Eat your greens

This is a vector illustration I did in inkscape. I didn't like veggies when I was a kid. I spent many nights sitting at the dinner table long after everyone else was gone, trying to wish away my broccoli. Thankfully, those days are gone and I love my veggies!

Illustration Friday: Asleep

When I saw the topic for this week, I immediately thought of a drawing I did of my youngest son last year when he was asleep. I wanted the challenge of a fresh drawing so I did this one last night with both of my boys asleep. I scanned the drawing and colored it in gimp.

Illustration Friday: Beginner

I'm posting this late because I was out all day away from my laptop on Friday. This is my first time participating in illustration friday. I think this will be a good way to come up with fresh work and try out new styles.

About yourself in fewer than 18 chars

3 Reasons why you want to fill in your bio on twitter

For someone who might tweet once a month, I'm certainly not a twitter expert in any way, shape or form.
But one feature I like about twitter is the bio section. It's your small little space in the twitterverse that distinguishes you from all the other tweeps. So why don't some people fill it out? I'm sure they could come up with a zillion reasons, but here are my reasons why you should:

1. Look me up Just about the entire world is tweeting at any given time. How do I know that you're the only one who makes plush clocks?

2. A-list baby! I love twitter's list functionality. It allows you to categorize your followers into themed lists and you can tweet specifically to those list. This is a good way to see where you fit and who is interested in what you have to offer.

3. Characters = Clicks More times then not, I've clicked on someone's blog or store link because of what they wrote in their bio. Many artisans and artists alike, swear by twitter as a way to increase visibility and sales.

Here are some bios I found especially interesting

space-time transcendah - nerd surfer - writer - filmmaker http://surfnerds.blogspot.com/

painter. turf/street/hh ballerina. teachN & getn my PhD fB: /mindsprinterhttp://www.curvedspacegeometry.com


Zen guy, creative mind, social media maven, Apple fan boy, tech geek and most importantly, husband & father. Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.  http://edgehopper.com


Artist & entrepreneur. Interested in financial literacy & wealth creation. Living to control her own destiny. Staying positive to fuel her creativity!http://www.inspiremi.com

A revamp is underway

I've been deliberating about this for a few months now and I've finally decided to change the direction of my blog. I started this blog as an outlet for my artistic musings. It became very personal and it was great to get feedback on my art and also hear that I'm that I'm not as crazy as I once believed. Now, it's time to move on. I will still be posting my musings and artwork, but I want to branch out into what's going on in the art world, where I get my inspiration and perhaps some random things here and there. I think this will give me more to write about and appeal to a lot more people. I thank everyone who has been reading and commenting and hopefully you'll stick around. There's lots more to come.

The creative process

If you visit often, you'll notice that my etsy showcase to the right has been changing lately. I'm on a creative frenzy. This time it's digital illustration. I have the tendency to become obsessed with a medium and then drop it once I feel I've squeeze every ounce of inspiration out of it. I never know when that's going to be. This tendency has often been criticized by well-meaning family and friends, but I'm wondering if maybe I should feed this monster and see where it leads me. 

A goal revisited

after realizing that I hadn't tweeted since September, I read my old tweets and realized that I'm utterly boring. It was weird seeing all the things that I had picked up and dropped. All the straws I was pulling at. The only thing consistent about my twitter persona is that she is inconsistent, or at least it comes across that way. And worse: Dispassionate.

Why am I saying these things? Because examining my tweets kind of helped me to see myself in as close to objective reality as one can get while looking at oneself. There were no filters or forgotten words or situations. It was all written by me and it was all an attempt to connect in some way. Although, there were times I thought I was really putting myself on the line, I really wasn't. I thought I was really sharing, but I still wasn't letting people in. This block is another thing consistent about me. Its fear. And that brings me back to the goal I made in January 2010. To build an art career in one year. Was it fear that stifled me or was it circumstance? 

A few months ago, I connected with a local artist here in Atlanta via a neighbor. He is making and selling work and has an ambitious, but achievable goal or exhibiting at MOMA. I told him about my relationship with fear and excuses. He told me to just let it go. To be transparent. To educate myself about art and prolific artists. He told me about his research and creation cycles. Learning and acquiring and then putting that knowledge to work on the canvas. This was another piece to the puzzle, but I still wasn't ready to let go. To stop asking for permission to be myself and to stop blaming my circumstances. 

Each day I send myself an email reminder through google Calender. It's a "Stop doing list":

Stop making excuses
Stop beating yourself up
Stop feeling sorry for yourself
Stop settling for "functional, okay, not-so-bad"
Stop apologizing for yourself
Stop waiting for things to happen for you or to you
Stop trashing your work

Perhaps, it's time to make a "do list". 1.) Feel the fear and do it anyway