Recognize

"Think more about the Earth every day. Look up, beyond our own creations.
Recognize the beauty that's always around us.
Recognize the beauty of uniqueness.
Recognize that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and that we all have
that ability to behold it no matter our circumstance.

Recognize truth and honor it.

Recognize life and the responsibility that we have to preserve it."

Or, just
"RECOGNIZE."

- Ian Folke Svenonius

Holy-Daze

I'm far behind on blogging. I got a seasonal full-time job as a design associate for minted.com (check it out). I'll be employed there until approx. Dec. 31st, 2010. Until then, there will definitely be a lack of blogging on my part :( 


Regardless, I finished up my holiday gifts & crafts series for my website! (Click on the gifts & crafts text in the previous sentence to view more than just what you see below.)

I started making my first drift wood animal series during last year's holiday season (2009), while I was living in San Gregorio, CA (a tiny, tiny town in the coastal boonies just off of HWY 1, in between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay, CA). Living in the "country" for the first time in my life, I was constantly seeing more birds, rodents, and other various animals than ever before. Being pretty strapped for cash, I wasn't really able to go shopping for gifts, or even really buy art supplies to make people things with. 


I resorted to the beach, just a mile away from my house, and collected cool pieces of drift wood to paint on, instead of canvases.


Being an artist, and having way too many broke friends who still want to invest monies in my artwork, I figured making small pieces of art, that cost me virtually no money to make, would be the perfect plan. 


On a crazy drive, on a quiet, cutty, deserted, old stage coach road (Stage Rd), late one night, a barn owl was stopped in the middle of the road by this house that always had a huge rusted metal sculpture of a skeleton holding a massive machine gun in front of it. I always got weird vibes driving by that house, and this particular night, I got the chills. We had to stop the car, in the middle of the road, as the barn owl wasn't even looking at us. After about a minute with it's head turned away from us, it slowly turned it's head to stare us down. We shared a heavy gaze for what seemed like a long time, but was probably only a few second, until it flew a few feet away from the road, letting us pass. 


I went home later, and started looking up barn owl photos online. I had to draw a barn owl. The first owl drawing I did was later pasted on the first piece of painted drift wood that I had done.


The drift wood animal series began.


I started drawing other animals on paper, then taking pictures of them, putting them on my computer, changing the sizes of them, printing them out, making multiple copies, then watercoloring/ink-washing them, and pasting them onto other painted pieces of drift wood. I'd coat the pieces in lacquer, put hanging devices on them, and started adding them to my website and facebook for sale. I sold them all by the end of December.


This year, I did a few new animals. One is an image of a blue whale, with thoughts in mind of the blue whale and it's unborn baby that got washed up on Bean Hollow State Beach a few months ago. I posted them online less than two days ago and have already sold several :) They make great holiday presents, wall hangings, x-mas tree ornaments and toppers, etc.... 


I'll probably be giving some out as gifts <3


In the mean time, John Lennon was shot 30 years ago today. On that note, imagine...