Breathe Deep.

I think most of the time we (as human beings) are thankful our nostrils point downwards so we can survive like, rainstorms and showers and snot, but I woke up this morning wishing (again) that I could flip my nose upside down and just really breathe in this storm that is brewing outside. 

Does anyone know what I mean? 

Anyways, someone posted this and I'll just leave it here...

Nap Queen

I have had a crappy last couple days and I really, really want to run away because that's my instinct and I'm embarrassed as all heck... BUT I'm trying to be tough so I'm just going to nap a lot instead. Don't be like me, kids.  

*Charles Barkley voice* I am not a role model.

!!!

I always feel super uncomfy asking people to come to my art shows because I'm essentially selling myself to a bunch of strangers and that's a pretty weird thing to come watch. I mean I'm fully clothed, but still. Anyways! I'm officially inviting you (the Internet) to my art show this weekend so you can like, uh, come buy my art. 

Give me your money and I'll give you stickers, pillows, tea towels, notepads, notebooks, postcards, art prints, and other stuff too. 

Harlow Gardens Holiday Marketplace. Saturday 9-5pm, Sunday 9-3pm. 5620 E. Pima.

(At least I'm honest, right?) 

Long Live Linen!

I got a box full of linen canvas in the mail yesterday. Oh! And it all just happened to also have some of my art printed on it. What. Thanks, Spoonflower! 

Working with textiles is my dream. There is something about seeing your work on cloth that just makes it feel... substantial? 

One week until my art show and I'm trying to not panic. I ran into a few obstacles with some of the vendors that I am working with but for now, I'm going to just drape myself in linen and pretend everything is going to be alright. 

I never want to be right.
Thanks linen for being such a breathable, classy fabric.  

PS. I have spent a lot of money getting fabric printed a lot of different places and honestly, Spoonflower KILLS it. With other print shops, the colors are way off, the images are grainy, the fabric is too wide of a gauge and eats the pattern up. Never have I ever had a problem with Spoonflower. Beautiful and accurate every damn time.

PPS. Baby Danielle from 1998 wants to wants to wish you a Happy Halloween!

Never not had chubby cheeks, crazy hair or weird glasses. 

My friend from forever sent me this picture randomly when she was back home visiting her family and I just wanted to share it because I see a lot of 2016 Danielle potential in there. Like, I feel like I make that same face at work every time I feel awkward and shy. Awh. Also, never was I ever cute. 

Sweet Nothings

My favorite part of the weekend is the part where I spend the majority of my 48 hours of freedom sitting and doing absolutely nothing. I feel semi jipped weekend-wise because I have been super busy these past couple days. (Ugh, popularity!)

No, I had a good weekend filled with lots of art shows and open studios and my best friend's birthday party. I ate way too much good stuff this weekend too, like I ate an illegal amount of cake, I don't want to talk about it.

I went to the grocery store Saturday night and the cashier said the weirdest thing about my hair. I'm not surprised because almost everyday someone says something poopy about my hair, but I honestly had no idea how to react to this one...

Word for word quote. The young man had a way with the English language, that's for damn sure. 

A mullet?!? C'mon. No. 

Ugh. It's cool, you guys can keep calling me Amy Winehouse and asking if I ever done my hair "normally," I'll just be over here crying and keeping all my rude comments to myself because I'm decent and have manners. 

I must be sort of special to warrant constantly receiving the strangest, most honest observations about my appearance and/or self worth/character. Like, a bad kind of special, ya know? 

A random coworker said I should shed my current personality because it's much too high strung and stressful. Awh! Romantic. Will do. 

People are the BEST. Keep saying the weirdest things to me, guys. It's working.

The best photo background ever. The subject matter? Debatable. 

Weekly Briefing

Hi! I promised an update and I'm not known for breaking promises, so here it goes! 

I went up to Michigan a couple weeks back and visited my Nonno and Nonna and all my aunts and uncles and cousins and I got the chance to dive into some really hilarious photos. If you're wondering where I got all my good looks from, just check out the gene pool I'm swimming in. (Oh my god, I am joking. I look like an actual alien.) Style and big hair evidently runs deep in the DeLorenzo bloodline... as does male premature balding. (Sorry Nonno, sorry Dad.) 

I haven't seen many photos of my dad as a human baby child so it's pretty amazing to realize he had a life before I existed?! Like what? The world doesn't revolve around me? People's lives had purpose and meaning before 1991? Insane. 

These poster size pictures are hanging in my Nonno and Nonna's basement and they are priceless. My dad is the second to the left. Nonno cut all of his children's hair and I think that's very important to remember when looking at these photos. 

Anyways my trip was very ~emotional~ and sad and tough, but it was very much needed and I am grateful I was able to take some days off and make it happen. 

Here is a photo of baby Danielle and it looks like I'm trying to make out with my dinner.
This seems to explain myself more than words ever could.

A quick watercolor study of a jolly rancher. I eat way too much candy at work. 

Sneak peak at something I will be selling soon! Vinyl stickers!
Super amazing quality and color and I'm in love?! Like, so in love that I'm no longer interested in boys.
Currently seeking partnership with stickers of my own illustrations. Serious inquiries only. 

I have an art show in less than a month and I'm bugging out! I bought my table space back in May and I have nothing to sell but my own soul. I usually work well under the pressure of a deadline but I'm actually nervous. I'll be fine, probably. Maybe. Eh. We'll see.

xoxo.

Oh! And P.S.

Obviously I got my new computer! I was way excited and then I looked at my credit card statement and was way less excited. But my baby is bigger and better than ever and I'm so glad I spent so much money on a portable Netflix viewing machine. 

I also found a free Xerox machine on the side of the road!? It ended up costing me some blood (long story) but ultimately the owner was trashing a perfectly functioning copier. (This makes me sound like a weird street rat hoarder, but I have never gathered other people's garbage before... just a FYI.) I wouldn't say it was fate, but god damn, it was a very lucky coincidence that my eyes left the road briefly enough to see this beauty parked by the street. I go to Kinkos (or FedEx Office as the young people say) an insane amount of times to print art related stuff. Like so much so that the employees knew me and my life story-- it was weird. Now I can copy my face in the luxury of my own home. 

Rewatched one of my top TV show, Freaks and Geeks, and this has got to be my favorite quote. It applies to boys too, duh. 

You Can't Polish a Turd...

Or even a really poopy Sunday doodle! Being without a computer when I mainly edit and produce all my crappy art digitally is really, really frustrating, embarrassing and discouraging. 

Normally when I make patterns, I paint whatever, scan my pages, fix it all up in Photoshop, rearrange the pieces until I'm satisfied and then play around with the background color. Obviously not possible when I'm putting color straight down on paper, but hey, I'm trying to get better at producing art on the spot. And... I got a long way to go. 

This older guy at work stopped me last week and sweetly said "I don't mean to be forward, but have you been dieting? You look quite slender." And I have been celebrating that compliment all week with junk food galore! Slender?! Me?! Okay! I doodled some puffy Cheetos and Cap'n Crunch because that's all I have been eating lately. It's a super healthy new diet I am trying out called IDGAF.

Anyways, it's okay to not produce awe-worthy art all the time (or any of the time in my case.) Drawing the shitty stuff forges the path to drawing the less shitty stuff which in turn pours the foundation for drawing the mediocre stuff! It's all a process and being transparent and vulnerable during that process is key.

To Blush or Not To Blush?

Sorry, the real question is when am I not blushing?? I heard a boy asking another coworker about this (regarding me) and I'd like to clarify: I'm always embarrassed and I'm always blushing. Especially when I am talking to dudes.

It's perpetual.

I think the sad thing is I literally didn't know people could see me blush until a couple weeks ago? I thought my skin had my back and was hiding all my wishy washy feelings but... Nah, I'm a beet. With acne. My skin/body hates me.

Ugh. Excuse me while I go hyperventilate. 

Let me change the subject right now to something way more interesting. My sweet, talented, so perfect ex-employee/friend from DC reached out to me the other day and wow, I really missed her?! Just talking to her and giving her my two cents about ~life~ was really nice. She posted this shout out afterwards and I was just floored by how thoughtful that was? Not bragging, but very grateful for having sweet people in my life, no matter the distance. Karina is currently in Chicago kicking ass as a designer and photographer for a cute start up company and I'm very proud of her. Her styling and design aesthetic is truly impeccable and I highly suggest you check her out and follow her rise as a successful artist! I mean, look at her hand lettering! My eyes are heart shaped right now, no joke. 

Usually my general presence makes peoples day way more sucky so... this is surprising.

Side note: according to my stats lately, my blog is very popular with those who live in Russia? Hey Russians! Thanks for looking at my crappy art, I appreciate you. Not stoked that you guys kind of tried to cheat the Olympics with that sketch drug test situation, but... we're cool.

Recap!

Hey cuties! A quick post with too many photos so skip this if you don't want to see my face and/or my art. (Side note, I did lose like 5 followers because I posted a photo of my face on my Instagram... Never again.)

 

Here is me, looking surly as ever at my art show this weekend. (My job requires I wake up at 4 am, so don't judge how gross I am.) I won the "honorable mention" award, which felt like salt in the wound. I'm not a sore loser by any means, it just reminded me of 1st grade Track and Field where I got a TON of purple "Participation awards" that still haunt me from my childhood closet stored snuggly in a box of bad memories.

Note: double chin. I AM HUMAN.

Look at that green and gold... Damn! 

Anyways, I was incredibly honored and happy to be part of this art show! And to get recognized in any way, shape or (ribbon) form. It was a very cool group of young adults making a really vast array of art. Everyone was SUPER talented and represented the desert landscape we live in in such cool, beautiful ways! There were only 11 of us, but this was the SNP's first ever art show so that was a decent group. Above you can see my set up for the show. I was selling all the pieces, but unfortunately there were no sales... Yet! (Postcards have just been posted on etsy and pillows will be listed soon!)

Made some postcards and bought a nice display for them!

If you know me or my art, I am very much about repetition and functionality. I like the idea of spending time and love creating an image and then shrinking it down to be a small part of a larger pattern. The idea of the power of repetitious imagery is something I am continually exploring. I am also super into making art that can be used and loved. As someone who studied fine art and as someone who has so many prints and beautiful pieces surrounding me in my daily life, I like the idea of taking things off the wall and putting them into the hands of the buyer. Art is always seen on a pedestal or behind a protective layer of glass, which is great! But as someone who has worked in the art world and who is a consumer of all things artsy, I know that if a piece has dual functionality, the most likely it will be purchased. What I mean by this is, I'm more likely to buy a tote bag with a beautiful design on it, then buy the same design as an expensive piece of framed art (although I am guilty of that as well.) I like being able to use the art I buy and show off my taste and show off the artist as well! So creating postcards and pillows etc is my way of getting my art into the world and having people utilize it on a daily basis. Form and functionality, I guess if I had to sum it all up. (RAMBLING! Sorry.)

The BEAUTIFUL sunset at the Saguaro National Park last night! The art show was kind of in the middle of nowhere, SO far from the city (50 minutes to be exact) but the views and the vegetation was really breathtaking. Never gets old. Go visit it.

More postcard pictures, oh my gosh.

More photos of the art show and Laura's beautiful prints when they are posted online for me to steal... I wasn't too good at documenting anyone else's work but mine... Selfish. 

A 13x13 square pillow.

Here is one of the pillows I made for the show. So super cute, (if you don't mind me saying.) Mint canvas with embroidered printed front and a cotton flour sack printed back. 

The back of the mint pillow.

A 13x16 rectangular pillow (the front.)

Purple cotton front and cotton flour sack printed back. So sweet and beautiful. 

The backside of the purple pillow.

Anyways, I'm slowly getting back into making products and selling my art. Hope that makes you guys at least half as stoked as I am!

A (golden) Barrel of Fun!

For the past couple days I have been spending hours at my desk painting and listening to too many podcasts. 

I am trying to come up with a few cool things for an upcoming art show and I went to the local Saguaro National Park and hiked around and took a mizillion (made that word up to convey the extreme quantity of photos I took) reference/inspirational photos! 

Saguaros (and cacti in general) are often portrayed cartoon-y (hey, I draw them that way too!) but I wanted to try to get all the weird gritty, awkward stages of cacti growth too! If you go back in my archives, you can see I made a saguaro pattern in December 2015 (cartoon-y as HECK) and way back in June 2014 but I wanted to make a fresh interpretation since I'm no longer the same person I was back when I made those! Run on sentence. 

Anyways, I had a lot of fun and filled at least 19 pages of my 2 sketchbooks up with watercolor and gouache paintings of cacti. Here are a couple untouched scans! 

My main focus this time was to represent the saguaros with a ton of arms (meaning they are older cacti) and also get them to look more proportional and tall! After I painted my heart out and accumulated enough "okay" cacti, I moved onto scanning them, which is a whole production in itself. 

After I scanned them in at super high resolutions, I brought all the pages into my trusty photoshop and started to edit the backgrounds (the sketchbook paper) out so the cactus stood alone. Above is the SUPER messy file of a million layers of cacti that I drug (is that a word?) into one single file. The reason I do this is so I can proportion the drawings and shrink them to be all the same relative size. Since I was using two sketchbooks (when one was still wet, I could still continue to paint in the other and via versa) the paintings were not all the same size. Saguaros are obviously bigger than golden barrel cacti so I had to make them that way! 

Above are some of what I painted presented in a more organized fashion. This helps me so when I am making the patterns, I could see which ones I wanted to use that fit the color scheme/space/etc.

Long post! Hope you stayed with me. I finished up the patterns yesterday and started to order a couple products I'll be selling and (hopefully!) showcasing soon! You'll get the first sneak peek here! 

Pretend I posted this on Earth Day

Earth Day was a week ago and I never posted what I was up 'cause I was too busy celebrating this planet!

How did you celebrate the Earth on its special day (and everyday?) I like to walk to the grocery store when I can, use reusable bags and bottles, shower irregularly, use both sides of my sketchbook pages, paint by candlelight (LOL, to save electricity though!)and take long naps that slow down my breathing so I emit less CO2 into the atmosphere.

In all seriousness, I do try my best to love the earth and be good to it! Hope you guys are too!

The 3 P's

Popcorn. Pacey. Pattern making.

Spending my night watching Dawson's Creek, eating too much popcorn (as per usual,) and painting lots of patterns in my sketchbook. Not making anything serious, but I had fun playing around and mixing watercolors with my new set of gouaches.

The pattern to the left is inspired by a craving for some chocolate chip cookies. *Super serious artist*

Bare Your Teeth

Another Sunny Day

 

It's February and in Tucson, it's 80 and beautiful! With the bluest skies. These are some watercolor patterns I made for a commission piece I was working on. Abstract suns and then I added lettering on top for the final piece (not shown.) More watercolor patterns coming soon!

"To like, Arizona"

Anyone else watch Judd Apatow's new series on Netflix, Love? I watched it in a day (it was like, ten hours so that's not even that bad... right?) Anyways, did a quick doodle (literally, ~10-15 minutes water coloring the elements, quickly scanned it and photoshopped it all together!) This quote was probably meaningless to anyone who isn't me, but I'm sad and wanted to make something and here that something is.

My idea of a perfect day...

Rainy (there is a literal hurricane brewing outside right now...) chilly, wearing leggings and an oversized sweater, a big breakfast, blankets, a pot of hot coffee, a glass of ice water, painting/drawing while binge watching a shitty show, cuddling with my cats and maybe an afternoon nap. Plus ice cream, always ice cream.

Homebody forever.