The Unbelievable Imagery of Maggie Piu

I honestly am not even going to attempt to write anything profound/inspiring/analytical right now because I am exhausted from traveling, sick, and on massive cold medicine plus a glass of wine for good measure. In fact, it took me about five tries to spell "analytical" without getting the squiggly red line. So I gave up and used spell check, which changed it to what it is now, but the squiggly red line is still there. It's blowing my mind. Or maybe that's the NyQuil (which I probably shouldn't mix with wine). 

In any case, I am indulging in my favorite beautiful imagery before I lapse into my drug-induced coma, and one artist that I just had to share quickly is Maggie Piu. She hails from Poland, and her paintings are just... amazing. She has a few blogs, which I will list shortly, but before you visit them I want to share what I love about them: they show her process. Photos of her paintings in their various stages of existence. I LOVE work that makes me wonder, "How in the hell did they do that? Where did they start? What came next?" Maggie shares that with you. Such out of this world talent. I am going to stop rambling now. Check out her blogs here:

http://www.piufiuboom.blogspot.com/

http://www.malgorzatabieniek.blogspot.com/

http://www.architektwnetrz.blogspot.com/

Go now, you won't be disappointed.

Hope everyone had a beautiful Thanksgiving :)

The 2012 Bucket List

I have been thinking a lot lately about the things I want to do, and why I am not doing them right now. Sometimes it seems like "later" is an actual time, some kind of era that you will know you are in once you are in it and things will magically start happening."I'll do it later." "Later in life I will be where I want." All you have to do is keep putting these things off day by day, waiting for later to arrive, and you have screwed yourself. Now is the time to do things. Why wait. Why set dates in the future when things can happen right now?

So, with this thought in mind, I will now hypocritically post another list of things I want to do in 2012, which is technically later. But in my defense, I have a lot of things that I am trying to take care of in the now, so that the later is extraordinary.

In 2012, I would like to:

1) Sell some art

2) See a UFO

3) Have a paranormal experience

4) Visit at least five new states

5) Complete a sketchbook

6) Go down a water slide

7) Really get into the piano

8) Establish a fat savings account

9) Fly somewhere random with no real plan, just for a long weekend

10) Buy something fantastic from an antique store

Yellena James: Some of the Most Beautiful Art I Have Ever Seen

You know when you experience that rare instance when you see a work of art that takes your breath away? If not, firstly I'm sorry, it's a genius experience. But secondly, to get this experience look no farther than Yellena James. She is an artist who was born in violence-ridden Sarajevo. She dodged snipers to get to her school, because the creative process is that important to her. Her images are bone-chillingly beautiful, haunting, organic... they are just so alive. I could stare at them for hours. Here are a few of my favorites:

You can find insanely affordable prints at her Etsy Shop, and her entire portfolio on her beautiful website!

The Holiday Season!

I started decorating my apartment last night at 8pm and did not stop until 2... and I am STILL not finished! I love everything about the holiday season: the shopping, the decorations, the music, the warm feelings, the days off, the family time, cookies, food, drinks, and most of all the magic. I will post pictures of my final product later, but in the meantime here's some decorating inspiration:

The majority of these are from an amazing website called Trendy Tree. If you are a Christmas fanatic like me, you will fall out of your chair when you see some of the things they have!

The End of a Season.

I see the seasons in a really weird way. I feel like it is either always winter or always summer. Spring and fall always seem to fly by so quickly, which sucks sometimes because fall is my favorite season. But I feel like it is cold for so so long, then it starts to warm up, then bam! It's summer. Same with fall. Summer starts to wind down and then I blink my eyes and here we are in the middle of November. I pulled all of my flowers out today, which is always a pretty significant moment, marking the end of a season. I feel like it was just yesterday that I feverishly planted them and normally I get so incredibly sad when it comes time to pull them out. It's kind of dumb, really. But this time, all I kept thinking about is where I want to be when I plant next summer's flowers. If all goes as planned, I will be in a pretty amazing place. I will not get the winter blues after the holiday season ends this year. Instead, this time will be used to work my ass off and accomplish the things on my lengthy list, so that when spring rolls in, I will be ready, I will be there. And I hope against all hope that this coming summer will be like a dream.

A Beautiful Mess.

I guess you could call this my little slice of heaven. Back in the day (three years ago) when I decided to move into this apartment, I knew I had to have a second bedroom. Why? Who knows. At that time I was a bartender, I had not heard of Etsy, and the only art I was making was diligently adding to my art journal every night. I am a definite believer in fate, signs, everything happens for a reason, stuff like that. Cheesy, I know, but it has been my experience that this stuff is pretty legit. Now on a pretty daily basis after work, I come in here, plug in my lights, make a huge mess, clean it up (or sometimes not...), unplug the lights, go to bed. The only thing I wish I had more of is natural light; there is one skinny window next to my book shelf. Other than that this is my perfect place to unleash happiness, anger, bliss, confusion, sadness, my perfect place to drink coffee or wine, listen to music or to the TV in the background, to talk on the phone or be alone, and to get mad at my cats for getting into whatever I am creating with. 

New markers: just as fun today as when I was 7.

Today has been another one of those "I don't know what I would do if I was not artistic" kind of days. I got new Prismacolor markers on Thursday (I had a coupon!) and have not really had a chance to try them out until today. Remember when you were little and you got a new box of 64 crayons? The kind that had the crayon sharpener in the back? Maybe I am a freak, but a new box of crayons was something that would have me amped for at least a week. That feeling has never worn off with me and new art supplies. Hopefully this is the case for many other creative people out there, because too many think that childhood magic in fact disappears after childhood. Not true. 

What I have discovered about markers: if you make a mistake, it is pretty tricky to make it go away. I haven't really worked with markers all that much and so far am really liking the control. These have alcohol ink, so they smell like vodka. Makes me feel right at home (and want a martini). I'm playing with a new idea of adding simple phrases to mixed media fashion illustration-type drawings. When things get crazy, just breathe. It's all you have to do. Remember that movie Ever After? Where Drew Barrymore plays a modern-day (kind of) Cinderella? Before she goes to the party, she stops walking and says to herself, "Just breathe." It's a more poetic way of saying "Check yourself before you wreck yourself."

Again... I wish that every day could be Saturday. AND, today is even an extra long Saturday due to turning the clocks back, which is awesome. What's not awesome: knowing it's going to be dark at 6:00 from now until May. Boooo.