New Design: FARTICORN!!!

 I’m delighted to share with you my newest piece, available in my shop !!! 

FAUX POCKETS Are Here!!!!!

 I am so excited and proud to present my latest work, specially tailored for tees!!! HOLIDAY FAUX POCKETS are fun-sized cheeky little travel buddies ideal for toting around and providing a smile!

A while back I created several pocket animal designs, henceforth to be known as FAUX PAWKETS, for family members that I have since been working to evolve into a collection.  As the holidays have turned up, the opportunity has presented itself to unveil the inaugural collection designs to celebrate the season.  I hope bunches get adopted and named and cared for!

I present to you now, immediately available in my shop, laurabmakesart.threadless.com : 

HOLIDAY FAUX POCKETS!!!!!

In the Interim..

 

There are various sundry projects I have been working on while sorting out the challenges of my immediate impending project, but before I post about any of that I’d like to take a quick moment to cover a few of the in-betweens.

I’m interested in exploring food art so I attempted a visual recipe of The Toledo Bowl, a cereal combo promoted and developed by a treatsmith I stumbled upon on a visit to a newer local restaurant: Saturday Morning Vibes Cereal Bar. (Bonus: tried oat milk with it and they made it chocolate- SO DELICIOUS.)

I produced several pieces as daily records of interactions with art.. none have been discovered to date.

I also attempted new techniques for partially transforming graphite pencil sketches into digital color images as exampled by my portrait work whilst watching the movie musical 1776, explored avenues of fictional self-portraiture, reworked TREAT HOUSE on request to isolate the two jack-o-lanterns whom I’ve since christened BOOGITY and BOO, and practiced my digital coloring skills on several brilliant line drawings still viewable through my Instagram and Facebook accounts!

NOW.. Stay Tuned!!!!!

GAME OF SHROOMS IS LIVE!!!

Game of Shrooms is an annual global mushroom-themed art scavenger hunt giveaway event and it’s Today!!! If you’d like to find and keep a piece of mine or others’ mushroom themed art, check https://yumfactory.com/gameofshrooms/ for details and a map of participating artists/locales!!! Happy Game of Shrooms and may the spores be ever in your favor!!!

*Also, here’s a clue video if you’re interested:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtTsjSlAUlU/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

LOVE WELL Audio Time Lapse

 Here’s a recitation of my poem Love Well which i just paired with a time lapse of the illustration process of my new piece LOVE WELL!  It goes nicely with the end of Claude Debussy’s Claire de Lune. :)

New Illustration: LOVE WELL!!!!!

Big News, Folks!!!
Announcing my latest design, LOVE WELL!!!!!

From my laurabmakesart.threadless.com shop:

This colorful, Pride inspired, 80s-cartoon-nodding illustration featuring the words 'Love Well', in script, is decked with clouds, a rainbow, diamond-shaped twinkles and a heart or two.  I created it in the hopes that it may inspire and remind in a direct, light, yet poignant, manner to not only love, but LOVE WELL.

The concept has been on my mind for some time and manifested in this piece as well as in the following poem:

'Love Well'

Love.

But Love Well.

Love imperfectly.

Be scared and love anyway.

Love with passion.

Love with your whole self.

With wisdom

And empathy

And equity.

Love with curiosity and creativity.

Love with vulnerability.

Love with ferocious tenderness

And enduring patience.

Grow in love,

And nurture it.

Strive to understand ALL that love is,

And ALL that love is not.

Love, but LOVE WELL.

 

As a visualized message, i really enjoy the idea of 'Love' being portrayed as a color explosion of hearts and glitter and big fluffy radiance.  But unto itself, that expression seems flat and un-nuanced and a disservice to what i consider to be many intrinsic hallmarks of the nature of Love.

To avoid getting mired in the voluminous definitions of Love, for me, it's important to allow for a certain degree of personal definition.  There are, of course, at least several definitions often attributed to Love that may cloud it's true understanding.  Therefore, while ever-evolving, determining for myself the delineation between all of the sundry things called Love, and what i personally consider Loving Well is of the utmost importance.

It's with this in mind that 'LOVE WELL', the image (and 'Love Well' the poem), was born.  In qualifying 'Love' by adding 'Well' i'm attempting to subvert the blanket idea of perpetuating the two-dimensional encouragement to Love no matter what or how, and proselytize instead the imperative to first consider with a critical eye what Love is for one's self, and then pursue the development and practice of one's best version of it. This, hopefully leads collectively to a rainbow of unique interpretations not wholly unlike those rainbows symbolizing LGBTQ+ Pride and the many varieties of gender and sexuality they represent.  As i explore and strive to understand the shades and tints of how we define and realize ourselves, and how expansive those parameters may truly extend, Loving Well, and all it's facets, may be a connection we can all share inclusive of our innumerable differences, strengthening understanding of and care for one another.

By including the qualifier 'Well' in the happy and vibrant visualized message of 'Love' i aim to strike a balance between provoking consideration of the concept of what it is to Love Well and celebrating the vast totality of all that may be derived from it's application.  I also just really like the aesthetic. 

Please enjoy, and please Love Well.

Schmollops ‘IV’ Drops!

 Here’s the piece i did called ‘IV’ for the Aeqai art magazine annual silent auction ‘eight BUY eight’ at Pendleton’s The Annex Gallery about a month ago. It’s the fourth in a series of pieces revolving around schmeared dollops i call schmollops. Top left is ’I’ and themed around circus peanuts, middle left is ‘II’ and themed around watergate/green jello salad, and bottom left is ‘III’ and themed around sugared blueberry muffins with lemon zest. IV utilizes extra schmollops from II and III with the addition of a shiny translucent deep blue variety and a warm red background. There’s a wealth of possibilities for future additions so keep an eye.

The three smaller panels are 5x5” and the larger is 8x8”. The schmollops are roughly one half to three quarters inch wide and made of acrylic medium: often light molding paste or high solid gel and created with a large, round tipped icing piping bag. They are prepared on sheets of non-stick paper and, once dry, selected and arranged for application.