hercoffin/blog

10

Dec 12

without a care in this whole world

29

Oct 12

& i’ll be choking on my abc’s all night

newest alphabet art:

15

Sep 12

If you were able to take a look inside my mind, the aesthetics would probably look very similar to Mark Ryden‘s paintings. His style incorporates so many of the elements that I love the most — vibrant colours, little girls, religious kitsch, and Abraham Lincoln. All tied together with this perfect balance of both cuteness and creepiness. A balance which is very dear to my own heart. Though, I must say, some of his work just nearly goes over the borderline of being slightly too creepy, even for me. But that probably just makes him all the more brilliant of an artist, don’t you think?

I first discovered Mark Ryden’s art years ago, probably around the time that I started listening to Jack Off Jill. I found that he created the cover art for their album Clear Hearts, Grey Flowers. I hadn’t thought about his art in years, until I saw this article about him. Now my intrigue has been rekindled, and I feel inspired all over again.

03

Sep 12

My fairest wheels are turning

Recent-ish art, photos, & et ceteras.

26

May 12

Alphabet Art

This is what I’ve been working on lately. I’m going to make one collage for each letter. Then, once I’m done with all the letters, I want to print a book of them for Raina! … So far, I did the letters: R, F, G, B, Z, and S. I plan on doing A next.

13

Sep 11

All your thoughts, they rot

Self portrait. 2006ish?

I was looking through some of my old files & thought I’d gather up some random things to share. This mostly consists of: self portraits, art, photography, & lots of silly things. I’m quite bad at recalling when most of these photos are from. They range anywhere from 2001 to 2007ish, I’d guess.

Naked ice cream cone baby. Those of you that know me from the livejournal days know all about naked ice cream cone baby. She used to have her own webpage & I’ve even got a tattoo of her.

Daisy head self portrait. These are three old, old grainy webcam pictures from when I was 16 perhaps. Later on, I put them together in this silly little self portrait.

A vector drawing that I did of Billy Corgan for a project in college.

Portraits in the playground. I think I was around 19 or 20 at the time.

I made this for fun and posted it at Livejournal Secret. It was in reference to an inside joke that I don’t remember anymore.

One of my most favourite pictures of Fritzie.

Me & my peeps.

I used to make completely pointless webpages with little to no content. I just enjoyed designing weird things.

Me & Zoe Keating after a Rasputina show.

Zombie-ish me. My favourite part about this is that the file is called bakeyouacake.jpg

Me & Fritzie

Cute octopus vector

During the height of my obsession with horror movies. Note my Devil’s Rejects shirt & Planet Terror poster.

More experiments in vector drawings – Deer girl.

I made these necklaces during my Simon Pegg phase.

Lotsss of old webcam pictures. These all range from when I was about 15 through 19ish.

More naked ice cream cone baby.

More cute vector art.

The humans are dead.

At one point, I owned all of these baby dolls. I wish I still had them all to give to my daughter!

Leopard print hair

Listening to Zeitgeist

The Tale of Rupert and Cornelius!

We are lambs.

Bubbles

I made these necklaces during my REPO! The Genetic Opera obsession.

Chunky me & Bill Moseley

26

Aug 11

Summer Sessions 2011: Session Seven

via eonism.net

What is The Summer Sessions?

The Summer Sessions is a project organised by Magen Toole with the help of Melissa Dominic, bringing authors, poets, photographers and artists together under a common theme: A desire to create. This year’s project consists of ten people, in different stages of their careers and creative development, from different cultural and educational backgrounds, who agreed to be interviewed and interview one another, with the goal of cross-posting each others’ interviews in our respective blogs. It’s a project about knowing who’s in our community, and giving back to that community by helping one another promote our own work.

SESSION SEVEN: JOLENE FRANCES, INTERVIEWED BY SHILO COULTER

As an artist, journal-keeper and poet, Jolene Frances uses this range of interests and mediums to share some stories about her work, her family and her processes. You can find more on Jolene at her website, Her Coffin.

1. Do you look to learn anything from your art? Similarly, do you look to teach anything with it?

Whether I previously realised it or not, I think I’ve always been making art in an attempt to simply learn about myself. I’m always questioning, “Who am I really?” Art is my way of figuring that out. As for teaching with my art, I really don’t know. I’m not sure what’s in it for other people to learn. I’m mostly hoping to inspire others with my art. And to conjure emotion from them.

2. Describe a real life situation that inspired one of your works.

The first thing that comes to mind is one of my art-poems. In February, I made a collage and wrote a poem each day of the month. My very last art-poem of the month, on the 28th, I found out I was pregnant. The poem and image I created are about that experience. My feelings of both awe and terror, knowing that there is a life inside of me. It’s the strangest and most beautiful thing I’ve ever known thusfar.

3. What is your favourite medium to work in?

Though making paper collages will always have a special place in my heart, I must say that I like the digital medium best. Making collages solely with Photoshop is absolutely the most satisfying for me. I think it’s probably because you can make your image as perfect as possible when you’re doing it digitally. With paper, it can be scary. I always find myself having to take a deep breath and saying, “Ok! Just glue that picture down. Now!” when I’m working with paper. I’m always afraid of the imperfections. But with Photoshop, I can fix anything.

4. Do you ever have trouble finding inspiration or motivation, and if so, do you have any tricks to regain it?

Oh, absolutely. I could show you tons and tons of my written journal entries, that are nothing but me bitching about how I can’t find the inspiration or motivation to create anything. Haha .. I’m still looking for tricks to regain it. If I really knew, I would be a much more prolific artist. The only thing I know for sure is – you have to force yourself to create, even if you’re not feeling creative. It’s hard to do, but I think that’s really the only way to regain the inspiration. You have to force it.

5. Do you see your art as a career or hobby?

I see it as a passion, or a compulsion. More than anything, I do it because I just feel compelled to. I feel like I have to do it or I’d go insane. I’d love to make a career out of it, but I’m quite bad at business sense, self-promotion, and networking. All of which are necessary to make a career, I believe.

6. What are some of your other interests?

Scrabble, journalling, writing poetry, and eating cake.

7. What is something you wish other artists would understand?

I wish that other artists would understand that I’m awesome, and let me into their social circles. Haha

8. Decor-wise, do you surround yourself with your own art, or the work of others?

Definitely the work of others! I like to call myself a “collector of beauty.” I like to surround myself with things that inspire me. I take bits and pieces of the things I love to create something new and beautiful.

9. On average, how long does it take to complete an art piece?

I usually like to create things in one day. I’m not really one to go back and revise my work or add to it in any way. I tell myself when it’s done, it’s done. Imperfections and all. I usually start working when it’s dark out and end up finishing when the birds start chirping.

10. Do you listen to music (and do you have certain playlists) or do you need silence while you’re working?

Music, music, music! Absolutely. Really, I’m not sure if I could even work without music. I think that music, more than anything, is what inspires my pieces. I base what I listen to on what sort of mood I want to conjure up. My art is always about emotion. And music is a natural part of emotion, for me.

11. Finally, because it should be asked of all artists if only to drive them crazy, what’s your favourite colour?

If this counts as a colour, then my favourite is silver. If not, then I don’t reckon I have a favourite colour! I used to always say black, but that’s not true anymore. I’m quite fond of Easter pastels. And the colour scheme of black, white, and red.

02

Aug 11

Artist Trading Cards!

So. I made my very first set of artist trading cards. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for years, but I never got around to. Recently, I saw that the lovely Erica of star-stuff.net was looking to do an ATC swap, so I took her up on her offer. We decided on doing three cards, with a different theme for each: baby, animals, and a random one. Here are each of my cards:

Baby

Animal

Random

& Here are Erica’s cards:

Baby

Animal

Random

Thank you so much to Erica for doing this trade with me. I had so much fun & I love the cards you sent me, dearie. I hope to do it again sometime!

Want to swap artist trading cards with me?
ATCs have become my new obsession. I’d really like to make some more trades with other artists. If you’re interested in trading with me, either leave a comment on my blog or send me an email.

13

Jul 11

Free Photoshop Brushes #001

I’ve been wanting to create some design resources to share with all of you. Brushes, textures, et cetera. I’m working on some new brushes, but for now, I’d like to share these brushes that I made a few years ago. New (and better!) brushes soon.