bugs!

i posted these on flicker the other day
i was walking into the house and this big beetle bug was walking by.
they move pretty slow so i took some pics of him with the new camera.

Art Walk next Weekend!

Yep, it's next weekend!
I've got a slew of new prints to share with all of you.
Please come check it out, there are a ton of different artists to visit in their studios and you can have lunch at Barbara's!
I'll be at Theory Labs for the 4th time with Kevin Rolly, Noosha Liv, Lenny Jones and Tim Timmermans and Joanna Stein representing Jewelry, Photography, Oilgraph, Prints, Sculpture.

BREWERY ARTWALK
Saturday and Sunday, April 5 and 6, 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.
2100 N. Main Street, (5 Freeway at Main Street), Los Angeles, CA 90031
Directions & More Info: http://BreweryArtWalk.com
Website: http://www.breweryartwalk.com

The world's largest Art Colony is located in Downtown L.A.!
Free admission
ARRIVE EARLY FOR FREE PARKING IN THE ADJACENT UPS LOT
The Brewery ArtWalk is a twice-annual free event designed to showcase Los Angeles Fine Artists selling gallery-quality fine art at studio prices. The Brewery Art Colony is so named as its three hundred twenty oversized artist lofts are industrial spaces converted from the former Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery. Zoned for live/work, the lofts house hundreds of artists working in dozens of media – from painting, sculpture and photography to industrial design, architecture and experimental new media.
The Artwalk offers fans of fine art the chance to walk door to door amidst the 21 concrete and steel buildings that artists work in, on 20 acres in industrial Downtown Los Angeles. The Brewery features a restaurant and bar, commercial art galleries and 150 artist studios that will be open for your perusal and enjoyment. Artists whose work is in the collections of local and national museums share the stage with new talents fresh out of art school and avant-garde experimentalists pushing the boundaries of the very definition of art.
Somewhere in it all are the next great L.A. artists waiting to be discovered by YOU. Shopping for art at an artist’s studio downtown affords you the opportunity to meet the masters behind the creations you will treasure for years to come.
Be sure to check out the group show at the i-5 Gallery for a preview sampling of works by artists whose studios are open during the Brewery ArtWalk .
Participating Artists:
Alex in Welderland's Custom Pet Urns, Mark Andersen, AndLab, Dawn Arrowsmith, Guillermo Bert, Bill Leigh Brewer, Winifred Johnson Brewer, Brizee Studio, Ada Pullini Brown, Rebecca Campbell, Collaborative Press, Patrick Dailey, Jessica Daschner, Sophie Dia Pegrum, Kim Douglas, Ronald Dunlap, Greg Duzian, Claudia Endler, Ann Erpino, Kevin Flint, Mitch Forte, Llyn Foulkes' Church of Art, Nicole Fournier, Gallery 618E, Bruce Gray, Darcy Gray, A. I. Graham, Wendy Hall, Yoshi Hashimoto, James Hill, Hipcooks, Billy Hix, Mark Hix, Iva Hladis, Nicole Porreco Horton, i-5 Gallery, Jenny Hart Co., Jisel, Yas Kabasawa, C. J. Kang, Krista Kilvert, Komy, Sam Kweskin, LA ArtCore Gallery, Laguna College of Art & Design, L & R Photographic Design, Shari Lee, Dave Lefner, Gloria Longval, Patricia Lucas, Linda Lundell, Luz Lab, LS Contemporary, C. Machamer, David McKenney, Ted Meyer, Scott Miller, Cynthia Minet, Andre Miripolsky, Valerie Mitchell, MLA Gallery, Robert Morgan, Cielo Pessione O'Brien, Jake Ogle, Nicole Ohayon, Jim Payne, Steve Payne, Mike Pedersen, Gyorgyi Kovacs Peluce, Peri's Lamps, Lola Ramona, Random Nicole, Alyssa Ravenwood, Roland Reiss, Marc Remus, Retimade.com, Blandine Saint-Oyant, Michael Salerno, Leigh Salgado, Dax Savage, Victoria Sebanz, Seltzer Designs, John Smith, Sean Sobczak, Jillian Suzanne, Jill Sykes, Venancio Tan, Telemachus Studio, Theory Labs, Lisa Toland, Jean Towgood, Umlaut Haus, Nic Valle, Mellissa Wahl, Antrese Wood, and many more.
________________________________________________________________________________
I finished stretching the canvas pieces.
Heres a pic of what they look like, I'm really pleased with the thick chubby nature of the small canvases! They look great on the wall or sitting on a shelf.
silver bird on etsy
gold bird on etsy

whew!

I finally finished bagging all of the prints!
It really shouldn't have taken me so long but I didn't get quite as much done this past weekend as I'd hoped, I just had to go out socializing!
I met a very nice group of women who affiliated through the California Crafter's Club of Etsy.
Heather Palleiko hosted a really nice gathering at her house on Saturday where we all talked about Etsy, marketing, craft shows and the usual girl chatter! It was fun!
Then it was off to the decorating party for the Egg and Beer hunt at another friends for Easter afternoon. The bottle of spray painted beer looked so sweet all lined up!
Sunday afternoon the hunt was on!
I managed to snap a few pics while making deviled eggs at the shop before the party.

Yesterday was my boy's birthday, his father took us all out for dinner at Osteria Mozza and it was absolutely delicious! We hung out last night a bit but we both have projects we are buzzing on so not too much time off, ahh self employment!
I'm getting everything together for artwalk next weekend, this week is all about stretching the new canvas pieces I made a few weeks ago. And new business cards!
they will have sweet curved corners!
super excited!

the details

this week i've been working on and finishing up a slew of new prints.
now that everybody is printed i have to sign them, slip them into poly bags with a sheet of card board and put miriamdema.com stickers on them...times 150!
i'm also going to go by 2by2's tomorrow to chop saw up all the stretcher bars for the tiny bird prints.
my new camera came, i've been tinkering with it!
i took it out for a walk with a friend and her dog around the hollywood hills.
i'm still gettting the hang of it but here are two random pics i took




i also went this week to the meet up of the Los Angeles Craft Mafia
in Venice at the Saints and Sinners Lounge. It was great fun! I had some really nice conversations with other crafter's and made this crafty stamp thing out of adhesive foam and a wooden block. A good time! I recommend going to the next meet up in mid april, prolly at The Bigfoot Lodge another one of my all time favorite bars.

woohoo!!!

I got accepted into the Bazaar Bizarre Maker Fair 2008!
It's a craft show happening in conjunction with the Maker Fair in San Mateo in May!
Over 225 vendors applied and they accepted 70!!! Yay!!!
I'm pretty excited to be doing a show in the Bay Area as my prints and the ease of selling them has really come together in the last year. I feel like I can take the show on the road and it will all fit in my car!
Hopefully all my friends in the Bay Area will come to visit me!
And I'll get to stay with Holly B.!
now to work out the details like time off and how to pay for it :)

two new ones

these are the two prints i've been working on the last few days.
i'm super happy with the way they turned out!

"Deer Bunnies"
March 2008
image size 8" by 8" on 12" by 12" paper

"Technicolor Deer"
March 2008
9" by 12"

save polaroid film!

click here ->>> SAVE POLAROID FILM

to let the companies that make Polaroid Film know how much we dig it and how sad our world would be without it!

still printing

nothing to post about prints today, i'm between layers!
the two prints i'm working on are each four layers, so i go back and forth between the two until they are done.
give each one time to dry.

lately i've been spending a lot of time prowling what's for sale on etsy! what's that you say...you didn't know i have an etsy shop? i do! look, just to the right of this post is a baby etsy that shows you what i have for sale! ------>
etsy is continually fascinating! looking at what people post in treasuries and then you end up linking all over the place checking out all sorts of different things. it's like going to fifty bajillion craft and art fairs at once. i prowl through a lot of the art listed, it's really great the market it has created for all sorts of artists to have the ability for people to see and buy their art.

here are a few of my current fav's, just a random selection.
i don't know any of these people and some of the work i've never even seen in real life.
it just strikes my fancy!

michellemoode.etsy.com
delightful little colleges, some of them have ferris wheels!

smallstump.etsy.com
i love this print!
i want it.
she also makes these really sweet little log pillows!
yay logs!

cjshanks.etsy.com
wonderful photographs!
i really like the 'driving through series'

log

log is done!

"Green Log"
12" by 12"
Screen Print on Pellon

new camera!

well, not yet but soon.
i just put in the order!
a dslr canon rebel xt with a 50mmf/1.8 lens and 4gb of memory.
i've been really frustrated with the quality of pics that my point and shoot nikon takes.
upgrading has been a priority but it sooooo expensive!
i finally sold enough prints and other trinkets to put in an order.
can't wait 'till it gets here!

i went with the canon and a different lens that comes with the camera due to some things a few friends advised.

i'm also pretty excited that i bought it with money i've made on art!
i always try to spend my art money on supplies to keep it going but every now and then i get a cool new toy! yay!!!

new prints this morning

new prints from yesterday and finished this morning

"Gold Bird"
March 2008
5 inches by 5 inches
black ink on gold acrylic paint on canvas

these will be stretched soon,
2 inch stretcher bars so they'll end up looking like chunky little paintings on the wall

"Silver Bird"
March 2008
5 inches by 5 inches
black ink on silver acrylic paint on canvas

"Take Off"
March 2008
11" by 14"
photographic screen print on vintage maps
Black Ink on Multi-Color

"The Nail"
March 2008
8" by 10"
Vintage Illustration on Found Book pages

"The Flower"
March 2008
Ink and Acrylic Paint on Canvas
8" by 10"
this is the companion piece to the print below.

prints on canvas!

I've been working for a bit on getting back to a process I used to do.
Screen printing on canvas from vintage photographs. But like all printing there were a few squiggly details that were keeping me from getting really good results. But the other night I think I finally have the situation in hand!
I tweaked a few things and got the print below!
It's black ink on a greeny-brown back ground. Very spring time. I washed out the top part to give it a bit of fade. I'm pretty excited! Printing on canvas is very different from printing on any other fabric or paper. It takes a lot more pressure and a lot more ink! And everything has to be registered very well otherwise you get a blurry image.
I have a few more to come, i hope they turn out!
If i can get consistent results than i can do some more commission portraits like i used to do in my old studio.

I love this image of the woman sitting in an Adirondack chair with the empty Adirondack chair across from her. For me it really brings the photographer into the picture.

I finished one of the Deer prints today!
I think it turned out pretty well.
He's a delightful combination of light turquoise, moss green and brown with a black outline.

Faux Bois Deer

11 x 14
March 2008

Edition of 18

busy, busy

whew!
this weekend has been crazy.
i'm so glad holly b. was in town last weekend as we wouldn't have gotten to hang out at all this weekend.
when we work, we work our tushes off!
friday i handled pick-ups all morning then drove to santa monica to help with large sound set up, then drove back to glendale, handled a few more pick-ups then got a last minute rental delivery to brentwood at rush hour. drove everything there and delivered everything to a fifth floor apt on a hill! so i drove the 210, 2, 134, i5, then the i5, 110, i10, then back the i10, 110, i5, then the 134, 101, 405, then home via the 405, 101, 134, 2, 210
then yesterday i got up early to go to malibu plus other stops that included 210, 2, 134, 101, malibu canyon, 1 north, back down the 1 south, i10 west, 110, i5. went for a 8 mile bike ride along the river trail. then in the afternoon the i5, 110, i10 back out to santa monica to take down the large sound set-up at the civic auditorium then back to the shop via the i10, 405, 101, 134, i5. then after the unload, finally home! the i5, 134, 2, 210.

but in between all that i had time on sunday to be in the studio. i got a few layers on a print done and finally recessed my printing clamps into the work table. hopefully this will make a big difference as now the entire screen is flush with the table and i have more control. i'll hopefully be finishing up a print this evening and will post a pic soon.

but now i must drink another cup of coffee, mmm coffee!