Prints and Furniture for your Inner Landscape on my Society6

Its been almost a year since I released new products on society6 but with the announcement of FURNITURE, thats right! Furniture! on Society6 I couldn’t resist putting together a new collection for the fall.

Visit my Society 6 store to see all the fun new products. Link Here

Lately, I’ve been cultivating my inner landscape, nourishing myself and growing a sacred garden filled with intention and joy. Visualization is an important part of my personal practice and these images help me visualize and strengthen my inner magic. I’m excited to share these images with you, so that you too can remember to nourish, grow, and live in a state of bliss. From prints to adorable tables (I think i’ve found my new altar table ^_^) there should be the perfect piece to bring color and vibrancy to your home.

Use the Code FALL4ART before Midnight PST tonight for 30% off  (9/17/18)

Garden Circle – Fire

Garden Circle – Orange

Garden Circle – Gold

Garden Circle – Bright Yellow

Garden Circle – Jade

Garden Circle – Navy

Garden Circle – Blue

Garden Circle – Purple

Garden Circle – Violet

Dance Shrines – Current Inspiration

I’ve blogged about my little shrine assemblages many times and I am happy to say that I am at the end of the exploration. This past month I used up the last of my little wooden plaques in the best set of shrines I have created to date!

The latest series of shrines are all dedicated to my love of dance, specifically tribal fusion belly dance, which I have been practicing on and off for the past 6 years. This last summer I jumped back into the practice and it has been so rich and fulfilling that I felt called to make art that came from the inspiration I feel from the colorful costumes and intricate dancing. I also want to shout out to my troupe, The Tribal Misfits, for being such fun to dance with and to my instructor Ashanti, who is one of the most creative people I have ever met. Thanks!

Creating the shrines boils down to three steps:

First I find and create the focal image for the shrine. For this collection I used stills from performances of myself and other troupe members. I started looking for fresh images but eventually came back around to using images from my elements series I created in 2014. I then set about watercoloring the dancing figures on watercolor, which is one of my most treasured art activities.

 

Second, I decorate the actual wooden part of the shrine. This generally involves a combination of decoupage, painting, and spontaneity. Decoupage is the lovely process of gluing papers and other decorative pieces to an object. I like combining handmade papers, tissue papers, and recycled clippings from cards, gift wrap, and other notions to create a blend of layers and colors. I also decided to spray paint some of the shrines, and also revisit some old patterns drawn on with paint pen that I loved back in 2014. I like all the different textures created from the different techniques.

Third, I put the two pieces together, integrating the dancing figures into the decorated shrine. This sometimes involves adding additional elements to blend the foreground with the background and other times simply means gluing the figure on top of everything to create a more bold composition. I have two of each figure in this series, which appeals to my sense of variety.

I was also pleased to resolve to shrines that had been lying around in my studio unfinished since I started working with them in 2014. They’ve traveled halfway across the country and back, and it feels so good to say with confidence that they are complete!

These shrines, and others, will be for sale at A Place to B’s Summertime Swap and Sell on July 22nd.

If you can’t wait till then – please contact me!

Recap of 2016 Winter Artist Salon

This gallery contains 7 photos.

Last December I was happy to present my art to friends and family at a salon held in my home. I curated a collection of my own pieces dating from college to the present and hung them throughout my new … Continue reading →

Day 3: Mint Green, Blush, and Copper

Something Wonderful is About to Happen

That sort of sums up how I feel about this whole endeavor. I painted on paper, fabric, and a little bit on the canvas. Afterwards I layered all the various pieces I created along with stamps and some more paint to come up with this final assemblage.

Day 2: Deconstructing Paintings

I did paint today and yesterday but the paint is still drying so I don’t have a picture to post yet for the challenge. What I do have are pictures of my extremely satisfying experiment in deconstruction. I originally painted those 16 watercolors so that I would have something to collage with for 4 more shrines I am working on. I like working in series of 4 cause its lends itself to so many themes: the directions, the elements, the seasons, and so on.

The four shrines that inspired the watercolors.

I want to layer circles onto the shrines to build them up. I don’t know if I will add in figures or leave them pretty abstract. I will have to see what happens with the circles. To make all the circles I splurged and bought new punches. I am SO happy with them!

From ek tools

I punched lots and lots and lots of circles in the three sizes of punch I bought. It was so satisfying to look at the watercolors from a new perspective, punching out tiny vignettes from within the larger painting. It was also deliciously fun to punch out the shapes. The punches are really powerful, so even though it was cutting through relatively thick paper it made clean shapes. And they flew across the room from the force of it, which was delightful.

Circles!

In the end I not only had plenty of circles to collage with but I also transformed the watercolors into something new and extremely interesting. I’m super excited with the result. They have a really pleasing sense of randomness that I couldn’t have achieved if my eye was trying to create it. I’ve included a slideshow of the best ones. Let me know what you think of my deconstructed watercolor paintings in the comments.

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Collage from Slumber Party

How often do you just get together with some girlfriends, watch a silly movie in your pj’s, and make some art? For me not often enough. I was having a rough time my senior year at CU (University of Colorado), and so I needed a break from the essays. I invited some pals over and we got creative!

This was my creation from the evening. I believe the movie playing during this artistic process was Rango. My favorite part of the collage is the top left corner. I tore every word apart so I could make them curve, which I have never tried before. I really like the effect it had on the rest of the collage. And I like the message.

Life Doesn’t Have to Be this Hard.

A good reminder for my present state in the world. I think I will arrange a slumber party for me a my lady friends to relax with some silly movies and yummy art supplies.

Mixing Media and Experimenting some More

I love creating collages out of magazine images. I went through a phase in college when I made a bunch of collages on poster boards. A while later I received a disposable camera with “fortunes” on the roll. After the roll was developed the fortunes appeared at the bottom of the images.

This is what the camera looked like. I bought the camera at Urban Outfitters, I believe. It seems this version is no longer available, but they have other disposable cameras that add flavor to your photography.

Many of collages were created with some sort of intention in mind. I loved the idea of taking pictures of these collages with my fancy fortune camera, and seeing which fortunes paired up with which images. I wanted random chance to bring more meaning to what I had already created.

Most of the images didn’t come out very well. Disposable cameras are pretty hit or miss because you can’t always see what you are taking a picture of well and the flash is terrible and so on. However this one image really captured the essence of the experiment.

At the end I piled all the collages into one pile. I love how the light from the window falls solely on the smaller collage in the middle. The caption is also fantastic “Its time for you to explore new interests.” Time to stop seeking new meaning in old stories and branch into something fresh.

Sketchbook Covers

 Cover from High School Sketchbook. (2006-2008); Found Images and Text, Tape

Cover from College Sketchbook (Fall 2010 – Spring 2011); Found Images, Tissue Paper, ModgePodge, Tape, Mirror pieces

 Cover from Sketchbook/ Journal for Women’s Group (2012); Found Images, Handmade Paper, Stickers, Fabric, Feathers

Cover from Sketchbook/Journal for Summer Workshop (2013); Fabric, Handmade Paper, Sequins

Cover from Current Sketchbook (2012 – 2013); Found Images and Text, Tape

Coexist

Postcard created in a HeartDance with Turning the Wheel from a long time ago. I always loved the love charm hanging off the bottom. The silver and the teal always felt like stepping stones next to a reflecting pool.

SoundDance Postcard

I created this postcard today at Vickie Dodd and Alana Shaw’s SoundDance workshop. Today was the final day of the 3 day intensive on restoring the nervous system through sound and movement. This postcard is intended to be a mnemonic device for me to remember the event. I think it speaks pretty clearly.