Friday, June 20, 2008

More Summer Sale Goodness

Sun Worship - Ink and watercolor on 2.5" x 3.5" watercolor paper


As part of my huge Summer Sale on Etsy, I'm offering all of my ACEOs at about 50% off my standard ACEO price. See all of my available ACEOs for sale HERE!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

PureDecor Products


I'm spreading the PureDecor love around, now with a new Zazzle shop at www.zazzle.com/PureDecor*. I've taken some of the original paintings I have for sale at http://www.puredecor.etsy.com/ and put them through Illustrator to alter the color and simplify the lines to a more graphic look. I'm currently only offering prints and mousepads, but there may be new products in the future.

Below is an example of what you can do with the prints. You can choose your own size from small to huge, the paper quality, from poster to UV papers and canvas, and your own matting, framing and glazing preferences. They have lots to choose from to suit any decor.

In this example, I've selected the largest size, 35" x 35" in Premium Matte paper with a silver finished wood frame (no mat) and UV protective acrylic glazing.




To custom frame your own version of Leaves 3 click HERE






In the next example, I've selected the smallest size, 11" x 11" in the basic cardstock paper, and I've added a double mat (white with green) and a classic black frame with regular acrylic glazing.





To custom frame your own print of Mod Circle 5 click HERE





I've also opened a free shop at CafePress. Just a handful of cool products like the ones you see below. www.cafepress.com/PureDecor


Friday, June 13, 2008

Time flies - and so I am adapting...

...slowly.

It's a hard thing for me to realize there are only 24 hours in a day. The actualization of an idea happens much faster than the accualization of a product. And right now, well, since the dawning of Spring, I've been ablaze with ideas - new ones every day, every hour! Fevorish sketches and notes filling my sketchbook, and almost constant internal tangents that can keep me up at night. (I'm not complaining - I love these thought processes the most - the ones behind your closed lids when the world is still and your mind is still buzzing with inspiration). But tonight, after a little regrouping post launching PureDecor and creating my sale at livefunky, AND thinking about my presentation as a whole - my website, my product lines, etc - I realized that I've got a lot of work ahead of me to get to where I REALLY want to be, and this is the time to do it. And to do it right, I can't put an unreasonable time restriction on it.

What is unreasonable? Me wanting to have 20 new paintings, a revised website and everything else I've got going online updated and sparkly fresh in 24 hours... or a week... or a month. Ummm, no. That's not going to happen. And if it did, it wouldn't serve me well.

So this is my plan for the summer...

Continue with my sale at livefunky to purge all of my older work.
Work on fine tuning my product lines at Zazzle.
Work on fine tuning my website, http://www.livefunky.com/
Work on a new body of work for livefunky/galleries
HAVE FUN AND ENJOY IT

At the end of the summer I'd like to have...

A new website
A new approach to livefunky
A continual flow of new paintings for PureDecor
A solid line of misc. products on Zazzle

Instead of wanting to get to the finish line (by thinking of doing this or that ASAP), I think this deadline is going to keep me focused on my goals for the summer and beyond. What are your creative goals for the summer?


Mod Circles by http://www.puredecor.etsy.com/





Sunday, June 08, 2008

Pure Decor - My new shop on Etsy

PURE DECOR - Contemporary Decorative Art by Jessica Torrant
www.PureDecor.etsy.com



I couldn't wait another day - PureDecor has been launched!

Here's a quote from my revised profile on Etsy...

Very recently I've come to a "great divide" as far as creating and selling my work. I have loved being the sort of artist that offers a little bit of everything, and that has worked well for me, not only as far as selling, but most of all, as a creator. I've needed these years of experimental and intuitive creating, trying it all, and finding what works for me. But I've reached a point where I'm ready to raise the bar, and as always, I want it all. I want to offer affordable art as well as gallery priced work, I want to continue the process of cranking out art and I want to hone in on my paintings and make some breathtaking series.

After a great amount of thought and sketchbook tangents, I've come to the decision to have two shops that focus on the two different sides of me and how/what I create. The first is my already established shop, livefunky. The second is my new shop, PureDecor. To answer "What is the difference?", let me begin with the fact that I've always relied on making art to fuel/embellish/relieve any mood (and, like most, my moods run the gambit). There is the art I make because I'm eager to express and GO THERE, and there is the art I make because I need something to help me relax and escape. You could call me a bipolar painter and I wouldn't protest.

There are many other distinctions, but I casually classify the polarity as "sitting down art" and "standing up art". Sitting down art (PureDecor) is meditative, with a slower hand, with a desired outcome, and a formula that can be repeated over and over in new works in new ways. I usually create this art either sitting at a table, or sitting in the half lotus position on my studio floor (the same pose I had twenty years ago in my childhood bedroom, working on drawings of outfits, flowers and cartoons, or the doodles that served as the unconscious foundation for my future abstract paintings). Standing up art is intuitive (livefunky), unpredictable, energetic and intense, with an exploration for new ways of manipulating paint/form/color - never to be reproduced in that exact way again. This is when I paint ever so physically - I truly attempt to make paint dance.

I am a believer in loving art just because it's beautiful. (PureDecor)
I am a believer in loving art just because it moves you. (LiveFunky)

Saturday, June 07, 2008

What Have I Been Up To?

As you may have noticed, I took a little temporary break from blogging. Besides working on my big "surprise" (which I suspect I'll be announcing in my next post) these images will show what else I've been up to.

Enjoying my garden and the colors exploding - this is my favorite time of year.

Yucca and Iris

My favorite groundcover and iris.

Yellow iris (these multiplied like crazy from last year's divide and transplant!).




I've also been enjoying the smile on my dog's face after a good game of frisbee and a cool drink of water and bath from the hose.


Life is good.
:)

HUGE SALE!

(as copied from my Etsy shop announcement, www.livefunky.etsy.com)


TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS MEGA SALE!!

Blow Out, Huge, Enormous, You've got to be kidding me SALE - What a fool believes!

Consider me the silver fox that is Michael McDonald - I'm takin' it to the streets with this huge nope-I'm-not-going-out-of-business-just-transitioning sale. Livefunky is due for a royal makeover and most of my inventory is greatly discounted for a short time (and then it's gone, people. Gone for good!).

Why the great purge? Well, the major answer is I'm ready to take my paintings to the next level. I've been a painting machine for years as a child, student, confused post grad and then for the last 3+ years selling online. I've decided it's time that I stop speed dating paint and actually settle down and get serious. (Paint and I have this dream about a little place by the sea, but we'll see how it goes).

Don't worry. Nothing is going to drastically change as far as the direction that my work has been going in. It's more of a "raising of the bar" as far as materials, time, intention, and yes, my prices as well. If you're a fan but more on the frugal side, you'll be happy to know I've got a special surprise on the way. In fact, everybody is going to be excited about this surprise because it's awesome. You're intrigued now, aren't you. That's why you're going to check back to find out more in the coming week. ;)

:S: If you had no idea what I was talking about when I said "Takin' It To The Streets", "What a fool believes" or the silver fox "Michael McDonald", see below.

As a courtesy to everyone Takin' It To The Streets:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=G54lfxiid_w

And just for the heck of it... The Fox himself:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EXvi9bySjQQ&feature=related

Honoring this sale and the 80's kid in me, and the synergy of those things having nothing to do with each other, I'm going to try and come up with new themes for this sale that will blow your mind in the days to come.

With love,
Livefunky
aka JT