January Piece

January held some fantastic shows, but we were in and out of the hospital so much I'm surprised I managed to enter the one show I did. Even then, it was an older piece of work, and since it was untouched, I was able to enter it into the Food Porn photography show.

This is Fall Produce:


When we moved to our new home, we met some wonderful neighbors. In lieu of a pie or casserole, one of our neighbors set my four year old loose in her yard, and my daughter picked these scrumptious grapes and tomatoes. They were so bright and vibrant, I simply had to get a picture!

No effects, just the pure beauty of the healthiest and freshest organic food in Portland!

December Piece

In December I started my Family Sign Language business, and sort of got entangled in setting it up. However, I did do on piece for the show ancient:



What I like best about the henges is that no one knows what on earth they were for. Religious ceremonies? Druidic calendar? They are large and mysterious, imposing and slightly terrifying in their other-worldliness.

Art of the day

Every week the EBSQ site runs a theme, and every day of that week a piece of art is chosen to be featured that day. There is no voting, no expectation of the piece being sold, it is just a celebration of the EBSQ artists' work as it pertains to these random themes.

This week, the theme was "'Tis the Season", and the piece featured was mine!



This piece is called "Virgin" and it is the Virgen de Guadalupe, the same that hung in my church when my son was having all of his surgeries. Whether or not there was actually an appearance in Mexico (or in Lourdes, for that matter) is a matter of conjecture, but I believe that the message of faith, peace and hope to a suffering world, is a good one.

November Pieces

This month was a nice one, and I got to work another swap show, which I love. This one was the annual Portrait Swap , and my partner was S. Key.

Here are the ones she did of me:



Two of them won awards!

And here are the two I did of her:



I really enjoy working swaps because it means I get to take home the lovely pieces that my partner does, and that some of my work finds a new home. That makes me all tingly and happy inside.

I also entered two Photographs in the Bark Show:



And one of my home city in the Two Tones show:

I won a Patron's Mention award for this one! Yay, and thank you, fellow EBSQers!

Art for sale

So, this month I sold a 16x20 print of my "Defiant Rose" piece, on stretched canvas and all hand-touched with acrylic paints. I've also joined the Nibblefest Art Contest (an ebay contest for artists in EBSQ), and today posted one of my paintings on ebay for the first time. I'm a seasoned ebay seller, but most of my art sales have been on recommendations from friends, not over the internet.

However, if you'd like to see the auctions I have up at this point, click here and it will take you to my current auctions. Here's the piece i just listed, an 11x14 with gold accents:

Branches:


Normally the art I do is for me, or for an EBSQ contest, or (now) for Nibblefest's art contest, but I sell very little because I don't have a client base and have not had a brick-and-mortar gallery show. I am thinking of creating a website to host art for sale, but am unsure whether or not it would receive enough traffic to make it worthwhile. Thoughts?

October (another award!)

I took a bunch of really fun fall photos, but only entered three pieces into the EBSQ October shows.

For the Zombie Chickens show, I entered this guy:


Detailed views give a good closeup:



This piece took home a Patron's Mention Award, which is phenomenal. I'm terribly amused that I apparently do very well in the "weird" shows. What does that say?


For the Squash and Gourd show:


And lastly, the Think Pink show that benefits the Susan G Komen Foundation:

Generally speaking, I think "Breast Cancer Month" is over-exposed, and that other caners lack recognition and funding because of SGK's branding of everything from toasters to trinkets, but the piece fit so well, I had to enter it.

I've learned to only enter one piece a show, if at all possible, and I'm already working on a portrait for next month's show. :)

Featured Artist!

Yes, I know it makes me a bit of a geek for being excited by this, but hey, so what? I thought I'd share the screen capture, and encourage you to head on over to the EBSQ site to check the links out. I don't actually have any art up on my EBAY link, but if you're interested, drop me a line here. :)