Exchange

I love being a printmaker because often you get to be in print exchanges where you make an edition of a print, send it to the exchange organizer, and they send you a bunch of prints by other people. Instant amazing art collection!

My friends Mike McGovern and Curtis Readel have organized several over the past few years with a Misfits theme.

The second one they organized was called "Angel F*ck." I wanted to do something fun and new so I made this piece using a hair stencil. This head of hair belonged to Zooey Deschanel. I used a picture of her from a magazine.

They're latest exchange is called "I Ain't No G*dd*amn Son of a B*tch" (language!). The rules for this exchange is that it had to be some type of self portrait. I decided to do a hair stencil again but this time I used my own hair. I fluffed it up big one morning and took a picture of myself and used the photo to create the hair. I also put a darker pink screenprinted pattern into it. I wanted to have text in the piece and for some reason I just kept thinking Ain't No. I thought it sounded kind of funny but catchy. I titled the piece "Am So."

This is all done with screenprint and I used three colors.

Dear 17 Me

photo by me.

Andrea at Hula Seventy made an amazing list of things to tell her 17 year old self. I would like to do the same. You do the same, too, and then tell me you did it so I can read it. Hear goes:

1. Stop dying your hair red.

2. Visit your grandparents more.

3. Stop writing bad, angsty poems on your artwork.

4. Don't worry about boys. Worry about more interesting things. You'll meet the right boy later. He'll be what you're looking for. Just be patient.

5. It's okay that your parents aren't letting you go to the dance clubs that your friends get to go to. You will one day hate those kinds of clubs anyway.

6. Stop smoking! Seriously, your 27 year old self hates it.

7. Read more.

8. Your parents are right about (almost) everything.

9. Put some sunscreen on your face. Hurry!

10. Do not decide to room with your best friend in college. Live next door to her instead. It will work way better.

11. You have to quit dressing all your friends up like a fairy and taking pictures of them. You just have to.

12. Don't argue with your art teacher. She's really great.

13. Everyone was right, college is where you will really come into your own.

14. Learn how to be a better waitress at the coffee shop because you are going to need those skills in ten years.

15. Save some money. Please.

16. Don't read 17 magazine ever. Just read your Jane magazine because it will go under in a few years and you'll miss it. But you'll find Bust.

That's it for my list. I think I could probably say a lot more things to my early twenties self but 17 is a good age for advice.

Make yours!

Spoiler Alert, Bravo's Work of Art

I had such a fantastic weekend. I hope you did, too. My boyfriend and I went to a wedding in a State Park and it was so beautiful and fun and filled with great people. I'm so so bummed because in my attempt to quickly pack I totally forgot to take my camera. No pictures! The bride and groom wanted everyone to wear hats and some people really wore some great ones. At least I have the memories.

Are you all watching Bravo's Work of Art? What are your thoughts on the show?

WARNING, these are spoilers for last week's episode "Book By It's Cover."

I was really bummed because as you know Peregrine is my favorite and I was really looking forward to seeing her on the show. So far she hasn't gotten a lot of airtime but when she finally did it was so they could totally bash her piece. One of the judges even recommend they burn it. The horror! I loved Peregrine's piece. I agree with the criticism about how it doesn't fit the story but as an art piece I still think it's beautiful. Peregrine handled it like a champ, though. She looked a little heartbroken by the comments but she didn't get too dramatic like some of the others on the show. I'm still rooting for her!

And John's piece won! I'm so glad because I think he also made a fantastic piece and I love how you see it and immediately identify it as being his work. It's funny how both of my favorite artists on the show got the same book title and had dramatically different results. I thought they both did a fantastic job. What do you think?

My home and studio

Our house is finally coming together and I finally got some new batteries in my camera. Since there are still a few messy spots in both my studio and the rest of the home I only took some detail shots and a few before pics. Here are some scenes from my studio. I have had the most fun setting this up.

And the following are images of the rest of the house. More to come.

The rug above came with the house but we ditched it for a light gray one. And our sink and bathtub? Green! Seriously. It's so funny!
I don't love the color of the cabinets so we may paint them as soon as we get landlord permission.

Huge backyard! This was the most exciting. We are hoping to have a garden soon.

That's that. I will get more pics once everything is up and going.

Hope you have a great weekend. I'm off for a whole wedding weekend, should be fun!

Summertime Snack

Compilation Blog Blog

I woke up bright and early this morning thanks to the yummy smells of breakfast being made and coffee brought to me in bed. This was a sweet welcome, especially as I have had trouble waking up early lately. My new bedroom is a bit darker than what I'm used to so it makes it hard to have the discipline to get out of bed.

The early wake up gave me plenty of time to catch up on some blog readings and I thought I would make a small compilation of neat stuff here.

For instance, at Angry Chicken Amy shows this sweet little birthday box she made for a lucky birthday boy. I think this is a really neat idea. I always like buying my nieces and nephews art supplies and this is a fun way to put it all together. Get the details here.

And then I saw this amazing tent on Decor8 made by Timothy Karpinski. Read more about it here.

And on the blog A Beautiful Mess I learned that Jenny Lewis and her boyfriend are putting out a cd together. Yowza yay! Go to the blog to get the link for a free download.
Also is anyone else doing the 30 Day Journal Challenge on Running With Scissors? It's been hard for me to keep up because of moving and starting a new job but I was able to finish to pages and get them uploaded. I have a few more done but have not had access to a scanner lately so I hope to get them up and going soon. See the images below. It's never too late to join. See more pages but other participants in the Flickr Pool here.


Now it's still early and I have plenty to do today. Plus I work tonight. Plus I'm going away tomorrow for a whole wedding weekend. I'm excited!

Have a great day!

Zines!

Since I'm still in the midst of moving into my new house and getting my studio all set up I haven't been able to work on much art which is driving me crazy! I'm hoping to get my studio organized and ready to go today. Meanwhile I've been thinking and thinking and preparing for what I'm going to do next.

I mentioned a while back how I found this Anthology of zines from Nicole Georges. I loved reading this and immediately bought the first volume and read it. I have never read so slowly in my life. I wanted to savor it and make it last as long as possible. I even re-read it as soon as I finished.

That got me thinking about zines and how maybe that's what I should be doing also. I love writing and combing both text and image. I was working on a few tiny zines before I moved out of my studio but those have been set aside for a bit. I'm ready to get back to them.

I recently ordered this zine Dope Flounder and it only made me want to make my own more than ever.
So I looked around online and found this book. This was all I needed for that last push. This book gives great tips on how to create your own zine. I even learned that Bust started out as a zine. That was really encouraging to hear because Bust is my favorite magazine on the market. I've always wanted to work for a cool magazine and now I can just start my own!

Pikaland did a great review of this book here.
And so while I was searching for zines I also found this book. Do you guys remember Sassy? I loved Sassy. Reading this book takes me back and I'm learning so much stuff I had no idea was going on at the time. I was a little young when Sassy was in its prime but I still loved the staff and all the different articles. While I'm trying to get my studio in order I'm having a hard time sitting this book down so I can work. Hopefully I'll finish it soon.
If you're interested in zines check these books out! They are great reads.

Happy Wednesday!

ART2LOVE

Sometimes when I see artists whose work I love I hit the bookmark button and then the work disappears to an untitled folder in the midst of a bunch of other untitled folders and then times go by and I forget who is there. Last night I decided to go through some of my bookmarks and start a new segment of my blog called ART2Love. Because I love when titles have numbers in them. And it's Tuesday, and that's like 2 so I'll do this posting on Tuesdays.

So who should you love today? A few folks.

This is Patrick Kyle and he makes some pretty rad monstery creatures.

And this is Chris Kuzma. I think he works some with Patrick Kyle. I think this because I saw both of their work in the same little zine. Title unknown.
And this, well, I only know their flicker site and her name is Relleford on the site. I'm absolutely nuts about this work. So much so that I had to post three different images. You can see more on her flickr.


So... go love art!

Want to know who is fabulous? Amelia Critchlow of 101 Bird Tales.

I love her blog and her art is so gorgeous. I'm in awe of her collages. Look here and then go look here and see how awesome she is!

What?

Ack! I still don't have batteries for my computer. I just keep forgetting to buy them. So once again here's a bad photo from my phone. It's obviously not an iphone photo. I wish it was then this really wouldn't be a problem.

My boyfriend and I found this supposed Father's Day mug while thrifting one day. It's a little confusing. As you can see this man is all dressed up and looks like he's ready for romance but the text reads: Love to Father.

Really.

I'm not sure what to make of it but it makes me laugh every time I see it. The bottom of the mug says it was made in Japan so I can only imagine that maybe the translation is a little off?

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday yesterday! There are plenty of great fathers out there include my own wonderful Dad. I wish I could have been with him to celebrate but I'm unfortunately too far away.

I spent my weekend attending a wedding, having dinner with another father and family and continuing to move into my new house. Today I'm trying to get my studio in order. Pictures soon!

Don't forget to go vote and sign up for a giveaway!

Also, if you haven't seen the video yet on my last post, watch it! It's so so funny. You may want to watch it on youtube, though, because I can never get videos to post properly on my page.

See ya!

What Are You Doing This Summer?

I just discovered this video and thought it was the perfect way to start the weekend!

Check it out. Sooo funny!

Good Morning.

So I still haven't gotten around to buying batteries for my camera (mostly because I'm cheap) but I took a few pictures of my new studio with my cell phone, hence the not awesome quality. It's so fun putting my new space together. I feel like there will be a lot of inspiration in this room and that's what I need. A new space will do me good.

My friend Janey bought this house-shaped box and decorated it just for me. Isn't it beautiful?



On the work front I start really working yesterday at the restaurant and I really like it a lot. I like all the people I work with and it's nice to have a job that makes me active. I like moving around a lot. I think I may just be a good waitress after all. I was super nervous about going into work today. I was feeling really insecure and it made me think about how I feel like I've gotten more insecure with age. When I was younger I was fearless and defiant. I was who I was with no apologies. I wish I could still be that way. I'll try my best to channel that angsty teen girl who kept her head up no matter what. Do any of you all notice a difference between yourself now and then for better or for worst?

Hope your Thursday is great!

Don't forget the giveaway here.