Snowed In

Winter weather was out in full force again this weekend.

While on our way up to Rockford to visit my stepson Jack, we got caught in a white out. 

There was a few hours of white knuckled driving. Not fun! 

We intended to take the 6 hour drive back home to Carbondale on Monday,

 but got caught in a blizzard and had to say an extra night.

Despite the crap-tastic weather, we still managed to have a nice visit with Jack and the rest of our family. 

We celebrated my cousin's 21st birthday with a Sunday morning breakfast. 

Instead of taking a picture of my fam, I took snap of this cool sign. 

Sorry family.

I got to see my 92 year old grandmother. (Again, no picture.) 

While I was at her apartment I came across her great collection of icons. This one is my fave.

  Jack has been drawing again and allowed me to share a couple of his faves here.

 

 I was able to work on this red-belied woodpecker. He's just about done.

Now we're home and about to go enjoy a walk in 60 degree weather. Yahoo!  

Hope you have a great week. Ta-Ta for now! 

A Happy Accident

Hi there. How are you?

If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, you'll know that I'm all about the birds lately. I'm hoping to have a whole new "flock" of them for my 2014 art fair season. To see my whole collection of birds, head here. 

This is my black-capped chickadee. Pretty cute if I do say so myself! I had finished up the illustration and was ready to mount it onto the cradled hardboard support. That's when the "happy accident" occurred. Well, actually, there were two accidents. First off, I cut the paper too short, leaving a bit of the hardboard showing. 

I was immediately annoyed at my stupid mistake and wasn't sure what to do to make it right. I first considered trying to patch in a tiny piece of graph paper to cover the gap, but I knew it would look quite obvious. Then I noticed the second accident....A tiny piece of paper had gotten sandwiched in between the sticker paper and the graph paper and it had created a visible dent. I was officially annoyed. Instead of having a total freak out and ripping the birdie from the hardboard,  I took a step back from the piece and let it be for a moment. Then, I came up with a plan. 

In terms of color, this piece was pretty quiet, so I decided on adding a band of color at the bottom. These were just left-over bits of paper I had from another project. I liked the contemporary pop that these pieces added. But there was still that pesky little bit of paper showing on the right side. In a very uncharacteristic manner, I decided to step away from this piece again. (This is so unlike me...I'm pretty rash and impulsive when it comes to artmaking. I don't often take the time to plan.)

After a bit of thinking, I decided to add a few of my signature abstract flower shapes to cover up the dent and liven up the negative space. I'm not quite sure if it's done yet. I still may add some ink embellishments into or around the collaged shapes or add a typed "nametag" to this, like I have my other birds. I'm just going to sit and stew before I do anything. I can officially say that I love this little guy, and I'm excited to add more collage elements to my next few bird pieces. This was indeed a happy accident! Hooray! 

Have you had a "happy accident" in your art or life? Do share. I'd love to hear about it!

Have an excellent week. Ta-Ta for now!

New Art in the New Studio

Hi there. How are you?

Matt and I both made good use of the new studio this weekend.

Matt has started a small oil painting. 

I've been working on some new birds. 

 Both the House Finch and Varied Thrush are available for purchase! 

($150 each plus shipping.) Give me a holler if you're interested.

See you next Tuesday. Ta-Ta.