Art on a mug

I like the idea but I don't like this particular style of coffee cup.... I am still looking for manufacturers, so if you have any suggestions on this topic leave your comments below or email me at The Artsy Life (at) gmail dot com

I Love Time Square

My sister and my oldest daughter were visiting us last week and this past weekend we went to New York to visit my aunt and decided to go to Time Square to have lunch first and of course a bit of site seeing for them because this was their first time there. We had Great fun. Here are some pictures of them on the streets. Every time I go it's very inspiring for me as a artist I always come back ready to produce more art, it's something about the rush of energy I get from being in such a fast paced setting. Although I feel this way I believe that if I had to live there it could become overwhelming to deal with on an every day basis, but love, love, love visiting, my sister and daughter loved it too.

Pic of the day

This picture came from my iPhone (it still won't upload all my pictures and I haven't had time to go get it looked at yet). This was taken right after we got our lights back on. I was drawing some ideas I had in my sketch book and I looked down after I took a break and decided to document what I saw with my camera.

Quick Study

In the bouquet that was shown yesterday my favorite flower (or maybe it's foliage) is this green thing pictured here (I don't know the name of it either, if anyone knows what it is please leave it in the comments below, Thanks). I LOVE fresh flowers and Thankfully my husband understands this and surprises me randomly, "just because," but he was out of town for the week. But my mother-in-law was visiting so I bought these myself to add a little more spice to our kitchen table but when she left I moved them into my studio. This morning I felt the need to use my watercolor pencils and the bottom picture is my quick morning study and I know that this plant will show up in a future painting in a more whimpsical way.

In the Studio

This picture is just a random shot of one wall in the upstairs studio. What have I been up to? Well I have 4 new paintings going and I shot a lot of video that I need to upload to ArtsyLifeTV, soon hopefully. The girls are back in school and me and baby "Z" are trying to figure out how our days without the girls can work for both of us, she misses them so. When the girls get on the bus me and "Z" shower and spend time together first eating breakfast them playing, singing B-I-N-G-O AND Itsy Bitsy Spider (those are her two favorites at the moment, you should see her trying to do the hand motions with "Itsy Bitsy Spider," too funny, she claps and laughs a lot (I Luv her laugh) until she goes down for a nap. Then I'm off to the studio (the dining room next to the kitchen) to get my creative juices flowing I sometimes do small quick paintings (watercolor) or draw... rarely are these sold, they are mainly just for me to tryout something new or just plain old exercise.

This is a bouquet I made with colors that reminded me of autumn, cutting the flowers and placing them in this little tin vase (with a smaller glass vase inside) I had purchased at a dollar store years ago always seems to make it's appearance around this time every year. I do enjoy changing seasons but just not the long winters. If we could lengthen the Spring and Fall I would be very happy. So to ALL my friends on twitter, facebook, ArtsyLifeTV and new people that drop by this blog, Thank You. And we have a new Giveaway coming soon, be sure to check out all the above links and subscribe, friend me and Like me... but in the mean time answer one or both of the questions.... What do you do to spark your creative flames? and or what do you tend to do every year around this time?

Hurricane Irene aftermath

Well thank God Hurricane Irene was reduced down to just tropical rains by the time it hit our area I can imagine how much worst it could have been if she actually showed up in her full glory. These pictures are of what our house still looks like two weeks later but hopefully not for much longer. The house looks so odd, our house is sticking out like a sore thumb because none of our neighborhood's had this much damage, if any. I have some great pictures of the tree that fell which were taken in the mist of the storm but they are on my iphone and they will not upload to my mac, I think it's the phone and not the computer but I will have to take both in to get the problem solved, so until then, this is all I have. The tree was cleaned up by our friendly neighbors (Thanks to them), we can now get out of our front door and into our garage.

When the tree fell the house shook like a large bomb just had exploded, so to be woken up by that sound but not knowing exactly what it was my husband and I jumped up and he ran to find out twhat it was and I rushed to my children. These pictures do not depict the drama of the whole situation it was very scary...VERY.

...and the WINNER is....

Thank you to all that entered our first GIVEAWAY.

We here at ARTSY LIFE studio are still without electricity and with sketchy iPhone service (this post is being made for the fifth time) but we will get our pendants sent out as soon as we can.
And finally the WINNER is
Marquitas Art

Thanks again and look for the Next GIVEAWAY!!!
once we get out electricity back, I will upload pictures of the tree that fell, grazing the side of our house and tore off the gutters.

Random Drawing- ENTER TO WIN

We will be randomly selecting a winner for our Floral Burst Pendants -Fall Colors on August 31st. CLICK THE LINKS BELOW

TO BE ELIGIBLE TO WIN YOU MUST DO THE FOLLOWING
1. Leave a comment on the blog post titled: Floral Burst Pendants- Fall colors.
2. Follow us on twitter: myartsylife
3. Like our FaceBook Page: The Artsy Life Boutique

OPTIONAL
** Retweet this Drawing link
***Subscribe to my YouTube channel: ArtsyLifeTV

The WINNER will recieve THREE of the small Floral Burst Pendants in their choice of the Fall Colors.

SHOP Here- The Artsy Life Boutique: theartsylifeboutique.etsy.com
Currently you will find the "Rustic Glamour" Jewelry- summer colors and a few of our summer pendants
*****Recieve 40% OFF (Until Saturday September 10th) Current stock in the etsy shop by using discount code:
I Entered (ONLY for those who do enter THIS drawing).
FALL Colors will be Available for sale on ETSY, Mid-September

People who left a comment on the Floral Burst Pendants-FALL Colors blog post previous to this post will still qualify.

Thanks For your Participation.

Color by COLOURlovers

Found a new site to go and play around with color. This site is a great artistic exercise, you might want to give it a try, click the link and have fun.

Floral Burst Pendants- FALL colors

Antiqued Silver, Deep Teal, Grape, Cranberry, Antiqued Gold

You can take a look at the Promo Video Here It will be titled "Floral Burst Pendants- FALL

I do love fall with the leaves on the trees changing colors, it's just beautiful. We have been working on some orders for the stores that carry our pendants for that past few weeks. And although the quantities of each size of pendant was determined, that exact colors were left up to us and after looking at the Fall color forecast we chose to do three of the colors (our version) along with antiqued gold and silver. These will also be available in out Etsy shop, The Artsy Life Boutique soon.

The pendants are SOLD individually, they can be worn as a single pendant from a chain or ribbon, but our customers tend to buy them is sets of three or four, combining them with differents colors and or sizes to make your our custom "Bib Style" Statement necklace.









Each pendant is Hand sculpted so that NO TWO pendants are alike (they vary in peddle, rosette and bead placement) so your pendants are definately ONE-OF-A-KIND (ART Jewel) pieces.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for upcoming Give-a-ways: ArtsyLifeTV

In the Studio: While I slept

While I slept last night this idea came to me. I had to get it out of my head and into a 3D form. I like it but this is what I will call a rough draft in clay.
mmmmmm.... what is it??? You shall see in a future post.

To Do List: Goals

1. To have 6 stores carrying my art and designs.

I have one now and one more that I am in the process of making more "Floral Burst" Pendants for. ( so I can say I have 2 stores already)

2. To have Three paintings finished and Prints Ready to show.

More than three painting a in progress but two should be finished soon. The pendants have been catching the eye of retailers (Yay!!!) so that's where my time has been in sculpting those.... maybe I will have to set my clock for 4 am to get some painting done before the girls wake.

3. To have a Artsy Life Logo that I really like done before January 2012

4. Need to write copy for the brochure, edit photos, and add the Logo.

5. Design tags for Jewelry Line and Business cards.

6. Make more videos for my YouTube channel: ArtsyLifeTV

7. Upload inforamtion to my Facebook and Twitter at least 4 days a week.

"Being" a response to fellow artist Mystele

this painting is a work in progress for my "Afro Series"

This post is to add to the conversation that a fellow artist is having over on her blog and the topic is "being" who you are and yet continuing to still blossom in to who you are becoming. I think of this as understanding yourself and "being" open to the fact that in our
lives we all have the chance to turn from the caterpillar to the beautiful butterfly but.... like the caterpillar we sometimes have to sit still. The Still times in our lives may be times when everything we are going through is not what we wanted for ourselves but with a shift in retrospect we can look back and see how we were in our transforming state. Unlike the catapillar though we may go through transformation several times in our lives before we are our ultimate-selves (A Beautiful Butterfly).

I know that in my "being" I am in a transforming state right now and for me things are taking a bit longer to get to the other side (to the place where I have invisioned for myself). But I am thankful that I can understand that although I still get impatient from time to time, I have learned to take a moment, B R E A TH (meditate/ Pray) and proceed with caution (not for fear) because wisdom is being bestowed upon me. Wisdom.... Oh it's such a Great gift. Having wisdom does not mean I have all the answers... not at all.. but it does mean I will be equiped to deal with my lifes ups and downs with MORE patients and will seek to understand better, other than getting frantically upset like in past situations (which only made things worst). I am enjoying just "Being," living and loving life, taking the good with the not-so-good, just continuing to LEARN to be a better me.

Please stop by Mystele's blog and see what she's up to.

In the Studio: Color Joy

These are pictures of some old and NEW projects I've been working on. It's crazy how some works come to me and they develop and are finished fairly quickly and others seem to go on forever... every time I think they are finished I seem to glance across the room at them and find that one (LOL!) more layer needs to be added. And then there are those paintings or art project that you just know, this MUST be scrapped ( maybe not thrown away- It took me a while to learn this one), meaning painted over or torn apart. But in all I like to document the process as often as possible. Only one of these paintings is completely finished (I think, LOL!).

Quick ArtPlay

Just a quick exercise of the Art muscle this morning. It's water color and pencil.

Pinc Boutique

This picture is of Baby "Z" who is hanging out with the boutique owner Kimberely Pettey.










This is where my "Floral Burst" Pendants are being sold so if you are in the New London, Connecticut area stop in to the Pinc Boutique at 52 State Street and check out the many different local artists offerings from paintings to bath products, you are bound to find something for yourself and a gift. Here are a few pics of the shop.



I had the chance to meet a fellow artist that sells her beautiful jewelry at the boutique also, JenniferL. Johnson the Art Salad Studio, "fresh fused glass." You can visit her websit to see her jewelry by clicking on the link.

Coming Soon

I love the juxtaposition of these pendant grouping although they are all sold seperately ( simular pendants available at my Etsy shop) and look very beautiful worn alone they just seem to become "Statement Bibs" when worn in clusters





These Gorgeous Goodies will be available for sale at "The Pinc Boutique" retailer here in the Connecticut area. More details and pictures of these Pendants when they are actually displayed in the boutique, I call them the "Floral Burst" from my "Rustic Glamour" Collection. They are not meant to look exactly like any particular flower and are accented with my varying placement of little round balls of clay in between the peddles adds a bit of whimpsy. These Art Jewelry pieces are hand sculpted, hand painted and finished to give them a time worn feel.

In the Studio: Discarded Pieces

A happy accident with discarded handmade beads that I hadn't been overjoyed with the color combinations for the earrings I was making for my Etsy Shop, they had been sitting for months in a bowl by my desk but somehow these pieces when all combined on one chain (instead of as pairs of earrings) makes a Beautiful Fun Ethnic Feeling Necklace that I just may sell ( ART Jewlery for $140.00 The chain is a combination of Antique Gold and Gun metal silver.) or enjoy for myself... I have not decided yet.

A Need to Create

These paintings have been considered "works in progress for over a year and now I have come to know I dislike this painting enough to just paint over it.
I read this post on Kristina's blog today and she had said she painted because she had a need to create in another post she titled "Rejection" and it made me think about my own need to create. I discovered my need to create when I was a young child, somehow having a pen, pencil, markers, crayons, scissors and paper always made me happy. It really is an unexplainable joy I get when I create something I am pleased with. Although there is a very small percentage of all of the items I have created that I truly love... I just enjoy being creative. I truly have a need to create, but the funny thing is there are days when the need is there but the inspiration of ideas are not flowing... crazy I know especially after claiming I have a need to create. I have found that my percentage of creating things I do not love has went down because I have found when I don't have the inspiration, I must not even try to create. If I do disaster usually happens (paintings above examples of this), this is the way I used to believe and reading her post changed my perspective on trying to avoid what I called my disasterous paintings and art projects. I understand that even if the percentage of things I create, that "I Love" are few that is OK and I am just fulling my need to create and this is just who I am and that is just fine.

This banner is from my girls school gym, but it is soooo.... what I am feeling like right now. I am working on some exciting projects to be revealed as they come to reality. I just seen this banner and it spoke to me as to how I feel the colors are happy and that is me.

Here is the link to see my children's performance with their class. Renny and Bell

In the Studio

These little beauties are no longer just a rough sketch in my artist sketch book, they are now available in my NEW Etsy shop called: The Artsy Life Boutique along with the new shop I have decided to rename this blog also "The Artsy Life." A new Logo will be designed and put both on this blog as the header and the Etsy shop along with the Youtube Channel, Artsy Life TV.

www.youtube.com/user/artsylifetv Please. Subscribe to the channel I will be uploading some new videos soon.

www.etsy.com/shop/TheArtsyLifeBoutique You can reach the Boutique with this link or by clicking on the Etsy Tab above.

And I want you to know, I Thank You For taking the time out of your day to visit my blog.