"Birds of a Feather" Treasury

Etsy seller Lorie Lynn has included my "Calling Blackbird" painting in her latest treasury, "Birds of a Feather."  Here it is!  (And check out her shop as well... she makes some very pretty and unique vintage-inspired jewelry.)

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=128310

I especially love the print on the vintage dictionary page and the "Spring Has Sprung" wall sculpture.  Nice work, everyone!  

A New Perspective

For years, I have neglected the painting projects that truly interested me because I thought that they would never sell.  My ideas always seemed a little too odd, a little too off-color, and a little too intellectual, and a little too eerie for most people's tastes.  The one piece that I completed for myself, I loved... and other people loved... but I found it inexpressibly irritating to repeatedly explain its very specific meaning when viewers asked, only to find that most of them stopped listening halfway through.

I resigned myself to painting landscapes and cutesy little scenes, which I didn't much care for, because they sold.  When I discovered Etsy (through my Mom-in-Law), it was like walking out of a cubical and into a forest.  That may not make much sense, so just imagine your worst, most suffocating work environment and then the best, most inspiring one and you'll know just what I mean.  Browsing through Etsy taught me that the best art for me to make is the kind that I love the most.  Interview after interview with successful sellers expressed the same idea: do what you love, or there is no point in making art.  If you love it, somebody else out there will love it too.

The monster character paintings have been my first foray into painting for the sheer pleasure of it.  For instance, though I haven't sold a single "Frederick the Mum" painting, I keep re-creating the character because he makes me giggle every time I look at him.  Somewhere out there, I'm sure there is someone with the same quirky, morbid sense of humor who will love him as much as I!  Could it be you?
  

"Frederick the Mum with Moths"

Currently, I am looking into having giclee prints made of some new pieces I have done (more on those another day).  I have also started work on a series of paintings that are symbolic of different historical events that have impacted me emotionally.   Finally, I am contemplating a series based on literary works by authors such as Hemingway, Woolf, and Vonnegut (to name a few).

I welcome constructive criticism, comments, questions, and ideas, so please feel free to tell me your thoughts!