she was the first ya' know? (I apparently lied about the sappy part being over).

I'm trying really hard to figure out what my new routine will look like. Its time to start training for my half marathon but I have a lot of positive energy going with my art (and even my cupcakes) so this will be an interesting run. Good thing I got a lot of practice last year!

Art Series

Ya know, I think I may have posted an entry  melting my very first wax painting creation thing and its kind of fun watching the progress I've made with the medium. I know I posted a bunch from my collection last year when I did the show at Starbucks but since then art has really taken the back burner... I did some drawings in Feb-March that I might revisit at some point but it was nothing that stuck... I dabbled with watercolors the last 6 months maybe and will continue playing with them because I enjoy their fluidity but recently I have found myself circling back to my roots - digging through my boxes (and bowls) of crayons and blasting away with my heat gun. I just thought I'd share really quick a few of the new paintings I've busted out this week. I'd like to do an underwater series since I've been drawn that category recently (no pun intended) I really loved using a different color in these ones... all of my paintings prior to this had the line work done in black and white but there's something special about the yellow in these ones... it works if you ask me. : )

So while we're on the topic of arts - about 4 months ago my little sister got me into hula hooping... Eventually I'll get down to making a fun post about it because next month I'm going to HAWAII for a hoop retreat! HOW FUN!?!?! I've never been to hawaii and I'm really looking forward to this! Does anyone else already have plans to make 2014 an awesome year?