lara

I've completed another mixed media to sell on Etsy and i must say this is my most favorite thing i've ever done! When i stepped back after the final embellishment was added i got goosebumps and said to myself "I DID THIS?! What the WHA?"



Of course, it started out as a complete experimentation with some super old mixture i had made weeks ago to try and mimac wax using a fluid medium. I was curious what would happen if i just poured it on the canvas and stuck things in it. And what happened overjoyed me!

It's so true what they say about happy accidents.



The photo is one i took in New Orleans at St Patricks Cemetary. It's so serene and the fortune cookie fortune i was able to find is a perfect sentiment.

This was also the first piece that i create a frame for the photo with plexiglass and duct tape. It was irritating me that the canvases i make our so textured that the photos tend not to lay flat, so this solves that problem (plus i supposed protects the photo for possibly eternal life.



I know i personally know exactly how dark that darkness can get until the light starts to dawn...



by the way, if you'd like to check it out in the etsy shop you can go here

Etsy shop open for business!

etsy.com/shop/PixelandPaint

I'm both elated and freaked out... let's see what happens, shall we?

Another one of my favorite Hipstamatic photos taken this spring in Ann Arbor is the inspiration for another piece in my "exploration in texture and fortune" collection that will be for sale on etsy tomorrow!



More texture and layers of goodness.



Not to mention found objects... and my favorite combination of colors!

Another piece I've completed for my "Exploration in Texture and Fortune" collection called "Sunshine and Happiness" which will soon be available at my Etsy shop for sale!!!



More experimentation with wax - both from candles and crayons.



Lovely mix of buttons and bottle caps and punchinella and paint!

I think i am partial to this piece because i love the photo so much - taken at a Sunflower Festival a couple of weeks ago. It's one of my most favorite Hipstamatic photos i've ever taken!!!

I'm freaking out.

About to open my Etsy shop and start selling this stuff i call "art" for the first time in my life!!!

So many considerations... yikes!

Here's the first piece... I call it "Love Deeply" for obvious reasons.

All the pieces i will be listing (and obviously creating) will be using fortunes and wax and paint and buttons and most will be created around Hipstamatic photos - it's really what is floating my boat right now!



I guess i'm calling the series in my head "exploration in texture and fortune" for the time being until i'm ready to move onto something else :)



Store should be ready to go live on Monday with five pieces similar to this (more previews coming this weekend) - take a look and let me know what you think!

Completed is the 2012 Bono Birthday Card!



This year i played more with buttons and different acrylic paint mediums as well as added in my new obsession, wax . . . Drippy, oozy, yummy wax!



Recently i received a bag of about 1,000 fortunes from cookies a friend of mine used to be obsessive about eating and have been incorporating those into the art i have been doing. The one i used on Bono's card seemed pretty apropos...
The card itself is a book cover in which i bound the card into with brads and ribbon.
All in all i'm quite happy with it and it's also invigorated and motivated me to make a collection of buttony waxy heart canvases to sell! So, look for those at some point soon... :)

(taken in Hampton, GA - home of Jailhouse Brewery. Sugar Lens and Foxy Film.)


I've made two canvases now with Hipstamatic photos and paint and while i like them, i'm having a mental crisis that no one else will and it occurred to me that now i'm creating to sell and its throwing me all off cause really my pleasure comes from creating to create.

or does it?

the last two years i've been having quite a bit of a challenge sitting down and doing anything artsy or craftsy. Really, the only times i've made anything is when it's for someone else. And while i'm creating for my own enjoyment, ultimately it's the thought of what the person i'm creating it for enjoys or might like. So i guess that is creating for someone else after all . . .

but then all these questions accumulate in my head . . . and i suppose it just all boils down to confidence.
and honestly, some ego.

one thing that's always kept my interest in my own "art" is trying new things. I can't do the same thing over and over like an assembly line. this is another thing concerning me about selling my work - how do i make enough items to sell but keep my own interest while making them? I've come up with some "quick things" that at least at first will definitely be fun to do as they will be new skillz and techniques. I just don't want to become stale or god forbid boring. and the most exciting thing to me is when i produce something i've never seen before - it's what i live for.

I got my first canvas piece done for the new collection i want to sell!
I also got Bono's 2012 Birthday card done this week.
Photos of both to come (of course).

It's feeling good doing a little bit of art every day. Even if it's only for half an hour.

Kind of like a work out but for the soul instead of muscles.

Oooh - i like that!
I'm going to have to remember that!!!

I have high hopes for this weekend.
I've bought 2 glue guns. One i used last night with crayons to drip wax - holy fucking shit that's going to be a new obsession i can just tell.
WAIT.
FOR.
IT.

The other gun will be used to adhere things...
I'm also going to buy resin this weekend and start playing around with photo coasters using hipstamatic photos. i'm really really hoping these turn out as amazing as i'm imagining they are in my head.

I think my motivation has turned a corner now that my period is coming to an end, but we shall see... ugh these periods are killing me as i get older. booooo.

and on that note, i'll just stare at the pretty sunflower photo i took at the Sunflower Festival and breathe.