Sketching and being FREE!

Most Fridays are art days. I love this. I have such a blessed life that I have been able to do this for the last 7 or so years. But I have issues. I think in my head that on those Fridays I must be doing art work that is making me money since I am not getting paid at a "REAL" job.

I really need to break free from this because art is just about ART. It is not or should not be about getting paid. Now granted I still need to pay those bills that come around each and every month. But luckily my daily gig does ok on that front.

Well last Friday I had a commission piece to varnish but it was not quite dry yet. So I grabbed my sketch book. Not just any sketch book but a sketch book from this web site.
Once I complete it is will travel the country then come to live at the Sketch Book Library across the East River in Brooklyn.

This was a great exercise for me. For 1- I will make no money off this book, for 2- I rarely sketch anything and for 3- it is good for me to draw with out looking for reference on the computer. I need to draw more out of my head.

It is all official looking (for now)

I really like pink

Sweet Zombie Sue

Such a beautiful day!

Maybelle with her paniers and basket carried all my supplies rather easily

Oh and for 4- It was a beautiful day to take Maybelle down to the river for this project.

Do any of you artists struggle out there with balancing doing art for fun and art for money?

Prize Ribbon SURPRISE!

Well it happened just like I knew it would. I was pretty much under control for ArtFEST 2011 (next Saturday September 24th) all I had to do was finish some decorations. But then it hit me...

I need to make Prize Ribbons! After all I had several days left before boarding the plane to Winston.

I made one for myself out of an old photo that I picked up at an antique shop. Of course I had to black the eyes out to turn them into zombies and added some gold glitter. After all- zombies should be sparkly.

Sparkly vintage zombies!

At first I thought these would be rather simple to do. But since when is anything easy?

Here is just a quick run down of the steps involved...
1. cut image to size of pre-made wooden cicle.
2. adhere the image to the wooden circle.
3. varnish the image and paint the edges of the wood.
4. make rosettes or burst style ribbons by sewing the ribbon to a large felt circle.
5. i chose to distress my ribbon by crumpling and fraying.
5. glue the wooden circle side to the ribbon formation using industrial glue.
6. sew a pin to another felt circle and adhere it to the back.
7. VIOLA! prize ribbon.

These are beautiful to wear. That is what I will do with mine. But also would be lovely pined to some fabric inside of a frame to hang as art on the wall.

Close up of "Harriet Saves the Day"

"Not So White" print on my $15.00 dress from Syms

"An Axe to Grind" print on my NOT $15.00 Ana Sui dress

I only made a total of 7 of these. So come by early to the show Saturday if you'd like to be sure to get one. They are over sized, over the top and one of my favorite things that I have made for the show. Hope to see you there.

Zombies Attack

I have come to realize that Zombies can attack any time of year. They actually don't care if it is Halloween or a full moon or National Zombie Day.

Today they attacked my apartment...

It started yesterday. We were headed to meet up with some friends when I got side tracked by a Market. It was the Hester Street Fair. I figured it was going to be just like any other street fair up here in New York. A lot of sunglasses, zeppoles, and t-shirts. I was pleasantly surprised.

It was more like a flea market art fair. I stumbled across a lady with broken jewelery bits. I was almost afraid to ask the price of the few choice items that I had chosen. To my surprise the total was $3.00. A NY bargain if I ever saw one.

There were several vintage clothes dealers- a weakness of mine. They had some nice stuff and again- great prices. Just nothing to suit my fancy for the day.

I found yummy looking treats home made by the different individuals. But I had just eaten and couldn't bare to try any. I must go back.

Just as I was about to leave I saw an artist with a nice eye catching set-up. The pieces were nice. Kinda cartoony skulls and stuff. But then I saw something in a little stack. There the artist had taken vintage photo card advertisements and had painted skull heads on top of the original photos. I remembered that I have a few of these cards as well. I bought them while antiquing in the spring. I new they would have a special purpose but I wasn't sure at the time what that would be.

So this morning I got up and lit on my art.

First thing to complete was my cousin's tattoo design. She wants a zipper to go over her C-Section scar with her daughter's name and birth date. At first I was no too sure about this idea. All the zipper tattoos I have seen are dark and mucky looking. Even while digging on the internet for reference I wasn't finding anything cute or pretty.

Well I took some inspiration from one of my favorite artists- Sunny Buick. I kept the zipper simple. I didn't put each and every tooth in it. I think all that line work is what was making the others dark and not so pretty. Then I "girlied" it up with some eyelet lace detail and hearts. I sure hope she will like it!

Then it was on to dying some wool blue for my cotton candy earrings.

Then it was varnishing some of my tiny paintings for my cameo necklaces. You'll see those in a later post once they are all complete.

Last but not least it was time for the ZOMBIE ATTACK!

I took my stack of photographer ads and turned everyone into Zombies! First I gesso-ed out their faces and drew in my own versions and painted them with oils. I added a few accessories on some of them for a Tiffany Twist.

The Zombie with Spit Curls

Baby Zombie loves Boo Bear

Sweet Zombie and Cotton Tail

Zombi Baby Bunny

Close up

Zombies Shouldn't Have Straight Razors

Close up

They turned out pretty creepy. And that is good! After today- I now FEEL like a Zombie. I have not been out of my chair all day!