Wooo Hoo!

Finally! It's done! Now I can get back to normal and start visiting everyone again. I know I've missed a lot of cool art out there, so I have tons of catching up to do.

I'm off to submit it to the gallery now, I hope it makes the show.

P.S. Please excuse the photography, no matter how hard I try I cannot get a real good picture. There is too much detail to try to capture for my amature photography skills, and the piece is 30x30.

P.P.S. it's really a lot brighter in person. :)

Boo!

Halloween is right around the corner, so I thought I'd post another seasonal collage.

Now I have no idea what my pictures look like on your screens, but on mine they are always dull, (the photographs are excellent), but they look washed out on my computer.

Therefore I usually end up fussing with the colors a bit, but then it dawned on me that other people may be seeing some pretty crazy looking saturated photos on their own screens. I really hope this isn't the case, but if it is, I'm sorry.

On another note, things here are bit crazy at the moment. I'm getting ready to submit my next piece to the gallery next week, and since it needs to be huge, it's taking me sometime to finish. I can't wait until it's done so I can show you all, I think it's going to turn out really cool.

You should see my house though, it's turned upside down for this project. Since I don't have a worktable big enough in my studio, the kitchen has now become a temporary art headquarters, everything had to be moved upstairs, and my pantry is stocked full of supplies, to keep away from the inquisitive furry occupants of my home. It's a little disconcerting when I open the doors to grab a snack, and find a mountain of ribbon instead.

Anyway, now you know what's been keeping me away from talking to folks, blog and flickr hoping and even hanging out in my Ning groups. This will all be over in a week, and then things should get back to normal.

Mushroom Land!

Here's another piece I made recently. This one is 10x10 on canvas.

This one was a hard one, and believe it or not nearly the whole original piece was covered up in pink and yellow paint.

Nothing I did worked for this originally. I usually use bits of paper in my collages, and many of them have designs. Well no matter what I did, almost all the designs clashed or were too busy with the mushroom house. I usually work with images of girls so they are a bit easier to place with backgrounds I guess.

This piece ended up working once I got rid of the busy-ness of the background and used more solid colors.

It's a fun piece, and definitely one I could see hanging in a little girls room someday.

In other news, I'm getting ready to start my piece for the next gallery show next month. Who knows if it will be accepted, but I sure hope it is. And this one is a biggie. At least for me. The minimum measurements allowed for the show is 30x30. So that's what I got, because honestly trying to fill anything larger than that with the way I work, is gonna take my whole stock of supplies!

Also I really wanted to thank everyone, who has commented on my work and congratulated me on the gallery show. I love receiving your comments, and try to get back to everyone, but lately I have fallen grossly behind and I'm very embarrassed. :") A few things have gotten in the way of having me attend to my blog duties lately, so please know that I do appreciate each and every comment and am trying hard to reply back as soon as I can.

Oh and one more thing, I desperately need help finding a name for myself. I'm trying to open an esty store, and in the process of getting cards made to hopefully sell in stores etc. I need a name for myself now, and somehow the Cat's Pajama's doesn't quite convey an art image does it?

I was thinking somewhere along the lines of Pixie something or other, stuidos or gallery. I like fairies a lot, and thought it would be fun to have that in my name. Unfortunately Pixiedust Studios is already taken.

But what about Pixiemadison Studios? Or Pixie Madison Studios? Madison was going to be the name of my child if I had a girl. I've had that name picked out since I was like 12, so I really like it. But it never happened, soooooo I'm thinking of using it for me! For some strange reason those two words sound good together. Or so I think.

Then again, I could always try to use my real name and something with Mixed media in the title. But somehow, Michele's Mixed Media Madness seems a bit much don't you think?

So, does anyone have any ideas?

Magic Carpet Ride

So this is the piece I was talking about last night. It was such a troublemaker in the beginning, but I love it now. I think it's the sixties look to it. Plus, the colors are my favorites, and it just looks so fun.

My very favorite bits are the candy looking necklace at the top, and the bits of fringe on the door. The door by the way is a picture I took in San Francisco. I altered the colors in Photoshop, to be more exciting, because the original brown just wouldn't cut it for me. The canvas is 11x14. I really seem to like that size. So much so , that I just received my shipment of 10 more today.

When ever I get my new shipments, I always feel a little overwhelmed looking, at all those blank canvases and thinking, holy cow, now I have to fill all those! Then before I know it, they are all used up, and I'm ordering more.

Oh yeah, I finally sent my Alice piece off to Somerset today, so I guess I find out in March if it made the magazine or not. That would be so cool if it does!

Have a great weekend everyone, I'm off to the annual Artists Open Studios tour tomorrow. I was too late to sign up this year, but hopefully next year I'll get in.

My 15 minutes of fame!

I went by the gallery that is showing my work today, and just had to take a picture to capture this monumental occasion.

Then because I'm still so excited about being in this show, I thought I'd post it! Tee-hee.

So back to business. First of all I finished my Alice in Wonderland piece for Somerset, it will be shipped out tomorrow and I'm so keeping my fingers crossed that it will be published.

I'm still bummed I couldn't enter my original one, but with the Disney characters on it, I guess it would be kinda stupid to send it in. I totally didn't think about copyright issues, until someone brought it to my attention. Whooops! I have learned my lesson though, no more Disney characters for me!

I also finished two other pieces tonight, and one that I hated in the beginning is now one of my very favorites, I cannot wait to post it, it's so much fun.

Unfortunately the one I'm working on now, is a bit of nightmare. I had to leave it be for the night, because we just weren't getting along. Pooh.

Other than that, I need to play catch up on blog hopping, and emaiing, and I'm trying so hard to find a place to get prints made of my work. I really want to try to sell stuff in Etsy, and I do not want to rely on my printer as I don't trust it.

For any of you out there that sell on Etsy or anywhere really, can you tell me how you get your prints? Are you running down to Kinko's every time you get an order, or is there a good place online to go?