 |
|
|
| |
|
I've been wondering lately when I will feel like a grownup. I expected to by now I think. I remember my babysitter from when I was little...she was 18 and I thought she was a grown-up. She had a car, played whatever music she liked, watched soap operas and was taking care of us three kids during the day. But I'm much older than 18 and I feel like I'm still 10. Still gawky and lanky. Still tumbling through each day playing and trying to get things right.
Today I got a phone call from an art school who wants me to come speak to their illustration class, and after I hung up the phone I thought: Why do they want me to talk to them? I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm a wreck, really...just trying hard to put one foot in front of the other. Then I had this little day dream about myself as a 10 year old going to talk to scary college kids and they all laugh at me... (still shuddering from that). I mean seriously...what am I going to say to these people? Hi. I'm lopie. I draw pictures and try to keep my head on straight...
Who gave me permission to have a mortgage or care for a dog? Who let me have keys to a car? I'm married for gods sake. Married. Only grownups are married. I drink wine and try to schmooze (I'm real bad at it...if anyone comes to my show on Friday and I am an idiot...I apologize in advance). I pay bills and clean the house. I cook meals for my family. I mediate in situations and play leader for group projects.
I guess there are good sides to feeling like this. Most days I view my life as a game. Pretend. I feel like I play "bank" and "telephone" and "dress up". I cook mudpies for dinner (throw in a little of this...a touch of that...tastes bad? Don't eat it!) Putting together proposals is fun (playing career). So I guess that's good...not taking things so seriously (as I always pictured adults doing).
But I guess I thought I'd have more figured out by now. That'd I'd be further along. I have so much to learn and know. More to figure out....
I'm just wondering if anyone else feels like this. Maybe I'm a big lanky, gawky 10-in-my-head weirdo. Probably. Don't answer that.
check yes or no. or maybe.
 Dudes...I just picked up the new Illustration Friday tee-shirts from the vendor and they are wonderful (and oh-so-soft!). I'm so excited! (I'm not so excited about setting up the damn paypal store for IF though...argh...)
Also: a cry for help...
Is anyone out there a blogger guru? My archives stopped working a long time ago and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make them functional again. If you think you can help, would you email me please?
Over the turkey day break I had a little time to relax and surf... Thought I'd share a couple fun links:
Hunter Gatherer
Sushi Supplies
The newly launched Darling Shoppe!
Base-v
Illustration Friday: Small
Just a quickie interpretation of the word "small". Made me think of the ipod shuffle almost immediately. It's so tiny! I can twirl it between my fingers...
(click image for larger view)
I just wanted to let you know about an upcoming group art show that I am a part of this coming Friday (Dec. 2nd) at Galerie Penumbra in Fountain Square.
The show is called "Lunch".
I am part of a group of illustrators that gets together once a month to talk shop: inspiration, challenges, questions, networking, etc. So this show is 7 of the regular lunchers showing work created around the theme of lunch.
Who: Penelope Dullaghan, Chris Sickels (Red Nose Studio), Emma Overman, Mike Altman, Josh Johnson, Lynne Anglin, and Mark Honschke
Where: Galerie Penumbra in Fountain Square (1043 Virginia Avenue)
When: This Friday, December 2 from 5-8pm
Hope to see you locals there!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I'm heading up to Chicago to spend time with my family. So excited to see everyone and eat some yummy food.
Here's a quick list of things I'm thankful for:
- A warm house
- Keeping in contact with my brother via his blog
- Finishing my third "Lunch" show painting (see above)
- My husband, who is so darned patient and wonderful
- My mother-in-law and her never ending hunt for pants that are long enough for me (thank you!)
- A beautiful snowfall this morning
- Egg Nog!
- My pals who push me to do better and make me laugh when I need it
- You readers...leaving me such wonderful, insightful comments. Thank you very much!
What are you thankful for?
The Corners of your Mouth
 So I really think my mom is buddha. She is always pleasant. Never gets upset. Takes things in stride. And is generally a peaceful person. (Pisses me off, really...I'm so not that way.) My mom also is always smiling. Even her resting face is a small smile. (My resting face is not that pleasant. I kinda look mad if I'm just being still.)
One day I asked her about this: "Mom, how it is that you look happy even if you are just driving down the road?"
You know what she said?
She said it was all about the corners of her mouth. She worked at appearing pleasant because her natural resting face was mad too. She decided that she would make a point to turn up the corners of her mouth just a little to see what happened...Not a full smile, just a more pleasant face. And it just kind of stuck. Now it's natural for her. And there's an added benefit: it actually improves your mood to do this... No kidding.
Just today I was running a zillion errands and was none too happy about it (It was cold and my car doesn't have heat). And I thought of this story and decided to try it. I turned the corners of my mouth up and just waited. And soon I was humming to the radio and not really minding the cold, gray rain anymore.
Genius.
Now I have to try to do this on a more regular basis.
Peace and tranquility...here I come!
Illustration Friday: Free
This is another painting in the series for the Lunch show I mentioned previously. I thought it fit nicely with "free". You can click on it to see it bigger. (By the way: I didn't gesso over that teapot painting. I added to it a bit and now I like it. I'll post a revised version later.)
Have a good weekend, all!
 A little slice of good news! I have recently signed on with artist's rep, Scott Hull. I'm not up on their website yet (soon!), but I'm so excited to be on board there. He reps a lot of wonderful artists and I'm very flattered to be a part of that team. Woo-hoo!
Here's the new studio...in all its lacking glory. But it has lots of shelves! So I won't have to go to IKEA to purchase new storage...thank god. Since I just moved in, it's not really that great. And I have too much work to do right now to worry about it. I'm still getting used to it.
And here is the painting I just finished. Not sure how I feel about it yet. It may be one of those paintings I gesso over in a few hours if I don't start liking it soon...
Boy, this has been one wishy washy post. Must be the rainy gray day coming through...
This weekend went by in a blur. I wish I had one extra day.... I started working on a new painting series for a show opening December 2nd here in Indianapolis (a little sneak peek pictured above). It's a show called "Lunch". Once a month I meet up with a group of local illustrators for lunch. We chat about the industry, inspiration, ask questions, network. I really look forward to it. Gets me out of my studio (and my head) and I get to talk with people who are in the same boat as me. And seven of us are having a group show appropriately named "Lunch". My series is turning into more of a lunchtime tea idea. We'll see how it goes.
If you're local and would like a mailer about the show, just email me your address and I'll shoot one off to you.
I also moved my studio this weekend. Instead of being in a main room of our house (the dining room) that you can't help but walk through a lot, I moved to the spare bedroom at the back of the house. It's more secluded and has a door, which I hope will help me be able to shut down work more. I won't be walking through my studio and constantly thinking of what needs to be done. :) It's not as pretty, but I've found that I don't really care about having a pretty studio. I need it to be really functional and utilitarian, especially if I'm splashing paint about. (Plus, now I don't feel pressure to keep it clean because no one will be in here but me. Yay!)
I opened the mailbox yesterday and I nearly fell over. The latest issue of 3x3 Magazine was in there and I'm featured as a showcase artist! I have a two page spread including a short bio and two images. How cool!
I figured the sensible thing to do would be to play it cool and say "Hey, would you look at that?" and not make a big fuss. But I've never been really sensible so I ran around the house several times and fell to the ground in a happy mess. And then I told Colin we were going out. And I ordered the biggest, chocolate-iest piece of cheesecake (with a strawberry on top) and beamed the whole time.
So much for playing it cool. I say people who always play it cool are doing it wrong. :) hee.
Losing my Mind
We had Dish Network TV hooked up in our house last week. I haven't had a tv in many many many years...so it was a huge shock to me to rediscover it. For a long time I thought tv was the enemy...draining out creativity and sucking time away from being productive. And I thought it was a waste.
Now I think I was wrong. (At least wrong for me, which is all I can really talk about anyway.) And here's why:
The first night we had the tv, I turned it on and watched some HGTV and forgot about work.
Did you catch that?
I forgot about work. This is a huge thing for me because I am constantly thinking about work and what I have to do and things I need to read and people I need to get back to. (It's really crowded in here...)
And as I was watching someone paint their house green and plant some ferns in their front yard... I let it go. I was in the moment. It was amazing. I flipped the channel and watched a comedy and laughed...again, never thinking about my list.
I still think that some shows are completely senseless. But I can avoid them if I choose to. And hey, maybe you like them and they make you lose your mind (in a good way). I just know that I feel bad for thinking all tv was dumb before. I finally get it.
Illustration Friday: Night
This piece is one in a series of four done for a show I have coming up in Detroit at Pr1mary Space. The theme of the show is "Wish You Were Here", and all the art is postcard sized. I wanted to do something different and a little tongue in cheek. So I did morbid little scenes of disasters or impending disasters. This was one of them... The building is on fire, but no one is there to help. To see the three others in the series, go to my portfolio and look at numbers 15-18.
I also thought this worked well for "night".
Witch Contest Results
The judges have looked over all the wonderful witches that you all sent. It was so difficult to narrow it down because all of them were fantastic! But after voting multiple times, they have settled on three. Here are those:
Lori Joy Smith
Sam Duffy
Keri Smith
Thank you, everyone for playing! I hope you had fun!
I will be sending out the rest of the postcard packs within the next week. :)
xo
New Lopie Pop Tees! (and Mix n Match)
So, they have finally arrived! The new Lopie Pop Tees are now up for sale!
You can check them out here!
Because there are only a limited number, you need to email me if you want one, specifying color, size and quantity. Then I will send a request for money via paypal. It's easy!
Also, just for fun, I put together this little freebie for you: Lopie Pop Paper Doll Mix n Match. It's a downloadable pdf to print and play!
Have fun! I hope you like the tees!
All the witches are in and the judging has begun. We had 140 total witches! WOW! That's so great. I hope you all had fun celebrating Halloween in this way. I'll be announcing the three winners sometime this week.
Wanna see what I was for Halloween? Click here.
* * * *
p.s. I got a really big super secret surprise to announce a little later....stay tuned!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
© Penelope Illustration. Stealing
is not nice. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
