Oh Geez

Oh where have I been lately? It seems I have completely set this blog to rest. . .But I would very much like to pick it up again! My last post was about my desire for summer, and now summer is halfway gone!

Lately I have been trying very hard to get my ideas onto paper. Whether it be the lined paper of a notebook, or the wonderful texture of a canvas.

My inspiration was even furthered by the fact that yesterday I spent the day in Laguna Beach with my mother at the amazing Sawdust Festival, and Festival of the Arts! Take a gander: http://www.sawdustartfestival.org/ and http://www.foapom.com/.

It was such a wonderful day. We first visited the Sawdust Festival which is so great because it is all local Laguna Beach artists and they set up little areas where they sell their very diverse art! I met some pretty amazing artists, talked to many about their techniques, and bought some beautiful things. Before I show you my beautiful things I bought, I must tell you my technique to buying art. When you are not looking to buy something to blow your budget, but you are in love with in image, look to see if the artist is selling it in either greeting card or postcard form! Then instead of spending a lot on a print, you are spending 3-7 dollars on the same great image, just smaller! And if you mount it and frame it, then voila! Beautiful art!

Now, I found two artists that I really adored.

The first is a wonderful collage artist, Suzette Rosenthal. You can view her work here: http://suzetterosenthal.com/. I talked a lot to her about her technique of collage, and I was really inspired! I bought (big shocker) a greeting card of one of my favorite works of hers! Here it is:

I then found an artist whose work inspired me at such a level that immediately when I came home I began writing a story based off of one of her works. The one I bought, of course. Her name is Sue Winner, and unfortunately she does not have a website. But if you live in the Laguna Beach area then I highly suggest you get over there and check her out! Her work was amazing, whimsical and old fairy-tale-esque. The majority of her paintings contain strange gremlin "fallen angel" demon type things. But it is interesting because none of them look scary. They all remind me of the old fairy tales about selling your soul to the devil, and then outsmarting him and getting it back!

The one I bought from her is called The Lost Fairy and here it is:

After my mother and I had our share of fun at the Sawdust Festival, we walked over to the Festival of the Arts. At this festival, it is much quieter, relaxing, and it features more distinguished art. A little less crafty, and still beautiful! We bought some lunch and ate under a tree on a charming little table in the middle of the area, where we just had beautiful art to look at!

Once we ate, we looked through the art, and found a printmaking table where we got to try it out and take home our own art! I came up with this little thing:

Now I hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Let your creativity flow!