Thursday, January 29, 2015

Tapir illustration

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soft chalk pink tree

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Woodland Snuggle

Sometimes you gotta just let yourself go and see what you make. I started drawing this without a plan and it was purely for relaxing.

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Wheat Way

this little sweet thing is up in the etsy shop here

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MISTY MORNING

 

Two weeks ago I had the privilege  of romping around in the woods at the wee hours of morning. There’s just something magical about mist+fog and a little coffee in my cup to make my mind aware that mornings are actually wonderful. I should do this more often….as soon as winter goes away.

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sunset hill 12x12 oil painting

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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

PUT A BIRD ON IT

 

Exactly one score ago, a very awkward 7 year old with giant glasses, stumbled up to the library counter with a stack of books on origami. My art teacher had played 1000 paper cranes in class. It was incredibly creepy and I had nightmares about Hiroshima for a long time as I was seemingly innocent in things like history or people wanting to kill each other. However the art of folding paper was something new and exciting and I latched on like bubblegum stuck in hair.

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I’d already perilously started trying and discarding crafts. Like taste testing I plowed through crocheting, (womp womp), knitting, (I made a scarf once). I tie died t-shirts. I glued cotton balls together. I latch hooked half tiny rug BUT FOR SOME REASON paper, folding little pieces of paper was MAGICAL. I started folding paper birds from my church bulletins, flowers from my starburst wrappers and this one time I put glitter everywhere and made GLITTER ELEPHANTS! because sparkles y’all, sparkles.

Looking back, I think i must have been the most annoying kid on the planet, spreading my glitter and paper bit trail for all to share.

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Sometimes when I am talking, I still fold. It’s incredibly relaxing & it’s a really great distraction for kids. I think any adult that can magically produce a flying bird reduces their scariness levels. This has been my go-to project for rainy day’s while I nanny’d.  So if you’re bored, go grab a paper square and try. There are about a zillion different tutorials on youtube!

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CLIFTON SON OF TARA

 

Nothing spells out class like painting off paper plates and a giant piece of cardboard on your bedroom floor. It’s so cold that I couldn't work outside, so enter stinking-up-the-bedroom-with-oil-paint-fumes.

This giant monstrosity of a painting was for a friend that fights in dagorhir. I’m not 100% in love with how my riders proportions turned out but it was good for me to try to paint things beyond blobs. I’m good at blobs. Not so great at straight things. Learning curves are a pill.

Clifton was really cool and brought me duck feathers so I can make earrings. I’m stoked. Good friends bring dead ducks over. Its a thing. He sent me a picture of the painting in it’s new home next to the TV playing Lord of the Rings. It was a deep set moment of nerd accomplishment to know my painting was hanging up and being enjoyed.

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STORY OF MY LIFE

I made one of these to sit above my desk for a little while. Too often i get sucked into the internet and pinterest telling myself “I'm working! see, I'm planning” …only to never actually start. Or worse, to over think something during the middle and never finish. A goal of mine for this new year is to limit my social media time so i can spend more time creating. Good luck to all of you over-thinkers out there!

hey you