winterwindarts

I am a partially self taught artist originally from coastal Maine and now living in the Cape Cod region. I am mostly interested in surface design and coutre and enjoy combining techniques and mediums.

In addition to my art I am also an engineer, theater geek, writer, and bellydancer.

I love color. Vivid colors, subtle colors, shading, tone on tone, gradations, ect. As long as it isn't too frilly, pink, or migraine inducing then color is great. I often play with a monochromatic pallet to take advantage of the subtle color differents...or I might go with rich saturated jewel tones. I have a very wide variety of colors in both my personal belongings and artwork and don't restrict normally limit colors or combinations. A rule of thumb is that if it wouldn't work for Valentine's day then it's probably workable. Again, pink and frilly is only used when I am trying to disturb people or play mindgames with them.

I'm usually fine listening to anything that is neither painfully off key nor full of swearing (there are so many more effective and intelligent options than resorting to swears).

When I have control over music options I usually choose bellydance music, folk/cultural songs (Irish, Native American, Balkan, Indian, Middle Eastern, ect.), tracks from musicals, goth/alternative music, and anything that might triggers emotions and make it easier to write certain scenes in my stories.

Individual music artists/groups/collections include Cruxshadows, Ego Likeness, Azoic, Michelle Branch, Evanescence, Celtic Woman, Galactic Bellydance, and any tracks from Bellydance Superstars.

Lots. Stuff with pretty pictures. Sci-fi, fantasy, fiction, non fiction, historical novels, anything remotely well written, horror, ect. Also anything on architecture, gardens/herbs, or design. Trashy romance novels rarely are written well enough to be worth the time.

A few of my favorite authors: Patricia Briggs, CS Freidman, Anne MacCaffery, Jody Lynn Nye, Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, and quite a few others I can't list.

I read. A lot. Pretty much anything that isn't painfully poorly written.

Anything on Discovery or NatGeo channels, Stargate (any), MacGuyver, the Closer, Fringe,Law and Order SVU, Smoking Gun Presents..., House, and almost anything else that engages my mind or shows (unplanned) clips of people being idiots.

Coutre, costuming, any form of surface design, painting with watercolors or acrylics, jewelry (metal working or bead embroidery), woodworking, almost anything else.

I usually want to combine multiple techniques in one project and constantly try to challenge myself. Most of the time I have no attention span unless I'm working on a project...and then it's nearly infinite. So far my record is 6:30am to 3am the next day without actually stopping to even eat.

Gardening, especially with herbs and unusual or heirloom plants. Creative gardening or gardens that blend into the surrounding landscape so they look like they've been there for generations interest me far more than traditional gardening. I also try to have every plant serve at least one use other than looking pretty-edibles, medicine, dyes, natural pest control, physical barriers/hedges, ect.

Also pets or anything animal related. I basically grew up in a mini zoo and at one time my family had over 75 individual "pets" (we showed/bred guinea pigs at that time and four females had just dropped litters and we had a zebra finch colony). We always had multiple housecats that were almost all rescues or from a shelter and a total of four large breed dogs (plus one mini collie) over the years. One of the dogs was a completely wild coyote/German shepherd hybrid that accepted my father as pack leader rather than become a loner after her entire pack died of an illness (it was in rural Maine before leash laws so she was free to leave). Currently I own two cats (both rescues), two red eared sliders, and a bearded dragon.

I love color but my clothing choices are usually somewhat more restrained and very rarely loud or frilly (unless I'm deliberately trying to disturb people). Black always works. Earthtones and jewel tones make up most of the remainder of my wardrobe. Clothing with patterns on the fabric are usually tone on tone or visually blend together into one color from more than 5-10 feet away. Focal points/pieces are restricted to my hair (large collection of hair sticks, ties, and clips), earrings, or pendant and sometimes my purse.

Jewelry- For earrings, almost anything that doesn't have the plain posts as the ends irritate my skin too easily. Normal gauge earwires. I have long hair so any length works as long as they don't touch my shoulder. No allergies to metals although I don't wear silver quite as often as other metal colors. If paper is used it needs to be sealed to prevent disintergration if it gets wet. Unlike any other wearable for me, almost anything goes with earrings and I can wear heavier ones without a problem.

All other jewelry I wear is usually more subtle unless dressed for bellydancing. No necklaces less than 16".

Purses- My ideal purse would be (a) shoulder strap(s) about 22" long and 1.5" or less wide so it can cross my body and able to put at least my 8.5"x7"x0.75" notebook, a couple pens, and a standard checkbook in without falling out but not so large that it becomes a black hole, a simple closure would be nice like a toggle or magnet snap or even just a folded over flap like a messenger bag. I usually wear earth tones (browns, golds, greens, and maroon/raspberry) or black and would prefer something that wouldn't look out of place and that I could wear pretty much all the time-my main pet peeve about my current purse is that it's white and mint green so it stands out like a sore thumb. Patterns, designs, and decorations are okay if they work with the colors I wear as my clothes rarely have patterns and are usually solid colored. I rarely have anything particularly frilly unless I'm really trying to disturb the people around me.