Knowing Your Heart

I recently found a quote that says, "It's never to late to find out who you want to be".  Yeah, I like it too.  If you are an artist reading my blog, then you get the struggle of "finding" yourself in your art.  How do you make it yours?  How do you embrace your talents? How do you set yourself apart?  Nothing frustrates me more than being super excited about something new only to find it on the front page of etsy the next day!  Drats....back to the drawing board. 

I've not reinvented the wheel this time around with my painting subjects.  I mean, why would I?  I am a painter who uses trucks, bikes, bird, bird cages and silly flowers in my paintings.  That's who I am....and quite frankly I like my subjects.  My painting style however I believe has matured over the years.  I was not a confident painter when I started.  I am pretty sure I thought too much about what I was doing.  Now, I just paint.  In fact, I am a very fast painter.  Mostly this is because I am not going for the text book version of a bird, but rather a more Jennism styled bird. 

As in the past, I am still a lover of texture in my paintings.  But I also love lines...so this round of paintings I had an "AHA" moment of adding texture enough to write my words in, still use the black gesso, acrylics, then fill the carved lines with oil stick technique.  Yes, it was a few day process.  But I am very methodical in my processes when getting ready for a show and started 15 paintings at once.  Yes, you read this right.  Of course 1/2 of those are on their way to the Texas Round-top show with Matilda.  Yee-haw paintings!  The other 7 are making me very happy right now spread out around the art studio. 

This last one.....well I think if you really know your heart, then finding out who you want to be will come quite easy.  You just have to tell your mind what your heart is thinking is all. 

I am A Little Bird Maker

I am a little bird maker, oh yes I am.   And for almost two weeks now these little guys and girls have been truly coming to life right here in the studio.  This has been a wonderful creative journey, the process of making something new is very fullfilling.  Ok, I know I've made birds before.  However these are made with my pattern and with more fabric than felt and new cages and new stands.  The newness of it all is making my heart skippy with joy.  So I thought I'd scatter the joy your way and show you the process of being a little bird maker.  Because in the end, little ones like Lillyana below are meant to be shared with someone you love.

First:  All the fabrics were collected and the pattern tweaked.  One football game Saturday I sat and cut out all the bodies, bellies and wings.  In fact, I still have about 30 to sew!

Second:  For a few nights in a row during TV time I sewed the bodies to the bellies, stuffed and added eyes.  They are gathered here for staging purposes.  (On a side silly note....my very overweight cat Ellie normally lays her lovely self on this table.  She jumped up the night I placed these here and literally freaked out at their sight.  You'd think she'd seen a ghost.)

Third:  The wings were layered with felt and patterened fabrics.

Fourth:  Wings and birds were paired up for attaching.

Fifth:  By the way, there may be a pop quiz on this tomorrow.  hehehe....  Tails were quilted on the sewing machine.  That's gotta hurt!

Sixth:  Beaks were added with my favorite brown wrapped wire.  When you remove the wrap a perfectly rusty wire is left behind.  Perfect!

Seventh:  Here is where the fun part came to play.  They were either placed in a pile for stands or hoop cages.  I set out to put together all the cages first and glued in the birds.  Then came the "where the heck to I put these to embellish the bottoms?" statement.  Well, I have an awning armature in my kitchen that all I had to do was lift the fabric and tie them all on to the pipe.  They have been such a fun addition to the kitchen this week!

Eighth:  The rest of the birds were given wooden candlestick bases that I painted white, added vintage music paper, tulle and crepe paper to.

So that's it in a very brief nutshell.  For some reason I was extremely methodical with the whole process.  And although I was batch making these guys, not one two are alike.  Some are totally cross-eyed, some have flopped in wings, some flopped out, some have pointy heads, some round, some are more robust than others, etc.  The one common denominator is me, and all the love I stitched into each and every one.  In fact, a couple got kisses because they were so stinkin' cute.  Even today as I was boxing them up little Jelly Bean had her head and eyes popping out of the box like she was telling me something.  Ok. Maybe that was me going cross-eyed!  Nevertheless.....my point is that their personalities are all quite unique because as they were made I was spilling over with happiness (it's been one of those couple of weeks...you know the fulled life kind).  If you'd like to check out all the birdy goodness head on over here and see!  And hopefully by tomorrow some will appear in my etsy shop.  I'll be sure to keep you posted.

HEY FOLKS!!  ETSY SHOP UPDATED IWTH A FEW OF THE BIRDS!  CHECK IT OUT HERE.