The ‘Daily Artisan Spotlight’ is a regular feature on Mindless Pursuits intended to provide insight and exposure to the tons of talented artisans working today. Please comment and give them some encouragement and check out their work! If you would like to be considered for the Spotlight, click on the ‘Free Press’ link above!

What is your shop?
Creations by KazeSeka (http://kazeseka.etsy.com)

What is your art/craft?
The main addiction is ACEO (Art Cards Editions & Originals). These little cards (3-1/2″x2-1/2″) are so much fun to paint (and collect). But I also have a passion for painting larger piece, and sewing, knitting, woodworking…ooh and the list goes on. You can say I’m a crafty person (but never sly!)

Describe your style in 2 words:
Freestyle…

What is your favorite piece and why?
That’s a hard question. I guess I’d have to say two pieces are my favorites: “Purple Orchid Ghost Butterfly” for now. It’s an ACEO done in acrylics. My husband bought me these orchids for my birthday. They are beautiful!! And I knew right away that they had to be painted. The ghost butterflies “just happened”. Maybe in my subconscience I knew the beauty of the flower will not last forever. And the other favorite is “Tropical Fruit” because it looks so delicious!

What is the most memorable piece of advice you’ve ever received?
From my dear daughter, who has inspired me. “Look” She has advised me to “really look and see” at what I’m drawing/painting. And it’s amazing when you spot an object that you know you “gotta paint”, the image you see comes through in vivid colors and contours.

What is the one piece of advice you’d give?
Paint what you love. Because when you actually feel it, it will be portrayed in the artwork. And others will feel it too

At some point, I suspect everyone has heard the familiar idiom: ‘practice makes perfect.’ It’s a mantra thrown about frequently for anyone attempting to learn a new skill. Frankly, I think it’s a crock, and I’ll tell you why: if you ever think your work is perfect, then give up and go home as you’ll stop growing as an artisan or worse yet, become complacent and your quality will suffer while the world passes you by. Thus, I prefer the simple statement that practice brings improvement.

When I set about to begin painting again after not having touched them in twenty years, I knew my meager skills from high school had completely fallen aside and that I would have work to do to get even those back. When I left high school, my most accomplished piece of art was painting one of those little bears with hats that used to be in the art school ads in the TV Guide so I knew I had a lot of room to grow!  Thus it was with a bit of hesitation that I invested the dollars needed to purchase my first supplies. Even harder was getting over the fear of how badly it might turn out and touching brush to canvas.

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The ‘Daily Artisan Spotlight’ is a regular feature on Mindless Pursuits intended to provide insight and exposure to the tons of talented artisans working today. Please comment and give them some encouragement and check out their work! If you would like to be considered for the Spotlight, click on the ‘Free Press’ link above!

What is your shop?
Megan Eilise Paper Goods & Gifts (http://www.meganeilise.etsy.com)

What is your art/craft?
I’m a graphic designer creating bright, fun note cards and greetings some with a sweet vibe and some with a snarky attitude!

Describe your style in 2 words:
Bright & playful.

What is your favorite piece and why?
My favorite card design at the moment is currently my Snarky Sending card that simply says, “You Smell.” I love sending it to my older brother, it’s just the right thing for giving him a laugh.

What is the most memorable piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Love what you make. I’ve been in graphic design for 12 years now (holy cow its been so long!) and I’ve had to do many, many commissions that just didn’t tickle my fancy. I can’t tell you how many medical drawings of brains I’ve done- boring! Creating these bright cards has really made me relove what I do.

What is the one piece of advice you’d give?
Experiment all the time, never be afraid to try something new and keep trying if it doesn’t work out the first time. No one ever gets it perfect on the first go, so you gotta hang in there and work out all the little kinks. If you enjoy it, do it, no matter how big the learning curve may be.

Well, I have hit am impasse that is starting to wear on me a bit. Despite lots of people liking my art and craft items, so far I have not made a sale. My painting supplies are running low and I’m a bit torn on what to sew next as I really want to make clothes, but not just for kids and I don’t know what sizes I should make for sale to non-family members. Thus I started rummaging my brain for art that I could work on that I can easily afford. The first, and most obvious choice, is drawing! However, it’s been years since I worked on drawing, and I dropped out of my two art school classes years ago because I was frustrated by my lack of talent.  But I’ve been thinking that maybe I stopped prematurely and should work on my drawing technique again.

To that end, I pulled out my old art school portfolio and found a couple of examples I could stand to look at for motivation (above). I still had my sketch pads and pencils in the portfolio, so I am good to go. I did use a 40% off coupon to go to the bookstore and pick up a copy of ‘Drawing for the Absolute Beginner’ and am going to work through that. After a couple of rough wireframes using a ‘Deleter Doll’ (poseable doll for artists) that I had, I feel pretty good about getting back into it, even if I never do anything that I’d want to try and sell.

Today I thought I’d begin introducing my readers (hopefully to come) to my creative process. As with anything, the creative process starts with an idea. Oh, in some cases the idea may be more about finding motivation, such as in the popular “what can I make that might make me some cash” or the frequent “what can I make that will keep me entertained” and of course the distress call of the lonely artist: “what can I make that will impress the opposite sex?” We’re going to put those ideas behind and start at the next level of coming up with an idea, which is to begin finding ideas for projects after the motivation has been established. In my case, the creative process begins with a simple notebook. This notebook, in fact:

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