return of the awesomuffin!

last night i started a new painting. i immediately knew i wasn't satisfied with the face but it's not usually an immediate thing, so i moved along working on it a little more, here and there, allowing the painting to manifest itself and i was enjoying the process but the face was still unsatisfactory. so was the hair.

i continued to work without walking away or getting discouraged and even forgot, in the process, to remind myself that it would turn out okay. before i knew it, the perfect face had emerged. this splendid thing came out of what feels like nowhere and yet feels as though it's always been a part of me and i was just blindsided by awesomeness.

then. it hit me.

awesomuffins! realized in painted form!

some of you are like awesomuffins?!?

the short story is this: one day when my middlest boy was four, he was looking a bit disheveled and i called him my little ragamuffin. he corrected me and said he was my awesomuffin and i was like omg, you so are.

at that time i was just starting to "do art everyday" and had been sketching little people and happy trees. i had no idea where i was going with them but i decided to open another etsy shop, inspired by my son's fantastic new word.

i stocked it with pencil and ink ATC illos first and digital illos later. while i got a lot of positive feedback, i wasn't selling anything and the digital illos took a lot of time to create. 

this was my very first try at a mixed media ATC and also became one of my first digital illos
(as seen in my button graphic)

 awesomuffin trees - the first ATCs (ACEOs) i stocked on etsy.

awesomuffin sketches turned digitart!

my time became even more limited and when i started working outside the home i stopped stocking the awesomuffin shop. when i was able to make more time for art again,  i decided that my slightlyimperfect shop still seemed the best fit for my blend of happy/sad mixed media pieces with the occasional vintage item.

i've had a bit of an identity crisis since i decided to stop knitting for profit and using the name indigoblossom for everything. i've had three blogs and three etsy shops and the name of my facebook page is completely unrelated to any of them.

i let my awesomuffin domain expire and considered launching a new site, using just my name or "valeri, screaming from the gallery" but i'm not quite there yet - it's all i can do to manage a facebook page, etsy, and this blog.

last night the path that my sketches and the directions my paintings have been taking became more clear and i'm being called toward awesomuffin again - but this time, with more texture and color, more personality. more real.

putting the pieces together on this journey has often meant i've put the cart before the horse - but like i said, it's becoming clearer. while the intent behind slightlyimperfect to create with materials i had on had, work through the process, and appreciate the results is still a contributing factor to my work, it makes sense that one day slightlyimperfect may operate solely as a vintgae resale space. it is only a superfantasticandclever name for used stuff, right? the whole story behind screaming from the gallery is a blog entry unto it's own and i'm holding on to that but i don't have to let go of awesomuffin.
it DOES work for everything else - my paintings, my illustrations (digital or ink/pencil), mixed media.

no matter the dark or the happy - it is all awesomuffin!