The biggest change on the business end of things lately is that I will be slowly moving my prints from Etsy to Society6.  All my original artwork will still be sold through Etsy, but I needed a different platform to streamline the print process.  This also will expand what I'm able to produce, and it will give me some new ways get my work out there.  I'm really excited about starting this part of the adventure and moving into this really cool artist platform.

But I have still been producing new work, and these will be the first to hit the Society6 platform.

"Pelican Swim" was such a fun painting for me to do.  Every time I work back to producing waterfowl, I end up completely happy with my work.  This was no acception.  There birds are such majestic, ancient creatures that I've been tossing around the idea of painting them for a long time.  This one was different for me in using a lot of different grays to capture the different folds in its feathers.  I tried to work from source images (many DNR and Forestry images as well as some personal photos) and memory instead of relying on others' experiences.  I love being able to show my interpretation of an animal and show others how I see different parts of nature.  This one was no different, and I loved the result.

"Marina" was another seaside painting that I worked on completely from memory.  I have the fortune to live near a lot of inland water, and I adore my own ability to take it all in even when there is a lot happening around me.  While these boats were extremely fun to paint, I also wanted to give the impression that everyone on one of these boats knows that the lakes, seas, and waterways available to us are not ours alone.  As my internal focus shifts, so do my paintings: I want to be able to show that while our culture may push that the Earth belongs to us, it is much the other way around: We belong to the Earth...

But the "Marina" has some balance to it too: a beautiful reverence for nature within our little ships on the harbor, at sea, and in our protected coves.

There have been plenty of changes in my work, and my life, over the past several months, and I'll try to sum things up in this post!  I'll write a bit more on what I've been up to personally: but I will write that we bought a house.  It's gone through a lot of changes, which I will write on later.  For now, I haven't been producing as many new art pieces, but I do have a few crochet projects to add today.

I'll start with the phenomenon that has taken over our streets and my crochet hook. Pokemon.
I designed a month or so ago a new coffee sleeve inspired by Pokeballs.  It was a fairly straightforward design, and a great way to keep up with the current state of Pokemon madness (which I must admit I've always been a bit partial to).

The next part of my latest foray into the Pokemon universe was a custom project for a friend.  Her favorite Pokemon is Eevee: a strange critter with many different evolutionary paths.  It's really a cool one to get your hands on, and the evolutionary tree can really show something else about who you are based on which you prefer.  It's almost as fascinating as Hogwarts houses.
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The other custom project I've done recently was a based on a drawing from a kid!  It was really fun working with such pure creativity and folding the design, ideas, and energy from someone with the kind of unbridled joy and excitement that kids have.  It was both a remarkable challenge to figure out how to do "Fred the Fish" and a task of pure joy to be able to foster that kind of creative expression in our youth.  Some of my favorite custom projects have been drafted or inspired by our young people, and I hope to keep fostering that creativity and passion throughout my career.