i am an artist

today i will call myself an artist.  david and i had our gallery opening this weekend...preview party last night and open studio all day today.  i am exhausted and exhilarated.  why you ask?  i showed my artwork, people looked at it, and i

SOLD. MY. FIRST. PIECE!

i actually sold my second piece too, but that was to my dad, so it doesn't really count. it was pouring rain all weekend, but we didn't care...and neither did our guests...it was so fun to finally be in our own space.

we've spent the better part of two weeks completing all the renovations...you can take a peek here. we're official...and we even got our DBA letter in the mail last week to prove it. our dream of mariposa studio is finally real.

discovery #33

that david and i can install track lighting!

today was major reno day at the studio...we went through 15 gallons of joint compound trying to fill in the mess left from the old chalkboards. but the biggest discovery was how to put up track lights in a room with approx. 20-foot ceilings.  let's just say my macgyver-esque husband got creative when the 8 foot track couldn't be held steady by his 5'5 wife. cue the long handle attachment for the paint roller...perfect.

i have also discovered as of late how important lighting is.  it can often dictate my mood, as i get quite irritable if forced to stay in fluorescent lighting for too long. in my office i brought in a nice little lamp, in my house i have twinkly lights year round...and the studio would be no different.  see what they looked like when we moved in last month?

i had to get the lanterns up as quick as possible!

i can't wait to see how it all turns out for the opening next weekend. david will sand and paint the walls while i'm at work tomorrow and i'll do the floors later this week. i'm sure i'll post pictures of the opening (if not here, then at the studio blog) so you can see the finished product.

creative juices

flow baby, flow! i don't know if it's just this new sense of freedom or watching this or reading this...

but i'm definitely in a "peak" (if you watch madeline's video, you'll know what i mean). i'm bursting with ideas and going crazy trying to get everything else done. i love what madeline says about just going for it when you're in the creative zone...the laundry will get done eventually. i totally relate with so many of the things she talked about and it was nice to hear it articulated.

so, here are a few of the things i'm working on right now...

you may remember these little cards from my antiquing expedition a few weeks ago.  i nailed them onto an old cutting board (also found that day) and i'm loving the start to a new mixed media piece.

and this is the lovely mess i made tonight while d was taking a post-dinner snooze...it's the first time i've actually worked in the studio in our apartment (probably b/c the boxes finally disappeared sometime last week).  i went to my favorite art supply store  yesterday and they have these little packets of scrap papers that i always love to look through...and i got a primo pack...i loved almost everything inside!

it inspired me to start putting some backgrounds together for new mixed media pieces and apparently i got a little carried away. what you see above is only part of the 16 pieces i laid out. if you've read any posts about my art process you'll know that this is totally my style:  assembly line all the way.  but i've never laid out this many at once before.  now, if only my acrylic medium weren't at the REAL studio, i could actually get something done!

and speaking of the studio...tomorrow is the big renovation day.  you can see a few pics here from when i was there on wednesday. the guys pulled down the old chalkboards, so tomorrow will be focused on filling in the mess with joint compound and trying to create some actual walls to hang art on. and since the opening is in exactly one week, it's probably pretty important. and the fact that i sent an invitation to over 100 people yesterday is bumping up the anxiety factor even more.

so i will go back to my new mantra: trust the process. and trust that guy at home depot who promised me that huge 5-gallon tub of gunk would do the trick.

art-aholic

ever since we paid our first rent check on the studio, i've been obsessed with making art. the problem is...we don't have that much time to ACTUALLY DO IT.  last saturday was like heaven (well, besides the fact that the pollen count was about 17 million and my nose was dripping the entire time)...i laid out a huge canvas on the ground, covered it with about a dozen pieces i've been working on and played all afternoon. here we are in our new playground, in all its messy glory:

his

hers

and a few works in progress for ya...

we're back to the studio on saturday for renovation day #1 (well, technically #2....david and george ripped down the bulletin boards on tuesday!) hopefully by next week we'll actually have WALLS!

the creative life

a few weeks ago i took a big step toward living the creative life i have been craving. and then on saturday, david and i took a pole-vaulter's leap right smack into it. i'd been talking about the idea for months, and finally went to my bosses and made it happen. right now i work a regular m-f 8-5 job in the rehab unit of my hospital.  in about a month i will work only THREE DAYS A WEEK!  and get paid the same salary.  that's four days left to write, take photos, paint, volunteer, shave my legs...all the things i usually try to cram into two days and a few exhausted evenings. (okay, the catch is that i'm transferring to the ER position where i'll work sun-mon-tues 9am-9pm and carry the pager overnight each of those nights.)

now, for the second part...we had been tossing around the idea for about as long, but it wasn't until last weekend that it really gelled.  if you look at the above photo, and the one below, and get any type of "feeling"...you'll know exactly why we did what we did.  on saturday david and i signed a lease on an old classroom that hopefully with a little love and some serious demo, will look similar to the photos. this was the opening of iyollo gallery...our friend george's space, which is right next door.  the hope is that we can get a few more artists into the remaining wing of the old school building, which houses the multicultural center, MECA.

if you know any artists in houston looking for a vintage classroom turned art studio...send them our way! i'm beyond excited for this new chapter in our lives, i could never have dreamed this for my life when i started the blog nine months ago.  it truly is a birth...of my creative spirit, following my dreams, and sharing it with my incredible husband...who is finally realizing a life-long dream of showing his work in his own gallery.

i am just happy to have a place to go on those FOUR DAYS OFF to make really big art and write my stories and take photo walks around the historic neighborhood. (and get out of this teeny apartment we just moved into!) it's like the creative wings i've had locked up all these years have finally broken free. they refuse to be clipped...now i just have to jump out of the nest and pray they work.

i'm sure i'll be sharing much more about our studio renovation and business plans over the coming months...especially after may 3, when i start my new schedule. by the one-year anniversary of this blog (sometime at the end of june), i hope to be truly living the creative life.

hmmmm

i never thought about how people actually comment on my blog...i just set up my little space and hoped that someone might be interested in stopping by. i've gotten comments over the months, so i figured it was all good. but then i actually ASKED people to comment, and found that maybe's there's a problem. my cousin told me a while back that she tried to comment, but it wouldn't go through. knowing that blogger is sometimes crabby and prone to tantrums, i just figured it was another glitch in the system. well, this time she tried again...to no avail...and i realized i had selected "registered users" only. so i opened it up to everyone, thinking that might solve it. but AGAIN, she couldn't comment.

so....what i'm thinking is: MILLIONS OF AMAZING PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO COMMENT EVERY DAY! at least that will make me happy for right now. but what made me happy on sunday, was that my first (and only!) comment was from susannah, who started the whole smile-revolution. and that made the whole experiment worth it.

and now i'm back to writing just for me, to remember this crazy-beautiful life i live, and to have a place to display all the pretty things i've been collecting. i went around my house and took photos of all the things that make me happy. and as we plan to move out of this big house and into a tiny apartment, i really need to enjoy the space while i can. here we go... 

all of my vintage cameras...and some favorite photos

the original paintings from our wedding invitation, in an old frame found at a garage sale (p.s. if you look close, i wrote our vows in the border)

a mosaic i started over the weekend, which was supposed to be entered in a contest at work tomorrow...but sadly still looks similar to above...

my desk in my studio...i love when it looks like this

the bulletin board by my computer desk...the plastic baggie holds my grandmother's hankie that she mailed to houston for my wedding (when she couldn't fly in due to the hurricane)

the watercolor david and i made together to remind us of our time in greece

my desk!!!

i have the most amazing husband...look what he found (for $30!?!?) at a garage sale! when i got home from work it was all set up in my studio...and it's perfect.

perfect for starting the art piece to go with my 1st discovery...we'll see how much i can get done before we leave for greece tomorrow. the final act of my birthday celebration...a week on the island of milos! pictures and posts to come...

studio renewal

i'm so happy!!! i've been working in my studio so much that i haven't taken the time to actually CLEAN it. but today i finally got it together...it's not perfect, i'm really sad that i can't find a nice big antique table for my desk. we've been searching all the shops, but nothing that's exactly what i'm looking for. the search continues...

but here's what i DO have:

I used to make these chairs years ago...paint and some decoupage magazine flowers...perfect for the new space!

my version of inspiration wire (some fishing line and binder clips!)

and i LOVE my tackle box...holds all my paints!

but this was my favorite project: an old cake stand and vintage glasses glued on for all my goodies.

before: (old superman lunchbox)

after:

let's see how long this organization lasts!!

my studio

in preparation for the year of creativity, i have FINALLY started getting my studio in order. we moved into this house over three months ago and i still had boxes!?!?! hopefully i'll be totally done by my birthday next month. here is how it started....

please note: the paintings are by my artist husband...hopefully i'll be adding my own soon!!!

this is after a few weekends of organizing, garage saleing, and fellow artist inspiration...

But don't despair...I WILL get it organized soon!