 This past Saturday was The 16th Annual Music Is Art Festival. I had an opportunity to debut my mannequin series on one of the main stages and do live art. For 12 hours, I drew on Fiona. This was the longing drawing session I’ve ever done and challenged myself to see how long I can go. With 2 breaks and cold weather, I made it through the day. I would have to say, she is only half done. Here was my progress throughout the day: The best part of the event was at the end, a group of people came up to me and told me they have been watching me throughout the day. They asked if my pattern choices were based on the music I listening to on stage. It was really nice to hear people who understand what I'm trying to do!
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“I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint—and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.”-Oprah Winfrey  My last blog inspired me to write about the progression of my work. I’ve always been attracted to shapes, patterns, and abstract designs. I often find myself doodling on paper while I’m supposed to be doing something else. I find it very therapeutic and relaxing. Recently, I found an old computer hard drive that had the original drawings that started my journey of becoming the artist I am today. I was deeply blown away how far I have come! Back in collage, I was a graphic design major for 3 years and hated it. I enjoyed the design classes but when it came to drawing people and real things, I lost interest. I decided last minute to combine my art credits into a fine arts degree. I had to take one more elective to qualify, so I took an art therapy class. This class had seriously changed my life. I discovered that just because I was a failed art student, it didn’t mean I failed as an artist. I was introduced to zentangles and how to make art with patterns. After I was done with the class I still continued to make art on my own while I took an on a second major. Here is my progress over the past 10 years: 2008: I used to draw a lot of patterns and abstract designs during class and then I would turn these drawings into something bigger. At times, if I didn’t like how sharpie looked on paper, I would Photoshop the drawings to clean them up. 2012: After working on other art projects throughout the years, I went back to zentangle designs. I didn’t want to draw on paper anymore, so I found some broken pieces of dry wall in my apartment attic. (Please click on the image to get a better look) 2016: I took 3 years off from creating art (Please see pervious blog, “Why Vinyl Records?). Here are the first few records I created with plain white acrylic paint and sharpie markers. 2017: Here are the first colored records. I experimented with a variety of markers that would work on top of the spray paint. 2018: Here are my present day records! I still have a lot more to learn and hope to experiment with new tangles to incorporate into my future work. Thank you all for stopping by and please stay tune for more updates.
 “Everyone has a purpose in life and a unique talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals.”- Kallam Anji Reddy I have been trying to find new ways to sell my artwork, so I decided to try to promote my work on a Vinyl Collective message board. I got a lot of compliments and a few commission pieces to work on. One guy sparked an in-depth conversation about why I would do my art on vinyl records. He didn’t believe that records were “intended for visual art.” After thinking about it, I never really explained why I use vinyl records so decided to explain why through a blog.
To be perfectly honest, I have no idea why I choose vinyl records. I always felt that vinyl records chose me. It took me up to a year into creating these when I realized that this was going to be my “thing”. I spent years experimenting with several different mediums and finding what I like to do. All I knew was that I was an artist and I was meant to be creating something. I wanted to be different. I wanted to have a special niche. I wanted to catch people’s attention and show them something they haven’t seen before. I used to DJ and I discovered records when I was being taught how to spin them. During this time, I gave up on art for three years because I felt uninspired. I wanted to start doing art again and knew that abstract patterns were what I wanted to do. I’ve been searching for new canvas to do my work on and it just clicked when I held a record. It took me 8 months and many records later, I finally had my “thing.” This is why records work for me: 1. There Is A Connection My work has an emotional factor that makes you think and take a closer look. What connects my work to the record is that I name the piece after the name of the album. I consider my work to be a “hand’s on experience”. When you first look at my work, you have your own personal thoughts on what it is. You flip it over and see the title of the album, and then you look back at to the art and you see something different. 2. The Music Music is one of my biggest passions in life and I have no musical talent. Drawing on records keeps me connected to music. My designs bring what I hear to life. One of my winter projects that I have plan is to learn how to make time lapse videos so I could show you what I feel and see. 3. Repurposing I have many friends and local record shops who donate records they can’t use. If I don’t take them, they go right in the trash. So why not repurpose them into wall art and jewelry. Technically, I’m saving the environment as well. 4. Perfect Storage I spent years hauling around canvases and struggled to find places to store them in tiny studio/one bedroom apartments. I wanted something I could pack away and not have to worry about it. This blog has inspired me to write another one about my why I choose patterns and zentangles to make art with. As always, thank you for stopping by. Please stayed tuned because there is so much more I want to share with you.  “Follow your dreams. If you have a goal, and you want to achieve it, then work hard and do everything you can to get there, and one day it will come true.” -Lindsey Vonn August has been a really great month and it’s not even over yet! There has been a lot of great news coming my way. I can’t tell you how blessed I feel by all the love and support. My art career is growing every day and I'm very thankful for every opportunity. Here are my monthly projects that I have worked on: Here are some updates: This is my favorite piece of news I love to share. I have been invited to do live art and display my mannequin series at the upcoming festival, Music is Art. I will be creating a new mannequin piece for the event. If you live in the Buffalo area, stop by and say Hi. I will be on the River Fest Main Stage across from Buffalo Riverworks on September 8th.  Art show: I’m will be hosting my second solo art show for October 6th at 7pm at Gypsy Parlor. This show will be for my mannequins only. I will be making two more for the event. More details coming soon.  My Favorite Murder Update: A Murderino meet up group in Massachusetts is hosting a “My Favorite Murder” inspired event and fundraiser. They reached out to me to turn some of my record art pieces into coloring pages. I’m very excited to be part of this special coloring book.  Vending Events: I did a pop up art sale for Indie Rock Happy Hour at Mr. Goodbar. Things went well and I was invited to come back every Monday to sell and promote art. The DJ starts at 7pm. Please stop by and hang out. I hope to do more pop up art sales at other vinyl related events in the near future.  I announced last month that I would be vending for Amplify Indoor Music Festival on September 22nd. So I decided to make it a whole weekend and joined Chalkfest and Art Show at Buffalo Riverworks. I’ll be there both days from 10am to 6pm.  Alanis: I want to introduce you to my latest Tangled rock Goddess, Alanis. She was supposed to be the last one but I agreed to make another for the Music Is Art festival. I will write a separate blog for her in the next week. Please stay tuned...  Holiday Gifts and Custom Records:
September will be keeping me busy and I'm starting to think about the holidays. I have a huge vacation planned for Thanksgiving and I would like to get a head start on custom records. I am planning to do a Christmas, Halloween, Winter, and Fall themed record collection and they will be available for purchase once they are finished. Feel free to contact me directly or through my contact page if you have any special ideas. Custom records will be from $30-$50. If you don’t already, please follow my Instagram page, @tangledrecords. I only blog once a month unless something good is happening I would like to share. If you like to watch my journey more closely, I invite you to follow my feed. Once again, thank you for stopping by and being part of this adventure!  The Boxmasters came to Buffalo last night. This was my first time seeing them live. I’ve always been a big fan of Billy Bob Thornton and his acting career. I was excited to learn that he was in a band and I fell in love with their music over the years. The entire show was great and I enjoyed every minute of it! I got stand right up front and high fived Billy as he passed by. They told many great stories about the songs and their travels throughout the tour. The band sang many of my favorite songs and Billy was very engaging with the audience. Since I was attending the show, I wanted to make all three of the original Boxmasters (Billy Bob, JD, and Teddy) a gift. I was lucky enough to have Johnny Cash, BB King, and Beatles records to paint on. All of those musicians have inspired their music and careers. Billy Bob's (Johnny Cash Record): Teddy's (B.B King Record): JD's (Beatles Record):  It was getting late and there were a lot of people who wanted to meet the band. So they had encouraged everyone to move quickly throughout the line to get our pictures taken. I honestly didn’t want my picture to be taken (it was hot and I’ve been standing in heels for over 5 hours) and just wanted a pic of the guys to holding up the records. But when it was my turn, my nerves struck me and everything was happening so fast. I just handed them each their record and quickly introduced myself. All three of them took the time to stop and look at them. They all flipped them over and shared with each other which record they had. Billy pulled me in for the photo. Right after, he told me that these were the nicest gifts they ever received and no one had ever done anything like this for them before. He was very thankful and touched by the gesture. I gave each of them a hug and thanked them for their time. As I was about to leave, the promotor who booked the show stopped me. He asked me a few questions about my records and how I made them. The Promoter told me that he had booked The Boxmasters 4 times in Buffalo and he has never seen anyone do what I’ve done for them. He thanked me for taking the time to make them a special gift and he knew they truly appreciated it.  To top off my night when I got home, I emptied out my tote bag I got with the Meet and Greet. I was supposed to get a copy of their latest album, “In Stereo”. Instead I got a copy of “Somewhere down the Road.” This was the album that turned me on to their music. Needless to say, I'm very grateful for this entire experience.
 All set up! I have 15 of my records hanging in the front of the venue. A very special thank you to Ballzy and Mohawk Place for helping me get set up and hosting my art for the next few weeks. Plenty of talented bands and DJ’s will be playing every night throughout the festival. Please stop by and enjoy the music and art. Infringement runs from July 26th to August 5th. #supportlocalartists “Success is every minute you live. It’s the process of living. It’s stopping for the moments of beauty, of pleasure; the moments of peace. Success is not a destination that you ever reach. Success is the quality of the journey.” — Jennifer James Hey everyone! Just wanted to give a few updates and let everyone how things are going. Tangled Records has been doing great since I launched the website. I’m deeply touched of all the love, support, and business I’ve been getting. I had a lot of opportunities to work on a lot of unique projects. I’m happy people can come to me for their special gift ideas. Here’s what I’ve been working on this past month: Some fun updates!... Karen O:  I want to take the time to officially introduce Karen O to the family. I finished her last month. She is the 5th mannequin I have brought to life. I’ll be adding her to my Tangled Rock Goddess section soon. I will be creating one more Mannequin to complete the series. Please stay tune for Alanis. She’s going to be special.
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