The Cloisters!

Violent and sad, but most religious art is. Also, this is a tapestry! A crazy-huge-wall-sized tapestry! 

Here come some forgotten photos! Nik and I went up to the Cloisters way back in October (?!!), and had a nice walk around Fort Tryon park and in the Cloisters museum.  It's right up my alley with medieval art from the 9th-16th century Europe. I have a large fascination with religious and medieval art and basically anything with gold leaf on it makes my heart flutter. The Met is my favorite museum in NYC by far, but I hadn't made it up to their Cloisters branch yet. Plus, I timed it right, so we would be there when the leaves were changing. Leaf-peeping! It's so pretty there! Set in the scenic Fort Tryon park, along the Hudson River, it's a great day trip away from the city. I sounded like a guide-book just now. 

Terrible photo, but they keep the lights low to conserve all the tapestries.
Another wall-sized tapestry, and probably what the museum is most known for. Absolutely love them. Poor 'lil unicorn dude...

Cool braids.

Teeny little handwritten/illustrated books! These were only like 3-4 inches wide.

This looks totally typical until you note the weird thing he is stabbing...

Pretty courtyard

The outside!

View of the George Washington Bridge 

Fort Tryon Park

The arch!

Scenic overlook

Magnificent arch!

Reflecting and Rain

New photo for the front of my website; you like?

So, this past monday was the two year anniversary of when I quit my day job and I'm kinda in disbelief on how fast time has flown since I left my old job. I mean, I still feel like I am getting the hang of things and learning every day, doing things on my own and running my own business (which I guess is a good thing!) I'm still not where I want to be, but I'm still proud of how far I've come and things that I have accomplished. It's pretty awesome that I get to make art everyday and make a living off of it, and I'm super-grateful I can do that. I'm not saying it isn't hard and that I don't struggle, but it does make me happy. Here's to many more years!

behind the scenes photo shoot

on the boat on Governors Island, heading back to Manhattan

It's been raining like crazy here. I could never live in the Pacific Northwest, I'd miss the sun too much! Props to people that can handle so much rain!

This little guy is still on the road to recovery with his diabetes. Slowly but surely his high blood glucose levels are dropping. I'll write more about that later.

Playing with new photo app on my phone, Photo Toaster. Kinda oversaturated, but I dig. 

Cindy Sherman at MOMA

Friday night I met a friend at MOMA to check out the Cindy Sherman exhibition that I've been dying to see. I'm a big Cindy Sherman fan and I studied her a lot back in college, in my art history and women's studies classes, so I was super-excited to see this retrospective. Over 170 photographs were on  display and it was really great to see her old stuff leading up to her current work. My friend and I were imagining her studio with all the different drawers she must have full of noses and wigs and teeth and tongues and even nipples. Ha! 

Wandering around the other floors of MOMA:

Big 'ol pile of yarn

My little sister visited me last weekend, and we ventured up to Queens to PS1 for the afternoon. So glad we did! I've been a little under the weather lately and super-busy with work, so it was really nice to just go out and look at some art. And um, jump in a gigunda pile of yarn! This was a super-fun visit; lots of great exhibits that amazed us both, and ended with some frolicking in this yarn pile. People were just lounging about, with the occasional kid (okay maybe us too) falling backwards or forwards into the pile of fluff. We tried to dig to the bottom and found it was too tangled, but it's probably about 4 ft. tall! Also, the artist who created it hid a bunch of gold necklaces in there too, and if you find one you can keep it. It just brought a smile to everyone's face in there and was a perfect end to a great day. :)

Creative Field Trips

Last week, I took a creative day and went on a field trip of sorts, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It's my favorite museum in NYC, and I always feel super-inspired after a visit there!  I also wanted to check out the Alexander McQueen exhibit, "Savage Beauty," and holy wow, was that awesome! Like seriously, I'm not too huge into fashion or runway shows and whatnot, but this was really great. It was pretty crowded, so I wasn't really able to sketch inside the McQueen exhibit, and photos weren't allowed, so I just soaked it in.  I tried looking up photos of it online afterwards, but they don't really do it justice at all.  It was great seeing some Philip Treacy hats in person too.

Wandering around the MET after the McQueen exhibit, I'm always drawn to the African art section and the Renaissance paintings.  They're my faves (and it's usually empty, so I can stare as long as I want!) Everyone is usually crowded around the Monet's and Picasso's, but I tend to favor the much older stuff. 

I'm contemplating the illustrations for my calendar for next year and just needed a creative day to just let my mind wander and for new ideas to form.  Everyone needs a time-out from the day-to-day sometimes! Definitely did wonders, and I think I need to make a regular habit of this.  Where do you go for some creative time?

Here are some sketches and photos:

Giveaway Winner!

Hello! Thank you to everyone that entered my giveaway last week! I picked a winner this morning and it was lucky #16 who won, Kelly!  Super-awesome!

I had two craft shows this past weekend, and the one on sunday was exceptionally awesome. Like, really really awesome!  I love it when that happens! Super-great vendors, nice people everywhere, everyone in high spirits, and lots of sales and great feedback.  I took some pictures of my display, which I have changed up recently. I'm pretty happy with it!  

I have the BUST holiday craftacular next weekend, so still lots to do in preparation! 

Happy Birthday Miles! (and nation)

Happy Birthday today to Miles!! He turns SIX. Aww, my little boy is growing up! *sniff* And his claws come out when he's happy (I'm petting him while taking the picture). Cuuuuute.


Gallery-hopping yesterday was awesome. Super-humid outside, but I walked over to Chelsea after work and went straight to the Philip Pearlstein exhibit to be blown away, just the way I had anticipated. I popped in a few more galleries that caught my eye walking by and happened upon some other awesome works. Scott King had some fluorescent printed posters and wall paintings in the Bortolami gallery on W. 25th st., called "The Trial Continues." I inconspicuously tried to snap a few photos. Ha, I was aiming while not looking, as the room is small and the people working there were eyeing me.




I happened upon a group show that had this painting (painted on a plastic fence! with some super-plastic-like paint) that I really was taken by. I thought I grabbed a flier with the artist's name on it, but I didn't. d'oh.


Buckminster Fuller exhibit! It was geo-tastic!


I curated another treasury yesterday for the Vegan Etsy team that I belong to. Check it out here for the next few days (and this image here for posterity).

Happy 4th everyone. I have a bowl of cherries and pancakes and my doodles to work on all day. I love holidays! I might or might not watch the Macy's display tonight. Rain looks imminent anyways...