Laurel Jean Siler back on etsy, woo hoo!!

Last weekend I got a a message from my brother. He called to say he had talked to someone he used to work for, who used to be my Chiropractor (still would be if I had much in the way of money to pay him). My brother told me that Dr. Chiropractor mentioned that I should bring some artwork into the office to hang in their waiting room to offer for sale. He had mentioned this to me twice before, saying "hey you need to bring me some stuff..." and last time it was "as soon as we're done with the rennovations, seriously!"

What's funny is, I know what spawned all of this. He's a great guy and he'd always been really nice to me, so before I left for art school I made a drawing of a portion of the spine with ink, charcoal and colored pencils... and I framed it in an inexpensive frame and gave it to him. He was blown away, you could have knocked him over with a feather. To me, it wasn't a big deal, to him it was HUGE. And since then, he's had a huge amount of respect for my work and been interested in helping me sell it.

I gave him that drawing on a whim almost five years ago. I had, in fact, not done much drawing in the last several years. When I got to art school I was mostly painting. After my first semester, I was hardly painting at all. It's been 2 years since I moved back (post-art school) and now... I'm drawing again!

The last time I had talked to him he mentioned being interested in sports themed work. It's a sports medicine clinic, so it totally makes sense. So in preparing to take some work over to him, i did eight drawings based on athletic bodies in motion (or action... the one on his knees is active without being moving a whole lot). I will probably do some more. I decided to make and sell a few prints of the works on etsy. I listed six yesterday (late last night/early this morning... however you see it). One sold before I woke up. Yahoo!

Stuff like that always serves as a confirmation that I need to be serious about my artwork and about my business.

When I haven't drawn for a long time, it's really easy to forget that I have any ability at all. I think skill without use becomes a blind spot, somehow. It's too easy sometimes to forget that I have a lot of skill and knowledge because I live in the middle of a desert where there's very little development in high art. Visual Art. It's amazing to be like this so close to Los Angeles.

I am enjoying getting back to it. I like working and feeling like I am getting somewhere.

If you want to check out the rest of the drawings I've done so far in this series, please feel free to check out my etsy shop.

Http://laureljeansiler.etsy.com

He's Alive Alive Alive Allelujah!

This weekend was known as Resurrection Weekend around these parts. It's a choir thing. I cannot tell you how much i love singing in church, and these songs were awesome. We don't sing with canned music, we have a live band, a small orchestra and handbells... it was a blast.

"Worthy is the Lamb, Worthy of our Praise. Worthy is the one who has overcome the grave.
Let the People Dance, let the people sing, Worthy is the mighty king!"

it was a loooong weekend. four services. AWESOME!

Got to get to work!

I have a wonderful friend who saves bags for me. I started making little bags out of fused plastic made from plastic bags a while back. It's an awesome project. I will probably have to write a tutorial about how I do it, but for starters, feel free to wander over to http://www.threadbanger.com and look in their archives for their fused plastic tutorial. It's different from what I do, but I developed my way after watching them...

Anyway, It's a good project for all those random plastic bags. I had mentioned in past to this friend that I desperately needed bags that were not Wal*Mart bags. No this is not a knock on Wal*Mart (I'm sure I'll get there eventually, but this is not where my ire for the 'mart will come out), I simply have too many of those and they're very plain. Tonight she gave me bags from The Jelly Belly factory, and a bag from India! She's also given me some bags from Disneyland and reminded me that SOMEWHERE I have a bag from Herrods.

i fuse the plastic and sew with it. I've made some neat little bags, and Kristin (the friend who gives me so many bags) got one for giving me so many bags. She loves it and others have commented on the bag I gave her. I think it's where I'm going to focus for my Page22 Line.

Before I was sewing both cloth bags and the fused plastic bags. The Plastic ones sold better and were easier to sew to a higher level of quality.

*sigh*

I just have not been working as hard as I would like to be.

I am:

I am:
artist.
Singer.
Beautiful.
Brilliant (but humble).
Literate.
creative.
Adventurous.
Tired.
Page22 on etsy.
funny.
a friend.
a sister.
An Auntie.
overweight.
talented.
a craft lover.

I am allowed to love.
I do belong somewhere.
I am not afraid to succeed, not afraid to fail.
I am more afraid of not doing anything.
I am a natural redhead.
I am an art school survivor.

A future grad student.

single for the moment.
a diy fashionista
and a lover of dishwear.
I am addicted to sparkle, but kind of think glitter was invented by the devil (try vacuuming it out of carpet if you disagree with me!)...

I hate dirty toilets. I have in my life found the activity of cleaning toilets very zen.
I love the smell of clean laundry.
I love candles.
I fear fire.
I hate cockroaches.

I don't watch the news.
I care about politics but am (on purpose) not politically active.
I am a Christian.
I am an independent business woman.
I am allowed to be wrong.
I am allowed to be right.
I am opinionated and love to think forward.

I love beauty and live in wonder.

and I am committed to continue.