Tag Archives: letters

The Story of “Move”

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move, mixed media, watercolor, typography, letters, inspirationThe past two months have gone something like this: grad school, vacation, grad school while on vacation, grad school upon returning from vacation, a vacation from the vacation, final exams.  Notice the lack of breathing in between – and the lack of art making, and of course, blogging.

Through the haze that is my second-to-last semester of grad school (so close!), art found me – even when I had decided that I wouldn’t have time for any side projects until the week after finals. Months ago, I signed up for elance.com – if you’re a commercial creative (designer, web designer, illustrator, etc.) and you haven’t checked out elance yet, do. It’s lovely.

I initially looked at the site because it had been recommended to me in my search for a web programer. As a graphic designer, I get a lot of clients who want me to make them websites. Since I can design them but not actually make them working sites, I normally outsource the programming portion. While I was searching through the droves of potential web-guys from all corners of the globe, I decided to also sign up as a contractor myself – extra work never hurts! That meant, among other things, that once a week I would get an email with a summary of the jobs available for bidding that most fit my profile. I hadn’t yet taken the time to completely fill out my profile (grad school, again), so the suggestions I was getting were a little all-over-the-place. Somehow, in my mostly unhelpful email from elance two weeks ago, I stumbled across a woman from the west coast looking for “word art”.  Even with a blank profile and no history on the site, I bid on her job and linked my bid to my etsy shop so she could see some of the typography paintings I had already done.

She hired me immediately.

She asked if I would do a piece featuring the word “move” and the colors purple and teal. It just happened that there was  lovely story behind the to-be-gift, and she was kind enough to share it with me via email. Continue reading →

Sketchbook Sunday

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Just a quick post tonight – it’s Sunday evening and I was thrilled to spend most of the day locked away in my studio sketching in a brand new sketchbook.  As a rule, I don’t usually change sketchbooks in the middle of the year unless the initial one is full (not the case with the moleskine I posted about a while back), but I couldn’t resist a couple of little 5.5″x8″ Strathmore mixed media sketchbooks I stumbled across in Michael’s clearance section the other day (only $3.00 each!) The paper is much heavier than my other sketch books and suitable for all kinds of wet and dry media. Below are a few of today’s finished products! Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Updates, New Work, Creative Challenges, & a Confession

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There has been a lot going on here in my little home studio!

As you may have seen in my last post, my birthday was at the beginning of the month – I turned 28. Twenty eight marks 16 years since my grandfather taught me to paint with oils. Twelve years since I marched myself down to the guidance office at school and demanded that they replace all of my math and science classes with art and music classes. Ten years since I graduated high school and decided to attend The Art Institute of Philadelphia. Seven years since  I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Graphic Design. Four years since I started painting again after having given up on the art after college. And, I decided while reflecting on my 28th birthday over a glass of wine and sushi with a friend, high time I started taking myself as seriously as I wanted others to.

It’s confession time – I have always relied on others to value me and my talents more than I value them myself, because placing real value on the things that I chose to do made me uncomfortable. It made me uncomfortable because if I grabbed on to something – like art – and threw myself into it and failed, I would be devastated; but if other people insisted I should throw myself into it and I kind of did, I couldn’t be blamed if it went terribly awry. I have grappled for years with art not being a serious enough endeavor, but more so with not believing I was good enough to make it one.  Continue reading →

Artist’s Date: A Birthday Visit to The Clover Market

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Clover Market, Ardmore, vintage, antiqueThis weekend, two fantastic things happened. It was my birthday, and The Clover Market was open in Ardmore, PA.  I know the two events are entirely unrelated, but I like to think that all of the fantastic artists, vintage sellers, and crafters came to The Clover Market for my birthday.

In reality, the market is held several times a year – in the Spring and the Fall – and features a huge number of artists, crafters, vintage shops, and the like. The market is juried – in the sense that you have to submit an application, work samples, and be approved in order to participate, which is probably some of the reason there was such a remarkable and consistent quality to everything I saw while I was there. Continue reading →

Artist’s Dates 7, 8 & New Work

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spring daffodilsThe last two weeks have felt like pure insanity. Not a day has gone by without 100 or so things to do, places to go, or people to see, and I feel like I’ve barely had two seconds to breathe, let alone blog. I have managed to continue to slowly (but surely!) make my way through more of The Artist’s Way, and, although simple, make sure I did an Artist’s Date each week.

Artist’s Date #7 was very different from my previous Artist’s Dates. Two Thursdays ago, I drove to Cherry Hill, NJ, parked on the edge of a mid-sized development, and rang the doorbell to apartment #111. The door opened, I stepped inside a modest, but pretty apartment, and after brief introductions, was instructed to remove my shoes and lie down on a large, white table positioned in the middle of the room.

The woman who had let me in – Lisa – asked me what it was I would like to work on. She was going to fix my energy. I told her that I had, for quite a long time, been struggling with my professional endeavors. With little more information than that, she set to work.

I, on the other hand, did nothing but answer the occasional question and lie on the table with my eyes closed. She often touched my wrist and stood with her hands in prayer position, murmuring. Other times she cradled the back of my head in her hands, and for a while she held my feet. She told me that my second chakra was severely out of balance. Despite my vast amount of experience in energy work and several different modalities of energy therapy, I had never concentrated on the chakras and honestly didn’t know what the second chakra represented – so I just went with it and let her do her thing. Continue reading →