Business Cards!!!!

Yesterday I received these beauties in the mail. Aren't they lovely?! Sorry if the picture is a little blurry/dark. It's overcast here today and I just couldn't wait to share them with you. I ordered my cards from a company called Moo and they'll be the only folks I get my cards from here to eternity. The quality is amazing and the shipping was so fast. My favorite part of their website (if you're ordering cards) is that you can upload up to 50 designs per order. So far I have just the one design, but what a unique idea for the future!

Well, I'm off. I have to finish a new piece and begin working on another one. I'll try to post a preview later tomorrow for ya.

xoxoxoxoxo Jen

Well blog friends,

I haven't been very diligent in keeping up with the posting. Sorry about that, dear friends of mine. I'm sweeping away the cobwebs right now...

Tomorrow is going to be a crazy, exciting day for moi! I'm going to one of my bestest friends weddings AND the day after (Saturday) I am going to be in a super cool art show.

If you are in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN area you should stop by the ClapperClaw art exhibtion.
It's gonna be off the heezy, fo' sheezy.

In other great news I have finished a really awesome piece of art. I think it's my favorite to date.
Check 'er out!

xoxoxo Until we meet again.

Artsy Fartsy

I've got some great news! I'm going to be in the 3rd annual Clapperclaw arts and music festival. The event will take place in Minneapolis, MN so if you are in the area in September that's when it's goin' down. Yay! I will update when the event gets closer.

You're lucky if you're in Lucky!

Hey blog friends,

I sold 9 of my prints to Soo Visual Art Center! How awesome is that?! Suzy, the Executive Director, met with me and was so cool and supportive of me becoming a freelance illustrator. I am hopeful that someday in the near future I can support myself solely on my prints. What a thought!


I also wanted to mention that you can see my work in the August issue of Lucky magazine. I was contacted by Judy of Sundaybrunchdress.com via email today to let me know that her website was featured in the magazine. I was lucky enought to be the featured artist the month during the time they took pictures of her site...so badda bing badda BOOM! I'm in Lucky. What a serendipitous name for a magazine that puts a fledgling artist's work in their pages! I feel so.....well, lucky.

P.S. The print they show is my favorite of favorite prints, The Queen Beekeeper. Unfortunately, you can't see it via their website. I bought two copies of the actual magazine so far. It's on page 44.

Click on the above picture for a closer look at the page. Sorry my artwork is so fuzzy.... Check out the real deal at any place that sells Lucky magazine.

O happy day!

Today is a very exciting day for me. I was contacted by the lovely Soo Visual Arts Center here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I've been a long time follower of their store and site, so I was wonder- struck when their Director invited me to show her some of my work. Today is the day and I'm feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves.


Wish me luck!
I'll post later how the whole shebang went down....

peace out!

A Long Absence

Hey Blog Friends,

Sorry for the long absence. So many things have been happening to me lately. Most notably, I moved from one apartment in my building to another two floors down. Seems easy, right?! It should have been, but I had no idea how much stuff I've accumulated over the years!! It's insane!

Anyhoo, I also took a trip up north with my best friends. We just hung out and relaxed. Sooooo much fun. The hens in the picture were really friendly, surprisingly. Cute too.

Among work and the above activities my artwork has fallen to the wayside. However, I am going to work extra hard to finish this new piece I'm working on. Excelsior!


xoxoxoxox Jen

Thar' be treasure here!

What awesome-ness is this!? I have been featured in two lovely Etsy Treasuries today. How unexpected and exciting?

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. I feel guilty as all get out. I have good reason though...the real world is f**king with my ability to get creative and work lately. I'm also in the process of getting ready to move and I have the motivation of a sloth lately.

I wish I had more to add, but I don't really at this time.

Catch you later!

Greetings and salutations!

I've got exciting news to share! As of this morning I am June's "Featured Artist" on SundayBrunchDress.com! How awesome is that?! I have a little interview along with six of my illustrations.

For those of you who are new to my blog I would like to say thanks so much for taking time to see what I'm up to and hope you like what you see.

Please feel free to stop by my shop for updates and new artwork.


xoxoxoxo Jennifer

My diagonsis is monkey rabies...

Hey blog friends!

What a busy day for me! I've been organizing bills and trying to finish up my latest piece for sale on Etsy.
The biggest thing today was going to the doctor for the first time in two years. I don't particularly hate doctors or medicine. However, I feel anxious when I think about the possibility of getting a bizarre or life-threatening illness. I always imagine going to the doctor feeling fine and having them tell me I've got the Ebola virus or something equally disgusting. Fortunately, I was able to confirm I don't have the Black Plague or anything like that- yet.

I hope you all like the new painting. I think it's my favorite to date.

The KISS of DEATH

So I have creative block right now. It feels more like the kiss of death though...
I am anxious to start a new painting, but I'm lacking any good, solid ideas. I keep seeing Christmas themed stuff in my head which is kind of weird considering it's almost June. I guess nothing suggests "Holidays"more than humidity and girls in short shorts.

Uggh.


On another note, I came back from the Post Office today and saw a car crashed into the side of my apartment building. Crazy, huh? The woman driving apparently lost control of the vehicle, jumped the sidewalk and careened into a lamp post and street sign. The modest sized sedan was abruptly halted by a stubborn brick wall. Ouuuuch. She was perfectly fine though. I suspect a cell phone was involved in the accident.

I've posted a new print in the shop. It's actually the very first painting I did in photoshop for my store in January. Cray, huh? I didn't want to post it until I felt it was "finished". It always looked incomplete to me until today... That's what I find inspiring and frustrating about working in a digital medium- there's no point when you look at the "finished" piece and say, "Well, I've done all I can do". You can always go back and change something. Remove an element. Add more color to the face. If you're working with a traditional medium you can only do to much before you start to destory the integrity of the artwork, not so with Photoshop.

For me, it takes some restraint not to over emblish on the composition some times.

I'm starting to think of holiday items. I was having a dream about a girl exhaling warm breath in the cold. I got some pretty interesting visual ideas from that. It's a long time away, but I'm hoping to participate in the No Coast Craft-o-Rama in December of this year... We'll see if it happens.

Adios for now....

Twilight and Bees....oh my!

So I've neglected my illustrations lately....not without appropriate guilt though.
I've been caught up in a fever of reading. I have consumed all my spare time with devouring the Twilight series. I don't normally gush about books, and I was quite skeptical of Stephenie Meyer's series.... But the obviously curiosity got the better of me! I started reading the series on Monday and I'm almost finished with the third book today. It's way too addictive. Truly.

On a more art related topic....

I am currently working on a black widow inspired piece. It's coming along pretty well. I'm hoping the addition might increase sales a little bit. It may be up sometime next week (depending on my cravings to finish the Twilight series).

I'm also please to announce that I was contacted by Troy of http://buythisnow.tumblr.com/ He came across the Queen Beekeeper on Etsy and is going to feature it today at 3 p.m. Very exciting stuff. Hopefully it brings new traffic to my little corner of Etsy!

Thanks so much Troy! You rock.

...that's it for now.....

Fashion with a Twist

I have exciting news to share today!

Last night I was checking my Etsy email when I saw a message from a Judykou. This particular Etsy member has a website called Sundaybrunchdress.com The website sells beautiful designer dresses which she likes to feature with a new illustrator each month. She does an excellent job of pairing dresses in her shop to the illustrators she selects and lo and behold she took a fancy to me!

I am potentially going to be the featured artist for May or June....fingers crossed. I will definitely keep you all posted for more news to come.

In other news I'm starting a new illustration. Having only 5 prints available in my shop feels a little sparse to me. I'm hoping to offer one more illustration by the end of April and many more in the months to come.

O Ye of Little Faith...

So I was feeling a little down yesterday. I knew that my shop wasn't going to be an instant success, but I couldn't suppress my desire for exactly that. I suppose it's only natural though. I have been scheming and making artwork on my computer for this Etsy shop for some time now....

Part of my motivation has been to imagine great success, which for me involves have 1,000+ sales, traveling to different indie craft fairs and quitting my day job to do art full-time. It's a nice dream to reflect on (especially when your day isn't going so well).

So today when I opened my Etsy account I saw something that caught my eye....it was an email (a.ka. conversation) from jensiedesigns . She wanted to let me know how much she liked my work :) In that little message I felt all my doubt and negative thoughts about slow beginnings disapper....it was just the thing I needed.

I stronly advise you take a gander at what Jensie Designs has to offer.

Right now I'm going to perpare a new listing and do a little self-promoting...

Yeah!

Hopefully I'll have my first sale soon. Fingers crossed.

It's HERE!

Hey, I have four minutes before I dash out the door for work. I wanted to let my 2 followers (and any other fortunate peoples) know that I've got my Etsy shop up and running!!!!


Come check me out

Bloggiddty blog blog blog!

So I have lots of good happy news type- stuff to share. First, I have received almost all of my supplies for the Etsy shop I'm creating. The only thing I'm waiting on is the 8.5x11 Hahnemuehle paper I ordered. I suppose that's kind of important. Most people prefer their art prints on paper, right? I suppose taped together receipt paper wouldn't be appropriate...or McDonald's napkins. I guess I'll wait for the art paper then.

On another paper-related note I just finished another digital work of art. I had a lot of fun looking for photos on corbis and google image search for researching ideas. I've uploaded a few to share. It's very amusing to me that women's bathing suits were measured by police back in the 20's. Considering what women AND men wear today I think those old Victorian whoddy-whoos's would have an on-the-spot anursium from the likes of Christina Agularia.

Dirty up n' huuuurr!

It Begins...

So I FINALLY bought supplies for my Etsy shop today. It's a pretty short shopping list but the grand total I spent was a little on the pricey side. I'm telling myself it's worth it though. To stand out you need interesting work AND quality materials, right? I spent some time researching which type of art paper would be best for printing my artwork on. The company "Hahnemuhle" kept coming up in my research so I took the plunge and bought 20 sheets off Amazon.com.

Now I'm waiting in anticipation and doing my best to imagine when and what my first sale will be.
For now I've got to get ready to work so that's all I got....

Man against Machine

So yesterday evening I had a mini-heart attack. Yeah..... It was crazy. I came home from a friend's house and the first thing I do when I get home is take my computer off "stand-by" mode. I don't usually like turning off my PC because I'm almost always working on something in Photoshop and I don't like the "interruption". Anyway, my Wacom pad wasn't working, which can be fixed by restarting my computer 99% of the time. However, when it rebooted this time it would only show a blank screen. Ugggh. I hard restarted my computer 7 more times with the same results.

Like any person who has defunct equipment I mashed my keyboard a bunch of times and pleaded with my monitor to be nice to me.....this never works but it's the closest I'll ever come to being technically savvy.

At this point I was loosing it. If my computer never restarts I loose EVERYTHING I've worked so hard to create. Scenes from the episode of 'Sex and the City' where Carrie gets a "Sad Mac" virus swirl in my head. I know I would feel equally devasted as her character. Unlike her, however, I do have some images backed-up on a flash drive. This fact doesn't make me happy though. There are still plenty more images yet to be saved.....

To make a long story short, the computer finally let's me reboot (probably feeling sorry for me).
I'm a changed woman too. I promise that I will go out today and buy a flash drive to "back-up" all my work.

The moral of this story is don't think you're computer will love you forever. Soon it will start to resent you and act out. Protect yourself-before it's too late!!! mmmmwwwwahhhhh ha ha ha.

2001: Space Odessey, anyone?

Phrenology

So this latest piece I'm working on was inspired by the out-dated use of "Phrenology". In a nutshell scientist believed that you could determine what type of person you were by studying the bumps on your head. Each area of the head indicated a different aspect of your personality. For example, one of the images I came across showed language behind the left eye. Benevolence, wonder and wit were some of the other traits localized to that side of the noggin.

And you thought Phrenology was just the title of another Roots album! Psssht!

This "scientific method" was very popular in the 19th century, much like blood letting to cure sickness and drowning supposed witches in centuries past. It kind of makes me wonder what philosophies and scientific beliefs will be dispelled in years and decades to come. Any guesses from the peanut gallery?

I'm still waiting to purchase art paper and packaging supplies. Looks like I mis-read my pay date information. I checked my bank account today. It still looks anemic and on the verge of collapse. Nothin' new there. On the up side I finally did my taxes and the return and pay day should coincide nicely. Then I can buy supplies! I can't wait!!! Seriously, I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas Day.

Now I am off to start another project.

Here is the Photoshop painting I just finished today. I may still *tweek* it before it is officially finished....

Baby Steps...

Today I'm taking a bold(ish) move towards becoming a professional artist. I've created 4 pieces so far that I am interested in selling (with more to come). I just purchased a great printer that produces photo-quality prints and I'm going to be buying paper and shipping supplies with my next paycheck.

I've been using all my free time outside of work and new episodes of LOST to create art work on my computer. As clichéd as it sounds, I've wanted to be a professional artist for as long as I can remember. Insecurities, life and general f*cking up have "delayed" this dream. However, I am feeling pretty good about the prospects these days. I'm going to be setting up a Etsy account and promote the crap out of my prints as soon as above supplies are purchased. Setting up this blog and unveiling the first of my works are the first baby steps towards accomplishing this dream.

Time will tell if I am successful. Even if this remains a hobby I'm feeling very fulfilled by expressing all the little ideas that pass thru my imagination. Yesterday I thought of a Pandora's Box theme. ....I'll be starting that some time tonight I'm guessing.