PPF and APR - New Wood Art

For today's installment of Paint Party Friday, I will also be connecting to Artists Play Room at 'just add water'. It is also showing some of the artistic/creative work I am undertaking & seeking to market under the banner of "Marshall Arts". This is work I do in collaboration with Jim, my husband - we have lots of fun with it, attend art fairs, etc, and have even sold! What's infinitely blessed and inspiring are both letting natural shapes speak for themselves, as well as collaborating with loved ones. It inspired me to take art to a whole new level, and to make it a sustainable economic activity from which others may benefit.

We have tons of these! He is the Wood Man & the Word Man - for as long as he's lived, practically, he has gathered these precious wood jewels from the surrounding countryside - and  even when we lived in Atlanta we'd come up here to WNC to pick some up - and randomly last year, we began turning them into art.

He began by burning messages into them - the wood speaks to him - and I followed by drawing random illustrations with the wood burning tool. At times these are elaborate illustrations, or at times only curly cues & random things to give the thing structure. He then goes in & paints in the colours - varnishes them at times, etc. Some of them have turned into earrings, pendants, walking sticks... or random wonderful acts of sculpture such as this one which fits into the hand.

The text begins with "The cosmic pipeline always looms a single misstep away... feathering even a modest nest brings plenty... every portal has own mysterious allure" and to me the cosmic egg shape, the mysterious animals, and the warning message bespeaks great wonder - not to mention the amazing shape of the wood. It is so darling! But it has teeth - just like life & death & nature -- "too big a bite augurs indigestion or worse." I have been so excited working on this collaborative art project - it seems a blessing indeed.

I have been busy promoting it - we have been visiting different art vendor events - all which we detail in this blog. Would like to find a way to integrate the Marshall Arts blogging with what I do here on my personal blog, but that's soon coming.

Have also spent time putting up a Marshall Arts facebook page!! Would appreciate any likes, and will return the favour.

This page shows both work I do on my own artistically, as well as the bulk of mine & Jim's collaborations.

I also have decided to migrate from Etsy to Zibbet. For anyone sick of Etsy fees, this is an excellent solution - only minorly less usability with the free version - but the minute I begin selling, I will upgrade. One of the perks of migration is an initial promotion of $5 for 50 excellent business cards from Moo. I am incredibly excited about these cards - double sided, with text, extra heavy 100% recycled paper --- sounds almost too good to be true - we'll see how they turn out when they arrive around the 11th.

There! Sorry about the novel - hope all have a great weekend!!!

Creative Tuesdays - Curls

For today's Creative Tuesday (themed 'Curls') I wished to revisit a piece from the past - pre 2005! For some reason also I had never posted this one on my blog... so there we are.

I went through a decidedly 'curly' phase during that time - everything I was doing was, well, curly - I was working almost exclusively in pen/ink - and everything, no matter how simple or elaborate, possessed many curls.

I wanted to take the time to say that I really appreciate this blog hop! I love the challenge of a weekly assignment - somewhere I read that limits create larger freedom by eliminating needless, distracting options - this is something I strive for in my life & which I find plenty of in Creative Tuesdays. Almost more than other blog hops it seems to instill biographical/memoirish moments which are satisfying to me at least LOL!

Speaking of 'curls', I've been a bit of a TV bunny lately (online anyhow) because I've been 'stuck' doing a lot of admin/computery-type stuff - I can only focus with noise in the background - so, I wanted to share something I bizarrely ran into yesterday as I was working on a facebook page (please visit my page!!! please like!! it's here)

the show was Toddlers & Tiaras. Plenty of curls to be found there!!!!! (roll eyes)

At one pt in my life I would have boycotted this sort of show - I mean, gee whiz - here's the almost misogynistic objectification of women and early indoctrination into outdated gender roles - not to mention other icky icky stuff. Fundamentally, I find NOTHING GOOD about this show, or really, about the people who buy into the lifestyle (one woman comments with no sense of irony "after all, I had kids so I could put them into pageants") - but, eliminating critical distance ... it doesn't seem so bad... just children wanting to look pretty. Pretty silly, though, no matter how you slice it. It did get me through a particularly boring stretch of image uploading, so it did its job anyhow.

SS - more mountain ocean sketches

Andes Mt

Torres del Paine, Andes Mt

Pier valparaiso

Vina del Mar, beach town

HI all at Sunday Sketches!

I am continuing to show the sketches I am using to plan & finish a large painting of the ocean I am to do. An continuing to sketch out different scenes of areas I have been to in the past, and some that I have not.

These mountain and scene sketches are from Chile - from the North areas, through the South. Vina (the last image) is from a wonderful city we loved to hang out in the summer - parties, swimming in the ocean, arts vendors, mimes, etc ---

Reminds me a bit of where I live now I suppose (Asheville) only... minus the ocean

I wanted the moment to state that it takes courage to be an artist - I'm sure everyone understands this! Not only because expressing oneself expresses vulnerability, but because one has to always confront one's own ineptitude and failures - I have painted 4 watery things (no photos yet) and each was very frustrating and failed - but the last one was more rewarding.

Confronting one's own fear in the hopes of getting better takes courage.

Also have quit smoking for the 13th time in 3 years - so far am 3 or 4 days along, and the result is something like a permanent state of PMS - eating lots of crap & being in a horrid mood. The most I've remained quit has been 3 months - wonder how long it will go this time?

I was hoping to win this blender at a sweepstakes, but it didn't work out :( Ninja Kitchen System - Gifts for Bride & Groom (Google Affiliate Ad) maybe next time

Hope all are having a great weekend!

PPF - Ocean painting updates

Nat'l Geo water acrylic

Hi all at Paint Party Friday! Am still working through this process. I am taking a dual approach of seeking to paint water and sketch landscape elements I might use in the final piece.

Am having fun but being frustrated by the water abstracts at the same time. The one at left is actually done in acrylics (since I had to be out of the house that day), and based of a cool National Geographic photography book we had .

All the drawings are charcoal.

Andes mountains

I feel sort of behind in this process. Unfortunately, last week I was involved in a lengthy, painful slide-presentation project that consumed all my time, and a big chunk of time during the summer is devoted to selling art at fairs anyway - I have still to clear the final drawing, but am making progress as much as possible.

possible scenario

I will share more on Sunday, but for now this is what I am up to! Hope all are having an awesome time, and hope to catch y'all by Sunday eve at the latest! Go art!

BTW- I can't resist, I though painters would LOVE and APPRECIATE the sight of this painting elephant --  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk

video below as well

it is absolutely adorable! I think this is the only sort of animal who can do this - though maybe different sorts of simians can as well.

Valparaiso composite

Happy PPF!!

Creative Tuesdays - Spy

For today's Creative Tuesdays, I briefly illustrate the case of the Pinkertons, one of the most famous private detective/goverment security firms, still active to this day, at one point as a branch of the Swedish company Securitas, and now seems to be Pinkerton again.

Famous for allegedly thwarting an attack on president Lincoln (alas, the one before the theatre), the Pinkertons were also famous for bringing many Wild Wild West outlaws to justice, and reputedly were the ones who came up with the idea of mugshots - collecting a database of images of 'undesirables' of all stripes so as to help law enforcement efforts later on. Their logo was "we never sleep".

Their bread and butter, however, was as hired guns to the Carnegies and other deep-pocket railroad barons and industrialists so as to protect their vast interests against those evil greedy rowdy little factory workers who were producing all the stuff that made them rich. How dare they request a livable wage and non-hazardous working environment? Yes, shocking. In any event, the firm found plenty to do in busting up Unions all over the U.S., when not busy hunting down train robbers and rescuing rich old ladies' fancy necklaces.

I first became interested in the Pinkertons after watching Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid for the first time (not a stellar script, but INCREDIBLE cinematography, as well as amusing to see Redford and Newman strutting about in their prime)

Then, they showed up again after reading The Devil in the White City, which tells the story of the ghoulish H H Holmes - they were the firm that finally brought the fiend to justice.

All in all, a busy lot - 'we never sleep' seems a well-earned name.

When the SPY theme appeared, it seemed as good a time as any to look them up.

Bee stuck in front of the computer for a few days working on some projects and this seemed a good break in any event. Collage above done with multilayers in Photoshop.

SS - JITS

Hi all at Sunday sketches! This is another fiverr piece, which essentially ended up being a logo. It was one of those involved images that cost client more than $5.

The company was a Jujitsu magazine - so one can notice all the small little details related to Brazil, martial arts, and fitness.

The hardest thing (as in time consuming) was the type. I had to measure and very carefully draw. After that, filling in (using various models off the net) was pretty easy.

Hope all are having a great Sunday!

PPF - Water Studies in Oils

And now... for the exciting news re my commission..

I have been offered a great commission on a 2 by 3 foot oil painting - on canvas - of the Chilean ocean, by a dear long-time friend who was also instrumental in helping me fund my Epic Painting Project.

The project, though it sounds simple, is also incredibly complex, because not only do I need to come up with an exciting and compelling composition for a seemingly simple subject matter, but I also have to match colours in as great a way as possible.

In the next few days, I will be concocting many sketches with ideas for final compositions & consulting with my client. I will also (almost more importantly) be going out to the many waterfalls and river landscapes in my neck of the woods and doing as many colour studies as I can.

The above is my first attempt. I know it looks a little shaky LOL but part of my process involves eliminating getting all the bad art out of my system, What I'm mainly wanting to accomplish is look for correct, even if unusual tonalities of water - taking into account peaks, waves, dark areas, light areas, running water, still water, etc - so as to avoid default blue-water portrayals. I wish to do at least 8 of these before committing to the final canvas.

That's it for now! I hope to have more updates in the coming weeks. Hope all are having a happy Paint Party Friday!

A Democratic, Grassroots Media Requires Media Analysis: Mediated Communication, Media Literacy, Missing Links: - PoliticalArticles.NET | PoliticalArticles.NET

A Democratic, Grassroots Media Requires Media Analysis: Mediated Communication, Media Literacy, Missing Links: - PoliticalArticles.NET | PoliticalArticles.NET

Creative Tuesdays - Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite

Creative Tuesdays  - Beatles song!!!
This is a work in process but, to hearken back to college days, I decided to do an uber psychedelic rendition of Being to the Benefit of Mr Kite, the 7th song of the Sgt Pepper album, and a source of many interesting mental voyages back in the day.

Song here -

nothing like digital arts to bring through the trippy aspects of this album and this, to me, the trippest of the trippy songs - there's only one way to do a proper rendition of this song - in an altered state

since that sort of recreation is both beyond my budget and best interests in general, I opt for a trance-inducing Mr Kite and Photoshop experience.

beginnings of process

I sit in a dark room with the poster from which John Lennon based every last word of this song, listen to the song non-stop, and fill in with every colour I wish. If one notices the pixillations of the poster, the strange tonality is achieved with the flooding function set to very low tolerance, so that only a few pixels at a time are filled. This allows for each application of the flood function to occur rhythmically timed to the driving, endless thump of Mr Kite. Blown up big, the eye travels through the intoxicating pixilated landscape and true sensory saturation is achieved.

These methods were advocated by various instructors I had at GSU art school - one in particular had as a thesis project, to draw miles of paper with a red marker - for 7 days straight. With no sleep. Dali and other surrealists also spoke of these states as sources of deep creativity- or at least a good time, after a fashion. 

If I had nothing better to do I could sit here and do this for hours at a time. Whee! But for now, this is what will have to be. The song was played for a total of 40 times or more, during an uninterrupted 2 hour stretch. 

Love this song!

update: I did want to clear up that I did not draw the image of Mr Kite's poster! I could def. not do all that in 2 hours, LOL. I took the image file of the poster and manipulated it that way. The original poster is here, and if you read the words and listen to the song, you see what was done with the lyrics in this song.

PFF & SS - Pet Dream

Hi all at Paint Party Friday!

I'm happy to say that I have a new painting commission! More information on that later - it is very exciting to me.

This week, however, I wish to submit another of the drawings I have completed for my fiverr gig. For this one, as can be seen, I had to draw an adorable puppy with a tuxedo, and the site title below. Not thrilled about the type, and the doggie was weirdly hard to draw, but am reasonably happy with how it turned out.

Just for fun, and to make it more 'painterly', I decided to embellish it a bit on Photoshop - and the result of that can be seen here below.

That's it for now! As usual, will strive to get to everybody, even if it's as late as Sunday! PFF is a wonderfully lively blogging group, and I do love both seeing & commenting on everyone's site - likewise am very grateful for those who make a comment on every single post (you rock!!) and thus strive to be that person as well. However, I acknowledge it takes a lot of time, which is why I leave myself till the end of Sunday, since weekends are incredibly busy as it is, what with art fairs and whatnot.

On another note, thanks to all who viewed/voted for my ThriftyFun contest!!!! I won after all :D

Here's another one I submitted - this time it's a photo that my husband took. He's a big photographer, and has a marvelous nature photography series documenting the 4 seasons in Appalachia. It is currently on display at the Southern Appalachia Repertory Theatre lobby in Mars Hill, NC. In any event, the photo can be seen here.

Have a great day all!

Creative Tuesday - Christmas in July

Creative Tuesdays - Christmas in July.

This is a very personally felt theme for me - I grew up in South America, and essentially, every Christmas for me felt like July! For me personally the contrast was heightened when I moved up here and found Christmas in winter, after all.  But I will never forget the bizarre retailing fiction so elaborately set up to hoodwink people into buying into a climatological condition they would NEVER, most likely, come to know - commodity fetish at its best. 


Shop sales and Christmas retail decorations - including fake pasted snowflakes, styrofoam snowy covers, green conifers and Arctic Santas - all showed up in the context of 90 degree heat and summer vacation! A typical Christmas celebration included opening up presents, then heading for the beach. 

This seemed an odd incongruity that the commodities market imposed on us south of the Equator dwellers - this fixation on winter weather in the height of summer - and all attendant imagery - and it's a form of cultural schizophrenia which has, if anything, gotten worse. But you know, when you're a kid, all you care about is loot so we didn't mind too much :D

So that's why I chose to draw what i drew - a memory of a typical storefront in a context of summer haze. As well am trying out a loose form quick sketching style - I have always admired those who can quickly (like newspaper or magazine cartoonists - draw something quick. So am trying it out.

On another note, I actually participated in a crafts/flea market fair titled 'Christmas in July' this past weekend!

Jesus Portrait commission - PPF & SS

Hello Paint Party Friday friends!! Am very excited this week because I finally have a new project to share!

Will post this to Sunday Sketches as well because am out travelling & have no time for a separate!

This was a commission from the fiverr gigs I post on here once in a while - for this one I got a slightly more income due to subject matter.

In any event, fellow was very specific on what he wanted - an image of Jesus bringing power to a heart.

I had a live model for Jesus (convenient :D) - aside from that, the process involved drawing a lot of hands so as to make sure they are correct - as well as taking a photo of said live model, adjusting for various details, and filling in.

I begun a very very rough draft on a different sheet of paper - then created a grid to create a more detailed, better draft.

As an aside, I currently have a contest going on the site ThriftyFun, for the best tip of the week! I would love it if people read it and gave me a big Thumbs Up so that I could win a prize! So if anyone wanted to stop by, the link is here. Would definitely appreciate it!

Hope all are having a great time! Will strive to get to folks when I get home or tomorrow

Cool Chiropteri

For some reason, this morning I had to spend time reading about bats, watching videos about bats, etc. THey are fascinating!

I have to, though, at some point, draw the thing I'm attaching to this post - different bat species from Kunstformen der Natur (1904), plate 67: Chiroptera by Ernst Haeckel. 


This image was chosen as Wikipedia's Image of the Day for Jul 24th, 2006! Funny


If I ever do draw them I will post.

Creative Tuesdays - BUNNIES!!!!!!! (AKA 'Simply Cute')

For Creative Tuesday

To me, the sine qua non of 'cute' is BUNNIES. Even the word is, to me, cute. I absolutely adore the fuzzy wuzzy things, and just seeing one makes me absolutely silly.

I live in the country, so on morning walks I invariably run into 2 or 3! They're so darling - they sit there,  & upon seeing me, hop off. CUTE!!!!!

One of the worst times I got into trouble when a kid was upon bringing a rabbit home as a pet - unbeknownst to my mom. The sad d'enoument was that the bunny was given away to someone more willing/able to raise it. Have not had one since - I see what a responsibility animals are, and am not in a position to keep one happy  :( so I just have to look at them.

Here's a site with lots of lovely bunnies to those who love them as me!!!!

This is a pic of me with a bunny, at a petting zoo somewhat recently. 

Sunday Sketches - Jesus picture

Hi all at Sunday Sketches!

My week's offering is a nice fiverr commission that will involve paint at some later date - the commission, in a nutshell, was drawing hands holding a sorry cracked heart, then Jesus' hands holding them, and thus transferring loving energy to the heart which begins to heal. A very complex subject!

Am still in preliminary drawing phase, as can be seen here. Still a few things to iron out but I hope I can come up with something decent in time!

Many people, I am told, turned down the commission - and I wonder why? It was a bit hard to conceive of the idea, but aside from that, why neglect the idea? I took it on as a double challenge, on the one hand a pictorial challenge, on the other, in a peculiar way a spiritual challenge too. 

I guess appropriate for a Sunday or whatnot to discuss this theme. Was actually hoping folks would share their thoughts, especially in regards to portraying a powerful spiritual archetype. I don't know. I was hoping Jesus would somehow look more... epic.

The hands are also tough... of course. Working on that separately, before anything else, really, because of the nature of the position v. the various objects, etc. Also taking advantage of feedback I've received re. project.




Hope all are having a great weekend!

Just came back from an art fair or else would have posted earlier

Creative Tuesdays - Gift

Franz Liszt certainly had the musical gift!

All right - to be perfectly honest, this is one that started out being completely different from what actually came out. As in, I don't even know how that happens.

With the theme of 'gift' I had intended to draw Pandora opening the infamous box - but then realized that wasn't particularly uplifting - same with the Trojan horse, though by then I had already started drawing Pandora who ended up looking weirdly masculine and whose arms were in that weird position.

Then I had pretty much no choice but to realize it reminded me of Franz Liszt, famous-famous (even to this day) 19th century virtuoso pianist whose music has been much enjoyed (and parodied) over the ages - i used to play piano so the association's not entirely insane.

I was getting ready to scrap the whole thing & start over when it struck me - "say, isn't musical ability a gift? Isn't the power that some have with their musical expression a gift?" I say..... yes!

Liszt was interesting. In his day he was basically as sought after & fanaticized over as the Beatles - in fact, the mass hysteria known as Beatlemania was named by a Scottish music promoter reminiscing (not that he was there!) the intense hysteria and fan frenzy known as Lisztomania.

So that's the drawing today - Liszt and all the raving fans :D

And now I leave all with Bugs Bunny performing the great Hungarian Rhapsody #2

Sunday Sketches - possible Fiverr piece

Hello all at Sunday Sketches!! As I was stating earlier, now that I have finished the EPP, I am happy to go back to other artistic pursuits, such as.... fiverr!!!!!

This was an on-spec thing I didn't spend much time one but a possibility of being chosen is to get to illustrate someone's vampire ebook. Eek!

That would be cool indeed, we'll see what happens. I'm not anywhere near 1000% thrilled with these drawings but that's just the way it is sometimes - at least on the bright side was working without a model! That for me is pretty HUGE - it's very difficult for me to do anything quasi coherent/convincing unless I am, essentially, copying - either from photos or real life. So in that aspect... am pleased.

Hope all are well at Sunday Sketches! Will come round towards the end of the day so as to grab as many ppl as possible.

Bathing Nymph at Convergence - Paint Party Friday

Hi everyone! I am sooooo glad to make it back to PPF!!!! I was pretty absent for a while, ironically enough, when I was working on a massive painting project - and all I can really say about that is that I just didn't have it in me to spend time contributing to the blogosphere while pushing the other thing forward.

In any event, that is done now, and am wanting to get back to this.

I have pretty much decided that I would like to effectuate a way to make art & painting a viable income source for me. I see lots of talented people on here who have made it as illustrators or fine artists - as for me, aside from completing this project & selling a few things here & there, I have not yet cinched the deal for me, art wise.

I really admire a lot of the career choices I see - I see professional illustrators, self-made etsy artists, instructors, and everything in between. What I would love to know is, do you have any advice to a total non-business savvy neophyte? Would love to hear others' thoughts on how they succeeded, what the process was like, etc.

For my painting today, I want to share a very old piece which still continues to be worked on - the first time I worked on it was in 2008, and it came from a last-semester painting project at University, where the instructor bid us to utilize the remaining 3 weeks to execute an epic painting, one that would in some fashion encapsulate all our learning throughout the semester. I decided to create a large (for me) painting utilizing an indirect painting technique, measuring 3' x 4' depicting a moonlight canyon scene and a nymph bathing below at the convergence of two waterfall streams.

I left it in a somewhat unfinished state back then, and then last summer (2011) spent a lot of time working on it - filling out the sky.

Finally, a week of so ago, as I was putting some finishing touches on my recent big project, I added some shrubbery to the left hand side. I am contemplating really filling it in with shrubbery, but am afraid of losing out on the caves & valleys & stuff.  

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing super OK! Thanks once again to Kristin & Eva for this great blog society!

Creative Tuesdays - Celebration!

What spells celebration better than.... a glass of wine?

Creative Tuesday: This is another one from the archives - summer of 09, the day after a truly remarkable celebratory event I was subject to very frequently when i lived in Atlanta - the monthly Backgammon tournament. This particular one was at our good friend Larry's house - the man with the pool, neverending bottle of wine, & cigars. And, of course, sparkling, scintillating conversation. Quite the scene....

The brown seen in the background is actually from the inside casing of a cigar enclosure - pure tobacco - decoupaged to cover the wooden cabinet. I think we also came back from that celebration with a couple bottle of wines, 2 of which are serving as models in this instance.

Not sure what all the text is about - think I was contemplating paying off some credit card or other LOL! Which I actually did, 6 months later (THAT one anyhow.......)

As for the backgammon, it's a fun thing. Miss it DEARLY - not just the game, but the old friends. Trying to hustle up a good game in WNC but massively failing........... and as an aside, I actually won in a novice tournament in 2010 :D $210. Not bad for a hobby... very celebratory in any event

Now that i think about it.... I have sketchbooks & sketchbooks of Backgammon in action - I would play, & lose, & spend the rest of my time drawing everyone in all sorts of poses. I could upload them one at a time, if the theme is congruent as here, never seen before anywhere, a Creative Tuesday exclusive... whaddaya say, Mr T?

Creative Tuesdays - Underwater

And now, for Creative Tuesdays, would like to quote from one of my fave albums of all time

"I'd like to be
under the sea
in an octopus' garden
in the shade"

(and here's an actually cute video some folks made)

a pen drawing followed with oil pastels rounded out this seascape
Good to be back blogging and sharing art with online folks. Since the end of my incredible edible painting project, have taken a breather from a lot art and blog related! But am happy to come back  & share with y'all, and hope to do so here (and in the other ones) in the future.

Have to step out now, will hope to check on other creative tuesdaysers in the later on!