So last weekend we took a little trip to Houston for the day and I finally got to check out the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. So ecstatic, I've wanted to see this place for so long. Plus we got in free since it was the first of the month (thanks Bank of America). 

^^This place is huge. Literally. We walked around for hours and I think we still missed a ton of stuff (I've been going through the MFAH hashtag on Instagram and I'm seeing amazing things I completely missed). Fun fact: I have a minor in Art History so every time I go to a museum I like to test my skills on remembering things. I'm pretty rusty, but some things were familiar and then I go on spouting all the random facts I know about the artist, etc. But like I said…rusty. I kept all my art history books from university, and being at the museum made me really want to go back and reread those babies. Also, the museum had gorgeous Indian and Japanese sections with old sculptures, jewelry, pottery. I'm so intrigued, and I want to incorporate parts of those cultures with future pieces. 

^^I might have squealed when I saw this piece. I've been in love with this painting for years and had no idea it was in Houston! Ah, life is funny.

^^I saw my first Van Gogh. I SAW MY FIRST VAN GOGH. Completely surreal moment. His work is something you truly have to see in person because that TEXTURE IS AMAZING. See it!? It's so thick and buttery. I love it. 

^^Yay for old paintings of insects, animals, and weird things. <3

^^I saw this couple and I couldn't help but snap a photo. :)

Oh, there was also this James Turrell light tunnel that was so awesome, I just wanted to run up and down it (but the male employee was eyeing me funny). If you have a chance, you should check this museum out. I'm actually kind of surprised at all the amazing art that can be found in Texas (Dallas and Fort Worth have some beauties). But anyway, it's been raining all week and I've been working on my secret project. Photos soon! Have a lovely week!

It feels like I only post on Fridays lately, hmm.  I'm so bad at posting regularly, but that will change, I promise!  Ok, I won't promise, but I will try.  Really really hard.  I will.  I have so many fun things to share, but you have to wait.  It's all good.  I've been working in the studio all week and I'm so excited certain things are falling into place.  More on that later.  On a side note, I've been reading this on buzzfeed today and I can't stop laughing.  I'm literally laughing out loud, hard.  Especially at #2.  Hehe.

Anyway, I wanted to post a little bit about this recent interview I did with Dreamer magazine.  Little excerpt about Dreamer from their website: "Dreamer Journal is an artist's sketchbook - filled with ideas, colors, art, childhood, and whimsy."  They're pretty lovely & wonderful and I'm so happy they contacted me to do an interview for their Winter issue. 

My favorite 2 questions:

How has your childhood influenced your art?

My childhood was spent painting and playing outdoors.  I think those two things have forever been embedded in me, and most of my work focuses on many natural things such as animals, the human body, nature, and the universe.  I've felt very connected to the outdoors since a young age.

Can you tell us what your dream exhibition would be like?

My dream exhibition would be to create a dreamy fantasy space within a completely white gallery that people could walk through.  There would be winding narrow hallways filled with dream/ritual art on the walls (including Victorian frames) and flowers + bones would hang from the ceiling.  It would be like walking through an actual dream.  I'm excited just thinking about it.

There's 8 pages of pictures/Q&As, so if you'd like to read the whole thing you can download the mag for $5 here (totally worth it, it's a gorgeous magazine).  There's also a photo diary, travel stories, more artist interviews, and gorgeous children's fashion editorials.  So colorful!  It's lovely. 

Hi lovelies, I hope everyone had a good week.  It seemed to go by super fast and I still have a million ideas swimming in my head that I need to do.  I woke up this morning to freezing weather on this little island, crazy.  Living on the gulf has made me a wimp when it comes to cold weather.  That might change soon, but who knows.  

^^In progress skull painting for my Rituals & Omens series.  I can't decide if I want him purely black and white or possibly a mix of muted tones.  Decisions….

^^Getting cold and stormy over here.  I love foggy windows though. 

^^Oh, and I'm working on a new project that I'm pretty excited about.  Learning a new medium is hard I gotta say, but incredibly rewarding.  Hint: it involves astronomy.  Does that give anything away?  I don't know.  But stay tuned for more updates!

I have a little sale going on in my shop right now.  Last sale of 2013!  Use code WINTER15 to get 15% off EVERYTHING in the shop.  Take a look here. 

So I recently designed a new logo for my business and I am over the moon with how it turned out.  I'm no graphic designer, but as an artist I already had a visual of what I wanted and I knew that I wanted to do everything myself.  

Let me just say, designing a logo is not easy.  I had a general idea of what I wanted, but it took pages of sketching to get the logo that was "the one".  This is probably the hardest part of the process, and it gets pretty frustrating to figure out what exactly you want. Try different variations of what you're interested in (for me that was a mix of antlers, bones, flowers, and insects).

Next comes the ink version of the chosen sketch. I carefully measure things out and go over it with a micron pen. This normally takes me a few tries. Things can always be tweaked in photoshop as well.

After finishing the ink drawing I scan the image and tweak/polish it up in photoshop (I use a program called PhotoStudio).  This is where I add the text and clean everything up (which can take a lonnnng time).  THIS is my finished image (YAY)! 

From there I ordered my stamp (I like using these from Simon Stamp).  And voilà, the logo process is done!  I'll be ordering some business cards soon (I'm thinking about going square).  

Also, if you're curious about the "more" in the "art & more", then stay tuned because I've been working on some fun new things for my shop. :)

Have a lovely Thanksgiving week!