Come follow my journey! I have no official art training and no real connections to get me into the art world. I am 36 years young and my dream is to become an artist, not just someone who makes art in their basement, but someone who successfully sells their art, and I will not give up on that dream! I would love to break into the world of mixed media art and maybe even have galley shows someday!

Friday, December 30, 2011

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and tomorrow night starts a whole New Year!

...That's a brand new year for you to follow your dreams!

I am looking forward to a very productive year.
I am looking forward to finishing nursing school...if only to work to finance my art addiction!
I am looking forward to losing my last 40lbs, (of the 80 I started out to lose in 2009)- I know it's about time!
and I look forward to making  my Flying Rabbit Studio jewelry come to life and start traveling to some craft shows, if only to meet nice people and be around other creatives!
(and may I be married by December! (I've been waiting ten years for this man to propose!))

I hope you all have a very happy and prosperous 2012!



For 2012...

'Here I stand ready to fly'!


May you meet the new year...
'With arms wide open'!

'I believe' in you!

May we all realize...

Peace to you and yours!

(Just some of my older art pieces I put together :)

Until next time!
Shannon



Wednesday, December 14, 2011

We might have found a new house!


We have been looking for a house to buy for quite a while now, almost a year actually. We have made offers on four different houses and something always seems to happen to the deal and turn it sour. Our most recent offer is a short sale and I don't know much about them. I don't know whether they are mostly successful or mostly not. I don't know whether to plan to own it and get excited and start planning, or whether to detach, remain distant and steel myself against the deal going bad. I am sure there must be a happy medium, but I can never seem to find it.

This has started me thinking, however; whether we finally get this most recent property or not, I need to start planning a decorating scheme for whenever we do finally get to move into our first home.

I want our house to look neat and tidy (which I admittedly am not). I want our house to look homey yet modern and stylish. Scott would like the decor to lean more toward the barren look rather than the cluttered, overfilled, can never find anything mess we live in now. I guess I can't really blame him. My problem is this: I am on an extremely tight budget and by extremely tight I mean non-existent. I would like to be able to fix things up to create my decor and to furnish my home with flea market treasures, like so many of the people I admire on Blogspot, on deviant art and in my favorite magazines. I want my home to <i>exude</i> charm! The trouble is, when I make things, they tend to look like a child made them and not in that charming cute funny childlike way. In the bad way. Why oh why can't art school and workshops and seminars be free!!!

That house we are trying to buy is humble; there really isn't room for all that much furniture. I want it to have a definite style and too reflect who we are but not be too themey. Any ideas?

Let's just do a little dreaming....

I suppose my dream kitchen would look like this…

Or maybe this…

I know for sure I want it to be warm and cozy not sterile. I like the old world style…
Or the traditional designs like this…


I have a starting point I think..this poster:

 I have the poster, I need the frame.
….
I know I want our bedroom to be somewhat shabby chic, somewhat romantic, I definitely want a chandelier and lots of candles…
But I have to please Scott too, although he did give me free reign over the decorating over the entire house except for his office.
I wish he would make it look something like this…

Yeah right!

And all on a scarce budget!!!
Look out all you decorators and HGTV here I come!


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Here's 2 More...

The Woman in Flowers.... Last time I posted the original and the dreamy version. Today I feel like sharing the red and the dark version. Just a note, I am planning on lightening up the face a bit in the dark version.
The Woman in Flowers in Red

This is my daughters favorite, I am not so sure though, I think I will clear up her face some more.

The Woman in Red-Dark version

I really like the black light effect in this one, like I said though I want to lighten up her face some more!

Questions, comments, suggestions..all are welcome, just be considerate with your critiques.

Until next time,
Shannon

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

What do I do next?

I guess I'll be putting my necklace making venture on hold until at least January. I am so tired of being poor I could literally throw up right now.

Christmas has officially begun, I hope anyone reading this had a wonderful Thanksgiving. From now until January I will be extremely busy: decorating, making cookies, gift shopping, gift wrapping, planning, cleaning, etc. I am sure you know what I mean.

On the art front, I will create the only art I can afford to right now, digital, when I can find the time. I also want to be more regular with my blogging. hehe. I have no idea how to keep track of all the websites I have joined to get my art and my name out there. I also made a website on weebly.com, and I have no idea how to create that. Apparently at 35 one can be terribly behind on technological advances. Any suggestions? Anyone know a free art school!? lol

My nursing classes start again on January 2nd. I only have 5 semesters left and I pray I can get through them without incident. My boyfriend of 10 years often says, if we didn't have bad luck, we wouldn't have any luck at all.

Well I am going to go see if I can figure out my weebly site, gotta pick up the kids at 3:30

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

What Now?

So, what is my next step? An article written by Cristen Olivarez, director of publishing and editor in chief of my favorite magazine in the world, Somerset Studio she says  that if an artists goal is to be published or to sell their art, they need to make it easy to contact you. Notes by Christen from Create Mixed Media. On that front I have  tried to find the "contact me" widget on this silly little blog (I never thought it would be so confusing- learning to blog!). I have also tried to make definite links between my Deviant art page, my facebook-Sthomson09 and Flying Rabbit Studio and my blog. I have also tried to post my email on each of those sights, so when does the business start rolling in?

It would help me immensely if I could get rid of this anxiety and depression. Why is that the stereo type, that artists are depressed and crazy? I don't even fit the bill really, I am not a tormented painter, just a tormented parent lol! I know everyone at times suffers from insecurity and self doubt.

Does it help to tout your accomplishments? I have had my photography in a show at Columbus State Community College, I have been featured by several people on Deviant Art, My collaboration APC cards with Liz Cohn are going to be in 2 different shows. But does anyone really care? Shouldn't the art speak for itself?







Some of my favorite creations I've made.

Is it too diverse? Should I pigeonhole myself into one medium to hone my craft? I can't imagine not letting my creative spirit fly and explore where it wishes to go (be free my gypsy!). I do understand though that if you are going to pursue one area to try and sell a product you need to spend a lot of time perfecting your craft. OK so where do I get the money to pay for my supplies? lol! Isn't that why we all work? To pay for our habits?

So just to reiterate once again anyone one who stops by my little blog, first of all, Welcome! Secondly here are the ways you can find me online:




email me: sthomsonakazaichick@gmail.com

I have created the name for my little enterprise for which I will make and sell my art. Flying Rabbit Studio. The name is dear to my heart because the picture I used is my rabbit Khaki, that I had as a child who died in my arms. It only make sense now that I have made it, that he would have wings because he would be an angel in Heaven, if you believe in that type of thing.
I have made several wallpapers as well to give a feel for the brand:


My baby bunny!

As I try to figure out how to get money for supplies, try to improve my little necklaces for craft shows and try and figure out how to sell my digital work I will keep my blog informed!


Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween, I know my kids did!
Check out this year's pumpkins, cute huh!

So my artsy fartsy idea of the day, I am going to try and create a "brand" for myself. I am going to create a website for Flying Rabbit Studio, I am going to begin selling my necklaces at craft shows and begin entering every Somerset and cloth paper scissors contest I can. If you know of any other publication for mixed media arts that has challenges, let me know!!
See I am a natural born entrepreneur!

see the lemonade stand at the left!

So necklaces and jewelry making are not really my thing, but I need to do something to finance my art habit. Is that what other people do? How many necklaces do I need to get started? How do I find craft shows? Do I need a vendor's license? All these questions and more plague my mind! I have played around with jewelry in the past, but it never really became my "thing", as most artists know, there is usually one area where when creating the soul just soars with delight!

From the beginning I am trying to go from a nobody with no art training to becoming noticed and successful as an artist and keep in my that I am still trying to finish up nursing school and I have my two kids and boyfriend at home to tend to. Where do I begin?

So I have chosen to start with jewelry. I need an income to create more and to attend classes and workshops yes? To begin with I have chose 3 pieces I have mad and I will make many more along those lines...but then there is the question, do I make my own chains or do I buy them? ahhh so many questions so little time!

These little necklaces are lonley!

Until next time, happy Halloween!



Wednesday, October 26, 2011

What's Up Buttercup?

Hi!
 I'm so new at this I am still trying to figure out how to make my blog page, navigate blogger, and even find other people's blogs to read!
Lol cats make me smile!

So I want to start with where I am in my art life right now, I'll try not to babble.
I started the process of freeing myself to create art about five years ago. I had been told as a child that art was only a hobby and could not be a career.
I asked on yahoo answers, what makes someone a real artist?
One of the answers I received sent me a link to Deviantart.com.

Best decision ever!
I won't go into all of my thoughts and feelings about DA right now, but at that time, it was the perfect thing.
I had a copy of Photoshop CS3 and from what I saw on DA I discovered a whole new genre of art, photomanipulation.
I began madly creating pictures from all the awesome stock on DA. Looking back at those now are quite frankly embarrassing.
My artistic soul was singing with relief!
Ahh! Crappy early stuff.

So now here I am 5 years later trying to fully dedicate my life to the creation of art.
I have explored poetry, photography, design, mixed media and artist trading cards or atc's. All on my own.
My most recent passion is mixed media. I am trying to learn all of the techniques and tricks from every resource I can.
My favorite is Somerset studio magazine. while it doesn't usually show my exact style of art, most of it is really cool. I struggle with myself about the difference between scrapbooker, crafter and artist. are they one in the same? I am sure all artist's struggle with burning internal questions, we all seem to have such a loud internal critic!

I got tired of always having to use other peoples images. I decided to hone my drawing skills. I recently discovered a class by Suzi Blu (whom I formerly dismissed as too cutesy wootsy) that was more realistic and cheaper than her other classes. don't even get me started on money problems! and I just had to be an artist too which is like the most expensive hobby...
Anyway, I could never ever draw faces and had no courage to try it. I signed up for Suzi's portraits class and got out my pencil!

LA LA LA!

now I must admit that I love miss Suzi. I watch and sometimes only listen to her youtube video's just to cheer me up. She is so happy and silly!
I am slowly crawling my way through the 3 sections of the class ( I skipped the angels section because I must admit they are still too cutsie and I am really not into angels at the moment, I'm sure you know what I mean).
I just started the last lesson, drawing 3/4 faces. Yikes! I put it off this long because I was so nervous. i have drawn 2 so far and I am loving the results! My second drawing swore to me she was a nun so now i an obsessed with nun's so I can draw her correctly.
Not my art but, isn't she gorgeous?
I wish I still had time to get a nun costume for Halloween,darn. My kids are going to be a kitty peeping out of a pumpkin and a little devil (as if he isn't already!) I will post pictures later. I am on my laptop and I have all my art on the desktop, which actually is only in the next room, so I will post pictures of my most recent pictures later...
 Yes, I am that lazy. Aren't we all when we really get down to it? heh heh heh.



Sunday, October 16, 2011

This is my first blog!

I want to chronicle my silly little life, my experiences trying to find myself as an artist and make a career of it and my escapades as a parent of two crazy kids. This is all new to me, but I have some great teachers!

step one: figure out how to post a photo-check!

Let me know what you think of the name of my blog if you stopped by, I may change it.

Live chat RIGHT NOW (Sun. Oct. 16 2pm est.) with Suzi Blu: https://apps.facebook.com/suziblu/Room.aspx
She's making gypsy curtains and playing French music, lol! Come join the fun!