art

springy

For spring, which has sprung, a random list of artsy things I would like to do/try/attempt someday, when time and space and money and such fickle things align properly:

  • Re-finish and creatively paint furniture, in muted technicolor funky-but-classy patterns. You know, when I have the room to strip and store furniture.
  • Art dolls, quirky creepy pseudo-Victorian porcelain nightmares in lace. This will likely require improving my sewing skills.
  • Documentary film. I don’t know what subject, maybe something will come to me eventually. But I like documentaries, and have an odd desire to make one myself.
  • Encaustic painting. Painting with hot wax! C’mon, that’s awesome. Expensive and messy, but awesome.
  • Some sort of collaborative photo-based project to be star odyssey 2.0. No idea how to fix what went wrong with 1.0 yet, though, so will require pondering.
  • Zen garden, with koi pond and fountain and meditating Buddha statues. Need a yard first.
  • Another tarot deck, perhaps in a minimalist pencil sketch sort of style.

And I have a long-harbored desire to make an installation sculpture consisting of a skull stuffed with teabags and a top hat, entitled Requiem for the Mad Hatter.

By erin, ago

finished bunnies & suggestions welcome

The Phantomwise Tarot 10s are done, remarkably ahead of schedule. You can see the set in the tarot minors gallery on phantomwise.com or over here on my art-based LiveJournal. Someday I might combine that blog with this one. Today is not that day.

Here are the finished bunnies, in bookish tea party glory:

I kind of can’t believe the numbered minors are complete. I’m really pleased with how they’ve all turned out, so often the minors are dull in comparison to the majors, and I’d like to think these hold their own. Now it’s just a matter of getting the courts completed, and then the deck is done. I doubt I’ll know what to do with myself then, I might need another epic art project of some sort.

In other news, I am going to endeavor to blog here more frequently. I was going to set a lofty goal of once a day but that seems too lofty at the moment. So I’ll start with several times a week and maybe attempt that every day thing in April.

I’ll need topics, though. Suggestions are welcome, just comment. Otherwise you’re just going to get more writing, art, kittens, and possibly a lengthy essay on why I love LOST in general and Michael Emerson in particular.

And you get a Watchmen review on Friday, of course.

By erin, ago

technical difficulties & a bunny

My Macbook is unhappy. Googling indicates that it’s suffering from a kernel panic, a malady that makes me want popcorn. I’ve tried all the helpful hints for creative restarting but it persists in panicing, so it will get a trip to the Apple Store in the nearish future. In the snow.

I am sick of snow. I am bored with hibernating. It’s pretty, but I’m cold and I would like some greenery. Flowers and butterflies and a world outside my window not covered in ice, please thank you.

I am working on the 10s for the Phantomwise Tarot. They are all sketched and some of the paintings are started. I should be able to finish them by the end of the week.

The ten of cups got overrun with bunnies. Here’s a teensy peek:

I decided I only had a few cards left to be silly in, to make the deck more me than Rider Waite, and bunnies, books & tea seemed a good way to do it. The pents are rather non-traditional, too, and I managed to sneak each totem animal in their respective suits for good measure.

So, painting and editing in a winter wonderland, waiting for Spring and trying not to get impatient about it.

By erin, ago

filling the well

I think it’s Julia Cameron, maybe in The Artist’s Way or The Right to Write or maybe in both, who talks about filling your creative well on a regular basis. That you need to replenish your creativity by absorbing other creative things or nature or just stuff. Having constant input to properly maintain artistic exportation. Or something. She probably puts it much better, and it likely involves Artist Dates.

I sometimes forget I need to do that, to recharge and consume art rather than constantly working on my own. I’ve been busy with other things over the last week or so but haven’t been properly recharging.

And now in the last 24 hours I’ve read the entirety of Watchmen (I had been meaning to pick it up off the to-read shelf for ages) which was even better than I had expected, and watched Tarsem’s The Fall, which might just be my new favorite movie. It immediately earned a place in the all-time top ten at the very least.

I think I feel better because my creative well is fuller from binging on good books and good films and good tea. Must endeavor to be better about consuming them on a more regular basis.

By erin, ago

recycled words

Have just discovered the art of Will Ashford and I’m completely smitten.

I have always loved art with text and text with art, and this combines text & art in a really lovely way. Found his stuff by accident, too, doing Google image searches for “old books” when the umbrella caught my eye. It makes me unreasonably happy.

By erin, ago

this entry has no kittens

I was going to post pictures of kittens but they are being uncooperative. Likely because it is absurdly humid and they are absurdly fluffy and like to flop in difficult to photograph places.

I have been on internet hiatus this week, which usually involves me avoiding the internet save for important things like e-mail and whatnot. It is remarkably beneficial to my productivity level. During this particular hiatus I finished the sixes for the Phantomwise Tarot and drank a lot of wine and thought about the novel a lot. I have something of a timeline for getting things done and I’m going to make charts and maps and helpful tools that will be, well, helpful. I hope.

Tonight the Phantomwise Tarot Shinies go on sale at Wyrding Studios. I have spent a fair amount of the day promoting them in various places and playing e-mail tag with Kythryne. I’m excited about it, I haven’t even seen the finished product in person but I’m sure they’re even lovelier than the photos, since Kyth’s stuff usually is.

I am very much ready for it to cool down and be nicely autumnal already. I always feel out of my element in the summer, despite being a July baby. I want sweaters and pumpkin spice lattes and crispy air and kittens that are more easily photographable.

By erin, ago