Kitty Genius

The First Half Of The Week

"Hippo?"
"Bear?"
"Bird?"

These are the three little paintings going to Thinkspace for The Picks Of The Harvest show. They are all 4 x 6 x 1 1/2. They look like little bricks.

And back to the dresses. So these are the the two I decided on. This from Old Navy.

and this from Target. They are both simple simple simple which was the goal. And the target one is online only and I have yet to receive it so I'll see how that is when it when it arrives. And I will be wearing tee shirts under both of them for sure. The one from Old Navy seems a little fancier so that may be for "fancier occasions". My favorite part is that they both have adjustable straps. I don't understand when things like this don't have those. I think every girl has put something on and asked "who is this cut for"? Too high, too low, too something. 

Oh and a new online magazine was just launched. Small.

and you can find an interview with me here. I am quite flattered to be a part of the first issue. I really don't know a lot about online magazines but I love how much this one feels like an actual magazine. The photos, the interviews, the art, the products. I don't have kids and still enjoyed it thoroughly. Have a look-see!

Why The F*ck Is It So Hot Out?

"And Then There Were Three," now in the shop. This print is smaller than the others and is on a completely white background and is hands down my favorite print. This kind of simplicity makes me happy. I wish it translated a little better in the online version.

"Welcome" will be in the shop very soon. It is 5 1/2" × 8 1/2". I thought it would make a nice housewarming gift, or just a nice gift to your own house :)

Jesus. Here in the STL it is 80 degrees. 80! And humid and bright and feels hotter than that. I broke down and went to the mall looking for some breezy dresses. I found other stuff, but no dresses I really liked. Well, no, I saw dresses I like, but not ones I would actually wear.

And I love love love other girls in dresses, but never for me. But I am not going to play around with this heat. So, right now I am wearing a dress! And if feels like pajamas and wonderful. My only compromise is that I am still am wearing lightweight capri pants under it. I am far too unladylike to wear a dress all alone.

I went looking for this shirt. But of course, it just got there and was already sold out. And I just refuse to trust Urban Outfitters stuff without seeing it in person. Cute? Yes. Crappy material? Usually, also yes. I could write a book on my hate of what are, basically, disposable clothes. Which most are, at the mall. And not cheap. I am so so so beyond infinitely happy that fashion has moved over the last few years towards looseness, or at least playing with proportion a lot more. And all hail higher waistlines!! But I digress…

I also got these:

Only $10 and really really cute over at the Nordstrom junior's department. Of course they aren't online yet (or maybe ever). My ears are quite sensitive, so if cheapy-but-cute earrings bother me, I just get out my handy needle nosed pliers and swap out the crappy components for sterling silver ones.

I also bought shoes but was so frustrated with the mall at this point I only tried on the right one and was like "fine, sold". But, idiot that I am, the one time I don't try on the left shoe it fits completely differently than the right. The shoes are canvas and $24, so granted how much can I expect but one is stretched out completely differently. I tried to convince my sister to go to the mall with me and she said "absolutely not". I hate shopping lately. Maybe it's in the genes?

Off to Velocity

Our landlord semi-surprised our building with new windows. Which I am thrilled with for saving on electricity, but I was initially sort of sad that they weren't going to be white. Once they were installed I got over it pretty quickly. I really like the contrast they add and, I won't have to suffer in the sweltering heat of the summer and the bitter cold of the winter while watching TV/working in the sunroom.

They just finished today and I can open ALL of my windows!! Before, several were painted shut with years and layers of paint. And others had no screens, just the storm windows. Oh, I'm sooooo excited to have each and every one of our 18 (that's a lot of windows for an apartment) open!

And these paintings along with all the ones from the last post are headed to Velocity.

It Can Be a Burden - 10" × 10" × 3/4" - Acrylic, ink, pencil, and vintage book pages on canvas

Tweet - 8" × 8" × 3/4" - Acrylic, ink, pencil, and vintage book pages on canvas

A Lot Going On - 8" × 8" × 3/4" - Acrylic, ink, pencil, and vintage book pages on canvas

A Bit Humbled - 8" × 8" × 3/4" - Acrylic, ink, pencil, and vintage book pages on canvas

Today we've been coloring two more prints that I am excited about. And doing some test printing. And laundry (blah).

But you know, sometimes, even in the middle of a work day, you have to stop and appreciate the small, very cute things.

My little Isadora is going to be seven in May. And she still looks and acts sooo much like a kitten. She's just my favorite thing. I would LOVE to have another cat or a smallish dog but my little Iz is not herself when other animals are around. She gets a little freaked out and stops being cuddly. And I'm not just talking about initially—I mean she has lived with other animals for over three years and is just a weird version of herself. I would miss that too much. Unless I really fell in love with another animal. Which sometimes just happens.

Can't See The Forest For...

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm going to keep this one a shortie. But a new print has arrived in the shop! "Can't See The Forest For The..." is a big print at 13 x 19 with actual image size 11 3/4 x 15 1/2.

I'll be back tomorrow with some more paintings and some more words!

Must... Be... Outside

Three new paintings and one illustration. The illustration is for my upcoming show and is on the coffee-dyed paper.

I have to run out the door to see meet my best friend Loren. I am seeing her new place for the first time, even though she's been there for a while. I kept telling her how weird it was when we talk on the phone and she's in her kitchen, and I don't know what her kitchen looks like. She may also cut Drew's hair, but I like his hair longish. I glance over him with his hair and think, "oh, he's so cute". And not that I wouldn't think that with shorter hair, I'm just feeling sad to think of it gone. But that's his way—grow it out until he can't stand it, then chop it all off.

And I desperately need to do something with my hair. My bangs have grown out, my hair has grown out. I normally just take kitchen scissors to it, but I want it in a better style which means real haircut. I'm sure I will keep it long—I just need layers or something. I don't do much to my hair because I know I cannot maintain it. I have actually never even dyed my hair, which I know is strange. Once when I was 16, I let Loren put temporary color in my hair, but it all came off on my pillowcase, and I kept saying I looked like Tai in Clueless… so, yeah. Not so good, and I would be that person with roots grown out to there. So, probably no hair color until I'm gray.

Ok… running late. Leaving now. :) Happy Wednesday!

Big Print And Paper Dyeing

Ta da!! A LARGE version of "For The Birds" has arrived in the shop! This is a photo we took after popping into an IKEA Ribba frame. A few months ago a very kind customer pointed out to me that my smaller prints (8 1/2 x 11) fit nicely in the smaller Ribba frame and same goes for the larger print and larger frame. And it comes with the handy matte. We unknowingly bought this frame over the summer when we were in Chicago. We liked the frame and it was affordable and today it has a purpose :)

And last week I had a lovely time dyeing lots of paper with coffee for my upcoming show with Lisa and Penelope at artstream. Now that they are dried and flattened, etc. etc. I can show you.

There's a ton more, but you know, they all sort of look like this. I'm excited to mix it up and work on paper. I have spent a lot of time (like tonight) working on canvas (even if it's paper covered) I miss working on just good old paper. It's my favorite.

And most importantly, are you enjoying the weather? It's lovely (maybe a little too bright here) but it's nice to have the windows open at night. I hope if you don't have that yet, you'll have it soon.

Bird People

10 x 10 x .75 acrylic, ink, and vintage book pages on canvas

8" x 8" x 3/4" acrylic, ink, and vintage book pages on canvas

Busy, busy, busy. Ran to the art store where we encountered some rogue Girl Scouts and couldn't resist some Thin Mints and Tagalongs... mmmm.

Now back at home working in front of--dare I say it?--cable TV!!!! I broke my "no cable until I have health insurance" rule. But only because a huge increase in my good old internet made it a better deal to get faster internet and every cable station under the sun. I have never had cable before. Frankly, I am afraid of the remote and afraid of what will become of me. I am trying to tell myself that I will not watch more TV, just better TV, but I think we all know that's a lie, and one I am happy to live with. :)

And I am trying to take a bit of a computer break for a few days to get some real work done. So, if you've written me an email and by chance I haven't responded it's only because of that. I received a few very nice "conversations" through etsy that I need to respond to... soon :)

New Paintings

Hallo? 10 x 10 x .75

Hej? 8 x 8 x .75

Bonjour? 8 x 8 x .75

Ciao? 8 x 8 x .75

These four paintings will soon be here. They are all in the theme of the original Hola.

And thank you thank you thank you for all the kind wishes and words of encouragement for drew and me. I certainly feel "if we can do it..." so I hope it does give some of you out there a bit of encouragement. We live pretty small but comfortably and having more time to spend they way we want is just going to be the best. We are just finding our groove right now. I'm having a bit of trouble letting Drew take over the packaging and addressing. After almost a year of living, breathing packaging and the post office it's hard to let that go. Even though it is my most dreaded part of the job. And he doesn't mind it a bit. We also printed our first large print (13 x 19) of For The Birds which we hope to have available in the shop pretty soon. It looks AMAZING. So I am beyond thrilled. We're waiting for ups to arrive with some samples of tubes before we list the print.

I love my UPS guy. And I have an equally intense  hate for Charter, my internet service provider. So I have to call them again today and end up in a pile of tears and rage as I did the other day and the time before that when I called and the time before that. The utter incompetence and HORRIBLE customer service and overall lack of caring is like nothing I have every ever experienced in my life. I just can't even understand it. But you know...

RIDICULOUS

I have been gone visiting a strange and distant land called Etsy forums. Etsy released their version of a site "constitution" stating policy changes and guidelines and, well, everyone had an opinion. There were some issues initially with prints... which turned out to be nothing, but it was a very tense two or three days for me and a lot of other sellers. I am not one to write in any type of forum but I got all my ya-yas out once and for all.

The worst part of being soooo consumed with this is that I did nothing else. I was not productive. I did not read any blogs, magazines, or books for a few days. And to everyone in the last post with all the mention of the animals: Oh, now I must reread and laugh and smile and I'm sure agree.

And on top of everything else Friday was Drew's OFFICIAL LAST DAY of his day job!!! There will be freelancing at home for him, I'm sure, but now we are a full-time two-person operation. It was months in the making and a big decision. Obviously, we have both always wanted to be self employed. And we felt as though we hit a critical mass. We could continue having barely any free time, and working or talking about working all the time, or Drew could quit his full-time job, take on more of the administrative and packaging ends our little business, and seek out more projects. We have been very lucky so far that everything we have done so far has more or less come to us, and now I would like to go after more things. But I was getting to the point that I had to turn opportunities down because I just didn't have the time to create and deal with the business end of things. And obviously, when I think about what I want out of life, spending time with people I love and enjoy is obviously a huge part of how I define my happiness. And to create a situation where that is possible is a dream come true.

I am practical by nature. I love Drew, but we still had to discuss all the "what ifs" of this new work situation. But I think that's the only way to do it.

And last night we... uh... hmm... celebrated. I am not much of a drinker. I didn't, period, before I worked at a bar. Usually two Jamesons is my absolute limit. But last night I saw old coworkers and was enjoying the fact that we could stay up late on a "school night" and, well, now I have my first ever hangover. ggguuuuuuuhh. I am not functioning at all. I hate wasting most of this day and I think whiskey will not be in my future for quite some time. Really I feel ill. There was a banana smoothie and a bagel and then more sleeping. Tomorrow things will feel like normal again... but tonight maybe some painting and staring off into space. And of course being happy that my Drew is here.

For the Birds

You can find this new print 'For the Birds' in the shop!

It is indeed March 1st however you will notice this print is not HELLO March. The HELLO series had to take a little break this month. There are several reasons. I've been super super busy and the print I had for HELLO March after several hours of trying to color it and nothing quite feeling right we had to concede. It just didn't have the right feel. I would love to say it will make a late appearance but honestly I don't know. I do LOVE what the HELLO series is about so print or no print I have chosen the Humane Society Of Missouri (once again) for my March charity. And I will soon sending $100 to the Rolling Dog Ranch from HELLO February.

In everything I've been doing lately these little bird people have been appearing so I thought it about time for a print of them. With these birds I feel like they very me. It makes me feel like I'm hitting a zone for a bit that will be fun to explore. Rarely do I consider my people fully people so any animal/monster combination usually feels pretty me.

Haven't you been with friends and discussed what animal you'd be if you were animal? Not what you would chose to be but what you sort of resemble. I couldn't decide couldn't decide but then I settled that Drew, Isadora (yes, I am aware that she is already a cat and possibly a fat baby seal), and I would be owls. 

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

These pictures might not make it perfectly clear but it's true...Think about it. What would you be?