My growing wall of inspiration

Since I started selling on Etsy, I've been continually inspired with the artwork I've seen. I could easily spend all my money on wonderful handmade works of art but I've mostly  only been able to "oooo" and "aahhh" at my finds. To compensate I try and promote the sellers and the great pieces they create because I'm thrilled to know that there are so many creative people out there. I feel more connected when I see other people have the same creative energies and desires I have. The best way of course to make sure creativity thrives is to support it financially. I have been able to acquire a few pieces over the past couple years and I have put them on my "inspiration wall" in my hallway. Below are a few pictures of my collection. You have to excuse the lighting in the photos because it's a bit hard for me to access natural light in that hallway.

Along with some favorite family photos I have pieces by:

Amy Blackwell

Elsa Mora

Cathy Nichols

Lisa Falzon

Francois Dyment

Narelle Badalassi

Click on each of their names to see more of their work. Perhaps I should post some of the umpteen other artists I plan to shop from too.  What artists inspire you?

1000,000 Giraffes

I have a fun post for you today. I wanted to show you my submission for the 1000,000 Giraffe.com site. The goal of the site is to collect one million images of originally created giraffes before 2011. The only stipulation for submitting to this site is that your Giraffe be an original drawing,painting or sculpture created without the aid of a computer. Let's get back to the basics!

The site has some fun features like stat listings, searches, blog and "guess the artist's age" game which is my favorite. It was very easy to upload an image and were notified very quickly that our pieces were accepted in the collection. So for some simple creative fun, draw yourself a little giraffe and submit it to the cause.

Below are the watercolor painting my daughter submitted and the drypoint with watercolor that I submitted. What do you think?

Claire Age: 5

Drypoint on plastic w/watercolor