Cordial Kitten | Custom Portraits and Illustration

A Passing Fad

cordialkitten — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:51:37 +0000

Real Life

Candice Hartsough McDonald — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:34:00 +0000

Tonight we watched a movie about zines, called 100 Dollars and A T-Shirt. It was pretty good. It kind of almost made me want to make a zine again, but not really. I hypothesize that all those people making zines grew up and opened etsy stores (like me. I prefer that my "hobby" makes my living, rather than working at a coffee shop). Now instead of having interviews in dirty disheveled apartments, all these etsy sellers and bloggers have interviews in these glossy magazine-ready cottage homes, with perfectly decorated windows and accent rugs, globe collections, and other thrifted and repurposed knickknacks. A sweet little 4 year old and his 2.5 year old sister cutely run through the shot, almost blurred beyond recognition. I won't tell you I don't like looking at the glossy perfect lives of other people, but I will say it makes me feel a bit inadequate about my own home and life sometimes, which is dumb. I look at everything every awesome person has done, and sort of lump them into this one giant amazing awesome person, who never has crumbs on the floor, who always folds laundry right away (in a beautiful natural light filled laundry room), who has an amazing wardrobe, who works for all the publishers I want to work for, who gets flooded with unsolicited calls from art directors, who has cameos on Martha Stewart, who has 10,000+ sales in their etsy shop, who goes to the gym, who eats organic food, only free-range meat once or twice a week, and still has time to make personal work to fill a small gallery or two per year. A totally unrealistic person to look up to. Not real!

In the zine world, people seemed a lot more real. They weren't afraid to write about gross things, or personal things, or to have their picture taken next to their dirty dishes, or before they had a shower. Or maybe all those people were just college kids who didn't give a crap, and I used to be one of them too.

Ps, I haven't had a shower today, and have worn my pajama shirt all day, even though I did leave the house (just to the studio, but still). The hell with perfection right?

Here is what my life normally looks like:

(Virginia, putting a whole new spin on the phrase "food truck.")

(This truck offers a wide selection, including cheerios, broken pretzels, and bits of peanut butter sandwich leftover from lunch. Notice the mid-air cheerio, and the ones already on the floor, which will later be ground into fine multi-grain dust by my feet)

Cordial Kitten 2012-01-10 12:51:00

Candice Hartsough McDonald — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:51:00 +0000

Oh, internet. I am finding artworking to be difficult these days. The problem seems to be a huge mixture of a bunch of different things. I have a ton more free time since I am not getting ready for shows, so I end up not going into the studio quite as early in the morning. And in the evening I've been watching a lot of movies. I have a couple of commissions to work on, but do dumb things like forget my computer cord at home when I go into the studio to work, so I can't use my laptop. Which has all the photos I need to work from for the commissions. I have a ton of ideas for personal work. I started a new series that I will start revealing to you soon. So at least there is that. But that is only like 20% of the ideas I have that I want to be making now during my "non-busy" season. Another huge part of my personal work is to make a children's book dummy (actually, two ... no it's more like 3), and I just can't seem to get started on it. I am intimidating myself, and I need to figure out how to let go!

No more complaining, me. Here is one of my favorite portraits right now:

Funny to work on a summery portrait in the middle of all the wintery-christmas themed ones. But it makes more sense when I tell you this portrait made its way to Australia where is is now, yes, summery.

Cordial Kitten 2011-12-30 20:56:00

Candice Hartsough McDonald — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:56:00 +0000

And so the year draws to a close.

Christmas with a 14 month old was much more fun than Christmas with a 2 month old.

Virginia loves the (many) gifts that light up and play (horrendous repeating) songs she received from family. Brandon and I knew those gifts were coming her way, so we tried to balance it out by making her a few things. We also gave her a "Band in a Box" so she can make her own songs, and many books (including Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus).

(She makes funny faces because of the bright lights on the camera :)

Here is the kitty I made her:

It does not meow on its own, but she loves it just the same.

Brandon and I also decided to hand make all the gifts we gave out to our families. Among the many things we made were:

Turtle Popcorn

Manly Mustard

(Made from an Ancient Roman Recipe! We're going to use ours this week with some roasted pork.)

Relaxing body lotion

(Bee&Kitten is a fake business name I made up for an imaginary cosmetic company my friend Megan and I have.)

Brandon and I thought it would be fun to give each product its own identity and special treatment for the package design. I think he did an amazing job creating all the different logos.

Next year we may not be so ambitious to hand make EVERY gift we give, but if we do have to buy anything we hope it will be from small businesses and/or handmade shops.

How was your Christmas?

Cordial Kitten 2011-12-07 17:42:00

Candice Hartsough McDonald — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:42:00 +0000

Oh hi, it is me! Did you think I had disappeared? Because I really thought I did.

This holiday season is kicking my behind like never before, but it's ok! Being busy with work means that my little family can eat and live in a house and sometimes do fun things like get sushi (Virginia really loves spicy salmon ... just kidding).

What have I been busy with you ask? Mainly portraits. Here is one I just finished up for a repeat customer:

This family is great to work with, and they must think I do a pretty good job since they keep coming back for more. This is their Christmas card this year.

I have also been to several holiday craft shows this season, including the Bloomington Handmade Market, The Crafty Supermarket, Art Vs. Craft, and Renegade Chicago. Tomorrow I'll be at an awesome Yelp party in downtown Indianapolis, and then Bizarre Bazaar over the weekend and then I'm DONE! With shows. Will still have to finish up 2+ portraits. But then it will be Cordial Christmas Break! At last. Maybe I will work on that needlepoint I started LAST Christmas break. hmm.

One last thing: if you sign up for my mailing list you can stay up to date with what is going on in my Cordial World, as well as get access to free offers from time to time (including a free card pdf I am giving away right now! Limited time only!).