Whimsy Creek

Dogs- In real life!

2011-08-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

So in case it’s not apparent by now, my life has a lot of dogs

in it. I work part time at a doggy daycare/boarding kennel, I used to be heavily involved in dog rescue (not so much now, I’ll get to that) and I now have two wonderful pups of my very own.

I’ve worked at the kennel, Paws Playhouse in Ames, Iowa for about a year now. It’s an awesome job, I love the work, and the staff, and (the majority of) the dogs. Now and again there’s a pooch that drives me completely nuts, but for the most part they’re wonderful pups and I look forward to seeing them each day.

Scooter with his new mommy

The last dog I posted about, Scooter, has long since gone to a new home. He had the surgery done to his leg, healed up beautifully, and now lives with a great family over in Des Moines. After a full summer without a dog around, my friend Holly called me to ask if I could take two fosters for her- their transport had gotten screwed up and she was out of town. I said yes, and was told I was picking up two shepherd mixes. Which turned out to be a terrier mix and a black tricolor pitbull. I kind of knew I was in trouble from the start- I have a serious weakness for pitbulls, and this one was no exception. The terrier, Nina, got adopted out to a family in Nevada, Iowa, and Bailey stayed. She’s here for good. She’s a perfect dog, I love her to death. I could go on for years about the awesomeness of this dog, but I’ll save it and show you in multiple other blog posts extolling her attributes instead.

So for a long time it was just Bailey and I. A friend of mine in Ames was still actively fostering and took in a six month old Australian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees mix. Tucker was very, very scared and shut down. He had come out of a foster home previously that had way too many dogs. He was the smallest so he was picked on constantly, and got very little positive human interaction. He was removed from that home and sent to my friend when a huge dogfight broke out and one small Sheltie got the ever-living snot ripped out of him. Even at my friends home, he wasn’t doing especially well. Basically, she had a few dogs in the house, and a child, and it’s kind of a hectic atmosphere, and she really did not know how to handle a fearful dog- give her a crazy, bouncing off the walls neurotic dog any day and she’ll work magic, but fearful and shy is not her thing. I offered to foster him at my place instead- I have a very boring, quiet house with only Bailey, who had to get over a lot of fear of her own when I first got her, I have the patience for scared, shy dogs.

And so Tucker came. And he got better. He still has a ways to go but he’s made a huge improvement from where he was. Within a few weeks he was learning how to play with other dogs and act like a puppy again. He and Bailey became good friends. And when I took him home for a weekend with my family, I was told I had to keep him, and I really rather agreed. He still has adjusting to do- it takes him FOREVER to warm up to new people, and he has a disturbing, banshee-like howl he uses when he’s scared of someone- seriously, it almost sounds like a human screaming, and it’s crazy loud. The one good thing about this is that he makes one heck of a good home security system. No one gets near my house without Tucker sounding an alarm that could probably carry for miles.

So that’s the basic lowdown on my beasts. I’m sure I’ll blog about them more, as they’re kinda like my kids (Bailey is like having a stubborn teenager, Tucker is like a toddler.) and I do have a hard time shutting up about them. I don’t do much of rescue anymore for a few reasons. Primarily, with two permanent dogs in my place I really do not have the space for a foster dog- three in the house would make way too little room for me, and since I’m paying for the space, I think I deserve to be able to stretch out without running into a canine. The next part was the general stress- are the dogs healthy? When can I get to a vet appointment? Will they be good in the house or do I need to kennel them? Are they housetrained or will they have tons of accidents and ruin stuff? It gets to you after awhile. I lucked out, both Bailey and Tucker are excellent house dogs. Finally, the people probably got to me the most. You would think that with a central goal of helping animals that people could get along. Far from it. There are a lot of different philosophies in rescue, and people can fight like ally cats over even the littlest things. I’ve also seen rescuers become a little crazy, turn into hoarders, and the ensuing chaos that causes. So, for those reasons, I’m mostly out of the active end of rescue right now. I have no regrets about getting into it, it was one heck of a learning experience, and I got two great dogs out of it.

Seriously, cuteness squared.

Back to more dogs!

2011-08-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

You know I couldn't stay away long from posting more puppies :)

Here's a general sampling of the dogs I've painted in the past year. Various sizes, all in acrylic on canvas.

The Blog! It lives!

2011-08-06T17:13:00.001-07:00

Okay... I promise to catch you all up on why exactly I went on a darn near 2 year hiatus. Safe to say it was a crazy couple of years and a lot went on, but I'll get to the important stuff.

In the meantime, this is the latest complete painting, just finished it this past week. It's large, 4 feet tall, 2 feet wide. This is an image I've had in my head for years, I just finally got around to actually painting it. There's something of a story behind it, but I'll save it for later. For now, It's pretty and I'm happy with it.

Hello Brucemore!

2010-08-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow! Where in the world did another year go?

Ok, I'll admit it- as far as this blog is concerned, I fell off the face of the earth for the last six months (that puppy in the post below this? Yeah, he's not a puppy anymore- he's not mine anymore either, but I'll address that later this week.)

I'll explain my abysmal failure at keeping you updated over the next month or so- it will be a very entertaining story with lots of brightly colored pictures, I promise. Maybe even some you can print and color on, who knows what fun there will be!

Right now I'm just wrapping up preparations for the Brucemore Garden Art show tomorrow, I'll be there, with a recap of the acton to follow. For anyone just joining this blog who picked up my card at the show, and is thinking "hey, you never update this thing"- Stick with me, it gets good from here, Promise

Everyone Meet Scooter!

2010-02-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

This is Scooter, my foster dog. I am fostering him through Hounds Haven Basset Rescue here in Iowa. I've had him for about four weeks now, and he's a very awesome little dog!

I haven't gotten the time to blog lately, partially because of how busy my classes have become, and partially because I'm busy with him. He was a handful at first- VERY BUSY! He was into everything, all over the place. I think he had just gone stir-crazy from being bounced around from his owner to different shelters, to the rescue transport, and had a lot of pent-up energy to express. But it was apparent that once he got his energy out, he was a huge cuddle monster and super-sweet boy.

Unfortunately, he started limping badly about a week and a half after I got him, and trips to the veterinarian have confirmed that he will need corrective surgeries on both of his elbows in order to fix some bone injuries. He's doing well right now, he's been put on a great medicine that acts as an anti-inflamatory and pain killer, so he's no longer limping so badly. He will have his surgery in 2-3 weeks (one of the injuries will take time in order to properly show up on xray, so until then they can't really do surgery on it.)

There is a fundraiser going on right now to cover the cost of Scooter's surgery. I am raffleing off a custom "8 x8" painting of any dog of the winner's choice . Tickets are $5 apiece, or buy 5 get one free. Raffle tickets are being sold through the Three Dog Bakery in West Des Moines, Iowa, (you can also call them and purchase with a credit card) and through the Hounds Haven Basset Rescue website (via Paypal-include your contact information.) If we raise more than the cost of the surgery (which will be between $1,300 and $1,800), then the rescue will have extra money in their veterinary fund in order to help dogs in the future.

I'm on a yarn kick again

2010-01-13T08:40:00.000-08:00

With so much painting right up until the holidays, I was a little bit 'all painted out', so I was eager to get going with some other projects. I had bought some yarn for my Grandma to use, but she didn't want to start on anything while she still had a project going (she's in the middle of a full sized crochet afghan), so my Mom decided to learn how (and I should have remembered to take a picture of her project to put on here, because she did a really good job :) .) I decided that I wanted to work on an idea I'd had for awhile, a mustard yellow cowl scarf.

I had the idea of using multiple strands of a lighter yarn together to make a thick, chunky stitch. I used Vanna's Choice yard, 4 different strands, and it worked out really well. I meant to make it a mobius scarf, but I quickly screwed that up (just didn't figure out how to twist it until a few weeks later) so it's just a tube. I also accidently made it looser than I wanted, but I found a great broach to pin it more tightly. I really like how the finished project turned out, and I'm going to be crocheting quite a bit more for awhile.

Sir Pugsly Puggington II

2010-01-08T18:36:00.000-08:00

When my friend Steph told me that she wanted to commission me to paint her fiance's sister's pug, I was happy. When she sent me the photos and told me that she wanted it to be wearing a smoking jacket, it became one of the best commissions of all time.

Seriously, someone needs to actually buy this dog a smoking jacket, he needs one. Look at how awesome it looks on him.

Christmas Dog Portraits

2010-01-08T18:23:00.000-08:00

More Christmas paintings! The black dog and the little white dog were both custom commissions through 3 Dog Bakery in West Des Moines. The commissioner of the black dog gave me a great photo of the dog doing the cocked-head 'Baroo?' face (so cute!) I thought it was odd that the commissioner of the little white dog had asked specifically that I include the dog's collar and dog tag- until I saw the photo that he had included. Coach collar, and a pretty pink tag-so pampered, soooo cute!

The golden retriever was commissioned by a fellow crafter at Market Day in October of this past year. I got the pleasure of meeting Ruby when I dropped off the painting, what a sweet, gorgeous dog :)

Christmas Kitties

2010-01-08T18:11:00.000-08:00

More stepping stones that were Christmas gifts. I am almost to the end of the Christmas things here!

White Christmas Lily

2010-01-07T19:29:00.001-08:00

I'll take a break from all of the animals (there are many, many more to come from the Christmas collection!) to show off this flower. This was a Christmas gift for my Aunt Sandy, and was in danger of being stolen by my Mom :) I'm in love with the blue color in the background, and I love how this one turned out (and my Mom wants more white lilies on blue too :) )

Dog Trio in Green

2010-01-03T19:08:00.000-08:00

I don't think these were technically a Christmas gift, but these were some of the paintings that I worked on through November and December. The owner of these three is one of the members of Little Paws Dog Rescue out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The little white dog, Harry, is one of the group's rescues that has a permanent home with his rescuer. He's a powderpuff Chinese crested from a puppy mill in Missouri. He had to learn basically everything when he was rescued- he had never seen grass, and it took him nearly a year to figure out how to go up and down stairs. The other two dogs, Bear (the black lab) and Jazz (a lab mix) are his new doggy siblings.

Christmas Stepping Stones

2009-12-28T18:08:00.000-08:00

I've been working on some of these since October! The dog stepping stones that were for Christmas gifts. It's a lot of fun to see the pictures of the different dogs, and it seemed like this year I got a really large variety of breeds.

Christmas Projects

2009-12-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

I fell off the face of the earth again, but with a purpose! I've spent the last couple of months painting a LOT of Christmas gifts, so now that the holiday and the weekend are safely over with (and I will not be ruining any surprises!) I'll get into the process of posting them all.

This lovely, which I am SO proud of, is my great friend's rabbit, Murial. She belongs to Jessica and Daniel, who have been friends of mine for what seems like forever (more specifically, I met Jessi in first grade, and Dan has been in the mix since high school). I was commissioned by Dan's Mother to paint it back in August as a Christmas Gift for them, and I'm very happy with how it turned out. The plum purple (it's more blue in this picture than it is in real life) was one of the colors from their wedding, and Muriel's fur matched it very well.

Merry Christmas you guys!

House Tour!

2009-11-15T12:28:00.000-08:00

YEAAAAAH TOUR!

Ok so it's probably not nearly that exciting. But still, you get to see where I live now. I moved in here in October, and I was hoping to have the place perfect before a tour on the blog, but I got impatient, so here it is now. I was going to wait and take pictures on a nice sunny day (this place is so pretty with the sun coming in) but then I figured that I'd spent a few hours cleaning, so I might as well do things now. Plus, I tried to capture the awesome of the daytime light the last time I lived here, and it didn't really work out, so this is about as awesome as it's going to get.

This is pretty much the center of the house, the dining room. That in the background is my bedroom (we'll get there,) and the side slice of doorway on the left is the bathroom (which I'm not going to show you because it's tiny, tough to photograph... and it's a bathroom.)

Turning around from the former shot, here is the living room. Wall space in here is a little empty right now, I'm anticipating a few paintings coming up and leaving room for them.

And yes, that is a hammerhead shark on the back of the couch. His name is Lurch. I made him about a year ago, he was a project for Folkmanis Puppets that never got put into production. He was a little too cool to get shoved in a closet and looked really odd in my bedroom. So I figure if I'm going to be a grown woman with a stuffed animal on her sofa, it had better be something hardcore.

EDIT: For some reason Lurch is cut out of the shot, if you click on the picture it will pop out larger and then you can see him in all of his sharky awesomeness.

Another pic of the living room. Dang, the walls are super empty, I have to get working on that. The front door, by the way, is over to the right out of the picture.

And for that shot I'm standing in the doorway of-

The studio.

Other side of the studio.

Hey look it's my bedroom! I know you're all jealous of that wood paneling. It's pretty sexy.

Another shot in my bedroom. Anyone who's thinking they'll rob me for that jewelry hanging right there- almost all of it is from Target. Specifically, the clearance section. Pretty sure none of it is worth more than $5.

And a quick shot of the kitchen, which is (predictably) off of the dining room. Not shown are the fridge, oven and dishwasher, which are on the wall opposite this. I was going to include that shot, but I figure most of you have seen appliances before, these aren't special.

Thats about it! Way to go sticking with me, this was a long post. Better go get yourself a drink and a snack :) And come visit me soon!

Lucas County Art Festival

2009-11-10T09:04:00.000-08:00

Some photos from this past weekend in Chariton, Iowa. I realized only after I got home that I never took a photo of my own setup (headdesk!) but I've posted plenty of pictures of my setup from past shows here, and it didn't look a whole lot different than usual.

It was a great day! Check out most of these awesome artists at Grassroots Gallery.

Doggies!

2009-11-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

Just as Interrupting Pug promised, more paintings of dogs! The terrier is my Aunt and Uncle's dog Tommy, an adorable little rat terrier/jack russell mix ( 6" X 12"), and the Golden retriever is now up for sale and part of my regular show and sale collection (16" X 20").

Interrupting Pug

2009-11-05T06:37:00.001-08:00

Is interrupting this blog to inform you that more dog paintings are coming soon :)

Fall Flowers

2009-11-04T19:45:00.001-08:00

I've had these done for a little while, just haven't had a chance to post them yet. They will all be up for sale this weekend, at the Lucas County Art Festival in Chariton, Iowa. I'll have them posted to Etsy shortly after this weekend if they are still around.

I'm Alive !

2009-11-03T09:51:00.001-08:00

Holy Cow you guys, I haven't posted in a long time. But things in my life got pretty nuts there for a little bit. Here, I shall run through them really quick

-I applied to graduate school at Iowa State University

- I got accepted to grad school, I'll start in January getting my MFA in Graphic Design. The plan is to teach at a four year or university.

- I looked at apartments in Ames, seeing as my lease on my Des Moines apartment ended at the end of October and it made no sense to stick around for another two months and move durning December.

- Found an apartment- actually the exact same one I shared with two awesome roomies the last year of my undergrad. Great location, cute place, and an awesome landlady. WIN.

- I moved.

-Then I did the Market Day show in Des Moines for October. If I ever think that a show plus a major move in the same week is a good plan ever again, someone please slap me.

So all in all, life got pretty insane there for awhile. Now I'm back, comfortably settled into my Ames apartment (which I'll probably post a virtual tour of soon, 'cause it's awesome) and getting back to regular posts, regular artworkings, regular updates to the Etsy shop, and regular sleep (I think I like that last one best.)

Catching up on some of my latest work, here are some stepping stones that were completed last month- well, the ones that are not Christmas gifts, anyway. I don't want to spoil things for anyone :)

Cake in Blue

2009-09-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

My friend Kelly's birthday is tomorrow, and we decided to have some cake at my place tonight with some friends. I don't decorate cakes very often these days, so this was a lot of fun to do. I had been thinking for awhile that I wanted to try doing an undercut tiered cake, and this gave me a perfect opportunity. I LOVE the way it turned out! The cake was raspberry and lemon flavored. I believe the conversation about that choice went about like this-

"what flavor do you want your cake?"

"yummy."

"OH kay, little more specific maybe?"

"... what all can you do?"

"Well, there's chocolate and vanilla, obviously, and then there's the more custom ones I've done, strawberry vanilla, lemon, raspberry..."

"THAT! Back up, what was that last one?"

"Lemon Raspberry?"

"YES I WANT THAT!!"

It was yummy :)

Really, cake is a pretty good medium for me because it teaches me to take things less seriously. I can't get too anal about cake, especially when I'm not being paid to do it. It'll look great for a few hours, but at the end of the day it's going to be eaten, it's going to be gone. Life as an artist can be unpredictable and frustrating, and cake is a good exercise in letting go and enjoying the process and the moment. I've thought about doing it full time in the past, but I think I prefer doing it on occasion instead- Too much sugar osmosis tends to be a bad thing !

Doggies!

2009-09-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

New dog paintings! These and others will be going on display at the Three Dog Bakery in West Des Moines soon.

More ponies for a cause

2009-09-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

Awhile ago I posted the images of some watercolor sketches that I made for the Iowa Equine Rescue and Awareness League. They were made into greeting card packs, and are available through their website as a fundraiser for the group. These are the new images for the cards that will be available this year! Again, they are available for purchase at their website, and all proceeds go to help horses/ponies/donkeys in need.

The only night light I'll ever want

2009-09-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

I usually have a thing against night lights. I'm the kind of person who wants the room to be as dark as possible when I sleep, zero-light is the best. The only place where I sometimes have one is in a place like a living room, so that I don't trip over stuff if I need to get up in the middle of the night.

That being said, I need an excuse- like a small child sometime faaaaaaar in the future- to buy one of these. So cute!

New flowers for Grassroots Gallery

2009-09-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

New paintings- they will be heading to Grassroots Gallery in Humeston, Iowa shortly.

I have clearly underestimated the burglars in this neighborhood

2009-09-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

I noticed the cherry picker truck show up this morning, and I figured the complex had some trees they were working on. Then, sitting on my couch checking emails, I look up and see this. Actually, when I first saw the guy coming up, it looked like they were coming for my third-floor balcony, specifically. He ended up making it to his intended target, the roof (where I can hear him walking right now,) but being a real smart a$$, my first, VERY first reaction was 'wow-that is a criminal with ambition. Word must have gotten around that I have cool stuff." (yeah, if only!)

Maybe before they leave I can talk them into using that boom to move my couch out of my apartment. Moving it down the stairs inside is going to be a real pain.

New stuff in the Etsy shop!

2009-08-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would let everyone know that I've got a couple of new items in the shop- My print of Days of Rain, and packs of cards with my flower paintings on them.

Enjoy!

Art Shows in Review!

2009-08-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, the last couple of weeks have just flown by! Here's a recap of my last two shows.

Yesterday here in Des Moines was Market Day, and it was another successful show. The weather was great again, nice and cool, which is great for Market Day, because it takes place in a large warehouse building that heats up quickly in warm weather. This time I set up between Martha Thien, a jeweler who does awesome work with crochet and glass beads, and

Bethany Ogle, who has some really awesome artwork.

Full set up at Market Day

Tables at Market Day

The Brucemore Garden Art Show in Cedar Rapids could not have gone better! The weather was amazing, sunny, with a high of only about 78 degrees, and a gentle breeze. I had a great day and it was a very successful show. Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by to see me! And major, MAJOR thanks to Angela Meijer, who let me borrow her gridwall setup for the show! You should all go check out her artwork, it's so happy!

All set up for the Garden Art Show at Brucemore

It's been an incredible last couple of weeks! I won't be having any other shows (that I know of- I'll let you all know if something pops up!) for the next month. I will, however, be listing some brand new prints and greeting cards on Etsy very soon, so keep an eye out!

Brucemore Garden Art Show

2009-08-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

It's been awhile since I've updated, because my life has become crazy busy as of late!

I want you all to know that I have a show coming up this weekend, the 22nd of August, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

It's the Brucemore Garden Art Show, and I would love to see you all there!

I will have original paintings, prints, and some greeting cards with my artwork for sale.

See you there!

... Oh, I posted a painting too! It's 12" X 12", and it will be available at the show.

Market Day Thanks!

2009-07-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

My first Market Day was a big success! Thanks so much to everyone who came out to shop. It was great to see everyone, and it was fun to talk to the other crafters and artists.

Here's a shot of my setup at Market Day. Next to me were Sarah and Leslie of Urban Posture. You should check them out, they have cool stuff!

Barn Owl

2009-07-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

Painted today- I've been behind on painting animals lately, so that's pretty much all I'm painting today. This is the first one done, 8" X 10". It will be for sale, along with a lot of other stuff, at Market Day, which is tomorrow in Des Moines. For those of you who get a chance, I would love to see you there! Even if you're not in a buying mood for paintings, there are a LOT of other vendors with amazing, original stuff that I really think should be checked out.

Hope to see you there!

New small flower paintings

2009-07-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

All 5" X 4" on chunky canvases- pink geraniums, gloriosa daisy, and baby's breath (yes, that is a very, very up close shot of baby's breath flowers. This type looks like fluffy little daisies, they're very cute!)

All will be up for sale at Market Day on the 25th of July.

More paintings for a new gallery

2009-07-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

These five are all 5" X 5", and are all going to Grass Roots Gallery in Humeston, Iowa.

What Prints should I make?

2009-07-07T14:40:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I've got a request for you all!

I know that there are a decent amount of people who drop in on this blog from time to time (Hi Mom, Hi Grandma!) and plenty of people who have been interested in prints of my work (Hi Sarah!) And so, I am making plans to offer prints of some of my paintings. I'm looking at producing quality Giclee prints of 3-7 paintings. I'm not going to make prints of the smaller paintings, anything less than 7 inches square. I may make prints of some of my older work, like things I painted back in high school. Prints will almost inevitably be smaller than the original work, but they will be much more inexpensive.

So, my lovely blog viewers, if you get some time and you are so inclined, take a look at this blog/my Etsy and let me know which paintings you would most like to see as prints. If you know of a painting that I don't have posted here anywhere, go ahead and suggest it- Just don't say something like 'that one painting of the deer- I have a LOT of those! You can leave your thoughts as a comment, email me, or let me know on Facebook (I know that at least some of you follow in from there :) )

Just for you, here are 2 more paintings, both of which debuted at the Artwalk. The daisy is 8" X 8", the landscape is 12" X 24".

Poor Maggie!

2009-07-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Cedar Rapids for the 4th of July right now, and I just have to blog about both how awesome and heartbreaking my family's dog is right now. We've had Maggie for about three years now, we got her from the Linn County Humane Society. We guess that she's a mix of border collie and chow chow, and she's just the sweetest thing alive. She loves going for walks, and is so smart that she has memorized everything that can lead to a walk- down to the specific shoes that people wear- and will follow you around the house if you show any signs of an upcoming walk, just so that you can't sneak out without her. She's pretty much awesome.

Unfortunately, she's terrified of two things- thunderstorms and fireworks. This makes the 4th of July holiday a very scary time for her. People around the neighborhood have been setting off fireworks for the last few hours, and the poor dog is pacing the entire house, afraid to sit down for too long, and trying to cram herself into any space she can find. Poor baby. It's going to be a long couple of days :(

The first picture I took of her today, about an hour ago. She was on her way out of the bedroom, after deciding that she could not, in fact, get far enough under the bed to be safe. The second one is a much better picture of her from shortly after she came to live with us. She was much poofier- and thinner. She has a summer haircut now that makes her look like a shorn sheep with a big poofy tail.

Spiffy turtle is spiffy

2009-07-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Anyone remember way, way back in April, when I had a little blog contest promising a prize? Well the wonderful Steph Adamo won that prize, and I'm finally getting it to her all of these months later. She requested a painting of a turtle in the same style as the horse and rider painting in one of my very early posts. I don't paint this style much anymore, but I really should use it more, it's a lot of fun :)

Mini Paintings for sale

2009-06-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

So I was at the art store the other day and started looking at the canvas options, and I decided to try picking up some smaller than usual canvases. These are all much less thick than the ones I usually paint- about 3/4 inch deep. They could stand on their own, as the sides are wrapped, or they could be framed... you know, if you've got a very tiny frame around or something.

Anyway, I'll be posting these to Etsy in a little while here if anyone is interested.

Oh, update on my own flowers- I've been over- watering them for the past few days to try getting some of the fertilizer out of the soil. I think they're doing better- I might lose one nemesia plant, but that's small compared to losing all of them. I'm happy they're doing better.

Forgotten times

2009-06-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this painting for the last couple of days. I'm still not sure if it's done, I may be poking at it a little more. I think I've repainted the sky about 5 times, the windmill was repainted 3 times. Just a tough one to get right!

I took the photo that this came from a couple weeks ago. I chased some really beautiful clouds into more Southern Iowa really early one morning. Never did really get the clouds, but South of the town on St. Mary I pulled off on a gravel road and saw this. A lone windmill sitting down in a little valley, the only thing left of what was likely a homestead at some point. It's an interesting image. So many little farms were abandoned during the Great Depression, and unless you know what you're looking for, the signs of their existence are just about invisible. the 'ring' of trees around this area is a pretty good indicator that this was the drive up to a farmhouse at one point.

I wonder what the windmill remembers.

floral life

2009-06-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

Got some more paintings done yesterday, I really like these two, especially the orchid. They will both be up on Etsy later tonight.

In other flower news, I'm sad to say that the flower boxes on my deck have taken quite a hit. Between strong storms, blazing heat, and the fact that I may have over fertilized them, they're looking really tough these days. I really hope that they can make it, it's still so early in the summer, I'd hate to lose them all now. We'll see what happens.

Stepping stone-black lab

2009-06-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

This is one that I did as a sort of sample, but it is also up for sale, $70. I really like how it turned out.

Thank you everyone!

2009-06-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

WOW! June has been an incredibly busy month. I've had a lot of fun and done a lot of work!

I'll be posting some of my new work here over the next couple of days. Some of it was seen at the Artwalk in Ames, some of it is brand new. Thanks to everyone who attended the Artwalk and made it a great success!

The painting above made it's debut at the Artwalk. It is 20" x 20", and still for sale.

I'd really like to thank everyone who has come out to see me and attend the events that I've been at. I spent this morning at the Clean Paws Canine Walk & Run in Perry, Iowa. I met wonderful people and fantastic dogs- what an awesome way to spend the morning! Thank you Susan, and everyone who attended!

I Have a Show Tomorrow!

2009-06-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

I'm back in Des Moines! I had a great time in Cedar Rapids- didn't really get the blogging done that I had anticipated, but it was a good trip none the less.

The big news is that my first show of the summer is TOMORROW! I'll be at the Ames Art Walk in downtown Ames, Iowa, in Evert's Flowers & Gifts with my artwork. You should all come see me- mostly because I always like to see you guys, you're all fun, and there will be BRAND NEW, NEVER BEFORE SEEN ON THE BLOG ARTWORK!

Get excited peeps, I am!

Here are some teasers in the meantime, I hope to see you there!

LIVE from Cedar Rapids!

2009-05-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

Just a heads up that I'll be heading to Cedar Rapids tomorrow to hang out at my parent's home for the week. A whole week off to paint. Expect more frequent blogging, news about upcoming shows, and what most of you tune in for, new art!

Bit of Blue

2009-05-23T16:28:00.000-07:00

Kelly suggested that my gallery could use some more blue in it. So here's some Siberian Squill. I remember taking the photo in early spring, 2006. I had to lay on my stomach in the middle of central campus at Iowa State University, on muddy ground. It was really windy, I remember having a heck of a time getting an in-focus photo. Oh yeah, and it was about noon, so TONS of people were walking past, looking at me funny.

This was one of those times when I could have used the shirt that some of us discussed making from time to time- 'Art Student. Don't ask.'

I'm going to have a hard time getting an accurate picture of this one because of all the blue- the photo gets too saturated and tough to correct. This is a tiny bit blurry, but it's the closest I can get to true color. I'll try getting a better shot to replace it with soon. 6" X 6".

Poppy!

2009-05-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

I love these flowers. My Grandma has a large patch of them at her house, they've been there for years. They're a very elegant and unique plant.

I wanted to paint something red, and didn't want to paint a ubiquitous rose. I love the way this one turned out.

10" X 10", will be in the Etsy shop later today.

Spring Flowers

2009-05-20T09:55:00.001-07:00

Can I just say that I'm so pumped that it's finally spring? I get to go home to my parent's house next week, and I get to GARDEN! One of my favorite things EVER!

Expect more flowers in the near future. SOOOOOO excited!

These are both for sale in the etsy shop.

I Finally Made It To Etsy!!!

2009-05-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

I finally got some time today and went for it!

Not everything is up there yet, I'll be uploading more over the coming days. But here's the start of things! Please, people who actually know Etsy, give me feedback, I'm very new to this and would like advice!

Days of Rain

2009-05-11T07:21:00.001-07:00

Painted from my own photos again, this was a shot taken outside of Waverly, Iowa, as a huge storm moved off in the distance. This photo was taken about a week after another monster storm moved through that area of the state. It spawned an F5 tornado that decimated much of the town of Parkersburg. It's a totally different storm, but it still was a creepy thing to look at in the context of the time. I like the mood that I captured in this one. It's 16" X 20", and this one is on a thin framable stretched canvas. It will also go up for sale in the near future.

TWO blog posts in the SAME WEEK! I'm so proud of myself :)

EDIT- ended up deciding not to sell this one- I've grown rather attached to it. Plus the canvas kind of warped a little bit, and I'd feel bad about selling something with damage, even if it's tiny damage.

New work-Mother's day gift

2009-05-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

I actually finished this last week, but I knew that it was a Mother's Day gift, so I decided to wait on posting it until now. I've done these for about five years now- they are 12" X 12" concrete stepping stones (I buy them, I do not make them myself) that are custom painted from photos of a customer's pet. I then seal them with an all-weather spray sealant. They sell for $70 apiece. This one was for the Mom of one of the employees of Three Dog Bakery in West Des Moines. The dog is a Jack Russell Terrier/Border Collie mix. So cute!

Happy Mothers Day! Hi Mom, I love you! <3

April, come she will; May, she will stay

2009-05-02T16:42:00.001-07:00

Man, once upon a time I was good at updating this blog!

It probably goes without saying, I've been busy again- and it's probably not going to stop any time soon! I have been enjoying spring, I always get super excited to watch everything become green. it rained like crazy for awhile this past couple of weeks, but I love seeing the flowers start to pop. Here, have some crab apple blooms.

ALSO- first person to tell me what song and who sang it that I'm quoting in the title of this post gets a free something. Not totally sure what the free something is yet, but it will something nice :)

Little baby

2009-04-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

New Painting!

12" X 12" acrylic on chunky canvas. Something cute and sweet for spring... even though there's kind of a blizzard outside right now. Boo late snowstorms!

My family's house in Cedar Rapids backs up to a wooded city park. Last year it was frequented nearly every day by momma deer and three different fawns.

This will eventually go either to a gallery or to Etsy. Inquire about price if you're interested.

Commercial love-UPS

2009-04-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love this commercial. Visual Love.

go see it here.

Hey everyone! Did you miss me?

2009-03-31T14:21:00.000-07:00

My poor, neglected blog, how have you been?

Hi everyone, my life became about ten types of crazy for the remainder of March, so the Etsy is being put off, hopefully now to open in April.

As I mentioned, I got a part time job, at the JoAnn Fabrics in Clive, Iowa. I've been getting a TON of hours there, almost forty a week. Between that and some other side projects, I've been pretty much swamped for awhile now. On the bright side, I've made some great contacts recently, which I'll elaborate on later as more details emerge.

I'm kind of sad about the weather right now- It was so nice and warm and sunny there for a little while, and today it's cold and windy, and there's snow in the area. Boo. Therefore my art today is me thinking about spring and summer. I like the seashell- I've always liked seashells, my parents can attest to this, I've got hundreds of the things at home. I found a couple of seashells in a closet earlier today, so I decided to paint one.

I'm not so sure about the pansy painting. I started with the background, which was going to have a bunny painted on it, and then lost interest. I ended up going with this Etain viola flower. I had them in my garden 3 years ago, they're very lovely, but they are a rather minimalist flower. I think I havn't used enough contrast in the painting, I should darken up that background at least. I'll probably do some more work on this one. and re-post it when I do.

Have a happy week!

New-Landscape

2009-03-16T06:16:00.000-07:00

I finished another smaller painting over the weekend, this one is 12" X 12", also on a chunky canvas ( which I really like using, by the way) and was taken from a photograph that I took after Mindy Schlader's wedding last year- this is on the edge of Waverly, Iowa.

I've got a busy week coming up, I hope to post some more by the end of the week. Everyone have a great Monday!

New Paintings

2009-03-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

I got a surprise this morning when I went to work- I was supposed to be working from 9-3, and found out I would only be needed until 11, so I worked a grand total of two whole hours. This left time in the day for art! So here are two new paintings, the white orchid is 5" X 5", the two purplish orchids are 5" X 7". They are both on chunky canvases, 1.5" deep, and the designs wrap around the edges. I don't have my Etsy up yet, but both are for sale, $60 apiece. If you are interested in buying, Let me know.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Painting progress, and other news

2009-03-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

Hello, my lovely blog followers!

I know I havn't been very good at updating this week, I apologize. I picked up a part time job with a local fabric store, and although I love it, the amount of hours that they are giving me currently is cutting significantly into my blogging time. I should get in the groove of things soon and be able to post more often again.

Here is another picture of the painting that I showed earlier. I had a few solid days to work on it recently and got a lot finished. It isn't done yet, I still have changes that I want to make, but I do love it and it makes me happy, and I kind of want to cuddle it a little :) .

I really am planning on having new (yes NEW! Brand-spankin' new!) work to put up by the end of the weekend, so stay tuned!

Illustration- Breezy

2009-03-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to keep up with Illustration Friday, however I'm feeling a little under the weather this week, so this one won't be entered. I'll show it here anyway. A little oil pastel sketch from memories of the landscape a few miles outside of my Grandma's town in Northwest Iowa. Spring there sneaks up on you, probably because of the miles of brown pasture and farm fields. Spring tends to come in little, barely perceiveable bits, until you wake up one morning and BAM! Everything is green. That's how I tend to see it anyway. Maybe that's because I'm usually stuck at work or in my apartment and only really get out into the country every couple of weeks, and come turn of seasons, a lot happens in a week.

Spring makes me happy. So does working on art while listening to Bob Dylan. I feel like such a hippie :)

Ponies for a cause

2009-03-04T09:19:00.000-08:00

I painted these about a year ago for a friend who helps run a horse rescue in Linn county, Iowa. Greeting cards with these images can be ordered through the group's web site, www.iaeral.org. The group is the Iowa Equine Rescue and Awareness League, they are very cool people who do a lot of good for horses that really need great people to help them.

Weekend Review

2009-03-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

Wow, where did that weekend go? I had a great time, even though it was one of the busier couple of days I've had for awhile.

This is what I've been working on for awhile, so here's an in-progress shot. This is for a client, and I'm going to be very sad when it's time to give it to them because I am absolutely in love with it! Your eyes do not deceive you, it is very large- four by five feet. And that is the corner of my dining room table down in the bottom of the picture, it's too big to fit in my studio. I've never done this style of impressionism before, and I love it. I'm happy that I have a large canvas of my own around that I have not figured out what to do with yet, it's going to be an impressionist something awesome just for me very soon.

So Saturday afternoon my parents and sister came to town. It was great to see them, they don't make it to Des Moines very often. We all went shopping for furniture for my parent's house, I think we may be able to talk my Mom into a new sofa and chair for the living room (Mom- they looked really good. Dooooo it, Doo it!) We found a great new restaurant, The Stadium. It's a sports bar/grille of the corner of Grand & Railroad. I had seen it before, but had never gone in, and we needed a place to eat that wouldn't take too long to get a seat at. It was very, very good, and I'm pretty sure my Dad will still be raving about the waffle fries in a month.

While my parents chilled at my apartment and watched the UNI game, my sister and I went to Legally Blonde, the Musical at the civic center. I had heard great things, but I wasn't sure how it was going to be- I'm not a big fan of chick flicks. Legally Blonde the movie was ok, but not a huge favorite of mine. Let me just say that any reservations that I had were totally unfounded- It was a GREAT show! I was very impressed with the cast, usually in traveling shows I find that there's at least one cast member that is decidedly on the B-string, but I couldn't find one here. The woman playing Elle Woods was excellent- She honestly looked a LOT like Reese Witherspoon. The humor was great, even the guys in the crowd ( half of which looked to have been dragged in on their girlfriend's arm) seemed to have plenty to enjoy. I'm very stingy about what shows I give a standing ovation to, and this one earned it.

Illustration Friday

2009-02-27T12:52:00.000-08:00

My scanner kind of murdered this, I wasn't able to really fix the colors. Anyway, it's a tufted titmouse, cute little songbird. It's about 8" X 5.5" , watercolor with ink pen accents. It's one of my favorite ways to illustrate. This will either go up for sale on Etsy in the near future, or be donated to a cause I've been pondering for a little while- Long story short, my next-door neighbor from the house I grew up in recently passed away. The year or so before we moved out of that house, I put up a bird feeder that her kids had gotten for her when she was in the hospital for a short time, and she loved watching the birds. I eventually got her a few more feeders and various types of seed, and she became glued to her kitchen window most every day, happily watching birds and chipmunks and squirrels scurry about. She ended up moving to a nursing home at the same time as we moved out of our house, luckily that place had bird feeders. I didn't end up going to her funeral, It would have been tough for me to get home for it, and I tend to do very, very badly at funerals, and I didn't want my inablity to control my emotions to bother everyone else. I am thinking of doing a series of these birds and donating them to her nursing home in honor of her for the other residents to enjoy.

Also- I'm so jealous of Birdnerd's style. If anyone wants to buy me one of her prints, that would be swell.

EDIT- I've decided to sell this piece, as well as a few others, and I'm working on a larger painting that will be donated to her nursing home. I felt a larger painting would be better.

2009-02-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

I love Dimitri Martin. Go see his site, and search his stuff on Youtube. It's perfect for my sense of humor- kind of stupid, but resulting from shrewd observation of the world.

" If I'm going to move up in a building, I choose the elevator over the escalator. Because one time I was on an escalator and I tripped. I fell down the stairs for an hour and a half."

" I wonder what the most intelligent thing ever said was that started with the word 'dude.' 'Dude, these are isotopes.' Dude, we removed your kidney, you're gonna be fine.' 'Dude, I am so stoked to win this Nobel Prize. I just wanna thank Kevin, and Turtle, and all my homies."

" The worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of charades."

"I like fruit baskets because it gives you the ability to mail someone a piece of fruit without appearing insane. Like, if someone just mailed you an apple you'd be like 'Huh? What the hell is this?', but if it's in a fruit basket you're like 'This is nice!'"

-Dimitri Martin

2009-02-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

I've had this finished for about a month now, so I'd better show it off. It's 24" X 18" acrylic on canvas, and it's heading to Cedar Rapids this weekend to my Aunt and Uncle. It's a portrait of their two dogs, Patrick and Bridgette, a lab/great dane mix and a golden retriever (she's a very red golden, she gets mistaken for an Irish setter fairly often) I worked off of a photo that was taken of them in October. It was Bridgette's tenth birthday, and she got a brand new can of tennis balls as a gift. I loved the photo and decided to paint it for them as a Christmas gift. I got extremely busy just before Christmas, and so I told them that it would be on its way after the holidays.

If you know these two dogs, you know how perfect this picture setup is- Patrick is a giant goofball, kind of a dummy but very sweet. He usually has that look of 'durh?' on his face. Bridgette is in her own little world of 'I haz a tennis baaaaaaalll!!!!' and will lay there and hold that ball over her head, raising it and lowering into her mouth over and over again for an hour. Outside of fetch, it's her very favorite pastime. She's a very smart dog- especially standing next to Patrick, and can probably smell a tennis ball from a half mile.

The style that I used is a little new to me, in the past I've painted every last hair on animals, but I'm moving to a new style with more abstraction with this piece, and the other dog paintings from a few days ago. I'm liking the style of this a lot, I'm probably going to be doing this as a main style for awhile.

Twilight, and also cupcakes

2009-02-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

So, I'm not actually a fan of Twilight. I have not read the books at all. I really had no interest in the books. I did enough 'research' to figure out they revolved around teenage angsty vampires, and that was really all that I wanted to know. And then, my good friend Kelly started telling me about this amazing blog that she had found where the writer had reviewed all of the Twilight books, adding her own snarky, hillarious commentary on the entire experience.

And so I went to said blog to see just how snarky it was. And it was AMAZING. I read every bit of Cleolinda's Twilight review , and I laughed the whole way through. I think it was much better than actually reading the books, she's dead on with her humor throughout and it just gets better the further into the series she gets. And then, when it just could not get better, she she reviewed the movie. And did so rather accurately.

So I shared this bloggy goodness with others, and we all decided that once Twilight the movie got to the local dollar theater, we would make this into an event. So, last night was the debut of Sparklefest, aka the viewing of Twilight by myself, Kelly and Eloisa. It honestly wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be- visually, the actual cinematography is very good, and the long shots of the landscape really made me want to visit the pacific northwest like, tomorrow. There was a very expected amount of teen angst- oh lord, the angst! Thick with angst (which I guess takes up a good three quarters of the first book, so no surprise that the first half of the movie was mostly ANNGGASSSSSSSSSSST) and an enormous amount of ' play the building mood music as the vampire and new girl in town sloooooooooooowwly walk past each other, staring, and posing like it's all about to become an Ambercrombie ad campaign.' We did say before hand, if the movie wasn't aweful, we'll go to the others together- once they hit the dollar theater. Again, it wasn't bad, but it was not worth $7.

In other news, leading up to last night's Sparklefest, I randomly thought " you know, I don't get to see these guys very often, I should do something special" which led to " I have cake mix, I should use it." which exploded shortly thereafter into "OMG Twilight cupcakes!!!"

And so, you see the result. Sparkling vampire cupcakes complete with some vampiric nom marks, and Fursploded werewolf cupcakes (yes I know, the werewolves don't show up until the second movie. But after reading Cleolinda's review of the entire series, 'fursplode' may be my new favorite word.)

Older work

2009-02-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

This is an older work, from about three years ago. I made it as a project for a particularly awesome class that I took in college. It's very much based off of the work of James Christensen.

Not my usual style, but I would love to get back to doing more of it, I really like this piece.

Brand New Paintings!

2009-02-21T18:29:00.000-08:00

These are just a few of the paintings that I dropped off at the gallery recently. I do a lot of custom portraits of people's pets, and the gallery owner has two (sweet & beautiful) English cocker spaniels, so he wanted dogs for his gallery. I'll try to get pictures of the other paintings up soon. Until then, enjoy these!

Gallery is Arte, 400 E Locust St. in Des Moines, Iowa.

Sleeping Wolf Painting

2009-02-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

I wanted a larger painting for my bedroom, and I finally had some time just before the holidays to get this done. The whole piece framed is about 35" by 24", and it's acrylic paint on heavy art paper. There's actually a lot of detail in the face- the eyes are actually just slightly open, as if he's just slipping in and out of sleep. I like the subtlety like that in this painting- its very peaceful, really perfect for where it is, but it does retain a lot of interest if you really look at it.

2009-02-21T18:14:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to my blog! I hope that you enjoy my work, and are entertained by my musings on life. Come back often!