I had forgotten how going places and seeing new things was responsible for my general wellbeing. I took a road trip to Milwaukee this month and came home filled with inspiration. 

Hey friends! It's nearly the end of January and I have three sketchbook pages and one linocut print to show for it. Last year this would have brought me feelings of shame, but I’m embracing rest this year. All of last year was just an exercise in endurance and I have no desire to repeat living through burnout again. I made a list of priorities for 2024, and I am happy to say that if January is any indication, I am setting myself up for a manageable pace this year. 
As I write this, my 19 y.o. is hanging out in the art studio, working on his own thing and we're listening to Sleep Token. If you had asked me 20 years ago what successful parenting looks like, I don't know that I would have answered this moment right here, but that's the answer now. It's weird to be in this stage of parenting, but in the best possible way. 
​

I'm back to working on the North American animal print series. I've got reference images for the next four prints ready to go, but last night my brain decided to suggest starting on an animal I don't have any reference materials for. Now I'm at the crossroads of "save that for later" and "put things on hold to chase this new idea," and honestly, I'm not a fan. I can't be the only person with shiny object syndrome, right?  

Well hello 2024! 
I spent the last week of 2023 in full hibernation mode and honestly, I suggest that we all adopt this method of living. I watched tv, I made art, we had funnel cake for dinner, and I napped whenever I felt like napping. I also did some deep thinking about the highs & lows of 2023 (hello, surprise depression!); and what I'd like to put my focus on in 2024. 
I decided that the order of attention would include more time for art and more time outside and a focus on what brings me a sense of satisfaction. And I know that laundry still needs doing and dinner still needs to be made, but there's no rule that says I can't infuse the mundane with joy. 
I hope you all have a wonderful first quarter of 2024. 

The birds are returning, the tops of the daffodils are peeking through the soil, and yesterday we had snow flurries all day long. That's March in the Midwest. I have yet to see the bunnies that sneak under the fence to nibble on the clover and wild strawberries that grow in our yard, but I look forward to seeing them every year. When we had a dog they were always svelte and lightening-fast. Now they are roly-poly things who dismiss us as a threat. Living near the woods is pretty great, as there's a never-ending parade of wildlife to observe. Apparently our neighborhood has gained a lone turkey, which one of my neighbors has named Lisa. I have yet to see her, but her footprints are all over the creek bed. Last summer we had a pair of red-tailed hawks nesting in the neighborhood. I know that at some point we will move out of this house to give a young family the opportunity to grow here, but moving away from the revolving cast of wildlife characters will be hard. The trash-prowling raccoon we call The Honorable Chonk, the pack of coyotes that run down the sidewalk and howl at the fire engine sirens, the sleepy-eyed opossums, and the wide variety of birds all make our neighborhood feel vibrant and a part of nature. 

Here comes August! The past 8 weeks have been a whirlwind of family birthdays, day trips, fostering kittens, and avoiding yard work. Seriously, I have also been avoiding my neighbors because I don't want to talk about all the yard work I'm avoiding. 
Has it been hot where you are? Every time I have a few days off work, we are under a heat warning and no amount of neighborly approval is going to have me out there risking heat stroke. 
On the art front, I'm messing around with creating more repeat patterns for my Spoonflower shop, prepping for an upcoming class, and generally following my curiosity. 
I hit the burnout zone a few weeks back, so I'm trying to build more time into my schedule for rest. Working full time, plus getting together a design portfolio, plus being a mom & wife, plus trying to exercise/eat right/keep in touch with family & friends--it's a lot and I have to be honest that I can't do it all ALL of the time. So this weekend was minimal on the art making, and maximal on the couch time (after doing chores--I know, I know, but bathrooms don't clean themselves!).
I hope that you have built some time into your next few weeks to rest and enjoy life. 
​That's all for now friends. 

Hello all! Here in Chicagoland it looks like we are officially spring-bound and I could not be happier. The birds are back, the grass is green, and the days are noticeably longer. I have been working away in the studio--still producing a new print every week, but also I am taking two online courses right now. One is for watercolor artists (also me), and one is about building a collection and licensing your artwork. Needless to say, I have been doing a lot of homework these past few weeks. 

I was thinking about the promised May 1 shop drop and since no one has been clamoring for it, I am skipping that one and will drop a BUNCH of stuff in time for Midsummer. 

If you simply cannot wait until then, you can always email me (karapaints at gmail dot com) and we can figure something out. (This offer only applies for April 28-June 20, 2022). 

Until next time, friends! 

Hey friends! 
Just a quick announcement before we dip into story time. 
THE PRINT SHOP HAS BEEN UPDATED and March's proceeds will go to the ACLU! 
Again, I am open to suggestions for future donations, so feel free to drop your suggestions in the comments box. 

Now: Moths! 

I have always been fascinated by nocturnal creatures. When I was in grade school and had to do reports on an animal, 9 times out of 10, that animal was going to be a bat. It's a mammal and it flies. And it eats mosquitos, so that automatically qualifies bats for MVP status in the animal kingdom. 
Once I had kids of my own, I was really excited to instill a love of the natural world in them. To that end, we have done all kinds of nature walks and visited all kinds of wild spaces. But what do they talk about the most? Not the time they climbed a mountain in Colorado. Not the time we spent at Lake Michigan. Not all of the nature centers we visited across Cook County. Nope. 
It was the time we watched a moth emerge from a cocoon. 

I had been doing a little spring clean up of our backyard and discovered 2 large cocoons beneath one of our maple trees. I scooped up some leaf litter, a stick and the cocoon and placed it in a glass jar. It was mid-April, so I knew that the moths inside would be emerging soon.

Sure enough the next week one of the moths wiggled out of the cocoon and climbed up on the stick to dry out it's wings. Once the moth was ready, we took it outside and placed it back on the tree where I had found the cocoon. 

A few days later, the second moth emerged and we placed it on the tree as well. 
These are Polyphemous Moths and they spend most of their lives in the canopy of trees so it was a real treat to see one up close. 
Next week I'm going back to that same maple tree in the hopes of finding a new cocoon. 

Hey friend!

Since I dipped back into printmaking, I have become a wee bitty obsessed. 
At first, I set myself the goal of making one sacred heart a month, until I had 12 and could then make a huge print with all twelve hearts. That's still in the works.
But then I thought: what if I make one print a week? For a whole year? 
I'm 8 weeks in and still into it. 
But that creates a new problem, which is: I have stacks and stacks of prints. 
My answer to that was not to chuck them in the recycling bin, but to offer them for sale. Hence the "Shop" tab up there on the header.
The plan this year is to do 8 shop updates, correlating with the 8 Sabbats, with the exception of Yule. The last drop of the year will happen near Thanksgiving.
The dates for the updates will be on/around:
February 2nd (it's live--go look!)
March 21st
May 1st
June 21st
August 1st
September 21st
October 31st
November 24th

I'm also picking a new organization each month, and 25% of sales from each month will go to that organization. 
For the month of February, I'll be sending funds to the Chicago Freedom School. The Chicago Freedom school provides training to young people to help them make change in their communities. 
​You get some artwork, we get to help folks putting good out into the world, I'm no longer drowning in piles of paper. Everybody wins!

If you have suggestions for other organizations doing work to make the world a better place, please let me know! 

That's all for now friends.