Coloring outside the lines

Oh goodness, it has been waaaaaaaay too long since I've done anything art related. I've been putting off painting days and crafting parties because I've been "too tired" to hang out or just plain not feeling creative. Luckily a very dear friend asked me to help her with a project, and I didn't have the heart to say no. We've started painting shoes and building a shark that soon will be made out of cardboard!

When I was asked to help paint the shoes I was hesitant. Shoes...leather dye... I've never done it before... but after mulling it over a while I bought a few sample leather dye options and decided to test it out on my own old pair of dance shoes. Well... it was so much fun! Now those shoes have a new life, and I can feel my old creative spark returning. Not to mention her shoes look down right fabulous, she's so talented!

I've been drawing more now, doodling in the margins of my notebooks during meetings, sketching out ideas for paintings, actually working on putting a print/art shop on this site (*Deep breath*). I have so many drawings that I've started digitally then my tablet died... so now I'm debating actually turning them into illustrations and paintings. I'm actually really excited to start pursuing my artistic nature again and allowing myself to risk mistakes.

"Go and make interesting mistakes. Make amazing mistakes. Make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for you being here. Make. Good. Art." - Neil Gaiman

In the next month or so, I am hoping to have the shop part of my site up and running. It will include digital downloads of prints, possible orders of prints (being debated currently), original artworks and sketches, sculptures (when I get back to that), art requests, and whatever other creative things I end up doing. Who knows, maybe I'll put custom dyed shoes in the shop ;)

I've been nervous about putting any of my work up for sale, it just didn't seem "good enough" or worth putting a price on it. So if stuff sells - great! If not - that means it can stay on my walls forever! ...or they'll become Christmas gifts...