Creating a Care Package for a Friend in Quarantine

You’ve probably heard me talk about my love of snail mail (which is pretty intense, let me tell you!) that I’m sure I got from my father who, whether living in the same town or across the country, always sent special handmade cards and collages.

I’m just going to say it, surprise care packages are literally EVERYTHING.

So join me tday for some real hand-made from the heart artsy good vibes I’m creating and sending to one of my favorite people in the whole world, Jimi, who is a nurse having to quarantine when he’s not on shift. He hasn’t been able to see his kids, family or bandmates in well over a month, not to mention working the most stressful job possible during a global pandemic.

Want a step-by-step of how I make my sketchbooks with any kind of art paper? Find the video here or the blog post here,

OR if you’d like to know the next time I’m making sketchbooks (they’re larger than the one in this vid), follow this link to stay in the loop. You even get to choose your own toned or white paper!

4.25.2020

My Artist Residency During the Coronavirus

What a time to be alive right?!

I've recently returned from a five week artist residency on a small farm in rural Tennessee, and while I had a wonderful time with the miniature donkeys and generous chickens, it was a very strange feeling knowing that the Coronavirus was just beginning its unprecedented infiltration of the entire world.

Camp Wonder Wander, hosted by artist and entrepreneur Val Sloan, provides a quiet and beautiful space for artists, writers, and musicians to come and focus on their craft in a an environment not bogged down with the complications and distractions of normal everyday life.

As part of the artist residency, we help out with the animals and find ways to add to the enchanted experience of the next residents by leaving a piece of ourselves here in the form of whatever art we choose. I decided to entirely repaint the shared bathroom with a potted plant mural. (See the full mural vid here. )

Even through the current state of affairs I had a really wonderful stay and was able to explore many different art forms in a short amount of time. It was also really delightful to watch spring come in everywhere throughout the rolling hills of Tennessee.

4.19.2020

Potted Plant Bathroom Mural

My first full room mural! As a part of the artist residency at Camp Wonder Wander in Tennessee, each artist is asked to leave a piece of themselves behind in whatever form inspires us. In the artist quarters the walls are all painted very colorfully and feature lots of beautiful silkscreens and photographs, but the bathroom felt a little unfinished compared to the rest of the house.

After brainstorming for a few days on what I could do with all the little nooks and crannies that this adorable room provided, I decided I could open up the space with a few trompe l’eiol shelves and lush potted plants. If you’d like to see still shots from this mural, as well as what the space looked like before, pop over to this blog post from last week.

If you enjoyed seeing this mural come to life, make sure you are getting the Birdie Blog sent to your inbox because I am actually working on two more murals concurrently right now (one’s a beach scene with a little jungley bit and the other is for a music room) and I’ll be coming out with videos for both of them soon!

4.11.2020

April Newsletter Sneaky Peak

I’m working on my next Birds of a Feather monthly letter this week, although I have to admit, with this world turning on end and my laptop breaking down for two weeks, it’s been more like two months - yikes!

This time I’ll be sharing progress shots from the two other murals I’m working on concurrently this week and next.

Yep, that’s two murals in one building at the same time. I love it!

I’ve also got some pandemic positivity and some fantastic ways for you to spend some that abundant time learning new creative skills right from your living room.

And last but not least, I’m gonna let you in on a lil secret goal I’ve been working on that I’m finding quite challenging so that I’ll know in the next few weeks I will have to be accountable for keeping up with it and trying my best. It’s so much easier to fail in secret so I find that if I tell folks about my aspirations, then I’ll be forced to push myself through the tough part and see concrete results.

Are you on board to get my letter yet? If you’re subscribed to the Birdie Blog then you will be for sure, but if you don’t know or you need to, pop over here.

4.9.2020

Quarantine Couch Collaboration

Aloha friends I've been working on a big collab for you! I've asked five of my super hardworking and inspiring sister artists to talk about how this global pandemic and social distancing has affected their art business and what they are doing to push through and stay positive.

These women are seriously skilled artists who make part to all of their income through their art-making so they have real world experiences to share and super valid (and luckily bright!) points that can really help keep the rest of us afloat as well. Enjoy!

Definitely find my sisters on social media and give them a lil Hooray, great job! shoutout :)

Find them all here (in order of appearance):

Alithia Gomez @artbyaligo Art By Ali Go YouTube

Sarah Sweeney @sarahannsweeney Sarah Sweeney Designs Etsy

Dané @jetheadedgypsy JetHeadedGypsy.com Jet Headed Gypsy YouTube

Seana McCarthy @theillustratr The Illustratr Etsy

Vee Stein @stephaniesteinphoto Vee Stein Photography Patreon StephanieSteinPhotography.net

Full Bathroom Potted Plant Mural

Hooray! I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to paint an entire bathroom mural of my own artistic choosing during my Artist Residency at Camp Wonder Wander in rural Tennessee. It’s a really fun and quirky house which has really bright walls and artwork everywhere you look (stay tuned to see it when the vlog comes out!), and you can tell its decoration is a labor of creative love by our hostess Val Sloan.

The artist quarters are actually an evolving art space as well because each artist leaves a piece of themselves in the form of artwork, or poetry written, or whatever their medium is, to beautify and enrich the space more for the next folks to come. After about a week of being there and using this shared bathroom, I knew just what to do:)

And how much do you love my little herb garden?! Squeeeee! It’s one of my favorite parts!

I really loved filling in these tight spaces - so cute!

A new adventure in art-making completed. Hooray!!!

3.31.2020

Coronavirus :: Artist Tips for a Global Pandemic

Well folks, I would have to say we are pretty much smack dab in the middle of the most uncertain of times... who would have thought that the biggest enemy of 2020 is shaping up to be human contact?!

The good news is that you are absolutely not alone and so many other artists are having to brave and navigate this strange new COVID-19 world right along with you. You know I've firmly believed that we can all work together as artists to come up and now it's imperative we do so to rise above as well.

You've got this. I promise.

Go learn some new skills! Free Skillshare membership for two months here!

Get 20% off my entire Shop while supporting this lil Bird:) Use code PANDEMIC

Helpful Resources:

https://www.varsitytutors.com/

https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2019/11/online-tutoring-jobs.html

https://www.fiverr.com

https://onairvideo.com/model-index

Own Your Instagram for Artists: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEiBtAnS58WG2Mz2vPsOkSp1IYMGld_a7

Real time painting of part of this hand: https://youtu.be/8kfUf7CnjWI

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Yep, I'm available for art mentoring via webcam! I'm happy to help fellow up-and-coming artists with anything from technique to small business advice, as well as with perfecting your portfolio or thesis. **See my lower pandemic rates**

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3.28.2020

Interviewed by Jet Headed Gypsy

I was so fortunate to be asked to do a video collaboration interview with one of my newest sister artists recently! Dané is a world travelin, multi lingual, super bright and helpful fellow YouTuber who found me a few months back. Since then we’ve been big encouragers of each other’s art as well as our love of mentoring other artists.

I think she was taking advice for me at first, but the tables are quickly turning and I am excited to read her blog posts every week now too!

Check out this interview we did as a long distance collaboration she posted on her YouTube this week, and make sure to check out some of her other videos while you’re there. You can also find her super bright and enthusiastic Instagram @jetheadedgypsy.

3.25.2020

Live Stream from the Farm on Tennessee

Howdy folks, my hard drive crashed, my travel plans got postponed and my gigs got canceled. It’s the middle of a global pandemic and shizz is getting pretty weird!!

Gotta smile through the crazy though and find ways to stay distracted :D

3.20.2020

Woo hoo! I’m Teaching on Skillshare!

Yay! I’m now posting detailed technique tutorials on Skillshare and you can watch them for free!

It’s actually a total coincidence that I’m getting on it right as the shizzz is going down bc it’s been on my To Do list for a few months now and I started creating my first course weeks ago but, ahem, got a little sidetracked with.. um yeah, ya know.

But the good news is with posting my ‘How to Paint a Bird of Paradise Flower’ course I get my own shareable link for TWO FREE MONTHS of classes!

There are literally tens of thousands of courses to choose from from art to business to learning computer programs to graphic design. Nobody’s going anywhere for a while so why not learn some new skills for free?

So pop through my special link and go learn something new! Yay!

3.18.2020