28 Feb

Posted at 17:51h in art, contemporary art, creative block, creative unblock, illustration, instagram, mary gaspar art, Modern Art, painting, the jealous curator, watercolor by

Hi friends! So here we are on the last day of February and I wanted to share with you this month’s Creative Unblock project. The Jealous Curator is hosting this awesome monthly project series, where an artist from her book Creative Block gives us a challenge to break out of a creative rut. You can see my work from last month’s incredible challenge here! February’s challenge was from artist Kate Bingaman-Burt. We were asked to document the items in our medicine cabinet…eeeek, right?! The medium I chose to work in was watercolor. I thought it’d be fun to use such a romantic and organic medium to tell the story of everyday items you use for toiletries! And in black and white….they’d be just sophisticated enough to matte and hang in a…well…bathroom! The Jealous Curator was gracious enough to feature my work on her incredible blog today…check it out here and check her site tomorrow for March’s Creative UNblock project. Have a wonderful weekend!

16 Feb

Posted at 02:04h in acrylic, acrylic painting, art, botanical paintings, mini paintings, painting, Soulflowers, storyboard wedding, styled shoot, valentine's, wedding by

I am so thrilled to have my mini botanical paintings featured in this dreamy Valentine’s inspired wedding shoot on Storyboard Wedding! My dear friend Jessica Davis of Soulflowers in Tennessee invited me to collaborate on this gorgeous themed wedding. Taken from the Dire Straits song, Romeo and Juliet, “Love You Like the Stars Above” was the theme. The colors were to be lush pinks and reds, moody dark blues and amethyst with celestial golds. The result…blew me away. My mini canvases of hot pink and red roses are featured at the tables as decor and wedding favors for the gifts. And now I have some at my Etsy shop for sale! Check out the wedding here friends and I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine’s weekend!

*Photos pulled from the Storyboard Wedding blog post are taken by the talented Amy Nicole Photography.

01 Feb

Posted at 22:29h in abstract, art, collage, contemporary art, creative block, creative unblock, mixed media, Modern Art, self portrait, the jealous curator by

I participated in The Jealous Curator‘s January challenge of 12 months of Creative UNblock. And wow, did I have fun! If you don’t follow her amazing blog on contemporary art…you should and if you don’t have her books, Creative Block and Collage…get them! SO good. For the first challenge her Creative Block artist, Trey Speegle, came up with this unblocking exercise…

“Make a drawing in black and white {or use a found image} and then photocopy the drawing onto card stock 50 times – or enough copies so that you won’t “worry” about how many you’ve used. {Take your time and draw or find an image that you really love, and will like working with over and over} Then, alter the image in as many different ways as you can think of with colored pencils, paint, cutting, whatever. You can modify this idea and change it in whatever way you like but the important thing is to turn off your brain and just play with a repeated form and let your mind see where no ideas or thought process takes you. 

Create your own tight parameters… then give yourself a LOT of room to play. Have fun.” 

So with 3 days left in January I did it! I used one of my drawings from my 2014 Sketch-a-day Project, and made many variations of it using paint, rhinestones, pearls, paper, moss, and yarn. Here’s the original image:

ilookforwardtothemoon-2

And here’s what I came up with…

tritree diamondpink pearls photo 5 1 kingtut diamondeye 1980 tree roseeyes mossdiva 80pink triangle punkblack 9 8 yoko eyes gold star yarnhead eyelash photo 1 photo 2 cracking mirror swirly yes explosion 0 twins mossface $ 80'smoss lola photo 3 34 swirlface indian photo 4 deconstruct labyrinth

I had SUCH a blast. You can follow along and do a creative UNblock project each month. Just tag your pictures #creativeUNblock on instagram and twitter. The Jealous Curator posted February’s today! And you can follow my creative pursuits on instagram. Last thing I’m leaving you with is a little video of all my pieces together…http://flipagram.com/f/Q7OotVQ8WQ.

Enjoy and happy creating!