Faces: Inspire Me Thursday

micron pen in moleskine sketchbook
inspire me thursday

Inspire Me Thursday:Gratitude

"There is no better friend than a sister. And there is no better sister than you." 

~ Unknown

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for my little sister Dani. It has been a crazy year with a lot of changes and we have been there for each other even though we are living 2000 miles apart. I am lucky to have such a good friend in my sister.

color pencil & indian ink on paper

inspire me thursday

Inspire Me Thursday: Square

acrylic paint on 4 square canvases

UPDATE: since a lot of you asked about this painting...this is what it looks like hanging...

Journal Page: The Sky Is The Limit

Inspire Me Thursday: Fun & Games

building sand castles is soooo much fun!

color pencil in a moleskine sketchbook

inspire me thursday

Inspire Me Thursday: DNA

One of my favorite quotes is:

"Fashions fade, style is eternal." ~ Yves Saint Laurent

When I saw the prompt was DNA, I thought of this quote...I'm pretty sure style, design, fashion, & art are embedded somewhere in my DNA...so I designed a DNA print dress...so cute! (would probably never wear it though hahaha!)


Pitt Artist Brush Pens, Color Pencil, and Acrylic Paint on paper

Inspire Me Thursday

Inspire Me Thursday: Open Topic TULIPS Painting

I moved into my apartment almost one year ago, and although I had plans for a black & white painting to hang over my sofa in our living area, but I have yet to find the time to actually carry out my plans. I've completed a million other projects for myself and others, but that was the big one looming out there and it was aggravating me. The white space on my wall was a constant reminder!!! For the past few weeks I've been sketching and perfecting in my mind what the final product was going to look like, so when the torrential rains opened up over NYC this weekend I sat down with my plans and started to paint. My boyfriend requested that the painting be black and white, so I decided to do a botanical silhouette painting of tulips. Here are the results:
First:

2nd & final (the boyfriend actually liked the painting best unfinished so I went back and added "highlights":--in the end I think it adds personality to the painting)


Tulips 24x30 acrylic paint on stretched canvas

Inspire Me Thursday: Goddess

2 color lino-cut block print 1/10

she's a lonely goddess, but a goddess nonetheless.



inspire me thursday

Inspire Me Thursday: Joys of Today

This was a good prompt. I scribbled some things that are currently & continually giving me joy.
my new art journal is filling up quickly! :)
inspire me thursday

One Girl Show/Platinum Blonde Studios featured in the Premier Issue of Artful Blogging!

Artful Blogging is a new quarterly publication produced by Somerset Studio that concentrates on the visually inspiring online blogs & their posts. The first issue of Artful Blogging will be available August 1st. Artful Blogging will be featuring an interview with Melanie Komisarki of Inspire Me Thursday. The article is accompanied by a few Inspire Me Thursday entries including one of my own ink drawings I had submitted to the site for the prompt, "Change of Scenery". My drawing is on the second page of the article on the lower right hand side (it is the black botanical silhouette drawing). Other artists that will be featured in the article include Julia Van Der Werf, Deborah Gorr, Bridgette Guerzon Mills, Pilar Isabel Pollock, and Lise Richards.





Pick up your copy of Artful Blogging on August 1st, for more amazing works & interview from bloggers & artists around the web! Find a store near you that will be carrying the publication here (you can also order it online by clicking here). A big thanks to Artful Blogging for featuring my art work!

Bold & Beautiful/Fashion Week Journal Entries

Below are two journal pages I completed tonight. I was cleaning and I found a bunch of old notes, papers, ticket stubs, that I had intended to use in my journal, but never got around to using them. I try to recycle invitations, notes from friends, and other items when creating my pages. My journal itself was a gift, but it is an altered library book using recycled paper & vintage fabric. I hope to carry the recycled/reused element throught the entire journal.

On the right, I used this week's Inspire Me Thursday "Bold & Beautiful" prompt and started to write/ramble much like I am currently doing with this post. I think I should do that more often.


Please keep in mind these entries are meant to be fun, lighthearted, and of course personal. The two pages are no way related to eachother in content, but I placed them next to eachother because I liked the pink/orange color combo. Anyway, here are the pages:

inspire me thursday journal: outside my window

outside my window there is a whole world out there that is a mystery to me...

here is a photo from outside my window

inspire me thursday

Inspire Me Thursday: Roots

“Everything you see
has its roots in the unseen world.
The forms may change,
yet the essence remains the same.
Every wonderful sight will vanish;
every sweet word will fade,
But do not be disheartened,
The source they come from
is eternal, growing,
Branching out,
giving new life and new joy.
Why do you weep?
The source is within you
And this whole world
is springing up from it.”
Rumi

acrylic paint on paper...5.5 x 8.5

A friend once told me that he would not have guessed in a million years that I had grown up on a farm. It wasn't that I hid this information from him or anyone for that matter. I always have said grew up in rural Iowa on a family farm. I think he thought I was exaggerating. Everyone makes fun of you when you say you are from a place like Iowa. Most people from Iowa didn't grow up on a farm, but the first question you always get after you answer "Where are you originally from?" is "Did you live on a farm?". The second question always comes with a laugh, because the person asking is really only half kidding. When you answer yes, they think you're joking. This is my experience. I'm sure I would have a completely different experience if I showed up looking like a stereotypical country girl with a southern drawl (Enter the American girls from "Love Actually"!). My friend didn't believe me until he visited the very house I grew up in. It was a typical you have to see it to believe it story. He always knew I was telling the truth, but he couldn't place the person I am now--wearing my designer clothing and long blonde hair in the middle of nowhere doing what farm girls do. The truth is I couldn't picture myself doing any of that!

I always felt isolated there--even as a young girl in elementary school I felt this way. I wanted out...I felt trapped in so many ways. I was determined to do everything I could to get away. I'm competitive, driven, and focused. I channeled all of my energy into one thing that I knew would get me out of there--my education. Neither of my parents had attended college, and being the oldest child I was determined to break the mold. It paid off for me because by the time I was in high school I had a 3.9 GPA, I was involved in Softball, Cross-Country, Track & Field, every honor society & organization you could dream of. With the help of scholarships I was able to get out of the state...I went to college near Chicago, I interned in Washington D.C., after graduation I lived in Chicago in the Wrigleyville area for a little over a year and then moved to New York City where I have lived for the past 2 years. NYC is the antithesis of my hometown. As I'm sure you would imagine, there are zero similarities.

The odd thing is that you can work so hard to get away from something...to erase it even, but it always stays with you. You can never really escape it even if your life is essentially the exact opposite of what it once was, your past is apart of you--it shapes you whether you like it or not. I don't know if I was necessarily trying to "escape my past", but I suppose in many ways--perhaps unconsciously-- I was trying to do just that. Something must have led me to charge forward until I found myself living on the opposite end of the spectrum.

I appreciate the beauty--especially the scenic beauty-- of Iowa now that I moved away. The openness, the smells, the clear skies, the unobstructed views all went unappreciated when I was living there. If I step outside right now and look north I will be able to see as far as 59th street. Back home, when you drive on one of those narrow highways you will be able to see for miles-literally. I had to leave to be able to appreciate the beauty of that. Too often you take the things that are directly before you for granted. I never would have seen the beauty in a barn with peeling paint & a weathered roof if I hadn't left.

Inspire Me Thursday: Copy

water color & ink on paper
falling blossoms

inspire me thursday

Inspire Me Thursday: Circles

water color & micron pen in moleskine sketchbook

inspire me thursday

Inspire Me Thursday: Silence

This weeks prompt was to find inspiration in the absence of sound. As I was brainstorming, I imagined a doll who came to life but her lips were sealed (thus unable to speak) so she searched for the key in desperation...


color pencil & micron pen on white paper

Inspire Me Thursday: Foilage

stippling drawing using a pitts artist pen in a moleskine sketchbook

Inspire Me Thursday: Words

acrylic paint on canvas panel 8x10

"breathe in, let go" ...advice i should take once in awhile

inspire me thursday

Illustration Friday: Polar

keeping in line with inspire me thursday's eco-art theme, i used a piece of cardboard from a mailing i received and turned it into a piece of art. the polar bears habitat is under threat, and i just want to swoop in and save them all!!! i imagine that is what the girl is doing here...riding her polar bear to safety where there is plenty of ice floating about, no hunters, and no pollution. to understand what is happening to the polar bears read this excerpt from a recent ABC news article:

"There has been a noticeable warming trend in portions of the polar bears' habitat, threatening the species with extinction by the end of this century. For instance in Canada's Hudson Bay, the ice that polar bears use to hunt seals-the mainstay of their diet-is melting two weeks earlier than it did 20 years ago, which means they have less time to hunt and store up needed fat. This is a particularly serious problem for the females because they use so much energy to nurse their cubs. Researchers report that there has been a 7 percent reduction in ice cover in just 25 years and a 40 percent loss of ice thickness. It is predicted there will be a mostly ice-free Arctic summer by 2080 if present trends continue. Other threats to the bears include pollution, poaching, and industrial disturbances. Also, hunting could become a threat if populations are not well managed." {source: ABC}

i can't imagine a world without polar bears, can you?

pitt artist pen on cardboard
illustration friday

Inspire Me Thursday: Eco Art

For this piece I used 2 pieces of cardboard that came as packaging inserts on some cookie sheets i bought this weekend. I then used scrap paper, cards, and other pieces of paper laying around my studio to create the collage background. i then layered acyrlic paints for the image. the collage painting measures 12x12.