Some changes...

So, here I am again. I am having a lot of trouble keeping up on this blog with no Internet at my fingertips. Simon and I have are planning on getting the Internet in this apartment, but with me not working consistently, it is scary adding on any monthly bills. There are so many tings we need to think about. With Simon possibly starting school next semester, the Internet will be at the top of the list. I am also trying to get my whole business...thing...a little more up to date and easy to use, but doing it all with the computers at school is very annoying. I have been neglecting it which is bot really good for business. :) Hopefully by the summer, things will get better.

Fund raising has not been going great. I am still hoping it will work out, but I am also being realistic. Even if we do not get to go exactly when we planned, we will still keep saving ad just go when we do reach our financial goal. I think the biggest problem with it is the fact that I want at to be career, so I have taken this opportunity to go to school full time and do art, without the burden of working. Simon has been so wonderful to me and has been keeping us afloat by working full time. I am so proud and thankful for him. We would probably be on track with saving right now if I was working, but I know that if I want to make this art thing work, I need to focus solely on school and growing as an artist. Since I have this opportunity, I have to take it. I also spent a lot of money send y art to the show in Oakland, California. Sadly, because of finances, we were not able to visit it, but I feel so blessed that I was even asked to do it. Just having it there for people to see is an amazing opportunity.

I know this all seems a little flaky. Here I was, just a couple months ago, ranting on about my well thought out and planed three month trip to Europe, and now I am telling you that we might not go. Well please understand that the whole travel fund raising mission statement still holds. The money I am making from this site will help fun our traveling. But, to travel, we have to keep revenue coming in by maintaining this business as well as support ourselves while at home. Over the year and a half of intense saving, we have learned to scale back a lot on our living expenses. We have one car for the two of us, we don't have a tv, we live in a tiny apartment in order to save on rent. There is not a whole lot we could be cutting back on when is comes to living, but there are things we still need to pay for, and inevitably some of the money I get here ends up going into that fund to help out. I really feel like in the long run, this sort of dedication and simple living will pay off.

I have also been thinking a lot about why we wanted to go to Europe in the first place. I mean I know, it's Europe, everyone wants to go, but it was more then that. At the time I decided to start planing the three month trip, Simon and I were pretty new up here. Simon didn't have a consistent band, we didn't have many friends, we just worked and came home. That was our lives. It was hard for me to slow down that much when I had just come from a world of intense planning for our wedding and moving. I needed something to do and look forward to. Over the year, the trip become somewhat of a burden. There were times when we didn't want to buy healthy food because it was expensive and we “couldn't afford it” even though there was over $1000 in the bank. We were looking at it the wrong way. I still throughly believe in traveling, but I also know that there are things worth spending money on. We are going to be spending a lot more time in our everyday lives then on the road, we should enjoy them. That doesn't mean we have to waste, but I think now we have found some balance.

TO BE CONTINUED

Im back!!

Hello my friends! It has definitely been a long time! I am really sorry for that. Having a blog while you doing have the internet is a little annoying. I love to be able to share on here, but I have to wait for time when both the school and I are free. It has been difficult. I am however very excited to be able to share with you all the news and art I have been surrounding my self with.

First off, I cannot remember if I have told you about my show. I think I have but I am writing this at home (with out the Internet, I will post at school tomorrow) so I do not have a way to check. Therefore, I will back track. :) I got invited to participate in a drawing art show at a wonderful shop in Oakland California called Pretty Penny. Check the web site out, it is really neat. I am officially sending my artwork tomorrow, and getting it together has been crazy. I never realized how much time it took to get art actually presentable. I had to frame eight of my drawings/mono-types, and then we had to make frames for six of my scratch boards. It was quite a huge project both with time and money. I think we spent over $100.00 on the frames and at least $70.00 on the ones we made. I still have no idea how much I am charging for everything either. Thats just one more thing that is on my “to

do” list for tonight.

The frames I did for the scratch boards are really neat and, individually, not too expensive. I have a couple pictures of what Simon and I came up with. All we did is have a friend of our cut out the correct size strips from a sheet of wood. Then we assembled them with silicone to make a box, after which we glued them to the plastic. I painted the outside black and covered the inside with foil, to reflect the light we were putting in them. The little lights we found were the most expensive part. They were able $7.00/ea. And run on batteries. We attached them to the bottoms of the frames using the Velcro that comes with them. It was really exciting to see them come together and I am very happy with the outcome.

The shoe in Oakland has been pretty expensive

to get ready for, but by far the most expensive part is going to be the trip. I actually still pretty overwhelmed by the thought of it. I am so excited to get out of Arizona and take the road trip with Simon, but I know its going to cost a lot of money and that makes me nervous. We have been scraping by as it is, and I know this trip is going to cost a lot. Simon has been so supportive though. He told me as soon as I found out about the show that he wanted to be able to go. I am so thankful that I have him through this. He has been so helpful and giving, it really is amazing. We plan on starting the trip on Thursday, the 8^th, in the evening, and driving a little past L.A. Then we will get up early and start our trip to Oakland. Since the majority of our trip is going to be driving, we thought it would be fun to make that the focus of the trip. We stole an idea from the movie Elizabeth Town, and decided to make a little road trip “things to do and listen to” journal to go along with our trip. We will take Highway 1 all the way up

the coast, finally ending up in Oakland. It will definitely be a much needed break from life.

So, all this talking about the future, and I have still yet to let you into the art I have been doing all this time. Well I am 17 pieces in debt to you and plan to show them ALL to you tomorrow (which is right now to you....weird) and the next day. I still don't have them all photographed. Shame on me. The ones I want to show you now (uhh..kinda) are the ones I did first. So the oldest I guess. I'll start with the photographs.

The photos shows here are from two assignments I did for class. The one of the building and of the cats are a priority assignment. The building being the aperture priority, and the cats being shutter priority. I like the both and it was fun to do. Well, all of the projects are fun. I am like photography a lot. The shutter priority was especially interesting because I had to illustrate an obvious enphasis on the shutter speed. For me, that meant showing motion with the shutter showed down. Thats why the cats look a little like monsters. The other photos were done while walking around downtown, and are supposed to illustrate the basic ideas of line form shape and texture. I think they do . :)

The other fine art stuff I put up is a mixture of assignments and my own stuff. There are five mono-types. The two months, the black and white woman, the funny egg head man, and the orange and back quote. The month prints are going to be a calender series. Even though I am making the print separate, I am going to but the full calender up when it is done too, since I think that will be an art piece on its own. Still have ten more prints to go though. The black and orange print was an assignment/experiment and turned out pretty cool and the two others were just personal experiments. Fun stuff to do with ink and printing.

I also have up a weird drawing/painting I did of a tree. This just sort of happened. I was watching some art videos and got inspired to pick something up and do art. I didn't have any reference around to started drawing a tree, and ended up with this. I decided to call it eden, so you can find your own meaning beyond that.

The pencil drawing was from a desire to draw a face, and mine was available, so that is what I drew. It turned out well but I can't tell is it really looks like me. The spoon drawing was just me waiting on Simon to pick me up, but I really like it for some reason. I think I like the simplicity. Who knows, maybe a silly little series on the way?

Well thank you all for waiting and I am sorry, once again, for the wait. I'll make sure to keep updated a little better. With the artwork sent off, I will have more time. Until then. ;)

the death of the internet...at our place at least

So the internet is pretty much done at our place. Not something we can really complain about, since we didn't pay for it. It does make having a blog a lot more inconvenient. i still plan to give every one updates though, it is just going to be a little more time between posts. I am thinking I will be able to swing once or twice a week since I have the computers at school. I don't have any art to show today since nothing is photographed, but I'll get it up here soon. I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on. Thanks, as always, for the support. --Nikki

Dang Internet!

So I am currently at the school writing this because the internet at home is not working. It was pretty brutal yesterday, when I was stuck at home from lack of car and a storm. Well, sorry for the long wait again, and here are some pieces. I have seven now, and I will put the rest up later.

So, I have been doing a lot of different things the past few days. I did this one grueling scratch board. It is actually 2 scratchboards that are layered. All of the white in them had to be scratched out. I really love how it came out though, and so I think that is how I will do them from now on. I will probably work on adding even more layers. Since a lot of the scratchboards are going in the show, I have to figure out how to frame them. I really need to find a way to let them emit light so you can see them with out the sunshine. I'm thinking modified shadow boxed, but we will see. Ill put up a picture of what I come up with.

I did do two wood burning projects. They are more paintings with the added texture of wood burning. The colors turned out really nice on the wood and work well with the groves of the burned areas. In the image of the bird cages, I even used the burning tool to create some shadow and depth under the paint. It was fun. The tool gets really hot though, so yummy ice cream breaks are in order to create a true master piece ;). The house did smell like a sweet camp fire when I was done, so that was nice.

The three mono-types I did were more at home experimenting. The nude was my first wipe away project. I love how they look, but think mine could have been better if I used a press. The values just didn't come out as pronounced as i wanted. I still really like it though. The others were just playing with colors. The one with the petals was also wipe away at first and then I added the color on top, and the one with faces was just playing around. I think I might like that one best because of how free is it. More of that is in order for sure. I have that class in about an hour, so I'll get to it!

Finally, I did another mini-quilt! Yay! It was fun and I am getting much faster. I really want to explore this mini-quilt business. Keep and eye out because I have some major ideas for them. I am also in the process of putting together a lager, wall hanging quilt that I am REALLY excited about, so look for that as well!

Well, thank you all and I will be up as soon as possible to share the rest of the art I owe you! Until then, keep is classy San Diego! --Nikki

Update!

   Hello everyone! I am so sorry for the huge gap in posting. Our computer broke (oh no!) a few days ago and we had to take it to the doctor.... the Genius Bar at the mac store in phoenix. I got it back yesterday night, good as new (thank goodness...) and once again, I didn't have to pay a dime! Partly from luck, and I'll give some credit to the great service of apple, but I have never had to pay for a repair for this computer, even though it has been out of warranty for about 2 years. Needless to say...I recommend macs. :)

   So, this is not my art update yet. I still owe you 7 pieces!! I have been doing them though, I just need to get them ready for the web. I just wanted to let everyone know what is going on. The drawing is now over! MELLYTHINKS WON!!! Congrats! I will be posting a new drawing within the next week. Thank you to everyone for their continuing support! 

Mono-typing at home!

February 28, 2010

So I have come across a new technique and I love it. The style came from my class of mono-printing and is called mono-type. It is a very simple printing process that gives you awesome results and is really easy to do. I thought, since I liked it so much, I would write out a little tutorial so others can try it! If you do end up doing it, please show me some of the things you came up with!

Mono-typing is a very painterly style of printing. It is also a print that is impossible to replicate.  You can either use a traditional press... which if you dont have access to one you can get for the low price of about 15,000 dollars :), or you can do the much cheaper hand printing. Here are the steps. 

1. Acquire the materials. You will need: 

-A flat sheet of plastic or metal that is the size of your print. This is what you paint on. 

-Get a piece of paper in the size of your print with enough room for a border, if you want one. The paper will have to be wet for printing so the best paper is either watercolor paper or special printing paper. You can still use drawing paper, but it will warm a little after drying. 

-What inks you get is a little flexible. One of the best kinds is a printing ink called akua. The are a little expensive, I only have a black and a 2 oz container of it cost me $8.70. The price is based on the color, since the minerals that make up the pigments are all different prices. The black is the cheapest and the 2 ounces goes a long way. You can also use oils. The main importance is you use an ink that doesn't dry easily. You want to have time to work on  the plastic/metal and still have it wet enough to make a good print.

-Have with you a variety of brushes, cut up cotton fabric for wiping, and any other thing you think you might want to paint with. Finding things with texture is fun to press into the paint. you can get a brayer, a little rubber roller, to administer the ink as well but its not necessary. 

-I suggest having some sort of ink thinner so painting comes a little easier. 

- A spray bottle with water in it. The finer is mists the better

-A pastry roller for printing.

-Spare paper/newsprint

2. Set out your station. You are going to want to have some newspaper under you because this is a messy process. Make sure to have a piece of scarp cardboard, plastic, etc for a pallet. 

3. Start Painting! Use the tools and ink to start moving the ink around your plastic. With press printing, you have to be modest with you ink since there is so much pressure being put on your paper and you don't want it to mush out when you put it though. With hand printing, you want to be pretty liberal. You still want to avoid globs of paint anywhere, but you should have your layers pretty thick so they show up. 

4. Preparing the paper and printing: When you are happy with your piece, take your paper and mist it with water. Having the paper wet help lift the ink off of the plastic.  If you have the higher quality printing or watercolor paper, you can completely submerge your paper in water. If you have drawing paper or something similar, you are going to need to go easy on the moisture, otherwise the paper will fall apart. After your paper is wet, take some spare or news print and wet it liberally. Lay the to the side.

Take the sheet you want the print to be on and lay it on a flat surface, like a table. Place your painted plastic, ink down, where you want it on your paper. carefully flip the duo so the paper is on top. Be careful not to move either piece or the ink will smudge. Take the roller and start applying pressure with it al around the paper. You will be able to feel where the plastic begins and ends. Go every direction. If an area gets dry, apply more water by spraying the roller and then rolling it across the area. 

5. Check your print by lifting up a corner of your paper. This is where personal judgement comes in. If the ink is dark enough on the paper your done, if you want it darker you can put it back down and apply more pressure and water. If after a while, the ink doesn't seem to be getting any darker, you can always repeat the process and re-print on the same paper. Re-printing is also used as an effect to create more depth to the art piece. 

6. Clean up or keep printing!

If you have any questions let me know. This is me first tutorial so I might have left some things out. The two prints I included i did yesterday and the day before. They are done with the black akua and then some left over oils I had. I did them in 2-3 layers (re-prints). Enjoy and get printing!

A Little of Everything

February 25, 2010

I can't believe it's the end of Feb. already. It was christmas like 2 weeks ago! Well thats hows things work when it's really busy. I have been getting so much art done and loving it! For my challenge pieces I did 3 prints, a quilt, and photography today. All that means is I am getting really bad at posting my stuff. I am supposed to be writing one of these each day. Ah well, thats how things go. At least I am still doing my art. 

One of my biggest challenges so far has been keeping up on the costs of art supplies. Not only are my classes requiring odd and expensive supplies, but I am running low on the stuff I have always had around the house. You go though a lot when doing art everyday! So, I was wondering if everyone who reads this wouldn't mind spreading the word. Advertising is a lot harder then you would think! Especially when you are not paying for it. haha

Well I have to get going. Always something to do. Hope everyone is having a good February. Thanks, as always, for your support! Night!