Today.

Camper

I was a camper kid so I am SUPER excited about making this a print!!!

MY Nashville

"My Nashville" came to being right after I moved here. I met a couple friends.. all of us from small towns.. we just fell in LOVE with our new city. The first time I recall saying the phrase "My Nashville" was on the way back from a multi day kayak trip with my friend originally from South Carolina. As we came around the bend and saw our beautiful skyline we both said together "AW! Its My Nashville!" We laughed that we said the same thing and ended up watching the 4th of July fireworks over our skyline from the interstate that night.
That wasn't the last time I said it. I find myself saying it alot. Maybe on the way back from a long trip or after shopping a couple miles away.
Now, I have called Nashville my home for 7 years and have found its not only my friend and I who say it... alot of people do. Even my little 4 year old daughter started screaming "My Nashville!" as we turn the bend on the interstate.. turns out, she loves this city too! So here, I made a print for all of us who call Nashville "MINE"!

To purchase visit MY ETSY STORE

backwards life.

Sundown Print Pt.2

We are just gonna ignore the test print pictures ok? They just arent pretty. I usually use some cheap paint or mix up a color I'm not sure about so that I'm not wasting my good color ink. I test at least once or sometimes up to 10 times. This is the process where I get all my kinks out, find where I didn't carve out enough, or have uneven lines. 

This is also where I see how bad my mistakes are... like really big mistakes. I made a very large mistake at the beginning so I had to figure out how to make it work. I was humming along until my cutter took a long route straight out of the sun. I seriously screamed out loud thinking there was going to be NO way to fix it. The good thing is sometimes mistakes make a design even better. 

I was really unsure of the colors to use so I asked everyone in the group if they wanted any specific colors. It came out to be a broad range so I tested out colors thinking I would use one singular color on the print. I promised one person I would do an ombre' look thinking it would be to difficult and time consuming to do multiples. I ending up loving it and doing the most of those since it turned out easier than expected. 

Here is step 2 

Block inked with a brayer and ready to be pressed. 

I use a mat the same size of my paper to help with the centering of the image. With luck I set the paper, lightly rub it with my hands to make the image adere so that it dosent slide around while pressed. I dont have an actual press at this time but I like hand pressing so I am ok with that. :) I use a baren which is like a flat disk with a wooden handle(or a wooden spoon) . Then finish it by pressing with my hands one final time.

Cranking the greens and blues out. I am in serious need of a drying rack.

My dining nook turned studio. It hasn't seen food very much lately. 

Final Blue/Green

I seriously get ecstatic when I roll out the ink.

I am need of one more brayer if I am gonna do the ombre' more often. It worked with two but I had to do alot of mid washing.

Final Red/Orange

Click here to see Sundown print Pt.1 if you missed it.

Sundown Print PT. 1

So it's been a bit since I have done anything art wise of importance. I've been mostly creating out of frustration. I found this folder that I used in college that had magazine cut outs used for inspiration. I looked through it thinking, "geez this stuff is crap" and then in the back I found the above sketch... its a messy sketch but one that I used trying to come up with ideas for a print we were making about memory. I ended up not using this exact one but I did use the amusement park ride in a painting later.

The places the sketches represent a huge part of my life. I grew up spending my summers in the mountains at a place called Sundown Resort. Turns out we were having a reunion of sorts after a good 15 years of truly getting to hang out together. One of the photos on our Facebook group page happened to be one of this payphone. The payphone is long gone but everyone had great funny memories of hanging out around it and ended up being the most commented photo. Funny how a stupid payphone brought all our memories together!

So here it is Sunday night before the big get-together on the upcoming Friday and it hits me.... I HAVE to do a commemorative print. This is a RIDICULOUS idea. I just started making prints again, I am very rusty, AND my daughter was starting kindergarten. I rack my brain how to do a payphone with the words Sundown Resort on it and make it work. I had nothing. But what I did have was my old friends: the Sundown kids. The group admin titled us "the Old School Sundown Crew" for the event. We are the teens of 90's after all right? That is what stuck and I ditched the payphone (for the moment) and just went with our theme for the weekend.

Here is Part 1:

Lettering.. do I even remember how?

Adding in some graffiti style to match our name.. and our gansta ways as teens... wait, nm.

Finished drawing

The image has to be backwards on the block for the print correctly. 

Traced backwards.

Image on block.

I tend to daydream and I am using an easy cut block which is unforgiving to mistakes so I shade the parts of the plate that will be positive space.

A close up during carving process.

Block ready to be inked and a test print made.
 I'm out of time.

 to be continued....

Click here to go to Sundown Print Pt.2

Woods Mural

Mural I painted for my daughter. She helped me with her "Tangled" laterns :)

camera progress

 Draw.

 Cut.

 Test.

Final.

Why 30 Silent Mockingbirds?

Why 30 Silent Mockingbirds?


I had this hhuuuugggggeee amazing change when I turned 30. I EMBRACED it. I loved turning 30 and then with 30 brought alot of feelings. Alot of past emotions. Alot of serious thinking about my life. I gathered with friends from many different areas of my life for my birthday and it made it me thankful. With that, I changed forever. It also brought back people from my past. It brought forgiveness. It showcased things I hid about childhood. It made me bitter. It brought new people in my life. It showed me I should drop my mask and let them know me. Wonderful things happened to me that year... and downright scary things happened to me that year too. The mockingbird comes in because I have had a couple people close to me describe me a few symbolic ways. There are a few .. but two stuck out to me. One a bluejay "beautiful but mean" Another a mockingbird "always singing someone else's song". I went with the second. First, I dont think I am beautiful .. and second I dont think I am mean. However, I do feel I have always been a person singing someone else's song. I always felt my true self was silently screaming.

I had thoughts at 30 of finally making myself public so I had to make a name.. 30 Silent Mockingbirds is the one that stuck. Now at 33, I cant change that title.. I cant bring myself to do it. It was a big, life changing year.

Its good to know now I like to think of myself now as a phoenix : a mythical bird that is a fire spirit...  near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. It is said that the bird’s cry is that of a beautiful song. I know I'm still a little bit of mockingbird inside.. what has been done is who I have become.

So there. You got it. Me getting all deep and shit.

bird.

cut.

ink.

final.

process.