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Obviously

oh my god what is wrong with me?? It hasn’t even been a full month since I built that new website on Adobe Portfolio and I’ve already scrapped it! There was nothing wrong with it, I just had all my stuff spread over too many separate sites. So I just spent the last 3 days reconfiguring my WordPress Elfini blog site to do it all – portfolio, blog and online store. I even relocated the whole installation from a sub-domain to the root directory. Holy hell why do I do these things to myself?! And then this morning when I thought all was well except a few more design tweaks, I found that I couldn’t upload images to WordPress! Oh that is not okay! So, I hit the google. And I tried all the things. Nothing worked. And I tried some more things. And then I totally broke the site. ::very external screaming:: So, knowing my poor blood pressure was going to hit unhealthier levels than normal (I’ll tell you about my blood pressure woes later), I reminded myself that I have backups. Lots and lots of backups (this ain’t my first website rodeo). So, I hopped back into the…

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Madness I Say!

Well, it has been 1 year and 2 days since my last confession. I am finally creating art again and that has led me back to the blog. The path from there to here was not peaceful or intended – it was more off a twisted ankle leads to rolling down a steep and rock-strewn hill and then crash landing in WordPress with multiple contusions and a bad attitude. I started watching some Skillshare classes again last month, and that has reignited my creative mojo – thank the Maker! It feels so good to be creating again after almost a full year of making no art at all. Covid and all that goes with it has definitely done a number on me. So I’ve been making illustrations on my computer in Affinity Designer and Photo because fuck you Adobe and your damn subscriptions! and that has been fun. But then I hit some Affinity snags while making this piece- Affinity Designer has no Offset Path. Why??! And then yesterday I wanted to create a half tone and all hell broke loose! You can’t seem to make a gradient half tone without unwanted artifacts on the edges! The solutions offered in…

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New Year = New Website

Some people are all about spring cleaning, but I am a New Year cleaning kinda person. I take down the Christmas decorations and get all inspired by the uncluttered spaciousness of the house and I’m off! My studio always gets cleaned up for company in December because it is technically the formal living/dining space and we host Christmas dinner, so by the time January comes around, the studio is already in pretty good shape. But there is always room for some organizational improvement and the purging of hoarded “I might use this someday” art supplies! This year I tossed a bunch of old magazine and sorted through a pile of random packing materials and papers on a shelf of the workbench. Usually, that would be enough procrastinating and I could get back to making art, but noooo….My arch-nemisis “Big Dumb Brain” decided that maybe Ink & Bone Alchemy should include a Society6 account in addition to the Esty shop. Oh and we should probably learn to use a new vector art program while we’re at it. And if it doesn’t seem like I hate myself enough, yesterday I decided to redesign my website!oh. my. fucking. god. why??!!!::deep breath::::one more::I’m fine.…

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Updates and then some…

wow. I logged into my website 2 days ago and realized that not only had I missed posting about the last 2 shows I was in, but I also hadn’t added any of the new work I had done this year!The past eight months have been hard and I have been grieving and depressed for much of it. So much so that my daughter titled one of my recent paintings “The Great Depression of 2017”. damn. But like always, I paint what I feel. There has been a lot of positive things among the sad and in the big picture view life is still very very good. I have just allowed myself to be present and feel everything as I moved slowly through all the emotional ups and downs.  And although I feel like I have been creatively off my game, I actually have been painting quite a lot this past month. So, yesterday I photographed the new pieces and updated the galleries. I am always struggling with how to organize the galleries on this site. Currently the pages are by medium, but should I include work that is over 2 years old? I’ve already pulled all photographs off the site.…

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Procrastination Nation

Hell’s bells. I am avoiding something. I think it might be something big. And probably ugly. Yesterday I spent the day playing video games after a long break. Today I am giving my website a complete make-over. I typically clean when I am in avoidance mode, so this is atypical and disturbing behavior. I’m dealing with code for fuck sake! And yes, I am positive there will be more swearing. I think I am supposed to be writing. I started something a couple months ago and then let it fall to the side. It’s going to be another brain-fuck so I’m guessing that is the hesitation to pick it back up. I do not want a repeat of the mental state I found myself in last year at this time. It took me well into the summer to recover. And yes, I’m being a bit vague because I never did talk about any of that on this site. In a nut shell: a research paper on adoption for an english class coupled with the stress of getting Kyle graduated and into college broke my brain. But I think I really need to get this family stuff out of my head and onto paper (can’t…

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Look at what I cooked up!

So, this here blog? elfini? It’s all Julie Tilsner’s fault.  4 years ago she said “Hey Dawn, you should start a blog!” And when Julie says “Jump”, I say “Fine… if you insist. But I’m not going to enjoy it.” And I think we all know how well this turned out. Anyway, a couple weeks ago, Julie finally said “Hey Dawn, you should redesign my blog!” And I jumped up and down, said yes, and insisted she bail on the evil Typepad and migrate to Wordpress. And a word of advice here – do not get me started on Typepad and the Six Apart world. The seething raging hate!! Luckily Julie bent to my will and is now happily hosting Bad Home Cooking on a spiffy new Wordpress installation. And it looks something like this: www.julietilsner.com Now click the pretty picture and bask in the glory of the new and improved Bad Home Cooking! Same old funny wrapped in a shiny new package.

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