maggieivy

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“A Delicate Balance” By Maggie Ivy - maggieivy.com 2017 Month of Love Challenge: Secrets When I was thinking about secrets, I thought of the stressful balance of keeping and living with a secret.  Like holding butterflies, you don’t want to crush them, but you can’t let them fly away. And if you are holding to many, one of those outcomes is bound to happen. 

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Skipping Thoughts by ivymaggie (200.00 USD) http://ift.tt/1pwFlVE

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Nosferatu Painting by ivymaggie (200.00 USD) http://ift.tt/227IGs7

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January 2016 Recap

So much happen this pass month. 

The most exciting of which is that I QUIT MY DAY JOB. 

(Here are some of the last Legos I got from there)

I have a feeling I’ll be falling back into it. But I need to return to making. I’ve managed to snag a few jobs, but alas, they are not really paying the bills. 

I saved up enough to last me a month and a half. But as of now I am completely debt free, so there are definitely ups!

(the Met)

I was lucky enough to visit New York City in the new year. One of my closest friends ELLEN BARKIN SÖDERHOLM, recently moved temporarily there. We had a blast. For the most part we went are NYC and to the museums. But the last 2 days ended up enjoying the snow.

(here are a few sketches form the Natural History Museum)

Also this month I’ve been in Marc Scheff and Lauren Panepinto’s Art Business Bootcamp (which is what has lead me to start these monthly recaps. 

(I was lucky enough on my NYC trip to grab coffee with Marc) (pointing at a painting of mine that he owns :)  )

I’ve been learning so much from this course, and will hopefully get the right start that I need. 

Speaking of courses I’m also starting Sterling Hundley’s Ideation Class via online as well.

So far I’m enjoying the assignments, and I will post more next month when I have completed it. 

 (here is a look at my Ideation sketchbook)

Something else that has been a lot of fun has been my hobby of dice casting has really gotten lots of nice attention from friends and family. Here are two. 

Something else that I’m returning to is a personal project.

my goal for the project is to create a field guild of North American backyard birds that is set a couple of decades after WW3. This is more of mutation then evolution of the species, due to chemical and nuclear warfare. My hope is to have a kick starter and make a book in a few months, for now I'm just gonna paint some birds

and Last (I’m sure I’m forgetting something) I’m really excited for this year’s Month of Love challenges, which I will be participating in this year. So Check them out every week I’ll be posting something new every friday, but there will be great new art every day of the week from really talented people.

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December 2016 recap.

As far as years go, this one was kinda crappy, and confusing and aimless. 

As far as months go, this was the busiest in the worst way. 

Pictured above in a shot I recently took of my job... well..well after the holiday rush. I hadn’t done retail during this session and in a toy store, no less, I honestly thought that I would have no time for art, even sketching. Even thought I knew that was what was going to happen, it really sucked for me. 

Although busy we had a pretty good seasonal staff, and the customers were pretty understanding if we didn’t have that exact Lego set they were looking for.   

On the 23rd, a dog did poop the biggest lake of diarrhea I’ve seen in my life... and then cleaned it up. 

The part that was the only pain in the butt was the ever infamous hoverboards.

We have been selling them since this summer. At first they were at 800-900$ (which was still middle of the road pricing at that time highest being around 2300$) We were also one of the only stores around that gave demos and let people try them. Which, if you will take note of the store is a pain, given that there is no room. Also, what is the deal with 8-15 boys not saying please and thank you. I had one kid push me off of one cause I was taking to long talking about the board. So you have a ton, and I mean tons of people jammed in this store and then a bunch of people (who know they don’t want it, and I know they don’t want it) wanting to ride the board. Then you have people gawking at the price (now at 500$, comes with a one year warranty, safety inspected yada yada) and saying “ Oh I can get this cheaper online” yeah from a boot leg company. Or! or  I’d get a bunch of hecklers saying on the sidelines how it’s gonna blow up or break. This was my day in and out. Everytime someone asked to ride it, was time taken away from what was really fun in my day which was helping people get gifts, or gift wrapping... or taking my lunch break. By the way I don’t make commission at the store I work at. And even then I would have been fine showing it if 70-80% of the people were nice. 

Sorry work has been on my mind for awhile. ...... 

I was in the Society of Illustrators West, which is AWESOME!

also followed Lauren Panepinto’s post on muddy colors which you can find here

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2015/12/how-to-get-what-you-want-know-what-you.html

Here are the fruits of that labor. 

So there she is, my goal life list thingy....

Recently, I feel like I’ve lost respect for myself.I'm 26, currently living in LA. I'm a graduate of the Florence Academy of Art, and was one term away from graduating in Illustration from TAD before it shut down. I then spent a year studying with the Lemens at their school Rev Art Academy. 

But my primary full time job is a keyholder at a toy store, (it's a fun job) the past two months have been hellish due to the holiday season. I've been able to eek by. But I've trained to damn hard to be stuck in a minimum wage where I'm not doing what I love. I'll be honest, I feel like I've lost the respect of my peers, family and boyfriend, because my art and art career hasn't gone anywhere, and on the current track isn't going to.  I'm not going to live like this anymore...I can’t.  I'm taking the wheel

So in good news, I’ve taken the leap and Saturday the 16th will be my last day. 

Also I’m doing an art business boot camp which so far has already paid off in moving me forward. 

http://artbusinessbootcamp.com/

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Following @planetpinto 's homework assignment from her muddy colors article. Starting off the new year right #lists #happynewyears http://ift.tt/1JiK6dY

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Wrapping up the year with the #2015bestnine http://ift.tt/1RS2HjH

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Literally, getting 15 minutes to sketch in these past two weeks has been impossible, working in a toystore during Christmas gets alittle insane #sketching #sketchbook #sketch #doodle #headless #pencildrawing http://ift.tt/1Nq0pSv

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#drawing #draw #sketch #sketching #sketchbook #shadow http://ift.tt/1YL9Tz3

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#sketch #sketchbook #sketching #draw #drawing #fish http://ift.tt/1lsLJus

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Decided to get into a little more credit card debt. No longer need to bike 10mins one way to get something printed. #debt #printer http://ift.tt/1S9BPsj

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Playing around a with the magpie kings "final final" transformation #greed #magpie #crown #sketch #sketchbook #draw #drawing http://ift.tt/1PCmAdM

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Just received my hard copy :) http://ift.tt/1kVpNrM

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Whooo! Have another painting spotlit on imagine fx 's website #imaginefx #fx #bump #night #cat #creepy #painting #paint #art #illustration http://ift.tt/1WhVvez

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Here is another oldie I want to revisit #war #vet #veteransday #hospital #injured #painting #paint #art #illustration #ww1 http://ift.tt/1LSmto5

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#snoopy #woodstock #inktober #inktober2015 #drawing #draw #sketch #sketchbook #ink #pen #brushesapp http://ift.tt/1NsZ9jz