Giveaway!

Congratulations to Alisa Toth! You won (3) Mixers!
(Please contact me bsartstudio [!at] gmail [dot] com to set up shipping]

Thank you everyone for such wonderful participation. Aaaand, just for being so awesome, I'm having free shipping for all the entrants now through May 22nd!

Just visit my Etsy store here.

Is Art a Luxury?

I was perusing the blogosphere, and I happened upon a great blog: ScoutieGirl.  She had a wonderfully thought-provoking question: is art a luxury?

If I was living in the US still, my immediate answer would probably, of course not!  Chec

k out Etsy and My Store, followed by some sales pitch.  But after living here in Asia, and seeing some vastly different ways of life, I think twice before answering.  Singapore is surrounded by third-world countries - which are just lovely places, but not as developed as the US.  Nevertheless, many of the people in those places are concerned not with the best artwork to hang on their walls, but more basic things like clean water, food, and making a living (a lot of them still don't have electricity, much less hot water or Air-con.)  

But even in these places, crafting and art flourish.  It may be a small embellishment, a decorated tray, a small altar, or even local art.  I think there is something innate in humanity that drives people to create and embellish.  About having a place to call home, taking pride in it, and making it as pleasant to live in as possible, whatever your means.  

On a side note, if you want to see more about what it is like living in Asia, you can visit my other blog here:  Dillon Factor

Are your walls hung?

So, one of my husband's biggest gripes about marrying an artist is that our walls are always bare. Whoops. In our old house, we literally had huge paintings on the floor lying against the wall for storage, but nothing on the wall hanging! He has been gone on an business trip, so I took the liberty of transforming one normally blah wall into something fab! All it took was six Mixers and a couple of frames. A huge blank wall has been turned into something fun and funky :). And yes, my wall is a distinct shade of spa green/mint ice cream. Our apartment came furnished, and 1 gallon of paint costs $80!

Anyways, here are the pics:

Beach Treasury!

Here is a really awesome beach-themed treasury from cari4jc1:

Treasury Time!

Pretty excited!  This is the first treasury that I have been featured in since I re-opened the store.  Having someone pick one of my paintings for these always gives me a wonderfully warm and fuzzy feeling.  Many thanks to aubepine for picking Bali Wave (it is the one in the top right)!

Grand Re-Opening Giveaway!

One lucky winner will receive a set of 3 of their favorite Mixers, a value of $50 (plus the international shipping *gasp*)

VERY IMPORTANT: THE NOT SO FINE PRINT

Please read this because I do not want to disqualify anyone! Comments will close on May 15th at Midnight EST.
The winner will be posted on my blog and contacted via email. YOU MUST RESPOND WITHIN 48hrs or another winner will be chosen!

VALUE OF ENTIRE GIVE-A-WAY: $50

THREE WAYS TO ENTER:

1. You must choose to follow my little blog PUBLICLY, then check out my sutdio on Etsy and LEAVE A COMMENT your favorite item on the Blog
2. Become a fan of my Facebook page: BS ART STUDIO ON FACEBOOK
3. Tweet about this give-away! Make sure to include #bsartstudio as the topic

• You MUST include an email address or some way to contact you OR check my blog within 48 hours of the close of the give-a-way and contact me otherwise a new winner will be selected
• For a SECOND entry blog about this contest (on your blog) and leave an ADDITIONAL comment to let me know you did that with a link to your blog post!
• For a THIRD entry twitter about this contest and leave an ADDITIONAL comment to let me know you did that with a link to the twitter post! You can find my twitter page here

Please make sure you follow all the rules of the give-a-way

Duplicates and comments not including the above information will be disqualified. Comments are moderated. If you do not see your comment in a reasonable amount of time, send me an email. Please leave your email address in your post! If you don’t want to leave your email address, please be sure to check back on May 16th, 2010 for my announcement on the winner. Please note that winners must respond within 48 hours of being announced/contacted or another winner will be drawn. Winner will be selected using Random.org

If you have any questions please email me at bsartstudio@gmail.com

Thank you for making my shop such a success that I came back for more!

Hi-ho, hi-ho

It's off to work I go! I thought I should include some pictures of what the process is to make my Mixers. This picture below is an example of how the paint is applied:

Although this looks like a royal mess, after I take a heat gun to it, the paintings turn out pretty cool. Plus, I'll add and take away some layers, depending on how t

hey turn out. It is amazing the different effects that you can get. I'm also going to try using a transformer to take the heat gun down to 110 volts. Right now, with using an Asian

plug, it is 220 volts, and I think it is making the heat gun super hot. Kind of like when you take a hairdryer abroad and it blows a lot hotter on the lower setting. Kind of crazy, eh? Anyways, here are two pictures of the finished product:

Hazardous Materials

Ugh.  My husband and I just got back from a wonderful trip to Bali in Indonesia (didn't feel the earthquake, we were asleep), and we both managed to come down with the flu.  Not just kind of a small bug, but THE FLU.  I've been having awful, awful body aches for the past three days, but Joe was a wonderful husband and brought me some chicken soup for dinner tonight!  Yum.  

Luckily, I got a knock on the door yesterday that made me very happy.  The FedEx guy was at the door, and he had my wax medium!  This is the magic glue that makes the encaustic pieces come together so nicely.  Unfortunately, I was having a very hard time finding a company that would ship it overseas.  Has something to do with the fact that it might be slightly hazardous *gulp*.  Who knew that artists were glorified chemists?  

So now I have my medium, and I have my paints, time to get back in the studio!

Speaking of which, here is a pic of my new shelves and what the studio looks like now.  I find it is always kind of cool to see what the inside of a creative space looks like. 

Preview

Supplies will be in next week! Before I leave on Easter Break, here is a preview of the amazing work that will be for sale in the store soon!

Back in the Game!

Sometimes I have to be hit on the head to know what is good for me, as most of my family and friends can attest. After a solid year of being away from Etsy, I have finally realized it is time to get back into creating fun, affordable, abstract art.

The only twist - is that this time I am doing it from Asia! Imagine.

About 18 months ago, Hurricane Ike hit and life as I knew it changed drastically. Within six months of the hurricane, I was putting my husband on a plane to Asia and packing up the house. As I packed up the house, I stored almost all of my art supplies, figuring I wouldn't have the time or space to work on BS Art Studios. I was going to spend my time working on my MFA, creating gallery quality international work.

Well, I have too much time on my hands, and I've learned the value in creating your own destiny. I loved my Etsy store and selling our work to people. I'm still working on my MFA, but I will be doing that only part-time while I re-open the Etsy store and get cracking.

Needless to say, I love it here, and I am so excited to get my store up and running again!