Everyday Matters - Lamps

My entry for the Lamps challenge at Everyday Matters. I'm working my through the Ikea catalog - hey it's a goal. Not everyone has an earth shattering ambition. The lamps are Ikea's, the colors are mine.

After a night of ATCs - The Blissful Trader (Not a Self Portrait).

This is a Self Portrait - my hand after a night of ATCs.

Everyday Matters Lamp Challenge

Joined Everyday Matters and Draw_Paint ATCs groups at Yahoo a few days ago and have been happily trading and posting ever since. Here are my lamps for the Everyday Matters challenge. I live in Florida and after 3 hurricanes in a row there's a hurricane lamp in every room (battery operated of course).

Post Cards

Now these are fun to make. They're Postcard drawings of ATCs. They started out as a giftee sort of thing for a Snail Mail Group on Yahoo. Well I made and mailed 24 to the group and now everyone in my phonebook is getting a card. I'm only posting these 3 until I know the cards have been received. Don't want to spoil the surprise.

Illustration Friday - Sorrow

Here's my Illo for Sorrow. I always thought that there was a dictionary of words to describe happiness. It was an emotion washed in color and kind of messy like life. But sorrow is grey. Simple lines, simple colors.

OMG 2 people want to buy/commission my drawings. I repeat OMG. 2 for a kid's room and 3 for a bathroom (it's a room isn't it?). The bathroom gets Palm Trees and the kid's room anything I want. You know what this means don't you? It means I can buy more pens! It also means I have to draw something bigger then 2 1/2 x 3 1/2. Well, you know that big, blank page phobia is a hard one to overcome but I'm working on it.

Well, my website is a mess. So I'm going to concentrate on the blog for now. Added links to web pages took down the index page. The only working link is to the ATC page but the others will be soon. Next is to publish to my server instead of blogger so no more "blogspot" in the url - that learning curve on website design is a little curvier then I thought.

Just a few newbies. More can be found here.

These were my first ATC and first collage. The vase was part of a 20 card trade (my first) with Artist Trading Cards in Zurich. The little quilt was made with paper punches with the borders sewn on.

Illustration Friday - Flight

Well good news for awhile. Surgeon said that there's no detachment and my vision loss may be due to the swelling. So, I go back for checkup in 2 weeks. But, this may be a sign of the beginning of a detached retina. Wait and see I guess. Meanwhile, there's color, color and more color even though it's a little blurry it's still bright!

Here's my drawing(s) for Illo Friday - Flight. I just joined a mail art group. Haven't done anything with them yet but that gave me this idea. Mail art taking flight from my hand to yours.

Saw the dr at 9am and it's not a detached retina but he said there was dramatic decrease in vision in that eye. And I said you didn't have to be so descriptive. So I've got an appt at 3pm to see the retina specialist who was actually the surgeon who operated on my other eye. One of life's little blessings I guess - you like to draw, you like color ok let's take care that and blur everything. I think I'll just sit here til 3pm and be depressed and get it over with.

Something with my right eye now. Flash of light and really large floater makes it hard to read. Funny how all this happens as I rediscover my love of color and drawing. I'll call the doctor from work on Monday. If he takes me right away then there's a problem. The last time this happened, I called at 10am was in the doctor's office by 10:30 and then surgery the next day. I think I'll draw all day tomorrow and use the brightest colors.

I did these this morning before work (and what's wrong with obsessions?). I put these glass vases on the white table on the patio. I've never draw glass before. Don't know if it worked, maybe.

I made these ladies a few years ago. They're 23-28", with wire armature, needle sculptured and painted faces. I make the wigs, the clothing and jewelry for each. Lots of fun but they do take lots of time too. I sell them by word of mouth mostly - one person tells another and someone sees one. I tried selling in a local store but they have to double what they pay for the doll and they get too expensive. And if they don't sell, they're not in a very sellable condition when I get them back. I donated one to an auction last year and that was the last one I made. There's just no place to store them. So here's Martha Louise, Sofia Rose and LeAnne.

haiku girl

haiku girl is moving to a new city for a new job and new life. And she likes my pictures so I drew this for her.

February Theme for ATC Group on Flickr

Kim @ Kim's Suitcase suggested a theme for the ATC Group at Flickr of "Still Lives". So I was surfing the Illos and saw nic squirrell's blog and her drawings of her cats and this all resulted in a frenzy of cat drawings. The first card is of Zoe. Zoe means Life in Greek and since Zoe was sound asleep and very very still, this was my entry for Flickr. The next is a portrait of Zoe, the next 2 are front and back of a card for my trading buddy Andrew (he's 9) who likes cats. Altogether there's Zoe, Gertie and Leo. The birdie is just a figment of Leo's overactive imagination.

Illustration Friday - Year of the Rooster

This is my friend Georgie, the rooster- a very primitive drawing of Georgie. And there's also a pix of him. When I like to do something (which for me equates to being obsessed) I usually do alot of it and then move on to something else. Several years ago I made small stuffed dolls and animals and I made so many of them I had to give them away. I don't even remember who I gave most of them to and since I didn't have a digital camera at the time, no pix. Well, I was walking past someone's cube at work and there was this little guy - felt like finding a long lost friend. I grabbed him to take home for some pictures. But since Illo is about Illos, I also drew him. So, here's my Year of the Rooster - 2 for 1 entry. And the drawing really doesn't look like Georgie because even though I went to buy a white pen, I came home with every color but white. And since he's is also a Softie, I guess I'll post him on that site too. He has to go back to his other home tomorrow but I do have visitation rights and I will always have these pictures.

Not everyday is a sunny one in South Florida - at least not when Janey has new grey pens.

Pens, Pens, Pens - Now let me explain, I didn't go to Pearls to get another pink pen. Ok, I went to get a white pen just one white pen. My friend Doris went with me and it was her responsibility to stop me from buying anything except that one white pen and she didn't stop me. I bought a set (24) of Prismacolor double ended markers and they happen to have 2 pink pens ok. I wasn't too sure of the broad tip since I work so small but they really look great on the paper. They're not as thick as the Tombo and so don't warp the card stock. The color is bright but not as bright bright as the Tombo so their bright but sort of muted bright and have a different look - especially on the background. I'm doing 20 of these for the Sisters Trade in Zurich. I haven't received my first set back yet and I just can't wait.

I guess I'm addicted to color as much as ATCs. There was a movie with River Phoenix where he was in a high school music class and the teacher asked what made Beethoven so different. He replied that his highs were higher, his lows were lower and his sound was louder (something like that anyway). And that's what color is like in Florida. We're having a cold spell and it's about 60 this morning (actually had the heat on) and it makes everything seem a little sharper and as I look out my window, the green is greener then any green I've ever seen and sky is azure (beautiful word- color of a cloudless sky). The sun is a blinding yellow and fills my room with light. I stand on the patio with my eyes closed and head raised to the sun and it just fills me up. Anyway, I love Florida (and brush pens).

More Non Journal Pages

Here are more non journal pages (I'll do a real one someday - one of my new year's resolutions). Fortunately, you probably can't read them the way I wrote them but I rather like the colors so you can see them as a visual thing rather then poetry which would be just fine with me. Oh, and all the drawings posted here are ATC size.

Illo Friday - Friendship 2

Here's my 2nd Illo for Friendship. A real quickie - just some smiling happy faces. No big meaning here (just big noses) and friends make you smile right?

Too busy surfing the Illos to draw much last night. Here's 2 for my own Illustration Tuesday. The horse is 5X7 and the sun is an ATC (very tradable). The poem is by Thoreau.