New Prints!!!

I have a bunch of new print offerings in the store as of right now! Available in sizes from 13x19 at 35usd, up to the largest one which is 48x60 at 500usd. Go check them out!

Laura, 13x19 or 36x48.

Hadrian, 13x19 or 36x36 or 48x48. Poster print or Canvas print with a 4 inch border for mounting.

FlyBy, 13x19 or 28x40 or 48x60. Poster print or Canvas print with a 4 inch border for mounting.

Millenium, 13x19 or 30x40. Poster print or Canvas print with a 4 inch border for mounting.

Halcyon...same deal....

Ochi

Pretty right? I just found this on Pinterest. I am always thinking I should layer art in my bedroom, but I never get around to it. I love this idea! Upon closer inspection I realized dude! thats my print!

Kristi's Friday Fixations: Davis Ayer

I am a little bit obsessed with finding new artists. I have folders and bookmarks and notebooks full of names and images that I just fall in love with. I can't help myself! There is so much artistic genius out there and I want to see it all! My current artist crush is Davis Ayer. Get ready for some serious envy...

Ayer is an Austin, TX based photographer and he does lots of yummy things with light, motion, multiple-exposure, and projection. Plus, his models are gorgeous.

He shoots almost strictly with analog cameras (no digital), which helps to give them that kind of grainy, tactile look. Aren't they stunning?!

I know that these just made your day a little brighter. It's pretty much impossible that they didn't. It's okay, you can thank me later. :)

-Kristi

Actual picture of actual table

Here you go. I should have posted an image of the frigg'n table. I just took this, not styled. In other news this morning I made coffee without any coffee in it. I can feel my sleep starting to get crazy, I wonder what it is about warm weather that makes me crazy? In otherother news, one of my favorite designers ever, of Domino glory bought one of my paintings, one of my favorite paintings. I am over the moon.

Bloggstress

I think maybe I will start blogging in the morning. It is so nice here at our new table. I bought a long (8ft) heart of pine farmhouse table for our kitchen recently. We have an antique place near us that I consider the farmhouse table emporium, and there it was, the perfect length and width. It just fit in the old Van.

My old man back just really does prefer a chair with back support, no matter how comfy the stools were. We found that a table in the dining room just didn't get enough use. I could not tell you why but thats the whats. We still haven't hosted anyone here yet, in our kitchen on our new table. How about you all come over for a couple glasses of red wine and some grilled sundries?

The table has a particular woody smell too. I like that in a table, tickle the senses!

This isn't really even a good photo of our pretty canopy here. Our neighborhood used to be a peacan orchard, isn't that romantic? We have lots of big, beautiful southern oaks and they create the prettiest canopy and we are serenaded by birds all day long. I always go outside to look up into the trees when I need a break and I always think about what it was like when it was a pure forrest with Indians living in it. Oh if I could travel back in time! I would be a total Indian girl...now thats romantic. I would have it all, those people were artisans, and makers so I imagine myself outside in the cool spring breeze making a giant...something or other with pretty beads and I would probably have a hunky husband with dark skin and long hair (already have that actually).

You can just make out Coco, queen of all she surveys. This weekend when we were in North Carolina at my folks house I was in tree heaven. (I have pics for you guys too, in a few days they will be ready, I have to make em purdy). In other news, I am getting a fake tan today. I am getting spray painted, yikes! Have you ever done it? Will I look orange?

Pretty Organization

Is it actually Sunday night already? Yikes. I am still recovering from spending a weekend away. I dreamed about a cat who turned into a human to seduce strange older men...then turned back into a cat later on. Gross. O and I were in the mountains breathing salubrious air and eating lots of food and drinking red wine. I might still be sleeping right now actually. Isn't that a pretty pile of canvases? I took this picture right quick as I was leaving on Thursday.

Kristi's Friday Fixations: Super-Duper Frizzy-Fresh

Spring has officially arrived! And while I could certainly do without all of the pollen that's been coating my car, balcony, patio furniture, nasal passages, eyeballs, etc, I couldn't be happier for the season change. And you know one of the HUGE reasons why?! It's strawberry season!

Just look at those babies! Perfectly red, and ripe, and juicy, and sweet. YUM! I literally eat buckets and buckets full of strawberries this time of year (by the way, this website is a great resource for finding local, pick-your-own farms and is how I found a fabulous strawberry patch nearest me). If you're not drooling yet, just you wait...there's more!

Sometimes when I feel like making an impressive-looking dessert without actually having to put much effort or thought into it, I make chocolate-covered strawberries. And since strawberries have been particularly plentiful in my household for the past few weeks, I've been making a ton of them. They're just so darn easy and charming! Here's how:

The amount of chocolate you use is going to vary depending on how many strawberries you intend to make and how big your strawberries are. I use the individually-wrapped Dove's Milk Chocolate Bliss candies for my strawberries (but you can use any kind of chocolate that you like, really), and I've found that one bag of candy typically yields about two-dozen berries. You can adjust your amounts accordingly. In fact, if you're anything like me, you might just want to pick up an extra bag regardless because a handful of those candies almost always go missing--and by missing, I mean stuffed into my face.

Unwrapping each of those little guys is a bit tedious, but it's something you can easily do while watching the tube. Just zone out and let your fingers do the work. I always melt my chocolate over a double-boiler by placing the chocolate in a large glass bowl over a small pot of gently simmering water and stirring frequently until smooth. Just make sure that you don't get any water into your chocolate or it'll seize--basically get clumpy and gross and you'll cry because you've wasted so much chocolate. If this sounds intimidating, you can always microwave your chocolate on in a microwave-safe bowl at ten-second intervals, stirring after each zap, until smooth. You'll only want to do this until your chocolate is smooth though, otherwise you run the risk of burning it--and again with the weeping.

Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper/wax paper/tin foil/whatever you've got on hand and prepare for dippage! You can either leave the strawberry stems on or off of your berries. I happen to think that they look nicer and are easier to dip with the stems on, but they seem to last longer if you remove the stem and dip the entire thing. It's really up to you. Grab those babies by the stem and dunk as much of the red part as you can into that smooth, chocolaty goodness (or toss your de-stemmed berries in and use two forks to get them completely coated). Place your coated berries on your prepared cookie sheet, refrigerate, and voila!

Easy peasy lemon squeezy! For this particular batch, I de-stemmed my berries and then decorated them with a little white-chocolate and dark-chocolate drizzle, topped with heart-shaped sprinkles; but you can get creative and decorate them however you'd like. Colored candy melts and sprinkles and patterns and designs--oh my! The possibilities are endless! And no matter what you do, you can be guaranteed that they are going to taste amazing.

What about you guys? What are your go-to desserts? I'm always looking to fill up my recipe book with little gems like this--any suggestions?

-K

New Paintings

I have some new things in the shop this week.

Christmas Music

That bowtie I like

Specs

Colors that taste good

Yum yum. I love spring for the resurgence of juicy colors all over the place.

I saw this on Joy Thigpen's blog. I LOVE her, I am still trying to dream up a project to work with her on. Plus we both went to Berry College, but I only lasted one year there.

Pretty dresses from Hatch.

tasty drinks...

and sexy chairs to drink them on.

Numnum

This is gonna me and my ladies on our girl trip to NYC!

Lets get all dressed up!

Don't mind if I do.

magic

purdy

Honing in, Chakras and Drum Circles

I have really had a lesson in taking my own advice lately let me tell you. (can I just say that I cringe when I read back over this post b/c there are so many "I"s.) I have been forcing myself to really examine what my priorities are because I don't have time for everything, in fact it feels like I don't have time for anything. Last week, every single day I came home so tired that I would just sit and quietly cry. My entire body and brain were just finished, just done. I don't think I even looked at my dogs the whole week. Poor dogs, poor husband.

This happens to me much more since I had the AF issue a few years ago, and it is accompanied by a strain in my throat that is so painful I can't swallow. My feeling is that it has something to do with the throat Chakra (that shit is for real ya'll).

"It is the mouthpiece by which you communicate your truths. Energy from the fifth chakra is rightly associated with a pure blue color – representing the ‘true blue’ essence of your soul. When you express your thoughts, beliefs, and opinions to others, you are sharing this essence through your energy."

Van G

I get this feeling when I push myself to the point of having nothing left to give. I know I should not do it, but I don't mean to, it just happens. The truth is I don't have whatever it is that most people have that let them work all day and then take care of shit at home. I can't work 40 hours a week and then come home and take care of everything, and I don't even have kids! It fills me with a cold dread thinking of adding more people to my overstuffed life. But that is for another time. Alternitavely O is like a mac truck, he can go and go and then wake up at 5am and just keep going!

helen frankenthaler, 1928-2011

But what am I actually doing that takes up so much time? Dude. Fucking thinking! I know, right, crazy. I think too much. Writing a detailed schedule for the week on Sunday nights really helps. Making lists, having "focused" time is essential (like right now I am "focused" on my work and nothing is distracting me. Not my phone dinging with messages, not the inexplicable lesbian drum circle happening two doors down, not O asking me a million questions that I totally do not respond to ((he knows this is my focus time, but he can't help himself on account of being a man, he can't help himself...))

Iris Van Dongen

So basically I have had to come up with ways to really figure out what I am good at, and stick to that. I really enjoy learning about composition and texture, it gets me all excited. I like looking for new color combinations, and creating large archives of interesting ideas in art that I want to think about. Whenever I am stuck, or feeling un-inspired I just sit back and look over my folders and it gets my gears moving. I also really like strategizing about how to make my business better, make the daily processes smoother and implementing steps to make my major goals come true.

Frantisek Kupka

 Of course I really love to paint, and I try very hard to foster an environment and a cadence to my life that allows me to paint the way I like it best: free and clear and working toward a goal for each painting to explore something new or to re-visit something dear to me. For example right now I am taking a hiatus from commissions, it is risky because commissions pay the bills around here. I am sooo tired though! I was watching helplessly as my creativity left me like a slow drip, and the joy of painting turned to drudgery. As the commissions have slowed (I still have a few to finish) I am feeling better and better, mostly because I can devote more time to what I really love, and am best at: painting to explore my ideas. When I am confident that I have a strategy for taking on more work, I will start painting commissions again.

Frantisek Kupka. Le Rouge a Levres II. 1908

When I tought about writing about "honing in on what you are good at" I thought about the many makers who contact me with this question, "I make so many different things, and draw or paint in so many different styles, how do I pick something to sell?"

Well, I usually offer the advice that everything you make will look like you made it, so just make whatever you enjoy making. Eventually if you put it all out there you will see that some things sell better than others, and as you progress as an artist, you will naturally evolve your work and learn what sells and what people are most drawn to in your creations. It goes back to my credo that you just have to quit fucking looking around with your finger in your mouth and jump in already. I personally have been making and creating for so long that I truly believe painting is just the distilled essence of creation for my brain; an immediate and tactile way to live inside of what I constantly think about. It will be the same for you. I would say I spent most of my spare time since I was a child creating art sooo....don't know what else to say on that.

All images (except for the chakra tutorial) from my art inspiration pinterest.
Also, this post is sort of all over the place, the more I write about these topics, the more I think...well what is left to say? I mean you just have to get up and and go. Like we say around here "Shoot now, aim later." But, I try, so I hope you enjoy.