Just so you know

I haven't updated this blog innn oh look almost two years. Since then I've started working at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and have not created much art at all :( I know. But it's cool I've had lots of other things going on including reviving my love for local music etc. SO I might come back to this.In the mean time I'm starting this other blog. So See you soon hopefully.

Confessions of an insomniac

So I am wide awake at 5 am and I have no idea why. Well actually I do A)I drank a cup of coffee at midnight B)I slept through most of the middle of yesterday because my husband and kids and I all caught some hellish bug which caused us all to hurl and me to get hurled on TWICE!WOOO motherhood. So anyway now I am awake. I was all stoked to do laundry until the crack of dawn but it just didn't happen. Instead I have mostly been drooling over Etsy sellers I want to be like. There are so many people whose stuff is so amazing and it drives me insane because I feel like my level of awesome could be there too like it's bubbling under the surface but my lack of time or patience or focus or discipline is making it not happen. Ok and maybe because I don't have an art degree. Probably not that. Well anyway I am super ready for the genius idea to hit me. Of course I guess in theory I have come a long way since when I first started right! Ok so I am totally picturing myself standing in front of the big glass window like that dude in "Real Genius" waiting for the awesomeness to hit,except I don't want my house to fill up with popcorn. Although my kids do really love popcorn.

Oh also- The freaking Renegade craft fair is coming to Austin!!! http://www.renegadecraft.com/austin wooo. My bff-who shall remain unnamed-randomly texted me about it and then I heard a choir sing and angels flew around me. I do not in any way feel I have anything to sell at a fair like that but I WANT TO SO BAD! Someday I suppose. business goals?

whoops

So. Obviously The painting a day thing didn't pan out for several reasons. Mainly my last semester of school was crazy, also I have two kids so - well do I even need to go on.Right this second I am ignoring the child who is supposed to be asleep wandering around because - well because I am just not in the mood to pull some supernanny business right now.

After I stopped keeping up with the paintings and blogs I was trying to pretend I never blogged before. Then I watched Julie & Julia and who isn't inspired to blog after watching that movie. Then I thought about completely erasing all of my old entries or just starting a new blog all together. Instead I am just going to keep the old ones there to remind me not to make such lofty goals. My new years resolution was to blog once a week, and yea it's technically been more than a week since new years, but I think the biggest thing I want to learn this year is how to improve the aspects of my life that frustrate me without frustrating myself with impossible goals. I will not have an immaculate house. I will not lose 3 pounds a week, but I can do the dishes every day. I just want to spend this year finding that balance in everything so here we go- bring it on 2010

Stupid Bolsheviks

Here i present to you my tweets for the day -In order

1:09 pm- Watching SYTYCD Finale. Jon just poured me a giant Screwdriver.
1:09 pm-I think he wants me to chill out
2:15 pm-@jennytornado ordering the sytycd workout videos woo
5:53 pm Just sold paulo's crib which makes me a little sad but also happy because i am good at selling stuff woo
7:46 pm who wants to come over and watch me fold laundry . it's going to be awesome
7:I also will be making workout videos from marilyn monroe movies.

wow my life is a thrill o minute-i am almost inspired never to tweet again- I will just imagine william shatner reading these and feel less boring- unitl social networking returns ttyl

day three jennylynn2

Before I start talking about this picture can I just tell you my kids were driving me insane while i was painting this. My son ( who is 2) would not go to sleep and it was past midnight when i started. So i am reconsidering the feasability of doing a painting every night i think i might do the painting one night and post the painting the next. I also wrote out a basic schedule so hopefully that will help. This summer has just been insane. The whole sleep schedule has been all over the place for everybody. The problem is that i never know how to change routines when something new happens. Usually once i do finally get the routine down another variable changes and everything goes out the window. Like if i get a schedule down now it is going to be chaos when i start school again. It's kind of like when new years comes and you have to write the new year on everything and you keep forgetting and then finally towards the end of the year you get used to it and then its the new year.ha. well anyway I will try this new schedule and report on the progress. Wow this whole blogging thing might help me follow through on my plans for once.

so on to the painting. I love these pictures of my friend Jenny. This is the second one I have painted ( the first one is listed here- entry pending) You can look at the listing to see the details about her and the photographer because i don't want to be repetitive ( and I want to force you to look at the listing). Pin-ups are just another one of my favorites the same as icons. I just can't get over how attractive they are and in this not overtly sexual way. it's totally the same with these pictures of Jenny. In fact that was one of my challenges in painting it was figuring out what exactly makes this picture sexy. I basically tried to focus on the hip to waist ratio and the scale of her heels. Making that car black ended up taking quite a while because the paper just soaks up black and i had to really layer it on like tammy faye with mascara ( r.i.p. tammy) A couple of my favorite features of the painting were actually accidental. The effect of the inside back of the car where the paint sort of blurs but is thick on the end happened when i got alot of excess water on the paper and then i accidentally dropped it and the paint just oozed down the paper. At first i was like OMG grrr but then it looked really amazing. unfortunately the effect is almost impossible to duplicate. I don't want to ramble on too much tonight so I will end there for today. I am taking a night off from painting because my house looks like the cranberries " Zombie" video and if i want to implement the new schedule it has to be tip top ( plus the in laws might visit tommorrow - did you know my mother-in-law is a cleaning lady. no pressure) Oh if only i had mary poppins.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28386381
ok here is the listing if you want to check it out

Also-Anyone know how i can tell how many people look at my blog- I feel like a radio dj right now- helloooo is anyone out there

Day 1 and 2 Elvis and Lou

I am currently working on my rock n roll series. Here is my newest painting Elvis and Lou. There are the pics I based them off of and the results. In talking about each of these I would really like to attempt expressing my motivation in each one and influence in choosing colors etc. ( if time allows)

A few of the things that influenced these guys:

I love rock n roll which sounds really cheesy to say but I just do. There have been many times in my life where I have needed music more than anything to get through it to cheer me up or make me feel like someone else feels the same as me. Art has many purposes, but I feel like the main thing I value is art making you feel an emotion without experience. It either reminds you of a feeling you treasure or helps you to strive for a feeling you have yet to experience ( hence the draw of romance films yes). I also believe art should put a spotlight on interesting things.

I also have sort of a healthy obsession with fame. I just think about how people get famous and why they are famous etc. all of the time. I also have this weird attachment to pictures. I guess it isn't weird it's just a weird feeling. Like a spidey sense. When I see a good picture my head tingles and I just love it - the feeling and the picture. Lately I have been using that spidey sense to pick pictures to paint. Like they convey this emotion to me that I can't even explain except it just lights up this part of my brain and I want to catch it like a lightning bug in a jar but in my paintings. This picture of elvis is one of my favorites because it is young elvis and it is not like classic cheesecake photo of him. It's like a sneaky peak into his real self.

I think he is really really fascinating. Icons amaze me. Like this normal person is suddenly thrown into the spotlight and so many people love them and adore them and they are just normal people but I feel it too. I feel the need to LOVE them too. I can look at pictures of Marilyn Monroe for hours. ( I will be painting her later). Specifically I really identify with Elvis. Like if someone asked me if I was an elvis or a beatles person despite the fact that I completely love the beatles and immersed myself more heavily in their music I feel like personality wise I am more of an Elvis. Flashy and tacky with a little bit of southern charm.

As far as this Lou Reed pic is concerned Lou Reed is just the shit. That's just all there is to it. The Velvet Underground is awesome. The whole time period in rock n roll history is fascinating. I read this book called " Please Kill Me" http://www.amazon.com/Please-Kill-Me-Uncensored-History/dp/0349108803/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1248581287&sr=8-3

that blew my mind. It's all about how punk rock really started in new york with CBGB and Blondie and the Ramones. Ugh so AWESOME. If only I had a time machine. I love this picture becasue he looks a little bit like a zombie, because it is him, and also his leather jacket like he is really trying to look fifties which kind of connects these two pics.

Originally I wanted to focus on this time period in this series because I also have spidey sense pics of Joan Jett and Blondie but the Joan jett pic did not transfer to tracing as much. So I decided to put these two together with similar colors. Maybe I will do a men of rock thing and then women of rock. I realize now I should have put ELvis and Marilyn together in an Icon series but c'est la vie. I am sure I have other good elvis pics for that. I will talk about my method later I suppose and the ups and downs of painting famous people but I have babbled quite a bit thus far so i shall end here dear readers ( or reader if Diana is the only person who is reading this)

Anyway if you want to buy Lou he is listed here http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28295933&ref=sr_list_1&&ga_search_query=lou+reed&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=date_desc&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

I have not listed elvis yet( I know not very proffessional but I am finding a blog versus painting groove so next time i will try to list before I blog) but you can always message me here http://www.shastinalynn.etsy.com/ or check back monday ( I try to list during lunchtime on week days some part of me feels like people surf the web more then- I just sort of made this up Maybe I will use my sociology skills to test out the reality of this) Ta ta for now- next up should be Another Jennylynn painting.....

100 days of Art

So- I am guessing anyone who reads this will know what's up with me and my art and such but just in case here is my dealio. I have an online shop to sell my art @ http://www.shastinalynn.etsy.com/

so go check it out. In case you don't know what etsy is it is an online community of artists and makers of homemade goods where people can set up shops. It is like a virtual craft fair but the stuff there is WAY cooler than your average craft fair.You can find anything there from your wedding dress http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25318084&ref=sr_list_7&&ga_search_query=wedding&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=price_desc&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title to a jason stuffed pillow http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23053841. Etsy is pretty freaking awesome, basically.



So I am really trying to develop my art etc. right now. Yesterday I met some fellow etsians in fort worth and it was awesome. ( http://www.etsyfortworth.com/I will post their shops at the bottom). After talking to them and then looking at their shops I realized I was like a baby etsian but I gleaned a lot of knowledge from them. My main issue, I realized, is that I currently have very little inventory. At first I tried to paint a couple of paintings and I thought I would just sit back and wait for the print orders to roll in. That definitely did not happen. So now I really want to get my shop fully stocked with paintings. The plan is to sell originals for awhile and once I have more capital start sellling prints. With more inventory I can also go to craft fairs ( can you say fort worth arts festival! can you say dream goal) and such and I will really feel proud of my shop and able to spread my name around on other sites.



That concept led me to my 100 days of Art idea. My goal is to paint a new painting 100 days in a row- ok not in a row non stop but at least in a short period of time -to definitely work towards 100. I really think I can do it to because I am pretty persistent and each new painting I paint makes me think of a new series of paintings I could do. I am guessing I can have 100 by teh end of the year. What do you think?



I am considering blogging about each. Would anyone want to see that? Right now I have three main series Iwant to work on which are the jennylynn jones series,the ballet series, and the rock n roll series. I will divulge more later in order to finish this blog up but stay tuned.



These are the wonderful ladies I met last night

www.anniepoo.etsy.com/

http://www.bluesksunburn.etsy.com/

http://www.flowerbedhead.etsy.com/

http://www.indigoorchid.etsy.com/

http://www.sjcandleshoppe.etsy.com/



also- we met at this really sweet coffee shop right next to the rainbow lounge called the gallery art cafe- I am all about supporting local so go check them out instead of starbucks - it was a great meal- http://www.galleryartcafe.com/

BTW I am a totally new blogger so forgive me for my posts not being pretty yet ( cossing my fingers on that yet part)