Just Waiting

Much of my time spent as an artist is in waiting. Waiting for the next show, waiting for the customer to call back, waiting for the paint to dry. Just Waiting. And while waiting, beginning other projects that will soon, in turn, be waiting themselves. If patience be a virtue, right now I have virtue in spades.

Currently I have three projects in wait. Two Art Nouveau inspired marriage contracts and an Art Deco style wedding invitation. Both marriage contracts are actually Ketubah (Ketubot in the plural), Jewish legal marriage documents with both English and Hebrew calligraphy denoting the text. One is a simple black and white Art Nouveau inspired assymetrical frame with Hebrew and English written in a simple, yet elegant hand. The second is inspired by the bride's grandparents' Ketubah ca. 1940.

The wedding invitation is in an Art Deco style specifically inspired by the Oviatt Penthouse a Los Angeles Art Deco landmark reminiscent of a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel in beauty and opulence.

The waiting, however, is over for the purchase of my images on iPop magnets. Femme Fatales four pack set and the Fashion Plates four pack set as well as the large La Belle Vie single magnet are all available for retail purchase via the website.

So I sit and wait. Not a bad thing. I sit in the sunshine and work, my art in constant revolution as each project takes a turn in time to become whole.

iPop Magnets and Octavine Illustration

I am most pleased to announce the launch of my new magnet line now available from iPop, a division of Madison Park Greetings. Nine of my Art Deco inspired original images were chosen to be licensed and placed on magnets. Available at museums and fine bookstores the world over, this is my first foray into the international market on a mass scale and I am simply glowing with excitement.

They are available for both wholesale and individual orders through http://www.ipopshop.com.

Months in the making, I received the package with the magnets yesterday and proceeded to jump around the house squealing with delight only to get my dog all in a dither and some funny looks from my neighbors and passersby.

iPop magnets, my designs presented for the first time in the National Stationery Show in New York City last month, come in four packs and singles and are designed by independent artists from all over the United States.

I cannot imagine walking into a random museum or bookshop and seeing my art. I hope this will happen. In the meantime, I sit and stare at my magnets still brimming with happiness.

So Tired (Daydreaming on a Scarlet Sofa)

So titled is this painting. And so titled am I--last week spent painting many new panels; this marketing said paintings. Becoming so engrossed in my work takes an emotional toll only later realized.

My images haunt me--they appear in my dreams, not as people from ages past (haute couture in an Art Nouveau style) but splashes of color I know are mine. They vex me, sitting in wait adjacent to the bedroom (my studio and drafting table are in the "vanity room"--a small Victorian style dressing room with a built-in armoire and dressing table) not having seen the light of day.

I find it peculiar that art should thus exist virtually; a series of code rather than a tangible image when a tangible image does indeed exist. And even more odd, that the audience also be virtual--a set of avatars and comments suited to inspire progress and provide inspiration.

As one who normally eschews technology, I could not be more grateful for it right now.

I shall post each new painting over the course of the next month and will execute many more. They are all painted in gouache (a water-based paint similar to watercolor but with more pigment producing a bolder, matte tone) on Plywerk (a handcrafted wood panel made in Portland, Oregon and using environmentally sustainable practices), ready to hang and available exclusively through my Etsy shop.

Portland's Cycle Seen

I do not drive. Nor do I ride a bicycle, skateboard, or scooter. I do not rollerskate unless in a rink, and as a West Coaster I never had occasion to ice skate outside of doors.

I could not tell you why I don't see lampposts, cars, or other pedestrians as I wander through my somewhat confused existence, but I live in my head, focused on my world.

As vehicular transport eludes me and I prefer to walk or take the bus, I found it odd that I should be a part of Portland's Cycle Seen project.

The painting pictured is currently on display in NE Portland at Cup and Saucer as part of a city-wide exhibition featuring bicycle art.

This image was taken from my memories of my trip through Holland with my sis. In Holland there are bicycle freeways taking one out of town and through the pastoral countryside. Without cars to worry me, I was free to ride past the windmills and frolicking baby goats. I most vividly remember my sis shouting out, "This is the best day ever!" as we rode through the Dutch farmlands. Indeed it was.

I'll Play if You Will

It is 55 degrees out. On Saturday it was 99 degrees. I prefer the heat so I drew her to celebrate the long summer days ahead, much eagerly anticipated and disappointingly not quite here yet.

Yesterday I was tagged twice, thus I thought in the spirit of sportsmanship I would play along. As the tags asked differing questions (one simply asked to write seven interesting things about oneself, the other had directed questions), I am combining them as to not write a manifesto.

Without further ado....

1. What were you doing ten years ago?

Living in Jerusalem waiting tables. I had left college prematurely, moved to Jerusalem by myself and got a job as a waitress. I lived in Israel for two years before returning to San Francisco to finish college. It was a most romantic point in my life and where I began to find my calling as an artist (it would take many more years to realize it).

2. Things that I would do if I were a billionaire?

I would buy a huge sprawling Victorian with stairways that ran nowhere, rooms hidden behind bookshelves, secret passages and an attic full of ephemera (think Winchester Mystery House). I prefer it to be bit decrepit to add history, drama and intrigue. I would also travel, my big orange backpack atop my small frame, to destinations exotic and locales of ancient lore. Oh, and I would buy tons of clothes. Beautiful couture fashions from decades past. And shoes, lots of shoes.

3. Places I have lived:

New Mexico
Ohio
Israel
Northern California
Oregon

4. Random Musing no. 1

I want to go to St. Petersberg as my next travel destination. I would like to see the Hermitage.

5. Random Musing no. 2

I have a mastiff-labrador cross named Belle. The name is reflexive as she is named after the Scottish band Belle and Sebastian. Belle and Sebastian named themselves after the early 1980s cartoon about the adventures of a little boy, Sebastian and his big dog, Belle.

6. Random Musing no. 3

If I could eat anything all the time it would be pie. I love pie. All kinds of pie. Especially fruit pie. And desserts in general. Big fan of sugar.

I am now tagging others. All of you. Wouldn't want to pick favorites, so everyone is invited to play; use these questions or make up your own. Cheers!~