Time to move on.

It took us 5 days and over 2400 miles to get from Milwaukee to Los Angeles. Along the way we stopped to see Mt. Rushmore & Deadwood in SD, Cody, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons in WY, Salt Lake City in Utah, and Las Vegas in Nevada. We drove through endless miles of national forests, climbed to over 8,000 ft above sea level, saw 35˚ with snow on the ground to 110˚ in the desert. It was one of the best road trips ever, and it made me fall in with America's breathtaking diversity. Here's what all that driving was like, squished down to 3 minutes.

Do you like t-shirts?

I designed a t-shirt for this website www.riptapparel.com .  RIPT stands for Rest In Peace Tees because they sell one tee shirt design for only 24 hrs and then it's put in the "graveyard" never to return! (Or do you believe in zombies?)

Currently they have only had men's size tees, but starting TODAY August 10th they'll be offering ladies tees!  In honor of ladies tees, they're having "Ladies Week" with female artists being featured all week.  My design is kicking the week off, and is on sale RIGHT NOW until Midnight Tuesday.  Help me sell a bunch of tees, support a cool new company, support independent artists, and check out RIPT everyday this week!

*Bonus* The shirts are only $10 bucks and you will look SOOO good wearing my art. ;)

Yes, I'm alive. No, I'm not a zombie.

Woah...I haven't posted here in a while.  However, it's all for good reason.  I've been very creatively busy!

In June I was offered wall space in the gallery of Chiropractic & Wellness on Pewaukee Lake.  They were looking for something natural, peaceful, and relaxing.  My work will be hanging in the space through August.  

During July Gallery Night two of my photos were in a group show titled "Reclaiming Beauty."  I sold my very first piece of art during the show!!

Persephone

During October Gallery Night, I'll be having a solo show at The Sparrow Collective in Bay View.  This is going to be my very first solo show, and I'll have updates as I get more info.

My new art site www.loraellingson.com is up, but still a bit under construction.

Finally, a t-shirt design of mine is going to be featured on a rad website www.riptapparel.com.

They sell one different shirt design every 24 hrs.  You should really check them out!

As always, I'm busy with work, freelance, and trying to start a new band.  Life is good.

I worked on the paintings a bit more.  I feel that the yellow one is finished, but the blue one needs a bit more work in the florish area.

I photographed a wedding!

First Monthly Craft Night.

Last night, my friend came over for a craft night.  It was so much fun, we decided we should do it once a month.  But I should get a better name than "Monthly Craft Night."  How boring!

Our crafts however, are not boring.  I'm in love with these embroidered cards we made. :)

Mine is on the left, K's is on the right.

Something Old is New Again.

I found an 80's style dress in the Halloween section of Goodwill and bought it because I liked the fabric.  The cut however was not flattering.  So, I made it into a cute tunic!  

I did not make this from a pattern.  I used my dress form and tried my hand at draping for the first time.  Very fun!

Two new paintings...

I finally got the inspiration I needed to finish a couple 6"x6" paintings I was working on.  I'm still not totally sold on the metallic silver flourishes.  I'm thinking of using some modeling paste to make that part a raised textual part that will be the same tone as the background.  Thoughts?

My Art

I've been bad. I've been a slacker. I've been scared and lazy and maybe even a bit stupid. I haven't finished any personal art since I graduated from MATC. That makes me feel bad about myself. I have so many ideas for art, but I never do anything about it. Then a recent acquaintance posted this on Facebook.

"I sometimes do not do certain things, or draw certain pictures because i am afraid they won't turn out like they have in mind. I want to keep them for myself or think that they might be ruined if I let them be known."

I was floored. I felt like the song, "Killing Me Softly." I just kept staring at that line. That is exactly how I feel, but I never vocalized it to a single soul. And that has been rattling around in my mind ever since I read it. This has lead me to realize that it's silly to do nothing just because I'm scared. If I never did the things that scared me, I would never have accomplished the things I am most proud of. I need to let go and just do it. My art is so personal to me, it scares me to put it out there for people to judge. I would feel like they are judging my most personal feelings. It's very scary. Yet, when I did make a piece of art that was extremely personal, I ended up getting that piece into the Lakefront Festival of the Arts. So why am I so scared!?

Today, I've made up my mind. At least one night a week I WILL work on my art. Not just sketching ideas or brainstorming. Actually putting paint to canvas, or light to film. Actually creating a body of work that I can try to show. I'm done talking. I'm going to do. Thanks Jenny.

T-shirt Designs

So, the "Holiday Season" really made it difficult for me to find time to post stuff. But now it's a new year and I'm going to get back on the posting bandwagon. Yesterday I made a cute design for a high school dance. The theme is space. Here's what I came up with.

Just Bitchin'

So, people who read this may have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, but I just gotta complain! I did separations for this t-shirt artwork on Sunday. It was a NIGHTMARE! Basically, the way screen-printing works is a bit like a printer, but instead of putting together cyan, magenta, yellow, and black to make all the colors in the image, you actually have to pick out every individual color in the image and print on its own screen. So, this artwork was a photo of an SUV parked in front of some brick building with flag poles, and shrubery, and umbrellas, and a big flag, and...and...and...just so much shit.

Well, the photo was only 3 inches wide at 300 DPI (it's printing at 10" wide), nothing was separated into layers, the photo of the building was taken with someones crappy point and shoot, it was noisy, the color was off, I could go on. So much crap wrong with it.

So, I had to interpolate the whole image to be the correct size for printing, then I had the horrendous job of finding every color in the image, but since the color of the photo was off, nothing was as it should have been. Then, on top of that, the photo was noisy, so getting a smooth blend from one color to the other was pretty much impossible.

After about 5 hours I finished, then sent on to the client. That was ROUGH! It's hard because I won't see how it's printing, and I won't know how to fix it very easily if something looks off. I'm just crossing my fingers they don't call me with problems. Ugh. Separations.

So, just a word for those of you that are reading that may ever want a T-shirt printed. Make sure your art is the size you want it printed at 300 DPI. Make sure your artwork is in LAYERS! Something made in Illustrator is best, but if you're using a photo don't even try to grab something of the internet to use. Not going to work. Let someone who knows what they're doing with a camera take the picture. Then, your shirt won't cost you $200 before it even gets on the press.

Thank you for letting me vent. More photos after this brief break.

Skully Scarf

Here's the scarf I made for myself from the left over material.  An old red t-shirt was used for the contrasting details at the ends.

Snowed 2 inches this morning.  Perfect day to wear my new scarf. :)

Chilly Puppy

During the winter, my poor doggy gets very chilly.  His short thin fur just doesn't give his little body enough warmth.  While watching a movie and thinking about how cozy I was in my hoodie and PJ pants, I decided to make him a full body hooded fleece.  I used my monthly JoAnn Fabric's 40% off coupon to get this fantastic skull pattern fleece fabric for just $6.00.  Then I used the pattern for his past Halloween costumes (slightly modified).

From start to finish the whole thing took 2.5 hrs.  I think he looks both warm and totally bad ass.  What do ya think?

He seemed excited.  When I held it out for him, he put his head right in while wagging his tail.  I'm thinking about putting a kangaroo pocket on the back to make it more hoodie-like.  The best news is, I had enough fabric to make a scarf for both me and the hubbins.  Christmas card outfits maybe?

Refashion: Old Floral Dresses

So, here is the dress I got from Goodwill that I'm going to try to make into the Project Runway dress. A very unflattering fit for me, but I love the big bold flower print.

As you can see, it cost me just $3.99.

Also, I have this dress that used to belong to my Mom.  Super cute print, but again not a very flattering fit.  Though the little jacket thing is already cute.  I may leave that alone.  I'm thinking a tunic that could go with jeans or leggings.

Check back in a few to see the final products.

Sew Crazy

In the past couple of weeks I have been feeling very motivated to sew some new projects. I'm really intrigued by the idea of re-fashioning garments into something new. My closet, and goodwill can be my fabric store. Why buy new fabric when there are so many old garments out there just waiting for a new life. My first project is going to be from this pattern.



Yes, Project Runway has its own patterns now. This pattern is a bit more complicated than other things I have sewn in the past. I'm excited but nervous. I'm going to do everything by the instructions as opposed to how I usually do it...just wing it. I'm thinking short sleeve with the cowlneck. I have this great 70s dress that is black with a big graphic floral print up one side that I'm thinking I'm going to use. I will post before and after pics when I am finished.

I was looking around on Urban Outfitters website, and there are SO many things on there that inspire me. Enjoy!

Halloween Craftiness.

So, I've been slacking on the blog updates.  I did so much fun crafty stuff for Halloween, but I don't have good photos of most of it.  I was waiting to post until I had good photos, but that hasn't happened.  So, here are bad photos of all the stuff I made for Halloween.

First, is the Best Costume Trophy I made from random parts bought at American Science &

 Surplus.

Next, the prizes for the 3 costume winners.  I etched 3 glasses with the Ghoulie Gala logo on one side and a design that said either "Best Costume", "Most Original Costume", or "Funniest Costume" on the other.

I also made a new tombstone for last year's winner.

And I made Ronin's Sherlock Holmes Costume.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!

Me

Blueprint Mousepad

So, I'm kind of just posting this because I want to keep up the "post once a week" thing. I like the design I came up with, but I was just following the direction of the client. I've got a lot of creative things going right now (mostly Halloween related) but nothing finished that I can post. So, here's a blueprint mousepad.

Triptych

Just working on painting and photographing following my new unified direction.  Opinions?

I don't know what to be for Halloween!!

Help me out.  Vote right over here -------------------------->