love deeply...exploration in texture and fortune

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!

Author : lara Comments : 0

Posted :

Tag : Hipstamatic + Mixed Media, Mixed Media,

the 2012 Bono Card

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... :)

Author : lara Comments : 0

Posted :

Tag : Bono, Mixed Media,

The Why Question

(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.

Author : lara Comments : 0

Posted :

Tag : deep thoughts,

Working out for the soul

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.

Author : lara Comments : 1

Posted :

Tag : deep thoughts,

On so it begins...

Years ago I used to keep a blog over at livejournal.
I used to write in it nearly every day - sometimes bullshit, sometimes dreams, alot of times some awesome fucking experiences that i could never forget even though some of the details have faded - but i have the posts to look back on to relive those times with Muse and Casey Spooner et al any time i want.

So, i've had this blogspot for a couple of years but all i was going to use it for was posting art and photos.
I'm bored with that.
And a little empty.
And i think i need a place to start documenting a new journey i'm trying to embark on. And although i have a lovely Moleskine journal i can write in, the thing is, i don't. And when i do i can't read my writing. And even more over since i take an obscene amount of hipstamatic photos i can post them here as i write and experience and feel.

Years ago i was so prolific making art and i miss it like crazy.
Damn divorces and poisonous ex-boyfriends will derail a person i guess.
i've been saying for a solid five years now that i'm going to start doing it again.
And i don't.
And i get pissed at myself and lay on the couch staring blankly at the TV.

Sure, there's been some intermittant projects here and there - all inspired by people's birthdays. I fear i can't create anymore unless there's a reason to. And that goes against everything that i used to believe in.

Do i not need to create for myself anymore?
Do i only feel it neccessary to create if someone else is going to see it?
And selfishly i assume appreciate it?
Does making money off what i could create defeat the purpose of creating?
What if no one buys it?
What if people laugh at it or worse roll their eyes?

But when i'm laying on the couch doing nothing i am barron. I have no desire to just get up and go create something. I take out the art journal, the thing that is supposed to be my playground, my experimentation, the warm-up area, and just stare at it and nothing comes to me. I paint the white paper blue. Still nothing and now i have to wait for the fucking paint to dry. I look around at the piles of crap in the studio that i say someday i will organize and put away but then get overwhelmed and decide to just go back to the couch.

For five years i've had it as a goal to start selling artwork that i make. I don't have the confidence but others tell me i could and should. And with blind faith i will believe my friends who i don't think would just blow smoke up my ass. When my friend Jen asked if i wanted to share a booth at a holiday craft fair with her i jumped at the chance. It will be both of our first times so we can learn together. And in the meantime we can motivate each other to make stuff to sell. And we have a schedule so by the time November rolls around we'll each have about 30 items.

So, we'll see what happens.
In blog format too :)
Cause I'm going to attempt to document all this cause it'll either be totally awesome or totally horrible.

I havent gotten to where i am today by giving into the fear.
And i have grown from allllll the mistakes i've made.
So let's do this shit.

Author : lara Comments : 0

Posted :

Tag : deep thoughts,

Hipstamatic Washington DC

Washington Monument
Film: DC Lens: John S

Washington Monument
Film: Pistil Lens: Watts

Looking at the Washington Monument
Film: DC Lens: John S

Lincoln Memorial
Film: DC Lens: Watts

Martin Luther King Jr Memorial
Film: DC Lens: John S

Martin Luther King Jr Memorial
Film: Kodot XGrizzled Lens: Salvador 84

Korean War Memorial.
Film: Float Lens: Libatique 73

The White House
Film: DreamCanvas Lens: Loftus

On the airplane.
Film: Dylan Lens: Salvador 84

To see roadtrips via the Hipstamatic viewfinder:
Hipsta Wisconsin
Hipsta House on the Rock
Hipsta Cali
Hipsta Texas
Hipsta South
Atlanta Oakland Cemetary
New Orleans

To see the first eight volumes:
Volume One
Volume Two
Volume Three
Volume Four
Volume Five
Volume Six
Volume Seven
Volume Eight

Everything on flickr:
Flickr Page

Author : lara Comments : 0

Posted :

Tag : Hipstamatic, Hipstamatic Travels,

Hipstamatic Photos Volume 8

Centennial Water Fountain, Atlanta (DC Film, Salvador 84 Lens)

Westview Cemetary, Atlanta (DC Film, Loftus Lens)

Westview Cemetary, Atlanta (Blanko Film, Libatique 73 Lens)

Westview Cemetary, Atlanta (DC Film, Loftus Lens)

Oakland Cemetary, Atlanta (DC Film, John S Lens)

Georgia Renaissance Festival, Atlanta (Blackkeys Supergrain Film, Hornbecker Lens)

Parrots at Georgia Renaissance Festival, Atlanta (FLoat Film, Libatique 73 Lens)

KAWS at High Museum, Atlanta (AO DLX Film, John S Lens)

Eye of the Orchid (Big Up Film, Watts Lens)

Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee (Dream Canvas Film, Salvador 84 Lens)

Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee (Blanko Film, Libatique 73 Lens)

Folk Art in North Georgia (Dream Canvas Film, Americana Lens)

Folk Art in North Georgia (Big Up Film, Watts Lens)

Statues at The High, Atlanta (DC Film, Loftus Lens)

Statues at The High, Atlanta (Blanko Freedom 13 Film, Americana Lens)

Grant Park Early Morning, Atlanta (Kodot XGrizzled Film, Watts Lens)

Grant Park Early Morning, Atlanta (DC Film, Libatique 73 Lens)

My Back Yard, Early Morning, Atlanta (DC Film, John S Lens)

Piedmont Park, Atlanta (Blanko Film, Adler 9009 Lens)

To see the first seven volumes:
Volume One
Volume Two
Volume Three
Volume Four
Volume Five
Volume Six
Volume Seven

To see roadtrips via the Hipstamatic viewfinder:
Hipsta Wisconsin
Hipsta House on the Rock
Hipsta Cali
Hipsta Texas
Hipsta South
Atlanta Oakland Cemetary
New Orleans

Everything on flickr:
Flickr Page

Author : lara Comments : 0

Posted :

Tag : Hipstamatic, Hipstamatic Gallery,

Mothers Day mixed media piece

For mother's day i made my mom this little heart and canvas with one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein which also happen to describe her and the way she inspires me perfectly. The canvas is 4"x6" and i used acrylics and mediums with stencils to create the design. The heart is cardboard i collaged with paper, buttons and candle wax (so it smells amazing too)