(i fixed my blog, photos are clickable again)

poor dear. she tried to do art all day, but she kept hearing loud negative voices in her head.

“blah, blah, blah.
your art sucks.
why do you bother?
are you kidding me?
you can’t draw.
you can’t paint.
you call that art?
you call yourself an artist??!!
blah, blah, blah”

if you’re an artist, you probably know this voice well. it’s that voice in your head asking what you think you’re doing. always criticizing and being negative. it could be voices you actually heard in the past, and you’ve got them stuck on replay for some reason. or it could just be your inner critic.

well, i got one thing to say about that.. since you know the voice so well, tell it to shut the *bleeeep* up and go away.

ah!
all better now.

This is my contribution to Illustration Friday. The topic is Voices.

see the little girl in the sun? That’s my favorite part of the painting.

Freshly listed in my etsy shop

You know how really old books have two names? One that is short and will fit on the front cover, and another on the inside across the title page. The one inside is usually much longer, and sometimes gives a little clue as to what the book is about.

Well, this painting has two names like that, too. It’s called Putting the Cat Out or Offering Her Empathy By Way of Cupcake. heh heh Or something like that, anyway. Okay, so I’ll work on the name.

This is one of the six unfinished paintings I was talking about the other day. I am so truly out of practice, I forgot to scan or shoot a photo of this before I started painting on it again. Oops!

So, I can’t show you what it looked like before, but trust me..this version is better. I had no idea what it was even about last time I worked on it. No clue. No story to tell..nothing! I had a flower, which somehow developed a face. I had a woman with a cat. That was it. But, now I’ve figured out that the woman has been kept awake by a very noisy, naughty cat! I mean, look at her face. Her expression says it all. And, although the jury is still out, the cat looks guilty to me!

You can’t have a cat in the house and not know this feeling. You just want to get some sleeeeep!! My three are all indoor cats, so I don’t have that option. But, there are nights when all three of them would go outside, for sure!

The flower with the cupcake is offering up her empathy. She can only imagine what it’s like to live with a noisy, naughty cat.

It’s not done. The story may develop more as I go along. Or, I may decide to put the finishing touches on it and call it a day. I have about 10-15 hours in this right now, and I don’t know how much more I’m going to work on it.

Oh, btw..this was done using Kelly Rae’s style (I plan on writing about Kelly’s book once I have a chance to read it all the way through). You can’t tell by this lousy scan (something is still wrong with my scanner. grr!), but the background has layers and patterns beneath the paint. It shows up a bit too dark here to see all the colors under there. I’ll show close up shots when I get ready to sell it.

So, yeah, I did the background first, and then the woman. I felt like I was working backwards the whole time I did it. It just didn’t feel right to me, but I’m definitely going to try it again. I loved the challenge, even if I was feeling very uncomfortable the whole time. You gotta try new things and mix it up now and then. Otherwise, it gets boring.

I got a little tired of my old blog look. I know this isn’t a BIG change. I kept the same colors, for now. I’m still tweaking it here and there (ljers i’m talking about the blog on my website, not lj. i update my website and lj at the same time via a plugin on wordpress). But, it is wider, so my images can be, also. And, I made a new banner, which displays some of my recent art.

I also added monster avatars to the comment section. Now whenever you comment, you get a little monster beside your name. If you mouse over the monster, you’ll see it also links to your website, if  you filled in that info. I think you get a different monster each time you add a comment. Aren’t they cute?

Ooooh, and look at this!! I got a rebel art card made by Bobbi in the mail. She started making rebel art cards a few years back, and I was lucky enough to get a couple back then, too.

I just loooove this card. I never make my bed. It’s just wasted time and energy to me. I know it only takes a few minutes, but life is short. I have better things to do than housework. I guess it’s my way of rebelling. heh! So, I was immediately drawn to this card. Thank you sooo much, Bobbi.

that reminds me that i have totally dropped the ball on my pay it forward entry back in August. i’m so sorry. i told you ladies that i would send you something and i haven’t. it’s not that i’ve forgotten because i haven’t. actually, i have started to send you something a million times, but for some reason i freeze up. i can not decide what to send you. nothing seems good enough, and i think, ‘why would they want that???’ so, yeah, i haven’t sent anything at all. i know it sounds stupid, but it’s true. i need to move past my frozen zone, and i will..promise!

Last chance to own this mixed media painting for this cheap cheap price..

worldwide shipping. ending in a few hours.

If it doesn’t sell, it will be in my etsy shop tomorrow for a much higher price because it took forever to make, and it shouldn’t be sold so cheaply. ahem!

Oh hey, if you haven’t checked my etsy shop lately, I now have a SALE section. I’ve slashed prices on some stuff more than 50%. Go see! I want to clear out the old to make room for all the new I’ve been making lately.

His wife was at work. All his laundry was dirty. Good thing he knew his way around the laundry room. He threw a big ole load in the washer.

He, in his underwear, sat down and watched a bit of tv.

After the wash had finished its last spin cycle, he realized he had nothing to wear out to the clothesline. So, he borrowed his wife’s skirt and sweater. As he hung up his orange shirt, he glanced around to make sure no one was watching him.

This is a 6×6 print mounted on chipboard and sealed with beeswax. It’s made from a painting I did a few months ago. The original is not for sale, but you can get the reproduction in my etsy shop.