Bohemian Heart Wing kid’s rocking chair DIY project

February 26, 2017 No Comments

As I’ve mentioned before in my blog, I have a penchant for old and broken things. So when I find this rickety $9 chair at a local thrift store in Manteca, I had to pick it up for my niece.

I wasn’t going to leave it as is, of course. It was just a basic solid wood chair. The owner before me seemed to have used a staple gun around the seat to put some sort of cushion and fabric on. After a good hour of prep work that involved a razor blade and pliers, I was able to remove all the jagged little staples that could possibly give my niece a good stab.

Bohemian Heart Wing kid's rocking chair DIY project Home Decor gypsy kids DIY furniture restoration Bohemian Decor ideas

After the sanding and staple removal was complete. In came the paint! I used some FolkArt Chalk paint. Lessons I learned : The roller is a complete waste of time. I ended up having a far easier time painting this with a regular art acrylic paint brush. And while the paint says that you don’t need a primer – for lighter shades of paint I would really recommend it. Next time! I love the super matte finish. Definitely unlike any other crafting paint that I have ever used. I have to also mention that sanding this down gave it a really great effect. The paint almost falls off like chalk. I guess they named it correctly. 🙂

Bohemian Heart Wing kid's rocking chair DIY project Home Decor gypsy kids DIY furniture restoration Bohemian Decor ideas

I measured out the seat to make sure I would be painting my design in the middle. Personally, I wanted to hand paint it. However, I am sure if you were making a little rocking chair of your own you could transfer your design on to the wood. I ended up painting this with just two colors, and then sanding it down as well. It added some really cool texture to the red heart! After it was all sanded to the level of distress that I wanted, I sprayed two coats of acrylic sealing spray.

My niece just loves this rocking chair. She hasn’t seen this finished version, but she has been rocking back and forth in the original chair for weeks since I first picked this up from the thrift store. What was once junk is now her own one of a kind gypsy, country style rocking chair!

Journal, Watercolors

Finding your personal vision

February 25, 2017 No Comments

Here is something all artists can really relate to. How do I find my own personal style?

Step One : Watch tutorials or take classes to learn basic techniques

Step Two : Stop giving a fuck and do what comes to your pretty damn heart.

I’ve spent most of my life an artist. I emulated others. Copied styles. Looked intensely at reference photos. It was a lot, a LOT of fan art from various nerd obsessions that I had acquired over the years. Photography stole me for the past 7 years, and I dropped the pencil. I sold my brushes. At first I had these wide eyes and photographed from the heart. But the same thing happened to me that happened to my illustrations… I started to lose myself.

I lost myself in the comparisons. For a bit I even concerned myself with other photographer’s work spaces that maybe if I just had that hip, minimalistic office style like it would make me into this cool photographer that they were. Because that is how it works right? Paint my walls white and all of a sudden have a green thumb for all of these perfect plants around my work station that has only 5 items tops on the desk? That would make me turn my black and whites into the exact black and whites that other photographers were doing. That’s how I would get the same amount of likes. I would have 30K instagram followers and they would be asking me for workshops! YES!!!

Turns out, it doesn’t work that way. Not by a long shot.

So I decided to just… be happy.

I turned back into art that was created for me. Bought some brushes for the first time in 14 years. Watch a few tutorials on watercolor (Skillshare is amazing, by the way) and oil painting. I made gifts for my friends. I painted fanart again without looking at references. I just made pretty things that I loved creating. And suddenly something happened :

I was excited about photography again. I was excited about ALL art again. I realized I had a gift and a vision people loved all along. When did I get swept away by this internet full of photographers? When did I forget that I love painting chickens and fan art and anything my little heart desired?

Finding your personal vision Journal Watercolors watercolor artist painter Bay Area artist artist blog advice for artists

Honestly, I can’t tell you when that happened to me. It was a slow decay at my creative heart that crept in without any sound. I wasn’t prepared for something to pick apart the very foundation of which I had based my whole life on. But there I was, not looking forward to art anymore. I was still excellent at it. I still let the excitement of my clients absorb into me. But it was being done out of fear of not doing a good job, rather than passion for creating something unique and beautiful made with my heart.

Your heart is a pretty amazing thing. No one else has one quite like you. What I’ve realized at this point in my life (it only took me a mere 24 years of being an artist), is that putting anything out of your mind that doesn’t bring love and happiness to your art will kill your creativity. Turn on music that makes your soul explode, rather than looking at art with the amount of likes that you wish you could get. Close your eyes and use your own visualizations – every little detail. Whatever you pictured you can create. But only if you allow yourself to release the blocks that you though you needed to hold your creativity up.

…TLDR?

Minimalistic offices are boring when you can have these little guys instead.

Finding your personal vision Journal Watercolors watercolor artist painter Bay Area artist artist blog advice for artists

Home Decor

The Gypsy / Boho Bedroom project – My room!

February 23, 2017 No Comments

In my journey for self love and artistic discovery, I found that there is something that really helps the mind calm – a wonderful bedroom. I have always had a love of old, broken things made beautiful. Bohemian and Gypsy style. Heirlooms mixed with junk. New pieces mixed with old. Gold and rust. Cracks and dust. Modernism and antique.

Turning 30 last year I really decided to put my heart and soul into my art. I’ve been creative since I can remember. So in order to have a nice place to calm myself, meditate, or read I decided my room would be an art project. It is far from done, but I am loving the treasures I have found and created so far. It brings me calm. The light shines through my windows and dances on the mirrors.

It’s a place that is authentically me. I can paint for hours in this room. I feel relaxed when I lay on my acupuncture mat before bed to get rid of then tension of the day. It took me 30 years but I am finally living in a little space that I can say is really my space.

The Gypsy / Boho Bedroom project - My room! Home Decor vintage DIY red wall bedroom Gypsy decor ideas DIY shelves Boho chic Bohemian Decor ideas

My mirror collage is one of my favorite parts of the room. While I will go a bit more in depth to the pieces once I feel like it is truly finished, I felt compelled to share a bit about it now. I will admit that I have a total passion for vintage pieces. However, I will never count out a beautiful piece that one day will be vintage!

The chevron mirrors are from Target. I originally was going to split them up, but felt like they just looked way too good together. The other mirrors came from thrift stores found locally in the Bay Area. That beautiful, unique starburst piece on the lower left came from Burlington Coat Factory of all places. I felt like I needed to bring a bit more of the red wall into the pieces, so I chose to hang up a beautiful “Amor” necklace with the sacred heart (purchased at the Betty Page store in San Francisco)that I had in my jewelry box.

The Gypsy / Boho Bedroom project - My room! Home Decor vintage DIY red wall bedroom Gypsy decor ideas DIY shelves Boho chic Bohemian Decor ideas

A mix of DIY, random discoveries at second hand stores, and family hand-me-downs. I’ve been holding on to those beautiful textile pieces that I found at yard sales for about ten years that I picked up for photoshoots. Finally they have a use! While they were never featured in any of my photo sessions, they do work well with my colorful bohemian decor. They frame a beautiful DIY wall piece that I created from a rubber floor mat ($7 thrift store find!), some spray paint, and some bronze acrylic paint to finish it off. All the beauty of a rustic iron art piece… without having a iron art piece over my head.

The Gypsy / Boho Bedroom project - My room! Home Decor vintage DIY red wall bedroom Gypsy decor ideas DIY shelves Boho chic Bohemian Decor ideas

One of my favorite parts of my room is this little piece. If you know me, you know I am totally a whiskey girl. Give me a juke box and a class of jack at the local dive bar and I will be guaranteed to have a good night. Just don’t give me the whole bottle, then it might be a bad night for everybody 😉 But, I digress…

My little brother was given this bottle of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel in celebration of the birth of his daughter. Rather then tossing it into recycling I just fell in love with the shape and knew I would eventually use it for a project. I’ve been keeping a hold of those beautiful dried flowers for 4 years now that were given to me as a client gift for taking maternity photos. It finally hit me that they would go perfectly into the Jack Daniel’s bottle. The dead flower’s gold hue complimented the gold of the Jack Daniel’s logo. It’s so simple but I am ridiculously obsessed with it!

The teal crystal came from Target. The clear crystal was sent as a gift from a wonderful ebay seller! That beautiful angel wing dish is from one of my favorite online shops, Junk Gypsy.

The Gypsy / Boho Bedroom project - My room! Home Decor vintage DIY red wall bedroom Gypsy decor ideas DIY shelves Boho chic Bohemian Decor ideas

Once again, I put a mixture of the new, old, and special. I live in a rather small space (9×9) so there really isn’t room for bookshelves. I knew I wanted a place to store all of my books and kindle at night that was safe from furry friends knocking it over. So I found these crates at Joanne‘s($7 each). They come in a raw wood, but I HATE the chemical usage of stain you normally can find. I hate the smell! I hate how sticky it all is. So I ordered some PureColor Eco-Friendly Stain in Brunette. I can’t rave enough about this stain. It was so odor free I could actually stain my crates in the warmth of my home and not in the cold garage! With a sponge it took me just one coat to get the desired finish.

Other thrift store finds? The colorful candle holder on top as well the bronze jewelry box by the quail.

If anyone knows that kind of plant that is, let me know. Hah! No really, it’s a piece of a plant that was pulled off of my Grandfather’s plant that we’ve held on to for 20 years since he passed away. I wanted a piece of it in my room so putting it in water has kept it growing for months. However, I hated the clear purple vase so thanks to some bronze hammered spray paint, I fixed that right away.

Another sentimental piece you can see if the bronze quail. My last living grandparent recently passed away. When cleaning out my Grandmother’s house I came upon this set of Quails that she had decorating her backyard. I was in need of some nice bookends for my room, and since these were meant for outdoors they were heavy enough to hold books up! So I got a piece of her in my room as well.

The dreamcatchers are gifts from my brother’s girlfriend that she brought back from an Arizona vacation. Once again, more pieces that I have held on to for years knowing that I was eventually going to have a beautiful use for them. That aged cup on the top was my Great Grandmother’s. The geometric glass piece and succulent came from Hobby Lobby!

My little space in the world is far from done. But it’s getting there. I’ve found that at this point in my life it’s a really refreshing feeling to come home to a place that really feels like mine. Admittedly, I am a messy person. Always have been. Probably always will be. However, to my fellow mess makers – having a space that is truly you maybe not stop you from making a mess, but it sure as hell inspires that clean up day once a week. Not because of the money spent, as most of this was discount, vintage, or family hand-me-downs. But because of how much I truly enjoy my little space.

Watercolors

Willie Nelson Watercolor and the lessons Willie teaches me

February 22, 2017 No Comments

I grew up on country music and art. It’s always been the thing that really drives me. I suppose country music really opened my heart up to story telling and how to do that through art. It inspired me to write. It inspired me to feel the feelings.

People say it’s all so depressing. But that’s how you get your feelings out : Sometimes you have to get a little sad. I feel like in order to really evolve in life you need to feel your feelings. That is where country music comes in. You can get a good cry out listening to such songs like “Always on my Mind” but after the feelings are out, you have the uplifting words of “On the Road again” to get yourself back on track. To get you back on the road to evolving.

One of my favorite Country music artists is Willie Nelson. Not just for his music, but his words. If you are looking for a change in your life and are in need of a little hope, The Tao of Willie is a great book to pick up. His words are inspiring. Many of his words have really helped me through these last few months of growth.

“We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it.”

I felt the urge to create a portrait piece. It’s only fitting that my first journey into portrait painting would be the incredible Willie Nelson. It was definitely a difficult learning curve. Using some new paint brushes, inks, and hours of Willie Nelson playing into the midnight hours. I’ve never taken a class in watercolors. The most art classes I’ve been in was an art class in high school. I definitely went into this with a blind fold on just throwing down paint and hoping for the best.

The abstract quality to watercolor is what amazes me. You can make a portrait so realistic… yet still add magic to it. It becomes surreal. A basic portrait turns into something completely different from the original reference photo. The freedom that comes with watercolor is truly therapeutic. Literally making “happy mistakes” (Thanks, Bob Ross!) and creating something beautiful from it. Splashing random black inks and watercolors.

Something that I love about Willie Nelson that seems to be a theme in his life is to simply be grateful and happy. It’s something I have struggled with. Staying in victim mode and milking my pain to all that would listen. Re-energizing the pain. That was my life. Until I decided it wasn’t working for me in the last 30 years of my life. So maybe good Ol’ Willie might have it right.

And he sure as hell does have it right.

I have a lot to be thankful for. My home. My ridiculously amazing family. This talent that God gave me. The music that helps me cope. My friends. Good Whiskey. Life is awesome because I choose it to be. Thanks for the advice, Good Ol’ Willie.

If you are interested in picking up a print, be sure to check it out in my Etsy store.

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”