I’ve got the abc’s

Now I’ve got my “A”:

“Asparagus,” 5 x 5 inches, pen and ink, prints available in my shop

With this drawing, I now have three consecutive letters for my natural patterns alphabet: asparagus, beehive, and chard.

If nothing else, these most recent drawings will remind you to eat your vegetables. Actually, I love asparagus—it is one of those vegetable that is still very seasonal—we really only see it in the Spring. I love to cook it really quickly in a little water and then put some butter, lemon juice and salt on it. Delicious—makes a great snack/appetizer/side dish. It’s pretty much out of season here now—we’re on to the squash–picked my first zucchini this week!

Photo Fun!

In an effort to get my shop in tip-top shape, I’ve been working on some more photos of my work, especially framed, and I’ve been adding some new items. I just added a “print set” section, and in it you will find a new set of four prints of my miniature landscapes. Here are some of the photos I took to show how these look framed:

Slowly, I am learning what works and what doesn’t for getting good lighting and tones on the paper. I took a whole slew of photos of different pieces in frames like the last two here. I mainly tackled 5 x 7 inch pieces yesterday because all of my 8 x 10 inch size frames are hanging at Nestware, a shop downtown, and some of my new items are a different size (like the 5 x 5 alphabet drawings), so I’ll have to cut a mat for them.

I’m noticing that over time, and copious photos, I’m beginning to see differences—the key seems to be comparing a bunch of photos to each other because often you don’t see a weird tint or bad exposure until you compare one photo to the next. These five photos are case in point—looking at them all together I think the wall hanging ones may be a little too light/bright compared to the lower two.

Well, I’m still learning (and surely always will be), but am happy with these efforts so far. Getting photos of all of my work framed is a goal of mine—it will probably happen over time. Check out my shop for new photos. I also may be offering some framed original drawings in my shop soon.

Yart Sale on Etsy!

Guess what?! I’m participating in the Yart Sale (Yard+Art) on Etsy!

What is a Yart Sale? Basically, it’s an annual Etsy-wide sale where any artist or crafter can put up special discounts in the name of Yart. See this article for a full explanation, or you can look at my little piece of Yart Heaven.

Selected original drawings are 30% off, and I have sets of YOU CHOOSE 3 Prints on special:
3-8 x 10’s for $50
3-smaller prints for $40.

The sale goes from June 10-June 14, so what are you waiting for? Check it out!

Chard

I love series! It’s so fun to see how all of the pieces look together, especially if they have common repeating elements with variation—like the border and words in my natural patterns alphabet.

I think that our eyes love to see the repetition—it’s just visually pleasing. Click on the link above to see all five of this series so far, in a flickr set. Here’s the newest one, a leafy green!

“Chard,” 5 x 5 inches, pen and ink, prints available in my shop

I still have a far way to go with this series—21 drawings to be exact, but it is fun to see the number growing!

Weekly Inspiration Digest: possibility

One of the most magical things about childhood is that anything is possible. Big decisions and “the future” live in some far-off universe, and you are left alone with your imagination. Kids really dream—they haven’t been jaded by life, and for the most part, they haven’t been completely indoctrinated with ideas of what they can’t do. Life is one big possibility where you could be an astronaut and an artist, all in the same breath.

Despite the “no’s” and the “cant’s” I learned growing up, I would have to say that this dream reality stuck with me into college. College was for me the ultimate land of possibilities: I was just on the cusp of being able to really live as an adult, but I was still in the safeguard of school, floating from one class to the next, not having to make any big decisions.

But then came the day when I had to make money and pay bills and actually support myself (without any financial aid from school or parent). This was a rude awakening for me, and can be for anyone—especially dreamy creative types. It feels like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. All of the ideas about “who you should be” and “what adults do” crowd into your head, and it’s hard to remember what you used to dream of.

I’ve always loved those movies or stories that talk about that person—the one with the stale office job—and how she had some epiphany on the way to work one day, and all of a sudden she turned her life upside-down and began living her dream—moved to Rome and started writing novels. My heart feeds off of these fairy-tales because they remind me that life is full of possibilities, if you’ll just believe.

I’m lucky to have grown up with parents that are constantly re-defining themselves—they are in the restaurant business—a business that is stereotyped for its unpredictable nature and high risk. While my parents’ lives have been up and down on the security scale, they have never lacked in dreams. New business ventures, doing what they love, and traveling have been priorities of their lives.

Perhaps one of the most inspirational and stereotype-defying things my parents ever did was to move our family to Italy for a year when I was 10 and my sister was 14. This had been a dream for them, and they wanted to make it happen.

People thought they were crazy, thought we would be home within a matter of weeks, but that crazy experience turned out to be the most influential experience in my young life. I was exposed to a whole other culture and world that became an essential part of me. I can honestly say that I would be a very different person today if that had not happened.

On a more abstract level, one that I didn’t realize at age 10, this experience also taught me something crucial about being an adult: it is always possible to take a leap and live your dreams.

While I’m not suggesting that we all plan a year sabbatical in a foreign land (although that might be just the right fit for some people), I am suggesting that it’s never too late to think outside the box.

What really is the point of spending your life grounded in the daily grind, doing what everyone else is saying you should? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the only way we can give our full contribution to this world, is by following our own unique path. The minute you try to follow someone else’s, you are selling yourself short and making yourself miserable along the way.

This is why I think possibility is the most inspiring thing in life—to look out on a day, or a year, or a lifetime and know you can create anything you can imagine, is an amazing and freeing thought. It can also be a terrifying thought—it is a lot of responsibility to realize that you are in control of your own destiny, to realize that the only thing that limits you, is your mind.

While I’m no expert, and I know there are difficult circumstances that get in the way, I think that the people who continue to dream and believe in possibility, even in dire situations like terminal illness and war-torn countries, are the ones who really live. I aspire to live my life this way—to keep my dreams vast and possible.

While I know it does require action to make a dream come true, it is the believing that it is possible that makes the real shift towards bringing dreams to life.

Drawing Day 2009

It’s funny, today is worldwide drawing day, and I had more trouble drawing today, than I usually do. Maybe it was the pressure, or the fact that I’ve been out of the house most of the day on one of the interesting fitness challenges my fiance likes to dream up: a triathlon around our town. Others that he has done include climbing a mountain from high desert at 4,000 feet to a 13,000 foot summit in one day and doing multi-peak one day hikes.

Needless to say, I did not participate in either of those—I do not have the drive or the interest, and I’m unlikely to participate in other ideas he has of riding his bike 100 miles to the mountains and then climbing a peak, but I thought I could give the triathlon a try. So, we ran, we biked, and we swam our way across Davis (actually, we swam in a pool, but we did run and bike across Davis) completing our own little private “sprint triathlon,” and I have little energy left for drawing. It was a lot of fun though, and I got to prove to myself that I’m in better shape than I thought, because I lived to tell about it.

I did manage to do one drawing over breakfast, and have posted it in the drawing day flickr pool. This is a pretty standard breakfast for us: Mike eats oats, I eat a bagel with jam, and we both read—today it was Saveur magazine’s July issue and the newsletter from our local food co-op.

Aid to Artisans

I recently came across an international non-profit organization called Aid to Artisans, and I thought all of you handmade/art lovers would appreciate it. This organization works with artisans from all over the world, helping them build their businesses and giving them access to new global markets.

Being an artist myself, and trying to make a go of it from mainstream U.S. is hard enough, so it seems near impossible to understand how artisans in more remote locations could even have a chance at getting themselves out there into the global market.

I love that this organization is helping that cause, and therefore helping us creative types fulfill what we were put here to do: make things. Their website gives all the nitty-gritty, including info if you would like to buy wholesale or import directly, but they also have an online shop so we can all buy directly. If you’re in the straight-up giving mood, you can also donate cold hard cash straight to Aid to Artisans.

Yay for artisans all over the world!

You’re a Champ!

I just wanted to tell you something:

I know you don’t always think you are, but YOU ARE!

That is all.

(“You’re a Champ!” 8 x 10 inches, pen and ink, available in my shop)

World Drawing Day

I just found out about World Drawing Day over at Pica’s blog, and I’m pretty excited!

What a wonderful way to celebrate drawing and life and such, and take full advantage of this global community that’s developing online. Drawing Day is June 6, and the goal is to have 1 million drawings uploaded from all over the world. Anyone can do it!

Check out the website to find out the details, but it looks like many online places are participating, and you can upload your drawings to any of many different locations, of course marking them with “drawing day” so they can be found. I think I will be using flickr, since I’m already a member, and of course this blog!

Spread the word!! You can draw digitally, or the old-fashioned way. I’m sure you can guess what I’ll be doing:

Strawberries

“Fragole,” 5 x 5 inches, pen and ink, prints available in my shop

It’s strawberry time in this part of the world, so what a perfect time to draw the fruit! Here is a new piece for my natural patterns alphabet, you can see them all so far in a flickr set.

“Fragole” (‘frah-go-lay) is the Italian word for “strawberries” (singular is “fragola”). As I mentioned before, I think I will be sprinkling in some different Italian words, and there will probably end up being various sets within the series by the end (like an Italian set or a fruit set).

Ooh, black strawberries—what fun! I think I mostly make these pieces for selfish personal reasons—like the chance to draw black strawberries and fanciful borders. I figure, it’s not hurting anyone to indulge myself here! Have a happy day!