New Bloggy Home

 

Hi guys, it's been a while! You'll find me in my new blog home HERE, come say, "Hi!"

Fairmount Arts Crawl

So many, many things to update about but for now...

TOMORROW afternoon! 4/29 from 2pm-6pm I will be showing/selling at the Fairmount Arts Crawl. I'll be featured at RyBread Cafe, 2319 Fairmount Ave.

The Fairmount Arts Crawl is an annual event that attracts over 4,000 residents, visitors, and art lovers alike to the Fairmount neighborhood. Come and stroll down the avenue visiting over 45 different businesses-turned-art-venues housing over 70 installations. Along the way enjoy music, dancing, kids activities, live demonstrations, and so much more! Visit www.fairmountartscrawl.com for more details.

(That's what they told me to write...it's probably true)

I'll be selling stuff featured on my Etsy but also some prints, hanging objects and mostly original designs, I will also be taking commissions and generally be around to just hang out with!

Illuminated

The Divine Lotus

The Rise and Fall of Illumination

Earth

If you don't give a hoot about art or artists but you love drinking you should probably come hangout afterwards for drinks next door at La Calaca Feliz where the margaritas run instead of water!

Yin & Yang

The Chinese myth of moon & hare, also a wonderful blog by bookbindery mistress and artist Barbara Simler, is one of my favorite myths. Living here in the US we grow up knowing the face of the man in the moon. In Asia it is more common to find the hare in the moon, toiling away, churning the elixir of immortality for the moon goddess Chang'e. I love the idea of the moon having both these sides, one side of the man's face and also the moon rabbit, maybe they're friends and occasionally hang out.

While researching symbols and imagery I came across the counter part to the moon hare which I had never heard of; the three-legged red crow. Together they make the balance of yin yang, commonly represented by the Taijitu symbol which we call the 'yin yang' in the West. The moon hare represents yin or darkness while the three-legged red crow is yang, light. Western culture has assigned 'good' and 'evil' to the black and white of the yin yang but really it represents balance. We can't have light without dark, up without down, hot and cold, etc. opposites that ebb and flow and settle into balance.

The image that I created was a gift for someone dear to me, struggling through a challenging time in my life I was trying to express the idea that opposites attract and can live in harmony though there is a constant give and take.

The folklore isn't accurately represented visually because really the hare is darkness and crow should be red and representing light. For aesthetic purposes and clarity I went with the classic white rabbit in the light and a black crow. In future I think I might try and stay more true to the folklore because presenting an accurate depiction is very important to me.

Hare & Crow (detail)

Hare & Crow

Pets & Portraits

Pet portraiture is one of things that I would really love to do more often. People LOVE their pets, I know because I have two cats and they're way cooler than you (except when they barf on my stuff). 

So, below is my first pet portrait commission: Lulu.

I worked within the same parameters as my other altarpiece book forms. The portrait is an original ink drawing and I hand-patterned the paper with a dog silhouette stencil I made and colored in with Derwent colored pencil in gray-blue.

Want an altarpiece of your pet? Get at me through my Etsy: Samskrits

"Lulu"

image size is 3.5"x5"

original photo