Meditations

Everyone's got their own way of eliminating, ignoring, and confronting stress. Some people go for a long drive with the windows down and music blaring, some people watch their favorite movie over and over, and others (like me) meditate.
I haven't done much meditations in my life. To deal with stress and hardships I normally just dealt with it in a usual way. But lately, I've wanted something more. So this is what I did.
I laid out some pretty silk handkerchiefs and a scarf I bought in France. I set up a diorama of sorts which included a few of my favorite objects to look at. A skeleton key, a couple animal skulls, beads, stones, feathers, bones, candles, a goblet full of water. I set a bundle of sage on fire and let it smolder as I leaned back, closed my eyes, and focused on my breathing.
It's not often I can not think about anything. It's the hardest thing to not think. Having a blank mind almost never happens for me. But I came close tonight. Breathing in and out deeply, noticing how my body moved as I relaxed, smelling the sage...
Needless to say, I overcame my bad day at work very well. Afterwards, stage two of my meditation began: painting and tea. Here's what I painted.

A simple portrait of my favorite animal in my favorite color scheme. Perfect for unwinding and loosing my pent-up negative feelings.
In my quest to become a freelance artist, I've discovered that at this point in my life that's not a very realistic career path. But I can still retreat into my art Zen mode to escape the world. That shall always remain.

Long Awaited

Lately I've been struggling with attempting to work on my art so I might be able to quit my terrible job. Recent events have led me to instead resolve to basically tough it out and stop being such a whiner.
That aside, Stark and I have been making boo-koo Dice Sprites and even have a spot in a nearby town's art festival in September. We've got our work cut out for us, but I am quite excited for it. An art career while working AND attending college is going to be quite an undertaking, but I have to make myself believe that I can do it.

And with that, I leave you with a crazy monster drawn on the back of my paycheck with a ballpoint pen.

Good News Bears

It's always a delightful feeling when
A) your fingers smell like fresh lavender
B) your boyfriend is coming home soon from a long trip
C) you got some new awesome things at the thrift store
and D) you earned 3x as much money selling art and manning a booth than one week's work at your crappy real job.
This is what I am going through now and I couldn't be happier. (Ok, well, it would be nice if my boyfriend was home NOW, but he's having fun and coming home soon anyway. <3)


Cornucopia Days was a huge success, if you hadn't gathered that already!
I had a lot of fun hanging out with Sandy and my friends who popped by to visit. Also, Chubby Kitten was my wingman the whole weekend. Here he is watching my purse while I grub out on ice cream. He fits perfectly inside my folding chair's cup holder.

Something else happened this weekend, too: and by "something" I do not mean "watching Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas twice in 3 days", but it is rather along the lines of "a gift that made me feel more amazing than any gift has".
An old scraggly looking guy with missing front teeth bought one of my prints. He was cordial and polite and I liked him, even though he looked like a drugged-out ex-hippie who played wild-stringed guitars on the sidewalk. After he bought my print he left and came back a short while later with a little plastic bag.
"Here, a gift for you. Some of my art."
Inside was a black leather belt. Simple, stiff, with an unassuming silver buckle. But on the other side...
I nearly cried. This guy, a perfect stranger, went out of his way to not only support my art but also gift me this wonderful, touching message. It's people like him that reassure me that there are good people left in the world.

I'm extremely grateful to be surrounded by such interesting, kind, generous, fun, and loving people. This weekend also marks a huge step in my quest to become free from my job at the deli and another step towards my budding art business. I'm excited for the rest of my life.

Gumball Machine

Or should I say DICE MACHINE. AWW YEAH
My friend Jessie is super cool and is collecting dice to fill her cute little antique gumball machine with. She then commissioned me to do three Dice Sprites to be playing on it. I think the little triplets came out good! They're very silly.






In other news, I'm going to be selling a bunch of my art (and Sprites!) at a local street fair this weekend! Man, I am excited as all heck. I took some of my new art to the printing place and got some small prints made. I love hanging out with the print guys, too, they're just very personable and honest people. I packaged the prints at Browser's, my favorite shop, and I finally got to see Greg again. He's kind of like the grandfather or really cool uncle I never had. Growing up with no grandpas, that's kind of a big deal for me. Greg is awesome. Sadly I am not working in his booth this year, but I am going to be working for a nice lady named Sandy at her new little gift shop that moved in next door. Her store was quaint and cute, and she was very nice and excited to have some help for the fair. Not only am I going to be hanging out with fun people in beautiful weather, but I'm also getting eight dollars an hour PLUS anything I earn from my art. Cornucopia Days is probably my favorite thing about the summer!
If you live around the Kent, Washington area, be sure to stop by and say hi. :)

It's Only 5 Days

That's what I have to keep telling myself, lately. Only 5 days. My boyfriend's gone to a faraway place called California for a few days and I was unable to go with him. Sometimes I wish I had never gotten that job at that grocery store. Money is nice to have, but I miss my freedom. Then again, I am saving money to be able to move out in a year... Sigh. I am very torn. I'm giving up my freedom in order to have it later. I need to push aside my impatience and keep reminding myself how lucky I am to have a job and how much easier life will be if I have a nice fluffy money-cushion to fall back on. I'm just going to tough it out working all the time and selling art. Maybe at the moment I'm just bitter and resentful and sad. I need someone to blame for my not being able to leave with him: my job will make a lovely scapegoat. Sigh, again.
I imagine him driving in his truck, the windows down, the sun shining, the traffic (hopefully) light and fast. He is listening to the mix CD I made for him, he is thinking of me, he isn't worried and he is very much in love.

I think I need to watch a really sad/touching movie. Sometimes all you need is a good cry.

---

That aside, I've been working on a new website. It's got some typos and I need to include a new page or two, but that aside, it's coming along nicely. Wix has some cool website customization tools once you get over the fact that Flash is garbage. Maybe soon I can start paying for my own domain name, or transfer the website to my old one, www.colorsmith.com/kirai. Either would be fine with me. In the end, this is a major work-in-progress.

Also new: more Sprites. Are you surprised?




If I weren't feeling very lazy at the moment I would resize those photos...
The top Sprite is going to his new home soon: my good friend Jennise. His rainbow markings were all sorts of fun to paint, but my personal favorite is the sleeping one. I can imagine him sleeping on someone's computer screen, work desk, or dashboard. Once I get my boxes to ship them, the Sprites are going on my Etsy for sure.

Sprite Update

Hello, followers and anonymous readers! I bring you good tidings regarding my Dice Sprites.
But first, let me say that my boyfriend is amazing. Not only is he amazing for just being an amazing person, being fun to be around, and all that-- but he's adopted the title of my art business manager as well. He really believes in me (and especially my Dice Sprites) and he really believes that my art business can be successful if we really get the Sprites out there.
So we took the Sprites down to our local Uncle's Games store at the mall. We met the regional manager there, and he agreed to let us sell the Sprites there for $6.99. I get $3.50 for each Sprite that sells. I'm super excited about this, because a) Uncle's is in the mall and the mall is very popular and b) them being at the store is hopefully going to get me a lot of publicity! Not like I need any more orders at this point (ok who am I kidding, let the custom requests pour in!).
So far I have at least seven potential AND legitimate requests for custom Dice Sprites from my friends. Also (thanks to my wonderful boyfriend <3) a guy in New York (!!!) wants a WHOLE SET of them. A whole set! There is also rumor of the Sprites being taken to a gaming convention and being sold at a street fair next weekend.
Am I excited? You bet your lucky dice I am!

That aside, here are some new (and mostly unfinished) members to my Sprite family.








The first one (sleepy brown guy) has already sold out of Uncle's. He came out the best and was definitely my favorite, but I'm happy he's being enjoyed by someone. I love it when my art makes people happy. <3
That is all I have to report for now.
If you'd like a custom Sprite, be sure to email me your request and as soon as I have boxes and shipping materials, I'll make you a Sprite. =D
majestic_kirai@hotmail.com