Yes, you.

But not quite yet.

“Self-Muder” – 2008 – watercolor & ink | Prints available

When longing for an escape from a tangled mess, making the mistake of a quick and easy exit can be tempting. But falling victim to the clutter only gives it more power to continue to grow, consuming everything within its reach.

Taking action and combing through each knot, although extensive and exhausting, frees the spirit more effectively and decreases its vulnerability of being consumed by the same self-destructing events that may have created the mess in the first place.

In other words:

If following a script gets you in a bind, take your time and write new lines. The show must go on for all — until that final curtain call.

Internet access is hard to find but very easy to appreciate once it’s found. Never liked McDonald’s but because they have wifi, I’m lovin’ it.

Above is a photo of an entrance to what used to be a place that was my first art class when I was 7 years old.

5″x7″ | watercolor | Buy Piece

As promised, here’s the Piece I was talking about yesterday. Finished this morning.

Finally working on some new large paintings. The above is a close up of  a small Piece that I’ll post tomorrow.

The bumpy stuff is called Frisket. It’s a liquid mask that blocks out areas I want to keep white/original layer of color. When it dies, it feels kind of like rubber and looks like boogers when I peel it off.

These are some of my favorite celebrities, in pencil from my Moleskine sketchbook.

I seem to have stopped drawing people for a while. I wonder why… My favorite subject.

Actually, I have kind of abandoned sketching altogether, for some reason, but I’ve been trying to get back into the habit. I’ll be leaving for Ukraine to visit family in about two weeks and I won’t be able to work on anything larger during that time, so I hope this keeps me sane.

My Etsy shop will be closed for over 4 weeks, starting July 5 till August 10th.

5″x7″ | watercolor&ink | Buy Piece

If you purchase this piece, 100% of profits of the sale will be donated to the National Wildlife Federation to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf.

***

Still thinking about the ripple effect of the oil spill, I created this Piece for Illustration Friday.

Actions speak louder than words. I say this a lot, because it’s always true.

Personally, the oil spill has been kind of a source of depression. Sometimes there’s nothing I can do about personal problems, and sometimes because personal problems (like, realizing I’m out of sardines at 6 in the morning) seem so petty when things like this are constantly happening. What can I do? I wish there was something I could freaking do to help!

Well, I can. And so can you.

This article lists some of the ways you can help if you’re not near the disaster, like me. It also lists sources where you can donate.

Every contribution, no matter how small, has an affect.

If you have done something, anything, to help the oil spill, what was it?

Sadly, I may not be able to hear your actions. So if you wanna share how you’re helping the oil spill, leave a comment or send me an email at tanya[!at]razorberries.com. I’m curious.

“Bulb in Bloom” – 6″x16″

view detail | 10″x20″ framed | prints

I created this new painting as a contrast to “Electropus,” which I created last year in April or May. “Electropus” is about feeling consumed, entangled, and drained of energy. “Bulb in Bloom” is about enlightenment, empowerment, and growth.

This new piece and prints will be a part of my booth this weekend at:

5th annual Fine Art Fair in Peoria
June 5 & 6, in Booth #46
10 am – 4 pm both days
Junction City Shopping Center
5901 N Prospect Rd
Peoria, IL (map)

“A Calm within a Qualm” – 9″x13″

view detail | prints

“A Calm within a Qualm” was unintentionally created as somewhat of a sequel to “Comfort Coffin,” (which was created in September 2009) so I just went along with it:

Eventually escaping their shells, birds are prone to predators, even if it’s just a little bad weather. If they can stick out the storm, it’s a good indication of the shape of things to come. But if the one on the left flies away in fear, then the one on the right will be left alone in the storm, in a shape of a question mark.

This new piece and prints will be a part of my booth this weekend at:

5th annual Fine Art Fair in Peoria
June 5 & 6, in Booth #46
10 am – 4 pm both days
Junction City Shopping Center
5901 N Prospect Rd
Peoria, IL (map)

Mmm, Razorberries. Delicious.

I’m a LITTLE obsessed with raspberries. Just a LITTLE. I think what got me started was the dozens of raspberry bushes at my grandma’s summer farm-house-thing (no-running-water style) at a small village in Ukraine when I was little. I loved picking them and eating them, even though they were sometimes hard to get to. The bushes were tall and prickly and I was short and determined to feed my raspberry addiction.

And then, there’s kind of a gruesome story about my deal with razors and only a few people have heard it. It involves me at age 6 or 7, an evil dentist who hated children, lots of blood, and of course, Ukraine.

Since this mini painting is a study for a larger piece, I’m saving my horror story for another post. Yay, cliffhangers!

Study of lightning for a bigger painting I’m working on.

I was driving on the interstate recently, and it was one of those times when it was hard to tell whether it was nighttime with a lightning storm, or daytime with a darkning storm.

Darkening storms do exist, though. They just happen indoors. Sometimes when lightning strikes somewhere, the lights in my apartment flicker off and on. Like it’s a power struggle between night and day — for a few seconds.