A Blue Haired Girl Leading a Sheep and Prints are in!

They are either heading to the prom or the county fair, either way, they are heading there in style!

 

 Melancholy Polar Bear Print available now!

This pirate would love to come into your home!

A friendly man who picks you flowers!

Fuzzy Wuzzy.

A strong man for you!  He's so strong. A few prints have been ordered and I am going to make listings of them in my Etsy shop this week!  I hope you like them very much, I am enjoying making them.

 

This past weekend my town (soon to be former town) had their annual 1000 clown parade.  It is in honor of Red Skelton's birthday, who was born in Vincennes.  They are big fans here.  I have never seen a video clip of him.  Steve Martin, who I love, was also a big fan, so I really need to buckle down and get to know Mr. Skelton.  

 

We sat across from a building that burnt down.  It was a strange experience to have all these colorful characters frolic past a giant pile of rubble while the hot, hot sun beat down on us.  Strange and delightful, which is the best kind of strange and a nice sort of delightful.  This clown was a walking pun.  He's a golfer and he's holding his "hole in one".  

 

 

Parades are pretty special.  This one has a lot of heart.  It is an explosion of celebration.  The streets get shut down for a march of color, laughter and candy.  I like it.

Another clown pun-----"ballet parking".  Pretty sweet.  

 

Oh Vincennes, Indiana.  I will miss you in a way.

We All Scream

I have ice cream on the brain.  Joseph and Walter and I finally tried this local ice cream place called the zip and sip which boasts 32 soft serve flavors, including espresso and coffee!  What is the difference in taste, I wonder?  We are an indecisive family so we asked if we could mix flavors, thinking they would put half of each flavor in, like if you were to scoop it out, but instead they mixed the extracts (?) together to make one flavor.  I ended up eating maple-nut/german chocolate.  I also managed to forget that german chocolate involves coconut and that I don't like coconut.  It's a strange thing to forget, but I always do, or at least I have more than once.  It was a lot of flavor in a cone, but I ate it all because no matter what ice cream is awesome.  I like this latest guy.  I would like to hear him talk about his days of yonder. 

Shiver Me Timbers

Ahoy Mateys

Watch your booty around this guy!

Quiet Little Collages

I am really having a nice time with these collages.  They whisper to me and ask me to play with them when I should be packing up my house for our cross country move in a little over a month (can you hear my heart palpitations?).  I like to suggest the tiniest, most quiet narrative with these little friends.  I like how in photoshop things can move so quickly.  Did you notice that the melancholy polar bear is actually little bear boy's bff?  I just shrank him down and whisked him into the bear boy's world.  I think it's good, his facial expression suggests that he needs a friend.

We just started watching season 4 of True Blood over here (while the kid's asleep, of course).  I always have to skip the opening credits because it grosses me out.  But, I really love the show.  It is the campiest, trashiest, vampiest thing ever, and I am surprised that I like it so much.  But, it is just tons of fun.  It takes place in Louisiana, which is where we are moving to, so it's nice to try to imagine if the town of Sookie Stackhouse is going to be much like our new town.  I guess it's not too nice since a lot of the town is pretty frightening and most of the people do things that I wouldn't want my neighbors to be doing, but the scenery looks lovely.  This season is especially fun because someone I was friends with in high school is in the cast.  It sort of takes me out of the plot a bit when she is on the screen.  I have to stop myself from exclaiming, "Hey!  Put your cloths back on and get to Geometry class!".  Not really. 

Anyway, I will be ready to offer these prints in my Etsy shop next week!  I have been testing out different printing options and I have settled on one that I find really lovely.  They are not going to be giclee prints, as I originally wanted.  I am not sure why I was set on selling "giclees", maybe because the word is so delightful to say, but these fabric collages are more like photographs than illustrations, so they look much nicer as lustre photo inkjet prints.  They are still going to be archival and also the paper has a nice feel to it. 

Have a wonderful Monday.

A Blossoming Romance

Photoshop and I have started hanging out.  I've always wondered if we could get along, but I thought maybe Photoshop was too cool for me, like those people who know a lot about underground music and eat obscure grains like kasha.  But, we've been on a few dates, mainly during my son's nap-time, and I am finally beginning to understand him and see past his hip facade.  I just smile and nod when he uses lingo that I don't understand ("rasterize?" is he Jamaican?), but I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Soon, after I get a collection together, I am going to start selling giclee prints of fabric collages.  I am so excited about them, that I can't seem to turn my mind off.  I find myself stopping dead in my tracks, and then walking over to my fabric collection and staring like some sort of zombie.  I am imagining the potential of all those patterns. 

I turned 32 the other day.  I realized on my birthday that I am past the age that I used to fantasize about.  I was that girl on New Year's Eve that, while intoxicated, would desperately want everyone to sit down and talk about their feelings.  Or "feeeeeeeeeeeelings" as I probably pronounced it after too many Woodchucks.  We would talk about where we would want to be in 5 or 10 years, and for some reason those visions never really aged past 32.  That's okay.  Don't worry 32, even though I never dreamed of you I will love you anyway. 

Mr. Mustache On a Windy Day is my first collaboration with Photoshop.  By the way, I am learning how to do things by watching instructional videos on YouTube.  What a resource!  I am not sure why there is so much free and useful information out there.  Why do these people post these videos?  Are they just super nice?  They are to me.  I could just hug them for unlocking the mysteries of Photoshop to me. 

Mr. Mustache on a Windy Day

Congratulations Ruby Reese!

Ruby!  Please email me your shipping info!  My email is nicholbrinkman(at)gmail.com!  Sorry to everyone who didn't win :(.  The book is available for pre-order on Amazon and will be in bookstores by June 6th.  Thanks for entering!  I have lots to update soon, so I'll see you later in the week!