The Girl - The Struggle, and some really really ugly art

For a good two weeks I had a love hate relationship with this painting.  I use photographic references when I don't have a live model.  Lilly can be a good model if she's found something to play with for more then 30 seconds.

Anyway I struggled with the reference and made myself push through the terrible images and bad placement so that I could achieve personal satisfaction.  It was well worth it.  The bad images are really, really, really terrible but I'll still show them to you.  No pain no gain.

Looks like something I would so I high school.

Looks worse then something I would do in high school.

Well worth the struggle.

The Bird

I have a thing for birds.  For once I enjoy both of these images.  Which one's your favorite?

My Work at the Starland Dairy Sneak Peek Party

So I did a few pieces for the Starland Dairy Sneak Peek Party.  They are conceptual ideas for what we hope to get out of the space.  We want it to be an outdoor garden with sculptures and a place to have openings.  Not to mention we want a performance theatre space and a movie or projection space.  In the future we hope to rent the space to photographers and to others for special events.

I tried to get a close up of each individual piece but I have a terrible camera.  These are photo collages and our curator put them on one of the old doors, which I think is fabulous.

Working out ideas for the Zen Garden Room.

On the right is a draft for our front gate.  The left image is a conceptual representation of the gate. 

The front gate piece got rave reviews and has opened the door for me to be more experimental.  Its also like a Jackson Pollock in the fact that it sheds glitter every day.  We've talked about using it as a poster in the near future! 

The Couple - The Breakthrough

I feel these two paintings especially the final result was more of a break through piece for me then the Girl in the Good will dress.  I learned how to play with my medium all while controlling it.  It feels good to finally be at the skill level I should be at.  Note to self.  Time off means more time playing catch up.

First one a little rough but a good outline.

Final product nothing but fabulous. 

Back to the Grind

Hi ho, hi ho its back to work I go.  After a four day weekend with Bryan and the Desotorow Gallery opening for the Starland Dairy I feel like I've been on a mini vaca.  In reality we go on vacation to Nebraska in just one week and I feel less then prepared!

Goals in Nebraska (yes I'm setting goals).
1.  See family and friends.  I can't wait to kiss my NEW baby niece!
2.  Try to be happy about bundling up.  I love the warm weather in Savannah.  I use to love cold weather because scarves are my favorite accessory.  I still love scarves but not the cold weather.
3.    Have Kristin model some of my head bands and hair clips.

As far as documenting my work here's the next couple sets of watercolors I completed.  After my recent work that's up at Desotorow Gallery I decided to add to one of the bulldog images with pin.  I'll probably be moving towards more mixed media images and collages in the near future.  Enjoy!

There's no place like home.

I feel very Dorothy in Oz this week.  I think it was the DYI glitter shoes!  Plus Desotorow's Sneak Peek Party for the Starland Dairy was a great success.   We made it on the local news!  Bryan and I are even in one of the closing shots.  Check it out if you haven't yet! http://www.wtoc.com/story/16964881/former-starland-dairy-space-being

I had fun with my carmera and took a few experimental shots.  The following are my favorites.

Opening Night!

It's time for the Starland Dairy Sneak Peek Party!  Come by Desotorow Gallery, TONIGHT, from 6pm to 9 pm.  I'm so excited.  I'll post photos of the event this weekend!

And now here's something fun.  I cannot take credit for this wonderful image.  I pulled it from Matt's Facebook page.  Matt is our volunteer in charge of Marketing.

Matt, dear, you are too awesome!

Desotorow Gallery and Starland Dairy

To be honest I am currently unemployed.  Its by choice.  I'm holding out for that right job in my field or until I get  my booty in gear with my etsy page.

Anyway  I volunteer for Desotorow Gallery.  To find out more about this wonderful non-profit place here's our website http://desotorow.org/.  Our current staffing is not up to date but that should be in line soon.  You can also like us on Facebook!  Our current project is The Stairland Dairy or the Dairy for short (also on Facebook).  We are cleaning it up to turn it into an outdoor courtyard with a performance theater area, sculpture garden and much more.

Friday February 17th we are holding a sneak peek for the space at Desotorow Gallery from 6pm - 9pm.  Come by to see photos of what we've accomplished and what we hope to accomplish in the future.  Not to mention get a tour of the Dairy!  P.S.  It's free.

Graffiti is everywhere.  This is the front side facing Bull Street.

I'm obsessed with the old doors we have on site.

There use to be a roof on this place.  Now its going to make a great garden.

Sorry but the second level is off limits for now.

Moving Forward - Girl in a Goodwill Dress

After making my first few paintings I decided to challenge myself.  I love figure studies in college especially with a model but I was never brave enough to try it with watercolor.  Since I can't afford to hire my own model I began working from old photographs.  The image I stated with was of a friend of mine from high school trying on a Goodwill Dress.  It took several tries before I finally had an image I loved.  When I look at it now I see things I could have done differently.  That's my problem I'm still never satisfied.

Below in order of production are the paintings in this set.  Some are terrible but they helped plan out spacial relationships.  I never draw out my images before I paint.

The above one reminds me too much of Picasso.

At the time I wasn't satisfied with this one and thought it was mistake but I'm beginning to fall in love with it.

Too stiff.

Final product.

Copy Cat

Yes I am a copy cat!  This week I made a pair of glitter shoes.  I got the idea from A Beautiful Mess.  http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/01/how-to-make-glitter-shoes-.html   The steps are super easy!  The shoes I glittered were a gift.  I only wore them twice before the faux leather began to rub off on the heel.  I am trying to work out a way to seal on the glitter and make them safe for all weather.   At least for now they'll do just fine on a clear Georgia day!

Can't wait to wear these for a date night!

Copy Cat

Yes I am a copy cat!  This week I made a pair of glitter shoes.  I got the idea from a Beautiful Mess.  http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/01/how-to-make-glitter-shoes-.html   The steps are super easy and they can take a pair of old shoes and make them amazing again.

Here's the pair chose.

In the Beginning

When I first started watercoloring again.  I picked up a little behind where I was in college.  Working in a smaller scale I was playing with ideas about shape, positive and negative space, and creating my only visual language of symbols and metaphors.  I wasn't satisfied with the out come of my images.  They seemed simple as in I could to better by creating something more dynamic.  The following two images I've considered putting up on www.etsy.com.

After creating these first two I worked on a few others.  Unfortunately they did not workout, in my opinion, as successful images.  I'll show them to you anyway since this is more about my process.

So there is my first full week of work.  Not what I expected but I continued to push forward.

Old habits die hard... really hard!

I originally started this blog, whether anyone read it or not, to keep me creatively motivated.  I realized it was December 12th when I made myself a promise to journal on here all my creative projects.  At that time I thought I would show DYI projects I started collecting on www.pinterest.com.  As of the New Year I have moved in a completely different direction.  That's usually how it goes with me and thus the name for the blog.

I made a New Years resolution to watercolor everyday.  It went from watercoloring everyday to turning out a decent painting everyday.  Not everyday was a success but I didn't give up!

I didn't want to be one of those students my professors talked about.  The one who went to school for art, and once finished, stopped painting in a few years.  So I managed to paint almost everyday in January and now that I am slacking I decided to use this site to motivate me once more.  I have painted only a few times in February.  Mostly because I becoming over confident since my skills are improving.  In the next few days I am going to photograph my work and post the progression on this site.  Then, since my camera is old and useless, I am having a friend photograph the good images to put up for sell on www.etsy.com.

I'm excited to document my artistic process and keep myself moving forward!  I told a friend the other day the following definition of insanity.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

I may always be changing my creative direction but I am never displaying or moving towards a goal to profit or benefit from these experimentations.  I usually get crippled by the fact that I have moved forward so the pervious work is null and void and not any good.  Therefore its time for me to stop my insanity!