What a coincidence that it’s the Lunar Year of the Rabbit! It matches my logo perfectly, which surely must be an auspicious sign, right?
So what have I been up to lately? I did take a mini break over Christmas (or did I?) as far as creating artworks is concerned. I have some secret projects I’ve been working on that will take some time to come to fruition, so I’m not able to share about them publicly yet. Stay tuned for more to come later this year.
To help celebrate Lunar New Year, I was invited to be the vendor at the Topeka Chinese American society’s New Year Celebrations. I created some delightful hand painted watercolor Rabbit bookmarks to help create a wonderful memory for my purchasers. I also donated an art work to their silent auction to help with their fund raising efforts.
January has been a busy artwork submission month for me. This month I have entered four artworks into upcoming Gallery shows at the NOTO Arts Center, Morris Gallery in Topeka Kansas.
February features a delicious exhibit named “Chocolate it is” in honor of Valentine’s Day and all things chocolate. It’s a beautiful show that opens to the public on Friday, February 3rd. I have entered two pieces into this show, Dreamer of Dreams, a Willy Wonka inspired acrylic painting complete with a gold leaf winning ticket of course! My second work is a mixed media assemblage piece featuring shades of chocolate in mixed media and 3D embellishments including vintage buttons, beads, fabrics, papers and gold leaf accents. Both artworks are available for sale at the show, along with most of the other artworks on display. To see images of these works, please go to my Social Media tab and click on my Instagram account (that’s where I post all my art photos and adventures).
At the beginning of January, I entered two artworks into the Juried Art Exhibit named Seasons, which is sponsored by Bernina. I was delighted to receive notice last week that both my works have been accepted into the show. I’ll be posting more about this show in the future, with photos over on my Instagram account, so be sure to follow my account and see more about the show in March.
I’m keeping a daily art journal this year, based on the prompts from the Artist’s Almanac collage fodder booklet, kindly given to me by a dear friend for Christmas. It’s been a challenge to keep up with it daily, especially considering working full time and working on four show entries all at once, but I made it happen and successfully completed every day in January. I did give myself permission to skip a couple of days, and come back later to finish them. But isn’t that what life is all about? Giving ourselves grace and forgiveness to do our best and baby step forward daily? I’m also working on giving myself permission to rest as I need it, because I have a tendency to push myself too hard on occasions. Easy does it!
Let’s see how I do in February with this daily art practice. I have some fairly assertive goals for myself this year. As you’ll see on my home page, I have another two shows I’m working on with entries due at the end of this month (so literally everything else is on hold while I work on these two show entries). Come March, I will likely need a bit of a break before launching into some other big projects for later in the year.
As for blog posts, I plan not to bombard your in box with newsy updates. That’s what I use my Instagram account for, to show my progress photos, completed artworks and other life adventures. I use my Pinterest account to record inspirations for current and future projects, and my poor YouTube account is feeling quite bereft because I haven’t touched it since last year. If I have the energy and bandwidth, I’ll attempt to create and upload some progress videos of my projects throughout the year to give it some love and attention.
By the way, have you seen my latest designs uploaded over on my Society 6 store? My dear friend Kathleen asked me to create a mid-century modern, geometric fish pattern in blues for her bathroom. I created a hand printed, hand cut Fishies themed pattern also with bubbles. It’s now available on a wide range of products in my Society 6 store and would be super cute for kid’s bathroom and bedroom decor too! Hop on over to my Society 6 store to view the new Fishies and Birds designs that are appearing over there.
Well, that’s all from this neck of the frozen tundra for now. Stay tuned for more fun projects and artworks this year (especially if you like watercolor, hint hint). If there’s anything you’d like to know or hear about from me, just drop me a comment and I’ll see what I can do. As always, future blog post suggestions are welcomed and much appreciated. Have a great first quarter and best wishes!
Michaela xxx
Teal Hare Creations 