rain, rain, rain

RAIN AND GARDEN 

It's raining, it pouring & it's sticking around. I feel like i'm getting a glimpse into what it would be like to live in Seattle. I love the rain, but i don't like it when the weather keeps me cooped up inside all the time, and my outside day job selling plants becomes so slow it makes you wonder how the business is doing. I don't like it that everyone around me is complaining about the rain. I love the rain and have no control over it and I'm good with that. For the most part my garden loves it with the exception of a few things that are struggling, my avocado tree, olive tree and penstemon, but everything else has grown more this year than any other here. The ants and mosquitos could leave town, I have noticed a little bit of a difference in the mosquito population lately because of all of the spiders/webs in the garden. Chloe has gotten so big that the last time she hung out outside on her pear tree, she walked too far out on the branch and it broke. I was a bit bummed because it was one of the only branches that had a baby pear on it, poo. But i'm glad the branch didn't break and fall, it held on as i rushed over to save her. 

SUPPORT AND EXCHANGES 

I've felt pretty supported in my ceramics this year which is nice. I get compliments whenever i wear my necklaces, which is like everyday now. I guess i've always worn necklaces, it's just lately they are ceramic and make me jingle and in the past they've been more fiber based like knitted or sewn. I'm excited to be working on my first artist trade with someone I don't know in person. I'd really like to do more of these moving forward. Exchange stuff we're both currently working on in a package of goodies like the ones you got at camp or from pen pals or a grandmother. I was going to include a ceramic necklace, ceramic chillum, tie dyed bag, a drawing/screen print/painting, maybe a macrame keychain. I was planning on heading up to The Mud Hut later and painted my stuff that came out of the kiln yesterday or at least starting to paint it. Painting always takes longer than I think with the 3 coat rule. 

STYLE 

It's raining cats and dogs outside, that is such a weird saying. But hey it's raining. It's so dark in here, it looks like 6am. I've been playing around with necklace cord ideas. Paracord, tie dyed paracord, knitted cord, lanyard braided plastic cord, leather cord is what i've tried so far. Tried some hollow circle shapes lately. I have my first 2 fired and ready to paint and a third I still need to finish, Like hollow donuts. I like them, they remind me of artifacts from an ancient civilization or hieroglyphs made into form or those Pokemon hieroglyphs, the unknowns. I've also really been liking happy faces, my usual squiggles and shapes, dome lump shapes, pizza, bananas and palm trees. It's funny, I have two very distinctive styles right now in my ceramics, one is natural colors browns, indigo deep blue, leather, artifact shapes and the other is bright neon green and pink, shiny reflective material, plastic and paracord, 90's/70's icon shapes, tropical, karaoke, unnaturally colored hair like pink, purple, green, blue, 80's and 90's fabric and patterns.

Optimistic

Feeling really positive and excited about my ceramics lately. My husband has been keeping us diligently creative even when I get home from my plants day job. Like last night he had the little drawstring bags I got the other day all laid out with the tide dye and rubber bands ready to go. We got them all tied up and dyed up. I'll be using them as part of my packaging moving forward for my necklaces. I need to find or make some larger bags for multi bead necklaces. I love how much my husband has really taken to fabric dying. 

I got some paracord to start using and some to tie dye. I need to get some more colors and play around with macrame knotting with my beads. 

I'm In love with dan deacons song "when I was done dying". It's made me think of lyrics and stories and the nobrow art books. 

It's weird wet north west weather in east Texas this spring, Making work kind of slow. the weather can get to me at times but my garden is for the most part loving the weather which I'm happy for. 

I'd really love to work with some other artist. Like both create something based on the same idea or theme and exchange some stuff. Interested email me eveneve@rocketmail.com 

Spring

Spring is in full swing here in east texas. A lot of rain this year. For the most part my garden is loving it, my avocado tree not so much. Had a nice day off yesterday. Sold and shipped my first bead to Florida. Felt laid back and not stressed which is nice and not normal for me. Been really encouraged in my different artistic outlets via the people in my life and Instagram. I started a bigcartel to put some of my beads out there. I made 2 cactus beads on my new outside studio table we found at a local thrift store we had never been to before and had the chance to start a watercolor.

 I've been spending as much time as possible in my garden. We arranged everything around the camp fire this year, most of my plants I keep in containers. My favorites this year have been the bleeding heart, drift roses, coral salvia, oak leaf hydrangea, hummingbird mint, peach and pear trees which are bearing fruit this year, lavender, bluebonnets, pine one cactus, and my new olive trees I picked up in Austin last month. We made a rule to try and not watch tv before 8pm and try to spend time outside and being creative. 

Jamin and I occasionally play around musically together. Songwriting and music are one of his main creative pursuits. He's always been into music that could be described as weird or experimental, electronic stuff. So we're putting more time into it lately. He recently ordered me a korg midi keyboard to use with my Animoog app. It's fun and interesting to hear what we come up with with me not having much of a music background or understanding. Our band is called Mermaid Hair, hopefully it's not already taken, I did some research and didn't find anything. 

This year has had its hard bits but they feel like they are smoothing out.  It's been a really rewarding and actively creative year including screen printing, music, ceramics, watercolor, fabric tie dying, drawing, tattoos, sewing, knitting, spinning yarn. Looking forward to continuing creating, and becoming more motivated in getting out there with my art. 

day of collages and new music

Since I started my new plant shop job and it being spring and therefore busy I've fallen into a lazy routine lately involving work and coming home and watching Big Bang Theory, taking care of my plants filling up our three windows and taking care of our pets; 2 cats, 2 frogs (australian whites tree frog, American green tree frog) and an anole lizard. All of which except for one cat we acquired in the recent weeks. Now on watch through number 3 of the series I started to feel the need to be productive and creative.

Today I was browsing etsy for a few minutes and came across an item a friend of mine favorited, from there I went to the girls blog, depeapa. I found her style, colors & shapes inspiring and felt refreshed and energized to create. A welcomed response and change to my couch potato nature as of late. 

So I sat down at my desk this afternoon and created the 2 above collages. 

I turned on some music from the music blog gorilla vs bear and found a band I really like Prince Innocence a band I had previously no knowledge of. I like how they don't look like they go together, they have catchy beats and professional videos which I found interesting since they are distributed through a small label pretty pretty records that through their website seems to have only 3 bands and have yet to release a full length record and seem to only have 6 songs all of which were release in the past year. I love this video of theirs, the prism lights, the random items and poster taped to the wall, the neon pop cartoon icons overlaid over the live video. 

The other video my husband found the artist last night and from what I heard I really liked at the time and remembered and found again today. Shuta Hasunuma on the same label as Balmorhea, western vinyl. A fun found sound electronic beats.

doodles

Recently I was inspired to start keeping a sketchbook. I've always been kind of OCD about art. I want to destroy my stuff if I don't like it so pages get torn out of sketchbooks, so I tend to work with loose paper. But after recently reading Leah Reena Goren's blog I thought I'd try it out, suppressing the urge to tear out pages if I don't like a drawing or painting. I chose one I had already, a present from years back. There were a few sewing pattern sketches in it already. But I started. I'm trying to not let a day go by without drawing or painting something in it. Most of it inspired by etsy artists I like, illustrators, some plants & nature items, Jamin & furniture, stuff I find on pinterest, miyazaki films.

A few days ago we went to a local home décor and gardening store, bypassing the home décor stuff and walking straight to the greenhouse. I love being around plants. It is my happy spot, growing stuff, nature, green. I walked down all the isles, a few of them multiple times. Checking out the succulents and cacti, ferns, ground cover, palms, and a few flowering plants. I could only get one and I ended up choosing between a poppy plant, flowering succulent, pony tail palm & a stag horn fern. I chose the stag horn fern because I ended up giving the one I had to a neighbor in Florida who wanted it. And now it is living in the window above the couch where it can soak up some indirect sunlight.

I wanted to blog everyday when I recently started blogging again but realized I don't always have something to share or say really. So my new more practical idea is to do so when I have something to show or talk about. It is weird how we make rules to things (like blogging) for ourselves without even thinking about it. That we all like things a certain way. I'm trying to learn to be more carefree and just do, make.

happy valentines day

The light was so strongly lighting up our blinds that it seemed that they weren't even there by how much the light lit up the room this morning. I woke up around 8am which I was surprised by because I went to bed late but the heaviness of my eyes reminded me.

 I didn't realize till I was on google/reader for a while that today is valentines. The past few weeks I've been drawing heart shapes out of plants. I suppose because I knew valentines was coming up. I think it must be one of the most enjoyable holidays for kids. I always liked the time at school where you got to exchange your valentines, the candies and cartoon character themed pieces of perforated paper in reds and pinks. We're not much of celebrators of holidays or life events in the traditional sense. I think it is a part of our personalities to not plan things and just go with the flow of the day, doing what we feel lead in the moment, laid back. Last night I got some flowers though, Jamin got me some yellow daisy type ones when we first got here and last night I got some pale purple ones with green in the middle. That's one thing we thought we'd do now that we are here, always have some flowers. 

happy valentines day

surrounded by pine trees

We hung some more pictures up in our apartment yesterday. Jamin joked about sending pictures of our moved into 12x20 studio to Dwell because of how we used the space. It's like one of those ikea houses that you can walk around in at the store except without the walls dividing everything and making it feel smaller.

 I'm loving all the evergreen trees around here. I'm not exactly sure what varieties they are, I think just pine. but all the tall green trees are mesmerizing and comforting towering above me. It makes me want to sleep under them and the stars in the navy blue rich sky. It's a little cold for that, we'd have to bundle up. But I like camping in the cold, it feel truer in a way. The other night we hung out around a bon fire made with logs from a tree our tenants cut down on their property, they were all around 4 feet long and it was still smoldering in the morning when we step outside for our day, even in the drizzle. 

rainy day inside

Rainy day here in east Texas. The past few days really, drizzle then storm, lightning and thunder. I love how the rain makes the greens and browns of nature more saturated, rich. I've been really appreciating my new color swatches. Before I'd tend to pick out the colors I thought I wanted to use by the bottle color. I usually ended up using the same colors over and over, not really satisfied with the result of my choices. I feel i'm choosing better now that I know exactly what color i'm choosing. The scene above was our cat being cute and ironic this morning. He was taking a nap on a crocheted blanket using the hard wood of my chair as his pillow. Jamin pointed out that "shouldn't it be the other way around?" 

these baby moccasin booties were a goodwill outlet find back in Austin. I thought they would make a good baby card for someone (don't get any ideas, just thought they were cute).

studio today

The temperature dropped last night. And I just heard thunder outside, I think it is going to rain, making it even colder. It's kind of nice to experience some kind of winter weather, since Florida doesn't seem to experience much of it. A few nights we wore sweatshirts and jackets with toboggans but as we left there it felt like it was almost summer time again. Since our space is built inside of a garage it doesn't retain heat that well so it gets a bit nippy, but it is nice to be able to wear sweaters and chunky socks and cozy up under multiple blankets at night. 

I think I, like seemingly everyone else fell in love with Rifle paper company. While I was in Florida, since it is based out of Orlando, where we were. It makes me want to paint like her. I was playing around with flowers like she draws today. It feels like copying at first, but I feel like if I continue to paint flowers it will become something my own. It is just based upon inspiration at first. 

This Asparagus fern picture used to be hanging in my friend Pam's house as shown in the picture. I took a picture of it the last time I hung out with her and she gave it to me when I took a picture of it. She was like if you like it so much just take it. She's cool. We exchanged some stuff before we left. I don't think I'd ever done that before, exchanged stuff. It's a great experience, you give a friend some things they like of yours and they give you some thing you like of theirs and then all of those things will forever remind you of that person. It's a great was to be reminded of people. 

These two pictures are from a coffee shop in Orlando I miss "Downtown Credo". I didn't frequent it that much since I didn't live in the area (college park).  But it is a great place, non profit coffee space. Great atmosphere, very fresh and great soft light. The walls are decorated like this behind the coffee bar and above where all the sugars are. The other walls are left bare or used to hang the current show of artwork. The have workshops like writing and "cultivating a creative community".  I had friends that hung out there every day. They make the best iced dirty chai latte ever. And my friend Pam mentioned above bakes the desserts they sell. She is currently starting a new business for compost called "Fork and Spade". 

Tejas

We moved again and are now living in east Texas, think iconic mass America. Land of chain restaurants and commercialism. We'll be on the outlook for local eats. So I may disagree with a lot out here but the nature around here is awesome. It's full of pine trees. Yesterday we went disc golfing, slightly surprised to find that they have a disc golf course out here. I've got my studio corner for the most part set up. We are living Tokyo style out in the country in a garage apartment that is 240 square feet, but considering it is one room, it's big enough for us. I like it, it is a challenge of how small we can live and the $250 rent is pretty sweet. We got a storage unit to put everything we didn't need with us. I've been surfing etsy a lot this past week. I'm excited for being more productive creating in our new space, everything is organized & in one room. I can't escape the view of art supplies from the couch, so no excuses to forget about it. Today I washed all my palettes and finished a project I started in Orlando. My friend Adrienne from "nice is different" catalogued her watercolor palette by painting an individual color on a little paper square from leftover paper (& drew little smiley faces on the paint) on the back you write what the name of the color is (and if you want to the make of the paint, because I found in my collection I have a few of the same name but different brands). It helps you to know exactly what colors you have because for the most part the color on the bottle or tube of paint rarely identically matches the color of the paint & how it looks diluted. It makes it easier to find what you are looking for. I have 11 rolls of film I need to get developed. Some of the photos are from when we lived in Austin, it's been a while. It will be a surprise to see what is on each roll, since I don't keep up with which roll is which and from what adventure.

been painting lately

now that we have art space set up namely a desk to spread out art supplies & a work space to make art and a bench to sit at the desk to make the art I have fallen into a routine. We get up and drink coffee if we have coffee and when we run out we drink tea. I sit at my desk, paint and read a chapter or so in the good word (Bible, ESV translation) and stare at the lines of light at the sun comes through the partially open blinds. Then as the day progresses i'll switch over to adding ice to my tea or ginger ale if we have it, sometimes adding orange juice to my ginger ale, it is oh so refreshing.

 Put on a record or i-tunes if the record player is acting up. It gets in moods where it doesn't think it is balances so the speed will change periodically during a song and it sounds like a bad remix. Maybe i'll put on an audio book which i guess is the best for me because i'll get tired of what i'm doing and want to surf the web or watch a movie after some time of listening to music but an audio book i'm listening to a story which to me is much more entertaining. But i recently finished the only audiobook i own "Wildwood" which is pretty entertaining but not quite what i expected when i started, but i still really like it. Maybe i should start it over again. 

I have all my Gouache and watercolor tubes and palettes spread out on the table so that i can see the colors. I'll choose two or three to start off with. Dabbing a bit of each into it's own little section of the palette, dip my size 6 round paintbrush into the little mason jar of water and start painting. With my abstract work lately i'll stop after a few shapes and then draw some and then paint some more going back and forth between the two. But with my faces i'll make the watercolor and set it aside to dry completely and then draw a face out of what i see the watercolor has become. I'll start with the right eye , then the nose, then left eye, mouth and detail of the cheeks or chin, the eye detail i'll complete as i'm drawing around the eye area. it usually plays out the same way every time. 

then i put them aside at the top of the pile in the category it relates to. right now i have faces, small paper abstract, square paper abstract, themed like stars or teepees, then rocks, and finally study drawings from real things like my feet or something. 

art night

the other night J & I were hanging out with our friends S & A. We all ended up spending the evening drawing and painting with watercolor, micron pens, prismacolor markers and a few colored pencils. we all have such different styles.

mountain painting

went to a freakin fun show last night "Battles" played at this relatively new emo's east side venue off of riverside. Their music is so tight, check them out. You may already know their "ice cream" song.



I brought my polaroid camera with some impossible project black and white film and took come pictures. Got a sweet one of the drum set and a good one of the keyboardist/guitarist Ian Williams. wish i could post a picture of the picture but i gave it to him. Wanted to meet the drummer but he didn't come out after the show was over.

work finished yesterday

progress so far on gouache painting, detail to add today.

Sketchbook Project

I signed up for the sketchbook project again. It will be traveling international this time. pretty cool. Anyways if you want to sign up the deadline is Oct 31. for $5 off enter the coupon code 10pm If you sign up tell me and i'll be sure to check out your book, mine will be under LILAH SHEPHERD (although last year it was under LILAH WARD).

Studio & Art

some things that inspire me: mountain postcard by Greg Piwonka, Laura Veirs - july flame vinyl insert poster by Carson Ellis, minkee gocco bear in woods print (thank you card), Blind Pilot posters by Ryan Dobrowski, fruit cards by Claire Nereim , Future Islands poster, my mushroom necklaces i'm working on and old cheesecloth screen print with gouache and block printing ink, i was experimenting.




here is some stuff i'm working on now, inspired by the blind pilot fall 2011 poster (if you go to their show, pick one up, they are awesome) you can't really tell by the picture but the yellow background is a metallic glittery yellow, pretty sweet, also inspired by mountains & camping and the neon art i've seen in Austin galleries lately.

painting

painting, originally uploaded by even eve.

a mini video of me painting at my cluttered desk. song: cannons by youth lagoon

mountains

mountains, originally uploaded by even eve

new painting i'm working on

sketchbook tour

sent off my sketchbook today. i felt a little disapointed in it at the end but all the people i showed it to were very encouraging. It's because i was afraid that all the pictures I had put in with photo corners would fall out so i taped them in with masking tape and it the job looks kind of crappy but the pictures are good.

check me out if you go the tour starts in feb. and will be going to brooklyn,NY; austin,TX; portland,ME; atlanta,GA; Washington,DC; seattle,WA; San Francisco,CA; Chicago,IL & Winter Park,FL.tour website My sketchbook will be under LILAH WARD in the 5 minutes section, I titled it faces with pieces of fabric sewn onto the cover.

sketchbook

I'm finishing up my sketchbook project today. I'm scanning all of the pictures. My first round of scanning my art. I need to replace all of the old illustration pictures in my flickr that were pictures taken of the drawings, so not that great of quality. And now i can use the scans to make prints, sweet. A project that has taken me like 3 years now. Well progress is being made. I only drew like 7 drawings in the sketchbook so I'm adding some past drawings in with those photo corners that stick to the page. It was fun, I'm just kind of ADD about my interests. I have to be in the mood to do them. And with so many interests stuff progresses kind of slowly if it isn't my main interest of the hour.