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.

Animated Paintings and a Design Release: LACY HEART!!!

A while back I painted a piece for a group show I was a part of.  The work consists of 5 source colors, 2 source colors per canvas, on 10 canvases.  Each combination uniquely paired.  It's called 5, 2, 10 Sequence (Poof!) as it sequentially depicts a disc being expelled through a cloud.

It was only recently, however, that I photographed each canvas and edited it for animation!

On a separate front, just in time for Valentine's Day, I am happy to announce the drop of a new design at laurabmakesart.threadless.com from an illustration I completed last year called LACY HEART.

With roughly similar size and location as one's own heart, you can wear your heart on your chest or hang it on your wall!!

I’ll also include the timelapse of the heartwork so you can hear the lil song i wrote to promote it. It’s called A Little Lace.

Etti The Yeti!!!

      Santa’s Surprise Book by Joan Potter Elwart with illustrations by Florence Sarah Winship from 1966 is a chief source of inspiration for my new illustration of a character I’ve dubbed Etti the Yeti.  Other sources such as James P. Sullivan from Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. have also provided influence on her design.  This work was also my first solid opportunity to utilize a custom brush I created in Procreate Pocket now dubbed ‘cottonsandy’ for it’s sandy movement and similarity to cotton candy. This was the primary tool I used to paint Etti. 

     Seeing how well the music I used to promote TREAT HOUSE went over, I thought it might be worth exploring and developing a little song for Etti. The song evolved alongside the development of the character and I’ve now decided that Etti was born Elizabeth, and through a cycle of Bess, Bet, and Betty stayed there a while til she tried spaghetti for the first time immediately falling in love.  She then became Bettie Spaghetti which was shortened to Betti Sketti and finally landed on Etti.  Here are the lyrics set to, and heavily influenced by, James Taylor's Jelly Man Kelly.

Here’s a story bout Etti the Yeti.

She loves ‘sketti the most.
Yeah, but most of all
Etti the Yeti loves her ‘sketti with sauce.

So, Etti, putchur ‘sketti on
Getchur sauce ready
Getta strawberry milkshake for the side.

That yeti ‘sketti ready?

Fetta betta then a chedda,

But a parm’ll take it up another notch.

Ohhhhh, getchur ‘sketti ready, Etti,
Getchur ‘sketti ready, Etti,
Witchur sauce.

Yes’m,

Ohhhhh, getchur ‘sketti ready, Etti,
Witchur strawbbleberry milkshake

Like a boss.

The strawberry milkshake came from a discussion I'd had with a friend about having desserts along side a meal and I also thought perhaps yeti's may be more inclined to cozy up with something cold to drink over something warm.  Following is the time-lapse of the creation of Etti wherein I was able to use, for the first time, my own custom designed brush in Procreate Pocket that I named cottonsandy- sandy for how it moves and the fact it looks like cotton candy.  Etti herself was painted almost entirely with it!  Also, while it was rather hastily done, the music, originally utilized for a shorter WIP (work in progress) posted over a week ago on Instagram and Facebook, has been polished a bit- tweaking/finishing up the lyrics and sung in three part harmony by yours truly.

  The design is now available for purchase on about 30 products in my shop at laurabmakesart.threadless.com.

Here We Come A-Scaroling

 To say nothing for my skill, or lack thereof, in musical notation and my limited understanding of it, several years back I was inspired in concept by my brother-in-law Tony’s, and I believe my sister Libby’s, concept of scaroling. (Scaroling being the holiday of Halloween’s version of caroling.) This in conjunction with an affinity with the idea of penning a carol and sending it to loved ones as a seasonal greeting a la Alfred Burt goosed me into taking an existing carol, Here We Come A-Caroling aka The Wassail Song, shifting it to a minor key, and setting new, holiday-appropriate lyrics to it for distribution to friends and family.

Sadly, it hasn’t ever been performed.. until now! It occurred to me recently it would be remiss to let it continue languishing when it may still be of some value. So I strapped on my performer/producer suspenders, such that they are, and went about knocking out a recording. I doubled all four voices for a fuller sound and raised the bass line up to accommodate my range. I also added some echoiness to punch up the spooky factor. 

Here is the original final I delivered to folks.

And here is a hard copy I rewrote with revisions for recording. There are at least several flaws in both.

To listen for yourself on Soundcloud click HERE.

I hope you enjoy the results. I’m fairly pleased myself.