As I mentioned previously, the shows I had this past weekend went very well. I had a few nice surprises too. I reunited with an old friend of the family Diane Smith, who I hadn't seen in about 20 years. She surprised me by showing up at one of my shows where it was advertised that I would be selling there. Even though there was quite an age difference between us (I wasn't quite a teenager back then) at family get togethers, we always had a special connection through art and she always encouraged me to continue with my talents. She mentioned that she recently started a comic strip which was very much inspired by me and my work...from almost 20 years ago! I was absolutely shocked! Who would have thought a shy, young artist could have such an impact?
After talking with her and hearing about her cartoon series success I was so flattered and ofcourse very happy to hear about her return to art as a comic strip artist and to see my inspiration in action! Very exciting stuff. You can see my friend Diane's cartoons in a writers publication called "The Storyteller" which is sold nationally. Her cartoon series is featured on the inside back cover...in color on glossy paper!
Seeing her was so awesome because I was reinspired to keep going with my challenging redesign dilemna. She reminded me of the type of work I used to make when I was younger- mostly tiny Sculpey clay food dishes like fruit bowls, plates of cookies, pizzas and sandwiches. She particularly loved the pizza which I always garnished with mushrooms, pepperoni and onions. That might sound like a bizarre combination of pizza toppings, but those were the most recognizable tiny garnishes I could come up with! The pizza pie after all was about the size of a half dollar.
Turns out for her that the pizza was particularly inspiring...and then I remembered how much fun it was to make all of those tiny treasures. I used to spend hours upon hours making tiny dishes of food and fruits and it was so incredibly fun...and thats when it hit me! My idea for simplifying my work... is just doing whats fun! It never feels like work when its fun! Not that I don't have fun when I'm making work now but every now and then I forget why I chose to do what I do. So, the resut of all of this...well its still a work in progress, but do look out for my new more simplified work in the coming months!
Oh and I forgot to mention- everything featured on my etsy page is now 10% off! Even on the items already on Sale! So, shop now just in time for Mother's Day!
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