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SELLING OUT: How it’s going

Image | | sandpaperdaisy

In this post I declared my intentions to start uploading a ton of simple designs to my print on demand sites in the year 2022. After the explosion of AI generated images, I already can’t believe that I once wrote that I worried about the ethics of manipulating stock art that I bought the rights to use…what a difference a year makes.

Anyway… I managed to cram a total of 200+ designs into my two most frequently used print-on-demand stores before the year ended, and have been doing my best to shove more in as we enter 2023. So the question becomes: did it help?

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THAT’S MAH REX SHIRT

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Oh, the happiness! My lovely Angel Rex, front and center on Threaded Canvas‘s July box lineup…my heart may burst from my chest in an explosion of joy. As you can see, Rex is in amazing company…check out those SWEET t-shirts and stickers and etc. Daaaaaaaaang!!

Incidentally, if you’re on facebook and want to share/etc this image to try and win a July box (or just show people the awesomeness) go for it. Here’s the post.

Blick Art 3rd Annual Spirit of Summer show

Blick Arts window show in Evansville, IN
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I have a piece in this year’s Spirit of Summer show, a window show put on by Blick Art. The show will be available for viewing June 22-28 at Blick Art Materials, 1364 N. Green River Road, Evansville, IN 47715.

An opening reception will be held Sunday, June 22 1-4pm. Blick Art Materials will have light refreshments, a raffle, and a paint demo. All non-sale items will be 20% off during the opening reception. Awards will be presented at 4pm. There will also be a People’s Choice voting the entire week, so if you stop in to shop or look at the show, feel free to give “Love Letter” a vote! The winner of that prize will be contacted after the votes are tallied at the end of the run.

The Art Vault: Old monoprints

blue and orange abstract monoprint using embossed folds of satin to create a form.
| sandpaperdaisy

I just love looking at old pieces now and then. These little beauties are probably from 2000 or 2001 at the latest. Simple monoprints using an inked plexiglass plate, I created the different shapes and patterns on them by using the ink roller itself. In the print above, I also tried taking a swatch of satin from an old bridesmaid gown of mine and running it under the press with the plate, creating the above pattern on the paper. I liked how it worked and went on to use the method in another monoprint, Achyra. Once I find some record of that one (if I do) I’ll show you. It left me at last year’s Hand Prints.

an orange green and blue monoprint created by making patterns on the plexiglass plate with an ink roller.

Plates!

linoleum block plate carving
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I recently found some old snapshots I took of my plates as I was working on them for Eurydice, Daedalus, and my tentacle raccoon. The first two were block prints carved from linoleum. For the raccoon, I printed out my design on typing paper and then cut it out with an X-Acto knife and taped it onto inked plexiglass, which I then printed onto an old monoprint I had soaked in water. Enjoy!

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Love Letter

two children standing in front of the tree upon which they pledged their love in chalk
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I did this work in 2013 for my “Patchwork Dragon” solo show in November 2013. The show version had pages from my childhood personal diaries collaged around the edges to form a border. After its debut at the show, this piece with the diary page collage was auctioned off by The Literacy Center to raise money to help adults learn to read. I picked this piece especially because of the title “Love Letter” and the diary entries attached to it. It seemed the most perfect piece I had for a literacy auction.

It’s sold now to a generous supporter, but this teaser I did for the Patchwork Dragon Show shows some of the diary collage on the original piece:

two children pledge their love in chalk on a tree, surrounded by collage from my childhood diaries

Love Letter without the collage is on Society6||Redbubble.

You can check out The Literacy Center on their Facebook and at their home site, www.litcenter.org.

helping adults learn to read

Toxic Angel

a holy temple now defaced and painted over with graffiti as the former guardian, now in a gasmask to ward off corruption, looks on
| sandpaperdaisy

I deliberately inverted the peaceful Holy Place from earlier in 2013 for my end-of-2013 solo show God From the Machine. The solo show focused on mechanization and the sometimes sinister mating of the machine-world with the natural world, so letting this discord and unnatural atmosphere seep over Holy Place seemed like an effective way to evoke that. …it kind of hurt to do though!

Available on Society6||Redbubble.

Sushi!!

| sandpaperdaisy

We’re getting quite close to Evillecon 2014! Evillecon will be held in Evansville, IN the weekend of March 28-30 and will feature, among other things, an Artist Alley cram-packed with talent. And guess who’s going to be wedged in there with all those wonderful artists? Me!! I have a lot of different things I’m bringing, including many of the fantasy and sci-fi prints you’ve already seen on here, as well as pinback buttons, charms and little stuffed stars, but today I thought I would share my cute sushi art with you.

These sushis, wouldn’t you know it, are also available as keychains! I’ll be selling these at Evillecon.

shrinkydink sushi, cup noodle and riceball keychains

If you can’t catch Evillecon though, Sushi is also on Society6||Redbubble.

Elegy

a tree in autumn reds and purples with a halftone background and cicada husks clinging to the branches
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This is a digital painting of a lovely tree we used to have in our backyard. The cicadas loved it. Unfortunately it died one year and we had to cut it down. Our neighbors lost a tree as well, I heard it was some sort of worm epidemic that claimed a lot of the trees in our neighborhood. I did an earlier version with much brighter colors but ultimately decided on the more autumn-colored piece.

a brightly colored tree with tiny cicada husks clinging to the branches.

I did this piece so large that I was able to isolate one of the cicada shells on the tree and make the small print from this post!

“Elegy” is available on Society6||Redbubble.

Atomic Jazz and my most touching customer

a bright and glorious titanic jellyfish fills the sky, bringing either destruction or new life and vitality to the city below as two children placidly watch.
| sandpaperdaisy

This painting of a jellyfish/bomb was responsible for creating one of my favorite customers of all time, a little boy no more than ten and probably not so old as that. He and his sister admired the different digital paintings at my table at Evillecon 2011 and their mother told them that they could each buy a print if they wished. The little boy considered long and gravely and then asked me the meaning of Atomic Jazz. I explained pretty clumsily, how the city is meant to be dull and drab but suddenly, this impossible amazing thing has happened, and this great creature of color and vitality has descended upon it to shake up all the people in the city.

Wide-eyed, he said “So they jellyfish didn’t come to destroy the city…but to transform it??” I couldn’t believe my ears and I felt no end of amazement at this sweet child and his marvelous insight. He asked his mother if he could buy Atomic Jazz and receiving her assent, handed me the money with trembling hands and asked if it was really okay for him to have it and take it home. Aside from my own boys I can’t remember the last time a child touched me so deeply! Wherever you are, young man, you will always be one of my best memories!

Atomic Jazz is on Society6||Redbubble.

And now I am curious: have any of you been deeply touched by a customer, artistic or otherwise?

City Eye

A vaguely gothic lolita looking woman lowers her umbrella in the rain as the spirit of the city descends behind her.
| sandpaperdaisy

I did this piece to display at the 2011 Evillecon Artist Alley (ramping up for this year’s Evillecon right now)! I woke up from a daydream where I had this vision, but I suspect that it was partially inspired by Harlan Ellison’s short story “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs.” The spirit of a city plays a part in that story as well.

This is available as a print and other items from my Society6 shop.

A peek at my iPad skins and Yggdrasil WIP

free worldwide shipping on sandpaperdaisy's society6 shop
| sandpaperdaisy

Right now I’m slaving over a couple of mythological pieces, one on Kaguya Hime based off this sketch and one on Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse mythology (below).

A work in progress of yggdrasil, the world tree of norse mythology, in vibrant rainbow colors of deep space

In the meantime I opened my email this morning and noticed Society6 was having a promotion this week so I figured I’d share that. I don’t just have iPad skins in there, naturally, but I think they look particularly pretty so that’s what I chose to share. If you’re curious or wish to take advantage of the free worldwide shipping promo, here’s the link: http://society6.com/sandpaperdaisy?promo=55f5f8

Take Me With You

beautiful jellyfish sway in the ocean and dream up at the sunlit world above, mistaking a red kite for one of their own.
| sandpaperdaisy

This piece featured recently in my November 2013 solo show as a collage with added thread and bead elements augmenting the tentacles. I may make more little collage pieces from it for the upcoming April 5th Art in the Wild show at Wesselman’s Nature Center in Evansville, IN.

Take Me With You is available on Society6||Redbubble.

Humankind

Adam and Lilith back to back, a monstrous and frightening creature reprepresenting the origins of mankind.
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I did this piece of the Ha-Adam for a 2013 show on collective mythmaking at PG Gallery in Evansville. It depicts a variation on the Jewish origin legend where “the Adam” was originally a person composed of a man and woman back to back, which would be split into Adam and Lilith.

Humankind is available on Society6||Redbubble.

Eclipse

Also known as Entropy, a depiction of a exploding world where the sun and moon ringed with a jumble of dissolving city forms hover in the middle of a cosmic storm.
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Also known as “Entropy,” (sometimes I just can’t decide on a name by the time I’ve made a piece!!) this is a recent work from my December 2013 solo show. Since this is a wide-format piece I’ll append a slightly larger version at the bottom so you can see more of the detail.

This is available as art prints and many other things from Society6||Redbubble.

Also known as Entropy, a depiction of a exploding world where the sun and moon ringed with a jumble of dissolving city forms hover in the middle of a cosmic storm.

A Message

A colorful blimp depicting a field of flowers hovers above a dirty, impersonal colorless city. Environmental statement.
| sandpaperdaisy

You may recognize this art from my Franklin Street Outdoor Art Sale post! This is the full piece here, entitled “A Message” and conceived by me as an environmental statement after I watched the old Charlton Heston classic “Soylent Green” for the first time.

After seeing that callous and weary depiction of a dystopian and colorless future, I envisioned a bleak city where the only suggestion of beauty and nature was found on the advertising blimp hovering above the smog. While I originally feared this blimp may be advertising a beauty that no longer exists, others have told me the blimp represents the hope we cling to by a green thread (environmentalism). I prefer their interpretation, don’t you?

A Message is available on Society6||Redbubble.

The Crowd

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“The Crowd” is another very popular piece, appearing in The Horror Zine, two collaborations on deviantART, and also as promotional material for a recent horror novel, “Starers” by Nathan Robinson.

I’ve had a lot of people ask me what my deep meaning is here and propound several theories of their own, very in-depth and well-thought out theories at that. I myself was just portraying a kind of archetype I’ve always had in my head, that of the faceless, menacing crowd closing its ranks against outsiders, free from personal culpability and devoid of compassion and empathy.

The Crowd is on Society6||Redbubble.