Where-a you at?

Hi ho, floksies!
I'm sorry to inform you, but I'm closing this here blog, in favor of my "everyday-life-arts-and-crafts" blog Yarn and Coffee. I've been there for almost two years now, and I'm feeling more and more silly about separating my arts from my crafts and sort of splitting my creativity in half. I don't see any reason for it. So I guess I'll have to overcome the fear of "what will my art-y friends say" about my plush toys, my knitting shenanigans, the pictures of my cats. It's all a part of me and I should just stop being so judgemental. I'll brave it. I will.

So here goes, this blog will not vanish but it won't be updated again either. Feel free to come visit me here: yarn-n-coffee.blogspot.com and update your blogroll/bloglines/whichever.
See you there!

(Takes a deep breath, jumps in the water)

Long time no post, eh?

Well, I've hardly been here lately, mainly because I started a shop. It's via Etsy. If you're not familiar with it, it's an online store for crafts and indie artwork. Very cool, go check it out. And of course, check ME out while you're there... ; )

New portfolio stuff

This is the front page for a new portfolio i'm trying to put together. I still need to figure out the coloring technique, but I like this guy. A little.

That's perfect!

I really need this shirt. You do too.

Arts and crafts

Years ago (doesn't matter how many), I went to art school and was a fine arts major. On top of a lot of f*rtish cr*p, they made it clear what was art and what wasn't. Animation, story-telling, illustration - those where "Entertainment". And "Craft"? That was really an insult. Between convincing me that abstract painting of penises were superior to my detailed, descriptive drawings and teaching me two and a half thousand long and useless words - I stopped drawing for four years.
Regarding "Entertainment", you already know I got over the "criminal offense" of creating art that dares to communicate and is (good grief!) commercial. As for "Craft" - that took a while. If you're familiar with my other blog, you may know that I've been doing quite a bit of it this past year, getting back to simply "making things", functional or not. I used to do so much of it as a kid and fad or not - I'm grateful for the Handmade movement for bringing me back to it. And the feed between those two aspects of my life is quite interesting. It's interesting how "Craft" now has such a big influence on my "Art".


I finished those two little stuffed toys last week, and today I got around to take some pictures. I posed them outside, on my porch, and all of a sudden - a story was born (click forward on the photostream to read it). It's not very complicated, true, but those two guys are now alive in my head and have already inspired drawings, ideas, adventures. Even better, their "older brother" Peter (the first softie I designed) has inspired a series of children's books I'm currently working on. "Craft" isn't an insult for quite some time now.

Anyone who still feels like "Art" is some vague, abstract, conceptual idea and that every attempt to ground it in physical existence (in synthetic felt, no less), go ahead, Mr. Fancy Pants. Want to make fun of me for knitting socks? Pfff... Whatever. I let my inspiration take me where it wants to. Even if it's into the land of felt, yarn and buttons. "Craft" is "Art" and "Art" is "Craft" - and they're both a part of the creative me. Hooray!

New business cards

I made this new business card this week (of course, the real ones DO have my phone number and email address). I plan on making more in this style (with different drawings). It would really help if my new printer actually worked like it's supposed to... I really need to start printing cards professionally. Know any good printers?

How to be a (miserable) artist

I put my "inspiration art" folder in order, and came across this. I think I checked most of these off at some point...