hubble star*cast

I was lying in bed sick today, very frustrated about my lack of energy and inability to work on projects when my internet-ing led me to this:



It's a monthly stargazing video podcast from Hubble! February is essentially over but highlights include Jupiter, Betelgeuse, Canis Major and Venus.

❤ + ❤

I know we've passed Valentines Day, but here's to having love around all the time.

two down

Journal No. 2 {May 2010 - January 2011}

Another art journal full. I had mixed feelings about this one. I loved the size, the binding and the soft leather wrap cover - but the paper was just atrocious! It soaked up watercolors like a sponge and when I tried to spread or blend my paint the paper pilled up like a sweater. Erasing pencil marks solicited similar results, layers of the paper would peel right up at the slightest touch. Really, really frustrating. I may try to find something with similar binding but different paper at some point in the future.

My creative relationship with this journal was a bit uncomfortable as well. It never lent itself to writing so that aspect is completely absent. It certainly felt (both then + now) as though something were very much missing. Several of the pages are filled with abstract paint sketches that confuse me. They are emotionally charged and uncomfortable for me to look at, yet still sort of intriguing to my eye. I don't really understand where they came from. Maybe I'm not ready to accept where they came from? Or maybe they're just bad! Who knows? (But I am uncomfortable with them enough that for now they will remain in the journal unposted.) There were also some pages that I think came out really good, great and stellar! Strange things, perhaps I need to get farther from it to see it more clearly?

See more from this journal here.

seeing ghosts

A great friend of mine visited Vancouver BC for Chinese New Year and brought this back for me:

Look familiar? It's the sibling of my former and most precious art journal. WHOA!! Even the motif on the pages is the same. I've already started Journal No. 3 so this one will have to wait and be Journal No. 4 - how will it compare to it's predecessor I wonder?

featuries

I was featured in two awesome Etsy Treasuries very recently:

Both are filled with some really really great items - go take a closer look you won't be sorry! Cool dudes and thanks so much!

chore

 

Making myself business cards is the most tedious of chores. I find them irritating not through any fault of their own, but because of my own capriciousness. Just when I've put 100 cards through three runs on the letterpress I decide they're somehow inadequate. Or inappropriate. Or I change my phone number. Or my blog address. (Whatever, I like being difficult.) So here's what I've done this time. I only made 25 and I did them completely by hand whilst watching TV. Very little invested so that two months from now when I decide they become obsolete - no big deal! AND I got to watch TV guiltlessly! (I was doing "a project.")

A little watercolor. A little marker. A little customizable self-inking stamp. Voila! The yellow is of course virtually illegible but hey, such is life when you're the color yellow I suppose. I'm sure she's used to it by now. Also, there were only two ".coms" so you know, just imagine the other one in I guess. 

But hey! There's rainbow colors, and cursive, and necessary contact information. What more do you, or I, or they need really?

rest in pieces

Today I tore apart an item most precious to me so that I might gain greater access to its contents.

I need some high quality scans of the artwork in this sucker, but that just can't be done when they're all bound together - so it had to come apart. For a little history and views of this journal pre-dismemberment see this post.

RIP little guy, you were the best.

moon time

I'm shopping for a new lunar calendar over on Etsy. I think I'm going to get this one from Three Brown Hares:

But this one from Caitlyn Galloway is super gorgeous too!

Tough!

snail lover

A sweet little snail lover to accompany our slug buddy.

Awwwe! Both slug + snail are linoleum block prints inspired by drawings I had made previously for my sweetie. This is the first time that I've used the carved negative space on the block for a textural effect and I really like it! I was also much more casual with the way I carved these two, I didn't over think the drawing-to-carving transition and just worked the block intuitively. I'm really happy with the result!

Both are available in my shop and so far have been a hit! Thanks guys!