It's story time!

Do you think it would be fun to write a story and use some of my drawings as illustrations?

You do? I knew it. You are so great!

Here's the link: http://storybird.com/dwell-deep/
Have fun!

Love,
Sam

p.s. Tara Lazar wrote this one and it's pretty funny (at least i think so!)

craft showcase: papernstitch!

hello everyone! sorry for no posting yesterday, but it was monday. monday.

phew, glad THAT'S over!

today i wanted to tell you that my work is being featured on a great website: http://papernstitch.com/

it's run by this great gal Brittni and she hand picks artisans and crafters to be a part of her monthly showcase. i'm so excited to be a part of this month's showcase!

so scoot on over and get some holiday shopping done. it'll be something to cross off your list.

love,
sam

p.s. be looking out for my holiday cards... coming soon!

Moleskines Arrived!!!

So a while back I put a few of my Moleskine sketches from my trip to New Haven into a contest by Chronicle Books.

I was selected as one of the 5 winners and just got my prize today:
A folio sized watercolor notebook!!
A standard sized sketchbook!!
A set of 3 small plain journals!!

Hurrah! Moleksines are SUCH nice books to draw in.

xo,
sam

Coming soon: Bears

Today I was going to make two bears and build panels... but then I ended up making FOUR bears and no panels... yet anyway.

The goal is to get these and some new paintings in the shop on Friday, so be on the lookout!

I'm really excited about the painting idea in my head and I want to tell you about it.....
but it would blow the whole biscuit, so you (and I) will just have to wait.

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On a separate note, I am feeling better about the whole art-thingy.
Thanks everyone for the nice words and high-fives and warm-fuzzies and good-thoughts-vibes sent my way.

I am notoriously impatient and faithless. Mainly in myself. I'm not sure if it's that some people are born with a natural confidence or if some people are just better at masking their inner insecurity, but I didn't come out that way.... I'm all heart on my sleeve, all the time.

But I like me.
and I like you too.

chin up!
love,
sam

Nesting dolls: stage 2

this is one of the projects i've been working on in the past few days.

besides this, i've been tackling the enormous pile of laundry we've got (did 4 bags worth today!) and working on some freelance projects, which have been loads of fun, but not really post-able just yet.

i've also been a bit sad for the past few days...
sometimes i question what on earth i'm doing trying to be an artist... i get very negative and doubtful and impatient.

i think it's connected to my always wanting to see ahead to a safe landing before jumping.

i feel like i'm in the longest ever free-fall.

i keep telling everyone that it's fun and terrifying at the same time, but that's not true at all... it seems to be EITHER fun OR terrifying, depending on what moment you ask.

today it's fun.
ask again tomorrow.

love,
sam

mermaid!

i'm still working away on the nesting dolls...

and busy with some other side projects.....

so, that's right! you get to see my sketchbook!

and yes, that IS a mermaid. it's okay, she's amphibious, so even though i didn't draw any water, she's surviving just fine there with the rest of the land-dwelling creatures.

love,
sam

masking it

sometimes i don't like myself. do you know this feeling?

being the contemplative type, i ask myself lots of "why" questions until i feel like i've explored my mood.

beauty is a recurring theme during these musings. here are some possible reasons i've brainstormed:
-i grew up in a beauty salon.
-there's a history of all kinds of plastic surgery in my immediate family: boobs, chins, lipo, noses, etc.
-i'm a girl in modern-day american culture.

i feel like i've heard and believed (at various times) a lot of very conflicting and confusing messages about beauty.

i'm done with that.
everyone is beautiful. especially you.

love,
sam

the swift current

i am a mess today.

big heaping, tangled, knotted, jumbled up mess.

crazy crayola scribble.

there are things in my life that i would very much like to control, which sadly, are out of my control.

there are also things in my life seemingly within my control, which sadly (again), i seem to be effing up.

it's like i learned to juggle and then just kept adding more and more balls until that critical point where they all start falling out of orbit like large pieces of hail.

it's hailing expectations and to-do list items around here.

and i bruise so easily.

love,
sam

heaping, massive, enormous shop update

well, that was a teeeeensy bit of an exaggeration, but i did honestly put up a lot of goodies in the shop today, including:

3 paintings
2 styles of journals
3 styles of cards w/ envelopes
1 new limited edition print

so there you go!

love,
sam

craft fair edition!

okay. i know i look angry in this picture, like i'm kicking this girl out of the craft fair, but i promise it wasn't like that.

it was a lot of fun! now onto applying for some more craft fairs. i'll keep you all posted about where and when i'll be next.

i'm also going to add some of the new items to my etsy shop next week, so stay tuned!

love,
sam

p.s. thanks so much to everyone who came out! i loved getting to see familiar faces and meet new friends!

craft fair

i made a TON of cards and journals and art prints for the craft show tomorrow.

and exactly ONE handbag.

and ONE stuffed animal. although it IS a ninja raccoon, which is the coolest stuffed animal possible, so i think it rounds out.

let's hope he goes to a good home. if not, he'll go to the etsy shop and you can rescue him.

love,
sam

lost at sea

Manchmal habe ich Angst, dass den Teil von mir, der Deutsche ist, verloren wird.... dass er wie ein Schiff wird, das weiter und weiter segelt, bis man es nicht mehr sehen kann.

Dann denke ich nach, wie verrückt das ist. Dieser Teil kann nicht von mir getrennt werden. Der Teil ist kein Fuß um einfach ab zu nehmen.
Der ist sondern wie eine Farbe, die man überall in einem Gemälde sieht. Wenn die Farbe weg genommen würde, würde das Gemälde zerstört.

Der Teil von mir, der Deutsche ist, wird nie von mir getrennt. Es wird ewig da sein. Ich freue mich darauf.

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The above paragraph (likely full of grammatical errors) is something that struck my thoughts today... I sometimes forget that I am half German.  When I remember, I am startled by the notion that I've forgotten and fear that somehow this part of me will drift away on the sea and I will never find it again.

There have been times in my life when I embraced it fully and times when I hid it from others.  It is not fully who I am, but it is so integrated into my life and memories that in thinking about the course of my life, it cannot be ignored or trivialized.

I wrote this in German because the sentiment seemed to demand it.

love,
Sam

prints!

Been cranking out cards, journals and art prints for an upcoming craft fair. The good news for you is that whatever I don't sell goes in my etsy shop next Sunday!

WOO!

Have a great weekend everyone.
love,
sam

daily art

i keep having to loosen the strings on my "daily" somethings or other.... this is a painting i did today.

the color is a bit fuzzy in the photo booth image... maybe i'll take a better scan another time.

hope everyone is well and staying healthy! our house just got over a bout of colds and coughs. it wasn't fun. but we watched movies.

cheers!
sam

daily illustration

well hello there!

here's Robot Accordion Man... just for you! this is an actual daily illustration, not just from my moleskine like i'd said...

how is this possible? you ask, remembering how i said i was short on time.

well.

turns out i have more time than i think when i don't spend the whole evening playing with my new iphone. (insert sheepish grin here.)

love,
sam

daily illustration

well i hope everyone had a great labor day weekend. we did (see post below for evidence of apple picking!).

i am freelancing away from my computer all week, so posting might be a little lighter... and since i won't have time to do full out drawings, you're getting views inside my sketchbook :)

enjoy!
sam

daily illustration

there was a huge storm that came through town last week and destroyed many of the trees in the northwest corner of central park, where i often take my afternoon walk.

i came upon a particularly large, freshly-cut tree stump and was compelled to count the rings. 83.
i stood there on the stump for a bit, thinking things over.

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my father died two years ago today.
it's really weird-feeling. hollow.

love,
sam

p.s. the daily drawings are still up on my flickr, where i had first dealt with my grieving.
also, you can view the above illustration larger by clicking on it and heading over to my flickr.

daily illustration

a poem about blowing your nose.

salud!
sam

p.s. you can view it larger on flickr by clicking the image.

i made a book.

you can go see it on flickr. i recommend clicking the "i made a book" box at the right of my page to read it in order... they got all crazy when i uploaded them.

p.s. what would you be/do if you joined the circus?

empty

if you open me up,
i'm afraid you'll find
i'm empty,
i'm empty inside

but where has it gone?
where could it hide?
i'm empty,
i'm empty inside

see, i lost my heart
the day he died
i'm empty,
i'm empty inside

so if you open me up,
i'm afraid you'll find
i'm empty,
i'm empty inside.

illustration

she always had this one recurring nightmare...

daily illustration

she is really shy.

she gets a lot of stares. and questions.

you wonder to yourself, how might that be, having a pumpkin for a head?

she'd tell you: it's fun at halloween, but for the rest of the year it pretty much just sucks.

daily illustration

almost didn't make it on this one... had an illustrator crash, but here you go!

daily illustration

so i figure if i want to be an illustrator, i need to practice right? so i'm starting another daily series... of illustrations. whatever pops in my head.
here we go!

sam

when i grow up...

i want to be an artist, seamstress and musician.

someone will pay me to do this, right?

unicycle

i really like this little lady....

thistle while you work

just posted a heap of things over at my flickr page (click on the picture above to get there)... including: pictures of the pieces i did for bob in texas, a new piece i just finished today and photos of the prints now available in the shop.

i just recovered from a week-long bout of the flu and am slowly returning to the land of the living. i also went on a supply run today, so there may or may not be a new cut-out in the works.

hope everyone is well!
sam

new piece and musings

i finally finished a new piece yesterday evening and here it is! i had picked up a book of rilke poems about three weeks ago and immediately started tabbing pages that seemed to inspire a visual.

this one was forefront in my mind, so here's the piece. i posted the english translation from the book on flickr.

speaking of art, i am trying to start the 12-step creative recovery program called "the artist's way". i say "trying" because the course has daily writings and homework that are about an hour per day and i just haven't made space in my routine yet. (although i have started reading the actual book). it just kept coming up in conversation and i have been feeling a little restless lately, so i hoped it might help me deal with whatever stands between me and a healthy sense of creative contentment and rhythm.

lastly, as the temperatures bob up and down, the highs are getting higher and i can tell spring is trying to arrive. it's been so long since i've lived somewhere with seasons (kindergarten) and there's something so magical about watching buds appear tentatively on long, skeletal branches and seeing rain on the forecast instead of only snow.

sorry for the long break in communication. hope everyone is well!
sam

New website is up and running!

After accidentally overwriting my main page a few weeks ago, I realized the easiest thing to do was just rebuild the site again. Plus the yellow was hurting my eyes. Also, I wanted to showcase some of the pencil drawings I've been doing lately, as they are my new favorite.

So hop on over and enjoy the new site. Please let me know what you think!

P.S. I also updated the look here. If you use blogger, you'll notice this is just a stock template... I will customize it to match the website at some point, but for now, this was the easiest way to get rid of the yellow.

Happy halloween week and get ready to vote!