Black Light Groove, Part Two: Ultraviolet Turntable Art

Say hello to groovy black light mandala #2, Ultraviolet!



Work in progress:
In natural light:


In natural light, and in black light:

(Black light photos by Kaila Haas.)


These last two photos show you a little sneak peek at some of the amazing fluorescent murals I've painted on the walls. I have more great photos of the murals and will share them in another post!

Black Light Groove, Part One: Radioactive Turntable Art

Hi! Welcome to my world.

I've been painting mandalas on vinyl records since 1997.

In the many years before I had any such thing as a digital camera, a blog, a facebook page, and all that good stuff, I was never able to really share my art with the world.

Since entering this modern age, I've shared a-plenty. BUT...I had a little secret...a little card up my sleeve. You see, many of my paintings glow in the dark, and/or glow under black light. But I could never show you what that looked like. Even when my mural-filled bedroom/studio was on HGTV, they never showed the hidden underlying fact that the entire room glows in the dark. You may like my work, but you really haven't seen it until you've seen it under a black light.

And now, finally, at long last, I have pictures of my work in black light!!!

I'm so excited about this. It is really great that after all this time, my own work can still surprise and delight me. I look at my glowing art every night, but I have never been able to look at a photo of it before, and being able to share these photos makes me feel like I've just created all of this work all over again. You know, that satisfying feeling of having created something new and beautiful.

These black light photos were taken by my friend Kaila Haas, who patiently set up her killer tripod in about 100 different configurations and waited approximately 16 seconds for each exposure. It was a long but fascinating series of 16-second intervals, and the results are fantastic!


This green and blue piece is called Radioactive and it is one of two mandalas I created for a custom order on Etsy. The awesome buyer (I love her for having the great idea that set all of this into motion!) requested Turntable Art to give to her husband, a DJ and promoter, as an anniversary gift. She asked, "Do you work with black light reactive paint at all? My husband is a DJ, psytrance being his favorite genre, and he decorates with black lights a LOT. Your designs would look awesome under black lights."

Well, of course I have been using black light paints and phosphorescent medium for ages and it's all over my bedroom/studio as well as on murals in our basement, and on several guitars, records, and other things that I've painted over the years. But I've never really promoted this aspect of my work, mainly because I didn't have any means to show it off (other than inviting people to come over to my house and check it out at night, which is not always a feasible plan!).

But once I got started on the order I knew that I'd have to find a way to get photos of these babies, because they are definitely going to be a new product line for Eye Pop Art!

Here are some photos of the work in progress:





And the finished product under natural light:



Side by side, the same item in natural light and in black light:




This last photo shows a little sneak peek of the OTHER record, which is called Ultraviolet. I will tell you more about that one in my next post.

Hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse into my secret black light world...there's lots more to come!

Mandalas at the Summit of Awesome

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending Hello Craft’s Summit of Awesome in Portland, OR.

I was a panelist for the green business and creative community discussions, and also got to lead a mandala painting workshop. (In the picture above, I am the one standing up and wearing a blue top and big pink earrings which, by the way, I made during a jewelry making workshop with Susan Beal at the Summit of Awesome!)

(Superstar Mark Montano even hung out for a while - here he is with one of the students!)

The paints we used were Crafty Chica paints donated by the Crafty Chica Kathy Cano-Murillo herself, through the good people at ilovetocreate.com! (Thanks Kathy!)

You can see more of my photos from the Summit of Awesome in this flickr set.

Paint a mandala at the Summit of Awesome!

I'm excited to announce that I'll be one of the guest speakers at the upcoming Hello Craft Summit of Awesome. It's the second annual summit and it's being held in Portland!

Please click this link for all the details including how to register and a full list of amazing speakers, including some of my heroes like Sister Diane, Susan Beal, and Rebecca Pearcy, fellow Trillium Artisans like Stephanie Weber, Lee Meredith, and Amanda Siska, and local genius friends from DIY Lounge, Crafty Wonderland, and Frock.

I'm also looking forward to meeting Danielle from Etsy, Kari Chapin (author of the new book The Handmade Marketplace), Jena from Modish, and, well, EVERYONE! It's really going to be an amazing event and I am so honored to be included. You can find the full schedule here.

I'll be speaking on two panels. "Green Craft: Sourcing Materials and Business Practices" with Becky Streipe and Stephanie Weber at 3:30 pm on Wednesday, June 16. I'll also be discussing "The Creative Community" with various local leaders including Cathy + Torie from Crafty Wonderland at 1:45 pm on Friday, June 18.

But the thing I'm most excited about (well, besides the fact that I get to attend the conference for free!) is the workshop I'll be leading - Mandalas on Vinyl Records! This will be happening on Friday, June 18 at 11 am.

I'm so pleased that they asked me to lead this workshop. It's going to be so much fun - and it will be so DIFFERENT from the majority of crafty make-and-take type workshops that you usually see. Most of these things don't usually involve painting. Painting seems to be a craft that kind of gets left out of the general crafty world - it's mostly glue, scissors, needle & thread, right? Well, if you take my workshop, you will actually get to do some painting with acrylics and it will be super fun. Maybe some crafters are a little apprehensive about trying this kind of craft because they've never picked up a paintbrush before...but just let me assure you that not only will it be easy, but you will be blown away by the beautiful design you will create.

Maybe it would be easier to explain this with examples. Here are a bunch of photos from mandala classes I've taught over the years with kids and adults alike. As you can see, they are all fabulous.



So if you are attending the summit, I hope you'll paint a mandala with me!

Recycled Arts Festival 2009

Here are some pictures from the Recycled Arts Festival, which happened on June 28 and 29 at Esther Short Park in Vancouver, Washington. It was a really great event, and I am happy to say that many Eye Pop products have found new and loving homes. The weekend weather was gorgeous and it was an all-around great time!

Here are some shots of my booth. You can also check out pictures from 2007 and 2008 if you want (I did it in 2006 too, but that was before I had a blog!).





And look who showed up - Michael Cordova! My old, old friend from high school who lives in San Francisco and was in town for the weekend. It was so sweet of him to come up to the 'Couv just to visit me.

It was actually a great weekend for seeing friends. I also saw another old high school friend, Aaron Nelson. My old friend Stephanie came by and we had lunch together at the Farmers Market - she and I used to share an office at the Kinko's regional training center, and we did a big sales training project together back in...I think 2001?

"Miss Megan" and "Miss Chantelle" also showed up - we were all SUN School teachers together at Lynch Wood Elementary a couple years ago, and we also worked together at OCAC summer camp.

And, Brenda Gunderson and her family showed up too! Brenda and I had kids in the same class at Duniway and she was one of my earliest supporters when I started Eye Pop Art - she gave me a ton of records, and was one of my first customers, buying several of my Mandala Record Bowls which she uses as candle holders at her beach house.

Not to mention that I met some very cool people who have a consignment shop in Seattle where I will soon be selling my work. It's called the Green Chair Project and I am going there on the 18th when the band goes up for our big punk rock show at the Bit Saloon.

Another fun thing about the Recycled Arts Festival is getting to chat with the other vendors, some of whom are fellow members of Trillium Artisans. Here is Anitra Cameron of Coffee Pot People:

I had to take several pictures of her wonderful China Blossoms, so bright and colorful and funky!



And here is Liz Dickey. I truly love her amazing bike clocks. She shared the booth with April from Rosewebs.

Here's Julia Garretson with her jewelry made from bicycle tires:


Anitra was sweet enought to take this picture of me in my booth:
It was a fantastic show!

Oh - and also! My stuff was in the newspaper! The Columbian is the major paper for Vancouver and Clark County, and they published an article about the event in their Sustainable Lifestyles section on the Thursday before the event. I was interviewed for it, but didn't really expect that they would use not one, but two, images of my work! It was so exciting!