ten four

Today is the last day of ten-four and for those who weren't able to make it, I thought I'd post pictures of my pieces.

"Queen of the Cowboys"

business is business

You know I mean business when I've got two different palettes going.

VIP Party - Groovy

Since my art was chosen for the Oak Knoll Winery's 2012 Rose Festival Collector Series, I've been invited to special parties for people who help put on the Portland Rose Festival. One of them was a VIP "thank you" party with a groovy theme. John and I went with six other people from Oak Knoll Winery in a Las Vegas stretch limo (which I've been told is a bit on the longer side) and we went to Spirit Mountain Casino for the event.

John and I dressed up by going to Goodwill a couple hours before we had to meet. Usually it's hard to find exactly what you need there, but this time luck was on our side. John found a shirt and brown pants, and I a shiny fat silver belt and the crazy shirt.

On the limo ride to and from Spirit Mountain Casino we had fun with a variety of wines and playing with the lights, especially in the night.

kiger mustangs

Kiger Mustangs with Steens Mountain in the background

watercolor painting on paper, 11" x 14"

Graduation!

I GRADUATED!!!

Hooray! It was a beautiful day on Saturday for my graduation ceremony and party/BBQ.

My art at ten•four, NW 10th and Hoyt in the Pearl District, Portland.

wine label news

Here are some links to articles about my Rose Festival Wine Labels:

Rose City Label Company

Oregon Fox 12 News

OCAC Student Services Facebook


Last night was the unveiling of another wine label contest I entered. It was for Thirst a bistro, wine tasting, and parties place in Portland in the River Place Esplanade. They had a special get together for the semi-finalist artists, and John and I went. We enjoyed the wine and appetizers. The contest was to design labels for the in-house white and red wines. Then the moment of unveiling, the owner pulled the wine bottles out the paper bags and they were mine! I was so excited. A grand total of 30 people entered designs and mine was chosen. 

Now, I need to keep the momentum going of entering contest and being confident in my designs. While thinking about this particular design I had a couple going through my head and decided to focus on the one I thought was the strongest, even though there was the option of entering multiple designs. I have a couple alterations to do on the designs, which is expected, nothing can be perfect the first time around, especially in designing labels.

Photos to come. I hope everyone's week is rounding out nicely!

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day, I know I did.

A couple days ago I sold one of my prints I did while I was experimenting for my thesis. It was a Mother's Day present for the wife of one of my instructors. He was so excited about the print, it seemed like he was partially buying it for himself than his wife. haha.... Here is the print again.

I started a new painting of some Kiger Mustangs in their natural environment near Steens Mountain.

I have more work to do on the background and especially on the horses. I almost always do the eyes last because that's when it seems the animals become alive.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

seed pods from India

So, I've been helping an alumni from school with this commission from a graduating MFA student. It's crazy. I worked 4 eight-hour days beading/wrapping 22 gauge copper wire around/through star anise and rudraksha seed pods. I've stabbed my fingers with the wire and now the numbness is wearing off, thank goodness.

Today I finished my first run through of a public powerpoint presentation I give at school on Thursday. I get to add more things on since it was too short, I'm talking about my thesis year and art. And now the sun is shining after it has been cloudy and rainy. It's such a nice change :-)

I hope everyone has a great day!

crazy time

I'm starting to loose it. Thesis will be the end of me. I have till tomorrow to print my paper, get it signed and bound at Kinkos. I have to buy special archival paper from the front desk at school and they are OUT! And I need to turn things in TOMORROW. They are supposed to get more today, I need it before I leave around noon to help with an alumni's overwhelming commission. This commission is crazy, the girl in charge of it is finishing her applied craft masters degree and decided to make the square footage more than the original idea. The problem is time and materials. I'm helping so that it is done in a week and we aren't even halfway done. It consists of using 22 gauge copper wire, wrapping there Indian seed pods that look like mini brains and some star shaped seed pods. Each strand is 9 1/2 feet, there are 9 "panels" of 12. It's a lot of work, like I said. 

I've been warned by one of my teachers not to spread myself too thin, that might be already too late. Oh well. I'll get it all done. I may just have to slow down on the commission help to work on finishing the things I need to do to GRADUATE.

As for something fun, my hubby and I are going to the midnight showing of The Avengers with his brother, for his birthday. I'm looking forward to that, but not waking up tomorrow morning to come to school ... 

And you should check out my studio-mate's website. She has made some pretty crazy stuff for her thesis.

Cheers.