A Swap with Sullivan, yay!!!

Recently I did a swap with the owner of Sullivan, from The Life & Travels of Sullivan McPig blog, and it was so much fun! I love getting new & interesting things-especially from faraway lands. Ha ha...well, you know what I mean because it came alllll the wayyyyy over to Detroit from The Netherlands! And that's pretty far to me. :}

So this is what I saw when I opened up my box. Yay and a few wrapped gifts-did I ever say how much I LOVE surprises?!!? I saved those for last. Here's what surprises were in my box....OH, and the only thing I knew for sure I was getting was some buttons because Sullivan's owner's OH (other half) designed one. If you click on the pictures to enlarge 'em, he did the one that's green with a white goat design, very cool! I love everything inside. OK, finally, here's the stuff I received below...

Just LOOK at all this cool stuff! Everything from yummy black licorice (so so good, not like the typical licorice around here for sure!) to cool children illustrated cards to a CD by a Dutch band called Within Temptation, which reminds me, I have to put 'em into Mike's I-tunes. Doh!!!

Of course I loved everything she sent but these are some of my very faves. They include: a small stitched bag (that had the pins in 'em and that Carien made too-which is even better!), Cute As Hell notebook, the licorice, Hello Kitty candy spray-woo for HK, a small black figurine, and the pig game with cute lil' rubber-y pigs, awwww. I don't understand what to do in the game though (I think it was mentioned in one of Sullivan's blog posts)...since the directions aren't in English. Thanks so much Carien for the lovely gifts!

If you'd like to see my gifts to Sullivan & Carien, please click HERE. OK, it looks like a lot and...well, it is a lot but it's lots of lil' things & letters/cards/stickers/things like that about/from the USA...and Detroit things too like C-Pop's business card to stickers from one of my fave toy stores Pink Ghost. Thanks again & if you haven't seen Sullivan's blog before, you should check it out. It's a lot of fun! Take care everyone & have a good day.~

Working on art....May be MIA for a bit....just maybe

Hi friends. As some of you know, I'm really considering opening an Etsy shop. So I've been busy working on stuff because I really don't have too many NEW pieces if I were to open this shop...meaning: anything I've made from the past two years. I've noticed I don't really have as much as I thought. :( And what I do have I either don't want to sell 'cause I don't like the pieces or I'm too attached to some pieces at this point.

So I've been going to stores and getting ideas (for paintings and random mixed media things-and also I've been getting some things I've never tried making before too, like small wood boxes & wood frames-I'm gonna make ya wait to see what I did to them-some good, some not-so-good imo). Then I come home, go to my ArtSpace, & try to put the ideas into reality. So far I'm mainly doing trial & error stuff because I'm finding out I'm not good at some things. And then other things I'm pretty OK with. So it's all in the process right??!!??

My main goal is to get a decent amount of art pieces done...and then to choose (if there's a lot to choose from) what I'll put up in the store first. That is my BIG goal. (And I've been reading into Etsy a lot lately & its policies/etc.... so I'm not too surprised or worried about certain things. And I've also been reading about stuff so I can kinda get a feel for how to make a decent profit, how to advertise properly, etc... I want to find out as much as possible before just jumping in.) Etsy suggests not to just open a shop on a whim, and that it's a real business & I strongly agree!

I'm pretty sure I'm going to call my Etsy shop Eve's Wonderland (with maybe a subtitle of either "curious art for curious people" or "curious art for curiouser people"-that is still up in the air but the Wonderland part will probably stay).

Well, I do have more art but I don't have instant access to it right now...and if I did I don't know if I'd want to anyhow. (Out with the old, in with the new, right?) I first starting to paint in 1999 and took many breaks since then. Never making any money off it (except for one art show)...and right now I STILL have most of my art at my parents' house (in a storage area in my old bedroom's closet, which my dad boarded up...so I'd need to him to take off all these wood pieces to get back there). So that kinda sucks. One day, one day...

And when I moved in HERE (my boyfriend's house), it took me a while to do any type of art. I don't know why I didn't get on things asap. But I had to clear out an area in the basement first because there was room down there. It was just a matter of clearing the OLD stuff out of the way. We moved in after his grandfather passed away & lots of cleaning/organizing/throwing out things had to be done since his mother didn't seem like she wanted to clean it out. That was very odd...our garage is STILL a disaster because the granpa left it in a crazy mess. OK, back to the art and things about blogging...


So I may not be on here TOO TOO much because I've been working pretty consistently for the last couple of weeks...and then more so in the last week. That might mean I may not get to read all of the blog posts of people I follow either. I'm sorry in advance if you don't hear from me. But I will TRY my bestest to be on here when I can...but hey, I have a good reason to be MIA right?!?

Oh & another thing. I took the LOGO or banner, which I posted on the side of my page "Blogging Without Obligation" because I feel the same way this girl does about blogging. As I'm sure some of you do. Please click on the link to the side of my page if you'd like to know what it means...and to grab a banner if you agree too!

I hope you all are doing well and I'll try to keep you updated but please remember I do believe in blogging without obligation...and I don't think anyone should feel like their blog is WORK, ya know?!? But my art is kinda my work right now, so I must get to it so I can maybe get my name & art out in the world...finally!

OK, I'll put the info HERE for you to check out if you don't wanna look to the side of my page. Adios for now friends.~

Oh & here's a Marilyn Manson song I really like from his new album. It's pretty rockin' even if the "S" word is in the title & said quite often through the song...

Garden, Roxy, & Art/Handmade stuff as Gifts

Hi peeps. This is a painting(s) I made recently titled "Garden." Not only did ROXY win my Sanrio Prize Pack, I also made her this painting. (And it was a surprise too!) I met her quite a while back on a message board/website and right away I knew she was pretty cool. We chatted about art quite often. Then when I made my blog, she was one of the first people to follow (though she is anonymous)...but she does leave her name when she comments-that helps. :)

Anyhow, she always gave me such nice comments about my art and asked many questions about it...and I LOVED that. She's one of the few peeps I know that seems genuinely interested in my art...{and ART in general-she knows what she's talking about!}. She also has a pretty good idea to what I'm trying to express with my art. (Though a lot of the times, I'm really just painting from my gut-is that possible?-and not thinking too deeply into it. But usually after her comments, I'm like "Hm, she's sorta right about that!")

So it was funny that she won the prize pack because she asked a while back if I would give her a postcard of my art for her b-day. Like I said, I don't get "commissions" (not that I've ever charged anyone for a painting, except at my one & only art show)...so I was very flattered that she asked me this. (What's the saying...flattery will get you everywhere! No, that's not really true here.) I just wanted to make her something for always being so sweet! And to let her know I appreciate her comments & to give her an early b-day gift.
^_^

So I got to work on this painting when I saw she was probably gonna be the winner of the prize pack. As I said in the post for the winner, she was only .25 cents off, so I knew it was gonna be her. And I did have a couple ideas for this painting...

I usually work with bigger canvas...16 x 20 atleast. And working with an 8 x 10 piece wasn't working, (EVE paints BIG!)...so I decided to break this piece in 2. Roxy told me some of her fave colors (she didn't know what I was gonna do...but I think she had a lil' bit of an idea)...and so I used them-blue (sky), purple (lilac), and green...

I also asked her "Butterfly or Flower?" She chose Butterfly. But I decided to use ALL my glue-on sparkly pieces instead cuz it seemed to "work" with the whole piece coming together...

So it ended up being like this. If you put it side by side, it matches up...and you can turn it inwards also (as I've tried to show above). However you'd like to display it really.

And there's things done on purpose. (Which progressed as I kept thinking what is the concpet here?) Like the flower being in three pieces (which I cut up)...butterfly two pieces...and dragonfly one. And the flower being in the green, dragonfly being in the blue, and hm...it's up to YOU to wonder why the butterfly is placed in purple in the middle-in half. Hmm....

Roxy said she really liked it and I'm SO glad. She even sent me a pic of her holding it, that made me smile! (And I never even seen a pic of her before today either!...and we've been chatting for quite a while!)...but she didn't want me to use it, & that's o.k. I understand cuz I am so unphotogenic in stuff (unless I take it or can change it). Just don't like cameras/video cameras/etc...!!! Booo...;}

Also...

...Roxy told me a lil' while back (when I posted this pic above when it was in-the-making) that I should just finish it up and give it to my therapist-whom it was being made for (and Roxy GOT what I was tring to say w/it too). I was weary on it at 1st 'cause I didn't think I could do anything else to make it better imo. But I took her advice and finished it the same couple of days I did hers. {Please click HERE to see the in-the-making piece that left me stumped on where to go next.}

The dragonfly helped a lot-1st off, it now covers up the glue spot that looked awful before. That dragonfly was the missing link to this piece...so I think it came out alright. I don't have a name for it yet but I don't think it needs one really. I'll see how I'll feel before I see her again. And that'll be next week. Hope she likes it!

My therapist is SO great, I couldn't ask for a more helpful & cooler one. And she has lots of art done by patients all over her walls...and she knows I like to paint. So she will be getting something from me to add to her wall, finally. (Oh & this is a smaller piece but it worked this time around.) Only took me a year to get on this...mainly because of what I will say below...

Only until recently did I start making art for people. I thought giving my art as a gift was weird for one MAIN reason...and that is-will this person like it? They can tell me everything they would like incorporated into a piece...and I can know their 'style' of stuff they like but in the end, it's still taking a BIG chance. Yet I know that whomever the person is (friend or family) that they would appreciate anything I'd make 'em.

I also appreciate any kind of art/handmade gift a friend/family member would give me because it's always the thought that counts, right!?! And usually those are the cooler gifts to get anyways. This has been true with my very talented & thoughtful friends Jennylee and Juno.

Darn, it's late...I gotta be ready to rock for the Kills concert tomorrow night...I mean TONIGHT. So I must get my beauty sleep, ha ha. Take care everyone & happy start-of-the-weekend. So glad it's here, it's been such a long week for me.
Adios for now curious ones.~