more published!

i am so thrilled to share that two of my exemplars were chosen for the halloween issue of somerset!! since it's not on the shelf yet (sept 1), i wanted to share what i submitted and what they used.... what an awesomely talented group of artists i was in the company of!!!! thanks to all of you for the ongoing inspiration in each issue.... the two alphabets were included, but none of the others. i was going to add a photo of the CLUES alphabet with some side-lighting to show the shadows and lifted letters, but somerset still has my stuff :) .. i'll add it later.

inch mania - first batch

here are some of my first inchies....(2008)

i discovered the world of inchies in an issue of Somerset magazine, and was instantly drawn to their itty-bittyness, because they are quick, adorable, 

and soo dispensable (the ones that don't turn out). 

um, that's why a bunch of these are missing partners...

 

  

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CATCH-UP POST : PART 2 : DREAM REALIZED -PUBLISHED!

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEVER in my WILDEST dreams did i ever think i could actually be published in, not just any magazine, but THE magazine, my favorite art magazine, an inspiration to millions of really awesome artists, SOMERSET STUDIO!!!!

i must say, even now, 2 and a half months after finding out, the words still evoke a surreal tingle in my brain....(yes, one much like a seratonin reuptake party in the cerebelum). not only did they accept my work, they thought enough of it to give me a TWO-PAGE spread!!!!!!!! (ask me and i will not deny that i think they just didn't have enough entries to publish, so they threw in mine at the last minute). i chose to take the leap last summer, when Somerset announced an upcoming deadline for their black-and-white challenge. it didn't even take a minute and i was doodling away with my relatively-unused markers, doing small line drawings like i have done my whole life, and i soon pulled together a small pile of ok pieces, not really 100% acceptable to me as Somerset material, but you have to know that i have dreamed of this goal for about 8 years, when i saw my first issue of Somerset and made my husband pay several dollars for a magazine a never read. i fell in love by sight of its cover alone (may/june, 2000, art on cover by lynne perrella) - yes! exactly 8 years!

so, i have this pile, and i'm happy enough to be back at drawing, but my husband, daughter and dad and mom convince me that it's good enough to try - so it goes - off to stampington.

i didn't even decorate the box because i waited until the last minute, ok, AND because i thought it would just be tossed on the no stack anyway....but a tiny part of me decided that a black-and-white challenge was a perfect start. i admit that i was at the brink of giving up my goal of calling myself an artist and resigning myself to maybe making scrapbooks out of all the stuff i've bought, retiring as a mom who liked art.

i am very proud that Somerset thought several of my entries were worth printing in their amazing somerset studio. i am most proud of my "paper charm: bird loft", and will do more of these type of pieces (funny - i used to make mobiles all the time as a kid). i am also going to pick up my work on iconic paintings and ATCs, and i have even, much to my own disbelief, reserved a storefront on ETSY in case i can actually come up with enough to sell. i would like to put together some inspiration bags of art-scraps to share, and maybe throw in some other stuff for fun!

i accomplished a lifetime goal - and it makes me want to become better at what i love. art is my therapy, my passion, and my constant way of seeing life, and i am making a decision to keep going. thanks to everyone along the way who has encouraged me to try, i hope i can inspire others to take a chance too.

here is the paper charm bird loft,

as with all of my drawings published, it is actually much darker than it appears in the magazine.

 

 

here are the other items of mine that were published with this:

 

  

  

  

thank you somerset!!!

need art....

need to do something more artistic than my daughter's math project to spend a million dollars...it's a great time capsule for her turning 10 - don't even get me started on how much that just depresses me. my boy will be THREE monday....mostly i feel achy that i will never have that time again...

the desire to smell the newborn-ness, to curl up all day with a tiny baby at my breast...without the possibility of ever having that honor again...the insane exhaustion..... those days of oblivion that never repeat and never end and disappear before you can draw a breath.

i digress (sp?). i haven't done too much for myself lately because of her party, halloween, costume issues, projects, dishes, her impending bronchitis, that boy's insane cuteness that makes me stop in my tracks to stare ....hopeless i am. not much in the way of company or here-ness from the student husband of mine...not happy that we don't have jobs - well, i am working a little, couple hundred a month at most. still, i have to go get the dreaded endoscopy i have been putting off for 9 months- my uncle is fighting strong his stomach cancer - well, a possible misnomer as he no longer has a stomach...and rodney's brother near death's door with liver failure...

but that is tooo depressing for me, and stressful. i want to go home really badly. i miss the boys a lot and emma's friends, and our weedy backyard and fresh air....uuuuugh. i bitched so much about getting away from there and now i want it all back. 

haven't heard from somerset , don't really expect to but people keep asking. i so want to submit to somerset memories, but whatever affliction holds me pretty hostage with exhaustion keeps me from being creative. it seems, and i hope i am reading it wrong, that scrapping has been taking a turn back to the simple times with diecuts and fancy scissors...templates....maybe all the great scrappers got so creative and off the edge stylewise that they all submit to somerset memories, and creating keepsakes and memory makers are seeing fewer submissions....those magazines have become barely thicker than the ads from our local gym!

enough...my reason for getting on today was to vent...i'm struggling and little things are getting to me. but there was a shining moment...a glimmer of happiness....a message...that took me by complete surprise and stole my breath...someone unexpected was thinking of me and that just made everything else go away...if even for a brief moment. now i need to get back to reality...and that million dollar project, and my dishes.

GOAL :: SUBMIT :: DONE!!!

YES. I DID IT. IT HAS TAKEN ME YEARS OF SELF-DAMNATION BUT IT IS DONE. I HAVE SUBMITTED ARTWORK TO BE CONSIDERED FOR PUBLICATION.
and not just any magazine, either. i figured, if i were to be turned down by anyone, i would like it to be the very top.... SOMERSET STUDIO. wow, just saying it gives me willies. who do i think i am asking somerset if they would like my work enough to put it in their golden vault....

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SOMERSET STUDIO SUBMISSIONS : BLACK AND WHITE CHALLENGE

list of submissions: (all are black-pen drawings in different forms)

1 exemplar

3 inchie collection series

1 paper charm hanging

2 pen drawings

7 ATC cards

list of supplies used – same for all submissions:

zig writer .5/1.2mm, pure black

marvy pigmented artist, fine/broad, no.1 black

zig millennium, .05, black

pigma micron 01, black

pigma micron 08, black

us artquest perfect paper adhesive

pebbles inc. I kan dee chalk, pastels

bazzill cardstock

"paper charms: bird loft" : string pulled across chalk to color, all 3-d mounting is done with tiny squares of cardstock glued together to give height, string is glued between layers