In This Belly of a Whale

I'm thinking of getting this dress, which makes me think of The Mariner's Revenge Song (which happens to be the inspiration for my next art project) by one of my all time favorite bands, The Decemberists, who I happen to be seeing live this February 13th, when I might be wearing this dress, possibly with linen and curls and lips parting like a flag all unfurled.

Resolutions and Such

I know making New Year's resolutions are considered trite to many people and I totally understand why. However, for the past few years I have made resolutions and I have been successful at following through with all of them. Needless to say, since resolutions are immensely beneficial to me, I've made a significant resolution for 2011.

My resolution for this year is to do something creative everyday of my life. While embracing art full force last year (after almost abandoning it entirely due to an emotional trauma in my late teens) I've learned that I absolutely need to be creative to be happy. Unfortunately, it's all too easy for me to slip out of a daily artistic routine without a deadline for a project. So by making this resolution, I've created a deadline for a completed project every day of my life. Now, I'm not completely insane. I've been liberal enough with my personal definition of a creative project so that it can mean anything from taking my camera on a walk and snapping some beautiful pictures, to writing a blog post, to completing a drawing. I hope to share more of these projects here and get over my fear that my artistic endeavors might not be good enough, whatever good enough even means.

Here's to a fabulous new year full of accomplishments! Wish me luck...

*photo of Caladium bicolor, by me

Hello Presents

I received some seriously amazing gifts this holiday. These two were my absolute favorites and literally brought tears to my eyes. In October, for our 4th anniversary, Josh and I went antiquing all over town and I fell in love with a set of four Portmeirion Botanic Garden Vintage canisters from the 70's. I mean the illustrations are simply stunning, how could I not. The whole set was over $100 and I just couldn't justify spending that much on something I didn't need. Well, I guess a few days after that Josh sneakily went back to the antique store and bought them for me for Christmas and hid them in his car the whole time. I was stunned and swept away. How sweet is that?!

The above two are my favorites. The colors are really lovely and I just adore the butterflies! Here's the whole set.

The other gift that meant the world to me was this set of Penguin clothbound books from my brother in-law. He picked these books out for me without even knowing that some are my favorite books of all time. The graphic covers are just stunning and the books look so pretty lined up together. 

So, did you have a favorite gift? Tell me about it...

Goodbye Christmas

This post is just a wee bit late, but with good excuse. I've been busy having too much fun over the holiday and doing a new blog post has been the last thing on my to do list. As I mentioned earlier this was the first year having our own real Christmas tree and I simply had a blast decorating it. Yeah, who knew this self proclaimed grinch could really get into the Christmas spirit this year. Like full on, I was even listening to and singing along to Christmas music while decorating and drinking hot cocoa with vegan marshmallows. Seriously, The Jackson 5 and The Beach Boys Christmas albums are the best Christmas music! I astounded myself. If past me came to the future this year and saw me, I think past me would have puked. Better late than never, I thought I would take some pictures this morning of my favorite ornaments on the tree before it all comes down. Can you tell I really like mushrooms?

* I made the butterfly terrarium ornaments using Amy Merrick's design*sponge tutorial from last year, found here. Aren't they super cute? I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and a happy new year!

Elly Mackay

Whilst being a virus-ridden internet addicted couch potato, I've just discovered the amazing and inspiring paper artist, Elly Mackay. Elly does drawings with what looks like ink and possibly watercolor (?) and cuts them out to make these absolutely stunning scenes. Recently, I've started cutting out my drawings to make collages and 3-D plant illustrations so finding Elly's work is truly inspiring, to say the least. She takes really lovely photographs of the paper scenes that she's created and sells prints in her etsy store, Theater Clouds. I know what I'm asking for for Christmas!

What To Do When Sick

So, I've been sick for a few days with bronchitis and stuck at home with no energy to really do anything other than sip soup and go online. While browsing online for images for my next art project I came across what could be the holy grail of inspiration, Vintage Printable. This site literally has thousands of vintage illustrations and images, including botanical and scientific illustrations, even vintage postage stamps, all available for free downloading. It's really too amazing for me to keep to myself and I just had to share. The best part of this whole deal is that almost all of the images are public domain! Below are some of my favorites so far, but literally these are just the tip of the iceberg. Check them out here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday with your loved ones. Josh and I are enjoying our vegan feasts and looking forward to a fun upcoming holiday season together (we got our first live full-sized Christmas tree this year and can't wait to start decorating!) I'm thankful to live on this beautiful planet, which hasn't yet been destroyed beyond repair. I'm thankful for my incredibly supportive family and friends and of course my one special guy who shares every day of my life with me and gives me almost anything I could ever ask for. Oh, and of course I'm thankful for my two little fur-babies, Lily and Misha, who make every day of my life a little sweeter and a little brighter!

Sweet Ólöf

The Blonde Redhead show was amazing, despite the two drunk and seriously annoying people standing next to us that were barely holding themselves up while screaming "Pink Love" at the band and spilling Bud Light on my Betsey Johnson dress.  

The opening act was the amazingly talented Icelandic singer Ólöf Arnalds, who I'm truly sad to say I had never heard of until the night of the show. We walked in as she was performing and I immediately melted as her sweet voice and delicate guitar strumming swarmed around the air. I bought her latest album Innudir Skinni on vinyl, which she graciously signed for me. Meeting her in person was definitely something to remember as she was quite enchanting and has an otherworldly beauty.

Blonde Redhead and Miranda July

I'm going to see one of my favorite bands, Blonde Redhead live this Sunday at The House of Blues downtown! I love this video starring Miranda July, who happens to be an amazing artist / filmmaker / writer. I highly recommend you read her hauntingly beautiful and slightly uncomfortable collection of short stories titled No One Belongs Here More Than You. *The website for the book is fantastic!
 

Happy Halloween Y'all!

Wowza! This post is long overdue. I do believe it's been a good few weeks since my last posting. I know, I'm a lame blogger. Anywho, to help make it up to you, here's a special Halloween present. This is Lizzie, my latest art project. The assignment was to create a monster not based on any preexisting monsters, so of course I had to create a plant based monster!  She's drawn on green canson paper with marker underlayering, ink and colored pencil, cut out and placed in one of my favorite aged terra cotta pots with reindeer moss. Lizzie's DNA is mostly comprised of the carnivorous plant genus Sarracenia (commonly known as the pitcher plant) as well as a little piranha DNA and some unknown, unidentifiable genes which could be alien. Her botanical name and mini biography are provided on the ID tag.  Hope you like!