Wands and Wandering

​Let's talk about a Cleveland entrepreneur and artist I met a few weeks ago - Joey A.   

This enthusiastic middle-schooler makes hand-crafted wands.  Light as a feather, perfect to "swish and flick".  Hand turned, carved, stained and packaged. Each with gorgeous little curves and knobby bumps as if they came straight out of a wand shop. But he is much more than just a wand creator and carver. Joey also has that one skill that eludes most artists and creatives - a business mind.  

In addition to creating custom wands, he and his business partner designed a logo (Twin Beasts) and started a YouTube channel to help launch their brand.  To order your own Twin Beasts Custom Wand email Joey.

I could use a magic wand this week.  And a hoard of minions.  ​I wonder if Joey also makes minion hoards?

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"A Bird of a Different Color" - mixed media (including pigments made from pollution) on 300 lb watercolor paper, 15" x 22".  Available at Artfinder.

Back in the studio, playing with new pigments made from toxic waste.  That's right - paint from pollution thanks to a Kickstarter project which I was thrilled to help fund.  This piece began as an experiment with the pigments, which are fun to mix with paint, water or gesso.  I walked away from it overnight, and in the morning there was this bird.

 If I've learned nothing else from painting, it is that the paint is always, ALWAYS boss.  So I followed the paint (or pigment, in this case).  And like the Family Circus comic, when you follow one thing, you start wandering and it leads to another, sometimes unrelated thing, like this bit from The Wizard of Oz, which prompted the name for the painting.  Hmmm - is there something psychedelic in these pigments? :)