New Original Cat Cards

The hand drawn cat cards that I made earlier in the year have sold out.  I needed to refill.  Friday night was spent cutting out 3 sheets of 3 different cats to collage onto both cards and some small wall hangings.  Here are some of the Cards.

  You might be wondering where did these backgrounds come from?  I have been going through old paintings that I don't feel are up to par and cropping them to use as cards. I also cut up a couple of old calendars and used pieces as backgrounds with my original cats.   I have called these cards Recycled Art cards. 

A peak at my show at the American Red Cross "Life Crossing Gallery"

Garden Art: A new medium for me

Every year in July, the Portland Art Collective celebrates another year of being together at our annual Picnic held at William Palmer House, the historic Victorian mansion, on Mississippi Ave.  The house is wonderful and each year, since our friends Maggie and Susan have owned it, it has evolved into a more wonderful piece of art.  At this party, we typically hold an art swap of some kind.  This year we voted to make one piece of Garden Art and trade it one for one with another piece made by someone else.  This piece was mine.

I have to say that I knew what I was going to do going in and that the piece evolved. I had planned to use driftwood and make a hanging like others I have made before.  My Dad made them when I was young and I have always had them in my yard.  I had the driftwood, but once I started I was just not going there in my head.   At one point, I almost quit as I worry that my piece won't measure up.  I did forge ahead and was glad that I did.  I was very please with how it evolved!  Mine is in the top right hand corner.  Here are some other masterpieces!  They were all wonderful and creatively unique!

Holiday Cards

I decided to make Holiday cards within the series.

Buster's Adventures

Three new Cat card series

If I were to reincarnate, I would choose to come back as my cat.  Cats have almost always been a part of my life and always make me happy.  They also make me smile.  I have been creating cats since a young age.  Last year, I did a series of cats to be used on cards and printed 3 of them.  These three have become 3 of my bestselling cards. So I thought, why not make more?  I decided to create a couple different looks.  One is "Buster's Adventures."  Buster is my favorite cat.  He's a lover, but always very serious and loves being outside.  He is very adventurous!

Using the same image I also made Christmas, Halloween and Valentine's Day versions.

The next series I am working with is "Fluffy Cat."  This is supposed to represent my new cat Daffy who is beautiful, fluffy and long haired. 

 

The third series is cats doing different activities. 

I plan to mat or frame the originals and sell them at the Open Doors Show. 

It's amazing what one can accomplish in a week's time!

It never ceases to amaze me what I can produce when I stick my nose to the grindstone.  My friend, Susan was down visiting from Seattle all last week.  I actually worked 3 days but was still able to accomplish a lot.  The plan was of course far more lofty but in the end I felt proud of what I had done.

I've found that I do a lot more and maybe even better work when I have someone in the room with me.  It might be that I feed symbiotically from people or maybe it is just the company.  Whatever it is, I like to take advantage of the atmosphere.

The goal was to make more cat and bird cards for the Friends Library Store.  Those that I had sold out and I knew I was losing sales.  I decided that instead of constantly going back and making the same type of card over and over that I would make many originals and copy them and then paste it the copy onto card stock.  Well I made 30 originals and ended up adding 88 cards yesterday to the store.  Now the wait to see if the copies will sell as well as the originals.  I am hoping...

I've decided to sell the originals in our Open Doors Sale in December.

Stumbling Blocks to Creating Art! Can you relate?

In my experience there have been several stumbling blocks that have and do keep me from making art.


1. The biggest was stress on the job. There were many instances of this in my life. The worst included a nasty boss and long hours. Working in retail there were always long arduous hours, whether I liked the job or not. When I worked for a builder as a real estate broker there was the stress of performance to make the sale. Commission is stressful, especially when you intentionally can't live on your draw. I went through a very tough time in the industry where many builders went down including the one I worked for. It was stress to survive.

2. The second biggest is fear of failure. If one does not keep up with one's craft one forgets how to do it. In the past year, I have been doing a lot of craft type things and making a lot of cards. I have not been painting much. I am at a point that I really want to get back to it but I use making cards as a coping mechanism. I'm afraid once I get there I will have forgotten how.

3. I need a goal to paint toward. No goal no driving force. Our shows have been a good impetus to keep me moving a long. This is true in other parts of my life.

4. Creating in a vacuum all the time alone is not always good. I need to have others around me. I have breakthroughs from virtually being around other artists’ creativity. Even if we're not talking!

5. Sometimes I get to a place in a piece and I don't know where to go so I stop. The fear of ruining something that I like. Creating alone works against me here. Critique groups help.

6. Getting out of the routine of working regularly. I think it would be best for me to make a schedule for my daily life. I tend to create on the weekends but so much competes for that time. I need to devote planned time mid week.

7. Not having a place you can close the door to and not leave out everything you are working on including all the bottles of paint has been a stumbling block. I work out of my garage and it is always chaos in there. It is ready and inviting me to sit down and pick up a brush for 15 minutes, or a half hour or longer.

8. Other things on my list of things to do keep me from creating. The normal things like exercise, grocery shopping, cleaning the house tend to be an avoidance mechanism for me.

9. One big one is Seasonal pulls. In Spring/Summer I need to work in the garden, enjoy the sun, and want to get out and enjoy the weather. I tend to create outside in the summer to resolve this. During Winter it's cold and the garage is always cold to begin with. A heater and wearing layers helps.

10. Looking at all of these stumbling blocks one would think I don't spend much time creating. I do though and thankfully I work quickly and produce a lot when I get there. The difference between me and most of my friends is the % of "Bad Art" I create is equally exponential!

Can You relate?