Friday Finds... Dreamtree Studios

Friday Finds... Dreamtree Studios

This is my second interview of the amazing not-so-well-known artists of Etsy. HOW? is always the question that flies through my mind on my hunts, because as you've seen already with my last interview and my Monday Expo's, these talented people really do have something quite special, yet still they are just not as well known as they should be!

Last weekend on my search I almost fell of my chair with excitement (I'm not exagerrating) when I had contact from Donna of Dreamtree Studios, an amazing talented artist that creates incredible digital artwork with Fractals. I first became interested in Fractals myself about 5 or 6 years ago, upon discovering my first Fractal artist on Spiritart.org, and it has been something which you can probably see in some of my work that has inspired my weird and vibrant abstract style. I have to be honest when I say that I have never put out any fractals out there that are worthy of acknowledgement (I still struggle with the mathematics!) , let alone anything quite as amazing as who I am introducing to you today, but the fact that fractals are at the heart of my own crazy digital ideas is the reason I just HAD to offer Donna an interview. Fractals are more than just an art...


(Just click the images to go direct to the listings)










--Tell me a bit about you! (Name, Age, Location, and give us a random fact whilst you're at it.) My name's Donna of Dream Tree Studio and I'm a 30-something (wink!) living in Charleston, SC at the moment. Fun fact - I've lived in 7 US states and 2 other countries (Korea and Germany). I'm a proud military brat!

--What is your business about then? I'm kind of a contradiction in some ways - I'm a creative person who loves art and color but also a total computer geek! I've found a great way to combine the two sides by creating unique digital artwork called fractals. Fractals are mathematical-based creations (bet you never thought math could be this cool, did you?). I use various software programs to explore the formulas, algorithms, transformations, and other mathematical functions and use them to create interesting forms with rhythm and vibrant color.

--How did Etsy come into your life? I actually found it via a friend who is very into the handmade scene and encouraged me to check it out. I've been on etsy for a while, though just started selling my art, and I've found it to be a great community with sellers and buyers from around the world interacting in the forums - I love it!

--Are you working a day job too? Yes - as much as I love my art, I can't pay the rent with it yet! I actually have another business on etsy too - creating bath & body products, so between that & the day job, I keep pretty busy. I do hope that, in the future, I will be lucky enough to have more time to focus on my own business and my creative life all day long.

--How long has the artist in you been 'unleashed' for? It's funny, actually. When I was very young, I remember being really interested in art and taking a lot of classes at school (of course, this was back when all public schools in the US offered multiple art courses, which they don't anymore, sadly). I used to love it! Then after school and college, "grown up" responsibilities took over and I set art aside for more practical pursuits. About 6 years ago, I was going through some old papers my mom & dad saved from my early years and found a paper that I'd written...in crayon...about how I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. That's when I realized I needed to start creating things again!

--What has been the inspiration behind your business? I started creating fractals just for fun - a great way for me to relax and enjoy the process. But when I started showing them to people they would "ooh" and "aah" and asked so many questions and wanted to have copies for themselves. I thought it would be great to share my work with more than just friends & family and also try to educate people about what fractals are and how math plays such an important role.

--If you could describe your products in three words, what would you tell me? colorful, dynamic, fun!

--What would an average working day for you be like from dawn til dusk? Well, as I have a day-job, it's pretty simple:
6:45 am - wake up, feed the cat, check my e-mails & etsy
8:00 am - head to work
1:00 pm - take lunch break - eat at desk so can use computer (allowed by my boss!) to check etsy and work on a fractal for a bit
6:00 pm - get home from work, feed the cat again
6:30 pm - eat dinner
7:00 pm - work on fractals, hang out in etsy forums
8:00 pm - work on bath & body orders
10:00 pm - work on fractals before bed
11:30 pm - bed...finally!


--What's your favourite material and techniques to work with? Well, fractals are completely digital, so I work with my computer and a fractal software program called UltraFractal. I do use other fractal programs like Apophysis sometimes, but my true love is UltraFractal. I also use Photoshop to sharpen and sometimes enhance the colors of my work, as well as resizing images as necessary. I have my work printed by a professional photo lab using Kodak Endura papers - the metallic paper is my favorite as it gives a silvery pearlescent sheen to the fractals that makes them look almost three-dimensional!

--What is your ideal vision for the future for you and your work? Right now, I have so much going on in my life that I want to focus on the present. I can say for sure that I ilove creating fractals and plan on working with them every day as long as I can!

--Away from work, what do you like to do for fun or to wind down? You can see I have a busy schedule, but I do fit in time for friends and family. I like to go out to the movies a lot with my closest friends or we'll have small gatherings at one person's house to watch TV or a movie and have a great dinner cooked on the grill. I usually have dinner with my parents on Sunday too.

--What are you likely to search for on Etsy? Oh, all kinds of things, but probably jewelry and art the most. I happen to adore modern sterling silver jewelry and there are some fabulous artisans on etsy - I wish I could own so many things I find! And as for art - I love, love, love abstract works, especially if they are very flowing and have rich, vibrant colors. I've found some truly amazing artists on etsy as well!

--Any last words? I'm always interested in talking about fractals with people, so if anyone ever has questions, please feel free to contact me any time. And, thank you for this interview!

Zzzzzzzz Ramble

If I could sum up my state of mind today I'd probably end up swearing a lot so I won't bother, but I have had a frustrating couple of days... Made worse just now by a flippin robot calling my house again! ARGH! Does anybody actually fall for these calls??? Is that why after years that they are still going on tormenting people in their homes? That's just not right! Anyway! ... Sorry I've had a record number of calls of that variety today... need to VENT!

Anyways... yeah, I've been super busy which isn't any different from the usual but unfortunately it hasn't been because I have been the diligent worker on my Etsy store. Man I wish it was, but it's pretty much swallowed up days where I had motivation and now I suddenly don't. Anyhoo, I can continue getting bits done again and I will, sore back and fatigue aside, hopefully get somewhere with it all!

A few things I have managed to do that's been fabby doody the past few days is become a team member of POE (Photographers on Etsy) which put me in the best mood ever, and signed up to Indie Public too... I'm everywhere suddenly. Trick is now to keep on top of it all! I also made a treasury on Etsy full of wonderful artists that have wonderful floral work on sale in their stores. This is inspired from my own store of flowers in my garden, but I'll go on about that in a bit!

Also I have literally just been informed by CanadianRockies on Etsy that I have been featured in their blog treasury which is amazing, the piece photography that has been used is one that I adore from a small collection I managed to take at Ryton Garden Organics a few months back! I think this is the first blog feature that I've been made aware of so check it out!


Those familiar with my etsy store will know of my photo retouching services, well I have updated my listings with 4 types of service for those that are interested!

Enhance Airbrush	Rainbow Art Airbrush
Spotlight Airbrush	Softening Airbrush

Back to reality, for a few days I have been overjoyed at the progress of my first blooming sunflower! Absolutely EVERYTHING that I've planted in my garden has been grown from seed, and wow I'm amazed at the result now that the best weather of the year is beaming down on us here! It's one thing that I must make time for as I do have a tray with lettuce seedlings that need a patch to grow in, alongside my cabbages, broccolli and pumpkins. I was more faithful to my plants in the earlier portion of the year, but my lifestyle, particularly finding more time for computer work has made time generally seem non existant in my life. To be honest I don't think it exists anyway it's just an imposed concept of reliance to me, but presently that notion isn't going to tend to my garden! Lol! It's pretty easy once I'm out there, as it's the one thing that doesn't interfere with looking after my little boy. On the contrary, for him any excuse to get filthy and run around carefree without the need to climb furniture! Brilliant! I let him get on with it lol! He does love the outdoors, and I'm relieved and greatful really, what with society turning severely into nature fearers. I wouldn't be surprised if one day it's fashionable to don your child in bubble wrap for an outing! I'm old fashioned for my age I guess, and falling for fear mongering just isn't part of my persona. It's a blessing to know Yukio loves being outside and I can work on things out there knowing that he's happy, engaged and genuinely in awe of what surrounds him. I can't wait until he can consciously start tending to the garden with me ^_^


Phew! Right I'd better figure out what I should do next. I am seriously frazzled, I know I could get on with a lot, but I must be burnt out or something because the will just isn't there... Probably will be in an hour or so. My mind works pretty fast so that wouldn't suprise me lol!!!

Back On Track!

It's taken a while but I'm back at the relisting shizzle on etsy... and boy do I have loads of expired listings! Not only that but a month or so back I decided to change the watermark on ALL photography listed in my store as I started to think that it was detracting from the actual print image itself, due to it's boldness! So as time has so cruelly passed me by in the grand flash that it has, I have had to find moments here and there to correct my watermark on each and every photograph. But it has slowly been coming together and I think I am almost there. The thing that has driven me nutso the most has been the "expired listings" because unlike the normal listings that you can edit in your account, the expired ones can't be edited until you have relisted them which is TERRIBLE because as soon as you relist something, it becomes as fresh as a daisy for the world of Etsy to see and the last thing I want them to see is a dirty great big watermark that blinds them with it's monotoned presence on my work! Yes, I can edit it as fast as my hands can whizz across my desk, but the downside (other than my shite internet connection) is that once I edit it, it is no longer "viewable" on Etsy, and that also means the tiny timeframe that it would have the most exposure being a 'recent' item would be snuffed out by me needing to remove it for editing.... ARGGGHHH!!! lol! So in summary, I have given up on caring about frikkin exposure (which really stopped me in my days worrying over how to combat the issue), and I'm just relisting and editing immediately. In anycase my current work is slowly reaching a satisfactory presentable standard on Etsy. Here are the 3 most recent ones.

Branching Out 8x12 Inch Print - Creative Fine Art Photography By Moonangelnay $25

Off Color 8x12 Inch Print - Creative Fine Art Photography By Moonangelnay $25

Cluster Of Stars 8x12 Inch Print - Creative Fine Art Photography By Moonangelnay $20

So those are my recent relists! I have also relisted all of the crocheted baby ties that I'm sure you'll remember from a previous blog. You can check those out too if you wish. Happy shopping!

xxx

A New Mandala

Well I've finally got myself together and made my computer cooperate with me doing some work, despite the fact it is now 12.48am where I'm from and I should probably catch up on the late night last night. But yes! A fresh new mandala is in my store!
This new series that I'm working on is become more and more spiritually inspired the more I gather ideas. So far I'm finding they are resembling the chakra system which is pretty cool. Particularly as I tend to frequently put emphasis on my own when I meditate and through other lines of my work. So for me it's almost like I'm connecting not only to the soul nature of the photo's i'm editing (the primary emphasis) but to my own soul nature. Which I guess would make sense as that is what art and creativity should be about! But unlike my other work, this is manifesting into a more personal area for me, as I'm not just farting around with tools as I edit making changes willy nilly, but I'm making a point of carefully choosing the changes I make and putting a lot of intent into each individual photograph. I'm just chuffed that I can treat my digital art the same way I would do a drawing or painting, as by nature I am a fine artist. Technology has corrupted my soul however lol! But I like it. It means I am flexible and open to new things and generally I like to think I'm that way, away from my art. I feel the urge to draw something. It always happens this way, and ALWAYS at inappropriate hours. ah well, bed time!

moonangelnay xxx

Phew!

It's been a bit of a day. A mental one although I can't say literally. Just my own making, in my own mind. After last night's ordeal with my son and the lack of help the doctors gave at our local hospital, I've been feeling pretty deflated. My other half was there for at least 4 hours, which obviously gave plenty of time for my sons open wound to heal but it meant that the doctors weren't prepared to glue the opening together FOR this exact reason. Giving that it only would have taken a minute to do that (I know after they did it the first time around), we feel pretty let down, and now my son's scar is going to be pretty big as opposed to neater and not so big. That's the NHS for you. Useless.

Anyway i've been a busy bee when I've had the time to work today. Still trying to become a nab hand at this blogging malarky and finding new ways to promote my etsy shop online. I found a brilliant source from etsy seller jessejanes, a pdf document that she has composed that gives a wonderful wealth of information to help my exact cause regarding internet promotion outside of etsy. She has a pretty incredible sales rank for just over a year so I gotta give a hand to her, she knows her stuff! So I'm getting to work on that one!

I had a go at making some more digital work today but my PC is being a bit uncooperative so that didn't exactly manifest, but I'll showcase one of my recent works anyway as I hoped to show something on my blog today. I have created a new series of digital creations that are meant to express the soul nature behind mother nature, by caputuring photographs of the natural world and re-creating their essence in the form of a mandala. Mandala literally translates as "essence" and so far I'm pretty pleased with my work.

It has inspired me to create a treasury on the subject too if you're interested in having a look at that, which I feel is worth sharing due to the beautiful work of the artists I have selected on there :) like this one by mirese. I couldn't believe that this wasn't a real baby, but seriously if you have a look I'm sure you'll be amazed at her talents as a sculptor!

All in all, what a day it has been. looking forward to a hopefully less stressful day tomorrow.

moonangelnay xxx