Artist Swap: Inspired by James Ryman

Since we had an uneven number of participates for the Artist Swap, Emily was nice enough to take on another partner. Her other partner other than myself was Chris Murray who chose artist James Ryman as one of his favorite artist. James does fantasy art and uses digital, painting, and airbrushing to create his artwork. Check out his artwork here. On his site he has two digit pieces titled, “Student Body” and "Face Food” which inspired the bowl Emily made. If you haven’t guessed it, there are zombies in the artwork. My favorite from both is “Student Body.” Plus, I like the clever title.

When I asked Chris to email me pictures of his Zombie bowl that he kept bragging about he stated in his email, “It’s so cool. It’s the best and only bowl I’ve ever received.” It is obvious to say that Emily surpassed Chris' expectations of this swap. He is eagerly awaiting the next.

Check out what Chris made from Emily for the Artist Swap here.  Chris Murray is also a creative genius; check out his blog here.

Artist Swap: Inspired by Phil Hansen

Brandon Gradillas, an Artist Swap participate, received this cool little box influenced by the artist Phil Hansen, from Maria Romero. When you see the box from afar you'll see a horse standing on grass. When you take a closer look, you'll see the horse is made up of numbers and the grass reveals the message LIVE YOUR DREAM. Maria did a wonderful job in capturing Phil Hansen style.

As I write this post, I’m going through Phil Hansen website and it’s very moving. Why? Many of his artwork when seen up close reveals his viewers’ personal experiences in life, written in permanent marker. He also uses pages from the bible, photographs, and even food when making his artwork.

Check out Phil Hansen website here. I guarantee you’ll find his artwork and methods cool and interesting. Thanks Brandon for sharing this amazing artist with us!

Artist Swap: Inspired by Frida Kahlo

Artist swap pieces are gradually arriving in the mail and I’m ecstatic to hear that Emily’s participates and mine are loving what they received. I will be posting pictures of the artist inspired swap pieces and the artist who inspired the swap piece. My swap partner who happened to be Emily received her package yesterday. Emily’s favorite artists are Frida Kahlo, Oliver Jeffers, Vincent van Gogh, and Margaret Kilgallen; I choose Frida Kahlo as the artist to inspire me for the swap piece. Though, I’m familiar with Frida’s work, okay she’s one of my favorite artist too, I did learn more about her. Like she wrote poetry too.

Frida’s Kahlo’s painting, “The Little Deer” and her poem, “The Wounded Deer” inspired the shadow box gift I made for Emily. Frida’s poem talks about her nine antlers battling nine arrows, so I painted nine toothpicks to look like paintbrushes that have become arrows. The branches are from my backyard. The arrows cause the branches to bleed. They represent the pain that Frida paints in her paintings. I added color to the photograph of Frida and her deer in Photoshop. I used a container with a lid as a shadow box and I cut a window on the lid so when closed Frida and her deer are seen through it. On the back of the shadow box I wrote an excerpt from Frida’s “The Wounded Deer” poem. I love the way the inspired Frida shadow box turned out, especially since I used a container as a shadow box. I might even make one for myself.

I also embroidered some cards inspired by Frida’s embroidered clothing and her “Viva La Vida” painting. I made a Mexican flower made out of tissue paper, of course inspired by the flowers Frida wore in her hair and used it as a bow for Emily’s package. I doodled a picture of Frida on Emily’s package label. Helen Dardik, a Canadian illustrator, inspired the style of the doodle. Helen Dardik is one of my new favorite artists and sells her colorful children illustration on Etsy.

The rest of the week I’ll be posting more inspired artist swap pieces.

Returning Victoriously

I’ve missed you so my blog readers but I’ve returned victoriously! While I neglected you, I was going to school to become a certified Phlebotomist. And, what an interesting journey it was. Not only had I been out of school for 5 years the teacher was the worst teacher I had ever encountered. He was so disrespectful, negative, and didn’t even hand out work sheets or give us quizzes to prepare us for our Phlebotomy National. I have never studied my little heart out like I did for this class. Though all the headaches, fears, and countless hours of studying and neglecting my husband as well as you; I’m proud to say that I passed my Phlebotomy National with an 85% (only needed a 70% to pass) and successfully completed my 40 hours of clinicals! 

There is no way I would have been able to do this without God, the support of my firefighter (my husband), and family and friends. It’s during times like this that you realize who your true friends are, especially when I needed to bring in four friends to draw blood on. My firefighter who hates to donate blood was my first victim. My co-workers, who I consider my second family, were constantly encouraging me with positive words. To celebrate my huge accomplishment, my co-workers got me a delicious carrot cake with pink blood drops around it and Debbie made the awesome banner for the cake. Look at the little skull in the middle of the banner with flowers for eyes; Debbie knows me so well. Debbie makes other awesome cake/cupcake decorations too, check out her Etsy shop here. 

Now, that I have returned I plan to shower you with blog posts! 

It’s good to be back.