New for Etsy: fine art prints

Untitled (Red & Gold), ©2006
8" x 8" fine art print available at my Etsy shop for $20 plus shipping

For the past year, I've been getting slides of my artwork made from digital files from iprintfromhome.com. Their service, quality and prices are impressive. They also offer a service for printing fine art prints from digital files, and last week when I was placing an order for more slides, I decided to order a few smallish prints to see how they turned out. They are wonderful! I'm so happy with the color reproduction and the quality of the prints! I was so happy with the quality I decided to offer them in my Etsy shop, and I'll definitely be ordering more.

Getting Centered

"Veil I", acrylics/collage painting on 24" x 30" canvas, ©2006

Today was one of those frustrating days where I feel like I'm bouncing around between ideas and activities like a ball in a pinball machine. It started off pretty well, and I got some painting done, then I started bouncing around. I still haven't found my center, my creative rhythm, since the holidays spun me so far off balance, and today was just further proof of that.

At about 4:00 I finally called a halt and stopped. Earlier I had read an idea on Accidental Creative, a site I've recently discovered, and I decided to give it a try right then and there.

"Spend 20 minutes in silence. No distractions, no noise, no tech stuff. Breathe deeply. Then re-engage."

It worked wonders. I lit a candle, drank a cup of tea, and now I feel so much better. I recommend it highly. Over the next few days, I'm going to focus on regaining my creative balance. I'll let you know how it goes.

Illustration Friday: Superhero

"Ghost", mixed media/digital, ©1999

This is another image that I created while attending art school. I was taking a class creating comic book covers in the sequential art department. That wasn't my department (I was studying illustration), but it was given by one of my favorite professors, and it gave me more class time to play with Photoshop. The assignment, developed by the professor in conjunction with Dark Horse Comics, was to create a cover for an upcoming issue of the superhero comic Ghost. It was a challenging assignment for me, especially because I had never read Ghost and I don't really read comic books in general, and my usual style is so completely not comic book. The art director at Dark Horse then chose the best 10 and published them on the inside cover of that issue. Mine was one of the ten!

Tiger, tiger ...

This makes me so happy everytime I watch it, so I thought I'd share this extreme cuteness from Cute Overload and share the happy. Enjoy! :) Don't forget turn up the sound so you can hear the cute noises too.

Book Report: All Mortal Flesh

As I've mentioned in the past, reading is a passion of mine. In order to reflect this love, I am going to start adding posts about books that I'm reading to my blog. It probably won't be all the books I read, just the ones that stand out for some reason.

To kick this off, I'll begin with All Mortal Flesh, by Julia Spencer-Fleming, which I just read a few days ago. It's the fifth book in the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series, and it simply blew me away. Her characters are so real and her books so well written that I get very involved and I was right there with them. I was in a state of shock not unlike that of the characters when the book ended, and it actually took a few days for my brain to extricate itself. I've always enjoyed this series, but now I'm even more hooked.

Julia Spencer-Fleming is also quite nice. I'm not prone to doing this, but I was actually moved to write to her (via e-mail), and she wrote back! She assures me there will be two more books in the series. I can't wait! Part of me is sad to realize that the series will end, but another part of me thinks this is a good thing. There are series that simply go on too long and they can lose their spark. This series won't have a chance to do that. I just hope she'll start another one. She's a fantastic writer. Luckily she also lists some of her recommended reads on her site, so I have much to explore! :)

Tags: books, mysteries, All Mortal Flesh, Julia Spencer Fleming, reading

Call to Artists - it's official!

Here is the official call for the Stations of the cross exhibit. Please feel free to pass the information along to any artists you think might be interested.

Call to Artists: Stations of the Cross

The gallery at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer invites you to submit 2 dimensional artwork.

Deadline: March 12, 2007

“Stations of the Cross” will be an exhibition of 2 dimensional art, works in all mediums & styles, expressing the theme of Stations of the Cross (see Wikipedia for more information), that will exhibited in the nave gallery of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, in Kenmore, Washington. Artists may submit work depicting a particular one of the 15 stations (listed below), or expressing the theme of the Stations of the Cross as a whole.

1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus receives the cross
3. The first fall
4. Jesus meets His Mother
5. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross
6. Veronica wipes Jesus' face with her veil
7. The second fall
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
9. The third fall
10. Jesus is stripped of His garments
11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus' body removed from the cross (Pieta)
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb
15. Jesus' resurrection
    

Where: Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 6211 NE 182nd Street, Kenmore, Washington

When: April 1 – May 25, 2007

Opening Reception: TBA

How: Submit jpegs via e-mail to arts@redeemer_kenmore.org. Please include your name and a few words about your work. Also include title, medium and framed dimensions of each image submitted. Submission deadline is March 12. The work will then be juried and acceptance notifications, along with artist agreements, will be sent out via e-mail on March 16. All work must be dropped off or shipped to arrive at the gallery by March 29 . All shipping costs are the responsibility of the artist. Specific instructions will be sent out with the acceptance notifications.

Cost: $15 (USD) entry fee, for up to 3 images, payable via PayPal.

Artwork must be ready to hang, preferrably with a wire.

Artwork can be for sale. The gallery will direct buyers directly to the artist and take no commission.

The gallery will take care of advertising and publicity, and artists with accepted work will receive postcard announcements to distribute themselves. Please have high quality digital images available for possible use in publications and postcards.

In addition to being displayed in the nave gallery, accepted works will also be featured on the church’s website.

For ease of transport, and so we get to meet you, we are especially seeking artists in the the area of the Puget Sound, but this call is open to all artists over 18.

Any questions, please e-mail Angela at arts@redeemer-kenmore.org.

Tags: call to artists, church art, liturgical art, gallery, Easter, stations of the cross, artists, holy week

A Date For the Senses

My husband and I recently celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. The actual date was January 1st, but we didn't really have a chance to celebrate until this past Saturday when Wade treated me to an evening of dinner and the symphony! We had an absolutely delectable dinner at Wild Ginger in downtown Seattle, walked across the street to enjoy some scrumptious Gelato at Gelatiamo, then walked across the street again (this is a fabulous intersection!) to Benaroya Hall and a wonderful progam of Romantic composers. Though the entire program was just wonderful, the highlight had to be Samuel Barber's Cello Concerto, Op. 22 with Mark Kosower as the soloist (see above sketch of cellist). The other sketch if of the fellow playing the bass clarinet, is Larey McDaniel, who also happens to be the very talented photographer who photographs my artwork (a man of many talents).

I did the sketches during the Barber piece. It was a kind of challenge to myself to sketch in public. I'm very shy about it and I'd like to get over that. Sketching is such a pleasure, and and artistic necessity, and I hate that I let my worries over how I look to other people stop me from engaging in it. I think these sketched turned out pretty good, especially considering how high up we were, and how much musicians move while they're performing.

Tags: symphony, music, gelato, Seattle, art, cello, sketching

New Gallery: Call to Artists

In my last post I mentioned that I have news that should be of interest to you visual artists out there. We're starting an art gallery at my church! I first spoke with Father John about it back in September or October. That's about when our arts committee started to plan what we were going to be creating for the approaching liturgical seasons, and the idea to start a gallery there just hit me like a bolt of lightning. When I approached Father John about it, he got very excited as well and gave me the go ahead, and it's been on the back burner since then, simmering as we went about getting our art together for Advent and Christmas. That was also when he asked me to have a show of my own work in the nave. Now that's over and I'm sending out our first official CALL TO ARTISTS so we can fill that space with their work. Actually, I'll be sending out the official call later in the week, this here is a preview for all of you talented people. :)

The theme for our first show will be "The Stations of the Cross", and will be on view from April 1 (Palm Sunday) through May 25, 2007, thus encompassing Holy Week and the 50 days of Eastertide. I'm still doing some research on the Stations myself, but you can get a start on learning more about this theme by visiting Wikipedia's post, or by doing a web search for stations of the cross. As I learn more about it, I'll try to post a summary of my findings.

For now, here are some of the basic logistics for the show (more exact details will be in the official call, and some of this might change a little as I work it all out):

• Submission deadline is March 12, via e-mail only.
• Entry fee is $15 payable via PayPal.
• Acceptance notifications will be e-mailed by March 16, and work must be dropped off (or shipped to arrive) by March 29.
• Work must be 2-dimensional, and no larger than 3 feet to a side, and it must be ready to hang.
• There will be an opening reception, and the gallery will provide publicity and advertising. Accepted artists will receive some postcard announcements to distribute themselves.

I'm very excited about this, and I can't wait to see what wonderful art gets submitted!


P.S. I'm still working on all the details, but in answer to Grant's questions:

1. I don't know the date of the opening reception yet. I'm hoping it will be within the first week of the show, but I need to talk to the Holy Week events coordinator to make sure that's possible. I should know by Friday, 1/12, when I plan to distribute the official call to artists.

2. Any shipping costs will have to be on the artist's dime.

At this point I'd also like to clarify that the work submitted can be either for a specific station, or express the idea of the stations as a whole. I'm looking for all types of art here, realistic to abstract.

Tags: call to artists, church art, liturgical art, gallery, Easter, stations of the cross

Illustration Friday: Phoenix

"Feathered Nautilus", acrylics/collage, 7" x 5" canvas.

This piece is now in the home of the lovely Aravis who bought it in my Etsy shop.

Happy New Year!

If feels good to be able to post to the first Illustration Friday challenge of 2007. I'm slowly beginning to "rise from the ashes" of the distractions the holidays bring, and get back into the studio. Today will be the first day in what seems like months that I'll be spending quality and quantity time painting, without any non-art-related little errands and tasks hanging over my head. There's still art-related things to think about that aren't necessarily about the creating side, but I can push those to one side for a while. This week has primarily been about easing my head back into its art mode, and I'm hopeful that next week I'll be back into my "groove" and not feel so off-balance.

Attention Artists!

I've got some news to share that should interest you artists out there, as it will include a call for your talents. I should be posting about it early next week, so be sure to check back and read all about it!