Cones: A brief tale

A new drawing borne from a walk-turned-collecting opportunity, a newish pack of markers begging to be used, and a subconscious palette inspiration.

On being a fan of Weeds

Hey look! You can download this image here

As I've been reading up on herbs and their uses, I've realized just how many weedy plants in the yard are actually medicinal.  After the initial feeling of astonishment passes, the same thought runs through my head each time, "They're weeds only if you don't know how to use them." That one thought and a little series of drawings was born.

Early spring flowers are already peeking up through the soil. I read an old bit of farm lore yesterday: When you see daffodils starting to bloom, it's time to sow your peas. I'm still wary of the 2 months of frost we have, but maybe I'll try it out.
{And yes, I'm aware there isn't a daffodil to be seen in this drawing, but I thought it was spring-y.}

two turkey tales

We're suddenly smack dab in the middle of sling your wares, make some money, it's that Holly Jolly Holiday buying time of year! As such, Wolfie & the Sneak are getting ready for 2 upcoming craft shows. They've also figured out a way to part the whirling seas (aka giant chasm) of time, somehow creating room for more time and the opportunity to get around to a few ideas that have been mulling around in our brains. Exhibit A? Hand Turkey place mats! I mean really, what's more fun than doodling over dinner?

Next up is a new print from an original drawing based on this photo by talented photographer Don Blecha. It's a Florida wild turkey (also know as Osceola wild turkey). I started drawing this piece and it ended up much more like the original than I'd expected. Although I took some liberties with the feathers and didn't try to do a photo-realistic bird, the further into the process I got, the more C and I felt like we needed to get an okay from the photographer to ever sell a print based on his original. I sent a quick email to Don and got a speedy response. We came to an agreement, finished the print and put it in the shop!

There you have it: 2 turkeys, 2 tales and a whole lotta fowl.

new stuff!

We have a few new little goodies in the shop! A correspondence set to make the combination of thank you notes + kids a lot easier on their parents this holiday season. {Actually, who am I kidding? I need a lot of help getting my own thank you notes out the door!} The other correspondence set is a set of 6 Color it Yourself bears with scented markers. Sound familiar? These guys are a variation on one of our first products, and we're so excited to have them back!

Sunshine and honeysuckle

See? I told you I had some drawings in the work--a pretty little bit of California honeysuckle for your Thursday morning? It's a west coast native, our east coast counterpart is coral honeysuckle, but for the purpose of this illustration {and it's other use, a project still in the works} I liked the form of the California flowers better.

Later today the kid and I are going to pick as many green beans as we can. I have a friend who is so tired of green beans he's just abandoned the picking--dilly beans and pressure canning are in my near future.

You know what else is in my near future? Homegrown, fresh field peas. "H" to the ellz yeah!

representative of who I am

As my interest in food (fresh and pure), art, and the activism innate to both intertwine with more complexity every day, I often wonder what that means as far as the direction of my art. I feel like my work needs to be representative of who I am; at least, that's the type of art that I keeps me most self-assured.

The thing is, there are lots of people with similar styles and that makes me question my originality. Enter Communal Table. A zine cookbook with illustrations so awesome they make me want to just go ahead and give up now.

party. travel. travel. party.

Hopefully I'm just fashionably late for the party, not missed the boat late, but I just joined GoodReads.


I haven't done anything with my account yet, but hopefully I'll remember to. I need to look back into that other site that was a book trade sight. . .hmmm. I don't even remember what that one was called.

Yellow Canoe has a new design coming out and I'm already eying one for my parent's beach house. Then there's this $12.50 necklace that I'm drooling over, and the price is undeniably good. Snap it up? Ack! Deep questioning over needs and wants ensues.

El Gato Dice Meow is too much for this senorita to handle.

Crappity crap, got to get back on the no buy bandwagon.



Speaking of impossible, this weekend is the Indie Craft Experience, one of the best craft shows in the Southeast--no joke. If you can, come out and say, "Hi!" and just try to not buy anything, I dare you.
This is one of those shows where I purposefully try to stay in my booth the whole time or I'll end up spending all of the profits and gas money home. Yes. It's that good.

Still don't believe me? Wolfie and the Sneak (below right) will be parked right next to Jess Gonacha (below left)--we're a double doozy of eye candy for your wall. Buy something from both of us, 'cause our work was born to hang together. (get it? ok, sorry, that was a bad pun.)

Isn't it wonderful how dreams can change so seamlessly. Usually it's in hindsight we remember what we were and what we've become.

When I was a little kid I played with my Barbies and played house, made mud pie and acorn stew. I thought I would never be 5 feet tall (and along with that thought I could be a professional jockey) and that all 18 year old girls actually looked like Barbie and went to the prom in a limo.

Now I wonder why I had those thoughts and dreams, how they've changed and how my home isn't the archetype, but it is absolutely heaven. I surpassed 60 inches when I was in junior high, maintained my brown hair and less curvaceous figure, and went to my junior prom with a guy who had a crush on my best friend. I totally skipped out on senior prom.
It all looks so different in the distance.

By now we've all come to realize the impossibility of originality, right? {my thoughts, another instance by Stephanie DosReis, Abigail Percy's recent post}
It's a concept that needs continual dialogue. It's important to recognize the individual artistic fingerprint, I believe. But I wonder, how we can each maintain our place and voice without seemingly copying?

This morning on flickr, I saw an uncannily familiar piece, by the very talented and popular Cecilia Levy. Or what about when you do a piece and find a close match elsewhere later, by a much more popular person? Does this happen to anyone else out there, and do you feel like I do once you stumble upon the other image?

{I feel like an impostor. Like I was singing with my own voice, only to find out I was lip synching all along, despite knowing I wasn't in the slightest informed of those pieces. Like despite my own previous body of work, in relation to the popularity of others I don't have the right to the imagery of my interests and imagination.}

another meandering down the trail of life

I am still fairly in shock about Vince and Jeff. Vince's funeral is today, as is the first trial for the shooter. He was mad because he was fired.

He. was. mad. because. he. was. fired. from. a. $7.50 an hour. job.
The reality is still just sinking in, I was a "regular" at the restaurant. I joked around with those guys. Vince knew my name. He knew random bits of things about me.
We weren't close friends, but we were more than acquaintances. And this guy, this guy that for whatever reason was fired, just couldn't handle that?!? It doesn't even begin to make sense.
That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

The weekend was full of quite times, working on drawings and sewing. Probably a little too much thinking time. But I worked, I absorbed this experience that was just that much closer to home than I'd like. I tried to fathom. Fathoming won't happen.
These pics are all from the last week, this creative storm that takes over as the fall shows start. Again, that particular storm prohibits house work. So the house. . .it's messier, if anything. Still telling myself I'll get to it one day.

{misc}

Just in case you haven't heard (I'm not sure that's possible, though) the poppytalkhandmade market is live as of this morning. I'm in gallery 67 if you want to check it out! Most of you already know what my work is like, though, so I strongly urge you to check out the work there. It blew me away and simultaneously flattered me that I could be a part of such an incredible group of artists and craftpersons.

This print, by Birdie1973, is both adorable and affordable: $20!

Since one of this blogs namesakes is my full-grown puppy, Wolfgang, I feel it would be wrong not to mention Trisha Comb's new shop: Bill Pickles Dog Co.

They sound delicious enough for people to eat (yogurt and carob?!?! YUM!) and the packaging is beautiful! I say, it's about time the canine world had something that tastes good with good design taste!I have serious amounts of pics to upload, but between preparing for shows and, well, preparing for shows, my time has been limited. The house is still on hold, and the mister is being quite patient as I whirl like a creative hurricane through each room, making, making and making more, leaving markers, frayed remnants of fabric, and minuscule paper bits in my path.

I do have (insert drum roll) a sneak peak of the 2008 calendar, though! I'm very excited, so check it out! They are now available for preorder, get on the list today!!

I'm giddy. I knew about this mention a bit in advance, but as I've said before, I don't believe everything I hear. Usually I like to wait things out and see how they go, this time was no different. And you know, it's not that I didn't believe Holly would do it, it's more of a superstitious fear of jinxing myself, so I kept my mouth shut and then yesterday it went live.


For the occasion, I made an updated slideshow of screen shots found on the internet for Wolfie and the Sneak. View slideshow

Thanks Holly!

Fall is my season. I love it. Yesterday Fall Fever hit hard (as did the monthly cramps) so I did some playing around on photoshop and made 2 new prints in 3 colors and 2 sizes! You can see them in their full glory on my flickr page. Despite all the hell my printer was giving me yesterday as I prepared my Sampler contribution, the saturation it printed for these renewed my faith in Canon. Some lucky Sampler Media Pack subscribers will be getting one of these prints. Other Sampler subscribers will be receiving an Official Wolfie and the Sneak Pen Pal Kit.
You want one, you say? Subscribe to the newsletter and send your address to nobiting @ gmail . com and we'll send one out to ya! We always always always pinky swear no sharing of your info, and promise not to abuse the power of information.

today's word is an easy one, sorry

virtuoso \ver-choo-OH-soh\ noun

1 : one skilled in or having a taste for the fine arts
*2 : one who excels in the technique of an art;
3 : a person who has great skill at some endeavor

I wish I were a redecorating virtuoso. *sigh* Today's word really has no relation to the rest of this post. Seriously. Just a coincidence, my ego is still small (tiny, actually, C can verify this with all the annoying affirmations I ask from him).

Drum roll, please! The ever-growing-lovelier-by-the-second-for-using-one-of-my-pieces Grace of design*sponge fame wrote about Pink and Black on the etsy Storque.

and one of several little drawings I did last night while boggling my own mind with thoughts about super string theory. What a perfect theory of molecules for a fibers major such as I was in University. The idea itself makes me pretty happy.
I consider it the Rock Star of science, and this is my gig poster.

Benign

benign \bih-NYNE\ adjective

*1 : of a gentle disposition : gracious

2 a : showing kindness and gentleness b : favorable, wholesome

3 a : of a mild type or character that does not threaten health or life; especially : not becoming
cancerous b : having no significant effect : harmless
(definition from Webster's dictionary, online version)

I don't know if the pattern in this image will stir the same visual memory as it does for me, but the petal-like gray and green pattern was drawn from the diagram depicting cancerous cells at my OB-GYN's office. They were simultaneously stirring for obvious reasons and beautifully reminiscent of chrysanthemum petals.

My grandmom died In September of 1999, not from cancer, thankfully, but from other health complications. While her writing is on this particular piece, the piece is as much an ode to both of my grandmothers. My mom's mom, my MeMa, did die of breast cancer, so when the question is asked at the doctor's office, I say yes, knowing somewhere in my genes I may be predisposed to those petal-like spreading monsters.

I don't mind, I can take all the precautions in the world, but everything has it's own way.

My connection with these matriarchal figures is deep, since I never knew either grandfather. In all reality, my mom's mom died while I was still very young, but these women are the farthest extent of my background. I often feel "ethnically identity-less" as a white woman, no deep traditions to pass forward, just a blank history. My "heritage" comes from what I can gather of these women and their rich personal histories. With generation gaps and limited communication, I won't ever really know everything, but the small traces and shadows delineate their lives as I catalogue the benign remnants.

I'm on vacation this week, although my vacations seem to be when I'm commissioned to make something, so it's not entirely a vacation.
However, making things + money = one of my favorite things to have the chance to do in life, so I'm very grateful!
Why am I on the computer, you wonder? Well, I seem to be glued to Poppy Talk, since the Poppy/Sneak giveaway started! All you have to do is comment on the post with a link to your favorite design/crafty blog and you're entered to win. The lovely Jan will draw a winner on Friday and you'll receive the first (from a run of 10) print from my newest drawing!
Other things I love? Obviously, giving things away!! I love giving gifts! I also love Cole Gerst's art, which is dangerously close to mine in the left corner, and I'm secretly hoping they'll get their paper-booties on and make colorful little art prints of their own. *sigh*
Okay, time to turn the computer off, enjoy the eerily loud-this-year cicadas, and finish the bathroom project.

Just when the heat made everything so much harder, someone came in with a dumptruck load of ghosts to drop on my shoulders.
I'm strong enough to handle it, but my heart still aches from the strain a little.

I'm ready for a swim, where the water supports me for a little while and I can cool off from the heat.

All in one easy to swallow caplet

There is no hiding the glory of good design. And a good design deal?? Waaaaay better. In fact, it just might be a daily dose of something you've been missing: Vitamin D.

Let Jaime of Design-Milk give you the antidote to the malnourished world of good design.
Remember those Legna tea light holders I mentioned? They've got 'em!


A design mantra to live by? They give you the option to wear it proud!
And, of course, my favorite: me! They've got me, not only by the heartstrings, but if you were wondering about the Tillandsia poster I showed a couple days ago, you can only get it through proper Vitamin D absorption.

Though far beyond my price range, this painting is mesmerizing.

From etsy seller Sue Beyer.