How to use this Page

Introducing: Happy Little Cat, my new stone seal all the way from Taiwan!

Finally getting a chance to catch up with my blog again after another long break. The reason for my absence this time has been, what else, editing. Each time I thought I was finished editing my WIP, oops, oh no, there was more work on my plate. However, I am now finished, as in one-hundred-percent finished. The final draft of  my new novel, The Abyssal Plain, is ready for submission to agents and editors alike. Which means that other than my daily freewriting (flash fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, whining), I'm planning to spend the rest of the year concentrating on establishing "Happy Little Cat," an online studio/shop that will include visual art, pottery, jewelry, and of course, books. I'm more than excited. And as you can see in the photo above, I even got a special seal carved to celebrate my debut, although . . .

. . . there's a certain irony to finally getting my seal made.

Backstory: Prior to leaving for my trip to Taiwan, my fellow travelers and I were emailed an itinerary of our day-to-day activities. One of the things listed for the first day was to visit an art supply store where we could order carved seals or "chops" as they are sometimes called. Back in March I was pretty sure I didn't need anything remotely like a carved seal, and when we did get to the art store, I was so fixated on buying a replacement for my broken water brush (you can read about that little misadventure here), that choosing a nice rock was the last thing on my mind. Other reasons for not wanting a seal included the fact that I didn't think "Valerie" sounded very Chinese, especially when I didn't paint in a Chinese or Asian style. Or at least I didn't then.

Fast forward to this summer and post-trip when I found myself still obsessed with everything Taiwanese. I bought a book on Chinese brush painting. I bought Chinese watercolors. I studied the books I bought in Taiwan on painting trees and tigers. Somewhere in the midst of all this enthusiasm for sumi ink and bamboo pens I had the profound realization that I loved Asian art and wanted to include as much of it as I could (given my limited and "beginner's mind" skills) in my own work. At the same time I very quickly learned something was vitally missing from all my pieces: my seal!

Immediately I started regretting my decision to forego buying a seal in Taipei when I had the chance. Things reached a crisis point when I attended a reception for the New Mexico Art League and saw a stunning floral watercolor painted by our Taiwan tour leader, Ming Franz, that naturally included her seal. My husband asked why I hadn't bought one. How could I be so remiss? Or so silly? I had to get that seal.

After some extensive online research, I found a great company, Asian Brush Art. They had the stones, the carver, great pricing and a nice feel to their website that encouraged me to go ahead and place my order. The big question now, though, was what was I going to have carved on the stone? I still didn't want to use my name. That's when I had the idea to describe not me personally, but how I feel about life and art in general: I feel like a Happy Little Cat. I asked the company if there was enough room on the stone for the characters; they said yes, and ta-dah, I have my own seal at last.

The best surprise of all was that the seal came not from the company's mailing address in North Carolina, but from Taiwan! What are the odds? And not just any place in Taiwan, but from one of my favorite stops on the tour: Kaohsiung. I was thrilled.

I'm still learning to use the seal properly, experimenting with how to tap and dip it into the special red ink paste which was included with my order (I tell you, this company was great). The hardness of the stone and the creaminess of the ink are both very different from my past experiences (and failures) with rubber stamping, so I'm still in "test" mode, but I'm getting there. My best impressions so far have resulted from placing a piece of folded felt under my paper before pressing down with the seal. The sample at the top here is in on rice paper. (Expanding the size of the photo made the edges go fuzzy. They don't look like that in real life.) After playing around with the rice paper, I moved on to stamping some artwork I had recently finished using various supplies (including my trusty bamboo pen) on Arches 140-lb cold press watercolor paper:

Splash Ink Goldfish. Sumi ink, watercolor, and gouache on Arches watercolor paper.

Lanyang Museum, Taiwan. Watercolor, sumi ink, colored pencil on Arches watercolor paper.

Kwan Yin. Watercolor, sumi ink, colored pencil on Arches watercolor paper.

Some of the best images I was able to achieve (and of course I don't have any photos just when I need one to show you) were from using the seal on kraft paper cardstock gift tags, the same tags I experimented with last year applying collage and stick-on "pearls," (examples shown here).

So where I am now is I need to stop playing with my seal and use it for real: getting down to work to fill the shelves of Happy Little Cat Studio. It's going to take me a while to build up my inventory and then incorporate everything into my website, but it's a project I'm looking forward to. I'm also planning on illustrating some of my books for the first time, a great combination of my two favorite disciplines: writing AND painting.

For more information on the history of carved seals and their use, here's a good Wikipedia link to start with, but there are many, many other sites to investigate. My Happy Little Cat seal is carved in what is called "yin style," meaning that the characters are carved into the stone, leaving a red impression around them, as opposed to "yang style" which leaves white space around red characters.

It's also very common to use more than one seal in a painting, e.g., a "mood seal," a bit of poetry, etc., etc., and that's where things get really scary. Because I have a strong suspicion I'm going to want more seals in the future, which also describes me to a T--going from not wanting a seal at all, to now wanting a dozen. Go figure, LOL! Whatever, I love this first seal, I thought it turned out beautifully, and being the first it will always be special. Very happy, indeed.

Tip of the Day: Getting my seal was another step toward creating my "personal brand," something I first blogged about over 5 years ago (!). You can read the post here: What's Your Brand? Although you might find the idea of "branding" somewhat restrictive, it can also be a great help in defining your work to both yourself and your audience. Just for fun, brainstorm a list of 12 things you could use or do that would identify your work as uniquely yours. You might just want a seal of your own.

Add a Comment

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]-->

Happy Halloween! I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since my last blog post. Put it down to an overly-busy day job; going out of town for a bit; too many birthday parties to attend (including my blog's 6th anniversary--6 years!); getting ready for NaNoWriMo 2014 (cannot believe I've signed up again); and of course the fantastic Handsprings SCBWI conference here in Albuquerque last weekend--an amazing, and very tiring, event. I'll try to post some of my impressions from the conference next week, but for now my big news is:

I'm going to Taiwan next year! Best of all, there's still some room left on the tour for more friends of the arts to join up. Here's a sampling of info from the trip brochure:


<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]-->Ming Franz is an artist who is a native of Taiwan. This is her second tour leading artists to Taiwan. This tour will take you to visiting museums, art galleries, art studios and beautiful tropical Taiwan. 2 days flight, 12 days tour. 

Fees includes round trip air fare from San Francisco to Taipei, 12 days 4-5 star hotels, restaurants, tour bus and guide, all park and museum fees and tax, also basic medical insurance. Total is $3500 USD.  

Please go to her website to see the travel itinerary at www.mingfranzstudio.com, click on "Events" section. Feel free to contact her for questions at [email protected] or 505-281-4956.


So what do you think?? Fun, or what?

I met Ming Franz last year when I took her Splash Ink Watercolor class through the UNM continuing education department. The class literally changed my entire approach to art-making, allowing me to be much more comfortable with who I am as an artist, rather than trying to constantly live up to my often unrealistic expectations. I know this is going to be a wonderful trip; I've never had the opportunity to visit any part of Asia, and I've never had the chance to seriously travel with other artists. I can't imagine what it must be like to be allowed to sketch unhindered and at leisure--usually my experiences have been people telling me to a) hurry up, and b) why can't you just take a photograph and draw at home? 

I really can't wait to start packing. In the meantime, we still have several months ahead, and I'm sure there's plenty to do till then, beginning, of course, with National Novel Writing Month tomorrow. Start flexing those plot muscles!

A Little Bird Told Me; Splash Ink Watercolor  with Gouache on Mulberry Paper

Tip of the Day: Even if you can't make the trip, you can still be an "armchair traveler" by reading Ming's book, Splash Ink with Watercolor; Looking East, Painting West and visiting her website. Her artwork will inspire you on many levels. Personally I think they make amazing writing prompts. Just place your characters in one of her settings and let the magic begin!

Add a Comment

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Got all your shopping done? I did mine yesterday, and it was wonderful to avoid the crowds and tick everything off my list. As always, we are having a vegetarian celebration, and this year I'm going to especially enjoy the day by writing more NaNoWriMo pages while my kiln fires a couple of new pots--time to celebrate, indeed!

For some reason this also seemed like a good time to share some of my latest splash ink efforts, maybe because they are so misty and reminiscent of autumn and the beauty of the season. I'm still using gouache on top of the initial watercolor background, a medium I'm finally learning to understand (thank goodness). As I've been painting, it's made me think how thankful I am for, well, everything!


But if I narrowed it down to just my creative life, these would have to be my top 12 thank-you's:

1. I am grateful for my writing tools: computers, Alphasmart, fountain pen.
2. Grateful for my Sunday morning writer's group! Best in the whole world.
3. My art supplies: I have enough to stock a small store, and I'm grateful that I have been able to buy them.
4. Books!! What would my life be without books? I love books more than just about anything. I love the way they feel in my hands. I don't care if e-books are amazing; they will never duplicate the thrill of opening those real-world pages.
5. Social networking--now here's where the Internet is fun for me. I'm so grateful for my Twitter, Facebook, and JacketFlap friends. They make me smile every single day.
6. I'm very, very grateful that I have a day job that is flexible and allows me to write or draw whenever possible.
7. And gives me a nice studio-office where I can spread out my manuscripts, my art journals, my mess!
8. I'm super grateful that I have my own little kiln--it's tiny but it works and allows me to  experiment and play with complete freedom (and zero worries about destroying anyone else's work--a huge bonus after some early traumas when my pieces would blow up in a shared kiln . . . don't ask . . . ).
9. The library--forget Disneyland. The library is truly the happiest place on earth. And they give you free magazines for cut-outs. How good is that?
10. Ideas! I have no idea where they come from--but where would I be without them?
11. Art teachers. I would not be painting or potting or even writing without them. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
12. Living in Albuquerque for the last ten years. New Mexico is not called "The Land of Enchantment" for nothing. The landscape is inspiring; every single kind of art supply or bookstore is within easy reach; and the amount of classes, groups, professional organizations for writers and artists is overwhelming. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to choose which one to attend--but each one I go to is always the right choice.

Last but not least, I want to thank everyone who follows and/or reads my blog posts. Every day I am stunned by how many readers I have and where they all come from: Egypt, Connecticut, New Zealand, Romania, Illinois--it's wonderful! You are all my pool of inspiration:

 Tip of the Day: If you haven't already, do start a dedicated Gratitude Journal. To me this is one of the most valuable journals you will ever write. Writing a simple list of just 12 items that made your day special can often be enough. Some days will be more difficult than others to find those 12 incidents, but I can promise if you dig deep they will be there. Enjoy your holiday weekend wherever you will be, and remember, I am grateful for YOU! Thanks again, dear friends.

Display Comments Add a Comment