Naked Pixels

Art Challenge for the Holidays

Yesterday was the first day of November. The day after Halloween. I do my grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons, and the first thing I heard when I walked into the grocery store was Christmas music.

The day after Halloween!

Christmas just isn't what it was when I was a child. Some of that is the difference in perspective. Christmas just looks different when you're only about three or four feet tall. It's a time when ignorance truly is bliss, and you can enjoy the tree-decorating because you didn't have to haul the tree in or straighten out the lights, dance around while cookies and candy are being made because you didn't have to buy all the ingredients, and presents seem to magically appear because you didn't have to buy and wrap them all.

Some of the changes to the Christmas season are a matter of other changes in life. My grandmother passed away a few years ago just before Thanksgiving, and we lost my grandfather earlier that same year. Christmas just hasn't been the same without them, and I especially feel my grandmother's absence in the kitchen. As difficult as it can be to make room for everyone around the table, that kitchen is just a lot emptier with one person missing.

It's still Christmas, though! My mom makes a great meal herself, and my sister's kids are now there to run around and tear into packages. And even if the exact names and position in the family of various family members has changed over the years, we all still go to the same house, sit around the same table, and spend that time together. It's different, but it's still worth it. It still matters.

That's something you really can't put a price tag on, and no store will ever have control over it, no matter how early they start the music or how many sales they have.

What does this have to do with art? I'm getting to that. Indulge me for another minute or two, though.

I've just explained why Christmas matters to me. You could give it any other name, though, and it would still matter. You could call it Hanukkah, Yule, Three Kings Day, or any number of other holiday names related to this season. I'm not too picky about the religious or cultural basis for the holiday, as that doesn't have much to do with what makes it, for me, "the most wonderful time of the year".

I know what's going to happen. It happens every year now. I'm going to get annoyed by the music. I'm going to want to start mowing down crowds of people with my shopping cart. I'm going to feel the burden of the financial balancing act. I'm going to feel the pressure to get everything done in time. I'm going to want to pay the bell ringers to stop ringing. (Which is a clear sign that it's all getting to me, because those bell ringers are doing a wonderful thing and even dropping a little change into their bucket matters.)

Then I'm going to get an email from my mom.

She puts a quote from Dr. Seuss at the end of her emails during the Christmas season, and it always seems to show up just in time for me. Just before I reach my holiday breaking point. The quote she uses is the last couple of sentences from this:

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?"

That gets me through the holiday stress until I can see Linus explain, once again, to Charlie Brown what the true meaning of Christmas is and that little tree gets some love. And that's not about the religion, but about having that one person who will remind you that there's more to this than the stress, rush, and marketing. It applies to whatever name you call the holiday.

Again... what does this have to do with art? I have a small challenge for each of you this year.

Get the jump on your inner-Scrooge by expressing what's good about this time through your creativity! It doesn't have to be something big. If your holidays are already full of things to do (as most people's are) it would probably be best for it not to be something big. But do something that will fill you with holiday cheer. If you like to bake, bake some gingerbread men for yourself one afternoon. Or spend a couple of hours one weekend helping your kids make some Christmas cards for a few of the people on your list. No kids? Make a card for someone special yourself. (One of my most prized possesions is a green and red crayon scribbled card my nephew made for me his first Christmas. Looks like chicken scratch, worth more than an entire museum.) If you have the time and like to knit or crochet, make one of the gifts on your list by hand.

I'd love emails and/or comments if you decide to do this. Share the holiday love! Feel free to wait a few weeks before you get started, though. After all, it was just Halloween!

The NecroNOMNOMNOMicon: Eggs, Sugar, Eldritch Horror

Happy Halloween, everyone! Today is a great day to show off my entry for the Zazzle/Avery recipe binder contest. Even if I don't win in the contest, the recipe binder is for sale as of last night.

NecroNOMNOMNOMicon by rosaamarilla
Browse Zazzleaveryrecipecontest2009 Binders

Part lolcat, part Cthulhu mythos... your very own NecroNOMNOMNOMicon recipe binder! There's a letter of warning on the back. (Back view available if you click the picture to see it on Zazzle.)

"WARNING

You now hold in your hands a terrible book! It is known as The NecroNOMNOMNOMicon - the Forbidden Cookbook of the 'Mad Chef' Apinchof Allspice. Please - I BEG of you - DESTROY THE BOOK NOW!

It may be tempting to play with the 'ounces' and 'half cups' mentioned within. You may think you can control the forces that promise delicious treats if you merely practice their rituals of 'stir until smooth' or 'bake for one hour'. I warn you, friend - your kitchen will NEVER be as it once was!

DESTROY the book! And should you ever again see the sign of the plate-a-gram, as is on the cover, dabble not in these tasty arts!

I wish you well in all your OTHER culinary endeavors."

I can't take full credit for the "plate-a-gram" bit. While I did design it, my husband gave it the name once he saw it.

Have fun handing out candy to all the little things going bump on your doorstep tomorrow night! And if you're taking your own goblins trick-or-treating, I hope they each have a great time. I've heard that Batman and a dragon will be knocking on my door, and I have their treats and my camera ready for them!

Holiday Shopping and Coming Attractions

A message from Zazzle went out a few days ago reminding all of us that the holiday shopping season is almost here. I thought this was one of the most interesting things in the message:

Black Friday is November 27. Cyber Monday (which beat Black Friday in US online purchases in 2008) is November 30.

Honestly... I'm not just saying this because I sell things online... save yourself some trouble and buy what you can early from the comfort of your own home.

Or, you know, if you enjoy the crowds, lines, adults fighting over a toy like it's the last piece of food in a village going through a ten year famine, and getting the finger in traffic as often as the radio plays "Jingle Bells"... To each his own.

As for what to expect in my store for the holidays? Not too much holiday-specific stuff. I'll certainly be adding a few things here and there, but I'm more comfortable with doing designs that can be enjoyed all year long. There should be at least one new line showing up in the next couple of months, and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of two. A few of the old lines will be expanded. This is the time to buy a shirt that you thought your sister would love a couple of months back, but you just couldn't justify spending almost twenty bucks purely on a whim. Or getting those shoes that you know would look adorable on your kid, but fifty dollars worth of gas in the car was more important than fifty dollars worth of adorable on your kid's feet.

(Side note: I was so happy with how these shoes turned out when I designed them that I ordered a pair for myself. If you're going to buy shoes, order them soon. Zazzle prints most stuff and sends it out really fast, but shoes take a while because of the process used. They are worth it, though! They are actual Keds shoes, not just made in the same style, and I love mine. The sizes seem to run a little small, so you may want to order one size larger than what you normally wear.)

I had intended to slow the Zazzle designs down a little for a few months while I focus on some other things, but I've been keeping a list of ideas for future designs and this is the perfect time to pull it out. And since I'll mostly be focusing on "new designs and products" rather than "Christmas-specific new designs and products", I'll be happy to throw you some links to other Zazzlers who are decking the halls and cooking the Christmas goose.

Just don't look for too much of it before Halloween is over. Please... I don't want to start Christmas while there are still pumpkins on porches and little goblins on sugar highs.

Happy Birthday!

We're celebrating my husband's birthday today! This seems like a good time to feature some of the birthday designs Zazzle artists have for sale. Maybe you'll find something that's perfect for someone whose birthday is worth celebrating to you. :) Just click on any of the products to go to Zazzle to buy them or find more.

Slice of birthday Cake Sticker by mmpierce
View more Birthday Stickers

Happy Birthday Candles by cuteforkids
Browse more Happy birthday T-Shirts

Sweet Birthday by daphne1024
Browse other Birthday cards Cards

Spanish Birthday card by Celebration4all
Browse Feliz Cards

World of Warcraft Art

Millions of people are caught up in the excitement of BlizzCon 2009 this weekend! And I do mean that literally. If you aren't a fan of Blizzard's games, you may not know that World of Warcraft has over 11 million subscribers. That's just one Blizzard game... it doesn't include (though it certainly doesn't exclude, either) fans of StarCraft and Diablo, or the original Warcraft games. So this seems like a good time to write about the art of the world of Azeroth.

It's not difficult at all to find screenshots and fan art on the internet. There are also books...The Art of World of Warcraft (which, sadly, the Barnes & Noble site says is out of stock) and The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, for example. Wow.com has an entire column, "Around Azeroth", devoted to interesting in-game screenshots. And there are several webcomics inspired by WoW that range from hand-drawn fan art to image manipulation using (legally) Blizzard's images. Azeroth is a world that people want to see!

Azeroth in a Nutshell (For those who don't know and may not really care.)

This is my extremely short explanation of things for non-fans who only need to know enough to understand this post. If you find you want to read about the lore of Azeroth and understand the story better, there are many lore-oriented websites, and the WoW wiki is one where you can look things up, instead of just reading years' worth of story from start to finish. (Not that it isn't worth reading... I personally think it is.)

The races of Azeroth are mostly divided into two factions: The Alliance and The Horde. The Alliance is made up of humans, gnomes, dwarves, Night Elves, and a people known as the Draenei. The Horde is made up of Orcs, Taurens, Blood Elves, a tribe of trolls, and the Foresaken... sort of a collective of individually aware zombies who have formed a cultural identity. Overall, the histories of Alliance races don't differ much from the histories of Horde races, except in the specific details (and especially not when elements of the history come from the actions of other forces that affect all of Azeroth), yet each side blames and vilifies the other, so they remain at war.

Cool story, bro... What does that have to do with the art?

Azeroth is a big world, with many regions. These regions are each beautiful in their own way, and attention was paid to detail even if players are simply going to be running through. Forests where bears can be found often have trees that show the deep gouges of having been scratched by bears. Water in some regions is murky and green, and crystal clear in other regions. Different plants are found in different regions, and not just the type that can be gathered with the herbalism skill. Different wild critters (extremely low level, mostly for decoration creatures) are found in different regions. The art makes the world seem more alive.

Cities built by different races also have beautiful characteristics unique to each race. After seeing some of the areas that would be considered beautiful by more traditional standards, it was difficult to believe a city in the middle of a harsh desert area could be as breathtaking, but Orgrimmar was just as beautiful to me as anywhere else... just in it's own way. The Foresaken (those zombie-like people) even manage to turn cemeteries and rotting buildings into works of almost Gothic beauty.

That's how good the Blizzard artists are. They can make dirt where almost nothing grows beautiful, and can put just enough life into death that it can almost make you feel unworthy to look at it. And that doesn't mean other areas are "even more beautiful". It means they're just that good at bringing out the real beauty in "ugly" things.

Even if video games aren't your thing, there are many books by authors like Richard Knaak and Christie Golden that focus on the lore of Azeroth and would appeal to fans of the Fantasy genre. But even if that's not your thing, either, I'd suggest looking up some of the art. There's much to be appreciated and enjoyed there, and quite a bit to be learned from it.

Other Zazzlers: LushLaundry

LushLaundry has tons of products available! It really would be a bit overwhelming to attempt to explain what I think is so great about this Zazzle store, so I'll hit the high points and you should go check them out.

I found LushLaundry by coming across the "I Wear Pink for My Wife" product line once. There's also a "I Wear Pink for My Mom" line, and at least one other breast cancer survivor/support product line.

There are a lot of products centered around what's important in the lives of the people who buy them. Gifts for teachers, shirts that express a passion for a particular hobby, celebrating graduation, etc. It's kind of like being able to go to Hallmark and find a mug that would be perfect for someone, then also being able to get it on a shirt, a mouspad, a tote bag...

The product lines are further divided into subcategories once you click on them, so it really isn't hard to find what you might want even with the huge selection. Instead of look at all the birthday products, you can skip right to the Sweet 16 stuff done with hearts, if that's all you're really looking for.

This is a great store for things you may find yourself buying more than once. Birthday gifts, teacher gifts, announcements for various special occaisions. If you ever plan on giving someone a gift or having a party to celebrate something, I think you'd probably find something there that you like.

My entry for the deviantART/"Paper Heart" poster contest

I managed to get my entry in! I really wasn't sure that I would... it was very much looking like I wouldn't. I wanted to finish the piece, though, and I did manage to make it in on the last day of submissions. I want to show it to all of you, but I can't really figure out a better way than just giving you the link to it. Posting it here would involve resizing things, or putting up a smaller view and full view...That's built into deviantART. Just click the link, and when the page loads click on the piece to bring up the full view.

I'll wait here while you look at it.

I hope you didn't close that. It'll probably make more sense if you look at it again after I tell you about it.

The contest is part of a promotional for the movie Paper Heart, which is supposed to be a sort of "mockumentary" (though I don't think it's supposed to be comedy like This is Spinal Tap) about a girl who doesn't believe love really exists setting out to find out what other people think love is. So the contest asked us to express the theme "What Does Love Mean to Me?" and required that the words "Paper Heart" and "In select theaters August 7" appear in the piece.

My notes on the page where the piece is cover technique. I want to talk more here about the inspiration. This was a theme that immediately grabbed me, and each of the white hearts in that picture represents a type of love that's been present in my own life. I didn't have to struggle at all to come up with those, and I'm just sorry I had to limit myself to four.

Mom and kids

The first heart is inspired by my sister and my neice and nephew. Due to circumstances surrounding how my neice and nephew came to be in the family, I've seen that the maternal bond does not always result from having given birth to the children. My sister and her husband adopted their kids, but there is absolutely no doubt that those are her babies and that she is truly their mommy. It's beautiful just to watch her with the kids.

Couple with a wheelchair

The second heart is inspired my my husband. He's a gentle, loving man who saw me through a rather uncommon nuerological illness that was robbing me of much of what it is to simply be "me". He carried me through the pain, the frustration, and the doubts and fears that were still present through the hardest parts of recovery. He did this while adjusting to his own limitations and disability resulting from injury while he served in the Marine Corps. No matter how much pain he's in, or how hard things have been for him recently, he manages to keep being my shelter in the storm. His hugs are my "happy place". He's the strongest person I know, even while being one of the gentlest people I've ever known.

Ask him, though, and he'll say I'm the strong one. He points to how I still managed to take care of so much while I was so sick. He says that I always take him and his needs into account, no matter how much I'm dealing with at the time. He tells me I'm as strong as some Marines... even stronger than some! He holds me and kisses me even when I'm covered in sweat and dirt from mowing the yard, and he thinks I'm beautiful even when I'm ill. And he says that wrapping me up in a hug is being in his "happy place".

It's some really heavy stuff to deal with, especially in the first two years of being married. But the love makes it possible. Nothing can defeat us because of that!

Walking the dog

I have been lucky enough to share part of my life with some really wonderful dogs. Dogs respond very well to being treated like they are truly part of the family... after all, they are pack animals. It is their very nature to find their niche in the group, take care of other members of the group when they need it, share work, share play... sounds a lot like a family, huh?

I'd really like to be able to talk more about the great dogs I've known, but it's hard for me right now. I finished this piece for the contest on Wednesday of last week. On Thursday, my ex-husband got in touch with me to let me know a dog I loved very, very much... a Sheltie named Emmett, who is really responsible for my great love of dogs... was dying. Emmett was 16 years old, and it was simply time. He might have died on his own in another week or two, but the life he would have had to live for that time wouldn't have been "life" so much as "biological processes still functioning". On Friday, we took Emmett to the vet and made it easier for him.

And maybe that really is all that needs to be said about that heart.

Elderly Couple

My grandparents were the inspiration for this heart. Note that the little old people have bigger hearts over their heads than anyone else. Their love of has grown over the years shared. My grandparents were married for over fifty years. When my grandfather died, we all believed my grandmother could still live several more years. He died Memorial Day weekend. Over that summer, she only mentioned him to me once. I sat down in the recliner at her house one day, and she told me my grandfather had said that was the most comfortable chair he'd ever had. She died the week of Thanksgiving. After fifty years together, she only made it six months without him.

My grandfather could leave the house for just fifteen minutes to go down the street to pick up milk, and my grandmother would meet him at the back door and kiss him when he got home. She did that all my life, and I'm betting she did it when my mom was a kid, too. Over fifty years of kisses... whether they were apart for hours or just for fifteen minutes.

So which one is "love"?

All the hearts represent "real love". The concept for the piece changed a bit over the course of the project... even when it was far enough along that having to tweak things was a bit of a setback... but it is, at it's core, the idea that immediately hit me when I read about the contest. There was no way I could represent only one kind of love. Limiting how we think of it is why we so often don't notice it.

Spotlight On: "My best friend" Save the Date Postcard

"My best friend" Save the Date Postcard by rosaamarilla
View more Wedding Postcards

And Matching Postage! (Something "superhero and sidekick"-ish about it.)

Summer is here, and that brings thoughts of very traditional summer weddings. Or more modern ones... or the one's that won't happen until fall. Well, it brings thoughts of weddings!

My husband helped me design this card. I don't know why, but I just don't like the whole "Save the Date!" thing. There's a part of me that always wants to respond with, "I had no idea it was endangered!" It doesn't look so ridiculous to me on the stamp. There's only so much room to work with for a stamp, and I wanted to keep things simple so the stamp would actually be noticed by people other than hardcore philatelists. (And that word is not as dirty as you think it is!) With only the heart and the date on it, the addition of the words "Save the Date" just doesn't seem so bad to me.

There's just something about putting the phrase on a card in big letters that bothers me. I don't know... maybe I am a little old-fashioned. I certainly believe a wedding should be a celebration, but more of a sacred celebration than a wild party. (I'm totally okay with receptions turning into wild parties, though, and my email address is over on the side if you'd like to invite me to one.) The short, cute phrase just rubs me the wrong way. So I created a card that is short and to-the-point, but also reflects what a wonderful thing it is that this celebration is happening. Not two people who really like to spend time together, but two people who have found pieces of themselves in each other and want nothing more than for it to be that way forever.

The request, "Please join us on this date to help us celebrate such love," is meant to show that the person who has been invited truly is a part of the event. It can often feel like people are just expected to be at a wedding because going to watch is a sort of a family or close friend obligation. That the wedding could really go on without you. To some extent, that's true. I don't think I've ever heard of a wedding being cancelled at the last moment because a headcount showed that the best man's cousin's dog-walker wasn't there. But what if everybody stayed home because they knew the wedding could go on without them? It wouldn't be much of a wedding, and the couple may as well have eloped. Part of the purpose of a wedding is being there it witness it. It can be a wonderful experience that reminds the celebrants who are married why they fell in love, and gives the ones who haven't found that love yet renewed hope.