How-To Tuesday: Autoplay Music on your Blog

HahAhAhaHAhaAhaHAhaahahhaaa!!!

Did you really think I was serious?

If I was going to do a post on "how to make music autoplay when someone opens your blog" I might as well title it, "The most efficient way to get someone to navigate away from your blog as quickly as possible" or  "How to instantly exponentially increase your bounce rate"

But seriously, I've been without internet for about a week now, AGAIN, thanks Verizon.
In the meantime I've been coming up with a bunch of fun haikus about Verizon and their internet 'service' (if you can call it that?) but none are appropriate for this blog so I won't publish them here because they'd just look like

Verizon &$#*!! &$(#
*$*#& Verizon (### *$##**@!!! 
*$!*#& Verizon.

So while my internet is working for more than three consecutive minutes (probably sporadically because they're fixing an outage somewhere in the area) I'm actually working on tomorrow's blog post, because I came up with it last week but couldn't post it AND. HAD. A. SAD.

But now you don't have to has a sad because I wrote a ridiculous blog post for today AND am writing a super cool Want! Want! Wednesday post with some very exciting goodies in there!

And in the meantime here is a silly Mantis.

No, I haven't been drinking, but am sort of on a burnt (on purpose) cookie and key-lime buzz.

Where Is My Mind?

(that's the name of a pretty cool Pixies song by the way.)

If you're following my blog, you probably noticed I haven't been posting as much lately since I was spending soooo much of my time training for a triathlon. My first one has come and gone (and I had a blast) and I'm doing another one on Saturday, but by now I've sort of settled into the routine of being able to do at least one activity (swimming, biking, or running, some strength training) daily and also finding ways to squeeze in a normal life as well (working, dog walking, cooking and eating like a normal person, preparing for a move in a couple months, etc.)

But where's the art?

That seems to be the one aspect that's been difficult to fit in.

I mean, it's there. In my head. It always is! I even started a few new little paintings a month ago. (Or maybe more, I don't know, but I blogged about it.) And then this past weekend I had my first art show of the year, which reminded me how much I do like creating art and I found a lot of inspiration looking at all the other artists' wonderful work and meeting new people who seem to enjoy mine.

So I've got ideas and I like creating art-- jump in! Hop to it!

Unfortunately for about 12 hours a day, the inside of my head looks something like this:


This is..... when I'm working. When I'm walking the dog. When I'm watching TV (due to certain current living arrangements there will be less of that). When I'm driving. When I'm taking a shower. When I'm eating cereal. When I'm working. When I'm having my coffee. When I'm in the grocery store looking at all the beautiful colorful produce. When I'm working.
Did I mention when I'm working??? Staring at a computer for a lot of the day thinking about what I'd rather be doing.

I guess by the time I actually HAVE time for the art, I've been thinking about it so much it already feels like I've been doing it, so it's a little hard to get motivated.

And when I have a million+ things on my mind related to the art, sometimes it's tough to know where to begin!!!

I should lay this mental mess out in an organized list.
We all just loooove lists, don't we?? We have our list for groceries, errands we need to run, bills we need to pay. Sometimes our lists have sub-lists. And... sometimes we lose our list and aimlessly mill around WalMart like a zombie, walking soooooo sloooooowly right in the middle of the damn aisle, taking up the entire walkway, completely oblivious to those around us... We forgot we just went in for toothpaste and envelopes and end up walking out out somehow having spent $159.74.

And no toothpaste or envelopes.

WTF!

But here's how the list should look, if I did lay it all out. Somehow.
- Enter receipts into tax document
- Enter receipts and income from gallery & art show into business spreadsheet
- Contact the nice people who were interested in ordering some of my work at the art show
- Start the commission piece a friend (who I don't get to see too often) requested from me a while ago (he said there was no hurry)
- Start the commission piece a friend asked me to do for his or her spouse's upcoming birthday
- Start the piece I've been wanting to do as a gift for a friend
- Take the recycling to the drop-off center, or at least down to the garage, since it's taking up a ton of room in the office/studio
- Finish painting some of those bug boxes I was creating
- Finish painting the frames I salvaged from my mom's house
- Fill said frames
- List some of the bug boxes and little framed art on Etsy, open my store again.
- Finish my caterpillars triptych!
- Scan in my sunflowers painting
- After I figure out which bug(s) I'm going to put on it, and where- I'm thinking a lady bug and/or a grasshopper?
- Make prints of the sunflowers painting
- Go to Staples and restock on cards, I'm sold out of like half my designs
- Drop off my old computer monitor at Staples for donation
- Restock my ink and order more mats
- Order some of ProPanels' hanging hooks so I don't have to damage my panels anymore
- Frame some more of my original 30 bugs in 30 days

And of course, ideas for new art:
- Leaves with white or very pale blue backgrounds
- Hibiscus
- More butterfly drawings....

Ummm. As you can see, not only does this list require a lot of time, but also money. Which I don't have. Or maybe I do, but I don't want to spend it. I know it takes money to make money, and if I'm ever going to be successful with my art I need to take it seriously which includes occasional investments in it. Plus I shouldn't feel guilty about ordering a few things that I NEED because my family gave me $ for my birthday last year to order art-show-display-stuff and guess what? I never ordered it. But now that I'm working less, I have a lot of guilt about spending money if I don't need something, which is another reason a lot of the art stuff has slid to the back burner.

It's so hard finding a balance!

Sunflowers... finished?

I still have to scan them in so the colors are correct- the colors shown here are still a little off. I think it might be done, but there's a possibility that I'll be adding a ladybug to one of the leaves on the flower on the left. A little more pop of color and something random to add interest.

However, two friends have suggested something else. One friend of mine (author of this wonderful blog) suggested a honey bee, either on a flower or flying toward them. Another friend (and author of another great blog!) mentioned that she always has grasshoppers on the leaves of her sunflowers and suggested one of those.

Either that or the bee would be interesting because I could do either of them in a way that they would almost blend in and not be noticable right away.... so there are still some other possibilities with this painting!

I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas......

Even though I respect the turkey and generally dislike the idea of putting up Christmas/Holiday/Winter themed decorations BEFORE Thanksgiving, you can't help but have it on your mind as your mailbox starts to flood with catalogs, stores are playing Christmas music incessantly, Victoria's Secret starts showing countless ads on TV again....
With all the consumption and commercialization surrounding Christmas, it's easy to be tempted to drop a small fortune on decor and gifts! So what's a person to do if you're trying to be more green??

In the next couple of weeks I'm going to post some ideas focusing on how to make your Christmas (and other holidays) more green, as there are plenty of ways you can go about it.

For starters, Home Depot is advertising something wonderful (which I posted last week on my Facebook page):
The Christmas Light Trade-In!!

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentView?pn=SF_EV_Christmas_Light_Trade-In&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&cm_mmc=hd_email-_-102809_GC-1028-Wed-_-1027-GC21-_-LED-VAL

Bring in your old used/broken Christmas light strands and get $3 back toward the purchase of new eco-friendly LED Christmas Light Strands! LED lights use much less energy than the traditional bulbs, so you'll save money on your electric bill. They also last up to 10 times as long as traditional bulbs, too, so you'll stretch your money even further!

Another thing you can do, as the catalogs start piling up in the recycle bin- is to call the companies who are sending them and request to be removed from their mailing list (unless you regularly order from them). A lot of companies share names and once you're subscribed to one, you end up getting 5 affiliate catalogs as well. (As a plus side to this, often when you call to unsubscribe from one, they will take you off the shared list- but it's hard to know exactly who shares with who.)

One last tip for today is to look for handmade gifts and decor, rather than mass-produced. Many towns and cities have gift shops where local artists sell their one-of-a-kind handmade items, so see if you can find one! And if you prefer to shop online (like me), try Etsy! They have just about everything you could ever want. To get even greener, try the Shop Local option and your item won't have to travel as far to get to you! You'll be surprised at how many local handmade goods you can find!

Facebooks! and Twitters! and Blogs! Oh my!

If you've been trying to start a business online (or offline), or you're just trying to market yourself, you've probably noticed that you're limited to only......... about 48392038 ways to do it.

Long, long ago (circa 1995) in the land of the World Wide Interwebs, there was simply having a website for yourself.
Remember that? And those silly basic HTML pages??

This is me.
These are my pets!!!
I like frogs!
I listen to the Beatles, and Tom Petty, and Steve Winwood, and Tom Cochrane.
I like Chinese Food and raisins and Indian food and sushi.

Look at all the cool colors and fonts I can do!

(Are those old pages still somewhere out there?)

Photo-sharing became pretty popular, too, for obvious reasons.
And then there was Flickr, where you could share photos with friends AND with total strangers, post messages, join groups- it's almost limitless!

Then blogs were the next big thing, and everyone had to have one of those. (Makes sense, it's a great way to keep people updated on your latest news or anything else interesting.)
Then websites like blogger came along, to help those of us who didn't want to pay for web hosting, and/or didn't know enough HTML (or were just too lazy) to lay out and consistently update a blog of our own.

Facebook has been around for a while, and it seems like 99% of the people you talk to have one (or maybe two, one for themselves and one for their business). Facebook is kind of a hub- you can share photos, blog posts, long updates or short updates, and even interact with friends and fans.

And Twitter came along. Twitter was okay, too- quick mini-updates the length of a text message if you don't feel like doing a whole blog; plus, Twitter is more interactive.


However, the more involved you get with trying to promote yourself online (as I can tell, since I'm guilty of having all of the above), the more you find that there are OTHER sites you simply MUST join to get the most out of your promotional experience!

I don't even want to try and come up with a number for how many twitter applications there are...
"Get 1000 followers in a day!" (Noooo-ooo-oooo!)
"Find your target market on Twitter NOW!"
"I have 43000 followers! Follow me and I'll show you how!"
Or the numerous tweets/various forum posts pleading, "Follow me and I'll follow you!"

And if you've got a blog, you start reading about how to find readers and get THE MOST AND BEST out of your blog. You simply MUST be a member of Digg, Technorati, Entrecard....... Hell, I've even got the "share" button on here and don't know what half of the websites do.

With Facebook, you can make yourself a business page, but then you've got to find some fans. You can share it with friends, but you don't want to annoy your friends with promotions or business related events. If you're lucky, some friends might become fans though. And if you're still lucky, some actual fans of your business (art, in my case) might even become fans. But it seems like it's becoming more like Twitter in the "Fan me and I'll fan you back!" mentality.

Is someone who became a fan of my Facebook page, just to get me to fan them back, really going to care at all if I've just started a new drawing or finished and framed a painting?

It seems impossible to keep track of it all, with needing usernames and passwords for each and every one of these (and of course, for security, a different unique password for every site). And how can anyone have time to actively participate in all of the recommended sites?

Are we spreading ourselves too thin?

If you've got an online shop (etsy, 1000 markets, ebay, other?), have any of these sites been useful to you? Or do you feel the same way?

Inchworm, Inchworm... Bug #22

Saturday's bug:

A sweet little inchworm!

Click to see him in my Etsy Shop!

I played around again with a colorful sky, rather than just a blue one. It's so much fun! I was afraid it would come out looking... well, weird, when I did a purple background for the butterfly, but I liked it so much I did it again. Another trend in the series is taking place! :)

If you're in a creative rut, I highly recommend taking on a little daily creativity project for yourself. I love that I have to come up with the concept and execution start to finish each day. I might have an idea ahead of time, but usually don't begin sketching until the day I'm creating that bug. Just in this series I can tell I've grown so much and learned a lot from experimenting and trying new things!

I think it's a great exercise for any artist! :)

So... Any suggestions for the last few bugs? I can't believe I'm almost done! I'm kind of sad, but also looking forward to what other projects I may take on after completing these bugs! I might turn a couple into larger paintings, or maybe even tote bags or other fabric projects. Who knows?

Update:
I am SO flattered! My little inchworm here was featured on ACEOshowcase.com!
http://aceoshowcase.com/inchworm/259

30 Bugs in 30 Days Series

Today is the start of my new ACEO series, "30 Bugs in 30 Days."
Here is number one!
Colored pencil on acid free art paper with recycled content.
Click the image to find it in my Etsy shop!

I've wanted to challenge myself with a series for a while now, but I didn't want to have to interrupt the series with my Alaska trip in mid-June. 100 days was a nice even number, but daunting, and I would have to interrupt it with travel. I settled on 30 days and if I start now, I'll finish a few days before I leave for our trip.
Also, by "30 Bugs in 30 Days", I do mean 30 small finished pieces of art. So if I were to draw 2 bugs on one drawing (like today), it does not count as 2 of the bugs.... I am not going to allow myself to paint 1 swarm of honeybees and call the 30 bugs done! ;)

My original plan with my series was to include small paintings, ACEOs, embellished reproduction ACEOs or prints from paintings sketches, etc. Just some kind of art, each day. I decided against that because it seemed a little too simple (but that might be applicable if I do a 100 day series).

For this project I thought a collectible series of ACEOs would be more of a challenge and give me more finished products at the end, because sometimes I tend to start a project but have difficulty actually finishing it. Especially small projects that could be seen as insignificant, like just a sketch. By specifying finished ACEOs each day for the 30 day duration, I'm forcing myself to endure all stages of the creation process on a daily basis: Beginning (initial concept, research), Middle (sketching), and End (the final piece). Some parts of the process may take place over the course of a day or two, such as when I finish a piece and begin jotting down or sketching ideas for the next one.

I also want to challenge myself by not using photographs in the creative process. I may use them for reference on occasion, but I don't plan to use entire compositions of bugs and flowers I've already captured with my camera. I want to force myself to do something different, and while I love realism very much, I also enjoy looking at whimsical artwork- I just stink at creating it. In one college art class, we were told not to use compositions or subject matter from our heads but rather do lots and lots of research to get everything perfect and REAL. Since I love realism so much that seemed like a great idea, but I do feel that it may have slightly altered my creative process. I want more experience coming up with an idea and composition in my head first, maybe playing around with representative shapes rather than absolute reality, and later I can research some specific things if necessary.

At some point, the ACEOs from this series will probably go up for sale in my Etsy store. They'll be identified as being part of the series, with their number and completion date, and signed by me (initials on front, full name on back).

Art and Bugs and a new series (possibly)!

We're supposed to be notified today whether or not we got selected to participate in a VERY cool downtown improvement project. I've got no idea how many artists there are in the area, but there are a lot of spots open in the contest, so I've really had my hopes up. I also had my hopes up that maybe we might be notified a little earlier than the projected notification date, just because it's been driving me a little crazy for a couple of weeks now. And since I've heard nothing, my heart is sinking a little.

Since I do hate getting my hopes up for things, I don't do it very often. I like to think that things happen for a reason- like if I don't get selected for the project, maybe there is a little more to it than I would have thought, and I wouldn't've wanted to be involved anyway. I've decided to line up a back-up project just in case, so I have something I'm guaranteed to look forward to.

I'm going to attempt a series, 30 bugs in 30 days. This way I'll be sure to finish before I leave on my big trip next month. I want to do ACEOs, but some might just end up being simple sketches or other miscellaneous projects. But something bug related is my goal.

I've heard that doing daily art helps to really spark creativity, and also trying to keep it as a daily thing will help me settle into some kind of routine, I hope. There may be days when I feel extra creative and 2 bugs may happen, or if I'm anticipating a particularly busy day, I might try and get a little ahead of myself.

So there. And by writing this little goal down and publishing it, I do hope that it forces me stick with it!

The Story of Stuff...

Since a lot of people seem so down in the dumps about the economy, not having enough money, the environment, pollen, the lack of mustaches among the under-30 male population, pollution, not getting their free KFC meal, or whatever else... I wanted to share this little film.
(If you're very busy, you can put it on and just listen to it while you're working and still get something out of it.)

It's called the Story of Stuff: http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Some of this might be STUFF you already knew, maybe some you didn't. It's got a little bit of politics in it and if that isn't for you, it's a small part and easy to ignore- I'm not trying to force that on anyone by promoting this. But a large part of this is an undeniable look at how much STUFF we have and how we always seem to need MORE, BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER STUFF.


...No we don't!

Give it a watch, listen, whatever, share it if you like. It may give you a new perspective on shopping and what you really need to spend moneys on, especially if lately money is something that you've been concerned about.

(PS...

Mustaches are free!!!)

(PPS so are LolCats!)

Artists! Who likes free stuff? Tips for package reuse.

I haven't posted much about art in a while, but this was a post that's been bouncing around in my head now (as most things do...) for a while. Since yesterday was the Mechanicsburg Earth Day festival, I'm still feeling a green streak, so it's time to formulate this post.

A lot of people have heard the term "Starving Artist." I'm not too crazy about that term, probably because it brings back all-too-vivid memories of college and having ONE art store in town that could (and did) charge an arm and a leg for everything, and with Flagler College's art students 2 miles away, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Art supplies cost WAY more than food, and at the time, seemed much more necessary. (But you could still always find beer money... Ramen noodles + Art supplies + Cheap beer = unofficial art school budget.)

I digress. Since everyone's looking to save money, especially artists in college or just starting out, here are some simple ways you can reuse things for your art/art business.


1. Vinyl tablecloth with fuzzy flannely backing.
This bad boy was 2.99. Pretty cheap. These tablecloths are practical if you're throwing a party, but the bad thing about them is they tend to rip. Once it has a rip in it, what do you usually do with it? Toss it? I have another idea- use it to protect a painting in transport. After you wrap your painting with whatever you use (preferably something reusable like foam), wrap one of these around it. If there is humidity or rain wherever you're taking it, the vinyl is waterproof and will protect the painting. The fuzz on the back won't hurt your frame, either. I plan to experiment with attaching velco to it and making a pocket that will stay in place around my artwork and can be resized for various paintings.

2. Envelopes
This one is simple, but you can keep some old envelopes around for receipts. You can easily organize them by month, or by art show. For a while I was using folders but I was going through them quickly and always running out. Now I can use envelopes from cards to organize receipts by month or show and then have a folder for each year. A very simple tip, so simple many may not have thought of it!

3. Empty tubs
These have about a million uses! Transporting dry kibble for your pets during travels. Offering leftovers to family or friends after dinner to take home (no worries about getting them back). And of course, holding your paintbrush rinse water while you paint! You can keep a few in different sizes and use them all at once, with separate bowls for each color you're working with, etc.

4. Miscellaneous plastic packaging
I know ideally it's best to just avoid this altogether. But sometimes when you're limited to what your grocery store has to offer, it's hard to get around it (hello... do you like berries?). These containers have a lot of uses, too. The smaller packages you can use to store small things like business cards, price tags, ACEOs, framing hardware, small tools. If they have ventilation holes and you want to keep the water out, you can store the plastic container in a heavy plastic bag from your cereal or potato chips. Wash all of these out as best you can to avoid oils or food residue. Wrap it in a rubber band to keep it tight.

5. Medicine/prescription bottles
If you tend to work with smaller quantities of paint at a time like me, you don't need a giant storage container for custom colors. I'm not sure how reliable most of these bottles are for long term color storage... The bottle on the right was left over from a prescription for my cat. I mixed some paint in it more than a year ago and planned to use it up within a day or two. I didn't use all of it, but surprisingly the paint in there is still wet and seems usable. Not sure I'd want to use it after a year, but it's nice to know that I could count on it to hold a color for at least a week or two.

6. Vegetable containers
Again, I know, avoid these- but if you're a big fan of mushrooms and the loose ones are all sold out, you might end up taking one of these containers home once in a while. These make GREAT palettes, as you can see from the used one! The paint will build up in them after a while, so they do have a finite life span (as far as I can tell). I like that there are many different kinds, and the green one has nice little pockets that are about 1/4" deep, so they'd hold a decent amount of paint and would be good for mixing it, too.

Do you have any tips you'd like to share in things that you reuse (art related, or not)? If so, please leave a comment! :)

Have a great week, everyone! I'm out of town for a few days and might not be posting while I'm gone.

Great Green Frames and Ink Jet Papers coming your way.

I've been saying over and over that THIS will be the weekend that I finish my Tulip Poplar Flower paintings. One is very close to being done, the other two just need some more coats of paint on the flowers and then I need to work on the middles (the stamens? I'm not completely knowledgeable in floral anatomy). I was telling my husband how excited I would be if I could find reclaimed-wood frames for them, or something else eco-friendly... AND what a bonus it would be if I could find frames made from poplar trees!

Today was my lucky day because through Twitter, I found a GREAT search engine called The Eco Key. It's a Google powered search engine that puts an eco filter on your search results! Especially when adding the words "eco-friendly" or "green" to my search, I was getting much better results than using a the standard search engine (with no eco-filter).

So, through The Eco Key's engine, I found my frames on Etsy.com.
Behold BucksCountyFrames shop! They have lots of standard sizes and offer custom, too!!

Photo copyright from The Bucks County Frame Company:
The frames I purchased.

If you're interested in eco-friendly frames, there are quite a few people on Etsy who make them, and some do custom sizes, etc. I did searches for "ecofriendly frame" (click to see the results of search), and "reclaimed wood frame" (click to see search results).


While I was playing around with the new search engine, I decided to look online for some good recycled and/or eco-friendly paper options to use with my new printer. I've got some Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Matte paper (I hear over and over that Epson printers are really designed to work best with their own papers) that I've used for some 8x10's and ACEOs and so far I really like it. But I'd prefer to find a more eco-friendly paper option- but only if it's going to make my prints look their best, and not ruin my printer.

I searched with The Eco Key again and found The Green Rooster which is Hahnemühle's eco-friendly paper line. They've got 2 bamboo papers and one made from sugar cane. 5% of the proceeds from the Green Rooster label papers are donated to environmental protection projects. After reading about the 3 different papers, I decided to order some made from sugar cane (here's some info about sugar cane paper and here's some cool stuff too) as it's a natural by-product and got some great reviews online.

It was a little tough choosing a paper though because you always have to wonder, which is best? Which is the most green? What happens to sugar cane by-products that aren't made into paper? If they would otherwise go to waste, then it's great to have found a use for them in a nice art paper. I also know that generally speaking, sugar cane farms have some bad effects on the environment too, though (as does almost all agriculture, sadly). But what about Bamboo... that would be a whole separate blog post, as bamboo seems eco-friendly but when you start really researching what goes on with it, at least to produce fabrics and things, it might not be so great after all.

That doesn't mean I love Bamboo (as a plant) any less.

Beyond the Gray Sky..........

It's raining. And nasty. AGAIN.
That means I probably won't get a bike ride today :(

But maybe it's not a bad thing, because if April showers really do bring May flowers, then I say

BRING.
IT.
ON!

In the meantime I've had a lot of little (some of them literally, hehe) projects and things I've been trying to get done. And I've been quite productive!

I finally changed my homepage on my website www.samanthasartstudio.com. I completely changed the graphic and had a lot of fun creating a color wheel from flowers, and getting some creativity flowing in making leaf-paintbrush graphics. I also re-did my artist's statement and that is now on my homepage as well.

Instead of having my artist's statement on the "About Samantha" page, I changed that text to be more like a bio. I am contemplating a new page for my site, a "green" page where I can link to green products I use and would recommend to other artists with similar interests in making their work more environmentally friendly.

This morning, I finished printing, spraying (with preservative protectant- again, there's that struggle with preserving my art versus making it eco-friendly, *sigh*), and cutting out my first batch of limited edition ACEO prints!



I created these from my Swallowtail Caterpillar painting. Not sure which of my paintings I'll print next, but the caterpillar seemed like the most fun for the first set :)

And this afternoon I created a cute button for the "follow me on Twitter" link, over on the right. It was just text, which is fine, but a button seemed like something I could personalize and make more fun. So, here it is, and click if you feel so inclined (come on... do it!):



Also, it's Friday, April 3rd which means tonight is First Friday!! I'll be at Gallerie 13 this evening to participate in my first one with this gallery. I went to the last one, before my art was in the gallery, and it was fun! Snacks, art, a lot of nice people, and music too.
As the weather gets warmer, check into First Fridays in your area- they are springing up in small towns everywhere and it might be a fun thing to do before or after dinner. Get your snack on and your art on!

I walk the line...

As I've tried harder and harder to incorporate "green" into my artwork and art business (prints, packaging, etc.), I'm starting to realize that archival and environmentally friendly are damn near mutually exclusive. It seems that I am walking a fine line between them. When you can find environmentally friendly art supplies, the sizes or colors offered are extremely limited.

After a few customers asked me about making ACEOs, I recently decided to create some. Last year these little cards were immensely popular in the art community, and with the economy being in the toilet/people not wanting to spend a lot of money on things, I would wager they will remain popular for at least another year or two as they are small and artists can make them quickly and cheaply. Plus, it's tiny collectible art cards... Tiny is FUN!

So to package and sell ACEO prints, you can put them into a clear sleeve with backing board just like you would do with any other print. But getting a bunch of new plastic sleeves just to encase these tiny prints seems a bit wasteful. And, I can't find bags in the proper size that are environmentally friendly at all.

Some artists are using baseball card holders/sleeves to display their ACEO prints. These are a little thicker and more sturdy than your standard plastic sleeves for prints, and are almost always archival quality as collectors don't want their cards to deteriorate in quality. After an exhaustive search, I came up with no recycled content or biodegradable baseball card holders.

Some people on Etsy are incredibly creative with their packaging! Etsy sellers are using everything from cereal boxes (cut to size then taped together to make a sleeve), to fabrics, to recycled mailers and other recycled packaging.

I love the idea of the recycled cereal/snack boxes for shipping, but I still need a nice way to display the cards for art shows, galleries, etc. Hmmmm.....

Oh, You Pretty Things!

I've wanted to paint a Tulip Poplar blossom for a long, looonnnng time now- as long as I can remember. Unfortunately about three years ago when it occurred to me to go take some reference photos, it was about a month after the flowers had come and gone. They don't last long at all, which makes the blooms even more special.

The following year (2007) I promised myself that I would absolutely NOT miss bloom-time, and thus kept a very watchful eye on a carefully selected Tulip tree (with low-hanging and easily accessible branches) in my dad's yard that entire spring.... waiting for the flowers. Exactly when they bloom depends on the harshness of winter, the warmth / intensity of Spring, rainfall, and of course a host of negative man-made influences which is pretty much a given with anything in nature now... but I digress.


I was able to capture these photos in mid-May, and the blooms- as usual- didn't last more than a few days, a week at most. I photographed them daily in various stages of bloom (okay, call it what it is: TREE SEX). You can easily see the differences in lighting/weather/time of day in these 3 pictures I have posted, and these are my favorites of the set. I'm looking at these 3 pictures as inspiration for a new painting. Or three.






Surprisingly, I actually have never seen this flower painted, although I'm sure somebody has had to feel the same inspiration as me and captured its glory with some form of artistic media.

More Green Art Stuff!

For the last few years I've struggled a little bit with the fact that acrylic paints are NOT eco-friendly by any means. While I do work with colored pencils once in a while- and I do love them and have noticed many eco-friendly ones to choose from- I just can't trade painting for drawing.

Well...... I recently found out about these:

The artist Wyland has his own show that's only 30 minutes long and he shows you how to do a whole painting in that time. It's awesome. At the beginning of the show, you see a list of the tools Wyland is going to use in that episode, and on that list would always be "Wyland Ecological Paints."

Apparently, these are environmentally friendly acrylic paints! At the end of his show, Wyland always mentions something about the oceans and the environment and how we all need to do our part in protecting them. I need to do a little more research and find out *what* it is about the paints that's environmentally friendly. Is it the ingredients? The way that they are made? Does the factory in which they are made run on solar or wind power? Is the packaging made from recycled materials?
Hopefully the answer is yes to all :)
And if not, we can hope that that's not too far off!

For now, since I know of the three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle), reducing is the most important, I will stick with trying to use up all the paints I already have before diving in (HAHA!! Get it!?) to the Wyland paints!

(PS... Maybe by then Wyland will have added a Hooker's green to his catalog of colors.... pleeeeeease?)

The Magical Mystery Tour is dying to take you awaaaayyyy....

.....Dying to take you away,
Take you todaaaaaaaaaaay!!!


Today I finally finished my Hawaiian Ginger painting!
But I have yet to find my camera..... still.
So for now, the final product will have to remain a mystery! Until I find my camera, find a good deal on a used camera, get a new camera, or scan in the painting. :)

Of course, this means I get to start a new painting- or, more likely, a new series of paintings. Sadly, I'm getting away from tropical for a bit. Living further north and having 90% of the weeks being overcast (and colder than I'm used to this time of year) makes me miss the tropics WAY too much to be staring at a tropical themed painting for months on end!

So I'm going with food. Everyone loves food, right? Especially me. And while I'm painting it, I'll probably be eating it... and drinking it- lots of it!!- in the form of wine, since my next paintings will be of grapes.

Seriously.... It's done now.

Talk about taking forever! I signed it though, so unless I decide not to frame this, then it's done. If I decide not to frame it, I need to paint the sides of the canvas...

So now I'm sitting here uploading this, and will post a poll on my blog about the frame- I'm not sure if I should leave it unframed, frame it in white, or frame it with wood. So if you're reading this, check out the poll on the right and let me know with a vote :)

I'm leaning toward white. White looks good with everything.

Now I sit and wonder what I should paint next. I got some GREAT pictures at the Chicago Botanic Garden last weekend, and feel a little overwhelmed and am not sure where to begin. I have a canvas with a Hawaiian Ginger started- it's the same as my drawing actually, but I got it printed on canvas and wanted to make a couple of changes. I took some pictures of banana trees, similar to this palm tree. I also have pictures of some great tropical leaves, and a whole bunch of grapes, too!

Bee Month, Part Deux

I had originally planned to do lots of bee related drawings and art this month. I do have a painting I'm working on- and tomorrow I'm at Old Towne Crafters all day, so I'll have lots of time to work on it. It's so little (9x12 I think), so hopefully it WILL be done soon.

But in the meantime, instead of working on drawings, I've been working over on Etsy...
While browsing around the site, I found other artists on Etsy who are concerned about the honeybee crisis and who want to help by raising awareness or donating proceeds from sales, or both!

Etsy has a great community and part of that community is Etsy Teams. Teams are groups of artists and crafters with something in common- whether it's location, or type of craft, or nationality, or- pretty much anything!

I contacted some of the other artists who expressed concern about the bees to guage interest. Since everyone seemed enthusiastic, I created the Etsy HoneyBee Helpers Team. Along with that came the Etsy HoneyBee Helpers Blog, which has information about Bee Team artists and their news, what we're doing to help the bees, what related things are going on over at Etsy, etc.

I know things will probably start out slowly, but I'm really hoping we can all come up with some great ways to raise awareness of CCD and the importance of bees and maybe actually make a difference.

May = Bee Month

Incase you may not already BEE aware, there's a honey bee crisis going on. You can read more about it on http://www.helpthehoneybees.com , http://www.honeybeepreservation.org , and http://www.vanishingbees.com . It's a very, very sad thing for someone who loves bees as much as me, to hear about them being in such a bad way and no one can really pin point just one reason why- yet. But it's also a very bad situation for humans in general, as a lot of our food supply depends on honeybees, and food prices are getting higher as it is.

I've wanted to do a series of bee drawings for a while now, so this seems like a great time to start that. With the flowers in my garden starting to bloom like crazy, I might be able to get more inspiration there.This month I'm hoping to get a small painting done, and as many small drawings as I can- I'm looking to sort of challenge myself to do a bunch. I've seen some teeny-tiny drawings and paintings in little frames (I'm talking 2" x 2" here) and they are ridiculously cute. So I'd like to try my hand at some of those.

If I do a few this month in my spare time- especially since drawings generally don't take that long, and if I do a small painting, hopefully that won't take too long either- I can put those up in my etsy store. And if I sell anything, I can donate to one of these bee research charities.

I've loved bees since I was about 6 years old (when I was known as "the bee girl"... Ask my family... I'm sure they loved hearing how their kid was a bee-loving-weirdo). And now that I'm doing a lot of flower and bee (and bugs in general) artwork, it seems only natural that I should make some contributions to help out the bees that I've loved so much for most of my life.

And... on to something new.

Red poppy painting is done! Yay! I love completing a painting. I may leave it for a month or so and go back and fix anything as I see fit... But for the most part- yeah, I'm going to call it done.

I'm happy with the poppies, and I didn't strive to make this painting look photo-realistic, for once. It's taken me a few years to really get away from doing that. Because, really, if I wanted it to look like a photograph- and if the composition is something that I am taking from one of my photographs- then why not just print the photograph itself?! So I'm striving to make things look realistic from far away, but up close, making sure that it's obviously a painting.

It was hard to get a good picture of it without getting some kind of a glare (this was the best I could get)... so, once I scan it in, it'll be uploaded into my online gallery.

Then I can figure out how I'm going to frame it, and that's always fun, too. That sense of finishing something feels like such a huge relief, and accomplishment.


But I admit, sometimes the only reason I really go out of my way to finish up a painting is that I have another idea for a painting that I just can't wait to start. And so it was with this one. So today, I started my palm tree painting. Or is it a sea anenome? ...Only time will tell.