work in progress!

This is still a work in progress, but I thought it was about time for an update here in blog-land.



She has lots of outfits, and when she's done she'll be in my etsy store. She's also going with me to Unique LA this year, so if you're in the area you can swing by in December and grab one! I'm also hoping to have another paper doll, maybe a tattooed lady, or a flapper, or a 17th century lady. I was planning on having her done in time for APE but I underestimated how time consuming/technical/hard it is to make a good paper doll, so that was a no go. APE, by the way, was not particularly successful for me this year (but I get the impression that it wasn't too great for anybody exhibiting). I'm putting my hopes in Unique LA, hoping that people get into the X-mas shopping spirit by then!

In other news, it's almost HALLOWEEN, the best holiday ever! I don't know about you all, but I can't ever seem to really get IN to a holiday unless I watch an appropriately themed cartoon first.



Yay!

buttons! buttons!

It's that time of the year again: I'm getting all my goodies together for the Alternative Press Expo next month. That means I've got to order some new buttons, among other things, but the other things are boring. Paper and ink and plastic sleeves are not half as good as shiny new pin back buttons!




I want your opinion on these buttons, k? In the past I've just kinda picked at random whichever images I think would look good on a button, but then I end up with none of one kind of a whole bunch of another kind left over. My preference would be to have no buttons left, because they are happily living on your jacket or book bag or wherever! SO, vote for your favorites (as many as you want!), and I'll make buttons of the most popular picks. This is especially easy cause you don't even have to leave an actual comment, you can just click on this little poll-thinger!

Click click click!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Or, you know, if there's something you think would be cool as a button that ya don't see here, I'm open to suggestions.

post ape + new in the shop + election!

First of all, here's a pic of my table at APE:



I'm all lurpy back there behind the tattooed lady. It was a refreshingly chilly and rainy in San Francisco this past weekend, and I liked that lots. Right after this picture was taken, I ran outside to get some soy lattes and change and returned as a big wet mess because it had started pouring on the way back. My coat smelled like a stinky wool sock and I looked like I had just hopped out of the shower. Gross. There are lots more pics on my flickr.

The table was very "Welcome to Grandma Brigette's House":



...but that's how I like it!

By the way, thanks all you blog followers who stopped by to say hello!

Other than getting soaked on the first day, the weekend was pretty much a success! I met a lot of really nice folks, and and I got to see people's reactions to my work up close. I must have distributed more than a hundred postcards and business cards over the weekend (I actually ran out of postcards by the second day). I bought something really excellent from Esther Pearl Watson, hung out with these guys, traded some artwork with my next-booth-over neighbor Ken, and met some fellow etsy shop ladies, including Tammy Stellanova. I'll show you all the goodies later.

I just added the following to the shop:

-the tattooed lady
-dog face man print
-mockingbird print
-family tree #3
-family house
-framed version of the sleepy pigeon print

There are also plenty of buttons left over that are also going to go into the shop as soon as I figure out a nice way of packaging them. I think I'm going to attach them to a little card or something, but I'm not sure if I want them in sets or separate. Ideas? Opinions??


I also had a dream about the election last night. In the dream, voting was all said and done and I had somehow missed it (I often have anxiety dreams were I'm late for something or another). The new president elect was none other than Shania Twain, the country singer. In my dream I was incredulous...I couldn't believe what was happening. I couldn't even recall Shania being in the running! I felt that surely this was a sign that the world as I knew it was coming to a close, and that we were all going to hell in a hand basket, and how could anything ever be more ridiculous than this??
Then I woke up, and was relieved to find that it was all just a stupid, stupid, stupid dream. How on earth did Shania Twain get all wrapped up in my subconscious, anyway? In any case, I voted, and I hope you did too! Today was, as they keep repeating on the radio, a big one in the history books.

Sorry there's so much chatter and no art stuff in this post. Before the week is through, I promise I'll have some new art stuff up. Promise!

the lovely couple + there's buttons!

I finished the dog face man too, so it only seemed fair to put him and her in the same post together so you can see them side by side.







Also, I had some buttons made! Here they are sitting in their little button box. They have to wait until APE to be set free into the world. I'm planning on giving one away to anybody who stops by my little table to say "Hey, I've seen your blog before" or "Don't you have an etsy store or something?" So if you're going to APE, come by and claim your button!




Here's a closer look at the actual designs on the buttons...some are little tid bits of paintings, and some I just made up cause I thought they'd look cool on a button. Sean is a fan of the close-up coyote face from the coyote car painting, but my favorite is the little baby coyote on the pink ground. I love how it says "hello coyote", like you're saying hi to the little guy every time you read it. He looks so smug hanging out there, sniffing the flowers. Do you have a favorite?




I've got to give myself a little pat on the back, cause I've totally been updating twice a week for like, six weeks! That's lots of weeks, in blog time. ALSO! I put a little counter at the bottom of my page about a week and half ago...I think it was Monday? Just out of curiosity, to see how many folks clicked past the old blog. I was pretty sure it was a ghost town, since I don't get like a bazillion comments on each post, but man, was I ever surprised! In a little under two weeks I've got almost 2000 views! That's a LOT more than I thought! So thanks to all you silent blog viewers who pass through and look but keep your two cents to yourself...it's nice to know that you're there, and that I'm not just typing away like a moron into the ether.


Halloween is sooo close! If you're in LA, you should go watch Carrie in the Cemetery!

It's business time.

Since I am supposed to be a professional artist, or something, it seemed like it was about time that I made myself a pro-feshunal type business card!

This is the front, with all my contact info on it! I omitted my last name because it is: impossible to pronounce (butchered daily, always and forever, with an inexplicable 'n' thrown in where there is none), not at all memorable, and also unspellable. Even if you can say it and remember it right, you won't be able to spell it. Doubt it? Go ahead!! Give yourself the Barrager quiz! It ends in disaster every time.




This is the back. I took a workshop through CalArts Alumni Services from a very wise and witty and with-it lady who proposed this astonishing idea: if you are an artist, and you are in the business of making images, and you are handing out a double-sided piece of paper with all your information on it, should you not make it look awesome so that people not only hang onto it but they know EXACTLY what you do just by looking at it?




By the way, if anything on these cards is unclear, or kinda hard to read, or smeary or something, NOW would be the appropriate time to tell me. Critiques are appreciated! Now! Because after I get these printed (I'm going to use Vista Print I think) it will be too late to give constructive criticism.


Another reason for getting my business card ready to go is that I'm going to be exhibiting at the Alternative Press Expo in November. This is a momentous, fun, and incredibly stressful situation for me. Before Halloween, I've got to make it look like I've got my act together, do a bunch of cool new artwork, and still manage to somehow do my "day job" (aka the job I actually got paid money to do although I mostly do it night). I'm going to need a lot of luck and very, very little sleep to accomplish these things.

In other small news, although I haven't sold a lot of stuff on my etsy store,
a couple of my items have been featured on the front page, which is kind of a big deal! It means that hundreds of people saw my stuff and clicked on it, too! It was a nice little ego-booster for me, personally.