Have paintbrush will travel

Keeping your eyes open for opportunity is a great way to not be on the far side of the house when Opportunity comes a-knockin'. Woke up to find that I've secured a gig for next Saturday...painting! I'll get a nice days pay for a few hours of painting work and I get to get out of the house and hang out at the mall. I never go to the mall. Maybe once a year. Will have to fight the temptation to go into Bath and Bodyworks and spend all my pay.
Thank you for listening Universe and please keep it coming!

Spent yesterday finishing the Mondrian record and completing a Chinese folk paper cut design record. Read a TON about marketing, what I need to do to sell for the holidays and how to take better photos. I am experimenting with these settings I never knew I had on my camera and practicing "styling" the photo. Here is my simple attempt at staging with my Mondrian record

Staging makes the photo a little more interesting and creative. It will draw the viewer in for a better look. Need tons of practice with this but will have plenty of opportunity to practice.
Today I'm working on Christmas cards and gift tags. Found some wonderful paper in my stash of remnants I can't wait to start on. Crafty weekend for me! Look for me at the mall next weekend, I'll have more details on where I'll be this week. Until then- have a great weekend!

Hump Day

Happy Wednesday everyone! Yesterday found me busy in the studio working on vinyl, finished this Mondrian record and sold it not long after posting! I really needed that sale to perk me up, I was having one of those bouts of the blahs I couldn't seem to shake. Big thanks to my official Oak Cliff collector Kevin who bought the record. :-)
I also finished a small record mirror that looks suprisingly well on my studio wall. Hmm, will have to make one for my own keeps.

Did a lot of experimenting with materials yesterday and also different spots to photograph indoors. Trying to ramp up my photo quality. I've decided to make a small "staging" area where I can photograph some of the pieces on the wall. Will take some time to get it right but should make for some lovely photos.
Working on another Mondrian piece today and visiting the post office to drop a Beatles record off. Feeling blessed.
Theres a little rainy cloud icon on my weather bug for tomorrow...hmm, good painting weather.
Jump over the hump and make it good!

Spring Cleaning

Down with allergies today but wanted to update the blog with my new banner! I have had the same banner at my etsy shop for a long time. So I have updated it a bit and will make some more to keep the shop looking fresh. I just added two new vinyl art records so if you've been wanting one grab em now!
Patiently waiting on my allergies to get in check so I have the energy to sit and work on stuff but thats what I have for now. Thanks for popping in and check out the new pieces!
http://www.tigerbee.etsy.com
http://www.tigerbee.etsy.com

Commencing Countdown Engines On

Gridwall is here! What is gridwall? Its that cagey looking stuff you see at little craft/art fairs or really anywhere someone is selling stuff. It's used to hang stuff on and soon it's going to be used to hang MY stuff on! It is starting to come together piece by piece, slowly but surely.
This weekend in between working, a friends crawfish boil and Mothers Day I plan to re-do my little working space in my dining room. I share it with my cats and it's in constant upheaval and right now it is just not working. I need the big window to sit by in order to be happy. I need the Spring sunshine coming in but right now that window is blocked with an ugly shelving unit. Time to make my space an inspirational place to work.
Aside from piece-mealing my little soon to be biz together I'm counting down the days until I can leap from the cliff of the workaday world and see if I can sink or swim. It's time to challenge myself and change it up. That and getting ready to release the Shapes album in a few weeks.
I am on day 58 of my countdown.
I have put the prints back in the shop and acquired a new scanner/printer...nothing fancy but should get the job of invoices, basic printing done, etc. Every week from here on out will be chipping away at the mountain little by little. Still scouting out consignment shops and various places to get the records in.

Happiness is a warm bun

I'm trying to be better about updating my blog as I work on getting my little business up and running. Yesterday I got my giant box of record mailing boxes! WOOHOO! Starting to look like a little biz around here. This morning I ordered my first roll of bubble wrap, a couple rolls of packing tape and my shipping supplies will be complete. Now I'm on the quest to research a good printer that will do some nice giclee printing so I can expand my shop into other areas and not just records. Going to learn screen printing this summer and branch out. Yesterday I got my first customer appreciation photo! So excited! That little bunny record was commissioned by a facebook friend who is starting his own little music lab and wanted it to be christened with a bunny art record. He sent me a great photo and it really made my day. The desire to do this for a living and make people happy with little pieces of my heart is in full swing.

Jacob and his bunny record

All Together Now!

Ok, I'm back from the madness of Beatlemania and am happy to report that all my hard work was not in vain. The event was really fun, although it was quite humid in the gallery/soda shop... so it was a good thing I was scoring some free soda pop to quench my thirst. There was an amazing turnout for the art crawl and our event was abuzz with people loving on the Beatles. The go-go girls did a great job hyping up the crowd and we got lots of attention from camera wielding spectators.
I sold both of my pieces in the show quickly and barely got a chance to say goodbye to them. It turns out that one of them was bought by an out of towner and he had to take the piece that night instead of leaving it up to finish out the show. So when the next one sold I just waved it off as well. Bye bye records! The octopus was bought by a fellow who wants to turn it into a tattoo! And the Beatles piece is going in a sweet little girls room. I was honored my stuff went to good homes. Vinyl is hard to paint on but everyone loved it so much I may try my patience with a few more.

I'm still alive in this hive

Yes, I suck. And now that we've agreed on that I will get on with the post.
Spring is kicking my butt. Stuff is blooming and flying and sprouting which makes me sneezy, stuffy and turns my mouth sideways. I love the Spring but it kills me. Time to go back to Doctor for nose spray. Sigh!

I've just wrapped up a huge painting I haven't posted and started a new one and started another little experiment. I'm painting on vinyl as in records. Somehow a disdainful LoverBoy lp made it's way into my house and it has become my first experiment. Muah ha ha!

Also I have discovered Facebook and it is a little addictive but annoying, I admit. But that's only a small part of why I've been away from this blog so long. The other part is that I've kinda hit one of those energy slumps and I just don't feel like my vitamin c or octane is kicking in. I'm sure this has everything to do with allergies! But I will try, I have lots of photos to post and catch up on this blog so buzz along with me if you're still here!
Will post photos of LoverBoy desecration art when it's done!