Rethinking Life and Business

This blog has become a bit of a dead space in the past few years as I have been more focused on my health and really on creating glass mosaics. Art Paw has been cranking along though even after a cancer diagnosis. Many of my wonderful previous clients have continued to add to their packs and they have needed new pet portraits so I am still doing a lot of pet art. I am ready to start writing more and posting more to this blog as I start to focus more on the pet portraiture work and return to this wonderful job in more of a full-time capacity. A terrific company called Yoo in The Park placed portraits of their residents pup in the grooming salon on their property. They contacted me earlier this year to do a few more. Next week I get 3 more of these colorful works in the mail to Atlanta.

New Glass Mosaic work

Art Paw is slow right now so I am working on mosaics every day this week. Today I did a very quick video of a work in progress.

20 Years Of Pet Portraits!

Decided I need to get back to the Art Dog Blog and give this digital space a pulse again. In September we will be going into our 20th year at Art Paw. Wow, that is a long time to run a business.    I am not marketing it as aggressively as I once did because I have been spending more time doing random art for myself. I still do a few portraits each month, but my average was once about 30 projects per month.  I am cool with it though, I am happy to spend more creative time on fewer projects.

I am doing a video a day over at youtube this month and I will be posting a few of those here. Please subscribe to our channel.

Pet Portrait Deadlines 2017

Last day to order custom Pet Portraits for out of state clients is today Tuesday the 5th.

Local Dallas and Texas clients can order up until the 13th of December.

If you are out of state and really need a portrait under the tree you can give me a call and we can discuss rush fees and overnight delivery options.

Place your order today! 

If you have questions give me a call : 214-321-1150.

Pet Portrait Deadlines Posted

Wow, November flew by! I am still accepting out of state orders with a promised delivery by Christmas for just a few more days. Texas clients can drag their feet until the 12th although extra shipping may be required. Dallas folks can pick up their prints in person. 

Place your order today! 

If you have questions give me a call : 214-321-1150.

Revisiting the Color Pink

In 2011 I spent the entire year focused on the color pink. I added it in to pet portraiture work and in to my mosaics. I concentrated on it because I hated it, I figured it would be a terrific challenge to find original ways to use a hue that is so laden with stereotypes and misunderstanding. I am a huge fan of the artist Jeff Soto and he often uses the color pink in the most amazing ways. I think his work was a big inspiration for me to adopt the color pink and make it my own.  The end result of my experiment is that I fell in love with the color pink.

Bella
© rebecca collins artpaw.com

"Pixie"
© rebecca collins artpaw.com

Flash Forward 2016: Lisa Huffaker is a pal that is big into zine making, you might even call her the "zine queen" and she has launched her White Rock Zine Machine down at Deep Vellum books. Her next round of zines will be on the theme of color and she has asked me to contribute a zine based on the color pink. Of course I jumped at the chance to work on a collaborative project that is all about color. There will be three visual artists and nine writers creating one hundred colorful tiny zines each in a rainbow of hues. These hand crafted books will be available in an old fashion baseball trading card dispenser. For just a quarter you can spin the knob and be the proud owner of a tiny book of poetry and art.  The color zine event launch is October 7th at 7:00 p.m. at Deep Vellum books.

This weekend I will be cutting paper and starting the assembly work on this labor intensive labor of love. I am using the project as an excuse to revisit pink and will be posting about the color here on the blog in September and on my facebook pages as well. So stay tuned for trivia, art links and more on pink.  I will also be creating trading card sized mosaics and assemblages in the color pink this month. Below are just a few examples of the direction my personal work is heading.

Pink is not for Sissies!

Robots Robots Robots

I have been working in the studio on a series of robot assemblages and glass mosaics. I have some more "serious" projects in the works but sometimes nothing clears my head or makes me happier than playing around with these silly little robots. You can find these guys in my Etsy shop on sale at 50% off until the 19th of August and then they jump back to regular pricing.

© Rebecca Collins
http://www.etsyonsale.com/shop/artpaw

© Rebecca Collins
http://www.etsyonsale.com/shop/artpaw

© Rebecca Collins
http://www.etsyonsale.com/shop/artpaw

© Rebecca Collins
http://www.etsyonsale.com/shop/artpaw

Mosaic Monday / On Starting New Projects

Self Portrait
Work In Progress

Countless times over the years I have seen students sit in front of a new project and move at a snail's pace to really start. They take their time getting their mind around where to begin to even begin because they can not see where they are going and they know that due to the nature of mosaic there will be twists and turns and detours within the journey.  They are fearful to even start because they can not see it finished and totally designed in their mind.  I felt all of that when I started this project. I glued nothing down yesterday; zero, nada, zilch! I played with glass rod, smalti, big thick clear glass with spray paint on top, and I fretted a lot. I worried that this might be a big waste of materials and time. Then I slowed down and started thinking about what I knew was true about this project. I came up with a list and it will be my starting guide post.

• I want to use glass rod and round pieces to echo the half-tone dot pattern in the digital print.

• I want glass circles to be used, circles that make me think about cells, healthy happy cells.

• I want to use thick clear glass and spray paint a dot pattern on top to tamp down the shininess of the glass. I can brush off some of it with a scrubby sponge so that it has a nice grunge effect.

• I do not want to have this be just another painterly portrait like the one I recently finished of my husband.  I love that mosaic, but I want to try something new. I want to experiment with having some of the paper showing, and having paint on the surface of the glass, as well as below.

• I want paper and spray paint to move to the top of the project and mix in with the final layering of materials.

• I will not grout and so I plan to work tight and allow myself to layer upwards with my materials, placing glass on top of glass.

• I want this to have the feeling of a glass collage with paint on top.

So my advice when you are not sure where to begin is to make a list of what excites you about the project, and what things are for sure the things you plan to use or incorporate into the piece. Write it down an then dive in ... go to the deep end of the pool and dive in. That first jolt of cold water is a shocker, but then it starts to feel really nice after awhile.


 

Ginger, Sadie, and Mellie

Work feels steady yet somehow slow right at the moment. I will get 2 or 3 orders done and think I am caught up and then a  couple more projects will trickle in. Summertime is the perfect time to order pet portraits for yourself. During the holidays I am usually overwhelmed with projects that are being ordered as gifts and everything has a sense of urgency about it. In the summertime I get to take my time with each pet portrait project in front of me.
I will post a few recent pup portraits below.

"Ginger"
©2016  artpaw.com

"Sadie"
©2016  artpaw.com

"Mellie"
©2016  artpaw.com