Fragile, WIP

This is the latest piece. I am thinking it will be called "Fragile", or "I Feel Fragile Today". The above pic shows her with the graphite sketch and the first touches of color. I am painting her to symbolize what I think a lot of people are feeling right now. We are submersed in a bunch of Pisces energy right now, culminating during the next new moon when many planets including the Sun will be in Pisces. We are all feeling fragile and extra sensitive right now. We are also going through a major transition right now and trying to realign our systems to anchor in this new energy.
The butterflies are a symbol for this transition and they are going through her in a sense without her even realizing it. She is also submersed in water to her waist to symbolize the emotions of Pisces. Here is what she is looking like with a bit more color.



I need to work on a commission now and won't be able to finish her for a few days. That is going to be incredibly hard for me, but she will just have to wait.

My new Pseudo name

So I have been thinking for awhile that I need a different professional name. I often go by Moon Spiral as a username on many of the artist sites I am on like Red Bubble. This is very symbolic of me and my consiousness, but more like a nickname than what I want to go by professionally. It also has to do with the way I sign my paintings with a moon and a spiral. I love symbols and have always preferred to sign my paintings with a symbol rather than my name.
I am very into numerology and have felt that the vibration of my married name, Tammy Wampler, feels a little off. Nothing against my husband's name, it just does not fit me in a professional sense.
I believe there is a lot of power in your name. For years now I have given professional intuitive readings and I use a person's name to research into their past lives. This is called lexigramming and you wouldn't believe the shocking things you can find in your name.
I think most of my friends would think I am flakey if I told them they have to start calling me a different name now, although most of them probably think I am slightly flakey anyway. I have decided to keep Tammy, but change my last name. I wanted it to have a ring to it that is memorable and a little bit like my style of painting; a little pop surrealish I suppose. So my new "arteest" name is Tammy Mae Moon. The numerology of this full name equals a 2 which vibrates to the moon which is completely my vibration. My moon itself in my natal birth chart is in Cancer(which vibrates to the moon). The vibration of Mae Moon is a 6, which vibrates to Venus. I think the moon and Venus vibration is really the whole vibration of my art itself. It is feminine, intuitive, with a strong focus on beauty(Venus) and the unconscious mind(the moon).
So I am introducing my new self, luckily you can still call me Tammy or Moon.

I have not been keeping this blog very up to date. I keep forgetting about it; guess I am not the best blogger around. Sometimes I feel like I have so many thoughts in my head it would just take too much time to blog about it. Well anyway, here is the latest completed piece "Jezebel".



I rather like the way she turned out. Jezebel had about the worst treatment of a woman in the Bible and one of the most horiffic deaths. Basically she was flung out of a window and left to be torn apart by wild dogs. Recent archeaological finds have proven that she was a very powerful woman in the ancient world (as it seems that in the Bible the word whore is a code word for "really powerful woman"). Also her name was most likely not Jezebel but this was a corrupted spelling of her real name, I mean who would name their daughter whore of god in the first place. We probably will never know the truth of who Jezebel was as her story was written by her murderers as they were trying to justify their killing of a woman.
I wanted to paint Jezebel in honor of all women who have been born to be the ones that we could blame.
I must have listened to Iron and Wine's Jezebel about a thousand times while I painted this. I really do feel like a painting can take on the vibration of the music you listen to while painting.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghBJhGIcneU

Dragonfly WIP

This is a very rough sketch to the piece I am currently working on. I am almost done with her now and she looks a little different than this sketch, but this gives you a rough idea as to what she will look like. I am working on refining my style. Being the Libra that I am, my art often reflects my indecisiveness. Sometimes I only want to do highly spiritual, symbolic, and mystical art and other times I just want to paint big eyed girlies. I am noticing that the artists that I am the most drawn to all fall under the catagory of Pop Surrealism. I like the idea of slightly distorting reality, and focussing on our vanity and messed up self-image constructs.
A friend of mine showed me this link It is for a Digital Retouch website that shows before and after shots of all the models. It is amazing how much they do to give us a false view of what beauty is. I guess that is what I want to explore. How beauty can be seen in the absurd and how we can easily distort our vision of beauty.
I think even the big eyed girlies can be spiritual art. With my work it is the eyes that convey the story of each soul I paint. They look back at you and hopefully speak to you. At least that is what I hope they do. Anyway, that is what I am wanting to paint for now. I could change my mind tomorrow.

Showing at Common Grounds

I have seven paintings being shown at Common Grounds coffeehouse and cafe http://www.commongroundsoflexington.com/ in Lexington, Ky right now. They will be there until March 6th. It is a great little coffee shop with a lot of atmosphere and local traffic, so hopefully it will be a good spot to get some exposure in the area.
It is actually a little hard to not have my babies at home with me. It's funny, how you get use to having them around and then they are gone, you actually miss them. It is a lot like when my son first went to kindergarten all day. It is hard to think of them there without me. I know they are just inanimate objects, but to me I breathed life into them just like I did my real children.
So if you happen to be in Lexington in the next two months please drop by Common Grounds and check on my babies. They are hanging in the backroom on the first floor.

Pearl, complete

Here is the completed "Pearl", and I guess she is my last completed piece for 2009. I am thinking a lot about how far my art has come along this year. I feel like 2010 will be an even bigger year for me and my art. I plan to do more fairs and hopefully some exhibitions. I am pretty excited for what is to come. I think 2010 will be a year for many to burst with new creative energy. Now, if I could just get the energy to start my new exercise plan.

Happy Solstice and what's going on around here...

Well I have been extra busy getting ready for the holiday like everyone else. I haven't had a whole lot of time to paint, but am very slowly working on a piece called "Pearl". I started it after reading a little about the life of Mata Hari. I am so intrigued by the women of the early 20th century and this piece is a result of that fascination. Here is a couple of pics of what I have done so far.



The above picture is the rough sketch that I first did in graphite. I have been doing this lately and find that I really like drawing on canvas with graphite. I like being able to draw the piece before I paint it. This next picture is with the first bit of color added.



I am going out of town for Christmas and won't be able to finish her until I get back, which will be pretty hard for me to do. I like to start a piece and go at it until I get it finished.

I have had a pretty good week this week as far as my art goes. Earlier this week my work "The Seer" was featured on the Red Bubble homepage. I have been on Red Bubble for a year now and this is only the third time I have been on the homepage. It doesn't happen a lot, but I am always very excited when it does. Here is what it looked like:



Also, I just found out today that I will be showing at a local coffee shop called Common Grounds starting January 9th for two months. I am really excited about this. I have been a little shy about trying to show my work at locals places. This is my first baby step to breaking out in the local scene, so wish me luck!

I hope you all have a wonderful Winter Solstice today and many blessings for a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic 2010!