Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Creative Endeavors

For those of you visiting for the pricing information, I'll let you skip all of the reading!
I am creating 11x14" horizontal paintings with up to 5 faces for $75, 5x7" vertical paintings with one face for $35, or larger numbers upon request!  If you are interested, feel free to email me at ashleyperry.art@gmail.com.  
I think that being an Art Education major in college was one of the funnest things I've ever done.  I got experience in lots of different art media including photography, ceramics, printmaking, design, graphic design, painting, and drawing.  I met some of my favorite people in art school, and I constantly felt inspired creatively.  I have been concentrating a lot on learning and growing as an art teacher and as a photographer, but I've slightly neglected my need to grow as an artist.  I think in order to be a successful person in the art world, teaching or otherwise, you need to find inspiration and create art.  While I do consider my photography art, creating something with your hands is a completely different experience.  Now, I definitely make art ALL DAY EVERYDAY as an art teacher, but it's easy to get bogged down creating art on an elementary level.  A few months ago, I decided to break out my watercolors and play around.  I made some floral paintings and then I decided to make a cute little portrait of my myself, my husband, and our cat.  It was strictly for fun, but people started asking me if I could paint one for them.
My creative endeavors have turned into a third business move for me, and I'm super excited about it!  I have several portraits in the works, and some unresolved inquiries too, but I'm excited to see where this goes.  I feel like I come into my own style more with each painting, so it's fun to see how each one turns out.  I don't have an Etsy shop or anything, but I AM available to make portraits upon request.  I am creating 11x14" horizontal paintings with up to 5 faces for $75, 5x7" vertical paintings with one face for $35, or larger numbers upon request!  
If you are interested, feel free to email me at ashleyperry.art@gmail.com.  I just finished my biggest painting yet...8 PEOPLE!  It was on 24x30" heavy watercolor paper.
 I hand paint EVERY line!
Art is not about being talented, or making something someone will want to buy, or even something someone will like.  It's about making SOMETHING.  Something that makes you feel calm, happy, crazy, angry, or even just silly.  If you haven't made something lately...go make something soon.  I promise you won't regret it.

Monday, July 22, 2013

New House Tour: The Living Room

WOW!  Time got away from me last week as I worked really hard on one of my custom illustration paintings, photo shoots, wedding photos, and visiting with friends.  But enough with the excuses... When I see photos of living rooms in magazines and online, I always feel kind of jealous.  My living room is a hodge podge of new, old, and borrowed furniture, knick knacks, art books, pet toys, puppy-friendly blankets on our once-chic couch, and a cat tower.  This room is definitely lived in.  I took these photos over the course of a few days because I never really felt like the room was "photo worthy."  We still aren't finished decorating, and there are still shelves and frames sitting on the floor waiting to be hung [not in these photos of course ;)].  We hope to put in hardwood laminate flooring at some point, but for now we are okay with the carpet [even though we are still potty training Penny :/ womp womp].  I like to think of the living room color scheme as kind of a primary colors scheme with red, yellow, and teal/blue, but there's some orange mixed in there too.  It still feels incomplete to me and kind of all over the place, but it's comfortable for us.  So here ya go, the living room!
 And what kind of an art history enthusiast would I be without showing off my new Georgia O'Keeffe book?! And my all-time favorite Matisse book <3.
Sugar Skull from Mexico and little owl from our honeymoon...
 She is the queen of this house...on her cat tower.
Those puppy-friendly blankets I mentioned earlier...and if you are my friend on Facebook you know WHY they're there. ;)
 AND proving my point...
 Where the puppy is SUPPOSED to sleep.
So, I don't know if you realize that my husband and I are COMPLETE nerds.  This is some of our comic book collection [the rest is in that red trunk].  One of our favorite past times in college was entering comic book character drawing contests on this site called comicvine...but this is a room tour, not an embarrassing story.
 The start of our family photo display, but we need to print some new photos!
 This is by the front door; the red trunk is our mail center.
I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Monday, July 15, 2013

New House Tour: The Creek

So, I don't consider myself a "woodsy" person, or even an "outdoors" type of person [terrible I know].  I just really HATE bugs.  I'm the girl who screams at spiders, feels like there's bugs all over her when she sees just one ant, and has 3 bottles of OFF in her cabinet. So yeah, not a fan of bugs.  That's why when our surveyor told us there was something we needed to see in the woods behind our house, I said "go for it Corey" and went inside.  On his treasure hunt, Corey found a creek running through our property just a little ways into the woods.  He told me I should go check it out, and of course I laughed and said "that's a funny joke."  A few days later, his family came to visit and they all wanted to see the creek.  I am SUCH a party pooper that I said have fun, gave them the OFF spray, and continued to unpack.  Well, yesterday Corey FINALLY convinced me to go see the creek, so I put on some long pants, cowboy boots, a head scarf, and drowned myself with bug spray.  We set off on our journey to discover the rest of the property not contained within our sort of manicured [and not TOO buggy] yard...

The "entryway"...
 He's pretty cute, huh? :)
 At this time I'd like to point out that Corey got some poison on his leg. [Maybe he should have worn pants like the other people on this hike.]
 It has rained so hard lately that we can hear the water gushing from our back deck.
 This is where I point out that I squealed like a baby almost the whole time.  Also, Corey DIDN'T wear bug spray.  We were walking through clouds of mosquitos, and SOMEONE now has a million mosquito bites to go with his poison rash.  I'd also like to point out that I have ZERO bug bites.  Not too bad for my first trip to the creek. 
Ew.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

New House Tour: The Kitchen

These past few weeks I haven't been blogging because I've been really busy with the end of school, weddings, photo shoots, and buying a house!  We are feeling pretty settled [only 3 boxes left to unpack], and we have been working our butts off getting everything done.  It was a bittersweet goodbye to our apartment because we loved it sooo much, and it was our first "home" as a married couple, but it was time to make some decisions that would be better for us financially.  We are so excited to have our house, and we absolutely love it.  I will be posting a TON of pics this week on here and I'm going to start with my favorite room, because it's the most complete, and that's the kitchen! We love our new kitchen and we've spent the most time decorating and hanging blinds in there, so without further ado, I give you...the kitchen!

 We painted the back of the island with chalkboard paint...our first "major" change.
 I love yellow and red together.  Some people say it's mustard and ketchupy...but I disagree. So there.
 I also love my new kitchen chairs from Target!  I had one kitchen chair and one office chair before, so this is certainly an upgrade!  We are going to paint the table a high-gloss black and get a rug...eventually.
 We also love our curtains from IKEA! [Do you see the dog crate up there ^? haha, classy]
 I'm hoping to keep this little guy alive.  I use so much basil, starting an herb garden just seemed logical.  Wish me luck, I kill every plant that I touch. [fingers crossed]
 And what kind of an ex-barista would I be without a latte station?
 And finally, above the cabinets.  One of my favorite places to look.  [I wasn't joking about the red and yellow thing.]
I hope you enjoyed the tour! I will be posting tons of pictures this week inside and outside of the house.  Happy Sunday!