Confined - Acrylic Painting

I started this painting back in 2015 and then I stopped working on it. I’m not sure if I stopped because I didn’t like where it was going at the time, or if it was to painful to work on. I drew the sketch as a way to represent how I was feeling at the time. I was going through a lot with my Mom being in a nursing home in a minimal state. She had been in this position already going on 4 years. I was feeling trapped, like everything was on hold and I wasn’t able to move forward with my life at that time. I feel this captures all that in one image. Feeling confined like I couldn’t transform and fly free. My Mom passed away in 2017 and I know she is looking down on me proud of all that I have accomplished. She was my biggest fan!!! I just wish she was here to cheer me on, and I miss her dearly everyday.

I am glad I was able to bring myself to work on it again. It took several months but I finished it. My original idea was to use purples and blues for the wings and hair. I am glad I took a step back and decided to use a color I don’t use very often - Orange! I think that helped cheer up an otherwise sad subject. I also decided to use some Phosphorescent Green on the glow around her and the dots, so now it glows in the dark!

Thank you so much for taking a look and if you would like to see my work in progress pictures or just some creative randomness you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook.

Update and Art Adventures

Wow I looked the other day and noticed I haven’t posted on here in almost 2 years. Life and business got a little crazy busy for me. Now things are slowing down a bit, I am going to try to keep up to date with this blog and share a bit more, I am hoping for at least twice a month. So what have I been up to since last we talked…

Inktober 2017 - I completed drawings for everyday in October. If you would like to learn more on what Inktober is go here. I wasn’t able to keep up with the inking everyday but I did complete the drawings.

New Tattoo - my cousin was turning 40 in 2017 and we decided she needed to do something she had never done before so we decided to get tattoos together. We each got something different and I chose to celebrate my love for Harry Potter by getting the little stars from the corners of the interior of the book on my wrists.

Vacation Time - The boyfriend and I went to Hershey, Pennsylvania for our yearly vacation. Did I say boyfriend? Well now he is The Fiancé, he surprised me and proposed while we were there. I was not expecting it at all!

Holiday Spirit Fairies - Towards the end of the year in a Facebook Group I am in for people who love Jane Davenport’s art supplies hosted a little holiday art prompt list for Holiday Spirit Fairies. Here are a few of the ones I came up with from the prompt list.

Now onto 2018

Bullet Journal - I started bullet journaling. This has been one of the best decisions I have made. I am able to keep track of my goals and stick to them a little better with this process of planning. I have made it as a habit and I still use it to this day to help keep track of everything.

Freelance Work - 2018 proved to be tremendously busy. I was able to work on some really fun project based books. I was able to create the projects and photograph the process, then design the book around the projects. I had a blast on these and will be creating a blog post about them soon.

Harry Potter Doodle Challenge - I had joined a little planning group on Facebook that were also big fans of Harry Potter. They set challenges every month to follow and get points for completing. Here is a spread of doodles that I was able to keep up with.

Mermay - I wasn’t able to complete a drawing everyday for Mermay this year. I did however completely a few. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Kayaks - We bought a couple kayaks to get out in nature and relax a bit more. I really am enjoying kayaking!

Murphy Dog - On some very sad news. I lost my Murphy Dog due to cancer in August of 2018. He was almost 13 years old. He was my little shadow and we had such an incredible bond. I still miss him dearly.

Tea Paintings - I painted these little watercolor tea paintings to be auctioned off for a local charity.

Ronan - Well I couldn’t handle how quiet the house was without the little tapping of paws on the floor. So in October we brought home little Ronan. She is an Australian Cattle Dog/Blue Heeler. She is such a trip and can be super rambunctious if we do not get her outside for exercise at least once a day. She is super smart and was learning tricks at such a young age. Here is a picture of her when we brought her home and how she has grown to being 10 months old now.

One Chance - I created a cover the year prior for one of my clients. The author for this book is a teenager and her and her Mom sent me this awesome gift for Christmas. It is cool to see merchandise with your designs on it.

Sweet 16 Invitation - I was asked to create an invitation for my cousin’s daughter. It was a wonderful enchanted Sweet 16 Birthday!

I tried to get you up to date with a short but quick blog post. Thank you for taking the time to join me on my adventures.  If you would like to see my work in progress pictures or just some creative randomness you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook.

Summer Adventures

This summer has just flown by! I am not complaining because as soon as the end of summer hits then all the Halloween stuff comes out, and that makes me very excited.

Another exciting moment, I sold all 5 of my Lady Bud Vases! This is the first clay work that I have sold. I might have to make more of these soon.

The next clay project that I am working on are these Dragon Eggs. I am going to make one for each of the elements (earth, air, fire, water, and I might add a spirit dragon in). This first one is my Water Dragon. (It is finished now so if you would like to see more up to date photos follow me on Instagram.)

Here is the design for the Fire Dragon. The neat thing that I haven't pointed out is they open up so you can put little trinkets in them.

I finally finished another page for my Mini-Drawing/Paintings.

Over the summer Chris Cornell from Soundgarden passed away. I shared this charcoal and graphite drawing I did of him when I was about 16 or 17 years old.

We tried Pho for the first time and loved it!

We planted a tree with my Mom's ashes on her birthday. This tree is in my sister's backyard. My sister picked out a Crab Apple Tree. I can't wait to see the blossoms from it!

All 3 of us kids helped push the dirt back in to cover the ashes.

The very next day my niece got married. We had such a great time at this wedding. A really great thing that happened, there was another wedding party outside by the pool of the country club. As it got dark out it started to rain, this poor couple lost most of their cake and a lot of their decorations to the rain. My sister went down and invited them up to share the ballroom with us. We had such a blast!

At the end of July, my sister and 2 of our cousins, took a girl trip to St. Augustine. We ended up at the Fountain of Youth and there were a bunch of peacocks hanging around. This guy was just sitting there posing for me.

Thank you for taking the time to join me on my adventures.  If you would like to see my work in progress pictures or just some creative randomness you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook.

Spring Adventures

I don't really know how to start this blog post. Spring time this year was a tough time and I found it hard to keep up with everything, and the blog went by the wayside. I decided to go ahead and catch everybody up with what I have been up to regarding mostly my art and some life stuff. I will try to keep it short. 

First my freelance business was super busy during the spring that I found myself working day and night to keep up. I am so excited about this, and proud of myself for sticking it out. Here's to more busy and creative days to come.

I kept up with my daily drawings up until right at the end of February. Here are some of the full pages I was able to complete. The size of this sketch book is 5.5x8 inches, to give you a little reference on the size of each of the mini paintings.

As for my ceramics, I wasn't able to get as much completed because the business was keeping me so busy. I did finish these Lady Bud Vases for the Sexpot Show at Flametree Clay Gallery in Vero Beach. These were so much fun to make.

Here is the why spring time was so tough and such a sad time for me. My Mom passed away on her favorite holiday, St. Patrick's Day. This was a tough long road. She had an aneurysm that ruptured over 5 years ago and had been in a nursing home in a minimal state. It was so hard to see somebody who was so full of life, and lit up a room as soon as she walked in, not be able to talk or move. We had a wonderful little memorial at an irish bar with an irish singer playing. It would have been exactly the way she wanted it. She always told us to not mourn her death and to celebrate her life.

I thought I would share a fun picture that shows how my love of Halloween and all things scary started since I was a baby. My Mom decided to dress me up as a vampire because my eye teeth were the first to come in. I love this picture so much!

My Murphy dog was laying in the sun and I couldn't pass up taking a picture of him. He is starting to show his age (11 1/2 years old) by starting to relax more. He still acts like a puppy sometimes and will still run and play catch.

Thank you for taking the time to join me on my adventures.  If you would like to see my work in progress pictures or just some creative randomness you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook.

Big Mouth Ceramics

I finished these a couple of months ago. I was waiting to take the photos of all of them completed, If you follow along with my monthly adventures you will remember I was building on these during the fall. I do love how they came out. I used the same technique to start them by making pinch pots and putting them together to create the ball. I then created the features I wanted for each of the faces. Each one is about the size of a smaller grapefruit.

First up is my Big Mouthed Monster. He is super cute and I modeled him a little after Mike from Monsters, Inc.

This is the Big Mouthed Witch. I wanted to make her a little hat but the clay got to dry and I decided I liked her the way she was without one. After she was completed I realized she reminded me a bit of Mad Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone.

This one is Big Mouthed Jack. I wanted to do a fun Jack O'Lantern. I really like the way this came out. After finishing him I kind of wished I would have done a darker color for the inside because there isn't enough contrast from the outside.

This little pumpkin started out with the idea to create another Jack O'Lantern. I decided to put the little leaf on the top and decided to not give it a face. The glazing on this came out darker than expected but I find it very pretty.

 If you would like to follow along with process or just some creative randomness you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook.