Whole Galaxies of Inspiration!

Everything is grist for the artistic mill, even the lowly dandelion.  Fun, right?  :)

Inspiration comes easily in the spring, but I've been doing the "work" of art, too.  I'm getting really close to opening my Etsy shop.  Just finished the header at the top of this page, which will be my Etsy header also.  You can put up a shop in a hurry, but there's a big learning curve if you want to do it effectively.

And I'm on a roll designing greeting cards; the ideas come faster than I can get them down on paper.  That's a good thing, as anyone who's ever had writer's block will tell you!

Happy Spring, friends!

It's Yours, Don't Miss It!

These ethereal blooms on my tree lasted two days.  That's it.  A mere 48 hours from full bloom to starting to brown and drop off!  I'm glad I didn't miss it.  And it made me think of what other things we may miss if we don't notice and appreciate them as they're happening.  Kinda scary, right?  So here's a reminder from me to you:  appreciate the moment, friends!

Blossoming Friendships

A little burro (would that be a burrito?) has acquired a cheerful friend on a beautiful spring day.

I started with a photo of a very small, very cute burro that lives in my neighborhood.  What can I do with this?  He's simply too adorable to keep to myself.  So after carefully erasing a strand of fence cutting across his body, I combined him with a background of gorgeous William Morris fabric that seems like the essence of spring to me.  Copying some of the Morris flowers one by one I strung a garland around his neck.

That was pretty cute, but rather static.  So I drew a cartoonish friend from the ubiquitous sparrows in my yard.  Okay, I know he's a very fat sparrow!  He's well-fed, all right?  :)  I gave him spring hues of orange and delicate lilac instead of his usual drab tan, and I think he likes it!

Hand-drawn art with a Scandinavian influence, combined with my own photos, coming soon.