Kitty Genius

SHOP UPDATE COMING!!

As promised, with the show comes a shop update. So on Thursday, August 2 at about 2 pm central standard time I am doing a shop update! If you don't know what time that is for you, you can check this handy website. Some of the paintings in the update are:

acrylic and ink on 8 x 8 hard canvas panel

Acrylic and ink on 6 × 8 hard canvas panel.

Acrylic and ink on 8 × 8 hard canvas panel.

My little "Worry Wart," acrylic and ink on 4 × 4 × ½ canvas. Please note that since this photo was taken she has indeed been signed and dated in the bottom right hand corner. And that she makes me laugh and a little sad :)

Tomorrow I shall return with "HELLO August". Seriously!?! I feel like I just listed HELLO July.

And in completely unrelated news I want to take the time to mention HOW AMAZING Ryan from Littleput Books is. I would gush and gush and then gush some more but I don't know if that would make her uncomfortable. The deleted post that some of you missed was just about finding someone in the Portland area to foster my sister's dogs for a bit. And this woman, despite not knowing her personally, has been amazing. I think it is so rare to find someone who creates such beautiful work with a personality to match. Ryan also has a wonderful blog that can be found right here. And might I add she is one of the top Etsy sellers (for good reason) and has a great top ten selling tips list on the sidebar of her blog.

Pretty amusing... which is something I need a bit of right now

So. I was thrilled when CCN wanted to use "HELLO May" as the image in one of their medical articles.

But, I was quite amused (just because I wasn't even thinking what the article would be about) to find out it was on HPV. Not to take away the seriousness of Human Papilloma Virus. Just something about the juxtaposition in my mind was a bit amusing.

Drew has been helping me sort the over 4000 messages in my inbox. Yup, 4000. And I have an excellent spam folder. So these are all good-old-fashioned-needing-or-mostly-having-received-responses emails. Actually, I consider myself very on top of my email. It comes in, I try to answer it – but I leave it in my inbox. And I'm discovering that is not the best solution. But email is overwhelming for me and many others and now considered by some to be the biggest time waster in modern society. At least in terms of making your work day faaaar less productive. So, for the rest of you out there who often feel a bit overwhelmed by the volume of email or feel so guilty and respond immediately to it, I wanted to point out these two links. Seriously, if you have a moment it is worth the read: this by Mike Davidson and The Low-Information Diet (you'll have to download the pdf on this one).

And lastly, if you find yourself writing VERY similar email again and again I HIGHLY recommend Text Expander. I am officially in love. And it has made a world of difference in my life. What really convinced me was this Merlin Mann podcast. I love you, Merlin Mann. I love you.

I have more to write on the subject of email and all that. But if you can, start with this. Will you be able to incorporate all aspects into your daily emailing life? Probably not. But it will at the very least make you feel less guilty.

Happy Sunday!

Oh yeah—I only have three messages in my inbox now!

oh and those other 3997 are archived in proper places to make it easier to access them. Not trashed :)

96 Hours or an Eternity

It's been really, really difficult for the last few days in ways and layers I can not even begin to explain. And I imagine it will continue to be so for awhile. I appreciate the support and have removed the previous post because I think we may have things under control. But again, I thank you.

Now let's switch gears entirely, shall we?

—Oh,really?

—Really.

—That's what he said.

—Unlikely.

—Sometimes I just feel like…

—I know.

—Marco

—Polo

So, these are more of the "conversation pieces" for my show! All the work is officially sent off to Gallery Revisited! It opens August 4th. That's so soon :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful, stress-free weekend. I would love to share a silly story or quip but I have none in me tonight. Talk to you wonderful folks soon.

Check It Out

This came as a nice little surprise today. You have to scroll a bit to the right but my beardy guys are on the Urban Outfitters blog!

And then there were more originals!

And there you have it… my day :) Hope yours was great. And sometimes the best kind of day is an uneventful one.

"HELLO July"... THE TATTOO!!!

A very freshly inked Kelli sent me over this amazing photo of her new tattoo!! She changed the colors a bit to match her daughter's nursery and I think she made a great color choice. Thank you so much for sharing, Kelli, and choosing my work for your tattoo!

Happy Sunday!!

Saturdaaaaaaay

I just rolled out of bed not so long ago (I decided to sleep in – we had a late night) after not one, not two, but three Isadora attacks. She has elaborate tactics if she thinks we've slept too long.

In painting news, this GIANT piece, "Conversations", is finished for the show.

It was difficult to get a great photo of it but it is 24" × 30" × 1½". It's acrylic, pencil, and vintage book pages on canvas.

And here is the post card for the upcoming show.

I actually won't be there in person but I do hope anyone in the LA area will stop by!

It's getting super close and there is still lots more work I'd like to finish up.

I've been in sort of a routine of wake up, work out (although that has happened less this month than I care to admit), then work work work and then late-ish needing to escape the apartment, so going out. Although last week at Trader Joe's, you know how I believe they force their workers (who are always truly VERY VERY nice) to chat you up or talk about at least one item that you're purchasing? Anyway, when he asked what we did over the weekend in earnest we told him this had been the most exciting thing we had done :)

Although on Thursday I went to an EtsyLou street team meeting. That is for all the St. Louis (and surrounding area) Etsyians to represent and discuss. It was really great to meet other Etsy ladies. And I've never been a part of a club before… wooo-hooo!

Oh, but this is pretty funny. So yesterday it was so lovely in the morning I gathered all my stuff and decided to go draw at my coffee shop and get some work done. Well, my mom came and met me up there a bit later and a furniture store in the neighborhood is moving and having a HUGE sale. So, while I'm working my mom walks down to look around and comes back and tells me that the bookshelf she wanted was marked down to super cheap. I was like, "The bookshelf you wanted? You mean the one I showed you and said I desperately wanted?" And she was like, "Uh huh." So I ran down there and sure enough it's still in pretty great condition (it's been there awhile) so I actually bought it!

Now, they told me delivery was $60, which in retrospect I should have said yes to, but I am so used to hauling things from thrift stores I was like, "Nooo, I can move it." I mean, Drew and I could almost walk it to our apartment. Almost. So, I go back to the coffee house and see the owner of the coffee shop. My opening line was, "You have a truck, right?" So he was kind enough to let Drew and I borrow his truck to pick up the shelf. Meanwhile, poor Drew is at home having no clue all of this is happening.

I come home holding this key and say, "I bought a bookshelf. We need to go pick it up because I have Patrick's truck." Long story short: the book shelf was very, very heavy and going up two flights of narrow stairs (which is really four, with the landings) was a bit more ambitious than I should have tried. "BUT I WANTED IT" was the only thing I could offer up. And every time Drew and I move something really heavy I swear we come closer to breaking up.

The bookshelf may be a bit more dinged up then if we had just paid the money, but it's here and it's glorious. I LOVE IT. Once it's set up I will take lots of photos. Currently it's just sort of blocking our door. But whatevs… it's mine now :)

Happy Saturday!!

On the Darker Side

Hello all. Seriously, July? Where did you go? As a kid I was such a pessimist I always thought after July 4th the summer was basically over. You'd start seeing school supply commercials and in the aisles of stores. But now I'm thinking July just goes REALLY fast. On a day as muggy and gross as this that's fine by me. I'm just waiting for you, October :)

And a big thanks for all the beardy love! I know there are still some available. So please feel free to keep the e-mail coming to Leora@galleryrevisited.com

In addition to prints there will also be original illustrations of bearded fellows. The illustrations are on canvas that has been digitally colored and then the original illustration is on top of that.

Peter

Donovan

Loren

Andrew

Burlington

Harold

Vincent

Martin

There should be a few more coming… In fact, that's what I'm off to work on right now. It's thiiiis much closer to Friday :)

Sometimes All You Need to Do to Celebrate is Pick Up a Tiara Off a Bathroom Floor

It's true. Leaving Blueberry Hill (where I used to work) I first visited the bathroom and, lo and behold, by the door was this glorious tiara! Now, I must interject and say don't judge me. Sure, it was in fact found on a bathroom floor and some other chick was wearing it before BUT my firm belief is that if it had been found on the other side of the door (i.e. not technically in the bathroom) no one would be as horrified :) Lucky for me none of that stuff bothers me. And an awesome found object is an awesome found object. Before leaving Blueberry I found it mandatory that Drew and I take photo booth pictures. Here are the fruits of our labor.

We normally try to tell a story through our photo booth pictures (me and the tiara I lost to Drew but then graciously accepted). But really, poor lighting and being a bit tipsy you just can't convey that :) It all turns into silly expressions.

And in other silly news, has anyone been to JC Penney lately? I never grew up going there. I never really understood it and basically it was completely off my radar. BUT they have an amazing bra section. I'm serious. I don't wear a crazy size I am just very particular in general and they had a huge selection of every size, shape, etc. under the sun. Sure, most of them fell into the more practical or sporty rather than cutesy-looking range but that is fine by me. And the best part is that you are left alone. Which is my most dreaded part about mall or department store shopping.

And ladies, if you are on the curvy side… the jeans… the glorious jeans. Did I have to sift through some crap? Yes. But overall I have never seen such an inexpensively priced store brand that was so well proportioned. I was just really impressed after getting past the slightly depressing atmosphere and preconceived notions. Although they were playing Modest Mouse and Mother Mother while I was there. Just saying… Give it a whirl when you're on that end of the mall one day :)

Bearded Guys For Sale

Here is the post, as promised! If you would like a little bearded guy in your hot little hands, here is how you can make that happen.

1. Check out this Flickr set and see which one strikes your fancy. Again, each one is $35. All the other info is with the picture.
2. E-mail Leora at leora@galleryrevisited.com and, being the super nice gallery owner that she is, she will help you get the one you want.

Easy, right? Each print is only an edition size of 10 so keep in mind that they may go quickly. You can always feel free to e-mail me with any other questions. But thanks so much again and I hope everyone gets the one they want!!

UPDATE:

First, a big hello to all of you who may be here from Design Sponge or Dooce!! And I wanted to let everyone know that Gallery Revisited is actually closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. But, please don't let that stop you from sending an email about the bearded guy you want. It may take a few days to hear back from the gallery, but I am sure the email will be handled in the order in which they came in. Thanks so much again!

The Last Of The Beardies

Here they are. The last four bearded guys.

I got such a kick out of "David" there are three versions of him. And there there is "Redbeard"

Before the real printing commenced we had all the test versions laid out.

They definitely make sense together and that makes me happier than anything else. And the size! I love their sizes! There are 19 bearded fellows in all and each will be in an edition size of 10. Each print is $35. I know I feel like I am leaking info about them slooowly but again I will do a post with a small photo and name of them all with the dimensions so those of you who are interested in contacting gallery revisited can have a super simple time getting exactly the one (or two!) you want. That post should be coming between now and Saturday :)

And see that shelf?

Yes, that's right. The smallish one above the desk. I have waited over a year before we actually got it up. The walls suck here. And can bear NO weight so it will be more decorative in nature. And store nothing more than 14 lbs. But that's okay. Sometimes after a print is created I just have to live with it for awhile and see what I think about it. So, this will be a nice spot for me to put the prints to just, well, stare at for a bit. God help us all once Isadora discovers the shelf :)

Oh, and all of these bearded fellows are digital prints. They are printed on archival velvet stock with archival pigment ink.