Florida Love

Over the last couple days, weeks, months, I have been toying around with the plethora of adorable home state love expressions seen around the web and the craft stores. I have been fascinated by combining the state, the map, the outline, of where I live or have lived with the dates, initials or shapes of important factors from that time frame.

Well, last night, I finally made something. Tape resist with the shape of the state of choice (FL) in this case, with some more tape resist as the month and year we started living in said state. Oh, and a cute heart that plays with positive and negative space (because our city is on the coast) over the city we live in (Jacksonville).

I added a couple little dolphins as they have some significant meaning to my and my significant other, and used variations of blues for the "background" a play on the coast and well, something for the cute dolphins to come out of. I love commemorating happy moments, and this is just something I think will be a great addition to our home. (Plus, if we move, it's a pretty quick and simple thing to make another one that's different but the same!)

I haven't shown Alex it yet - but I think it's going in his next package! What do you think about it? I'd love to make one of your state, dates, significant things if you'd like :) By the way, this is on an 8x10" canvas panel, so super easy to mail.

Looking forward to heading to the Beaches Art Walk tonight as it's the Second Tuesday of the month! Come visit! :)

Natural Awakenings Conference

This past weekend I got the delightful opportunity to meet in person a few people that I have been working with for the last six months. Sometimes, when you work digitally in often times far away places, you don't get to know your supervisors or fellow employees.

Over the weekend, that changed for me - I got to meet some fantastic humans and it only confirmed that I love the variety in my life to work with publishers of different locations of Natural Awakenings magazine (here and here), as well as my independent art business. I am able to layout magazines when that season is in session and spend the remaining time creating and sharing physical art - so fun!

I have some new goals in mind for the next few months, to accept and embrace consistency in the most mundane of tasks to ensure that I am as efficient and spectacular in my profession as possible.

By the way - Happy Teacher Appreciation Day to all the fantastic people in the world who put their time and energy sharing with others and learning extreme patience and compassion. Below are some pictures from my trip!

The conference was in a hotel on the beach in Marco Island, FL. When there was a break between sessions we could take a quick walk in this beautiful splendor. 

    

On the last day, went to this delicious place on the marina called Mango's - and I am excited to go back in the future to have some more yummy food. 

UNF Sculpture: Iron Pour

Rock star humans of UNF Sculpture hosted an Iron Pour a few weeks back on the University of North Florida's campus. Hundreds of pounds of cast iron was poured into molds made by students, faculty and community supporters (like me!). They were dressed in leathers in the hot hot sun, moving hot hot metal. Being in an environment like an iron pour (even though I was just watching) where everyone needs to help and watch out for each other all in order to pull of this massive art making endeavor, is truly amazing.

To give you a bit more of a visual, you better bet I took pictures! It's just so darn neat!

So, I decided, "Yes, of course I want to make a scratch block and contribute to this awesome program." I got a rectangular scratch block, and then gathered around any hard pointy, scoopy, flat "tools" I had around the house. Predominately, I used a tool for scooping designs out of plastic clay and a dremel bit. But I also had some butter knives and a nail/screw or two.

Transporting the blocks (I got three, one for me and two for my friends) in the box, saved my car from some sand, and made it easier to handle - sand can get heavy!

After I 'scratched' in my design into the sand/epoxy/resin block.

After it the cast iron solidified and any sharp corner bits were removed by UNF students (thanks!) Ironically enough, for my friends I remembered to remind them that everything they made would come out mirror image (so they needed to write letters backwards) but I forgot the same goes for pictures, but I think it looks pretty darn neat anyways. 

My inspiration, the USS New York. 

For images of the pour itself, click on ahead!