listed

I finally got to listing the prints from my make-ation! I took them, as well as some new patches to Myrtle Edwards Park for a photoshoot - it was a humid 80 degree September day, I wasn't feeling too well, I was sweating like crazy and I really thought I was going to die of dehydration while I was there. It's ridiculous, I know, but that's the story! If there had been less trash floating in the sound I would've gone in for a dip clothes and all, but I settled for wading.

Last week I whipped up a second set of mountain patches again inspired by one of my watercolor paintings. These mountains are a little larger and made entirely from repurposed fabrics! (Old clothes, bedsheets, etc.) I really like them and I think the t-shirt fabric will wear well over time. See the listing here.

I also photographed a print that I have been working on for quite some time, I believe I asked for help with it in this post more than a year ago! Originally a collage from my first art journal, I think this print has more incarnations in it than I have yet to discover. I have two linos carved for this image: a positive and a negative. The positive is seen in the post I listed above and prints the outlines that made the illustration; the negative, which is this one here, prints all the space within those outlines. I was hemming and hawing over adding more colors/layers/textures/what-have-you and after feeling overwhelmed by it forever decided to stick with something simple, at least for now. The yellow ink on brown paper was a little difficult to photograph as shadows make it appear greenish, but it looks great in person. Listed here.

This next print is one of my favorites. It was inspired by a wildly visionary dream I had one night, a dream so vivid I'm still not over it. In the dream a mountain rose up from the ground against the night sky, the tallest mountain ever, so tall its tip reached the edge of Earth's atmosphere and reflected itself back, curving around the inside of the sphere like glass in a marble. This print is available in two sizes: 5"x7" on cover stock parchment or 4"x6" on text weigh parchment. Listed here.

Mission accomplished! I also gave my shop a make-over as I worked on all these listings. Before, I had the most direct or straight on shot of my item as the first photo shoppers see in an effort to stand out amongst other listings in search results, but I found the look overwhelming and too in-your-face. I changed things up so the initial photos are a little more understated, approachable or atmospheric. I think it's a great improvement!

According to Etsy my shop's birthday is approaching, tomorrow! But I don't count September 30, 2009 as the opening day for my shop, I listed a handful of items that day and didn't pay any attention to them or my shop again for the next six months, I suppose you could call it an experimental opening. Sometime in late March 2010 I got super motivated to revisit my shop and give it an honest effort, it's been a slow process since then but growth has most certainly occurred! As you can see above I've had 43 sales, I would love to make it to 50 before the end of the year. That's only 7 more sales, not a big goal I know, but a goal none-the-less. I would also love to be introduced to some new customers, so if you feel like telling a few friends about my stuff please do! It would be much appreciated!!What's up next? Well, I've still got those crystal portraits hanging around and I would love to make a print out of my oyster shell Zen experience, but I'm feeling like having a little collage/art time in and out of my sketchbook. Things could get interesting!

pinning

Not too long ago I started using Pinterest to collect images and inspiration I find during my daily regiment of internet-time-wasting. I'm quite pleased with it so far. I keep my usage pretty basic by just saving all my "pins" on one board instead of sorting them into multiple categories, I don't pin enough to require much strict organization. Plus, I like seeing these images that speak to me so loud and clear all together - it's easier to get a sense of how they relate to one another and to me. It's sort of like getting a glimpse into the mush that is my brain during a particularly creative or day-dreamy moment. Here's a peak at my pin-board:

You can see my full board here, or click the link near the top of the right hand column over there ➹. If you often come across images you're loath to see slip back into the internet abyss, or if you just have a collector's nature I totally recommend it. So far it works perfectly for its intended purpose and doesn't have the weird social-network vortex effect of sites like Twitter and Facebook. Odd that a site for collecting (hoarding?) images is the only one that doesn't make me feel like an addict.

razor clam + barnacle

A couple tidal friends found their way into my new and still enormous sketch book. The first, as you can see because it's neatly labelled, is a razor clam - a Pacific razor clam, more specifically. Johnnie and I were watching Chopped one night and razor clams were in the chefs' baskets. I bragged about being familiar with razor clams as my family made what seemed to be several clam digging trips per year during my youth to Westport, Grayland and Ocean Shores beaches - but when the close up came the clams on TV appeared a bit...foreign. I think they must have been Atlantic razor clams. I was rattled but I quickly drew up this clam completely from memory to prove that I am, in fact, familiar with razor clams. Pacific razor clams. 

Next we have barnacles. Now, recently I took a stroll along the beach at Discovery Park with my friend Elliot when we happened upon a group of boulders half buried in the sand; normally they would've been underwater but they were exposed that day by a particularly low tide we'd come to see. The rocks were covered in barnacles and the barnacles were making that noise that they do - a chorus of light clicking, sucking and popping sounds, reminiscent of a bowl of rice krispies - when Elliot explained to me that barnacles gross him out. "GROSS!" he exclaimed over and over again. I don't remember why they gross him out but I made sure we looked at more barnacles during our walk back. These were drawn using an old timey Nat Geo image for reference whilst listening to "The Mollusk" by Ween.

August?

I've been very much in the mood for doing and being over showing and telling lately, hence the deserted blog. Sorry! I'm going to attempt to catch us all up here, but I have to say, sometimes it feels really good to forget about all this internet business. Anyway, I haven't posted anything since July and now it's September, and in between it was August - month of endless funtimes and also my birthday month! You can see why I might be preoccupied. Besides, it's summer - who isn't preoccupied?

First thing I have for you are pics from my birthday camping trip to the Wilson River. Johnnie and I met Mike and Kari there for some free camping and splendid swimming. Kari fished while Mike and Johnnie constructed a bow and arrow from river sticks and fishing line (it actually worked!). I observed and failed to thoroughly document. Birthday girl's privilege. We stayed one night during which it rained, and so we constructed an impromptu shelter from one 5' x 7' tarp, two lengths of twine, one tie-down and a bungee net. Well done us! We then proceeded to feast under it like true camping champs.

Earlier in the month I finished watching Battlestar Galactica, reading The Return of the King, and got a new ID - all in the same day! Mundane events, yes - but together like that it really felt like the beginning of a new age. Here's the cover of ROTK to complete the set:

This cover lets us know that in this, the final chapter of the saga, shit's really gonna hit the fan. Raging volcano, BEASTS, banners and more BEASTS?? Methinks perhaps a war is on. I love the scratchy texture and line work we see on all three covers, it makes me think maybe there was some scratchboard or at least scratchboard technique in the making of the illustrations. If I can manage to find more work by this mystery artist I'll definitely share it here. 

In the realm of art projects, I rode the wave of my make-ation and experimented with block printing on fabric and started on some portraits of crystals from my personal collection.

I still need to test wash the horse patches to see if my inks will set properly on fabric. The crystal portraits I haven't been able to work on lately but I'm really excited about them. I was hyper critical of them right after I started, but since I've had a break from them I really like what I'm seeing!

I bought myself a new sketchbook as a birthday gift and it seems really huge! Like 300 pages huge! I was fretting over what sort of commitment I'd got myself into after purchasing it when I found my horoscope in The Stranger which read:

"Science writer K.C. Cole asks this question: 'How would you hold 100 tons of water in thin air with no visible means of support?' Here's her answer: 'Build a cloud.' What you have before you right now, Leo, is a comparable scenario. Your assignment is to materialize a phenomenon that from a certain viewpoint may appear to be laughably impossible. And yet, with the proper attitude on your part and nature's help, the project at hand is eminently achievable. It won't necessarily be fast and easy, mind you - but you wouldn't want it to be, because then it wouldn't be able to teach you all the precious wisdom it has to impart."

Quite applicable to small specific goals, like my sketchbook, and to larger more abstract endeavors!

Hmm, what else? More recently I went blackberry picking with my friend Elliot --

YUM -- and in a failed attempt at fostering, adopted this troublesome troublemaker, Miss Ralphie Starbuck.

More on her later, when she calms down a bit.

I still need to photograph and list much of what I accomplished during my make-ation, I also have supplies and packaging to find and purchase, but I'm still very much in the mood for art projects pure and simple and experimenting with new inspirations and ideas. Maybe as fall begins to roll in I'll catch the spirit of the new season and begin tying up loose ends and preparing my stores for winter. We'll see!