I'm cleaning my office, listening to Bob Dylan and what do I find? A few bits of wire. I had to make something with them. So I present to you Wire Bunny. He's wiry.
It's the little things That brighten the day Wash the streets And push clouds away. It's the little things That lighten the mood Cheer the heart and Make me feel good. Big things are fine Once in a while But it's the little things That make me smile.
I'm so glad the topic of Illustration Friday is Strings. I've been working on a pillow in my spare time for the past couple weeks and just finished it. Naturally, I'm very excited to show it off. My mom gave me an used sewing machine for Christmas last year and I've been making small projects and fiddling around with it since. I made one pillow prior to this one and am now starting one with a giraffe on it. All the fabric I used I got as a white elephant present last Christmas. I think i was more excited to get a giant bag of fabric scraps than I was to get most of my other presents. I sill have enough to make at least ten or eleven pillows.
I just got home from the artist reception for the Grand Rapids Festival of Arts. It was nice and incredibly busy. I always love looking at other people's work. It inspires me to do more of my own and challenges me to do even better work.
When I went to pick up my name tag I noticed there was a little gold star on the corner. I asked the lady working the name tag table what made me so special. She told me I had won an award and handed me the award list. Sure enough I got a purchase award! Sure, it's not as prestigious as a juror award but I'll take it. It's always a great boost to my confidence to learn that someone likes my work enough to pay money for it. No matter how many paintings I sell I think I'll always be just a little surprised when someone wants one.
I found out on Friday that one of my paintings was accepted in the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts Competition. It will be on display at the old art museum during Festival June 6-8. Come on down, check it out and vote for it as peoples choice!
Every year Grand Rapids has the Festival of the Arts. There are bands, art displays, booth after booth of food venders and most notably an art competition. I've never entered it before. I'm not really sure why. It would be great exposure if one of my paintings were to win. I decided this year I'm going for it. I've got nothing to lose, really. Now I have to go through the hard decision of deciding what to enter. I went through all the art I've created in the last two years. I have three file folders full of things that are 8x10 or smaller and an entire portfolio dedicated to things that are larger than 8x10. It's a bit overwhelming. I have it narrowed down to about ten pieces right now. Wish me luck!
For those of you who don't know my good friend, Karly, and I have been working on making our first batch of wine. It will be Pinot in about three weeks. We decided, after a rather unfortunate incident (don't worry the wine is fine) to name the wine after Karly's dog, Lucy. I did a little illustration of her for the wine labels and Karly will be laying out the text. I can't wait for it to be done!
After hosting my blog on my own website for a while I;ve decided to move it back to blogger. I've had nothing but trouble wih my server. I'm going to move my favorite images from the past few months but the rest, alas, will be lost to cyberspace.