the [belated] one year old gift

When Ruehl's first birthday was nearing, I began thinking about birthday gifts.

What do you buy for a one year old? More noisy toys to fill up the box? More clothes to dirty? Which, we bought both. But I kept thinking there has to be something more substantial to buy him, more meaningful, more special! Like a keepsake.

And then an idea bloomed in my heart: An art collection. Buy him one piece for every birthday and then when he is all grown up he will have a beautiful collection of one of a kind art.

I've been browsing Esty for the past 4 months looking for the perfect [and not $$$] piece to buy for his [belated] birthday gift, and I finally found it! A Toronto based Esty artist Siiso creates beautiful oil paintings full of vibrant colors and shapes. Her stuff totally floors me and I am so glad that she sells high quality Giclee prints of her work starting at $20. Squee!

This is my favorite for Rue:

And I'm loving this for my room:

Aren't they beautiful? Check out her Etsy to see more beautiful work.

Love, Y

kick in le pants.

Today I woke up and thought 'I need a swift kick in the pants. I need to GET GOING! I need to seize the day. I need to juice! Exercise! I need to create art, and cook and clean and raise my son with joy. No one is going to hand me my creative energy on a silver platter! Hello!?'

After my mental pep talk I found this quote on Leigh's blog.

The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and somthing else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”

- Chuck Close

Quote, Photo

Kick in le pants just got seriouz yo!

So if you needed a kick, I hope you got it. Now scram! Go make/do/be something productive and lovely and inspiring and wonderful. We all have it inside us, sometimes we just need someone to reach in and pull it out, even if that someone is yourself.

so much love, Y

shameless plug

Not to toot my own horn here....but *toot* *toot* !

I am married to one smart, talented & swooningly handsome man. Chris started a side business creating beautiful, one of a kind light fixtures and I am here to brag on him.

Recently a friend and gallery owner of HMAC approached him about making 12 lights for his theater. We are excited about gaining exposure in our city's art scene!

Check out his etsy shop! And, please, remember to support your local artisans.

he's destined to be an artist.

when I paint [be it a canvas or room] I can't help myself- I *always* get paint everywhere.
My hair. my ear. my butt. my toe. my elbow. my fingernails...

I can now add 'belly' to that list.

pretty funny.

flashlight & fire art

our friend mike invited us to go 'light tagging' with him under a bridge in downtown.
thanks to a slow shutter, we captured these. who knew flashlights and flaming steel wool could be so awesome?

chris kissing my baby belly:

my Chihuly inspired piece:

here's where we got competitive. May I introduce Darth Vadar:

Pac-man:

And my MJ 'thriller' pose:

tulips:

Art show !

Hello doves,
Today is a thundery rainy day in Eastern PA, and I took the opportunity to go to Borders with a friend and do some important stuff. [leafing through books, magazines, sipping on iced green tea, blogging]

I didn't expect such a lapse in blogging, but I was busy preparing for my first art show! It was quite successful! Selling wasn’t my goal, and I didn’t, but the experience and exposure was thrilling. After meeting and becoming acquainted with gallery owners & partners John & Gary of HMAC http://www.harrisburgarts.com/ we quickly bonded. I soon learned that they are a very rare type of people, less like gallery owner/entrepreneur/business men, and more mothering hens. They want to see local artists and artisans exposed and out there, baring their best, artistically speaking. In response to my fear of ‘what if you don’t like my stuff, Gary’ he hugged me and replied, ‘darling, even if it’s mediocre, it doesn’t matter. We’ll find a corner for you! Just do it. We want you to show’. Last Friday night I displayed 5 pieces at the Stage on Herr Gallery and because of the rain the attendance was a little low for an art walk. Thankfully many of my friends came to support me and cheer me on.

That night I fired my inner critic. She was such a downer, a real negative Nancy.

This series was done on galvanized sheet metal. It’s a beautiful medium, but not always the easiest to work with. Thankfully my tetanus shot is up to date, as I certainly had my fair share of scrapes, cuts, nicks, and blood loss. I hope you Enjoy! Cheers :)