Taking back my life

So... clearly it's been a long time since I posted anything on this blog. For almost a year now I've been putting almost every spare minute into creating jewelry, which I put in a craft fair last summer (and made almost nothing) and have been putting on Etsy (also fruitlessly). In January of this year I decided to give it another year and re-doubled my efforts (as best I could), but here it is, February, and I have decided I'm done. I don't know about forever, but for now, I am done. I packed all my jewelry making stuff away, and I feel pretty good about it. I don't feel as good about quitting or giving up, but only in a small way. In a much larger way, I feel free.

Of course, it's not as if I'm not going to DO anything from here on out. I quit on the jewelry making, but not on trying to find a way to supplement my income (and maybe work for myself one day?). So, while I have the time now to do things like read a book and relax, I decided to go back to my photography, and also to work on improving my design skills. Here's the big appeal: You don't have to MAKE anything, which means spending money on supplies, and storing what you make, and packaging and mailing what you make (if somebody buys it). I could go to Etsy, open another shop for my photography, and f*** with having prints made and mailing them, but I'm done with that. I want to see what I can do digitally. I am going to start submitting stock to Istock again, and this time maybe I'll do better (everything is such a struggle, it's crazy!) because I use stock all the time and know what ad designers are looking for. I am also thinking of launching my own stock/ad business, but right now that's in the thinking stages. I'd need to have a good library of stuff ready to go before I took such a step, so that isn't going to be in a week or a month or maybe even six months. We'll see...

"Shiny"

Illustration Friday's word this week is "Shiny." I didn't even work from a photo. When I was in high school, I used to doodle Marilyn all the time, so I know her features - eyebrows, lips, widow's peak, button nose (that she hated). Not only did I give my Marilyn shiny eyes and lips, but she's shining herself (which I think she did when she was alive).

Mermaid Ahoy!

I've been wanting to draw for the longest time... I get busy with the jewelry making for the sale at the end of this month, and with my photography, and always in the back of my brain is this craving to draw. Or to break out my pastels. Or maybe do a watercolor.

Last night I finally did it. I drew a mermaid, and it was fast. Like, it had just been waiting for me to put it on paper.

This morning I dragged my pastels out from storage under the bed and colored her in, and while I wish my fingers weren't so fat and clumsy for smudging, I am pretty darned pleased with her. I love the way her mouth came out, and I love that she has perfect little teacup breasts. ;)

I SO have to draw some more nekkid girls! LOL!

Left-brained artist

I think that's my entire problem - or challenge - that I am a left-brained artist. So, I am creative and visual and all of that, but also organized and logical. If my car ran out of gas in Iowa, I'd go trudging down the road in search of a gas station, which is logical, as opposed to meandering along and winding up sharing a bowl with a camel.

I check in a lot with Illustration Friday, to see how different right-brained artistic types are interpreting that particular week's theme - this week it's "Puzzled" - and I am always interested in the ones who whip out obscure quotes and lead you along the crooked path of their logic. Because I need that hand-holding sometimes. Break it down for me, 'cause I don't get it.

I'm always a little sorry for myself, because I think I'm missing out on the richness of creating by feeling rather than shining the tight, controlled beam of my brain at my subject. I have to concentrate and work harder to look at something even a little differently. I liked my illustration last week, until I browsed through the other submissions and saw more singing birds than I could count. I find it disappointing when I think like everybody else. (I don't even much like it when I find myself taking the same kind of photo over and over.) I think it's a real obstacle to an artist.

So, this week I'm like, No puzzle pieces, no puzzle pieces, no puzzle pieces, what else means "puzzled" to me? STRETCH, brain, damn you!

Ack.

"Vocal"

I created this illustration for Illustration Friday's weekly challenge with my NEW Bamboo Tablet, which I've only been using since last Friday. I started out doing these scribbly doodle things, then did some portraits to get comfortable with the stylus, and finally feel like I can draw my own stuff with it.

This week's theme is "Vocal."

Fractal Mouse Pad

My friend Linda makes mouse pads, and is selling one of my fractals as a mouse pad in her Etsy shop Seaconnet Loft.

Gum as Art

The artist's imagination never fails to surprise me


Ben Wilson's Chewing Gum Art