I'm moving!

No, not for real. Just virtually.


I've given up on Blogger - even though they've improved it a bit recently, the post editor on this site is just a pain to use, and I don't even really love how my page looks anyway. SO - you can now find me at shapoka.wordpress.com - Wordpress is just a little more user friendly, AND has a great mobile app, and mobile version of the site so it works better on phones. That's a winning combo if you ask me!


See ya there!


~jen

All painstakingly detailed things must come to an end...

The first time I posted anything about this painting was on April 27, 2009. And that wasn't even when I started it! I don't even know when I first started - but it's been over 2 years in the making. I obviously didn't work on it every single day - but I had to do it in phases to prevent myself from going cross eyed from all the tiny details on the feathers.

One of the biggest things motivating me to finally finish was the idea I had for another guitar project - but I refused to let myself start another project without getting this one out of the way first.

So though I may paint a few more tiny lines on there here and there when I find something that bugs me, I'm sticking a fork in it and calling it done....ish. (If you can't tell, I have a hard time calling it quits on a painting when I'm finally "done.")

I posted a pic on my facebook page, but the colors were WAY off from the real thing since it was taken at night with artificial lighting. I took the photos below this afternoon in natural sunlight, so they are true to the real colors. The painting is 18"x24".

Here are some final photos!

Full Painting:

I painted the 1.5" sides with an iridescent antique copper color:

Close Ups:

Even Stitch approves:

Peacock painting makes a comeback!

I've finally decided that I feel like working on this again. And I'm DETERMINED to finish it soon.

After about 6 hours this past weekend, and 3 tonight, here's where it stands!

Spikey!

While moving, I found an old art project that is one of my favorites from college. I've used it as a decoration in my house ever since I made it.

The class I made it for in college was Design 3-D, and the project was to take any "mundane object," and use it over and over again to make something else. I played with all kinds of ideas (clothes pins, playing cards, etc.), but the one I settled on was golf tees. Lots and lots of golf tees.

I took one big ball (just a random kickball-type ball from the kids section at Wal-Mart) and three ping pong balls and covered every inch of them with golf tees, which resulted in a pretty painful looking objects. But they're awesome at the same time.

Here's some pics :-)









Needless to say, my teacher absolutely loved this execution. You can even take the smaller ones off, and stick them wherever you want on the big one...kinda cool so you can change the shape of the sculpture depending on where you need to put it. The original sculpture way back then had one more medium-sized ball as well, but for whatever reason, the glue I used didn't stick to the material that ball was made of, so I got rid of it.

I've thought about making more...maybe with a more natural wood-colored golf tee...and then use it as a modern looking centerpiece for a table or something, but haven't gotten around to it.

I'm still here.

Well hello there, blog. I haven't forgotten about you...promise!

I know it's been a while, but I have a good excuse. I've moved from Orlando to Atlanta (finally!)...

...see?


...so I've been trying to get all settled before I get back into my art groove.

Anyway, next on the chopping block...

* finish that crazy peacock painting I started about a million years ago
* Mary and Maude painting (elephants from the Central Florida Zoo)
* and of course, work on whatever else comes to mind...which will derail my efforts to finish the two projects mentioned above, I'm sure. That's one thing I've learned over the years...you can't plan art. You can try, but it just doesn't work. At least with me.

So that's that. The only 'artsy' thing I've really done lately is a sketch of the White Rabbit (this version). Not for anything in particular...it's just a reoccurring theme in my life (which has come up again recently because of the new Alice in Wonderland movie)...and I haven't drawn anything in a while...so I figured I'd draw it and hang it up in my house somewhere since it's meaningful to me. I'll post a pic when I'm done. I'm debating on coloring it in with colored pencil, or just leaving it as a sketch...black/white kinda thing. We'll see.

Oh, and some good news that came out of my move is that our new house has 4 bedrooms...and we don't have anywhere close to 4 sets of bedroom furniture! So, that means we have a master bedroom, one guest room, an office....and I now have my very own art room! I've always wanted one of those. Mainly because I make huge messes when I work on my projects, and I have to clean up after them each time...now I can just leave it and shut the door ;-) Hopefully it'll make me more productive.

Hope to post soon with REAL updates!

Photos from The Rock Boat!

The guitar was a great success on TRB! It turned out super cool and everyone seemed to enjoy looking at it. I can't wait to hang it up on my wall. As promised to a bunch of you that read this, here is a picture!

I think a lot of the pictures of this are on my friend's cameras...since obviously I couldn't take the pics as I was talking to the people/handing them the guitar. This is just one I happened to take with my own camera. Unfortunately I didn't get all the bands to sign it, cause in order to do that I had to miss out on too many good shows. But a lot of them are on there.

Here are the guys of Green River Ordinance - they loved it and decided to rock out...even though the guitar doesn't really make much noise...lol.



I'll have to post some better photos of the finished guitar only soon...

Finishing touches...

I've been in the 'almost done' stage for about a week now, and I've only got 2 days left! In the past 5-10 days, I've worked on this thing in Orlando, Jacksonville and Atlanta...at people's houses and in various hotel rooms...but it's coming together. Pretty much everything is done, except wrapping the strings in the brown string, so they look like rope. On the new pics below, you can see one of the strings done this way...just gotta get the others done!

The only other things I have left are little teeny tiny minor things that no one will probably ever notice but me. But that's how I am with my stuff...I can't stop until I am 101% happy with it! :-)

If I have time, I may post again in the next few days with pics that are totally finished...or I may just wait until after The Rock Boat and post with pics of the autographs on it, and pics of people signing it and stuff.