Help!

My studio is a mess! Can someone come and clean and organize it for me? Every time I walk in I feel so overwhelmed. Here is my table:

But there are also quiet moments where it's clean and decorative like here:

and here:

I just linger in these moments until the hyperventilating stops.

Seriously willing to trade art for an organizing cleaner.

Sarah Smith

I often realize how lucky I am to know so many amazing artists. They all inspire me to keep my own work up no matter how down I get about art making. That is why I am happy to have this venue where I can pass along such amazing talent and work.

I went to school with Sarah Smith. She was a couple of years younger than me. I first noticed her work when she won so many awards at our school's annual student art show. I was a bit intimidated by this new up-and-comer. Sarah has always had a wonderful way with taking photos. Now she is in grad school and continuing to shine. She recently made a webpage with all her work. You can see it here.

Here are some pieces from various sets.

I remember Sarah telling me about this carousel when it was just an idea. I was so excited to see it. It certainly has not disappointed. Isn't it beautiful?

The next four photos comes from a series where Sarah was re-creating her childhood photos.

This photo is from a series about Sarah's Dad.

I believe the following pieces are a new series Sarah has created in grad school. Gorgeous.

Visit Sarah's site for much more beautiful work!

More "New" Stuff

Thanks, everyone, for the comments on my new etsy photos both here and on facebook. This has been a nice creative release for me while I have been in a bit of an artistic rut with my work.

I just posted this Muppet Babies Lunchbox in the shop.

I also re-photographed this little cutie.
I'll be back later today with some fabulous artwork of some of my friends. Check back later!

Bunny Hut

Have you seen this? I know wigwams are all the rage right now and I am hooked! I found this recently and I want one so badly for my bunny. The store is called Loyal Luxe and my rabbit's name is Lux. Seems destined. I'm putting it on Luxie's List of Wants and Needs.

Vintage!

I just listed some new vintage stuff in my shop and re-photographed some older listings. My friend Janey helped me style the photos. Many many more to come. Also! There is a new posting on my other blog, Notes On Yesterday. It's all about fashion and when you get too old to dress in Forever 21 clothes. Check it out!

Lamb Planter

Cabbage Patch Kids tin lunchbox

Lamb Figurine.
Mickey Mouse and Friends tin
Teacups
"Chocolate" Bunny Figurine
Mixed Media Wooden Plaque
Bunny Planter

New Blog!

I started a new blog. I guess I was just giving this blog so little attention that I thought I would switch to a different blog that I could neglect also. Kidding, mostly.

The blog is called Notes On Yesterday. I really like writing and I love pop culture and I think i would like writing about pop cultural things. I didn't want to do that here because I want this blog to be devoted to art and artsy-like things.

My first blog is about Kanye West and Jay-Z's new song H.A.M. If you go to the blog it will warn you that it is explicit. Mostly it isn't explicit but I put the caution there just in case. I'm a little nervous doing commentary in such a public way. We'll see how it goes.

Now it's eight in the morning and it's time for me to get in my studio for a while and quit writing about rap songs.

Go here if you would like to check it out.

Have a great day!

Dinnertime

For Christmas I got my boyfriend this book. He's always been a great cook but following recipes has guaranteed we are eating healthier. Each night when he makes a new dish he proudly sits it on the kitchen table and asks if I plan on taking a picture of it. Here is a collection of some of the fabulous foods we've eaten. I wish I could take credit for these but they are all made by my boyfriend. He even washed all the dishes. What lucky world did I fall into??

Fajitas and Tortilla soup. I'm pretty sure we used vegetarian chicken in this and the white stuff is greek yogurt. The book calls a lot for greek yogurt. The soup was great but really spicy. The fajitas were amazing!

Chicken with mango salsa, sweet potato fries, mixed vegetables and baba ganoush. I wasn't excited to have chicken and I'm not a huge mango fan but this turned out really great. I have never liked sweet potatoes until recently. I've really tried to develop a taste for them because they are so much healthier than white potatoes. These were delicious! The vegetables were good but I think the cook got a little heavy handed with the ginger. I love ginger but think a little goes a long way. The baba ganoush is my new fave! It is made with eggplant and greek yogurt. It has several spices added in because the original version was a bit bland.

Beef burgers with baba ganoush and potato fries. We haven't had a beef burger in forever. We usually stick to turkey burgers. The chef was able to find some beef that was 99% fat free and locally raised so we were sold. The fries were made before we made sweet potato fries. They were good but I think for calorie's sake we'll stick to sweet potatoes from now on. And baba ganoush on a burger? Better than ketchup! We were out of buns so we put it on an english muffin. Extra healthy!!

Chicken Enchiladas. These were so tasty! It was nice to eat something covered in cheese and not feel guilty about it.

If you love comfort foods but you don't like high calories try this book out. I love eating the foods that I crave without feeling like I need to work our extra hard after. Because, lets face it, I'm not really going to work out extra hard....

More food to come...

Hot Art

My friend Jessica just started a tumbler! Check out these hot new pieces she made last semester. I wish I could live vicariously through her art-making process. Yay, Jess! Click here for more more more.

Pretty Pretties

I recently came across this picture here. I'm hoping a certain handy guy who lives in my apartment will help me build some shelves like these. I would like to start showing off my teacup collection. Full disclosure there are only a couple of cute teacups but this will inspire me to collect more! Do you collect teacups?

my 2010

I just realized it's half-way through the first month of 2011 and I never made a review of 2010. Not that I have ever really done this before but last year was a pretty big year so I thought I should do a little recapping.

My proudest moment around the first half of the year was building this house:

Thanks to my handy boyfriend I put together a thesis show I was very happy with. If I had to finally exit grad school at least I left with a bang! You can see more of my thesis show here.

I was also pretty happy with this mini-installation I made at our group show in Chicago. That was a fun show to be part of and I was happy to show alongside some of my great friends. More from that show here.

And then I graduated....

photo source

I had a hard time with this. I immediately started looking for a job. I didn't and still have no idea what I really really want to be doing. I waited tables for most of my summer and now I make coffee at a certain bookstore. It's very exciting spending my days at a bookstore serving coffee. Well, not exciting like winning the lottery but it's just nice to go to a place I enjoy being in. That aside I'm still not quite sure what I should really really be doing. I have ideas... I'm working on it....

Okay then! I moved into a house with my boyfriend! It wasn't here but pretend like it was... "This" house was infested with mold so after a month we moved out and into an apartment which was actually nicer than the house. Well, obviously... I mean, there wasn't mold there...

photo source

I quit smoking!! I always said I just wanted to get through grad school and then I would quit. Well, grad school is over and I really did quit! Yay!

Also I got this amazing bunny! She is my first pet that isn't a fish. I love her like crazy!

What a great year. Many more wonderful things happened and some not-s0-great things but the world kept turning and will continue to do so. We are all always in flux and that's the greatest thing about life!

Meeting!

I have a pretty important dinner meeting today that I am really looking forward to. I'm working on trying to teach my own zine workshop. I love zines so much I would like to teach others how to get involved. Do you make zines? Do you have any tips for a zine maker?
Remember that to-do list I made a while back? I'm finally tackling it. I have promised myself that 2011 will be my year.
In unrelated news this is a photo of a cubby in my bookshelf. Lately I've been really into crystals and geodes so I have started a small collection. And you can't have crystals without dinosaurs walking around. The wooden block on the left was made by Michele Bosak. The cylindrical object on the right is a handmade kaleidoscope made by Joanna Goss and Don Picton. The pink horse is made by Jane Ryder. My good friend Janey decorated the house box. Mother nature created all the rocks and crystals. The dinosaur has mysterious origins. It's a pretty exciting shelf!

Bunny!

I've been on a crazy cleaning spree today. I'm trying to make the living room like nice now that we have our new (to us) furniture. Also! I am able to upload my pictures again! Photography Success!
So I think the first photo I should post is Luxie Bunny hanging out in her favorite spot, her litter box. She likes sitting there. I think it's because the bunny litter is lavender scented. It makes her calm.
Hope you're able to sit in a calming litter box this weekend. Figuratively, of course.

More Things To Love

A few weeks ago I was looking around the internet for some zine/graphic novels that are in the same genre as Nicole Georges' work. I love her journal style zines and was definitely feeling the withdrawals while I wait for her new one to come out. Luckily fate led me to Vanessa Davis and her collection of comics in the book Spaniel Rage. Each comic chronicles a day in her life. This is a real fun read. Check it out of you like getting peaks into others' day-to-day lives.

Also, as is usually the case, I am probably the last to know about Bleubird Vintage, an adorable shop and blog. Lots of beautiful photos and pretty things to look at. If you are like me and are the last to know about internetty things go check it out.
Love

Beautiful Art For 2011

I want to kick off this new year right by showing off the work of a fabulous artist and an even more fabulous person. Lauren Norster has always been such a fantastic supporter of my blog and I hope she feels the same from me. She creates pieces that are so inspiring and make me want to get in my studio and work.

Lauren has made many pieces that are very topographical but lately she has been making maps that are not as literal. They are like maps of her life and memories. I love how maps can mean so many different things and she is exploring all of those ideas in her work.

To see more of Lauren's work in her shop click here. Follow her blog, Cartography of the Imagination for more insight into Lauren's work.

Happy 2011, Lauren!

New Year Old Year

Happy New Year!

I remember writing a post around new years last year and thinking what a weird year I had in store for me. The first part would be as a student and the last part would be as a grown-up. I had no idea how to imagine the end of the year. Though it has certainly had it's ups and downs I realize I'm a pretty lucky girl and I plan on making 2011 a wonderful year.

Any resolutions from you guys? Mine is to stop whining and start doing. With a year of ups and downs I feel like I've become whinier than I would ever wish to be. The solution? Just stop. Start fixing things and stop waiting for others to fix them for you. As I look toward the end of this year it is just as uncertain as it was last year but I resolve to work hard and no matter what, I will be happy.

Okay that's the plan. I also want to keep up with my blog more. I have let it slack a bit in the last few months. I'm so completely thankful for the blogging community I have found here so I feel like I owe it to the community to keep going and write blogs that people would like to read. I want to continue to share other people's artwork while also showing my own progress in my studio work.

Here is a sneak peak of art coming soon...

Go here to see an absolutely gorgeous music video with girls who knit in the belly of whales.

I miss my friend Cassie who always kept me inspired. Go here to see her fabulous tutorial.

happy 2011, yall!