Shoshanah Conquers Space (With the Help of her Dad)

I love this little blog of mine. It's been going on for years and years. I have changed a lot since I began it, though, and one of the changes is that I actually sell books now. I have read in several sources that my blog title, "dommn2703.blogspot.com" is just the worst. Everyone says, if you sell art or books on line, you need to have a web site that is your name. And it shouldn't be a blogspot, because... I have no idea why, but that's what they say. (I am so not up with trends. I still can't figure out why everyone hates Comic Sans font.) So, with the help of my dad, the great computer genius and European Steel Guitar Hall of Fame member Bobby Lee, I have a whole new web site that is my first name:

Shoshanah.space

I know I have a really small but incredibly loyal group of followers here at dommn2703, and I thank you from the bottom and top and middle of my heart for sticking with me for so long! I hope you will continue to follow me in space. I know, it's a big change. Change is difficult. I've actually had the domain name for a year, but I'm so set in my ways here on blogspot that I've barely used it.

If you have any problems or comments or whatever, write them here in the comments, or write them at shoshanah.space in the comments, or email me at cellar27door@yahoo.com. I don't want to lose anyone! Your opinions matter to me.

Thank you!

-Shoshanah

Spruce up your whole home for the holidays!

Add romance to your bedroom with this fire-breathing chicken painting.

Add a touch of class to your dining room soiree with this fire-breathing chicken painting. 

Come home to relax in the living room with this fire-breathing chicken painting. 

Add splendor and intrigue to your breezeway with this fire-breathing chicken painting.

Mustache Taxidermy Forever!

I'm having lots of fun making more mustachioed sheep-deer-like creature heads lately. I even made a little movie of the process:

For sale here. :)

The end result is a silly and fun loving faux taxidermy piece, reminiscent of childish dreams and imaginary places where anthropomorphized animals with mustaches gladly lay down their lives to become wall decorations. 

Hipster Jackalope

I've been working on fiber art lately- I have a lot of wool! This is made mostly from wool:

I find this position to be highly undignified. I feel so much as though I am on display! Intolerable.

Pardon me, do you happen to have any mustache wax?

While you were out...

The internet was down at my house for a few days. I don't get cell phone reception at my house, either, so it was a true black out! And then the regular phone just stopped working, in the middle of a conversation! So I said to the kiddo,

"Put on your pants! We're going to town!"

"Going to town?" she asked. "why ever for, dear mother?" (I'm paraphrasing.)

"We must tell the telephone people that the telephone is out of service!"

So off to town we went!

They sent over the same man who set up the modem five years ago. He walked into the house, and went straight up the stairs,

"I remember where it is!" he said.

He rewired some things, and now we're right as rain. Except, of course, that I made a blog post mid week that was completely lost in the aether. Although, really- isn't that where all of this will end up, someday? Lost in the abyss of all time? Who is reading this? You are, of course. But not for long! No, not for long. The ephemeral essence of the internet will take over, alas, and all will be lost.

Tomorrow is the big day! Am I ready? No, no. Not at all. Never ready until the moment of.

Frank will be there. 

Are you ready?

Avoiding Sex with Frenchmen: More Drawings

(If you are new to this blog, take note: the following are drawings for a book I'm working on which will be titled, Avoiding Sex with Frenchmen (A picture book for adults). I published my rough draft as a serial here on the blog.)

"You know, I think they put the Eiffel Tower in at night. Little frogs come and carry it away to a safe place. Because we took the Metro into town, and we were walking, and walking, and walking, and where was the Eiffel Tower? It was nowhere. Nowhere to be seen. When Hemingway said, "A Movable Feast," he was alluding secretly to the Eiffel Tower. Those French people don't really like all of these Americans in their city all of the time. They do their best to keep us away with disdain and rudeness, but still, we keep coming. So they hide the Eiffel Tower sometimes. For fun. You really can't blame them at all. We are very annoying, talking about money openly and our medical problems, eating our synthetic health foods. Nondairy creamer. We are almost intolerable." 

The next ones are all for page numbers. These are hasty sketches- since they are going to be tiny in the final product, I haven't been spending too much time on details. Also, I've got to do 117 of them!

I seem to have made a lot of them look like famous people or people I know. Or is it my imagination?

This one looks like Gerard Depardeau to me. 

Nobody knows what the nose knows.
(Used to be a feature on the local news program
when I was growing up in the Bay Area.) 

This guy I knew in high school who was really annoying.

So judgemental!

This one looks to me like David Bowie. Or possibly my friend Andrius Gramauskas.

And this looks like some actor I don't remember the name of... but familiar.
Do they just all have common faces?

I don't think I'll show you every single drawing, but you get the idea. 

Smoking Dude

What's his deal? Who is he? I just drew him. I have no clue.

[This is a bit of an homage to - or rip off of- Slimbolala, who sometimes draws people and asks readers, "What's his deal?" I've always enjoyed commenting on his, so what the hay? I've got all of these drawings. I thought I might try it myself.]

Frenchman

Avoiding Sex with Frenchmen: Character Sketches and Other Drawings

This is going to make no sense at all. Once in the book, in context, all will be clear. (I mean, I hope all will be clear!) For now, enjoy each drawing individually.

The Origins of the Tardis Painting

The first re-imagined thrift store painting I did was the Star Trek One:

I put a picture of it on Facebook and here, and *Alex Bledsoe's wife contacted me, wanting to buy it. They're members of my farm, so when I delivered their eggs that week, I also delivered the Star Trek painting. They were delighted with it, and not only did they pay me money for it, but they said they had another picture sitting around that they really disliked, and,

"maybe you can do something with this." They then gave me a gigantic signed and numbered print of ducks that someone in their family had given them, years ago.

It looked like this:

I had this idea right away that something odd lurked beneath the water. But I thought it should be something the Bledsoe's liked, since they gave me the framed signed and numbered print from 1979. I once saw a child of their's holding a sonic screwdriver. Which gave me an idea... 

That's the Doctor's hand with the sonic screwdriver, coming out of the lake. I guess you know what the tardis is all about. 

I was thinking I would put it in this local gallery and sell it. But then I put it on my wall, and...

It matches all of the dark wood in my house. Art that matches the couch! Everyone's dream. I'm not sure if it's for sale. BAH likes it, too. 

It could happen.

* Read The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe, and you will suddenly be impressed that I know Alex Bledsoe. I know that I'm impressed that I know Alex Bledsoe. 

Avoiding Sex with Frenchmen: More Idioms!

The goat is happy because it doesn't see the cabbage there.
The cabbage is happy because the goat can't see it,
and it may live another day.

The cat is between the dog and the wolf.
The cat is not part of this idiom.
I just like to draw cats.

When trying to figure out how to illustrate knives flying low,
I thought they should cut something.
Now I see it has turned out a bit gruesome.

This Episode Brought to You by: The Mean Angry Shark Who Invaded the Summer Cottage That One Time

This is a print of a cottage that I found at a thrift store. I liked the ovular shape of it. And then I immediately thought something wanted to jump out of the water. Something hungry.

Portrait of a Friend

A More Modern Self Portrait

My Alter Ego S.L.Quasar signed the back.

Self-Portrait at Fifteen

My parents keep this on the shelf at their house so they can make fun of me. It's not the best self-portrait. But, I don't know... there is something oddly fascinating about it. My step-mother thinks I should start using this as my author photo on the back of my books.

Now yunz can make fun of me, too!  

Tomorrow (Friday, Dec. 5, 2014) is my book release party for A Murder of Crows and Other Woes. It's 4 PM to 8 PM at the Old  Schoolhouse. If you're in the neighborhood, I'm always interested in meeting people who read my blog. :)

It's difficult to enter into this work because of how the sublime beauty of the sexy fish contextualize the remarkable handling of light.

Above quote brought to you by The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator. I have been purchasing thrift store paintings (or prints of famous paintings) and changing small details. Can you tell what I changed about these paintings? Look closely!

"I am going to eat your house! Yum!" Study #1

Monster in Blue

Just going for a little paddle.

"I am going to eat up your house! Yum!" Study #2

Poor little birdie.

Sorry about your house. And your bird. 

Chicago Scene Complete (Yay!)

I had a commission I just finished. It was to paint this.

I mentioned some difficulties I had with it before. After fussing with it a lot, though, I'm pretty happy with it and ready to send it off.

Yes, that is a shadow of the morning sun streaked across it. 

I did take the time to have it scanned, for a high definition print, but no one had a big enough scanner for the whole thing! So I pieced together a few different scans and stitched it together in an art program here. And then I had them scan the middle here, for a more high definition, authentic print, but only of most of the painting. (Both of those last sentences lead to links where you could actually purchase a print, if you were so inclined. I just joined Deviant Art. We'll see how that goes. Am I deviant? Am I art? Not sure.)

There was much ado and trouble over getting the thing to scan, and Aarreon (as his name tag said) kept carrying the painting across the room with his thumb right on the blue sky, and it was like having your newborn baby being slung over someone's shoulder by her arm. But he scanned it. He actually went to a whole lot of trouble for me, and I appreciated it. And then, after I got home, I painted a little more blue over the finger smudge, which may have been imagined by me or may have been real.

Deep breath. Now to mail it off.


P.S. I charged $10/ hour for this. Now I see that we have on the ballot in Wisconsin a choice to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Perhaps I should consider charging a bit more?