At least you can sweat in style

Now Available: Buy the Mid-Century Bird Menagerie at Etsy

Mid-century styled blank cards to be used as postcards, giftcards or framed art. Each pack of five (5) assorted cards comes with matching brown recycled paper envelopes.

These beautiful, full-colour, glossy cards are printed onto sleek, thick, glossy stock paper. The colours are incredibly vibrant and these designs are perfect for bird lover, nature lovers, and fans of the mid-century modernist style.

The printing on these is incredibly gorgeous. I'm framing a set for my own home I love these so much. The colours came out quite brilliant.

For sale on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5367942

Etsy Curated Finds: Tiki-riffic Teak

Painting Under the Influence - Pt. II

This is the piece that came out of my trance painting session. I wish I had words sometimes to describe how I arrived at some of my pieces. This is the kind of art a lot of people find it hard to understand because it's so simple looking. I've been a painter all my life and yet I still can't explain to you how I got here with this, other than it was very emotional for me and influenced by something only I was exposed to.

When you have the opportunity to create something people recognize and comprehend without explanation, I think it's still a hard job but easier to gain acceptance with. Things like this are usually accompanied by phrases like, "Well I could paint that."

And to those who think they can, I say please dig deep and do it then. Join me in the madness of trying to find the beauty in the space around the shapes, or distilling parts of your life down to something simple and almost unrecognizable. You find nothing but yourself in that process.

"My Grandmother's Drum"
48" x 48"
Acrylic on canvas
June 2009

Spicing Things Up a Little @Home

A Designer's Digital Idea Book

I've updated the look of my online idea book as seen here and have helped many other curators start their own such sites. Try it out, Tumblr makes it easy and it's a great way to go back and study or get inspiration from the things you've bookmarked.

My idea book "Beautiful Envy" inspires everything from ideas for paintings to styling tips in my own home. It's interesting to note that my style remains fairly consistent in the objects I enjoy as I browse back through the archives. The idea book also serves to help me bookmark all of my shopping ideas for products online alongside items I may aready own so that I can see how things work together.

Start your own today!

With the Quickness of Breath

My latest painting never made it into a gallery or off the drying easel before it was out the door, snatched up by a collector. Goodbye baby. You ship off in a few days. A bit more of the background on this piece on Flickr.

Painting Under the Influence - Trance Painting

I've moved into a new head-space with my work. Whether it's the new physical space I occupy in the new studio with it's 25' ceilings or the mental place I'm in, something has changed and I'm listening to the voices inside. Sounds crazy right? Well it gets crazier.

Yesterday Speed surprised me with a trip downstairs to the art studio and spa known as Float. FLOAT, Floatation Center & Art Gallery is the San Francisco Bay Area's Only Floatation Center and urban art spa. We were going to spend 1 hour floating in a private flotation tank otherwise known as a sensory deprivation tank. While the benefits are lengthy, I was excited merely to have some quiet time to myself where I could just think. Life has been too much about other people and the noise was starting to drown out any voice I had inside. So down we went.

The experience is unique to everyone and I didn't know what to expect. By the time my hour was up, I was disoriented, refreshed, alive, and happy having just had a conversation with my grandmother who'd passed away over 12 years ago.

The older I'm getting the more I find things that remind me of my grandmother (my mother's mother) and I miss her endlessly. My experience in the tank could have easily been written off as hallucinatory but I prefer to think of it as spiritual because of the beliefs my family shares. To me it was like the vision quests of my brothers or sweat lodge ceremonies led by tribal shaman. Our elders are always there to guide us and we spoke of things determined to help me get back on the right path.

During our "conversation" my Unci told me that it was my rhythm which had been disrupted. I'd have to agree because last month while we were up on the Quileute Reservation was when Speed noticed something was wrong with me. She suggested that I paint under the influence of the music and let my visions lead me. I didn't quite know what music she meant so I figured it would come to me later.

Come to me it did. Today as I was preparing some paperwork for a new client, over my shoulder I heard a brief snippet of a song by Kenny Loggins on tv and it reminded me of a chant I'd heard as a child. It reminded me of the rattle, the fire, and the voices of many people. It didn't take long to track down the song sample.

So the goal of my next painting is to paint under the influence of the music and get into that trance like place where it's just me and whatever visions come. I will loop the sample on my ipod and have it on in the background as much as possible... on the way to the office, at home, at my desk, wherever I can so that I simply immerse myself in it.

Crazy. yup.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something... Blue