Brandy Ink

Happy Halloween

Halloween is my favorite. I love decorating for it, even more than Christmas. Plus, it's a great excuse to have a martini out of the rad glass my mom bought for me.

Here's wishing everyone a fun and safe Halloween!

Prints Now Available {Live Out Loud II}

By popular demand I've printed some Live Out Loud II prints! Available in the shop. Oh, and by the way, there is only ONE print left of Live Out Loud (the first one) so make sure if you had your eye on it, that you snatch it up in the shop before it's gone!

See you next week. I'll have lots of exciting new art coming your way!

A Friend is Forever

This one would make a wonderful christmas (or anytime) gift for a good friend.

A Friend is Forever | Watercolor, collage, metal on canvas, resined surface $99 | Available for purchase in the shop.

{Original Art Giveaway} WINNER!

I'm so excited to announce the winner of the ORIGINAL art giveaway. Kal Barteski was suppose to choose the winner but after reading the comments, she couldn't bear to choose because there were just too many wonderful comments, so she used a random number generator to make up her mind for her.

Congrats Susan! I'm so glad you won because I absolutely love your poem. It's really, really, beautiful and you totally deserve this painting after all that awesome effort! Please send me your mailing address.

Thank you to everyone for participating and for sharing your wonderful stories.

All about Me

I get questions all the time from my readers and I thought because Kal Barteski has sent me all sorts of new readers, that now would be a good time to answer some questions giving my new readers, a chance to get to know me better! Okay, here I go.

Q. What is your passion?

ART ART ART. Making art. Reading blogs about art. Art museums. Art books. Artists. Decorating my house. Love it all.

Q. What is your favorite drink?

Martinis!

Q. You blog about so many different things.. What is your actual job?

Yes, I do a lot of different things, that's for sure. I'm a creative person and if I don't keep busy, I get bored. I'm always up to something. I run a graphic design and print shop by day, and have for the past eleven years. It's a full time gig for me and I employee two people. The business has grown enough now, and my employees can pretty much run the show, which finally allows me to dive into some other things that I've been itching to get at for years.

My art. My art is always what I want to be doing. I could make art, all day, every day. But, for some reason it always seems like the one thing I put off when I get busy. Well, not anymore. I've finally worked it into my work day. Last month, I started going downstairs at work every day, to my STUDIO, and making art. EVERY DAY. Awesome. I had the best month of my life.

I teach art classes for kids. I never really knew I wanted to do this but I LOVE it. I really get a kick out of the kids and they really brighten my day. Like today for instance, I was busy and run off my feet at work, but as soon as my peeps showed up after school for art classes, my mood totally changed. I just love seeing how creative they are with each project. Kids are awesome that way. 

I also run a youth group called Beyond Wild, once a week (this is NOT a religious group). People ask me all the time why I do it. And well, the truth is.... I live in a small town, and when I lost my husband, the entire community stepped forward offering me money, food, help, daycare, housekeeping.... it was amazing and overwhelming. It really touched me. I realized what my community is capable of and it made me want to GIVE BACK. Beyond Wild is my way of GIVING BACK to kids who need it. And I love doing it.

Q. How in the heck do you have enough time to get everything done?

It takes me like eight million years to get to sleep at night because I can't seem to shut my brain off. It's full of ideas and if only I had more time! I rarely sit around. I don't watch TV. I come home from work and usually work on a project at night, whether it be redecorating my bedroom, making crafts for gifts, making art, doing family night with my kids. I pretty much never stop. And poor Grady, he pretty much never stops either because I won't let him! His honey do-list is never ending. But, he is totally awesome and I could never accomplish half of what I do without his help.

Q. What is your goal in life? Your dream?

To make a living off of my art and to live on the ocean.

Q. What kind of books do you read?

I love books about money and getting rich. I never seem to learn anything or make any progress in that direction, but I love getting all fired up and dreaming about getting rich. I also really love books about psychology. I love learning about people, their minds, how they think, stuff like that. Art books. Self help is always good. I read mostly to learn, not for pleasure. Although, I read my first romance novel in the summer and WOWZERS, it was pretty good!

Q. What is a hobby of yours?

I'm learning the guitar and secretly want to be a rock star.

Q. How come you have "Family Night"? Don't you spend any time with your kids?

I spend every night with my kids but I love making one night a week, ALL ABOUT THEM. We spend much of our lives rushing around with the hustle bustle of life, that sometimes we forget to spend quality time with our kids. They love it. I love it. Grady loves it. I highly recommend it.

Q. What do you "get" from making art?

Have you ever heard of a runners high?

Q. What is your favorite magazine?

I love the magazines about getting organized but I never actually do it. I also love anything to do with being creative, art, home decor, interior design.

Q. What are your weaknesses?

I have no patience and I HATE waiting. Actually, I need a whole blog post for this category because I have a lot of weaknesses. Housework. I'm really bad at housework.

Q. What makes you happy?

My art. My family. My kids. Grady. My friends. My life. I've got it pretty darn good.

Q. What is something that most people would not know about you?

I'm scared of EVERYTHING.

*****

That's it. That's all. I hope this helps you get to know me better. If anyone has any more questions please be sure to leave a comment or email me. I'd be happy to answer them.

*****

{Live Out Loud II Giveaway} There were some AWESOME comments. Thank you to everyone who participated. I had a great time reading them. I used a random number generator to choose. Here are the winners!

Congratulations Morgan and Sally! Please email me your mailing addresses!

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Check back later today to find out who won the I Still have my Wings Giveaway!

Love Louder

This one hits some heart strings for me. I remember thinking after losing Chris that I would NEVER open myself up to love again. I was so wounded, that I just couldn't imagine it. But, eventually I got over myself and thank goodness I did. I love Grady harder, louder, and with more purpose than anyone ever before. Sometimes it takes the bad things in life to open our eyes up to the good things.

I really love the words in this piece... thanks Tara, for the words that inspired this piece.

Love Louder | 12" x 12" | Acrylics & collage on canvas, resined surface | $99 | Available for purchase in the Shop

Come back tomorrow to find out a little more about me. I will be answering all sorts of questions that will define who I am (for those of you new to Brandy Ink). It will be a get to know me better session.

I will also be announcing the winner of the ORIGINAL art giveaway. Enter, Do it!

ORIGINAL ART GIVEAWAY!

Please enter your comment by Tuesday night (yup, tonight) by 6:00pm to become eligible to win a Brandy Dyer original painting. Read about the giveaway HERE. Kal Barteski will be picking the winner.

As a complete random sidenote, I'm really loving this song right now and can't wait to convince my band to play it.

ORIGINAL ART {Giveaway}

Last week was Grady's birthday and for his gift I bought him a Kal Barteski original. We came across this painting on her blog one night and Grady totally fell in love with it, and I was already in love with it, so from then on, I knew we had to own it. It's called Joy. And tell me it's not beautiful...

This particular painting was one that held a special place in my heart because of what it said. It's a perfect reminder for me, and my girls, of how Grady swooped in and took the cloud from our hearts, and brought us Joy. Thank you Grady for turning our sorrow around. We so love you.

Anyway.... who's Kal Barteski right? Well, she's an old friend of mine from college. She's amazingly talented and I keep up with her life through her blog. I mean, she's absolutely overflowing with talent. The girl never stops coming up with ideas that AMAZE me. Seriously, you gotta check her out. She blogged about us on Friday... check out Joy + Grady + Giveaway post here.

The coolest part about her blogging about us, is that she ran a giveaway over the weekend (to win a print of Joy) and received 49 comments about joy and sorrow. And wowzers, they are REALLY touching. If you have a minute, you should read the comments. I love it when random people pour their hearts out. Anyway, Kal told Grady that he was to choose a winner from the comments. Ha ha, poor Grady... there were so many heart warming, tear jerking, comments, it was almost impossible to choose! He asked me which one I would choose, and I said I wouldn't tell him until he chose... but I told him there was one imparticular that gave me goosebumps. And when he finally chose his winner, Sasha (congrats Sasha!), I couldn't believe it, because that was the one that gave me goosebumps! Too cool. I love how she touched us both... this is what she said:

 "This painting has meant so very much to me through the years that I've been keeping up with your work and this blog. It's hard to put into words the feelings; they're almost contradictory. The feeling of sorrow, pain, loneliness... I can rest in that. But it's one moment. The next is filled with possibilities: joy, company, healing. And somehow, the whole thing fills me with peace. That these moments are what make up life. People leave. We have sorrow. But people come into our lives bringing joy.

To have this print hanging above my head would just be reminder that these ebbs and flows are simply life, and whether or not I'm in a moment of sorrow or joy, I STILL HAVE MY WINGS."

It's the part about the wings, that gets me every time. Love it. Soo.... Grady and I both loved Sasha's comment so much, that we decided that I should use some of her words in a painting, and use it as a giveaway! And we're not talking a print either, we're talking the original! I feel so honored to have all of Kal's readers visiting my blog (thank you Kal), that I want to welcome them with open arms wings. Please, enter the giveaway below to win this painting.

I Still Have My Wings | 12" x 12" | Collage and acrylics on canvas | Resined surface

Thank you Sasha, for the inspiration (you will automatically receive a free print).

{GIVEAWAY} Leave a comment. About what? I don't know... birds, love, wings, joy, sorrow, crows, eagles, life, death. If you want, you can just use the same comment you used on Kal's blog, or, get creative. Whatever. Just make it good because the winner will be picked by Kal (surprise, Kal!) Winner will be announced right here on Wednesday night! Good luck and thanks for visiting!

Sidenote: This giveaway is not only open to Kal's readers. I want my regular readers to enter too. Don't be shy! This is a great opportunity to win an original piece of art.

TOMORROW: Check back to see who won the LIVE OUT LOUD II giveaway. This giveaway is still open until midnight tonight.