Meet the Artist: Vickie Emms

NOTE: As I transition my art efforts to this TMPixArt blog from my personal blog at TracyRuckman.com, I will be sharing art posts that were originally published on that site earlier this year. While the posts may be duplicates, my body of art, and the body of art created by my guests has grown and expanded. Because of this, I invite you to visit their websites and explore their art even if you read the blog post previously - you might be surprised to find a new favorite somewhere along the way!

Meet the Artist: Vickie Emms

(originally published here)

Today, I'm happy to introduce a new artist friend, Vickie Emms.

Vickie, what type of art do you create?

I offer my own photography for sale on POD websites on products they offer.

I am  a member of Redbubble and Zazzle where I have 4 stores, one of which
is totally my photography, called DiamondW_Photography.

I also create designs from elements I purchase on the internet from commercial use sites and add them to products on either of two of my stores on Zazzle, one of which is DiamondWillowDesigns and the other is a niche store of totally Plaids/Tartans, which originate from Scotland and offers products with those plaids on them on dozens of products in ThePlaidShop.

This is a magnet offered on Zazzle from a photo of a Scarlet Macaw taken in Mexico.

A favorite design from Zazzle would be tartan pillows from The Plaid Shop.

How did you get started creating this particular type of art?

Photography has always been my love and just making photos for sale wasn't satisfying enough.  I started designing wedding invitations, shower invitations, wrapping paper and greeting cards, plus hundreds of other items that were fun to do.  After buying Photoshop CS5, the products just became a natural to me.  I love seeing end results, and specially sales! 

Tell us the story behind ONE of your favorite creations.

One of the highlights of my photography travel was visiting Alaska in 2009.  This is the most popular photo from that trip.

On the Way to Haines Alaska

Explore Vickie's shops at: 

RedBubble
Zazzle: Diamond Willow
Zazzle: The Plaid Shop


About the Artist:

Vickie was born in Scotland in June, 1945. She is married,  and is a mother of three grown daughters and has 7 beautiful grandchildren. As well, Vickie and her husband Fred have 8 foster grandchildren, who are no different to them as their own.

She lives in Manitoba, Canada, one of the prairie provinces. Most of her scenery is from those areas, although she lives close to the eastern lakes area of the province called the Canadian Shield and visits and camps in her favorite parks often. She LOVES the Canadian Rocky Mountains and travels almost every summer to Alberta to camp and photograph those beautiful icons.

She and her husband have been married 50 wonderful years, and travel quite a bit, usually within Canada and the United States.  So you will see a mixed bag of shots from both countries.  They have caught the travel bug the last couple of winters and have visited the Bahamas, Cancun, Mexico and the Dominican Republic and a couple of trips to Las Vegas.

She loves photography, camping, traveling, crafts, flower gardening and music.  She has been taking photographs most of her life, upgrading to the newest cameras as they came on the market.  Now with digital, she is having the time of her life.  She's had photos published in Canadian Wildlife, a magazine by the Canadian Wildlife Federation.   She has had photos published in Our Canada and More Our Canada and in the August/September issue of 2018 another is being published of a Cedar Waxwing eating Mountain Ash berries.

Meet the Artist: Donna Cervelli

NOTE: As I transition my art efforts to this TMPixArt blog from my personal blog at TracyRuckman.com, I will be sharing art posts that were originally published on that site earlier this year. While the posts may be duplicates, my body of art, and the body of art created by my guests has grown and expanded. Because of this, I invite you to visit their websites and explore their art even if you read the blog post previously - you might be surprised to find a new favorite somewhere along the way!

Meet the Artist: Donna Cervelli

(originally published here)

Today, I'd like to introduce you to photo artist and graphic designer Donna Cervelli.

Hi, Donna! Welcome to our art space.

What type of art do you create?

Currently my work is a blend of fine art and graphic design. Over the years my work has evolved. I’ve work in different mediums and I think that shows in my current work. Photography, which was once a hobby for me, has become more of a passion. With the ever changing technology in cell phones, the built-in cameras, make it even easier to take pictures. A lot of my current work starts out as nothing more than a garden photo or an evening sunset. By using filters and apps I alter the original photo, add text to achieve the final design. These designs have been known to show up on  products in my online POD (Print On Demand) store. For the past 18 months I have focused my attention on my POD that’s set up though my Zazzle store, HeART & Soul Artwork. 

I love creating art and my Zazzle store allows my to showcase my work on wide variety of products, everything from home decor to clothing and print products, such as invitations. 

How did you get started creating this particular type of art? 

I started my store on Zazzle about a year and half ago.  Prior to that I worked for a major newspaper in Chicago, for over 15 years. I was a senior designer in advertising and created ads for the newspaper. In addition to my full time job I did freelance work; everything from logo designs and business cards to acrylic paintings. Within the last five years I’ve my creative focus leaned more toward my painting. I opened up on online store with Fine Art America mainly to sell affordable prints of my work. Like other Print On Demand companies, Fine Art America, also prints artwork on products, such as phone case, pillows, tote bags, etc. Through a referral from a friend, I checked out Zazzle in January of 2017. I opened a store and tested it out. I didn’t take it too seriously, as there were a lot of personal changes going at on the same time. Later in the year, around June, I decided to pursue Zazzle on a full-time basis. While most of the work in my store is based on my photography and graphic designs, I have also incorporated some of my more recent paintings.

Tell us the story behind one of your favorite creations.

That would be my EARTH DAY is Every Day design. Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd. But I feel it should be recognized throughout the year. I believe we should, reuse, reclaim and recycle whenever we can. With that in mind I wanted to design a logo that could be used all year round. Since I love gardening and have so many photos of my gardens, I decided to incorporate them into the design. That’s when I came up with the heart shaped collage with photos taken of my various flower beds. The green texture within the words Earth Day, is actually a close up photo of plant leaves.

Find Donna on the web to learn more about her art:

HeART & Soul Artwork

Facebook ~ Artist Donna

Instagram ~ Donna Cervelli Artist

About the Artist:

Donna was born in and grew up in Chicago. As long as she remember she has loved art and the arts.  When Donna was 10 years her parents signed her up for weekly art classes, at the home of a local artist who taught adults and children. There, Donna learned the basics of art such as shapes, color and composition. She worked in several mediums and painted landscapes and still life. Several years after high school Donna attended the American Academy of Art in downtown Chicago. Her areas of study were illustration, lettering and design, and advertising. Donna went on to work for the Chicago Tribune Newspaper, as an ad designer in the creative department. Wherever life takes Donna, her art work is always there in one form or another. Currently she has a print on demand online store, through Zazzle which allows her to showcase and sell her artwork and designs.

Meet the Artist: Patricia AZ Phillips

NOTE: As I transition my art efforts to this TMPixArt blog from my personal blog at TracyRuckman.com, I will be sharing art posts that were originally published on that site earlier this year. While the posts may be duplicates, my body of art, and the body of art created by my guests has grown and expanded. Because of this, I invite you to visit their websites and explore their art even if you read the blog post previously - you might be surprised to find a new favorite somewhere along the way!

Meet the Artist: Patricia AZ Phillips

(originally published here)

Today, I'd like to introduce you to another new art friend, Patricia AZ Phillips.

What type of art do you create, Patricia?

Wildflowers combined with digital art greenery

I love digital photography. Technology has taken photography to a new level and it is a lot less expensive than film. I get totally immersed in a variety of photography genres that are not people related. I’m sure that tendency has to do with being an introvert. I enjoy photographing animals, nature, landscapes, still life, conceptual, and macro subjects. I take a lot of my shots with two digital SLR cameras, a variety of lenses and other equipment that supports those genres.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve taken a lot of photographs with my cell phone. I always tell people that it’s not necessarily the equipment but the photographer when they are surprised at the quality of some shots. Cell phone cameras have improved and with specialty lenses are capable of a lot more. The advantages over my other cameras is that the phone is lightweight and generally always with me. I also have a small cosmetic style bag that holds a variety of tiny lenses that I can attach to the phone for specialty shots. I do use the macro lens in that kit more than the other lens.

I mentioned technology because it’s so easy to improve and alter photographs these days too. I have combined some photographs with digital art elements for creative results. I also enjoy running some of my photographs through filters and apps giving them a unique appearance. That can get addicting and time consuming but sometimes the results are very pleasing.

How did you get started creating this particular type art?

I started in black and white film photography after joining the Army when I was 19 years

Digital photography mixed with graphic arts

old. I retain great memories in the darkroom with that distinct smell of chemicals watching black and white photographs appear like magic before my eyes in the chemical developer tray.

I soon found out that Kodachrome slides were a great way to store memories from all my travels. I still have trays of slides and a projector to view them. I gave up photography for about 12 years after having my cameras and all related equipment stolen during a military transfer.

When digital cameras began showing up on the market I decided to get an inexpensive “point and shoot” design to test it out. I loved the immediate viewing of images and that it was easy to manipulate the photos right on a computer.

It wasn’t long before I bought my first digital SLR camera (which I still use) and photo editing software. Soon after that I gave the stock photography business a try. I became disillusioned after a short time with the ever-changing requirements. When another photographer introduced me to Zazzle, the online print on demand company, I found a place to share my photography and opened my first store, The Aspen Stand, in July 2009.

Tell us the story behind one of your favorite creations.

Puzzle Pieces & Fork

One of my favorite photos is a conceptual shot that came to mind while I was working on a jigsaw puzzle. I shot a couple of sessions and deleted a lot of the shots but finally came away with several (and particularly one) that exemplified what I originally had in mind.

The image is an isolated fork with several jigsaw puzzle pieces between the tines. Some might think this is an odd photograph to be a favorite but it was the first time I set up props for a photo session and the image has been a successful seller on business cards. The success of the photo on business cards and the fun with the shoot got me more interested in taking still life photographs.


About the Artist:

Patricia was born and raised in New England then spent 22 years in the US Army in a variety of assignments and locations. Upon retirement from the military, she and her Army veteran husband moved west from their last assignment location. The couple made several relocations heading west across the US in search of work and a place to settle down. Eventually, they stopped in the beautiful high desert country of northern Arizona.

They have a house full of rescued fur babies and a lovable old chocolate Labrador Retriever. You’ll see her animal photographs on many Zazzle products. Those images include her furry companions and other interesting critters that she’s photographed over the years.


Find Patricia on the web:

Zazzle Stores:
The Aspen Stand
PaPr Emporium

Website:

The Aspen Stand

Meet the Artist: Krystine Kercher

NOTE: As I transition my art efforts to this TMPixArt blog from my personal blog at TracyRuckman.com, I will be sharing art posts that were originally published on that site earlier this year. While the posts may be duplicates, my body of art, and the body of art created by my guests has grown and expanded. Because of this, I invite you to visit their websites and explore their art even if you read the blog post previously - you might be surprised to find a new favorite somewhere along the way!

Meet the Artist: Krystine Kercher

(Originally published here)

When I embarked on this art journey - of making my photos and photo art available for purchase, I began meeting or getting reacquainted with other artists. I've loved hearing their stories, exploring their work, and being inspired by their dedication and creativity. I thought my readers might enjoy learning about them, too, so I'm going to introduce some of them to you in the coming weeks. Each Friday, I'll feature an artist here and share some of their work.

Today's guest is Krystine Kercher. We've known each other for many years through writing groups and prayer groups. Now we're members of art groups, too. Krystine is the person who talked me into trying Zazzle for my art, so we have her to thank for creating a monster!

Purple Spring Tulips 
Monogrammed Tote Bag

Krystine, what type of art do you create?

I'm kind of quirky and eclectic. I use original photos I've taken in some of my artwork, but I also do colorful cartoon drawings, and I like to play with word art. I love experimenting with new techniques.

Almost all of the artwork I currently have available for sale is digital.

Cute Funny Tiny Cartoon People 
Graduation Tie

How did you get started creating this particular type of art? 

I got started creating digital artwork after I acquired a point and shoot camera in 2009 that allowed me to take nice photos. This led to playing with photo editing software, which led to discovering that I could draw and edit, and even paint with pixels.



Tell us the story behind ONE of your favorite creations. 

From the Bible Story Chart Collection

One of my favorite creations is artwork for a Progress of Redemption Bible Story chart that I've been redoing. My favorite panel so far depicts Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. It's one of my favorites because of the whale with the toothy grin keeping them company.

My daughter says the whale is a little creepy. And then she says that she loves it. That makes me laugh every time.





Where can we find you on the web?

My artist website: Contrary Market

My two best stores on Zazzle are:

Zazzle: Ms Contrary 

Zazzle: Bible Story Pictures 


About the Artist:

Krystine Kercher developed a love of art early in life, and grew up drawing and coloring her own pictures and creating all kinds of wonderful little sculptures out of clay. She has taken a few art classes along the way, but is mostly self-taught.

She believes that art should never be boring or stale, but interesting and alive, and should always flow from the heart.

Flowers and cats rank high among her favorite subjects, but she also loves drawing cartoon people and animals, and creating word art.

She likes a challenge, and she takes custom orders.