Teach Them Diligently III, 7.5 x 9.5″ acrylics on watercolor paper © Laura Bolter Design

Several years ago I was asked to paint a piece to honor a wonderful woman and incredible Kansas City Jewish educator, Hillary Lewis Z”L, on the occasion of her retirement. This was my interpretation of “veshinantam levanecha” or “teach them diligently to your children.” It’s become a popular image in my collection, but lately I’ve been wanting to paint an updated version with nicer typography. I added the white linework, but I’m not sure about it on the torah scrolls. I’m sharing it anyway and would love to hear your thoughts. At some point I’ll add prints to my shop. There’s probably another version coming in the future. I’m hoping practice makes perfect.

Shabbat shalom.

10 x 6.25″ Acrylics on watercolor paper

Inspired by a meeting with a special friend and exceptional educator yesterday, I sat down with a palette of brilliant colors, some of my favorite tunes playing, and set out to create a new Shabbat Shalom illustration. Prints are available in my shop.

Wishing all a very joyful Shabbat Shalom.

8 x 8″ Pyrography and Acrylics on Cradled Wood Panel

This pyrography painting was started several months ago, and it’s been sitting on my desk patiently awaiting the remaining painting. I finished it up yesterday and today and I love the wood grain peeking through the paint. It’ll be varnished and then listed in my shop, as a print for now. I need to hoard all originals now in hopes of participating in upcoming Jewish art festivals this year. Definitely wanting to do more pyrography! It brings me back to working with wood in a two-dimensional design class I had during the spring semester of my freshman year at Colorado State. Pyrography requires much smaller tools than the band saws and scrolls saws I used back then.

Acrylics on Watercolor Paper

I’ve spent the last few days painting something pretty. It’s been very relaxing and meditative. I’ll list prints in my shop soon. Well, as soon as I decide on a title.

Quite a while ago, over two years ago, in fact, I started a very large painting. I thought it would be nice to hang a new painting in our living room and have it ready before H&D’s wedding. So, we loaded up a huge canvas into the car and I began covering it with paint. Well the wedding plans took over life and I never got back to the painting. It’s been sitting in the dining room for awhile now and Dann has suggested that it’s done because the whole canvas is covered in paint. He’s a computer developer. ‘Nuf said.

Today I felt the urge to paint, but didn’t have a subject in mind. I wanted to be loose and free and just sling paint around. So, I put blobs of paint on paper plates, got out the biggest brush I had and went at that painting. I think I can honestly say that in the several hours I worked on it today I recovered the entire thing—not really thinking or agonizing, just working fast and furious. I’m hoping it doesn’t take another two years to call it finished.

I realized a few days ago that I haven’t blogged in quite some time. I’ve been busy filling Etsy orders and taking time off with the family over the holidays, and even getting back to painting, having been bouyed by my Urban Suburban experience. It’s been three years since the last Kansas City Jewish Arts Festival when I didn’t exhibit and decided just to volunteer instead. This year, with Hannah working at the JCC and on the Festival itself, and feeling like I need to be going back to the basics of painting, I am going to be applying to show. Which means that I need to have paintings, if I’m accepted of course. So, I’m dipping my toes back into the paint, only figuratively, and slowly getting started. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been in full-festival-prep-mode, so it will take time to build up steam, but I’ve taken the first step. If I can really get going, I might even try to do the Boulder Jewish Festival in June, but I’ll need to have quite a bit accomplished to make that happen.

In the meantime, here’s a peak at what I’ve been working on. I’ve tried to let go of the fear in painting something out when I’m not happy with a direction. And, both of these paintings have layers underneath that aren’t visible any more. No regrets either! I’m pleased with the direction both have taken in the detour, but I still consider them in progress.

Tentative title: Light Comes from Within

This is a small one with lots of texture and VERY simple compared to what I’ve done before. I’m still trying to decide if it needs anything else… words, images…..?

In progress: Shalom Hamsa, 10 x 10, acrylic on cradled wood panel

Revisiting the popular Shalom Hamsa on this painting, I’ve worked on a cradled wood panel and tried a bit of letter-stamping, too. This, too, is a work-in-progress, so please comment here if you have thoughts about these paintings or other subjects you’d like to see.

Sending belated wishes to everyone for a Happy New Year filled with peace and creativity.

Just in time for holiday shopping, I’ve added mini art prints to my shop! These prints, on the same wonderful paper as the larger prints, are just the right size for giving. Each print is made on a 5″ x 7″ page and would slip right into a 5″ x 7″ frame. At $7.50 each and half the price of the 8.5″ x 11″ frames you can buy several to make a nice, inexpensive grouping as a gift to someone else or for yourself. I’ve just started listing prints in this size, so if you see an image you’d like to have printed somewhere else in the shop or on my site but not yet listed in this size, shoot me an Etsy convo or an email and I’ll set up a custom listing asap. And, if you didn’t see the Facebook post yesterday, I’ve got a holiday sale happening right now: 20% off your total purchase until December 9th with the coupon code: holidays2012.

*Frames are not included. But, you knew that, right?

And, while you’re shopping Etsy, don’t forget that DesignersCare is selling prints, note cards, gift tags and more, designed by distinguished designers from around the country and beyond. All profits are being donated to the American Red Cross Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. I just placed an order and can’t wait to get my art prints!

Happy holiday shopping!

A freelance writer contacted me last month about featuring my Whale design in an article about best birth announcements. I finally remembered to look for it today when I looked through my Etsy shop stats and saw that I’d had some hits through iVillage.

After Hurricane Sandy hit the North East coast, Jackie Mangiolino, the Long Island born designer behind Believe Notes, decided she needed to help local communities devastated by the storm.  She wanted to volunteer for clean up, but due to the gas crisis she didn’t even have enough gas in her car to get to the hardest hit areas. Luckily, Jackie wasn’t hit hard by the storm and she still had power, so she starting thinking of other ways to help bring relief to the people that needed it. She had this crazy idea of mixing her love for stationery design with charity, and she quickly found that the entire design community was eager to help, too! Jackie reached out to all of her amazingly talented designer friends and asked if they would be willing to donate designs to be turned into stamps and then used to create small sized note cards and art cards. Within 24 hours Jackie had over 50 designers, her mom (hi, Anna!) and a stamp company all on board with the initiative. Designers Care was born, and in one short weekend the orders starting pouring in.

With the help of Simon’s Stamps, Envelopes.com, and French Paper and a few other very generous donations, Jackie was able to get all of the materials she needed to open the shop. The entire initiative has been truly a collaborative effort all with the goal to raise money for Sandy victims. All of the proceeds from Designers Care will be going to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, and Jackie’s goal is to raise at least $2,000.

But aside from the warm-fuzzy side of the shop purpose, the shop is filled with absolutely gorgeous designs that you just have to get your hands on! Some of the stationery world’s most talented artists pitched in and donated their designs, so it’s a great opportunity to own something that you won’t be able to get anywhere else. From inspirational messages to hand drawn lettering and whimsical art, there’s a huge variety to select from. And knowing just how hard it would be to make up your mind, Jackie set up “mix and match” listings where you can pick your own set of cards. The cards are all either small business card size, note card sized, or 4×6 for framing, and with the holidays right around the corner, you can use the cards as gift tags or little notes to friends and family.

Each design is hand-stamped by Jackie and her mom onto either white, black or kraft paper using black, white, gold or silver inks. Jackie will also be hand embossing some of the cards with a beautiful gold metallic effect. So please head on over to Designers Care and pick up some beautiful stamped cards, and check back often since new designs and options are constantly being added! And remember, it’s all for a good cause!