Stronger

I am stronger today than I was yesterday and that's a good thing. I always get such wonderful emails from people about how much joy my work gives them - it started to sink back in to my head today and I am thankful. I hope that they don't mind me sharing their thoughts with all of you and paraphrasing a bit:

"Mommy's Little Prince"  
Kristin-Just wanted to let you know that she loved it, in fact she cried a little. Thanks for holding off on posting it as it was a pretty big surprise and for your hardwork it looks more awesome in person...I just wanted to thank you so much for getting this done for me. Your art is awesome and I am already trying to think up something cool for the next one I commission you for, the next one will be for myself =)...I thank you so much for getting that painting done though and really send my best wishes that you feel better. James
"Bon Voyage"
Hi Kris!
My fiancé and I walked into our building and found the Cuddly Rigor Mortis package waiting at our door tonight!  I grabbed it before she could see the label and tucked it away. You'll be happy to know that it arrived in perfect condition!  I am usually very good at keeping gifts hidden, but after I saw it I got too excited. I quickly replaced a photo on our wall with "Bon Voyage" and went to cook dinner. 
After dinner, I told my fiancé that I couldn't wait and that I wanted to give her part of her wedding present early.  She said she would have snooped and found it anyway then pretend to be surprised later (crafty lady) and started searching the apartment for it. She found the Cuddly cards from the package first and was thrilled - "which one did you get me?!" and kept looking.  When she couldn't find it, I brought her to the wall and she flipped out! "Oh my god!! She made one for us!" and then a slow "Pi...sa?!!". That will be the second part of the wedding gift and we are now looking forward to it every day when we get home and see your painting. Just now before bed, she ran out to look at it again. 
Thank you for making such a wonderful creation for us. I read your blog post from earlier this month and know you are going to come out of the rut soon.  I hope you are able to continue finding creative ways to share your gift with the world. Thanks again

Van 

Please Stand By...

...we are experiencing technical difficulties.

Ed, my husband, in all his great wisdom this morning said, "It's like you're gay and in the closet. Except you're depressed and are afraid to tell anyone."

But how full of myself am I, that I'm not only a painter, but an artist, and a depressed one at that.

"I am very depressed and deeply disgusted with painting. It is really a continual torture." (Claude Monet)

The past few weeks have been exhausting on both myself and my family. I feel every bad thing in the whole world then nothing at all.

"I am in that temper that if I were under water I would scarcely kick to come to the top." (John Keats)

I slug around, moping and sleepy and can barely do a single thing in one day.

"Every act of life, from the morning toothbrush to the friend at dinner, became an effort. I hated the night when I couldn't sleep and I hated the day because it went toward night." (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

I struggle to express what's going on in my head only to mumble a bit and...

"To have gone to all this trouble to get to this is just too stupid! Outside there's brilliant sunshine but I don't feel up to looking at it..." (Claude Monet)

If I were to look at me from the outside, I'd kick myself in the arse and go shopping instead.

"What's the use? The people are too stupid. They do not understand." (Winslow Homer)

I am taking my life moment by moment. I do not know what I will eat for dinner tonight. I don't even know IF I will eat. I'm not even clear on what I'm doing now. I got up today and that's about the best I can offer you right now.

"Keep painting your demons." (Jack Beal)

I'm trying. 

All I ask of you, dear reader is to give me a moment to collect my thoughts and stick around a bit longer as I'm sure the medicine will kick in soon enough and I will be painting quicker than you can say...

Many thanks to http://quote.robertgenn.com/

If you would like to know more about dysthymic disorder or major depression, I've found this article to be helpful and comprehensive.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/290686-overview



Cupcake Heaven

I have the unpleasant task of creating an illustration for Tattoo Flash Magazine involving cupcakes. I am totally kidding. About the 'unpleasant' nature not the illustration. So I went to Google image search and up pops this:

Brilliance and deliciousness all rolled into a tasty hand-held package. These wonderful creations are done by Hello Naomi. She makes cakes, cupcakes and cookies and each one looks better than the next.

Peruse her site and partake of her sweet goodness :D

Rapture

I don't like to talk about politics or religion in conjunction with my little business here. I figure if people like my work or what I write about, I'll leave it at that.

But then Ed found this site this morning and I am dumbfounded. I have so many questions I can't write one down. So I'll leave you to peruse it yourself and come up with your own conclusions and questions, because my brain hurts. Enjoy.

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets in a post-Rapture World

Kick Ass Stitching

I was going to do a little entry about Ernst Haeckel and feature some pics of other artist's interpretations of him. Then I got to talking with Penny Nickels and well, this is just going to be about her!

I saw her work below on Flickr and just about shat myself. Not only is it of one of my favorite E. Haeckel pieces (Siphonophorae) but it's just so...impressively large!

What a long way we've come from the days of only having needlework patterns that involved eagles or kittens or winter snow scenes. Now we have brilliance such as this:

Penny Nickels -- work in progress, 200 hours in and barely halfway done (dear lord it's...amazing!)

A close up

What I loved most after chatting with Penny is that she was looking to challenge herself (and hopefully other artists will take a cue from her) by not doing the 'usual' needlework patterns.

"I just felt like, if we're going to stitch someone else's work, let's pick something that's beautiful and unusual." -- Penny

I agree, Penny, I totally agree! Keep on going - you're doing great!

Visit her blog that she writes alongside Johnny Murder -- Donkeywolf, their Etsy shop and enjoy!

Everything is Relative

This has been a very hard winter here in the northeastern US. In fact, it's been pretty hard for the entire US. Record rainfall in the west, snow in the south and blizzards up here. Two blizzards in one week, in fact. We're complaining and cold and tired of shoveling. Just went out today to buy a new shovel or maybe even something gas powered to help with the ol' back and there's patio furniture out! Ugh. Not one shovel in any store here.

So to help myself feel a bit better and not think to much about the snow piling up on our roof, I searched out some photos of Yuki-no-tani, or 'snow corridor' in japanese. The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route sees snowfall near the 20 meter mark and allows for snowplows to create these corridors which attract tourists the world over. I wouldn't mind seeing it in person some day myself.