Last summer I got lucky and had a spot on one of the BudLight Smooth Cruises hosted by McQuade Distributing.  I brought along my trusty Nikon because...well...I am one of THOSE people :-)  The cruise consists of the Missouri River, a river boat, some catered foods, lotsa alcohol, a band & the party people, yo.  So we set off at sundown for an hour & half of loud music, boogie down time & drinking.  Good time!

The pay off for my paranoia that said trusty Nikon was going into the river before the cruise ended, was I got some really interesting photos of light playing off of the boat, water, people, etc.

A few of them I've put up for sale in my shop.  Top-left is "I'm in a boat" , bottom-left is "Light Play" & bottom-right is "Dancin' Machine"

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I LOVE the word Shazam.  Now the rest of the world can know that this love stems from me watching the uber-gay 70s TV show Shazam!  It wasn't on for very long and nobody seems to remember it but I was hooked.  I would watch with wonder, then tie a bath towel around my neck (cuz all the kids now this is equivalent to a dashing cape), stand on the edge of the couch, punch my wee fist into the air, exclaim SHAZAM! and leap off of the couch.  I wanted to fly so damn bad.  Must have been dirty bath towels.  oh and that blasted gravity.

Anywho, I proclaim Shazam! this afternoon because, as you can see, I've figured out how to place photos into my blog here at www.osoazuldesign.com :-)  It is a little clunky compared to blogspot but I think that I can live with it.  SHAZAM!!!!

Indeed this is my first post on this site.  I've got some figuring out to do, such as how on earth do I place photos in my bloggy!  As an artist & photographer & general lover of all things graphic, this is imperative.  In the mean time, I'll do my best to move-blog over here, tho currently it is sans photos - grrrrr.  In the event that I never get my photos transfered over....you can visit ye ol' bloggy here.  I am not going to pretend to have a canon of insightful & wholesome blog posts over there either.  Just FYI :-)

The state of affairs in Bismarck, NoDak today is that I've started listing some of my photography in my ETSY shop and it is a stunner of a beautiful day here.  I've left the front door open for the pets to sunbathe like ancient greeks and they are taking advantage of that!  While the dog & cats bask in the glory of the big, sunny spot, I will continue messing with this blog, cutting mattes, doing laundry, picking up house, etc. etc. etc.  I wonder if being a pet pays well?

Once upon a time, I joined a group who were creating a periodic table with only the following requirements: your element must be made in a printmaking form, be 6"x6", display the atomic symbol & no. somewhere in your design. I picked two elements, Aluminum & Thorium. This blog post is dedicated to Aluminum! I am not going to go on and on, off on a tangent about how I love aluminum; you can read all about THAT in the listing for the print in my ETSY shop.

I just want to give the Aluminum print some extra love here :-) The project as a whole can be viewed here. This project was the brainstorm of Jenn Schmitt come to fruition. She collected all of the prints from the contributors and has put a lot of time into promoting our Printmaking Periodic Table and getting exhibitions lined up for display of the periodic table. I think that Jenn Schmitt is tops and appreciate everything she has done. No slouch of a printmaker herself, check out her ETSY shop here. She does really beautiful work & I enjoy how she layers colors.

Have a happy sunshine day y'all!

ORIGINALLY POSTED 4/15/2007


...."Liebe von Volkswagen"

Love of the Volkswagen is right. I've always had a soft spot for VWs. Nothing quite looks, smells or sounds like them. They are perfectly imperfect without apologies. They strive to be nothing else, they are copied from nothing else. In high school, I drove a 1976 VW Rabbit (not for long) & finished out my senior year in a turquiose 1965 Beetle. In 2000 I bought a VW Jetta TDI and have put 175, 000 miles on it. It is dinged here and there. It makes suspicious sounds at times. It is much more imperfect than perfect since the day I drove it off of the lot. The passenger window fell out again but I just love this car. What can I say, love of the volkswagen.

This print was my first try at reduction printing. For those of you not familiar with fine art printing, I used the same piece of linoleum to print all four colors. I started with white, then cut the lino for light gray, then cut the lino for dark gray, then cut one last time for black. This means I had to print in between all these cuts. AND to add extra adventure, I used no means of registration for alignment, just eyeballed it....cuz I like to add a pinch of madness to everyday life :-P

As I do not own or have access to a printing press, all of my prints are completely hand-pulled. It is a bit scary to do just one print, let alone 4 prints on top of each other! In the end, it turned out pretty cool but I am not sure when I'll do another reduction print any time soon.

Fortunately, I got some good prints out of this effort and you can check them out in my Etsy shop!

ORIGINALLY POSTED 4/12/2009


I've finally done it! Finished my first website. Yay! I've put everything else on hold to get this up. A neighborhood favorite, The Walrus Restaurant, recently changed hands. They've created a new look and wanted a website to go along for their customers.

Phew. Although, there'll be small tweaks here & there, its done baby :-)

If you are in the Bismarck, North Dakota area, you MUST give The Walrus a try. There is loads of good stuff, beers, etc. Seriously!

Check it out: http://thewalrusrestaurant.com

Also, CONGRATULATIONS to Jill & the crew at The Walrus

NOW it is time for me to get a sketchbook or 2 done for Moly 59 and then Moly 58. Sound the trumpets.

ORIGINALLY POSTED 12/10/2007

That is what I've been lately. I need to get some new artwork listed in my shoppity shop but I've been trying to get another etsy shop together which is a collaboration of 2 great minds (har har har) called Marge & Vina, to make vegan friendly soaps, bath salts, home items....etc. We've got the shop ready to go, it is just waiting for me to list something....anything :-P Besides still trying to hash out some good formulae for soaps, I've got some upcycled bowls to list if I could just find my flippin camera! *to the oh tanenbaum! melody* "Oh cameraaaa, oh cameraaaaaa, where the hell have you gooooone" Ergo, what do you call on online seller who cannot photo her product? a non-seller *insert feeble rimshot here*


In the end, it is gonna be fun I think :-) You may visit the shop and with any luck, I will have found my damn camera by then so that you can peruse more than just the banner! weeeee. Also, the shop will be tying into my new-to-vegan blog once it gets cookin, good lookin. tah-tah!

To visit shop click here
To visit the bloggy click here

ORIGINALLY POSTED 9/19/2007

Today is September the 19th and that means only one thing....it is Talk Like a Pirate Day! Arrrrgh n shit. So for today, you can refer to me by my pirate name, Dirty Anne Rackham. Again, arrrrgh, i say. Arrrgh. Arrrrrgh! *insert a cough* ARRRRRRRRRRGH! Ah, that was much better.

Two years ago, I had decided that me and my friends should all dress up as pirates for Halloween and set out upon Austin like a roving band of hooligans. This we did and good times where had by all. Sure, some rum was consumed and I did lose my sword once after falling down and then rolling through an enormous rosemary shrub. No harm done really and I smelled fabulous for the rest of the night! Thank goodness I don't act like Dirty Anne Rackham every day...or I'd be a part of a whole other group...yeah. I'll admit though that it was a lot of fun to don some flashy, swashbucklin' clothes and a pirat'ish/english/irish accent for a night faux pillaging.

My advice to you is to give it a try, you might like it! Here are some links to get you started....

get yer pirate name:
http://www.piratequiz.com/

study up! this site will ramp you up quick like:

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

respond to my blog and let us know what your pirate name is...we always like to see who's on the ship...

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

pirate