Wee!Art Original Pet Portrait Giveaway

The Time has come!!

It's the Moment you've been waiting for.

Well, maybe not the moment in the Grand Scheme, but it's a a pretty good moment. You have to admit that.

What is this moment all about, you ask? Why should you be SO EXCITED?!? It's time for Miss Zoe and I to announce the Winners of the Wee!Art Pet Portrait Giveaway!!

But then, you knew that, right?

Right now, Miss Zoe is resting from the harrowing work of nosing her way through many little folded up pieces of paper to pick the Winners.

Miss Zoe rests in her sunspot.
Please, she doesn't wish to be bothered just now.

But, since you weren't here for the actual event, let's rewind and view a pictorial representation of the choosing process.

Assessing the competition...

Nosing through...

Choosing Winner #1
(this paper went all the way in her mouth--
you can barely see it sticking out.
And, yes, she got it pretty gooey.)

And, Winner #2
(she took Winner #2 away to a more
remote location, but #2 didn't get so gooey!)

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

Luckily Miss Zoe didn't munch them
so much that they were unreadable!

Kavindra's Wee!Art Pet Portrait will feature none other than her wonderful cat, Lucy. (By the way Lucy, I think everyone misses the litterbox once in awhile!)

Ash's Wee!Art Pet Portrait will feature not her own animal companion, but another animal who was special-- a poodle named Dexter who belonged to her voice teacher.

Kavindra and Ash, please send pictures of your Animals and your mailing addresses to Miss Zoe and me at zoejobie(at)gmail(dot)com.

Many thanks to all those who sent their stories in for the contest. We have to admit, many of them were so sweet, they made us cry. Though, even if pressed, Miss Zoe will not admit that.

Oh, and Kavindra, Miss Zoe says to feel free to send that yummy carrot you promised. She'll be waiting...

FUN Friday!!

I know. It's not Flip Friday, but we went through all that on Wacky Wednesday.

And, Miss Zoe and I resorted to Wacky Wednesday only because the thing we had planned for Wednesday wasn't quite ready.

So, now, it's Friday, you've already enjoyed your Miss Zoe movie fix for the week, and it's time to move on to other things. Like the little surprise we have planned.

Don't you love a surprise?

Miss Zoe LOVES a surprise.
Especially if it's Willow Balls coming in the mail.

OK, so first, a little history: You remember how I asked all of you to help me to choose my new logo and you all voted and sent me the most wonderfullest of comments? (Did I hear a yes?)

Well, someone who lives with me who is extremely wise and has long ears (hint, hint), brought up some of those comments a couple of weeks ago. In her great wisdomosity, Blisschick (did you think I meant Zoe?) said to me, "What is it that you really want to be painting? What is it that you want a logo to really represent?"

I thought about that for a moment. I exchanged glances with Zoe. She looked away.

"Because," the Blisschick continued, "you have to think about all that. You made a nice logo and you have lots of ideas, but what is it that you love to paint more than anything else?"

Miss Lilly jumped into the Rabbit Room and cleared her throat. Miss Zoe coughed a bit from behind a pile of hay. I scratched my ear.

They were being a bit obvious, but they were right.

"Animals," I said with confidence. "I LOVE to paint animals. Especially cats and rabbits. But also dogs."

Another cough from Miss Zoe. (She's not too sure about dogs.)

And the Blisschick replied, "Animals. Then that's what you need your Etsy store to be. That's what you need to be painting and focusing on. Paint what you love."

With that in mind, then, I set off to sketch some ideas, which incorporated my new love of milagros with my obvious love of painting animals.

From there, it has all fallen together.

Add this bit of history: Over the past two years, we have said goodbye to the Fur Suits of two extraordinary cats who we were fortunate enough to know and love during this life. Those beautiful cats, Jobie and Ernie, have gone to a place we call Sparkle Pond.

If we want to visit Jobie or Ernie, all we need to do is close our eyes and trek to Sparkle Pond.

It's a gorgeous place. There's the Pond, of course. There's a rock Ernie likes to sleep on that's always in the sun. There's a Paper Ball Tree ripe with juicy, crinkly paper balls that Jobie loves to sleep under. And at night, there's always a clear and swirly sky filled with stars and a bright and lovely Moon. And, the cats are almost always wearing little hats or crowns. Sometimes they glow or wear wings.

And so, my new paintings and pendants come from here. They originate at Sparkle Pond and are meant to celebrate the Lives of Animals, whether they are in Fur Suits or Sparkle Suits.

Without further adieu, I hereby announce the opening of my new and improved Etsy Store, Ordinary Enchantment.

It's a pretty small inventory at present, but it will grow.

I want to thank you all for your help and guidance, for without your comments, suggestions, and votes, I think I'd still be a little lost about what I wanted to work on.

So thank you. Let Miss Zoe know what you think. She'll break it to me gently.

Logo-motion

Lately, things have been busy here at the Lilypad.

Busy in a good way.

Part of what makes it feel busy is that in addition to the work we all need to get done here in the way of writing, painting, blogging, entertaining, drawing, making rabbit salads, feeding cats, scooping litter, etc. etc. etc., there's often, also, a good deal of monkey business going on around here.

See for yourself:

Exhibit A:
Blisschick and Rosie

Exhibit B:
Lilly and Zoe

Really. Need I say more?

Anyhow, amidst the silliness, some seriousity does take place. Some.

Working on my logo for Ordinary Miracles was one of those recent seriousnesses.

I still haven't gotten too far with that. I keep putting it off in favor of other things. I guess because I'm still thinking about its function, and also because I'm still mulling over a lot of the ideas and questions I got from those who do things in the graphic designy arena for a living like this person and this person.

And then, in the midst of all this thinking, which is pretty hard work for me anyway, another logo thing happened.

Our friend, Al, asked me to design a banner logo for his partner, Emma, to use on her blog.

We met Emma and Al Steinfeld about 6 years ago or so at CelebrateErie. Blisschick and I were there to sell my art in the art booth, and Al and Emma walked in to check things out. A month or so later, Emma called me up and commissioned me to paint their pug, and then later, their Siamese cat, and our friendship was born.

A few weeks ago, Al came to see me at the library with a sketch already made of what he thought the logo might look like, and we went from there. It actually ended up pretty much like his original vision.

I'm pretty happy with the result. Check it out here, at Emma's blog, Eriepressible.

Back to the monkey business!!

Pets on Parade

Zoe thinks that the cats are enough
for her to deal with.

Over the holiday season of 2008, Miss Zoe and I were very busy with pet portrait commissions. The only commission that Zoe actually was excited about was the one we wrote about a couple of weeks ago of Derby and Petunia.

You can probably figure out why she wasn't that thrilled with some of the others, right?

[Hint: The portrait subjects were not bouncy with long ears. Well, actually, they may have been bouncy, and their ears weren't necessary short, but they were not rabbit-bouncy with rabbit-ears.]

Now you probably get the idea. Besides Derby and Petunia, all my commissions in November and December were dogs. Having a dog painting sitting on the easel staring at her for a couple of days can make Miss Zoe feel a little unsettled.

I love to paint dogs. They have so much expression and are so full of emotion, especially in their eyes. That's the hardest part for me: painting their eyes. I often go through 3 or 4 sets of eyes, trying to get them right. I sketch them, then, I paint them on the canvas, then, I inevitably paint over them. Then, I think they're good and then Blisschick comes along and says, "Not quite yet." Then, I paint over them again. Whew!

Eventually I get them how I want them, and from there the rest is pretty straightforward shape and color.

But those eyes.

I always want the person who ordered the commission to feel like they see the essence of their dog (or their cat or their rabbit, or their bird, or whatever) when they look at their portrait.

Anyway, here's a few of my most recent pet portraits that were shipped off over the last couple of months:

Trixie as the Goddess Lakshmi

A triptych meant for an altar
that I did for this blogger.


Tex, a local Erie dog

L'il Bit, a pet portrait contest winner
from the pet social media
site PetPop!