Some odds and ends

Here are a few odds and ends that I haven't really discussed elsewhere.

Grief. 

Last summer a friend of mine passed away suddenly.  I looked up to her greatly because she lived life in a way that everyone secretly wishes they did.  She made everyone a better person and was constantly pushing me to paint and giving me leads on people and events I could show work at.  I never followed through.  When she passed away it was impossible for me to express in any other manner.  So I painted. And I promised I would follow through.

Memory

I love to paint goldfish.  They are so beautiful, and at least when I was younger and tried to own them as pets, so short lived.  Yet life goes on, more goldfish are born, and more children will buy these poor doomed fish.  Circle of Life. I guess.

Here is the Christmas card I designed for wild lotus.  I used a combination of lino-cut and acrylic to create this image.  I really love the quality of relief prints.  The contrast and detail that you get is so beautiful.  I love the concept of taking a very serious and realistic image and flipping it around.

Illustrations

Here are a few illustrations I did as portfolio pieces: I wanted to show off what I could do with water color.

 This is my take on Sabriel by Garth Nix.  Sabriel is a young adult book about a young woman who has to go back to the land she was born in and save her father.  Also she just happens to be a necromancer tasked with banishing dead things.  I highly recommend it!  It is one of my favorites because of how well the characters are written.  Through out the book she is often scared and vulnerable but brave and determined to do the right thing.  "Does the walker choose the path or the path the walker?"

The frog prince has always been one of my favorite fairy tales because the princess behaves much the way I suspected all fairy tale princesses would behave.  At least if you read the old versions. She's a spoiled brat and it's only with sheer luck that the frog survives long enough to get a kiss from the princess and transform into a prince.