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!

New in Shop

I just added this 8" x 10" photo in my etsy shop.

Also, if you noticed in my blog I've been bumming a lot about my shop and how to be more successful. I got some great feedback about styling my shop photos so that's what I've been doing lately. I've been using my "house" as a backdrop. Here are a few so far. Any suggestions?




What are your weekend plans? Even though I plan on slaving away in the studio I also plan on seeing this movie and this one. Have a good weekend!

On Flickr

I had not been using my flickr site in forever but lately I've been really into editing photos and making fun sets. I love the picnik editing function. I think it more than makes up for not owning photoshop. I've been playing around with some photos I took in my photography class. I'm thinking about making some prints for my shop. Should I just stick with the photos of the girl or are the object ones okay, too? I ordered my last prints from adorama but I'm wondering what others are using. Any suggestions? Also, one more question while I'm at it. I'm really lacking in the packaging department. Can any sellers tell me where you buy your packaging? Thanks, everyone, in advance!

This semester is almost over and I'm a little bit relieved a little bit terrified. One more semester and I'm done. Exciting? A little but way more scary. If I think about it too much I'm going to be tempted to crawl back in bed and hide from the world so instead I'm going to write about my photography class. It was really fun taking this class this semester. I haven't taken photography in years. The work I produced for my portfolio was very different than what I originally had in mine to do but I was pretty pleased overall. Here are the best of the set. Some are in my shop for sale.

I thought about putting this one in my shop. What do you think?

New in Etsy

I just added these two new photos in my shop. There are five of each and I'm printing them on 8"x10" paper. If you like them and are interested in getting them printed a bigger size contact me. Go take a look!

fartograpy

I did another photo shoot last night and these are some of the beginning stages of my photos. I'm going to mess around with them in photoshop but I'm pretty excited with how they are so far. I filled my room with balloons so that was fun. My room is still filled with balloons. It's sort of magical. I wish it could stay that way forever. Did I mention I love balloons?

My class that I'm teaching went well today. I was sort of in a grumpy mood but came out of it when I saw some of the great things my students are doing. I'm so lucky to have such great students. We're doing intaglio right now and they are getting pretty frustrated with the process but they are hanging in there. Maybe I'll post some of their final prints on here.

Thank you sooo much to those who responded to my questions on the last post. I realize I really do need to make prints of my work. I've just been a little nervous about it. Everyone's advice only confirmed that I do need to do this so thank you!! You guys are the best!

I have a crit with one of my faculty today and then a group crit in class tonight. Wish me luck!

Take care!

For the Mondays

First of all, if you haven't noticed I went a little blogposting crazy yesterday. I think it was one part procrastinating one part feeling like I really had a lot to say. But mostly procrastinating. This morning I'm procrastinating a little bit. I'm getting on the treadmill after I write this so I may be moving a little slower than usual.

In my blogging blitze yesterday I wanted to show this cake but I thought I would wait until today. Heidi Kenney at My Paper Crane was up to her usual craftiness when she made this pinata cake for her son's birthday. This is an image of the cake busted open. Isn't this amazing?She's always doing something neat. There are instructions on her blog for making this cake.

Um, I got these boots!!! I'm really digging the low boot style that's happening right now. And that ruffle... wow, what a ruffle. I can't quit looking at my feet when these are on. I got them at Target. Thank god our new Target finally opened. They were pretty cheap, too. Now I just need a suede protector and I'm set.
I don't know if I've mentioned it on here but I'm taking a photo class this semester. I haven't taken photo in years and I really feel like I know very little about the medium. In the beginning of the semester I was taking pictures of models dressed as my ghost girls but the pics started to feel too forced, even though I liked a lot of them. Last night I decided to just play with the camera and see what I could get. I have these great paper masks my friend Claudia brought me from Europe. I played around with those and my bandit mask. I still want to stick with a theme of concealing the face. Because I'm not that familiar with the fine art photo medium I feel like I have no way of knowing if these are good or not. I guess all I can do is print them up and taking them to class for a crit. It's weird to be in a class where I feel like I really don't know what I'm doing. It's been a long time since I've had a class like that. In my printmaking classes I can feel pretty confident that I'm headed in the right direction for the most part but in this class I'm just holding my breath and diving in. I'll let you know how it goes.

And now, I will reluctantly get on the treadmill. Have a great day, readers.