Birds Birds Birds

As I start another semester at Washington University teaching my licensed image class I thought this post was fitting. Bird images has become a licensing staple. It seems like no matter how many products they make with birds on them, people will still buy more. Especially me! So my friend Sarah sent me a link from the show Portlandia called Put A Bird On It.  Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

You Cannot Bring Anymore Stuff Into This House

SAVE THE DATE.....Saturday October 15 9AM!  I am going to be having a sale at my house of  trinkets, embellishments, paper, art supplies, fabric, books and vintage collectables . I am planning to open an Etsy shop to sell vintage buttons, embellishments, fabric whatever I have too much of...which is most everything. But my friend Laurie suggested I have a sale first in my house, price everything at a lesser price that I plan to ask on Etsy and let me friends buy it first. So that is what I am going to do...some stuff will be vintage, some new. I will also have some collectables like tableclothes, toys, dishes etc. I will not be advertising this sale in any newspapers or any online web sale site etc. All the info about it will come to you either on the blog or via email. So if you live in St. Louis watch your email posts. You are welcome to bring friends to the sale but it will not be open to the general public.

Gary would like it if all my stuff were to go but then I would not have anything to make artwork with!! And the sale would have to last months to sell it all. 

I will not have any of my artwork for sale at this sale. That sale is coming next, hopefully before Christmas.

Foodstock

In September, the St. Louis chapter of the AIGA will be hosting a fundraiser for a local food bank. The event is going to be called FoodStock and the chapter asked me to do the poster for the event. I was thrilled....not only would I get to do a fun poster but whatever image I did would also be used on pins, tee shirts and magnets that they would sell at the event. Scott, who is in charge of the event. loves birds and he loves the way I do birds so as you can probably guess his idea for the poster was lots of birds eating from bird feeders. Of course I could not have been more pleased to spend days on end making birds. Gary art directed me and he wanted handmade type for the FoodStock logo. So since most of the work I have been doing I cannot show you...that pesky confidentiality stuff....I am happy I can show you this. I also am going to be doing a piece of artwork for the auction they will be having at the event and will show you that when I get it done....the artwork is going to be delicious.

Back from Vacation

I have been on a two week vacation and am now back in my studio. Had a great time...spent a week of the vacation at a condo my mom has in the Ozarks....very relaxing with little work to do. I always bring my sewing machine and work on projects for me. I finished the quilt I have been working on for ages, made new cloth napkins and started to piece together a wall hanging for my living room. For awhile I was on a real kick using dupioni silk...of course I had to have every color made in the fabric....so I had quite a bit of dupioni fabric in my studio. Then I found this fabulous fabric called Mirror Ball Dot by Michael Miller at the Paducah Quilt Show in 2009. I had never used it and decided I could do some flower stitching on the dupioni silk and then use the Mirror Ball Dot fabric to frame the stitching. Of course, as always. I had more flower ideas than I had originally planned and although I had enough colors of the dupioni silk to make the stitched images I did not have enough colors of the Mirror Ball Dot fabric to frame the stitchery. And darn it Mirror Ball Dot fabric had been discontinued! So by searching the Internet and by the grace of a wonderful woman who sold me some of her stash I finally found enough colors. Here is the wall hanging in progress. I cannot show you the whole square because my scanner is not large enough. I plan to add beads, embellishments and jewerly pieces to these next.

What is in my studio?

First off, as you can imagine, my studio is filled with stuff....it is everywhere and looking at it all brings me great joy and visual pleasure. So I am starting a series on my blog called what is in my studio so you all can see what I consider my fabulous stuff. And since I buy other artist’s work from Etsy I thought I could also introduce you to some of my favorite Etsy artists.

These adorable plushes sit right next to my laptop where I write my blogs. They are from an etsy shop called Knitting Dreams.www.etsy.com/shop/knittingdreams They are very small and oh so cute. It takes awhile to get your plush, Aintzi the artist, makes them after you order your plush. And Aintzi is located in Spain so shipping takes a bit of time. But the wait is well worth it! Annie bought these two cuties for me for Christmas. I can never have just one of something....I usually have to have two or three. People ask me why don’t you just make your own stuffies like these...you can surely copy them. Trust me, you can never successfully copy someone else’s work...it never looks quite the same because your piece does not have the artist’s spirit in it. And of course I want to support other artists and their work just as I want them to support me.

Big Things and Me

Those of you who have known me for a long time know when I am on a road trip I love to search out what I call big items....you know those big advertising statues that you see along the road, big cows, spacemen, and cartoon characters. And then I like to have my picture taken with them. Sometimes it is just me standing by the statue, sometimes I can rope Gary into standing with me. When Annie was young she would always join me by a big animal but now ever since she was a teenager, she just rolls her eyes and tries to convince Gary not to even stop so I can get my picture taken much less join me standing by a cow udder. So I will be posting these pictures for you to see. 

This first series is from an antique mall in Illinois....not sure what town it is in but it is not far from St. Louis. Enjoy!

Look at my cute gerbil drawings

As you all know I love gerbils. I love having them in my studio while I work, I can watch their antics and they are SO cute! 

As always in faculty meetings I like to sketch while I listen. I always can process information better when I am drawing or doodling. And, of course, the drawing helps keep me awake. We have our faculty meetings in the same auditorium that I had my art history class in when I was a freshman at Washington University and five minutes into class I was usually dozing. And since sleeping is frowned upon in faculty meetings and I want to keep my job, I sketch.

At one of our last faculty meetings of the semester, I decided to sketch some gerbils. I realized that no one puts gerbils on greeting cards, fabric, wall art and wrapping paper. Hamsters and guinea pigs make appearances all the time but they are not nearly as cute as gerbils. And I have been assured by Monica Kelley, a gerbil breeder who sold me Hazel and Henrietta, gerbil products would snatched up by us gerbil lovers.

Should this be my next line of products?