The Pie Sketch

Just thought I'd show you another project I'm in the middle of. Its a children's book illustration for a story I've written called The Pie in the Sky. Not the greatest photo, I know. I'll be painting it probably in acrylics - maybe watercolor.

I seem to be showing works that are in progress. I will finish them. It seems that I just have to be working on a variety of different projects at one time to keep things exciting.

Oh, its so 80's!

Look what I found! Its a poster design that I did back in college - my second year, 1985. It was my first poster and its complete with shoulder pads, thin tie and 80's hairstyle. I actually remember the assignment.
Its funny that all these years later I still seem to be doing the same thing - posters for fashion.
That year I fell in love with the work of the artist A.M.Cassandre. I've posted the actual one that I fell in love with. Its called Pathe. When I saw his work, I said to myself that I want to create posters just like that, so now all these years later, I've made it my art.

Art Selling 101

“Don’t sell yourself short!” - A lesson to live by.

I won’t be selling my paintings on eBay to undercut myself or my current patrons/customers, so my prices there will be consistent with ones one would get if bought directly from me in person. I say this because I’ve got more fashion pieces up for grabs. I just put 2 more of them up on eBay and they're posted here. It kinda’ gets addictive. I’ve had no bids yet, but a lot of views. We’ll see what happens.

I’ve been watching eBay for awhile in the art section, and I find that unless one is a very well known artist, that the higher priced works don’t sell as auctions, but I put them up anyway. One never knows…

My eBay Auction

I’m selling on eBay! Well, I mean I hope it sells. I just posted one of my paintings. Its called Coeur: Café du soir (Heart: Coffee of the evening). And is part of a series. I designed 4 paintings of coffees for different times of the day, named after the four suits in a deck of cards. I’ve actually only painted 2 in the series, Heart and Diamond, but have painted Coeur in 2 different versions. I’ve posted photos of both versions of Coeur and the one of Carreau. Coeur is the only one for sale. The others have been purchased. Hope you like.

Virginia Tech

This horrendous tragedy is … I don’t even have the words.

My prayers and thoughts are with all of the victims, families and friends of those who were injured or killed in the Virginia Tech massacre.

I don’t understand… I just don’t understand.

The Bi-polar Pendulum

It seems a bit peculiar putting my thoughts and stuff out on the web for all to see, but maybe its therapeutic in some way. I weighed the ramifications of putting this out on my blog, but decided that its so integral to who I am, that I must include it in talking about my art. I was diagnosed with bi-polar illness in 2004. It is something that has definitely affected my artwork and what I portray.

With Bi-polar illness (also called manic-depressive illness) one’s mood fluctuates between depression and mania. I must say that the manic times are wonderful in that I have boundless energy, ideas come to me in droves, I can stay up all night painting without being tired - things like that. With the ups however, come the downs and the downs are usually more down than the ups are up. Those times of depression are very dark. I describe it as someone pulling a shade down and it becoming very clouded. These times are not what I want the world to see of me, because that is not how my personality comes across normally. As a result, I consider it very important to show joy and happiness in my work - hence the usage of bright colors and smiles in many of my pieces.

My sister suggested to me that I explore the dark sides of the illness in my art as well, as many other artists have. (She supposed that some of those artists most interesting work came at those times of hardship and trials). While I agree that this may be the case with many artists, I have an automatic aversion to it. I don’t do this for two reasons: 1. Because I have a very deep rooted belief that I was given this talent to uplift others and portraying darkness and gloom in my work is not what I’d call uplifting and 2. because I find it very difficult to paint when I am going through times of depression. I have no inspiration to create; no muses, no beacons of light. (What I find interesting is that I have no trouble writing at those times).

This illness has taught me so much about myself and helped me to accept things about myself. Maybe my sister is right about showing my sad side too, but right now its not a place I want to go. I don’t know. Life is about learning and I’m still learning. In the meantime, I’ve posted a couple of ‘happy’ pics.