Etsy Feature Wednesday

Today's feature is She Hit Pause Studios or shehitpausestudios. I found this shop shortly after I started my own Etsy shop and instantly became a fan. The images are polaroid transfers which create a soft, dreamy look. According to the artist's profile his work was featured in Daily Candy and was for sale at Anthropolgie.

It was so hard to choose only a few photos to feature on my blog because they are all so great. One of the sections in his shop is called Girls and Dreams. I wish I could live in that section. Check out the photos and imagine you live there and spend the rest of your day feeling satisfied.

For more info check out this website.

Cozy Sunday

Yesterday's field trip to antique stores was wonderful.  I got a lot of great vintage books and plenty of beautiful threads. If only I knew how to work my sewing machine... I'll post pictures soon of some of the awesome books.

The above picture is a great picture I found of my uncle and many of his friends. It was probably taken in the late 1960s to early 1970s.  It's a perfect photo for halloween. I recently organized a sticker exchange and used that picture as my sticker.  It might have been cheating a bit because I didn't create my own art for the exchange but I love the picture so much. Which one of the trick or treaters would you be for Halloween?

I spent a good part of today designing greeting cards with my work on them.  I ordered a set with Hellcat and Haunted Houses on it.  I'm thinking I will sell them in sets of ten and I may silkscreen a pattern on the envelopes.  That will give it a little extra handcrafted something.  I can't wait to get them in.  Any readers out there have suggestions for prices?

I'm at the studio now so I'm off to draw on manila envelopes.  Have a cozy Sunday!

One for the Saturdays

It's Saturday finally! I'm going to spend my afternoon going to thrift stores and looking for neat stuff to make art with. It's my first time since I moved here exploring the different stores around the area. I'll post my favorite stuff in the next couple of days.
The piece above is something you've seen before but it's finally completed. It's called Hellcat. This was the first manila envelope piece I made. This is also the last of the photographed works for now. Once I finish a couple of more I'll take some more photographs.
I've come up with an idea of sending envelopes out to friends and family and asking them to write me a letter that they will put in the envelope and send back to me. Then when I make art on these envelopes they begin to have more of a history. I will also use content from the letters in some way. I haven't completely figured the idea out yet. I think it will be fun. I'm also thinking of getting these manila envelope pieces made into prints so I can sell them on Etsy. What do you think? Anyone know a good place where I can get prints made?
What are you doing on your Saturday?

Lets Pretend It's Thursday

It's half an hour away from being Thursday but I'm procrastinating right now because I have a project due tomorrow and in typical me fashion I'm doing anything but the assignment. So, I know it's still Etsy Feature Wednesday but lets pretend now that it's Ann's Art Feature Thursday! or Thirsty Thursday! If you're reading this on Thursday or any day after then, no problem!
I said many blogs ago that I would post more images of my manila envelope art so here's a new one. It's titled Ghostscape: Ladies Marching. You should be able to click on the images to see a larger size. I've had several critiques in the last few days and the envelope art seems to be a hit. I've been a little worried about them, not sure if they are capitol A art. I don't really care if they are or not but since I'm in grad school I feel the pressure to care. But the response to the pieces were good so I'm not going to fret about those things. Pfft. ( :
If you're reading this right now at a quarter to midnight on Wednesday night, Go to sleep soon! Good night!

Etsy Feature Wednesday- Michele Bosak

This is very surprising to me... I chose to do a weekly post to my blog and I'm sticking with it! This is the second Wednesday in a row that I'm doing an Etsy feature. Usually I decide to do something and then forget all about it. I must be growing up... NO, I must be at my job and blowing off work. Haha. Whatever the case I'm very happy to show off my favorite Etsy artists and this week is no exception.


Michele Bosak is a very successful Etsy artist. She is in plenty of treasuries and I often see her lovely work gracing the front page.


I met Michele my first year of grad school when she was in her last year. Her MFA thesis show was brilliant, very inspiring. I feel like what I say will not do her work the justice it deserves so I'll let it speak for itself. Go fill your eyes up here and read all about Michele here.

Thank you!

Thank you to Sitting Pretty Studio for giving me a blog award! I've never done this before so it should be fun.

The Rules:List 6 things I value and 6 things I don't and then pass this award on to 6 people.

I truly value these 6 things:
1. being a supportive and loyal friend
2. family
3. honest artmaking
4. long drives and the things you discover
5. feeling good about myself
6. hair and fashions ( superficial... but totally true... )

These six things make my stomach turn:
1. violence
2. people who are always negative
3. hate crimes
4. being made fun of for whatever it is i'm doing (unless i'm laughing about it also)
5. animal abuse
6. Hummers ( the car...)

I pass this award on to the following blogs:

1. Millions of People Happy
2. The Adventures of Cassie
3. Aesthetic Outburst
4. leililaloo
5. The Yellow Elephant
6. Jennyfur's Sketchbook and Oddities

Fall Drive

Friday I went on another lovely drive around Illinois. We chose roads based on names and intuition with a little help from my GPS system to get home. Luckily I remembered to take a camera this time. Most of the pictures are blurry because I took them from a moving car. I wanted to have them to draw from so it was okay if they weren't precise. I wanted to share my favorite pictures. The top two were near an area called Devil's Lane and I fell in love with the place. I have a real fondness for trailers, especially ones nestled cozily in the woods. And the neighbors were very creative with their lawn decorations.

The bottom two pictures are of a neat little store. I think maybe it's a florist. The pumpkins were beautiful and eventually I'm going to carve a pumpkin before the season is over. It's my goal.

I know I said a few days ago I would post more images of my manilla envelope work. I'm the worst! They will come soon. I tried the other day but they would not upload. Maybe tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Go out and enjoy fall!

Haunted Houses!

I just finished three manila envelope pieces just in time to submit them to a show at Bradley University.  This is one of the pieces.  It's called Haunted Houses.  I realize I showed this piece in the past and now it's completed!  I'm pretty happy with it.  I'm still debating my decision to use masking tape on the works.  I really like the aesthetic but I know some people really really hate using non-archival materials.  The envelope isn't very archival so I think maybe I'm in the clear.   A lot of my new body of work has to do with recording places and they can be very temporary recordings.  So really it makes sense that my work will eventually deteriorate.  I like the idea of that.  It's never really finished because it will continue to change.  Gotta be sure to explain that in my artist statement...

More images tomorrow!

ETSY Feature Wednesday!

So, I've decided that readers probably don't need to hear about ME and what I'm doing all the time because most times it's usually pretty boring. In order to update regularly but not tell you terribly boring things about myself I'd like to feature an Etsy artist on my site once a week. Hopefully Wednesdays will be the regular days.

I'm kicking off my first Etsy feature with Earthmamahyde. In her shop she makes beautiful up-cycled products from salvaged materials.


This basket is so beautiful and made from a vintage tablecloth. The color is so gorgeous. I love the colors in this basket, too.

Earthmamahyde has a variety of items such as bags, coasters, wine decorators, yoga mats and many other beautiful items. Check out her blogs here and here.

Check out Earthmamahyde and help support handmade craftsters!

Visiting Artist

Thursday I was a very lucky girl.  Thursdays are studio days so that already means it's going to be a good day.  But that day  was an especially great day because I had a critique with a visiting artist.  Mary Ann Papanek-Miller's work takes my breath away.  We are both attracted to a lot of the same imagery and ways of working so getting to talk to her about my work was a real pleasure.  It was super inspiring and I realized how happy I am right now in my studio. Later that day we had a reception for her show at the NIU gallery.  She gave a talk and it was so great!  This photo doesn't do her work justice so I apologize.  I found it on the internet because I keep forgetting my camera!  I hope you'll check her out and if you hear her name your ears will perk up.

Yesterday I rode around parts of Illinois I'd never seen before. Luckily I didn't drive so I got to fully fill my eyes up with all the scenery.  I'm kicking myself for not having my camera.  There are so many great Halloween decorations out right now and some are so silly they need to be documented.  Plus I saw so many gorgeous houses.  I picked out several dream houses so now I definitely have to go back and document them.  I love seeing different towns and I got to see a lot yesterday.  And had good company/conversation the whole time, too.

Now I'm off to the studio!

What's Happening in the Studio

Today is a studio day so I've been taking pictures of what's going on.  On my way to the studio I got sidetracked and stopped at Old Navy and Target.  An hour later and a lot less money later I finally got to where I was going.  

The top image is another manilla envelope piece I'm working on.  I'm really conflicted about it because I'm not sure whether it should go on Etsy or if it should be submitted to shows.  It's not finished yet.  I'd like to draw a lot more creatures on it.   We'll see where it is by then.  I have a feeling it may end up on Etsy.

The next two images are one of my desks.  I got organized the other day and took all my markers, pens and pencils and put them in cups on my desk.  I can finally see what I have now!  And the next image is a bunch of monsters.  Are you scared?  I'm going to glue them to grid paper.  It's my goal to have that piece finished by the end of the day.

The last image is the very very beginning of another collage.  I need to start preparing monsters and ghosts for it.

Tomorrow I'm learning how to do pinhole photos.  I'm super excited and have some ideas planned for this new project.  It's going to be spooky.

Hope everyone is having a nice autumn day.   Have a good weekend.