Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Anticipation of a fabulous class!








I am balancing working towards an art therapy degree and making art. I wanted to be in a psychology course this quarter but that fell through so I pushed to get in to a wonderful sculpture class. I have taken a class with this teacher before and now we will be creating figurative busts. Her own work is amazing and I highly suggest you check out her work, her name is Tip Toland. She does very realistic figures but they aren't the solemn faces they have a mischievous humor peeking out from behind their eyes. Here is a sampling of her people...I apologize for not knowing how to do hyperlinks.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

the wonderful women of corcoise






I came across etsy artist corcoise in a storque article that was actually about another artist but since he came highly recommended I was curious. I was glad when corcoise agreed to answer my questions and send images of his work. I hope you enjoy these pieces as much as I did. Maybe it will inspire you to explore the truly talented artists selling on etsy.

1) How long have you been selling on etsy?
- I’ve been selling on etsy since 2007. Vero Navarro and I had an etsy shop where we sold our collab items, but it no longer exists. This new etsy shop I have was opened only about three months ago.

2) Do you have advice for etsy newbies?
- Somehow I consider myself a newbie aswell, I’ve been reading a lot of advices on the etsy webpage and blogs: be clear with all the information you give about the items on your shop, be active in the etsy community, choose your prices carefully, etc However, I believe that the most decisive aspect in a shop’s success is the quality of the items that it features.

3) What are your fave etsy shops and why?
- Being an illustrator myself, I tend to like illustration related shops more than others. Some of my favorites are: http://www.etsy.com/shop/poppopportraits (because it features the cutest characters on etsy)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MATTY8080 (I followed Matty’s work long before I gladly found his etsy shop)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/veronavarro (this shop is about a couple of weeks old, but it already has awesome pieces there)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/fricdementol (besides being a great illustrator, Fric De Mentol is also a great crafter)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/celentanowoodworks (how could someone resist an apple shaped guitar, for instance?)

4) What are your fave pieces in your shop and why?
- My favorite one is the soccer girl, it makes me go back to some summer days of my childhood spent on abandoned soccer fields.


5) What plans do you have for your shop?
- For now I intend to keep on selling original works only. But maybe I’ll consider on selling prints too, I already received some feedback from people sad for not being able to afford buying an original piece.

6) How long have you been creating art?
- Well, I started drawing when I was about sixteen (I’ll be thirty-two in a couple of weeks) and never stopped ever since.

7) Who are your art heroes?
- Oh my, so many! And constantly changing. Let’s see… Rodin, Schiele, Mucha, Norman Rockwell. I guess I will never get tired of these ones.

8) Where do your ideas come from?
- Mostly from spending eternities surfing on the internet, watching and reading illustration blogs. I also feel a strong influence of cinema on my work. And at last, in my work I use a lot of ideas that come from memories I have of when I was a child.

9) What do you do when you have a creative block?
- I panic and get frustrated, lol. Now seriously, I like to do a lot of different stuff besides illustration so, when I want to draw something but nothing comes out, I grab my guitar and play some songs, I make some crafts (I like sewing and knitting), I go to the kitchen and cook some special recipes, etc.

10) What other interests do you have that feed into your art?
- As I already mentioned, I love cinema and I believe that my work has sometimes a kind of “cinematic” feeling to it because of that. I also love music, it also transposes somehow to my work a lot of times. Actually, I just made the artwork for a cd from a canadian band called Nadja, and I feel very happy with the final result.