Kritter Girl and Baby

Here we have Kritter Girl and Baby. Somehow Kritter Girl finds herself with an arm full of tiny dog dressed like a a baby. When I showed the painting to Katie, she assured me that Kritter Girl must have just resuced this cute little dog from some other girls that dressed it like a baby, because Kritter Girl would never do something like that.

ArtFest is over

I am home. I am tired. The first thing I did when I got home was take a shower. It was hot out there in the Texas heat trying to sell art. I think that the urge to do this must be some sort of insanity, and I am looking forward to doing it all again in 3 weeks at City Arts Celebration in the Dallas Arts District. I hope to see you all there. Maybe I will get some new works done between now and then. I now I came home with several fewer than I had at the start of this weekend.
Chris is not thrilled that the Dragon Eatting Pizza found a new home. But Katie was thrilled that the one inspired by her did.
I will admit that I was surprised at the number of originals that sold at this show. And if I had prints for a half dozen others, I could have sold a dozen each of those too. So I am going to have to order mat board this week ad take a print inventory and get prints done, and try to find time to create enough orginal paintings in three weeks for another show. Let’s all cross our fingers on that one.

Illustration Of ArtFest 2008

This started out as just a drawing to occupy my time while waiting for things to start at ArtFest today. It was hot. But when I got home and scanned it, I realized that that image of discomfort and heat and maybe even low level anxiety mixed with creativity also could be a good representation of worry for this week’s illustration friday…..
Now granted when you add in the second page of the art journal drawing (yes, I am trying this art journalling thing, but I am not very good at it, cause I want to show off what i do in a way that art journalling really isn’t very good at) the peice has more energy and doesn’t look so worried to my eyes. But then I guess I am always just a bit worried before a show. I mean, willl folks really like my art this time?

In case you wanted to know, I did get some nice comments about my paintings. And I discovered that the one painting that everyone liked the most, I didn’t get photographed. I thought I did. I thought I photographed it weeks ago and had uploaded the images to imagekind, but I was wrong. So now I am worried that I will actually sell the painting….

ArtFest

Well tomorrow is the start of ArtFest. This year it is going to be held at Fair Park in Dallas. Friday night from 6pm to 9pm is a Winestroll, which sounds like it will be a very nice event. Saturday will be from 10am to 7pm and Sunday from 10am to 6pm. Parking is free!

I have been doing ArtFest since it moved to Addison a few years back, and am excited to be participating for the first time at Fair Park. This show was held at Fair Park for many years at Fair Park, and it is cool to see it back at the original location.

Stop by and see me. I will be on row C-4.

99 Cats and a Bird

I now own 99CatsAndABird.com It will be where I start posting updates for the upcoming 99 Cats and a Bird event. But first, I need to figure it out. But in the meantime, if you want to see the art as soon as I start posting, go to 99catsandabird.com and bookmark it. Because 2 paintings are complete and another one started. So I should be updating soon.

Kritter Girl to the Rescue

I have stayed up all night working on this painting. Then I made a color photocopy and put it in my daughter’s lunch. Why?

Because of a bully at school and a clueless teacher. Still annoyed at the teacher for punishing my daughter for telling on the bully, but that is another story.

Katie loves reptiles. Okay, she likes bugs, amphibians, dogs and every other critter out there too, but reptiles are her favorite. Lizards of course are the best. Because of this obsession (which I admit to encouraging), one little girl has taken to making fun of Katie and calling her “critter girl” like it was a bad thing. I think Katie should be proud of being who she is. So we now have “Kritter Girl”. Note the spelling with the “K” for Katie.

Kritter Girl is going to grow up to be a biologist or a zoologist or a vet. She is going to save animals in her community or world wide. She might even find a way to save some endangered species from global warming. But she can’t do that if, she isn’t allowed to be proud of her love and interest in critters and how they work.

So Yeah Kritter Girl! You Go Girl! You Rock and are my favorite super hero of all time, cause brains will always win out over bullies.

Were you ever called something silly that hurt your feelings as a kid? Something that needs to be turned around and made into a super hero like Kritter Girl?

99 Cats and a Bird Show

So things are really starting to shape up with the show. Eastlake Pet Orphanage is willing to take responsibility for auctioning off 100 paintings in the name of saving a few loving animals. They are even talking about a special event centered around the show.l Now I need a venue to exhibit the paintings before they auction them off (they are talking about sometime around Valentines day) and money to buy the canvas.

James is talking about starting a website just for the show. But we can’t decide between 99CatsAndABird.com or 99Cats1Bird.com. Opinions wanted!

AlsoAs recommended Gillie on ebsq I started a ChipIn to see how far we can get with that.

When we start the website anyone that has made a contribution will get credit on the website (link to website if you include such with the paypal payment, if you don’t want credit, please state that you want the contribution to be an0nymous). If you make a contribution over $23 you will be listed as a sponsor on the back of 6 canvases and get one line in the program for the show. If you make a contribution over $50 you will be listed as a sponsor for 12 canvases and get a business card size ad in the program. if you contribute over $100, you will be listed as a sponsor for 24 canvases and get a 1/4 page ad in the program.
But a contribution as small as $5 will get you a link on the website as soon as we decide on a name.

I Need 3 things: 1)Venue, 2)Sponsors, 3)Charity Organization

Jenn had a great variation for my idea for a show I want to do.

First I need a charity organization, perferably a pet adoption group that promotes spaying and neutering. There is one that I have donated to in the past, but it doesn’t look like my regular contact is still working there, and if she is, she isn’t listed on the web site. The charity organization needs to be willing to auction off 100 original works of art. I might even be willing to see about getting some sort of poster made that includes all the images on one big image to sell as a fund raiser as well.

Then I need Sponsors to be willing to buy canvas. I am not going to be making any money off this project. Actually I am going to be spending money promoting it, and on supplies. I have some canvas already on hand that I can put towards it. I will of course be using my own paint and papers for the project as well. But I need about $350 to get the rest of the canvas for the project. The canvas can be bought in boxes of 6, and I need 15 boxes. Jenn’s idea was to find 15 sponsors and have them listed on the back of the canvases that they sponsored. Today’s sale price for suce a box is $21.99. To cover the cut that paypal would take if, I took the sponsorship money via paypal, I would probably have to say $23 for a box.

Then I need a venue. All the paintings will need to exhibited in the same room in a public place, maybe even the same wall if possible. I have an idea for the perfect venue, but they are not accepting submissions for shows until next January or Febuary. Granted that would give me plenty of time to put together a show and have it ready to go for whenever they would be willing to let me go.

Now the nitty gritty of why.

The show would be 99 Cats and a Bird. It is designed to be exhibited in a grid formation, either covering a wall or wrapping around a room, depending on how small the room is. All canvas will be square shaped and be hung with a 4″ border between them.

This arrangement would serve two purposes. The first and most obvious is to give it the feeling of a patchwork quilt. Traditional folk art/quilts/cats/cutsey/old woman and her cats /women being catty ect… All those traditional associations of women, cats and “women’s arts” sorts of things

The second is the overwhelming number of cats and the one lone bird a commentary on the importance of spaying and neutering your cats.

Burlesque Show Sketch

I tricked James into going to a Burlesque show last night. It was a very nice show at the Pocket Sandwich theater by the LollieBombs. I did a sketch, and just cause our waitress was nice and said she wanted a copy here it is. I think I will have to do a full painting later complete with balloons. It is not in anyway a direct representation of anything I saw at the show, but was inspired by the costume worn by Roxie Moxie in her first act.

Patches