Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Tastee Treat Organic Cotton Infant Creeper from Zazzle.com/sharizimm

Tastee Treat Organic Cotton Infant Creeper from Zazzle.com

Tastee Treat Organic Cotton Infant Creeper from Zazzle.com

The idea behind my Smart Thinking Designs store at zazzle.com/sharizimm is to make my artwork affordable and accessible to more people. Those who can't budget for artwork may be able to afford my art as a baby gift, postcard art, something they can wear themselves, etc. So, as part of my plan to show some of my products along with my gallery art, I have started to order samples.

Yesterday the UPS guy brought me:

Offtrail and Blue Top postcards. I was very happy with the quality of paper and vivid color reproduction. Yes!

The organic cotton infant onesie with Tastee Treat art. It has an adorable vintage feel and more of a cream color to the cotton material than depicted in the online image.

A woman's tank top with Transforming Wigs art. The cotton is very soft with a substantial feel to it. The artwork is screenprinted and has a softer look to it than the vivid look and plastic feel of color transfer.

Have you ordered anything from Smart Thinking Designs? I'd love to hear what you think.

Shari


Monday, August 16, 2010

Transforming Wigs

My wig series of paintings started when I was driving through Georgia one summer and saw a series of billboards along the freeway. They were very simple and bold--red and black with "Wigs" in block letters. Each new billboard said something different: "Beautiful Wigs", "Elegant Wigs", "Sexy Wigs"....you get the picture. It inspired me to do my own series and delve into the image someone wearing a wig would like to portray. The more wig paintings I did, the more they became about what we choose to show or hide about ourselves. What is it that we consider attractive about ourselves? What do we think we need to cover up?

Transforming Wigs

 

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Jumbo shrimp and birthday cake at the Blue Top

When I was a child, my parents would give each of us six kids a choice on how to celebrate our birthday. I could have a party with friends or I could go out to eat, just me, mom and dad, to a restaurant of my choice. It was very rare to get one-on-one time with mom and dad, and even more rare to eat out, so I always chose the restaurant option. The Blue Top restaurant was my choice one year. I remember the sparkly vinyl booths, the little birthday cake the waitress brought for me and feeling extremely grown up eating jumbo shrimp for the first time. Very special memory.

I gave this painting to my mom and dad, but the postcard version is available to all at zazzle.com/sharizimm.

Blue Top

Blue Top postcard
Blue Top by sharizimm
Create your own photo postcard with zazzle

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Offtrail postcard

One autumn day a couple years ago, I was hiking along a trail in Lake Rebecca Park Reserve, wondering at the gorgeous red sumac bushes. All around me were golden leaves, birch and maple trees and the smell of fall in the woods. Suddenly a whole flock of blue birds flew in front of me and my friend, landing in the trees around us and just as quickly flying off. The contrast of their blue wings against the yellow sunlight and blazing red and gold foliage is something I will never forget.

This painting is now hanging on another friend's wall, but the postcard version is available at zazzle.com/sharizimm*.

Offtrail

Friday, August 13, 2010

Tastee Treat

Night time at the Tastee Treat was inspired by late night family road trips back from Grandpa and Grandma's house in southern Wisconsin. If all had gone well in the station wagon my dad would ask mom, "Should we stop for ice cream?". My sleepy siblings and I would quietly wait to hear her answer. It was almost always yes, and we'd stop at the neon lit Tastee Treat for a soft serve cone and watch the ducks swim around in the water.

Although the painting is no longer for sale, it is now available in postcard form at my online store, zazzle.com/sharizimm*. Hope to see you there!

Tastee Treat