Meet "Hera"

As I often like to do, I put a call to action "out there" in InternetLand to name this gal.  There were several awesome responses but one stood out.  My friend's daughter, who is rather bookwormish like myself, voted for "Hera" sighting reason's I really couldn't argue with.  "Hera" is the Greek goddess of women and marriage and the cow is considered one of her sacred animals.  Done and Done.  This beautiful bovine is already spoken for, but I sure hope you enjoy looking at her as much as I enjoyed bringing her to life.

Betsy | Cow Skull

"Betsy" as in Betsy Ross wants to be sure you are ready for a funtastic and festive Fourth of July weekend!  I will be heading up to the Bay Area for a family photo shoot of someone near and very dear to my heart then a weekend at my family cabin above Half Moon Bay with the Cheely Cowboy... and of course Hula.  I wish you all a fun and safe weekend and the ability to power through the rest of your week in anticipation of the long weekend.

Cowgirl Christmas and Wrangler NFR

     Let me begin by saying "shame on me" for not being a diligent and dedicated blogger, though I am convinced only 2 people actually read the blog portion... one of those people being my mother.  (Hi mom and thanks!)  Let's move on.  In December and November I had the opportunity to share booth space with my friend Katie from Leather N Lace - a cowgirl boutique entrepreneurial gal pal - at "Cowgirl Christmas" in San Luis Obispo.  For those of you that don't know me I recently moved from San Luis Obispo to Bakersfield, Ca so the very thought of spending a weekend back at "home" felt amazing.  It was a two day show immediately after Thanksgiving in preparation for the Christmas season and promised cowgirl-types out in droves hunting for the perfect Christmas present for family and friends...as well as some well-deserved self-love prezzie's.  To be honest the traffic was a little slow, but all in all people were fun and friendly.  I ended up selling "Silvia" at the show as well as some other smaller items.  In the process I learned a lot - mainly, that I don't particularly like traveling with my wares to trade shows.  I know, I know, it sounds terrible, but inevitably I will chip a very tiny piece of paint or even damage one of my pieces lugging them all over the place.  In my mind they are art pieces, not furniture and they just don't want to be moved all over hell and gone on a regular basis.

     Through the experience at "Cowgirl Christmas", Katie was able to hook me up with a gal that was shortly on her way to the Wrangler NFR Rodeo, the mac-daddy of all rodeo's in the U.S. that takes place annually over 10 days in Las Vegas, NV.  Where blinged out cowgirls and cowboys go to spectate, compete and shop til they drop.  After careful consideration I (painstakingly and very carefully) packed up my "Miss America" skull since I figured bling and patriotism would surely be appealing at the mac-daddy of all rodeo's(I promise I wont say "mac-daddy" ever again).  I was taking a chance on having someone I'd never met, but who came with very good and trusted references, take my biggest and baddest skull to date to another state and rep her for me.  Scary, but again, I had references I trusted vouching for the whole situation and it meant I didn't have to sit in a trade show booth.  Truthfully it's not the long hours of working a booth that I dislike, I've done that before for multiple companies.  I've found the difference is when it's your own work.  It's one thing to hear people down-play a product of a company you work for and have the ammo in your back pocket to educate someone on why that product is actually awesome and they should buy it - or not and everyone moves on.  This is the first time I've ever had to hear people openly criticize something I not only made, but spent a ton of time on.  Frankly, it wears on a girl.  Needless to say I was ecstatic about not having to go to NFR myself, to send only one skull and cross my fingers that she sold and if not, I would only have one to ship back.  Well, I'm glad Katie talked me into this scenario because my skull sold in 3 hours!!  Not only that the gal Carrie from Just Peachy was amazing to communicate with and so bubbly and personable - she really made the whole experience fun.  I would love to be able to send another skull or two with her next year since it was a great way to get my style out there to a bigger market of people that are inclined to like what I've got going on.  All in all two enthusiastic thumbs up!...and I've already been dreaming up some ideas for next year.

Inspiration and "Customs"

This topic is two sides of the same coin for me and yet I tend to have an odd perspective on a lot of things so see if you get my wavelength here, my apologies for being less than articulate if not.  Where and how is someone inspired to create something? And "Can you make..."?  A few people, ie my mother, have asked me where I come up with the ideas for my cow skulls and a few others have asked if I can create something specific. 

Firstly, the inspo comes from all over.  Often times I think of the name of the skull before I start creating it - something along the lines of "Thalia is a cool name, Now what would she look like if it were a skull".  Or a color pattern or swatch.  Or friends giving me leftover art supplies (weee thanks Friends!). Or an abstract idea. Or materials not commonly seen together such as the skull "Penelope" - I just decided one day that pennies and pearls needed to go together.  So that's where it comes from for me, now for where it DOESN'T come from...Other people's art.  And here we have arrived at the other side of the coin.

I have also been asked a lot if I can make something specific or custom, which is an idea I'm open to... Truthfully I'm not WIDE open to the idea since I started this endeavor as a way to express myself and I have so many ideas for skulls bubbling up inside me (yes I am that weird).  My own personal artistic journey if you will (yes I am aware of the pompous tone of that last statement and I truly don't mean it that way).  I just wanted to push myself to simply "see if I could".  I always wanted to be artsy, even as kid.  I thought up all these great ideas but could never seem to put them into form.  I wasn't very good at pottery in school, I can't cut or draw in a straight line, knitting and crocheting seem like they take an insane amount of dexterity and well I just sucked at calligraphy.  It was a bummer to see such beautiful things around me and not be able to Create myself.  (I grew up in SF and therefore museum visits were a frequent excursion and still are).  It finally got fun when my aunt started teaching me how to take photos when I was 18, but that is another story and I'm very good at digressing...maybe I can really be an artist after all!   Where was I?  oh yeah "Can you create?"  Since that was a question I've been asking myself for awhile I guess it was only natural for other people to begin asking it at some point.  Which was cool at first because it seemed like a good way to press myself further, to try new things and mediums.  It became Not Cool, when I started getting asked to copy - not necessarily create.  Let me make my point very clear:  I will NEVER copy someone's work.  Ever.  Being creative and artsy is a gutsy and brave thing I'm finding out and sometimes, very hard! So someone puts their mind, passion, talent and labor on the line and puts it out there for people to see, appreciate and potentially buy.  Awesome and kudos to them!  So go buy it there if you like it, but do not ask me to try and copy it.  Whether it's a painting or skull, if it's already out there, I'm not going to do what's been done.  I strive to be unique and one-of-a-kind...just like everybody else.

This coin might be three sided now, so let's think of it as a cube for easy reference. Since I refuse to copy, I assumed for some reason that other artists had that philosophy as well.  Well, you know what they say about Assuming right?  Mmm hmm.  Since I started my Facebook page, I get very excited when my phone tells me I have a bunch of activity on my page.  Yes it is usually my sister liking every single picture to show her support, but I still get excited ok?  Even better when I see my page or a post is getting shared!  Heeellllo internet viral goodness.  But then sometimes I read the comments on the Shares and see things like, "oh hey so-and-so, you should totally do this one", or "I can make that p-sha".  And I'm sitting staring at my screen thinking, but HEY, I made that!  I was lamenting my dismay to a fellow craftsman last week and he said, "But that's art, where there is art, there will be copying.  Consider it flattery." Um ok if you say so (?!?(&^(&)^?!?) So while I'm still trying to change my perspective on that notion, I stand by my choice to not copy the work of others.  Ok, this rant is officially over.  I'm going to go paint some skulls now and attempt to call it Art.

"Penelope" - because Pennies and Pearls just work together

No Rest for the Wicked!

This weekend I was able to finish up a piece named "Thalia" and begin on "Penelope" and "Portia", if you follow me on Instagram you can check out the sneak peeks there!  "Thalia" is available for viewing in the Facebook page and Etsy shop.  My evenings have been consisting of scrubbing and cleaning and finally prepping for these three.  The scrubbing and cleaning continues for the next set so I don't have so much lag-time between piece "debuts" (let's pretend I'm fancy so I can say the word "debut").  So if you get a chance, visit my Social Media channels and let me know what you think in the comments! 

Meet "Noletta"

Last week, I asked for names for a piece I was working on and the winning name was "Evita".  On Friday night I noticed a comment from my friend Noletta that I should name one after her.  Since Evita was already named I told her I would love to name one after her at some point.  As I drove home I got to thinking, what would "Noletta" the skull look like.  And BAM!  It hit me like that - exactly what she would look like.  She would need to be as boho-chic and cowgirl-glam as my friend.  Noletta happens to be a pint-sized ball of fire with honey blonde hair and champagne highlights.  She rocks a red lip, funky turquoise jewelry and pearl earrings like nobody's business.  To top it off she barrel races like a champ and loves her horses and dogs fiercely.  "Noletta" the skull was going to have to be pretty good to measure up to Noletta the girl.  Luckily I had all the materials needed at home to get started and one perfect skull I had been working on prepping for the last three weeks was finally ready to go!  I worked on this piece for a total of 18-20+ hours and could not be more thrilled with the results.  "Noletta" the skull features a champagne base with areas of darker gold.  Vibrant red, purple and turquoise paint, with turquoise, pearl and Swarovski crystal accents.  She is a show-stopper and looks fantastic in low light settings since that really makes her crystals sparkle when they catch the light juuuust right.  I'm happy to say the piece turned out FABULOUS, but only half as fabulous as the Real Deal Herself!

"Sourcing"

My darling husband recently had the thought that people might not know where I'm sourcing my skulls from.  As a cowboy and caregiver of living bovine creatures, his fear was that people would think we have a ton of dead cows laying about the ranch all willy-nilly.  Let me inform you that this is not the case.  I am sourcing them from ranches all over California, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and a few have even come from Pennsylvania from friends and family and their neighboring ranches.  Every ranch, no matter how diligent they are at caring for the animals on their land, are going to experience death loss.  It's a part of ranching life and culture to be able to deal with heart-breaking situations and find the silver lining or simply look forward.  Death happens everywhere and even in the livestock industry from natural causes.  A cow may just be old or have trouble calving or step off a hill funny and break her leg.  These things happen everywhere and my initial thought when I saw my first skull and picked her up was that "I can't just leave her here".  True, if I had, nature would have taken it's course and the coyotes and bobcats probably would have moved her off slowly and over several years.  But something inside me that day last March just told me to pick part of her up and take it back to the headquarters.  I felt that she had played her role on our ranch by raising calves and being a part of the land management and that her life was worth more than being scattered around until there was nothing left.  We raise animals for food production to feed people, and each life that goes into the productive cycle is cared for and nourished their entire life until they leave us.  I felt that just because a cow did not make it fully into the food production cycle, that her life was still worth celebrating and remembering.  Perhaps as art in someone's home to be forever celebrated and remembered. 

Truthfully when I started collecting the skulls last year my husband was a little turned off by the idea as I soon found out- he saw the skulls as a failure on his part.  His whole life he has wanted nothing more than to be a good cowboy and learn all the ranching traditions handed down to him by family members.  A sense of pride washes over him when we go out to check cows and calves and they all look slick, shiny and healthy.  When we find one down or injured or dead from trying to birth a big calf, I know my husband can't help of let that eat at him. One year we had several "lepie" calves cruising around the yard as over-grown pets as my husband was bottle feeding them several times throughout the day.  Their mothers had either passed on or rejected them and it was now up to us to keep them alive and healthy.  Moments like this can be so rewarding when it works out and utterly devastating when it doesn't.  A few of those heifer calves are now full grown cows on the ranch producing their own babies and living large out on the Coastal California hills.

Their are successes and failures in life.  So why not turn a "failure" into a success.  I guess that might be my purpose here with Echoes of Wild.  Death is not the end and beauty can come from the darkest of places.

The Process

As we quickly approach Christmas, I'm thrilled to say that so many of my creations have sold already with a few pending "interested parties".  It's been a crazy past few weeks of launching my art online for everyone to see - talk about intimidating.  But now that all my painted ones are sold, I'm scrambling to finish cleaning the handful of cow skulls I have at the house and the process of acquiring and cleaning is not always the easiest! 

Step 1 is acquiring them.  We've pretty much exhausted the supply on our ranch leases (thank God - my husband wanted me to specifically point out that the "raw materials" for my creations do NOT all come from our ranch - we're in the business of live cattle, not those that have passed on.  But when you don't collect them or pick them up for 8 years, you will eventually find yourself with a small collection.  Such is Ranch Life.) As a result, my friends and family have been great about collecting them for me from their own ranches and leases as well as neighbors.  "Hey Neighbor, can I borrow a cup of sugar... got any cow skulls laying around".  You know, typical conversation stuff. 

One of the neat things I've found out through this process of acquiring skulls through friends is how a skull will "age" based on the environment it's in.  The coastal skulls stay smooth and almost "glossy" for the most part, where as the ones hailing from the desert are "chalky" or ridged in places.  These chalky ones are the most difficult to paint as the brush and paint can't glide as well as it does on a smoother surfaced skull.  But, I'm always up for a challenge and have even started sanding out the particularly bad spots on those type of skulls.  Waste not, want not.

After a skull is acquired, I begin the cleaning process by soaking them in a huge bucket of warm (not hot or boiling water) with tons-o-soap to loosen up some of the dirt and debris that might be on them.  If a skull has a lot of rawhide still on it, I let it sit out for awhile longer or try to pull off what I can using pliers, screwdrivers and even a wood chisel.  I'm not going to lie...it's yucky sometimes, but I try not to collect that type.  Just let nature take its course on those for a while longer... After they've soaked for a day or two, it's scrub a dub dub time with my arsenal of scrub brushes and baby bottle brushes...and more soap.  Then rinse and repeat until satisfied.  Since I tend to be Type A, this may take several washing and consequently, several weeks.  Then make sure any and all rawhide is completely gone.  The last thing I would want is for them to get stinky in someone's home because I left traces of "nature" on there.  Then all you have to do is let them dry.  I will admit this part is the hardest since it's the biggest test of my patience (I have none).  You have no idea how much water bone can hold on to!  But unless she's completely "bone dry", the paint will bubble up and she'll be ruined. This may take a few days to a week or so to dry.  Then it's prime, paint and go - my favorite part!

So there you have a little window into my "Process"!

Soaking...