i’ve been busy! playing with my Gelli plate, painting, drawing – it’s been great. just wanted to share my newest pieces, which are available on our website at www.ArtedeNuestroCorazon.com –
hope you’re all having a great summer – can you believe it’s JULY?!
today i head out to Long Beach, CA to board a Carnival ship – aptly titled “Inspiration” – for this year’s Crafty Chica Art Cruise! i’ve never been and i’m looking forward to doing lots of art-ing, crafting, and meeting lots of new people – especially facebook friends i haven’t yet met in real life! i’ve heard awesome things about this cruise but never thought i’d be going on one…
i’ll have lots to share later, including how i got lucky enough to go on this cruise, and LOTS of photos, but for now, if you want some background on the Crafty Chica cruise, check it out at http://craftychicacruise.blogspot.com/p/past-cruises.html
i leave you with one of my new black and white drawings. i’m happy to say i’ve been drawing SO much again! i’m back to doing what i love and what comes naturally to me. last week was a creative week, just me + my black Sharpies + white cardstock.
there really is such satisfaction in doing what you love…
the past several weeks have been filled with excitement, frustration, laughs, and anger. as mentioned in an earlier post, my husband and i are trying to buy our first house. for all of our seven years of marriage we’ve rented houses, and though i think we did a great job of making them our homes for the time we lived in them, we are SO looking forward to owning our own house.
but it sucks when you have to deal with individuals who have a much different sense of doing business, different ethics, and different goals. i won’t go into detail until this whole ordeal is over, but i will just tell you that the selling agent is lucky my husband and i haven’t met him in person…
anyway, i’m stuck in a vicious cycle of “we need to pack!” and “wait, this might not work out!” and back to “we need to pack!”…you get the idea, right? this week i spent packing away my beloved art supplies, to hopefully be opened again soon in our new home (fingers crossed!!!). my mom spent a couple of days with us and i got more done with her here than i have in weeks!
i am keeping my sketch pad handy, so i’ve been drawing lots with my awesome Faber-Castell PITT artist pens. i thought nothing could be better than drawing with my dear Sharpies, but i am LOVING these artist pens!
i’ll share photos soon of my drawings, but in the meantime keep sending prayers, positive thoughts, energy, light, whatever-good-stuff-you’re-into, our way please!!!
when i started blogging i told myself i’d be good about posting regularly.
hmm…does every 2 weeks (or so) count?
anyway, it’s been really busy around here, in my personal life. i posted early on that my husband and i were hoping to buy our first house. well, it looks like we’re well on our way! if all goes smoothly, we should be in our new – own! – house by the time the new year starts. (can’t believe there’s a new year around the corner!) i don’t want to jinx it by sharing too much, but it’s very exciting – please send positive vibes & prayers our way!
i’m having a great time tormenting the husband about what i’ll be able to do when we move into our own home. i’m pretty sure the scariest thing (for him) is that i want to draw a huge wall mural with my beloved black Sharpies. i CAN’T WAIT. seriously. i can’t wait to have our own home where we can the rooms any color we want, create a garden however we want, and answer to no one but ourselves. yay!
i have been trying to stock more items to the Etsy shops – both the art shop and the supply shop. i hope you’ll check them both out and consider doing some holiday shopping with me! you’ll be getting 100% handmade and unique work.
Etsy art shop – http://www.etsy.com/shop/asucarr
Etsy supply shop – http://www.etsy.com/shop/susiecarranza
remember, you can also find my work on the website we share with 3 other artists – www.artedenuestrocorazon.com. you’ll find beautiful Mexican folk art, Day of the Dead art, stationary items, beaded jewelry, and so much more.
until next time…
i never thought i’d describe myself as an artist. my ‘doodling’ (as i referred to my drawings) was just something i did without thinking. i could be eating a meal and something would come to me and i’d draw all over my napkin. if there was ever a paper and writing tool of any kind in front of me – watch out! i worked as a preschool teacher, and doodling was something i did (a lot!) during staff meetings…
(click on images to see them larger)
i love filling every inch of paper…
in fact, it was during these staff meetings that my friend & coworker Sheila would watch me draw. one day she told me bluntly (as was her way), “you’re going to hell if you don’t use the talents God gave you.” i laughed at the time. i loved drawing, but i also loved writing. at the time, in addition to being a full-time preschool teacher, i was taking a creative writing class that i was very involved in. i was even starting to send poems and short stories out and getting published in small magazines and publications.
fast forward to now…no more preschool teaching, not much writing, but lots of drawing and painting. so sheila (wherever you are!) – i’m trying! 🙂
i wanted to share one of my first – and favorite drawings. it’s a black and white heart, done with a Sharpie permanent marker. i LOVE drawing with Sharpies – i never start with pencils. just straight on with Sharpies. love the details you can create with them.
i always drew only in black and white. loved the contrast and boldness of it. then – surprising myself – i started experimenting with colors. i started making copies of my black and white drawing and coloring them in with markers (the heart on the bottom left side). i wasn’t sure i liked it at first, but i kept going.
the heart painting on the right side may be the first colored painting i ever did (i think it was around 2004?). until then i’d focused on drawing with either black Sharpies or colored markers.
i now paint mainly in color and lately have found myself missing working in black and white. so i’ve been drawing a LOT lately. just me and a black marker. on anything i can get my hands on – sketchbooks, manila folders, napkins, junk mail.
i feel like i’ve gone back to my roots. i’m doodling and i’m loving it!
susie carranza studio 