Oh Happy Day

I had an amazing day today babysitting for a relative's daughter, I'll call her Lil' K. I had to post this just because I'm so moved by my experience with her. Lil' K is the sweetest baby in the world. Am I biased? Yes, but it's still true. From 8:30 to 5 only one cry - and it was for a trip and fall I might have cried over too. Just a little singing did the trick to get that smile back again. My favorite part of the day? Post nap, warm bundle of love snuggling up against me, staring into my eyes with her big brown beauties and long lashes, smiling - uh, total peace.

I love you so much Lil' K! Thank you for filling my heart with sunshine!

Two Clothing Shops on Zazzle

Modern Art Apparel - www.zazzle.com/artjct*
Tshirts for Men and Women


Babukins - www.zazzle.com/babukins*
Tshirts and onsies for babies and kids

Rediscovering Older Work

Two Has a Dream by Jessica Torrant

Prints available at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/



Yesterday Rob and I went up to the studio in Indian Orchard to make our first of two trips clearing out all my stuff. After packing my Suburu to the brim, we brought it all to our new storage unit right in our own hometown. (Unloading was so much easier than loading! My sympathies with anyone that has to move any time soon!). As much as I may miss some parts of having a studio in the mills, this new "system" is going to be so much easier for me. Now I can paint at home and when I'm done photographing, I can take a canvas five minutes down the road to our storage unit. No more 45 minute drives just to pick up a painting! Yipee!



Part of going through all of my things at the studio meant finding my binder with all of my watercolor and ink illustrations from 2004/2005 (such as the piece above). I'm going through them looking for my favorites to list as prints on Etsy. There are also some drawings that I plan to scan and color in Illustrator (including one on an old envelope! My best drawings were always on scrap paper - there's got to be some psychological reason for that, which I won't look into now - hahaha).



At this point my Etsy shop has 237 items. Is that ridiculous? Too much? Should I put some of the older pieces that haven't sold in edit mode just to make my shop more user friendly? I am inclined to put it ALL out there, but there is A LOT and it just keeps coming! What are your thoughts on this, fellow artists? I could use your expert eyes and input!



(Oh by the way! I just got accepted by Trunkt - woo hoo!)

Winter Inspiration

Acrylic on 8" x 10" canvas, 2007

Available HERE in my Etsy shop.

Tranquil

Original acrylic triptych by Jessica Torrant, 2007.
www.livefunky.etsy.com

New Paintings

Wandering Dreams - original triptych by Jessica Torrant

Acrylic on three 5" x 7" canvas panels, 2007

Now available at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/

The other night I got some new supplies and today was the first day in a while that I got to do what I love - PAINT!!!! Don't get me wrong, it's fun playing with Illustrator, but painting is my true love, it always will be and that's just the end of it. :)

I started by opening up my brand new pack of canvas panels. They are packaged in threes and it just felt natural to lay them out before me and begin to create a composition using all of them. The tradition of painting triptychs is ancient, and it's always interesting to me how this translates across time into and beyond modernism. It works. Because as we all know, three is the magic number! :)

I am eager to get back to work, but this was the first set I finished so I had to post it here and on Etsy ASAP. Back to painting I go! I'll post more as they are completed.

Annie The Cat With Stars

Digital illustration by Jessica Torrant, 2007
Prints are available at www.livefunky.etsy.com

An ode to my parents' wild and wonderful cat, Annie.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Reach For The Stars

Original ink drawing digitally colored in Illustrator, 2007
www.livefunky.etsy.com

Me and You

Me and You - art print available at www.livefunky.etsy.com


This drawing colored in Illustrator is a silly/sweet version of my husband and I. Sometimes I feel like we're mirror images of each other! Can you tell I love him?


Holiday Sale!!!
From now until the new year, I'm offering a buy two get one free sale on all of my art prints!
Just purchase the two same sized prints and include the title of the third print you'd like in your order (or just email/convo it to me afterwards).

Sizes and Prices:
5" x 7" - $10
8" x 10" - $18

All reproductions are printed on matte finish, archival Epson paper that is 8.5" x 11". The images are centered on the page leaving a white border. I ship worldwide and shipping is combined for multiple purchases. For more information, and a list of my prints, please visit the Art Prints category of my Etsy shop.
Art Prints on Etsy

It's an all around great day!

I just got high speed internet and I am in HEAVEN!!!! Finally I can zoom through uploading images, watching videos... yipee!!! This also means that I can actually visit all of you other bloggers much more frequently. What used to take five minutes to load comes up in five seconds - what a world!

I got a Treasury!

For those of you that don't know what I am talking about, a Treasury is a feature on the site www.etsy.com that allows you to curate your own little gathering of Etsy listings with a theme, or color connection or just your favorite things. There are limited slots and time limits to each list, so they aren't super easy to get. It's been on my mind to try and get one for the last few days and finally today the timing was right and I snagged one on Treasury West. Check it out while it lasts! :)

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=1787

Rise and Shine

Acrylic on 20" x 30" canvas, 2007
www.livefunky.etsy.com

Here's my new painting shot in daylight. It's kind of overcast today, but sometimes that diffused light can be better than direct sunshine. Still, I am thinking that I need a new digital camera. I know how crisp a picture CAN be and this camera just doesn't quite cut it. It's a good camera, and it's given me a good few years, but I'd love to be able to get high quality shots of my larger pieces to use for prints. At this point, I just make prints from pieces I can scan. I know a really good camera is expensive, so it's time to start saving my pennies! I'm not even close to being able to afford one, but does anyone have any good suggestions for a make and/or model?

Come back here, light!

I love the autumn leaves changing color. I love the crisp feeling in the air. What I don't love this time of year is to lose the light! I need to get an earlier start to my day because by the time I finish something, the sun has gone down and I can't get a good photograph. This is a new painting I finished today. I took the picture inside with a flash so it's not perfect, but at least it's a glimpse! Not sure of a name yet....

I also have to add that it's been a year that I've been on Etsy! I must give a shout out to the site that I love so very very much. Thank you Etsy, I look forward to a long, wonderful relationship!

:) www.etsy.com

Layers and Levity

I took this shot last night after I finished Layers and Levity (seen below). After several days of adding layer after layer of fabric, paper, and paint, the last "blast" was done working on the floor with me standing over it painting with a wide, wet brush. It allowed me to work the surface all over in a different way then on an easel. I like the way the wet areas dried and created different textures.

Mixed media on canvas, 20" x 30", 2007

http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/

The Passage

Available for purchase at www.livefunky.etsy.com

Contemplating Ana by Jessica Torrant

Contemplating Ana by Jessica Torrant, originally uploaded by livefunky.

Available in My Etsy Shop

earth and fire tamed in one
surrounded by the light of truth

if you ever come to be as a she
your name will be ana

Identity Evolution

Identity Evolution, originally uploaded by livefunky.

SOLD

Homemade tools of the trade

Ok, so this picture is really blurry, but it shows me holding my transformed milk jug. I have found this to be one of my fav inventions in the studio in a while. I took one of the large, plastic milk containers with a handle and cut out a section at the top to fit my brush handles. Wash, fill with water, and voila! - you've got a portable water source! This comes in handy when I am dipping large brushes into paint on my palette, then into water for that "drippy" effect. Do you have any DIY tools you love to use when you are working?

It Feels Like Home

Self Portrait Thursday 10/18/07, originally uploaded by livefunky.

Oh wait! It IS home! Here is me standing in the studio with some works in progress behind me. Have I mentioned how happy I am to have a studio in my own backyard? Have I? Have I?!

Well if I haven't (and I'm pretending that I haven't) let me tell you - I am SOOOOO happy! I could cry I'm so happy. I could jump for joy, and I DO, I'm so happy!

It just feels so right.

I brought some canvases out from the house today that were hanging around as "supposedly" completed paintings, but each canvas was missing that spark, so I decided, instead of buying new canvases, I'd take these guys to the next level. One of them I am calling the "cursed canvas" because it's taken on so many lives and just never, ever seems to work, no matter what direction I try to take it. Maybe tomorrow I will do a chant to remove the curse "please allow this canvas to purge itself of any negative energy and take on it's true, beautiful form". hahhaha - no but seriously, i think i might do that.

Maybe the problem is that I always go to that painting first when I start my day's session of painting. The first movements/strokes are always the most stilted and disconnected. For the past few days though, I wake up wanting to transform that canvas into something special. Each day it changes - each day it stays "blah". I should ignore it for a while and THEN do a chant to remove the curse! Yeah, that's what I'll do. (If you didn't know already, now you are certain that I am crazy - I will not dispute you).

Fortunately, some real winners are emerging, and filling me with excitement for this groove I am only beginning to connect to. The groove of waking, going online and/or the post office, then walking out to paint for the better part of the day.

This space I have... I know how lucky I am. I keep thinking of Virginia Woolf's A Room Of One's Own... I've got it. Now what am I going to do with it? The good thing is, that question doesn't give me fear or doubt or anguish in any way - only a full body/soul/mind thrill that I can't, and don't want to, shake.

My gratitude goes out to all forces, here on Earth and beyond, that have helped me get to this place in my life and career (which absolutely merge into one). And if I could offer anything to an aspiring artist today, it is the belief that if this is what you really want, you can make it happen.

Love. Live. Make Art. Make Peace. :)

My Funny Valentine