Alice and Dina(h)
8×10 print

After many late nights in the studio, my Alice in Wonderland series of paintings is, though not quite finished, coming along swimmingly. I’ve released all 3 of the portraits (in progress here) featuring Alice and Dinah, the Mad Hatter and the Duchess. Unfortunately, I spelled “Dinah” without the “h” in my painting. Whoops! It’s such an odd mistake because my default spelling is always the long version of…pretty much everything. I double-checked my sketchbook and the original sketch has it spelled “Dina”. I’m not sure why, but I do remember looking at the sketch once I started painting and assuming it was spelled like that on purpose – as in, I’d *consulted* the Alice in Wonderland book that’s been sitting on my desk for the last 3 months! Gah!

I do plan on fixing the spelling, but that will have to wait until after my trip. Did I mention the mister and I are going to Seattle? And then Portland? And then back up to Victoria? I’m super excited. Spring has sprung, the flowers are blooming and a road trip sounds perfectly in order. But before I go, I have to show off one more painting – a BIG one!

Alice in Wonderland
8×10 print

This is one of the two 16 x 20 canvases I’ve been working on & really loving. Painting that size means lots of room to play with backgrounds and add detail. I have to restrain myself a bit or I’m sure I could work on these for months! I’ve released one of the new big paintings as a print in my Etsy shop. The other one isn’t quite finished and it makes me a little sad to leave it in its unfinished state as I gallivant all over the PNW. Unfortunately painting + driving do not mix.

In case I can’t blog from the road (though I should definitely be able to Twitter), have a lovely week!

Living in Vancouver, I wasn’t particularly excited about the Olympics coming to our city, especially with all of the subsequent cuts to arts funding (slashed by 92%) and the serious lack of affordable housing. (And when I say “affordable housing”, I mean reasonable for middle class families with 2 working parents. The homeless problem is a whole separate issue.) It’s a beautiful city, but also the most expensive city in the world. We also have the highest Canadian rate of child poverty for 6 years running. It seems crazy to host what amounts to basically a big sporting event plus after party in the face of these serious issues. That being said, once it actually got here? It was hard not to be swept up in the fun.

My mister and I couldn’t afford tickets for most of the events, but we did get to attend one hockey game (not USA or Canada!) and one of the medal ceremonies, which was great. Mike Robertson was presented with the silver medal for snowboard cross that night – extra nice to see a Canadian on the podium. They made each night into a cultural event featuring one of the provinces, so there were lots of performances and music, and then the band Barenaked Ladies wrapped it up. A good time was had by all.

Well, sort of good. The last couple of weeks have been crazy exhausting & not just because of the Olympics. I’ve had a nasty cold for the last 18 days. Seriously – 18 days. It’s not like I’m bedridden, but I’ve got a sinus bug that means I’m constantly snorting Dristan, coughing loudly (& phlegm-ily) & generally grossing people out.

I’m also in the midst of the biggest painting deadline of my career – I have my first solo show opening April 9th. It’s at the Massey Theatre and Plaskett Gallery in New Westminster, which means a lot of space to fill. I tend to paint on the small side – canvases that are easy for me to ship – so this is a tremendous undertaking in a very short period of time. I have two canvases going right now and find myself getting more and more stressed by the day. Painting? Not something you can rush!

If I’m prepping for a craft market and have a bunch of Scrabble tile pendants to make, I can power through a cold or flu bug by taking lots of cold meds, drinking coffee & staying up late. Unfortunately creativity can’t be forced like that, at least for me.

To top it all off, the universe decided it would be extra funny if I fell down the stairs too. I was carrying the white dog outside (she’s getting old & starting to have trouble with the stairs), in my pajamas & slippers (ha!). Our backyard has a deck with a bunch of wooden steps leading down to the yard and since it’s in Vancouver, the steps are always slick with rain. After a while, the raindrops give way to a slimy green…stuff. I don’t know what it is exactly, but if you think about rocks near the ocean, that’s the stuff I’m talking about. I’d say it’s algae, but it seems weird for algae to be growing on my back steps. Anyway…slippery as hell.

I hit the bottom step, my feet slipped out from under me and, just like in a cartoon, the dog shot up in the air, my slippers flew off and landed in the middle of the yard, and I landed flat on my back. On the stairs. YOWTCH!!!

I’m a mess of bruises and got wicked whiplash in my neck, but fortunately nothing else was hurt, including the dog. I lay there for a few moments wondering if I had broken my back since, you know, I LANDED ON THE STAIRS. Motherjumper.

Fortunately I did recover in time to celebrate the gold medal hockey game and venture into the belly of the beast – Robson and Granville. It was so wall to wall people that it took us close to 30 minutes just to walk the 12 feet to get around the corner on Granville. There were so many people pushed up against each other that you literally could. not. move. It was insane! I’ve been to really packed concerts like that where everyone was pushing to get closer to the stage, but this was *outside*. Crazy!

Everyone was well-behaved (that I saw), so there was plenty of high-fiving going on, but no trampling. This was a very good thing, indeed. With that many people, you just need one jackass to throw a rock or start a fight and the whole scene erupts into chaos. I’m sure the VPD will be happy to bid farewell to the Olympics. And I’m happy to get back to painting. And not falling down stairs.

Sunday, February 21st, 2010
Heritage Hall
3102 Main Street @ 15th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
11 am – 5 pm

Don’t worry folks! I haven’t been swept up in Olympic madness (though I have been enjoying seeing so many visitors from all over the world in my city), I’ve just been locked out of my blog for the past few days. I noticed it was loading really slowly & sometimes timing out all together, so I tried to do a database upgrade & then everything went kaplooey. Yes, that *is* the technical term.

It seems to be back on track now though & just in time for my first market of 2010 – Blim Community Market this Sunday. They’re moving to a new, bigger venue right on Main Street and I can’t wait to catch up with my fellow artists and crafters. There will be 48 vendors ranging from fashion to vintage finds and records to art to jewelry, all with a focus on promoting creative production in our community. Click here to see the full list of vendors.

And don’t forget to come on an empty stomach! Open Sesame is catering the event and they make some of the best Japanese concoctions I’ve ever had, at any price. Seriously amazing food.

I’m hoping I’ll have time to properly scan and print some of my new paintings (ahem…Alice in Wonderland), but the clock is ticking. I will definitely have a selection of lockets and pendants, stickers, postcards and maybe an original or two. See you there!

I had such a fab time at both of my shows on Saturday that I pretty much took all of Sunday off to recover. And to watch the Superbowl, of course! I couldn’t care less about football, but fair’s fair. My mister accompanied me to artsy fartsy schtuff, so I had to return the favor & watch some football. Fortunately we invited some friends over AND my mister made chilli, so I can’t complain.

On to the shows! First up – Hot One Inch Action:

I submitted Murray (print here) as my button design and was so tickled when I saw the way he’d turned out. I kept a bunch, traded for a few of my other faves and had an all around awesome night.

Next up we headed over to Box Studios for the Heart On show. It was also super packed with over 250 people through the door. I got to chat wtih some of my favorite local artists, but unfortunately my photos are awful. It’s a fairly dark venue – perfect for dancing & general merryment, less perfect for snapping non-blurry photos of artwork. Using the flash with artwork is almost worse than blurry, so…meh. Sorry!

So much fun! I’ve got a bunch more shows coming up this spring, which means I need to get back to painting now, but I’ll be posting more details soon. In the meantime, here’s a hint: follow the white rabbit.

Last year I doodled some cute little Valentine’s Day cards and put them up on the blog as a PDF file. I’m still smitten with them this year and I hope you will be too!

You just have to download the file and then print it off at home onto some heavy paper or cardstock. Cut them out and voila! Totally free Valentines for you to give to your special someones. Yay!

Download the PDF here

If you’ve never downloaded a PDF before, you may need to install a program to open it. The most common (& free) one is Adobe Acrobat.

printed on card stock & cut out

Happy (early) Valentine’s Day!

have 2 shows coming up this weekend & they both happen to fall on the same night.  I may have to swap the cocktails for energy drinks, but it should be a blast. First up – the button show:

Saturday February 6, 2010
doors @ 8pm
W2 Culture + Media House – 112 W Hastings
Vancouver, BC

My button design was selected as one of the medalists in this new round of Hot 1 Inch Action. There will be 50 different artists represented & for $5, you get a bag with 5 random buttons. I love this idea! You can buy specific buttons, so if you really have your heart set on a certain one, you have to get social & start swapping. Fun!

Next up, my girl MJ is hosting another fab art show/party with a romantic theme – The Heart On. The last show (The Wee Show) was packed & I was delighted by the quality of the art & the all-around awesomeness of the people I met. Normally I don’t do so well at hot, loud, crowded events, but the artists & attendees were such a friendly bunch that I could’ve partied all night. Which reminds me…wear comfortable shoes!

Saturday February 6, 2010
Doors 9pm
Box Studios (1622 Franklin Street)
$8 | at the door

I still have to find frames for the 2 new paintings I have in this show, so I’d better hop to it!

Zoe and her Skunk
11″ x 14″, acrylic on canvas
available in the shop

My new painting, Zoe and her Skunk, is now up for sale in my Etsy shop. I’ve been nabbing frames of various sizes when I see them on sale lately, so it was nice to be able to photograph it looking…finished. I don’t mind hanging canvas paintings without frames, as long as the edges are painted, but sometimes a frame helps a piece look a little more important, gives it a little more oomph. This is particularly true with the size of canvases I like to paint on. They can feel lost on a big blank wall without a frame to anchor them.

In other totally random, train of thought blogging, an audiobook recommendation – Stephen King’s Under the Dome. I’ve been listening to it over the past few weeks while I paint and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s definitely not an easy listen or read – there are some seriously disturbing scenes of violence against women – but it wouldn’t be considered “horror”. Think more Lord of the Flies for grown-ups. If you read (or listen to) the first chapter, you’ll be hooked until the very end, if for no other reason than to find out how the dome got there in the first place.

Now what should I listen to next?

I’ve been having so much fun turning my paintings into wearable art in the form of antique lockets and cameo pendants, but you probably wouldn’t know that if you weren’t able to make it out to any of my winter markets. Adding the new jewelery to my Etsy shop has been going at a snail-like pace. It seemed like as soon as I got a few of them photographed and edited and ready to go, they were sold! A good problem to be had, for sure.

There are now 6 fancy necklaces in the “Pendants” section of the shop, along with the usual group of Scrabble tile pendants. I’ve got a few more that will go up tomorrow and then I really need to get to work on creating more! Tracking down the lockets themselves has not been easy and the BIG ones I had at Christmas time are nowhere to be found. I’m kicking myself now for not holding onto one of them to wear myself. The hunt continues…

I’m a huge Alice in Wonderland fan & have been plotting a series of Alice paintings for years. There are so many fantastic scenes that would make amazing paintings that my biggest problem has been not knowing where to start. If I’m going to do Alice, I want to do justice to both Lewis Carroll’s story and the enchanting illustrations of John Tenniel. A tall order!

I got a new copy of the book a few months ago, an annotated collection with both Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass in one book, plus lots of odd little footnotes and interesting blurbs. Every few pages a new note goes into my sketchbook under painting ideas – walrus & the carpenter, caterpillar, drink me. I have pages and pages of sketches, but this month I finally started painting and I’m tickled with the results so far.

With the Tim Burton movie coming out in March, it was high time for me to get busy on my Alice paintings. I love Tim Burton and I’m so excited to see what he does with the story, but at the same time, I don’t want his version of Alice to influence my own paintings. Influence and inspiration are a tricky bunch.

We’re all influenced by other artists every single day. Even if you never set foot in a museum or gallery, art is everywhere. From movies and tv, to the graphic designers working on ad campaigns to the packaging you see at the grocery store – it’s unavoidable. And for the most part, that’s just fine. But with this…I don’t know. I’d almost like to do two sets of paintings – one pre-Burton and one post. Would make for an interesting experiment, no doubt!

Chances are I won’t have time for that little experiment though because I’ll be busy co-organizing a local Alice-themed art show (and tea party, of course). The details aren’t quite finalized yet, but I’m going to be putting a call out to artists very soon and my brain is bubbling over with ideas. I’ll need a costume too. Oh, this is going to be such fun!

Who’s your favorite Alice character?

Yay! I’m nominated for a Poppy award over at Poppytalk.com. It’s a fab site run by a fellow Vancouverite that showcases some of the most interesting and unique designers, artists and crafters. I’ve got a whack of pages bookmarked for their tutorials and images saved in my “dream house” folder.

In the Affordable Art category, I’m thrilled to discover that little ol’ me has been nominated. Head on over to vote for me & I’ll be your BFF! I think you’re allowed to vote more than once too. *hint hint* Voting closes on Wednesday, January 27th.

THANK YOU!!!