Road Trip

Today we drove to Pendleton to pick up about 350 lbs of beef that was raised by some relatives. I love homegrown beef; it is so superior in taste and freshness to anything you could buy in a grocery store. We met them at the Wildhorse Casino which is owned and operated by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and about halfway to their house. That was quite an interesting place. It is in the middle of nowhere - rolling hills all around. We wandered through the casino and overall I was saddened by what I saw... lots of elderly people staring blankly through thick cigarette smoke at the pale glow of 800 slot machines (as advertised on the sign near the freeway). Later we went into Pendleton which has some really stellar old architecture which I happily snapped away at with my SLR as the sun traveled lower and lower into the sky. I got some great texture shots too. We headed home after we were too cold to continue.

Above is the spread from my Moleskine from the drive. The road was a bit bumpy, and so are the lines, which I think gives it character.

I also must give a shout-out to Tommy Kane for sending me his awesome armed squirrel stickers... check out his blog at tommykane.blogspot.com. His art is awesome. I put a squirrel sticker on my Moleskine to inspire me...thanks Tommy!

Illustration Friday: Flawed

This week's IF word is flawed.

Dictionary.com's definition of flawed is "characterized by flaws; having imperfections." Wow. This is the whole world. However, after contemplating on this word for a while, I realized that there is beauty within flaws. Flaws make us different from one another, and they give us something to work on. Signs of aging could be considered a flaws, but age can also produce beauty. Think fine wine, cheese, and even my husband's green tomato pickles that he canned last fall. Flaws produce humility - once we recognize our own flaws, we are more forgiving of others' flaws, which helps us to be compassionate and understanding. So while many people might think describing something as flawed is not a good thing, I tend to think of character, wisdom, humility, refinement, and compassion.

I love taking pictures of old, worn out, flawed things. They generally have great texture, and they always have a story to tell. This illustration is of an old dry cleaning sign in a neighboring town. It's missing some letters, has rust stains running down its once sleek facade, and it appears that it is no longer hooked up to power. I love these old signs. They are sad, but beautiful. My town is full of them.

The drawing took about 25 minutes and was done with India ink and colored pencil. Enjoy!

February Gallery Show and New Website!

Ok, ok, I am a very lame blogger up to this point... two posts in the last 3 or 4 months just does not cut it. Work has been very busy for me but that's not really an excuse. The good news is that I've made a commitment to really start working on my art this new year.

Today I hung several of my photos at a gallery at St. Luke's, a local hospital in Eagle, ID. The gallery is an "Artist of the Month" gallery, and the Eagle Camera Club has it for the whole month of February. I'm really excited about that. I also built my new website today, and though it is far from finished, you can view my photo gallery and link back to this blog. One step at a time for me!

My new website is www.girlingearstudio.com and you can also check out the Eagle Camera Club at www.eaglecameraclub.com. The club is great, and it has really been a great creative outlet for me... and it's helped me set deadlines for myself and get some things done that really needed to be done.

Ciao for now!

Inspiration comes from strange places...

So I was kicking back, watching some TV and a mini-marathon of The Rachel Zoe Project was on. I am not a big docudrama/reality show fan, but was fascinated nonetheless... and here's what I came up with. Sorry for the crudeness... I am going to clean it up and probably color in Illustrator later on. But it's getting late and I really need to go to bed since it's a workday tomorrow (for my real job, LOL).

Illustration Friday: Sugary

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This is my first post for Illustration Friday. The topic this week is "Sugary." The first thing I thought of was Froot Loops, a staple of my childhood. It was the only sugared cereal my mom would allow in our house. Ahh, the memories of getting a brand new box, fighting with my little sister over who got to reach to the bottom of the full box to get the free toy... and spilling it all over... then how the milk would turn this purple color after about 5 minutes of soaking.

I sketched this up and colored it with gouache. It was a really nice way to spend a rainy afternoon! Now go enjoy some sugary goodness.