Sweet Illustrations for My Penpals

Here are two illustrations for two out of my now four penpals from my Indie 2.o class!

Samia's Illustraion my Holland based Pen-pal, by m. diaz

I did this one by hand as a quick illo in my sketchbook and decided to keep it for Samia's letter.

For Salmezan, I decided to play with a cupcake drawing I did in my sketchbook that I scanned into photoshop. I layered the background with collaged digi pics and placed in a font that I later hand outlined. It came out a bit too green,but I still like it.

An Illo for my London based penpal Salmezan by m.diaz

So here's a silly question for you! If you were a cupcake what kind of cupcake would you be?

Let me hear about your filling as well as your topping. For example you might be a chocolate cupcake with ganache and raspberry filling and pink icing,or you might be red velvet cupcake with butter cream icing. Do you have any sprinkles or a cherry on top?
Be creative, you're a cupcake!

P.S. It's not to late to join the April 4th Basket Giveaway Raffle! Just comment on every post since the GIVEAWAY post AND be sure to leave a NUMBER on your last comment on April 4th before 9pm!!! We've decided we will VIDEO TAPE the number drop through the bingo cage to reveal our HONEST attempt to fairly choose a winner!

Free 4x6" Print for Kawaii Easter Basket Giveaway!

'Sweetness' illustration for my Basket GIVEAWAY!!

Basket will include this small 4"X6" print on matte photo paper and signed by me. I just did this watercolor illustration last night for the lucky winner of my April 4th Giveaway! I hope you all like it!

I tweaked it in photoshop after it was done, hence that weird effect in the icing.
Anyhoo, I've had such a great time preparing for this GIVEAWAY and appreciate everyone's support. If you're interested in WINNING the basket please be sure to read the rules of eligibility (which-BTW it's open to all!) in the GIVEAWAY post.

I've also been working on illustrations for my new penpals from my Indie 2.0 class - I'll show you those soon!

-Ciao Amarettogirl

Blythe & Pullip Art

I've started an illustration based off of a photograph of a shelf in my studio and decided to scan the drawing and dump color in digitally. Sometimes it's fun to just fool-around and play. Not to mention it's a great way to destress! You gotta love photoshop!

-Ciao Amarettogirl detail of Blythe illustration by m. diaz

A Winter Day

Today has just been cold, wet and gray. Half-snow, half-rain (not conducive to driving) and plain ol' yukky and thats how I feel too. It feels as though winter is lasting 4eva...So I thought I would kick-up a fire and share a sneek-peek into a new project (or two) that I'm working on.

another winter day photo by m. diaz New drawing/painting and linoleum print of my wolf girl by m. diaz a cupcake pinchusion I bought

I have another exhibit coming up after Spring Break and that means more artwork for me. I'm really interested in continuing the theme of the shifter-like creatures from my last exhibit. I was also so moved by my Benecio Del Toro's Wolfman movie I knew it would affect my work and show up there.

Last year I visited the Putney School in Vermont as a visiting artist to do an artist talk. While I was there I got to visit the local town, have some wonderful food and I visited a delightful book shop with a diversified children's book section, which is where I found this adorable cupcake pincushion.

I had been seeing quite a few 'feltie' pincushions on the blogosphere, and since I love all things cupcakes (just see my Mai sweetshop line that I launched a year and a half ago), I really had to make my own. So now I have.

Here is MY version of a cupcake pincushion. Yay.

Cupcake Pincushion by m. diaz

Blythe Illustrations

Seeing as my blog has now been up for TWO YEARS I've begun to update some outdated info. So my bio no longer says married for 5yrs when its been 7!

This piece was one of six that I did for a summer 2009 exhibit...I just updated my exhibit data and the gallery of exhibits page (not finished yet) so I thought I'd mention it here. The hope (as some of my art appreciators know) is to order high-quality prints of these images and eventually have the prints for sale in my etsy shop - so don't despair it will one day soon happen!

Honeyed illustration by m.diaz

OOOH SOME LIFE DRAMA! READ ALL ABOUT IT:

Tony Dovolani from Dancing With The Stars pic from ABC DWS

So here's what's happening in my life today. The school in which I work is hosting a 'Casablanca' gala black and white formal event this weekend as a fundraiser. In the 12 years that I've worked there I've never gone because tickets are very expensive (150mega-bucks, the funds go to support the school).

This week I received an email from one of the event planners that an anonymous donor paid for my ticket to attend and that I should consider honoring the gesture with an rsvp. So my hub (who also works at the same school as long as me) called to rsvp taking it for granted that everyone knows we're married and assuming he was paid for as well (its common that a donor pays for a handful of teachers)- but Yikes - the donor gift was just for me!

Luckily a ticket emerged for hubs, but I'm kind of 'weirded' out. In a crowded space I won't know who paid for me to go. Since this is tomorrow night, I had to go buy a cocktail dress and lets just say trying on stuff in ill lit fitting rooms that smack body-conscious-reality in my face is not my idea of a fun Friday night!

But it will all be worth it, since I learned Tony Dovolani from Dancing with the Stars will be there and it promises to be an affair to remember!!

Have you ever attended an event or gathering with a lurking secret donor or admirer??? Its like a game of CLUE! Come on spill, I want to hear all about it!

-Ciao Amarettogirl

A Quick Winter Illustration

cold girl

All Hallow's Eve 21st Century Digital Mysticism- Cyberternity

Warning: This post contains some morbid thoughts on the after-life...if you don't like that don't read it.

Hechicera Illustration on Shrinking Dinks by marisol diaz from the 52 exhibit Hechicera means Witch

So in honor of the eerie things that we should dangle from our virtual hearth this month, I wanted to share some finds with you unlike those typical pumpkin lights. Something more like 21st century digital mysticism inspired by one of my all time fave show's NPR's Radio Lab on the Afterlife in which our hosts explore eleven meditations on the afterlife, on how, when, and even if we die...

NYT article from March 11, 1907For example how did we get the concept of the soul weighing 21 grams??? Would Dr. Duncan MacDougall even be credited in his experiments today?

Dr. Frankenstonian Thought: Can the human brain be replicated and designed to be immortal? If so would it be really be you? What, if any, OBJECTS will survive the human race, listen to some thoughts on future fossils with an interview between producer Lulu Miller and the author and scientist Jan Zalasiewicz who wrote The Earth After Us.

and one of my favorites parts of the radio lab story (and the true inspiration for this post) - CYBERternity - what is it?

Well based on the definitional explorations from the Radio Lab show it is a multitude of electronic ways in which we can create the afterlife on-line.

New sites that REALLY DO allow your words to be read after you pass! One site Future Me is really for while you're alive, but if you listen to the Afterlife Radio Lab show - you'll see how sometimes it can inadvertently communicate from the dead.

So here is the low-down on Future me (which I plan to use soon, just to remind myself that I plan to celebrate my 'way-in-the-decade-future-fiftieth-birthday' for fifty days).

two fellas started this here site so that you could write yourself a letter to be delivered at a later date. we've all had to do them in high school and college. it's sorta cool to receive a letter from yourself about where you thought you'd be a year (two years? more?) later. FutureMe.org is based on the principle that memories are less accurate than emails. we strive for accuracy.

Dead flower - from On Dying series photo by m.diaz Then there is the really spooky, but real cyberternity site; Death Switch. This site claims to bridge the divide between mortality! Big claim - well creator David Eagleman designed the site to allow you to share unspeakable secrets, love notes, passwords, last word in an argument and/ or financial instructions or final wishes after you pass from this life. How you ask?

A deathswitch is an automated system that prompts you for your password on a regular schedule to make sure you are still alive. When you do not enter your password for some period of time, the system prompts you again several times. With no reply, the computer deduces you are dead or critically disabled, and your pre-scripted messages are automatically emailed to those named by you.

So there it is. Some bloggers think its not a good idea especially when considering password security but blogger Sephem Ubulwembu says it is if you use it correctly - and even gives some great tips on how to use Deathswitch correctly and securely. Read his article here. Well it seems this is where we are all heading. So listen to the Afterlife Show on Radio Lab, get creeped out (its only right we are in mid October!) and consider sending your future self or those you love messages from the future or the grave.

Happy Halloween Folks!

Amarettogirl

Treat Yourself to a Subscription of Color!

The full spectrum of colored pencils by Felissimo

So during my blogging escapades I discovered the kind of mail subscription I would have LOVED, and I mean LOVED, to have had as a young budding artist - heck if the times weren't so financially tight I would LOVE to have it now!!!

just one sample of the cleverly named pencils- Mermaid's Gown

Think back to a time when (instead of a new encyclopedia every month) your parents ordered wonderful little packages of animal flashcards that you could build a zoological collection of and catalog in that great little complimentary index case. Well this subscription is just as good if not better! 500 pencils and not just any pencils, color pencils!!

Japanese design house, Felissimo has created a new social experiment by developing this subscription plan in which 33 dollars a month will buy you a Japan-mailed-package of different assortments of 25 like-minded colored pencils, for 20 months until you have 500 varigated colors. The different colors have names like Tragedy, Tea with Milk, Maple Sugar and Drizzly Afternoon. Geez I want these!

One of the ways to display your pencils as they arrive

In addition to being able to order your pencils you can order high-design displays that rival some of the great stuff you see in the Moma (Museum of Modern Art) gift shop, like this wall display on the left appropriately named Orchestra. Felissimo's Social Design Network states,

Social designer curates and creates smart products that tune into the greater good. You can join the cause by submitting designs for our competitions, weighing in with your opinion, purchasing goods or just simply talking about them. After all, every good idea (and every good cause)... starts with a conversation.

The Color Wave Display Option ($104)

So if you do happen to indulge or splurge on this beautiful monthly treat let me know! I would love to see pics of your open packages as they arrive - they're sure to be works of art in themselves!

Glass Explorations II

While contemplating the word encasement, I explored some new glass powder work this summer.

Unintentionally, my concept was very similar to an assignment that I gave my students last year. The assignment (to paint a distorted self-portrait by basing the composition on a scanned/xeroxed facial print) was a blessing for some students who flourished with the 'chiaroscuro' demands of the project. However, the assignment proved to be challenging for others, who were left feeling disillusioned, which for me as an art educator is never ok.

quick sketch of idea as I saw it in my mind actual xerox of my facexerox of my face 11"x 11" layered glass tile made with glass powders entitled ENCASED by marisol diaz When working with glass powders, your initial drawing is very forgiving since the dry powders can simply be wiped (or blown) away until you fire it. However if you're working to create strong blacks it can be challenging since the material that you're working with is transparent and will also be reflective (it is glass) - thats why we use light tables during the process. Once the glass is fired your options become very limited since you can only add material and re-fire.

For this piece I combined both picture references of my face to create a new composition that included my hand. After the piece was fired I re-fired it with a layer of clear glass on top. The thickness and depth that created is difficult to see in the above shot. That clear glass layer also really helped 'encase' the piece. In addition, it made more sense why this piece was made out of glass as opposed to a drawing or a painting. I love sharing these explorations with you all!

Illustrations and The Azucarera Exhibit

Sugar Plum by marisol diazIdle Cherry Bomb by marisol diaz