"Re-birth"

Latest necklace rendering. (HIGH RES JPG)

If I had the money to produce this, the stones of choice would be a mix of ruby, garnets, and citrines for the feathers and phoenix's body to give a good variation of dark reds to light orange yellows. There would also be accents of yellow marquis and pear shaped diamonds with hints of white diamonds. as for metal, I would go with either a bright 18kt yellow, or even a rose gold.

I love creating large almost sculptural pieces, I often imagine the kind of person that would wear this.  Perhaps to a charity event, or on to the opera, and if it was me, probably around the house as I do chores.

When designing pieces like this, I am often inspired by old masters, this pieces was specifically inspired by the works of Tiffany designer, Jean Schlumberger. 

I was lucky enough to view many of his pieces at the 5th Ave. Tiffany store on my last trip to NYC, when I was there to interview for a position with the company.  Sadly I didn't get the job, but that will not deter me from creating beautiful works of art.  Maybe one day I will have a chase to make this design into reality.

Momento Mori

Started on a new painting today. Found this canvas at the recycling center a few days ago. The canvas was in pretty great shape, considering the painting was dated 1987.  I probably should have taken a before picture on the old painting, but I forgot, it was a very pastel land scape....very "80" grandmother chic.

I originally didn't know what I wanted to paint, not wanting to look at the landscape anymore I painted over it with gesso. Five coats later, I had a nice white canvas, except for the texture the from the previous painting.

I don't know why I decided to paint a skull, maybe it was all the momento mori jewelry and victorian post-mortem photos that I've been looking at on Tumblr, or I just feel like nothing right now and need a reminder of my mortality.

Since being unemployed, the idea of "life" has been on my mind.  I will admit, some days are tough, with the disappointments of job searching and the lack there of work in the free-lance world in my industry in Chicago.  I have definitely been left to think, "If I died tomorrow, I have no accomplishments to be remembered by."

So what do I do... I paint, I draw, I wonder where I will be in a few months, and I think of my mortality.

Not all days...

But some days are drawing days.

Taboo Creations

Working in Illustrator.

Taboo Creations

Working on stone layout and finalizing silhouette, next will be vector line, then gouache.