seventh grade journal

This line is written in my seventh grade journal (or rather not in the journal itself, but in the accompanying book of randomness, which all my journals had). It's a line from "ten things I hate about you," and I still love it.

So now I am going to clean, paint, and watch Shop Girl.

xoxo

fox gloves

Hello, everyone!

This Friday is the Get Your Freak On opening at Space 242. Old-fashioned circus art! You can RSVP here. (It's especially important to RSVP for this opening - the April 30th has already had so many RSVPs that they have added a second opening on May 7th! You can still RSVP to the April 30th opening if you want to, though!).

I have two tattooed lady prints framed, in addition to the original Birch the Bearded Lady paper doll art.

I ended up putting tattooed lady in a beautiful vintage frame that I had been saving for my next solo show, so she is a little special. :)

I hope to see you at the opening!!

Love,

Amanda

once upon a summer

These are some pictures from an amazing trip I took with Nicole to our friend Molly's farm in Vermont a couple of summers ago. 

polaroids by Nicole

(in the diving pictures above, look at how the white sheen in the water blends into the negative space of the sky between the trees in the photo below it!)

photos by Molly

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These were some really happy days!

I hope you're all having a beautiful week.

xoxo

Amanda

of swans and pigeons

Me, my sister, and my mom in the boston gardens.

My love of pigeons started early. 

My love of all animals is my favorite thing I inherited from my mom. :)

I hope you all had a beautiful Friday.

xoxo

befriended

On my walk home, a man on the street with a guitar sang a Paul Simon song for me.

The white blossoms in the trees looked like small moons, and I reached up to touch them while I walked, which I never do if someone is with me.

And now I feel like writing.

pictures of the spring (and being gentle)

the yard next door.

the kind of clouds that tell you how warm it is.

I work right next to the gardens now.

He took me to a hill where you can see all of Boston.

A sammy and a grackle.

A sammy and a grackle part 2.

yard at home.

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I also want to thank Sarah of slubird vintage for naming an entire treasury after one of my prints! For some reason I can't link to her shop, but if you go to the treasury you can access it from there. :)

I hope you're all having a beautiful wednesday.

Love,

Amanda

raven wallpaper

Ash

8x10", acrylic on masonite

A portrait of my friend Ash, commissioned by her father.

Ash has two ravens tattooed on her back, and I used them as a template when painting the wallpaper.

I hope you all had a wonderful Monday!

xoxo

print sale and the giveaway winner!

Hello everyone!

So the first thing is, I'm having a spring print sale in my shop - buy two prints or paper dolls, and get a third free! Just buy two and then message me with which third print you'd like. The sale is good through May 10th. 

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway, and to my new followers. :) And I'm happy to say the winner is....

AMY!

Amy is a really cool girl who I've had the pleasure of getting to know through blogging. 

Thank you all for entering, and for continually supporting my blog. Knowing that you're all reading makes me so much more motivated to keep making art and keep posting.

I hope you're all having a wonderful week!

And good luck marathon runners!!!!

xoxo

craft paper birch bark

imaginary birch study, pencil in sketchbook

spring giveaway!

I'm so excited my blog has reached 56 followers! Because of this, I want to do a giveaway - the winner can choose any print from my etsy shop. To enter, just leave a comment on this entry telling me which print you'd like! To be entered twice, write about the giveaway on your blog and send me the link! I'll announce the winner on Sunday, April 17th.

The winner will also get a tattooed lady postcard. :)

I hope you're all enjoying beautiful spring weather!

Love,

Amanda

Niche Reading (on WWII and "odd shelves")

As you may or may not know, my whole life, I have loved reading about World War II.

It started when I read Anne Frank's diary at age 11. Since then, I think I've re-read her diary (Kitty, as she liked to call it) twice. I also remember reading Number the Stars in 5th grade, and drawing pictures of the characters.

I read several WWII memoirs in high school (In My Hands and Night were my favorites), and lots of fiction based in WWII.

I just finished The Art Student's War, which was so wonderful. I am now about to begin La's Orchestra Saves the World, a novel about a recently divorced woman who moves from London to Suffolk during the war, and forms an orchestra out of various musicians in the village. The cover of my book has a sticker on it that reads, "A BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime," and I really hope that means this was read out loud over the radio in England as a late night book-lullaby. 

World War II books were some of my first book loves, and

 reading newly-discovered ones now reminds me of high school, and just makes me feel really comfortable and at home, kind of like watching a favorite TV show in syndication. 

In Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, Anne Fadiman writes that most avid readers have a certain "odd shelf" in their bookcase that houses a very specific niche type of book. Anne's "odd shelf" contained large quantities of reading material on ancient Arctic explorations. Mine is definitely my WWII shelf.

Do you have an odd shelf? What's on it?

xoxo

Amanda

dream bed no. 2

from here.

It looks so comfortable.

happy easter!

I know it's after midnight, but I wanted to wish everyone a happy easter. These are the eggs I dyed with my family today.

It was a monster egg kit and came with hair! These are my eggs.

Tiger with an easter bunny. She liked itching her face on his tinfoil edging.

Me and my sister.

I hope you all had a wonderful day!

xoxo