IF ~ Double

DOUBLE

VISION

This is my most recent completed portrait

and as usual I'm using it for this week's Illustration Friday.

Amazing what you can do with no time and a little creativity!

These portraits are on sale for a limited time only and you can get them here:

ebay

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

Headed to breakfast

Headed to breakfast

...this for Illustration Friday. Hey, I make 'em up as I go along. This is my latest pet portrait commission. Only 29,874,987,785,975 more to go! YAY! ok...not really that many, I think I'm down to 6 ahead of me...I love every one of them! Keep 'em coming! When I wear out, or start the next book, I might get tired and stop the sale. Here's where you can find it...

ebay

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

Latest Portrait Commission

Here's my latest completed portrait commission...

I've also just completed (as of today) the illustrations for the latest Harp Mouse book written by Diane E Dunn and they are off to the publisher tomorrow morning! The Enchanted Tree of Crooked Lake children's book written by Rachel Longhurst (illustrated by me) is on the press today! Everything will be ready (unless the sky falls) for Milford Memories in August. These fabulous authors will be at my booth signing their children's books along with me. Three days of unmitigated fun in the sun, lots of stuff to do, see, gawk at, friends to play and shop with from booth to booth and to eat and drink with in the beer tents.

Come see me there!

Milford Memories Summer Festival
August 13,14 &15, 2010

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

Milford Memories Brochure

Latest Milford Memories 2010 Brochure with my artwork featured!!!

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

newest commission...

Newest completed commission...

I'm running a sale on custom pet portraits again,

the latest auction is here:
ebay

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

Twister's dental work

Twister gets his teeth floated

I can never get enough of watching the horses get their teeth floated by the equine dentist. Just enough sedation makes them so agreeable they'll let you do just about anything. There is always some serious rasping of the teeth noise during these visits and you KNOW it's really loud inside their heads! Just a few minutes before this photo was taken, Twister was pounding on the wall of the stall to get out, patience not being his best virtue. Without sedation, just the squirt of a fly spray bottle (Karen's [not pictured here]pet peeve) or the sudden movement of a plastic bag on a windy day (Twister's peeve) can sometimes send them into hysterics!

...go figure

IF ~ Trail

Illustration Friday ~ Trail

This from The Enchanted Tree of Crooked Lake,

another children's book illustrated by me,

written by Rachel Longhurst (her second children's book), in production now.

To be released soon.

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

MM marketing ~ post cards

front~click to enlarge

back~click to enlarge

Post Cards!

First of the marketing materials with my work used for

Milford Memories

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

IF ~ Slither

He slithered into the corner as he realized he was in a mess of trouble for what he had done.

...this for Illustration Friday

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

IF ~ Equipment

...as in FARM equipment!

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

Lucille

One of my most FAVORITE children's books when I was a kid!

(...ok, now too)


Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

digital imagery by gregory dunn

The second book I've illustrated, The Enchanted Tree of Crooked Lake written by Rachel Longhurst is in production now! This is Gregory Dunn of Digital Imagery LLC, scanning illustrations for the book. Gregory has recently been involved with the digital printing and publishing efforts of of artists and photographers~ Carl Sams, Todd and Brad Reed, Catherine McClung and Beth Erlund to name a few.

You can learn more about him and see more of his work here:

digital imagery
by gregory dunn

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! The animals deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

Blogger Award

The Creative Writer Blogger Award

Thank you to Karen Whitaker who nominated me for this award!

...and in turn, the blogs I really like
and have chosen for this award are:

Ginger Nielson
Monica and Andrea
Jose Giammarino
Suzanne Cabrera
Lynne Chapman
Snezana
Christy Berry

These are the rules to accept your award:

...but please do not feel obligated to follow the rules in order to accept this award, it does take some time to complete. Just copy and paste the award into your blog without all the hubub if you'd like because after all...you deserve it!

1. Thank the person who gave this to you.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you.

4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.

5. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.

6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

The following are MY Outrageous Lies:

1. In my previous life I was born in a puppy mill.

2. As I grew older I was kept in a cage day after day and was only used to help the owner make more puppies.

3. I watched helplessly as my owner lined his pockets with money and didn't buy me the food, or give me the care I needed to stay healthy. He never took me out to go to the bathroom. I grew so thin and my paws became splayed from clinging to the floor of the cage.  

4. I was sometimes packed in my cage with many other dogs where we could barely move and we all cried together.

5. Other times, for many days in a row, I was left alone... really alone... and all I could think to do was make up a game called "bite the flies."

6. I longed for someone to save me.

My my gloriously outrageous truth:

WE SAVED HIM!!!!

 

 

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

happiness ensues...

Twister and Karen on a romp in the pasture
as they continue their blissful life together ;-D

IF ~ Detective

It's going to take a little detective work

to figure out what's going on here!

Illustration from

The Harp Mouse Chooses Her Home: The Adventure Begins" 

written by Diane E Dunn, illustrated by meeeeee  

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

Spinal Column Interview

Spinal Column Interview April 2010.

I particularly like "Too Much Trash" heading in the mail bag section above the interview.

Hardy Har Har! Gotta love it!

...classic...

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

Twister and Karen

This the beginning of the story of our horse Twister (the bay) and Karen (the chestnut) together.  Twister lost his companion Buddy in the fall of 2008. Our neighbors asked us if we would adopt their horse Karen when Buddy passed, but due to a combination of broken hearts and other circumstances we've been dragging our feet about taking on another horse. Spring has come early to Michigan this year and brought the perfect mixture of warm weather, outdoor play, great friends, good choices and a new partner for Twister to love. We have decided to adopt Karen from our neighbors that offered her and as you can see, they are so happy together! Many thanks to Doni, Tim, Rianna, Sierra, Gerry, Magic and that big wet rug Sassy for making this possible, for giving the gift of renewed companionship and the gift of Karen's love...to Twister...who we so desperately adore

...life is good. 

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

Milford Times Article

(click article to enlarge)

Milford Times News article

about my featured art in the Milford Memories Art Fair

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

IF ~ Rescue

No need to rescue these two!

They will always take care of each other!

~a peek of an illustration from

The Enchanted Tree of Crooked Lake to be released soon...

 written by Rachel Longhurst...and illustrated by meeeee!

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks

...a day in the life of

Michigan Spring!!!

These are my two ADORABLE, schmoopalicious, I could eat 'em with a spoon, nieces standing on the dock of the Lake St Clair River in Michigan. While the snow is gone on the ground and it is warming up nicely (for Michigan), this is what the St Clair river looks like in the spring! A freighter got stuck in the ice on the river a few days ago, so two ice cutters came to set her free. That's one of the ice cutters in the background.

 

Notice the girls are eating ice cream as their favorite ice cream shop opened for the season just this week!

Gotta love Michigan!!

...and I do! So many AMAZINGLY beautiful sites here, no matter what the season is!

Kisses to you Mia and Ava!!!

(thanks for the pictures Carl and Mindy!) 

When you purchase an item from MY STORE, 10% of your purchase price will be donated to my favorite animal charities; Last Chance Animal Rescue and Horses Haven, both in lower MI. Which charity the donation goes to, will depend on the item purchased and I will love you forever from the bottom of my little black heart. ...and even if you don't purchase anything from me, you can go to their site and make a donation! They deserve a chance too!

Have a seat in the sun with a sippy and browse through the pages of my website ArtQwerks