A Double Dose of the Blues

Blue ribbons, that is! As loyal readers may recall, a few weeks ago I hauled my artwork off to the Clackamas County Fair to be scrutinized and judged along with the hogs, homemade aprons, and odd vegetables (and hogs who eat odd vegetables while wearing homemade aprons).

Although not as awesome as a hog in an apron, a couple of pieces of my work did manage to weasel out a couple blue ribbons from the judges. Last year I also won two blue ribbons, so I suppose I’m holding steady in the competition ring (although I was hoping for improvement, ah well…).

Last year, Yellow Car took home the blue ribbon in Drawing, so I figured Blue Car would be a shoe-in in the same category. And apparently I know the judges’ minds well, because that was Blue Ribbon #1.

I had thought Borris might have impressed the judges of the Animal Art category, but pet portraits were the name of the game and all ribbons literally went to the dogs. My inner crazy cat lady was a bit offended at the species-ism, but what can you do?

As you might remember, I had debated about entering Gazing Ball. Mr. Husband said to enter it, but I thought perhaps the muted tones of the original wouldn’t be strong enough to stand out amongst the crowd. Then came the clever plan of using some digital magic to boost the colors and throw my hat into the Digital Art ring.

Well, that my friends was a brilliant call because that little bit of manipulation (both of the image and of the entry guidelines) earned me Blue Ribbon #2!

As for my fair future, I’m looking forward to next year…perhaps I better get to work on a dog portrait that will wow the cat-hating judges.

Charging Ahead After a Minor Breakdown

And as for what I’m up to…I did have a little oh-my-god-I-am-freaking-out-overwhelmed-and-too-busy-to-accomplish-anything moment recently (this happens now and then). But after a few deep breaths and a long list-making/planning session, I think I have my brain back to its normal organized state.

For the next six months, I’ll be cranking out a couple new pieces of work each month in preparation for my upcoming shows, my outline work for my fiction series is going amazingly well, and overall things are looking pretty manageable. To keep up with the workload I’ve been a bit anti-social (social media, that is), but as soon as I’m back from The Vacation in October, I’ll start hanging out on Twitter and Instagram a bit more and will return to my usual twice weekly blogging schedule.

Thanks for sticking with me everyone!

Any good news make its way to you this past week? Any mental system overloads? I’d love to hear all about it, so go ahead and share.