Mural update: day 3

Because I know you all care, here's what the mural looks like thus far.

No one peed on any of my stuff today and I managed not to get burnt or bonk my head. I did have a homeless man sitting under the scaffold all day, smoking. That was pleasant.
xoxo, danamarie
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The view from up here!

Hello! I'm up high! I'm covered in pollen from squeezing between the bushes and the wall. I just bonked my head on two of the scaffolding bars I didn't walk underneath long enough. There's a man hanging out at the bottom of the scaffolding ladder who yells "I see how it is!" everytime I STOP listening to his drunken ramblings. And just how many times would YOU think you'd need to shout "that's my car you're pissing on!" before a well dressed man, covered in gold jewelry would stop pissing on your car?. (his response was "I'm pissing on your street not your damn car" and then later, "I wouldn't piss on your car; I'm not THAT rude" and then "where would you piss if you had to go?" ... I kept my first answer to myself and just said "I dunno, in the grocery store maybe"). Despite some, er, distractions, I finished one of the faces and I think it's super sweet. Yes? Xo
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making greenstarstudio a little GREENER

... and a little easier to hug.
loving a Knitimal™ is easy to do.
loving a Knitimal that has already been loved, uses existing reclaimed fabric and is STILL made without any new electricity or machines? SO much easier.

while i love knitting, and the process of generating a piece of soft sculpture, completely from scratch, there is something to be said for working with materials that have already been produced are in need of some good lovin'. see, i have this sweater... well, i HAD this sweater, and i loved it wholly. wear and tear wore and tore the dear thing until wearing it wasn't an option anymore. it was either put patches all over it (easily a dozen would've been necessary) and hope that knit wool defied its natural tendencies to unravel, OR scrap it. with all the trash piling up, that hardly seemed an option.

...making a brand new kind of Knitimal out of it, however, seemed the only option.



As a consumer, i try to be as environmentally savvy as possible--- i buy local and handmade whenever possible, i re-use water bottles, recycle everything, use bio-degradable doggie waste bags and such. As an artist, i am trying to be as aware as possible of my footprint and perhaps more important, my artwork's footprint. i create new things in a world that already HAS a lot of things... so i try to balance the scales a little. with the Knitimals, i hand knit and hand sew the pieces and i already don't use a sewing machine (the only electricity i need to work is a lightbulb in my studio... and it is energy efficient). i buy yarn locally and in massive batches, so i don't have to drive too often to get it; my 2D work is primarily collage based and i keep and use scraps of everything... so why not apply that to the art dolls as well? exactly my point.

and so, in honor of Earth Day (blogger was in a mood yesterday and i couldn't post this on Earth Day Proper... so, you know, pretend it's Earth Day today. Heck, it's Earth Day EVERYDAY!!!), i am happy to introduce "re-nay", the first (of many) Recyclimals (Recycled Knitimals). one beloved sweater, cut up and pieced back together by hand, stuffed with clean, reclaimed soft poly filling and bits of old sweater. she's just as super soft as an original Knitimal, those soft sculpture sweeties made with only the finest materials and like all Knitimals, she was made without a pattern and is completely unique.



recyclimals, like knitimals are "art dolls"--- they make great gifts for new babies, art lovers, doll collectors and those-hard-to-shop-fors who love the one-of-a-kind. each knitimal comes with a hand drawn name tag (which features the 'story of the knitimals'), a 'caring for your knitimal' tag and a "certificate of auth-yarn-ticity™".



Do you have an old sweater that you LOVE but it no longer fits or a blanket from your childhood that you just cannot bear to part with?  Contact me and i'll turn your favorite old sweater into a handmade piece of art out of something you already love!

these little sweeties: ReLarry, ReNay, ReLana & ReNana are all up for grabs on etsy!

to adopt a Recyclimal (or any other earth friendly find, please visit me here
(and, to do just a little more good... now through June 1st, 5% of all my etsy sales will benefit the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life, the greenstarstudio May charity)

a-painting we will go

for those keeping track... the score is now:
scorching sun: 1/ danamarie: 0

yes, in the calm, shady afternoon i STILL managed to get a sunburn. yes, i am THAT white.
but, despite the flesh burning reminder to always, ALWAYS apply copious amounts of sunscreen no matter what, i managed to prime, paint and sketch out the design for the new mural at the Waverly Giant.


here it is all painted up--- look at the mottling! doesn't it look "old" and "historic"? (please say it does)



i didn't take pictures of this part, but before i could get the images drawn (with paint and brush) onto the wall, i had to figure out the proportions and the scale change between my sketch and the actual wall. this poor drawing has been altered and scaled and rescaled at least a dozen times. there was this really funny half an hour of me taping painters tape blue "L's" every 3.5' on the wall, (so i could use them as guidelines on the kinda-sorta grid i'd drawn on my sketch), but the measurements i'd been given weren't right, so i had to do some 3rd grade math at 15 feet and well... there's a reason i'm not in 3rd grade anymore. I finally got it figured out and got the faces laid in.

and with little consequence... it actually went surprisingly quickly (despite the initial "shouldn't have have come as a surprise but did anyway" shock of thinking "gosh these heads look way too big!"... of course they do; they are now over 4 feet across as opposed to 2").

Thursday i'll be back out there (provided my paint is ready) and starting to block in the color on the bottom and in the large faces. It's funny, but the bottom of this mural is going to be the hardest part (usually its the tippity top i have trouble with). In this case, it's UNDER the scaffolding and the ground is mulch and flower beds and there's a row of bushed giving me about a 10" space to squeeze between the flora and the wall. Hopefully it's not poison sumac. i'll wear long sleeves just in case... and PLENTY of sunscreen! xoxo, danamarie

wanna know more about the project? waverly murals

Happy I'm home

Well, I'm lobster red, but the mural is all drawn out and ready for color. I'll post pictures tomorrow. For now I'm going to slather myself with aloe. xo, d
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The real wall

Well, the short version of the story is, there was a typo in the paperwork I was given and I started painting a wall that had been assigned to someone else. i'm choosing to think of it as "5 hours of practice painting", how's that? SO this is my wall. Its the other wall on that corner. A little shorter and with fewer plants covering it. After rain delays, kidney stones (not mine) and paint restocking, I'm starting today! Xo, danamarie
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And just what makes YOU so special?

... Besides how painfully cute they are? These little knitimals are working for change; a cleaner, greener world, just in time for earth day. Stay tuned for the big reveal!
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A pile of cute

image/jpeg
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Scary!

The scaffolding is up. The priming starts in an hour. Paiting starts tomorrow. Hot started an hour ago! Stop by and say hi! I'll be at the Giant at the corner of 32nd and old York Rd, from about 9:30 to 5pm tomorrow. Wish me luck!
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May Charity of the Month: Relay for Life

are you feeling generous?


i am.



i don't know exactly when it happened, but i can't recall a time in my life when my art and my personal beliefs have not been intrinsically connected.




i've always wanted (and still have every intention of doing so) to run my own non-profit; a special place for creative people to give back and get a little acknowledgment and success of their own, in return. i love teaching. i love watching kids get involved, get motivated and "get it" (and adults too, for that matter).


any opportunity i have to GIVE always feels right to me.


i can't help but acknowledge how fortunate i am, how much i have and how much i've been able to make of what i have...



... and i've reached a point where it feels right to actively contribute to meaningful causes as often as possible.






last month, i made a wonderful decision to donate a percentage of my etsy profits to the maryland society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and in that month, with the help of some very generous and aware patrons, i was able to raise $100 for the cause!

giving feels good.


and the better i feel, the more productive i am.

the more productive i am, the more i have to give...

...infinity.


SO, i've decided that greenstarstudio is OFFICIALLY sponsoring a different charity each month and donating 5% of the profits from all etsy sales to said cause. The charities will be listed along the side bar, with opportunities for people to donate anytime they want, directly to the cause, long after the designated month ends.


and its with that, that i introduce the May cause of the month: the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. i'm not sure i know ANYONE who hasn't lost a loved one to cancer; who hasn't helped a friend with their own battle; who hasn't been affected, in some way, by this disease. I am choosing to support this cause, and this relay team in particular, because my brother-in-law lost his mother, Connie, to ovarian cancer when he was in high school. and because the first funeral i ever attended was during my 7th grade year; my best friend called my house in tears in the middle of the night because her mother had lost her battle with breast cancer. and because, however small it may seem in the grand scheme of things, i still can't believe that earlier this year, i had to say goodbye to my best four-legged friend, who's body had turned against her. and because it's the only way i know how to help the survivors and those struggling and fighting their own battle--- i can't cure it, but i can sure as heck help raise money for the those who might and those who need them to.

from now until June 1st, 5% of ALL etsy sales etsy will donated to Carrie & Bob's team.

I've just completely re-vamped and stocked the etsy shop... so go ahead and UN-STOCK it!

If you'd like to skip the purchasing part and just make a donation directly, please go here: make a donation

thank you so much.
peace, health and lots of love.
xoxo, danamarie