bear with me ...

so .. im in the process of creating my website. drawing up a storm to meet deadlines & trying to get all these tattoo ideas that every one wants me to draw for them done... i leave to NY in less than a month, and also been saving every dime. this month has been a busy one. haven't had time to blog. i haven't forgotten about it, i rarely forget about important items such as this, and such as people who have walked in and walked out of my life. i miss them... but o well for every negative thing that pops in ur life two very positive things come from it. i keep telling myself that. if ever something gets me down i say "its only a speed bump on my road to happiness" thats all for tonight... i gotta get to drawing...

Realization...

Wow, its been a long time since I've blogged. much has changed. i actually was re considering this whole art world thing. but why? i guess i didn't have the support i wanted from those that i needed it most from. i talked it over with only a select few... and i came to realize "If I want to fly, I'll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and fuck the rest."  - a quote from little miss sunshine. i came to an under standing that if i love what i do then why put that on the line to make someone else happy, when at the end I'm the one living my crazy life.

I am an artist, i love to do it. anything about art amazes me. Will i be a success? i hope so, do i have to be? nope, not at all. Listening to that Kate Earl song the other day helped me out with this.

 

i realized that all i actually want in life is to make one impact, just to make someones day, make an genuine impact for the good in someone else's life thru art or whatever it may be. thats actually dead on of what i want. i meet a lot of people from time to time, and i find that its always meant to be. like i find that me meeting certain people is directing me to where i need to be and shaping in a way- if that makes sense.. i think i am babbling on again. but back to the song- absolutely love these lyrics- 

If I could touch one lonely soul, If I could heal and be so bold To be a star, to be a light,

set one heart on fire; that's all I ever wanted

Well i leave you with some photographs that i found this morning, i took then with Jen- my best friend. we would venture off and break into abandoned buildings... such an adrenaline rush! But so exciting and tons of fun. i only found a few.. took these photos for my photography class as one of my final projects. Enjoy. and please comment! pro favor! :) that is all. 

yay! 

Regrets.. none at all.

First off... you should know that I'm still recovering from food poisoning and i have a pounding headache at the moment. yesterday morning i even got sent home from work.. thats how bad it was, and i felt really bad cuz i love my job! its the first job to where I'm excited to go to and it fun! okie I'm getting off track. but yea i ate a nacho that didn't agree with me a day or so ago and it was horrible, the other night i was all shaky and i couldn't eat anything with out gagging about it.. but I'm better kinda! no vomititng for me! yay! :) just a ginormous headache. but thats besides the point

My best friend Jennifer has a tattoo, her new ink. it reads "Forget regret or life is your's to miss" if you don't know where thats from its from RENT! one of our fav movies of all time. and rosario dawson.. omg.... *drools*... that quote is all i was thinking about as i was home yesterday. you see there was this concert going on, on 6th street Austin! The Parish to be exact, and one of my all time fav singers who I've been following since 09' was gonna play there... Kina Grannis. She's amazing, I'm sure she's gonna go far. Well seeing that she was just a town away i had my heart set on going as soon as i clocked out, little did i kno i had an obstacle to get around-my sickness- it wasn't fun... i think i slept all say yesterday and tried my hardest to eat some food. and once i was feeling at least 70% better i started thinking that i would sooo regret not seeing her. I thought when is the next time this is gonna come around? A few things you gotta know about me if you haven't already: One: i don't, can't and will not lie, i jus can't... it makes me feel too guilty- and if i do lie ill feel so bad that ill come back around and tell the truth.Two: i live life with no regrets because you truly don't kno how much time you have here on this earth. Three: I try not to let anyone down, i try my hardest on that one. With that being said i was gonna try my hardest to see one of my favorite artist, who was just a 45min drive away.

With my best friend jamming out to "Gotye-Somebody that i used to know" & a mix cd i made we ventured to austin! the whole time while i was driving i was hoping i wouldn't get or feel sick. i was pushing it, but then again thats why i had my health food right next to me. Once we got there we parked and little did i kno i parked by her tour bus. i was like a little kid all happy :) and when she took the stage i was all smiles.. i got a few good pics actually. it was amazing! i definitely don't regret going, had a headache the whole night, and fun fact! it was my first time on 6th street that i wasn't drinking... felt like i was a minor or something.

oh and i kno this has nothing to do with my art blog.. but hey! its my blog - i do what i want :)
amazing show, i don't regret it one bit. have a nice day now, off to my wonderful job i go.. well in a few.

--->   http://www.kinagrannis.com

Cranking out a few creations...

holy moly its been a month already? time flies! the last time I've written was march 1st, it is now april, and the months names isn't the only thing that has changed, many things have changed. All for the good tho, i realized I've been putting my moto into use these few months. the whole "live life to the fullest & no regrets" type of thing. as for the art world, i admit, well i shamefully admit that I've been slacking in that department, but i am determined to make it up. true.. i did do a few drawings for a few tattoos but I'm talking about the giant charcoal drawings thats my specialty... that or my portfolio that is collecting dust. i gotta step it up and crank out a few creations! as soon as i get that special item i ordered in the mail, guaranteed ill be drawing up a storm.

What i really wanted to write about was this tattoo i drew for a friend at work, Kiara aka Kiki Brown. (right now my favorite song just popped up and made me lose my chain of thought... Crying-RoyOrbison)
okay... now that thats outta the way.. but yes! kiara one day asked if i could design a tattoo rocketship for her, she was surprised the very next day when i had 6 drawn up for her. it surprised me too, didn't kno i would do that many. well i let her have her pick and she custom created the rocket of her choice. it shall be permanent on her skin as of today at 3! Keep in mind that I've only ever created 2 tattoos that have been tattooed on people, so this is kinda a big deal for me. the first tattoo i created was for my ex, and she still has it on her :) yay!

 Im sure my mind is all over the place right now. i just woke up, i partied last night, i have the music turned up all the way(its 1961 oldies if u were wondering), and I'm trying to write all this & edit photos. i guess I'm not writing as much due to the music and how i just want to sing ... right now Del Shannon "Runaway" just came on and i can't help but think of her, and if ur wondering I'm talking about Miss.V. Its horrible to think about and to kno how it all ended and the way it ended but i guess it made me stronger. if u have no clue what I'm talking about then good! spare urself the story of which i had to tell a hundred times.

You don't kno what you have until its gone

I did it! I'm back in the game, a "little bird" helped me out and now i finally have Abobe Creavite Suite on my mac. Am i ecstatic? Of coarse, did i jump up and down in excitement the minute it said Loading Complete- well no i guess i have a way of bottling those things up. its not that i contain my feeling i guess I'm jus sooo good at it. I can finally get back into the design world, you have no clue how depressed i got when i saw a logo or a cover on a magazine that i knew i could make a tad bit better, of coarse i never had it on my Laptop.. like the saying goes- "You don't kno what you have until its gone" true story. all thru school while i was obtaining my graphics design degree i took photoshop for granite, that was about 1 year ago... such a long year. Now that i have it i promise ill make the most of it and already  have created a logo for a client! :) yay!


Now for something random. Yesterday i was hanging with my bestie and painting and jamming out as usual. Now i don't consider myself a painter, and earlier at work i was talking about how I'm kinda scared of painting.. basically without getting into specifics i was thinking about what a co worker told me. She said something along the lines of- Don't be scared of painting, were u scared of drawing when you first started? My answer was no.. i just went for it. So i went for it, in painting that is. A few weeks ago i posted about my first painting- the gun. On this same table i then painted my octopus. Not really mine.. seeing that it wasn't my idea to begin with. I do take credit for the painting and creating it, not so much the idea. Right now I'm babbling on, for some reason i always get hyper around this time and have no clue what to do.. any who. here it is, and hey! my favorite song just came on!  THE LAST KISS- J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers

forgive me for the bad angles, it was taken on my laptop n it was very dark outside... 

Peacock

Its been 13 days since Valentines day, irrelevant i kno, but thats how long it has taken me to blog about what i created for my Valentine. For all of you who kno me, know that i don't give out the ordinary gift, be it christmas, your birthday or whatever the occasion. I try to go over and beyond of the ordinary and try to create something that will leave an impact. I try this on an everyday basis, try to leave a tiny foot print, honestly because what if tomorrow never comes? I want to at least kno i gave it my all, you follow? Any who thats besides the point, i think I'm going off track and using too many comas.

Back to Valentines day! I asked Peacock (yes thts her name) to be my valentine, i think i asked on the 12th so that only gave me 2 days to come up with something. My brain went on creative overload and tried to think of something amazing... i came up with a simple hand made card. For xmas she gave me a pop up card, so i decided to give her a pop-up peacock card, i thought "this should be simple".. i was wrong. From start to finish it took me approximately 4 hours to create such a card. I was determined to finish it and took photos along the way. Below to the left is an image i came across researching, to the right is my finished product. Keep in mind i didn't have any template nor did i have any instructions on how to achieve this look.

That one image is all i had to work with, so i knew it was was possible, yet the construction was the most difficult part, i had a demo.. that didn't turn out so well. So instead i dove in head first and decided to draw & cut on my card stock i was using for the final piece. Something you're not supposed to do, yes i kno but it gave me the pressure to not mess up & be dead on accurate with that exact knife i was using.

For some reason I've become fascinated with the "design process" that is taken to create anything, wheather  it be a painting a drawing or in this case a difficult card. So i took a bunch of photos and below is the finished product. When it was complete, I loved the card and almost didn't want to give it away. Yet i knew she would appreciate it, one artist to another. Besides thats my favorite part, when giving something away that took so much time to create, to the person it was meant for. She loved it by the way, from what she told me "Omg Jackie i think I'm gonna cry" or something along those lines.. thats how i knew 4 hours is nothing if it brings another person joy. 

Skinny Love- Bon Iver <-- current song thats blasting thru my mac as i write this, very good song, i suggest you take a gander and listen to it. But I'm not gonna be pushy.. only if you want. Sorry for now writing in my blog! there more to come, promise you that.. I have a ton of projects in the works. Until then...

First painting of mine..

I made a promise so im sticking to it. I shall blog every week, or at least try. I love to find out who is reading my blogs and just recently i found out someone- who i thought long forgot about me has read them. That meant a lot... but anywho! Im a graphic designer who has created many designs and logos along wiht giant charcoal drawings. Yet i have never picked up a brush and painted anything. Yes i kno hard to believe. Well i just never thought i could or would untill my friend Doodle and Jenn kinda planted that idea in my head that i should try it out.

All started yesterday, Thursday i believe when me and my best buddy in the whole world-Jen were just hanging out. Well we were up to no good as usuall, and just got bak from visiting a few missions around san antonio and getting lost. It dawned on me as we were hangning out that i should paint, or at least have a go at it. i believe i should at least try anything once. well jen still had all the painting supplies out from the other day, so i picke dup a brush and started painting. First time mind you. i noticed i kept putting myself down and saying that it wasnt good looking, but jenhen kept egging me on to keep at it. Well i set it up in 3 layers, ive finished 2 layers so far.. and here it is.

As usuall i love taking pics as "art works" are created. So i started painting n took pics along the way.. and yes thats a lone star beer! I kinda liked the way my first painting turned out. it seems as if this table i painted on is heading to california with me when the time comes. i have yet to finish this gun of mine, but its my first painting and im kinda amazed that i did that, i didnt even kno i had it in me.

MUSIC:

Oh and big influence was The Killers! I had just bought their cd/dvd "Live at Royal Albert Hall" Pretty good music to listen to as i painted..I believe i am falling in love with the killers all over again. I used to be mesmorized with them in high school. Any who as i write this blog before i go to work i am listening to pandora and "Sex on fire"by kings of leon just finished. Oh and now the killers popped up again "under the gun" oh yay.. okay now im just getting carried away. Hop you enjoyed, Comment!

Jumping Back In

Hey there stranger! its a new year, im kinda scared shitless. Needles to say this year is going to include many changes in my life. This is an art blog, yes? There fore i shall talk about art and leave the personal shtuff out. Well some, after all it is my blog anyways and its all about me. Well having that said im now officially 23, and im planning to move to california to start my career. Yes, you read correctly. Hope it doesn't fall through. Its the swift kick i need to make that career blossom. I have a lot riding on this, ive only told my parents, my brother, and a handful of friends. Now you know, see so dont say i didnt tell you. No worries, i have a plan, a magnificent plan.

Besides the move i have a website under construction, its going good so far, except that i have a virus on this here mac. Plan to get it fixed soon. With this year many events have taken place, people have come and gone, one particularly made such an impact that it threw me off of art for a while. Then i thought to myself, this is not me. New Year New Me! I always am a happy go lucky person there for i took a step back and fixed myself and took life by the horns. Since then ive been happy, well getting there little by little. I guess that explains my absence from this blog.

Yet over this time ive had many projects and plan to give all of them my best effort. Theres too many things i have to do and so little time. I love that im busy, makes the days go by effortlessly. Ill keep you posted, and a giant thankyou to those who have kept reading my blogs even when i didnt blog at all. I think i managed to go about a month of no blogs? Yet the numbers of views kept climbing. There for i shall blog every week at least and post my projects here. Some are very interesting, yet im not telling just yet.

Pandora, such a distraction..

As of right now, this absolute second im listening to KC & the sunshine band- Boogie shoes.. im on pandora! If your wondering who is kc and the sunshine band, then i suggest you get it together and go explore music.. go on! get!

Any who, seeing how thats out of the way, i didnt even blog last week! I haven't even been to the gym, geeze i feel really guilty about all that. As it seems i do remember mentioning a few things in the past, such as the sewing project i was so wrapped up into. It was to be a surprise for a friend of mine who resides in virginia. It was an owl by the way.. i stumbled across the photo one day while on the web and thought "hey! i can make that, well at least ill try" It turned into a success, altho my photos that i took of the owl pillow i made seem to have disappeared. Just my luck.. well at least i have a pic on my phone.

Took me a few hours to start and finish this sucker, but i managed to do it.  The important thing is that the recipient aka Jessica loved it. i thought it could have been so much better. The above pic is the photo i stumbled across and the pic below is the only one i have of it being made. 

I think its not too shabby, if i say so myself. That there was my first actually sewing project n i completed it all on my own. i even showed my mom n she asked what pattern i used, i was proud to say "i didnt use any pattern at all!" Perhaps i shall make another owl, or another random item. Im not sure what will come in the future, right now actually im kinda distracted by the song thats being sung ...its "City" by Sara Bareilles on Pandora. Yes pandora yet again. I guess thats the mini blog for now. Tommorow is christmas eve and i absolutely must wrap a few gifts. Have a merry christmas.

Billboard Time!

So seems that i haven't blogged in quite a while. Here it goes in November 2011 i entered myself into "The Digital Art Show" hosted by Clear Channel Outdoor-San Antonio. Had it not been for the little birdy Diana i would not have entered it or heard about it. Well i kept putting it off, but one night i finally made the time to email my art works of The Elephant aka Homer, The bike aka Eighty-Sixed i wont place in the top 40 but at least the people of Clear Channel will get to view my artworks. Im that young artist just trying to make a name for myself.

To my surprise a week or so after i entered i received an email.. the first line read: " You won,"Elephant" made the top 40!! " I was in awe, yet again. Seems thats been happening a lot lately. Yet i get shocked rarely, its seems that my drawings are better that i think. I received conformation that The art work will run from December 5-18, 2011. Its December 13th today, and i have yet to view this (below) on a billboard. I think just seeing my name up there will amaze me. I shall go billboard hunting tomorrow to find all the locations. Don't get me wrong the publicity is great, yet all that really matters is that my Elephant is viewed, im not looking to make any money or anything. I just want to get my name out there. Already i have a few request and that is amazing. Guess this week im gonna be a busy little bee and drawing my heart out. 

As for the locations they sent me a lovely little map. So get out there San Antonio! I already recieved a few photos of my billboard, but i want a bunch. I have this idea in mind to make a collage. Thats an idea that is likely to turn into a project. Below is a map, so if you spot it, snap a pic!! Thats all for now
Hope u have a lovely day, although its all rainy and foggy here today in San Antonio.

If the photo is too small to view the locations, here are the 5 locations:

281 @ Paso Del Norte

1604 s/o Hanover Cove

1604 @ Braun

IH-10 @ Fredericksburg

IH-35 @ SW Military

Its a step in the right direction...

        Shock, Astonishment, Taken Aback.. This is the way i felt as they said "....Coming in First Place/ Grand Prize Jaclyn Valdez!" In my mind i had no clue of what i would say or even do. I was in complete shock but some how my feet began to walk through the crowd to the microphone. I grabbed the mic and suddenly "Hi! Im Jaclyn Valdez... ". They wanted me to introduce myself as well as depict the inspiration of my art work. My grandmother is partially the reason i chose to have El Mariachi playing a trumpet. She is my inspiration, plain and simple. I was happy enough that my best friend Maria and my Grandmother showed. That right there made me as happy as i could be, what pushed it over the edge was my Dad being there. He never saw my art works displayed, i would tell him about it and he would always say "oh thats good". I was very disappointed when i had an art work in the San Antonio College Art Gallery and he didnt go view it. This i think, made up for it. He told me he was proud of me, Im sure that will forever be in my memories. Going into this Mariachi-Themed Art Exhibit, i never would have imagined that i would be walking away with first place. All i wanted to do was get my name out there and have a few people check out my art work. I had absolutely no idea that it would even sell! Geeze, tonight for sure is the night of surprises. 

Well it just goes to show you that if you believe in yourself and work as hard as you can you can achieve your dreams. I can honestly say that im proud of where i am. Never would have i thought that i would be here in this situation. Its a step in the right direction, a step to achieving my future. I hope to accomplish more. I just hope that next time i dont have to drink 2 glasses of wine in order to have the liquid courage to grab that mic. Although this is nothing compared to the 1,000+ audiance members that i had to talk to once, but thats another story, another blogg actually.

This would be the address of the blog describing this event. 

 http://mariachimusic.com/blog/2011/11/21

And this would be the web address of the Nonprofit Organization, Centro Cultural Aztlan!

http://centroculturalaztlan.50megs.com/

A thought in my mind...

Tonight I sit here, and yet there are so many projects I want to accomplish. Too many to be exact. I love to design, I love to explore new materials, I love to use my hands and create something that brings happiness to someone else. Is there a job for that? I think the closest thing would be Graphic Design. Today i was told that I should become a Documentarian. That sounded like a lovely idea. I wouldn't mind that career one bit.  For example, I always was infatuated with the idea of photo shoots and how everyone was always focused on the subject. Yet at these photo shoots i never paid much attention to the subject being shot, i paid close attention to the photographer. I would pick up my camera and start taking photos of the photographer who was taking photos of their subject, hoping just for an instant to capture the magic of it all and the creative process the photographer is glowing with. Photography also has been a big part of my creative world. Documenting has always been in my mind, I always think to myself that i need to capture all that is around me.One day ill wake up and everything will be changed yet ill be too blind to to realize what has minutely changed around me. I always have a camera with me, i just want to capture those tiny moments and look back at them one day in awe.
Im not too sure but i guess im just going on and on.

I must say i think of myself as a simple person, i appreciate life's little things and i want to capture it all, well at least most of it. I love taking a photograph, drawing a giant art piece or creating something amazing for someone. With that said, theres a project in mind that i hope to start tomorrow and hopefully finish. My next project is a sewing project, i just hope i have a bit of the sewing talent that my mother has. If you can imagine it and it involves material my mother can make it. Hands down she knows everything about sewing. Well lets see how this goes, im off to buy all the supplies tomorrow, wish me luck.

El Mariachi

Well just a few weeks ago, October 28th 2011 to be exact,  I decided to enter an art work into the "Mariachi Festival exhibit" for the Centro Cultural Aztlan here in San Antonio. Well on my previous art works ive always tried to take a photo every time i completed a section of the art piece. For this art piece, which ive named El Mariachi, i took a photo every 10-20 minutes. Looks pretty cool actually, hopefully the gif works correctly. Upon creating this piece i was jamming out to Selena on Pandora, and no not Selena Gomez, Selena Quintanilla! I had to have motivation while drawing, that and it was about 2 in the morning and i was trying to start and finish before i had to go and turn it in. I finally turned it into the Centro Cultural Aztlan around 3 i wanna say. But here it is! Hope you enjoy! 

El Mariachi, 24 X 36, Charcoal On Newsprint 

   

On my mind..

Well im not proud of it yet i have been putting my art on hold this year. Why? well i come to terms that i am just scared off my ass of where it can lead. Thats just me i guess, i mean everyone has told me i have much potential and can flourish greatly. I guess the whole "money" things gets me. I create art and my huge charcoal drawings for people to see and enjoy, not necessarily to sell. I would be completely happy with people enjoying my art works and telling me their opinions, rather than them trying to buy them and have them away in their houses. Im not too sure but i fell like if people are going to start buying them then that pushes me to make even more art works. Im in the process! i guess i find it hard to part with a drawing that took up so much of my time, altho it does make me happy to kno that it brings someone else so much joy that they are willing to shell out money for it. I guess im just rambling on about money and art. oh well i guess that this is what the art blogg is for! more to come and hopefully its not of me rambling on and on..

One Small Step

My name is Jaclyn Valdez & I'm absolutely crazy about creating art work. From massive charcoal drawings, to spray paint and logo design I am always willing to try something new and jus create. Ever since I can remember I have always loved art and photography, I hope by creating this site that I can get out there into the design world and basically launch my career. Thus the name Design Launch!