Work in Progress
Just a quick update: The product that I am developing has been taking up most of my flexible time. A Chinese manufacturer is working on samples now. Due to usual length of time in shipping from there and some virus thing that has been on the news, I am not sure if I will get the sample in weeks or months. The manufacturer has not said anything about a delay….yet. The package design is almost done but there are a few requirements and images that I cannot produce until I have the samples. In the meantime, please enjoy my Easter Bunny fun time creation 🙂
Update: The above link for Society6 is broken as they chose to “suspend” this art image. I have inquired as to why but have not heard back yet. –Heard back a few days later and they did reinstate the selection :). **New update. I took this image down.
Artist Shout Out: LEMANSHOTS
Josephine R. Unglaub is a photographer and digital artist living in Germany. I came across her blog, Lemanshots – Fine Pictures and Digital Art awhile back and made sure to note her page. The images are stunning and mind bending. I love the surreal feeling she creates with her compositions and color choices. With permission, I am sharing some of her images here. There were so many that I enjoyed, it was hard to choose. I attempted to present a nice variety and encourage you to click the link above to check out more of her work.







Goodbye 2019: Inventions and Art
Had some fun with an end of year video.
I spent the last 6 months of the year focused on developing products and improving my art. It has been a great ride and I am hoping will lend to a great 2020.
Happy New Year!

Holiday Coloring Pages
I spent a good bit of time designing holiday images for a Zazzle contest. I did not expect to win, but figured my chances were better than the lottery. You can use designs loaded on their site, create a design on their site, use your own photo/design, or any combination of the above. They have all kinds of different products (shirts, wine labels, cards, shoes).
Here are some of my designs that you can print out to use at home. I will add a link at the bottom if you want to find them on Zazzle.







New Abstract Painting Collection


I began playing with paint textures back in college. There is something about exaggerating brush strokes and playing with how thick the paint lays on the canvas that tickles my brain. I also get to play with tools and tools are always fun!
The collection is not done yet but I could not wait any longer to share my new paint carvings.




Do you have a favorite creative tool?
Acrylic Pour & Spray Paint
I love layers and combining techniques. This painting was a lot of fun to make.
I began with a flower pot acrylic pouring experiment. I liked the painting but did not love it. This made it the perfect recruit for this spray paint technique. Planned out and masked my favorite sections of the painting and went to space.
The video editing got away from me a little on this one but if you would like to see the process:
I have started an abstract acrylic painting series that emphasizes textures and layers. There are peeks at it on some of my other SM accounts.
Tik Tok: @active_art_design
Hope you are having a beautiful day!
Artist Shout Out: Miss Diagnoses
The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) is having their annual conference right now. Lyme and tick born diseases are complicated and can be misdiagnosed for a host of reasons.
It is for that reason that I thought it would be the perfect time for me to pen a post that I had been thinking about for weeks. This is an artist I have followed and admired for a long time.
Vicki Novinsky at MissDiagnoses.com creates cartoon art that entertains and informs. She brings a lightheartedness to serious issues, making them more approachable. Vicki’s humor and style have allowed many in the Lyme and other chronic illness communities to relate and have a laugh over some small and some big frustrations that we run into.

Miss Diagnoses had wonderful, recent interviews published by RawlsMD.com and The Mighty. So if you are interested more in the story that led her to create these wonderful pieces, I encourage you to check out her blog and these articles.

Blog: https://missdiagnoses.com/
Facebook: Miss Diagnoses
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miss_diagnoses/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/miss_diagnoses
Color in a Pumpkin
Want to carve a pumpkin? I copied it into a word document so that I could size it to the page. It worked for me. Let me know if you try it and it does not work. Happy Halloween!

I used this file as a part of a POD project on Zazzle.
Childhood Art Memories
Do you remember early childhood art projects?
Sitting at the demoted kitchen table that now sat at the foot of the complete set of The World Book Encyclopedia, I glued construction paper to an empty tissue box. These boxes take on all sorts of Crayola magic, though they do tend to turn into buildings most often.
The smell of rubber cement was intoxicating. I am not sure when Elmer became cement, but it could be found in the old, white painted cabinet that sat on the green shag in the corner of the basement. I remember the label warning of certain death if it was consumed. I, of course, then had to dab just a tiny molecule of it on my tongue to prove them wrong.
There were several crayon/marker/pencil drawings. Mostly images of a house with a chimney and maybe a tree. The most popular and enduring image in my brain, I am pretty sure I copied off of a friend. I must have drawn versions of this a hundred times over the years.

And then there was Tom the Whale….
I was intermittently obsessed with carving a whale out of Ivory soap. I carved in his name at least once. The first completed masterpiece was the victim of a dog attack. Pretty sure that I broke the tail off of the second. I really do not remember how many whales there were, but some Ivory was sacrificed.
The last big art project was a large, colorful clay piece that was done for a book report. It was for one of the books in The Great Brain series by John Dennis Fitzgerald. It depicted a horse race. There was a wood railing, horseshoe prints in the grass, and 2 horses–according to my memory. I have no idea how those horses were standing up. I remember hiding toothpicks in the clay but it was not the kind that you can bake.
What is the first art project you remember doing?