Artists and Poets Self Portrait Challenge, me at 44.99999?

Note: This is also my submission for Illustration Friday for April 25, 2008! I should have made a new entry but of course didn't think of it until after I submitted the link to this one.

Well, this month's challenge in the ZNE Artists and Poets group was to do a self-portrait and use a few words to describe yourself. Hmmm... I started out with the idea that I would do an actual, look-in-the-mirror self portrait. Ugh. I couldn't bear it. I'm in such a state about my looks lately. So my next bright idea was to do a self portrait that would portray how I think I look. You know that mythical self image you have that is always cracked when you see how you really look in the Christmas photo your Aunt Millie took when you weren't ready?

So I started on the painting and along the way it morphed into this sad-faced girl with the beginnings of jowls. Then my tiny little poem came to me and I realized that I was still in the state of mind so beautifully described by Paisley here. I had the plan, heck it was practically a credo, to "live fast and die young." My mother died when she was just 41 years old and because of that I always had the fear that I would go the same route. (It was a great relief to turn 42.) Maybe conviction is a better word than fear. I think subconsiously I always thought I wouldn't be around to get old - so why prepare for it?

What that looked like was no sunscreen, lots of alcohol, no exercise routine to speak of, many late nights, chronic sleep deprivation (hey, that's still true!), more alcohol, no savings, fantastic - but fattening and rich - food from fabulous restaurants (hence the no savings part!), lots of laughing, and hundreds of fun memories.

Tomorrow I turn 45. My hair is going gray fast. My skin's dryness factor has doubled in the past year. Stupid, stupid hormones are making my face break out (I'm a little bitter about this part). I'm beginning to see wrinkles - wrinkles! - on my face and neck (I refuse to talk about the Creeping Jowl Syndrome.). My body has apparently lost the ability to burn calories without assistance and I had to get tri-focals this year. Gah!

On the other hand, when I look at my life at 45, I see that I have so, so much. Just having a wonderful husband and daughter and a fulfilling art habit are so much more than I ever dreamed of having. It's a beautiful life and I am so grateful now that I didn't die young. But I'm still not reconciled to the wrinkle thing...

Art Crusade #18 - Fun With Rubber in Room 206!

If you're a little like me and you need a kick in is the a** to get yourself to try new things, then Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press Street Team Art Crusades are for you! Hmm...Henceforth to be known as The Art Crusade. (I say a little like me because if you were just like me you'd need 2 kicks in the a**!) I have found them to be so fun and such a good incentive to step out of my box. Click on the button above to check it out!

This month, as I mentioned before, the challenge was to create your own stamps and stencils. Well, since the beginning of the month when I wrote that, it's been changed to just create your own stamps and April will be create your own stencils. And what do I say to that??? Yippee!!! Because of the change, I felt like I really had to try my hand at making a stamp. I was very reluctant. I'm not sure why, maybe I thought it would be too hard and I would get a terrible result. Well, I'm here to tell you, it is not too hard and it is a heckuva lot of fun!

Last night I went to the Room 206 3rd Friday art party; termed this month, "Fun with Rubber!" (If that doesn't get you excited, I don't know what will!) Liisa very generously went down to Daniel Smith and picked up some rubber and Speedball blades for everyone to use. (unfortunately they don't offer these items online, only in-store. But they are a great source for paint - their store brand rivals just about any other brand)

Here is what I did:

Here's how I did it:

First, I just tried out a little design. That's where I got the star stamp. I wanted to so something simple that I could draw right on the rubber without worrying about messing up. Then I took the little Speedball cutter and just cut out the outline of the star. I was going to gouge out all around the star, but went I took out the first line that I cut I decided I would like lines radiating out from the star.

Next was the hard part. I wanted to do something else, something bigger. But I didn't have any bright ideas. My original plan had been to print out some of my photoshop brushes that I really like - but I ran out of time. So I started leafing through my art journal and found this page:

(Note the note to myself at the top. Cuter than a squid? He still thinks that's a great compliment. I started this journal in March of 2006 right after I first read True Colors.)

At first I was just going to wimp out and do one bird, but then everyone at the table said they loved the look of the 3 birds standing on each other, so I decided to be brave. I pulled out a piece of card stock and started drawing and eventually ended up with this - in pencil:

Then I thought, "Well how am I going to get that on the rubber?" I had read the transfer instructions but I didn't have a copier handy and I always have difficulties with transfers anyway. I decided to try it the old fashioned way. I drew over the regular pencil with a charcoal pencil, flipped the image over onto the rubber and then rubbed the back of it with a bone folder thingy that Liisa had handy. Wow. When I lifted the paper there was a perfect transfer! (not only that, I think I could have just transferred the pencil - a few pencil lines showed up where I had missed with the charcoal)

Then I went to town with the cutters! I first outlined it shallowly with the small blade and then took out the in between parts with a larger blade. Liisa recommended I just cut off the bits I didn't need entirely to save myself the headache of trying to scoop it all out. Fine tuning it probably took the longest time. I kept inking it and stamping to see if my shaving was deep enough. I probably ended up doing that ten times. Little high spots kept popping up. (no pun intended there)

All in all, I was extraordinarily pleased with the results of this endeavor and I brought home a huge block of rubber so that I could make more. (More! More! More!)

Thank you Michelle!

Fab Finds Tuesday - and Blogs that do the work for you...

I know, it would sound so much better if it were Fab Finds Friday - but I didn't want to wait!

A Thing of Beauty

100 Great Etsy Artists

First, today I got an email from a fellow indie public, Land of Etsy group member announcing a blog post. I get 900 of these a day because I keep forgetting to change my mail preferences. Usually, I read down the subject list and don't really read very many of them. There's just not enough time in the day to go explore everybody's 10% off sale, you know? (Sorry Land of Etsy-ers, there's just not. I wish there was.) Anyway, I read about every 7th email. Today was my lucky day! I read an email from Anne/lovestreams. The blog post she was announcing is a list of 100 great Etsy artists that she admires. It is an amazing post. She has included the banner and 3 thumbnails of every artist (that's 400 images!), plus a link to each person's etsy store. This was truly a labor of love. She has only included painters, mixed media, and illustrators in this batch (there's more to come!?) and I love just about every artist she listed. Click here to see who she picked.

(One of my favorite Etsy sellers is included in the 100 Artists, Art & Ghosts, this is one of my favorite pieces. It's called "Mushroom Door.")

note: while writing this post, I decided to buy it! Whoo hoo!


Beehive Kitchenware

This store has the best stuff for your house! I'm in love with so much of it I can't possibly post all the pictures. Here are two of my current crushes:

Go look! I challenge you not to find something you want there!

Mijnes

Okay, that's supposed to be a diaper bag - but if it were mine I'd use it for everything! This place has a myriad of colorful, animal-rific products; bags, diaperbags, wall hangings, storage boxes...I love it! It's not cheap, though. Too bad for me, but maybe not for you?

Trunkt

Most of you have probably been here or know about it, but it's fun to look around. I have the link keyed to go to the most popular Art items, but there are a bunch of categories to peruse.

The Cutting Edge

If you, like me, love great paper products (and I'm sure that you do!), you will absolutely adore this Etsy store! She makes the most ordinary things look extraordinary.
One of the super cute tags in this Etsy store:

Cuteable

This person finds stuff from sources all over the web. Fab stuff like these (click on the picture or here for the store) from an Etsy store called Monarch Monograms:



Have fun looking!