Art Plunge

firecracker firecracker boom boom boom First I want to say that for the first time in about a year I slept through the WHOLE night without waking up at 3:30am then 4:30 am and not being to sleep and getting up at 5:30 am. I'm going to thank the tiny melatonin pill I took last night for letting me get some much needed restorative sleep. I feel energized today. Supercharged and Best Quality. Like a flashlight cracker! Which brings me to the second thing I wanted to say...I love firecracker art. I've always been a fan. I had ideas to paint firecracker art on my wooden boxes, wouldn't that be cool? Maybe even the records. But where is the time? I think they would look awesome.Maybe after I plow through all the work I have to do I can play around with that....but I digress....the graphic design I'm working on for the next issue of Mercado Bilingue is going to be firecracker themed in honor of 4th of July. To give it a spin we're looking at MEXICAN FIREWORKS...whic...

when it rains it pours....true dat Morton salt girl, true dat! Apparently your kitchen is full of little wisdoms like that! This morning I'm looking at a heck of a week! I'm going to have time manage myself unbelievably to accomplish everything but I can do it....the trick is to remember to have fun while I'm doing it. "SMILE, BREATHE, GO SLOWLY" is going to be my mantra...but my SLOWLY just needs to be focused and not derailed. It was something we laughed about in the freelance world, when you knew your project was about to be up and you were putting your feelers out for new work...anywhere... and not getting any bites. Because the flipside to that was when you were securely working in the thick of a project you'd have ten people tugging on your shirt wanting you to do some work for them. That is how it is and that's where my week is....which is AWESOME. It means rent money, bills, food and keeping my air conditioner on! Lots of graphic design work...

"Agua Fresca" at El Fenix I woke up this morning to a titillating little piece of cheese in the ol' mousetrap. Yes I said titillating....7 year old! There's a competition of sorts to get your work printed in a National Magazine called Origins. I have been fortunate enough to have a small feature in there once upon a time for the BARTERING ARTISTS group but having my art printed is a whole other ballgame. That would be nice and make my Mom proud. So I started facebooking trying to get some votes. Kinda disastrous. Perhaps I need another cup of coffee? I could not for the life of me explain to my friends how to CLICK a LINK and LIKE A COMMENT in a THREAD. I started laughing. It's my own fault. But if you happen to be reading this and would like to help me out...the piece I would like to see printed is this one: So if you like this piece and would like to see it printed let's try to get a vote in. Bear with me as I try to explain this again. :) Maybe...

my very second instagrammy photo thingamajig Yesterday I spent the day finishing up a vinyl record order, unfortunately it's a secret and  a gift so until the guy gets it I'm not allowed to blast it to the public. However a select few in my illuminati were exposed to it yesterday and it garnered another order. Ding! I feel like I'm immediately back in my groove,my freelancing groove. Primered more records for todays work, a Hans Solo record which should be fun. Also organized my paint (see above)...well, that's a real half ass way to organize paint but it's better than it was ALL tossed together in a deep basket so I had to dig and didn't know what colors I had. I found many dead paint tube carcasses up in that thing. DRIED, EMPTY TUBES!!! An unorganized paint box leads to stupid things like buying 4 tubes of Burnt Sienna. If anyone has a better solution than using the lids to baking pans to organize my colors please pass it on. I need visibility and for ...

picture of me at Cedars West Arts Festival manning the paint station for Magic Garden Program photo by Gabriela Elguea and Heather Shoulders Sometimes it's good to just pause from the busy life and TO DO LISTS and the stuff rolling around in your brain and take inventory of all that is good in our life. I am doing that right now. It dawned on me today as I turned in my blog for  I Am Bilingue   that the last cover I gave them was for a Fathers Day edition and the very first assignment they gave me was for...a Fathers Day edition. I remember very clearly meeting with Fabian Campos, my contact at the paper/website, and how it just seemed a perfect laidback fit and I hoped against hope they would like my work enough to keep me on. my first cover for Mercado Bilingue, I've been teaching myself Photoshop and Illustrator  Here I am a year later and I have 13 covers under my belt and countless blogs. A lot of the features have been memoirs of my life with my D...

disclaimer: these are NOT I repeat NOT my sexy legs so hold your marriage proposals Well! Where to start, it's been a busy weekend and I've decided to totally OBLITERATE all of last week from my brain since it was nothing but pain and stress and worry. So onward we go, the weekend! I spent Friday doing some work getting ready for the CEDARS WEST ARTS FESTIVAL. I was hired to do some CHALK SIGNAGE and then Saturday I showed up to create kids chalk stations on the street. The asphalt was kinda hard to draw on but I created some fun stuff and here's where all the trouble started. I worked for about two hours, drawing a big giant sun, an octopus (moustachiopus), flowers, recycling symbols, some bunnies, smiley clouds, anime kids, etc, etc....each drawing required me to squat down and stand up and squat down and stand  up... and do you see where this is going? It wasn't until that evening after I had kicked off my shoes and laid down for about 20 minutes that I realiz...

Things are about to get bright, hot and chalky around here! As a freelance artist I am duty bound (in order to pay rent, eat and pay off my dental bill) to take some odd and end kind of jobs. You really never know where you're going to go, what you're going to do or who you are going to meet. This Friday I will be meeting a big hot concrete wall for instance. Well, I did meet this wall yesterday actually. I looked him up and down and decided he and I could work together on this little project.  This wall is located where the Cedars West Arts Festival is going to be taking place and I'll be creating a nice bit o' signage in colored chalk. I'll also be creating little colored chalk "fun stations" at various sidewalk points along the festival path so kids can come and color in, draw and get chalky too. There are challenges to taking on this job, namely the HEAT and also that little hindrance of not having a car. It's going to be an adventure fo...

I feel about as smiley as that photo would have you believe!  I'm about to hit the gym for the first time in awhile and more importantly I'm about to go back to PiYo class which I have missed dearly. PiYo is a Pilates-Yoga fusion class with emphasis on strength training. There are some weights involved with your downward dogs and warrior poses. PiYo was so awesome for my health and back that I was easily addicted even though it is a HARD HARD class with lots of pain. Like tomorrow....I'm going to be so sore and crying for Epsom salt baths. I know this. Hit the road yesterday for a 2.30 mile run and felt awesome. Not having pain in my day was cause to celebrate a working body. On the road to health and kicking the bad habits behind me...Spring cleaning if you will! Its nice having some time to take care of ME for a change.  Started base coating a new canvas yesterday and liked the look of the spray so I tried it again, different colors and a whole different idea o...

THE FINISHED PIECE! "Sometimes You Feel Small part 2" 36" x 48" acrylic/krylon on gallery wrapped canvas ...will be on view at RISING GALLERY on June 1! I started this thing on April 15th and finished it respectively on May 14th. Thats about a months worth of work on this thing, snagging a few hours a day or whole days sometimes to work on it. This was my first piece I fully documented publicly through it's various stages and also the first piece I used a different approach to. That being for one....the krylon spray in the background and also the very careful layering from back to front...all the elements in my pieces are usually just placed on as my brain sees fit, whether in the foreground or background.  It's been an interesting process and a few people were watching diligently and offering supportive words- thanks friends! Let's have the whole story now from start to finish: This thing is 36" x 48...

First things first, the TOOTHIE is feeling much better and for now the gut pains have subsided so I'm feeling a little better about life. I also have a renewed inspiration and am anxious to be back in my studio creating my wonderful ideas....and now I can! Oh beautiful, glorious creating time...I have missed thee! First on my agenda is finishing this painting for the Project 7 x 7 show and hopefully- getting another one done just in time for it too! I'm going to submit some pieces into a juried competition for kicks so I need to get some pro photos taken and am revving up a new email campaign account and getting ready to hit my studio hard. Turns out quite a few friends and fans have been patiently waiting for me to have some time so I can paint for them, this makes me happy. I love that my friends collect my stuff, that means the world to me. THANK YOU AWESOME PEOPLE! I have so many ideas Ive been simmering in my head I'm unsure where to start first. I guess the very...