Cuck-COOL

The bird room, I call it—my new studio. Images and shapes of birds naturally grew to be a theme in my new space—on a painting, a bag, a ceramic dish, a piece of stationery. They live very happily with all the old wooden pieces in the room. But the bird of all birds, the pièce de résistance, is my new cuckoo clock complete with pendulum and little red bird.

Its plastic feathers flip up at every other sound of the cuckoo. It is the trendiest timepiece I've ever purchased, yet it has a timeless quality that I admire. It's cool and weird and beautiful at the same time. Does this now mean that I'm the crazy bird lady? I can live with that.

Jonah!

My cousin, Cecile, delivered a baby boy at 8am this morning in Baltimore. I was so happy for her I created a little piece to commemorate the occasion. Since his name is Jonah, I used obvious imagery for inspiration. I can't wait to meet him! I don't know what he looks like yet, but I figured perhaps he has a nice head of hair like his mama.

Old Pieces, New Inspiration

Old desk and fresh inspiration board

Now that the basement's finished, and my husband's moved his workspace out of the spare bedroom, I've got a whole new room to do with what I want. So in came the wonderfully old and wooden drafting table that was given to me by my dear friends, plus, a consignment shop find that hides an older Singer cast iron for a proper and permanent spot for my sewing machine.

Inside this old table is a 1950's cast iron Singer, above it, a 15 year old Bernina

The first order of business in my new, extended studio space was a sewing project. I'm loving all the funky plush out in the market, especially all the odd characters and the use of unpredictable materials, so I just had to make some of my own. As a warm-up, I've started with the first lesson in a book called Softies and then improvised from there. The result is this unusual bunny, complete with fuzzy tale and...cloven feet? Don't ask me what it's all about, but then that's the fun of it. Now that I've got a fabulous new space to enjoy, you can expect that I'll be making many more I-don't-know-whats in the near future, and I would bet, more inspired paintings, too.

Funny bunny

Happy New Year!!

I know, I'm only 8 days late, but you know the saying (insert sarcasm here). One can either interpret this entry as a bad start to the New Year, as in too much egg nog and chocolate over the celebration who wants to start working anyway because freelancing is practically like being retired, or that I'm so gosh darn busy I can't keep my &@$# straight.

Well, it's a little bit of both. I didn't do much of anything during the holidays, in terms of being creative. In fact, I let my brain hibernate for a while (a week). But there were consequences to that... short term memory loss, forgetting clients' names, forgetting how to draw, not blogging in time to greet everyone Happy New Year.

And yet, I was assigned a slew of new work just before the New Year even started, almost miraculously. I consider myself pretty lucky that I can keep up this lifestyle, and that's why when someone wishes me a "...Very Happy and Prosperous New Year," I'm much obliged.

And so I wish the same for you.