Lisa Mertins' Life IllustratedLisa Mertins' Life Illustratedkinda quirky, sketchbookesque, average people won't get some of it! life as an illustrator, mom, chicken keeper, love-life attendant...i don't think you'll be bored. Articles
I Dream The Body Electric
2008-05-15 07:38:00 Random, I know. And my state of mind these days is mercurial. Today though, was happy and promising. When I think of the word electricity, I think of that stuff between people that makes them burn. Oh, and the one song ELO did that I really loved from the 80’s — Mr. Blue Sky. So, there you have it. Illustration Friday’s word for the week (electricity), some electric 80’s song titles and, well, the electricity that keeps us all going… More About: Body , Dream , The Body
Garden GeeGaws
2008-05-14 07:23:00 Soon, but not sure when, I’m guest blogging for the fabulous Cindy McNatt on her Homebody blog (more about her genius later). It’s all about my penchant for ornamenting our garden. I just love this old playground toy that I got in a local shop years ago. But I just can’t figure out where to put it. Is this a lame post? Yeah, I think so too but tonight, the traffic kept me stuck for SO long that I can’t think straight enough for a proper one. Sigh. Orange County traffic sucks all my energy, resolve, good sense, zzzzzzzz. More About: Garden
“…and she would ache for love and get but stones”
2008-05-11 05:05:00 Are you a Neil Diamond fan? Me neither. But I couldn’t get that lyric out of my head when I GOT MY BOULDERS TODAY! I love how this photo shows their slow, massive fall — the ground shook! Yup, thanks to the SimmCrew for these. I’m so thrilled. Now to move them :) More About: Love , Stones
Beware Of Germ-Laden Hospitals!
2008-05-09 05:28:00 This illo ran in The Orange County Register on Wednesday. I know two people that have caught staph from a hospital stay. One, had to insist they test for infection. After a week, they finally did… Watch it if you’re hospitalized! More About: Hospitals , Beware , Germ , Laden
If It Isn’t Scottish…
2008-05-08 07:21:00 So, I was thinking of highroads and lowroads today for some reason. That lead me to that song Loch Lomond. You know the rest; “and I’ll get to Scotland before ye.” What a coincidence too that I’ve recently found that I have Scotch blood in me! While researching the seemingly jaunty song, I found this great NPR program called What’s In A Song. If this illo is kinda creepy, listen to the 5 minute exploration of the song’s origins. Interesting! More About: Scottish
This Little Piggy Might Save “Your Butt”
2008-05-07 05:55:00 Hiya tender readers. Have you noticed a bit of a “blue” tint to my posts lately? I’m trying to see which of my Register colleagues is right regarding the best way to get clicks on a site. This illo went with a story yesterday in the OC Register about interest rates favoring cds — butt not with this headline (twitter!). Some think a headline like the one above is the way to go (like this page on ocregister.com). Others believe making a personal connection is more honorable and I hope they’re right because, I think using “butt” in a headline is a cheap trick. If I knew how to fashion a poll, I’d ask visitors to let me know their opinion. Instead, feel free to comment! Thanks friends :) Oh, p.s.! If you find the grammar, sentence structure and spelling atrocious in any of my posts (extraneous exclamations!), weigh in on that too, would you? More About: Piggy , Save , Butt
She’s A Bad Seed!
2008-05-06 06:50:00 Seed is the IF prompt this week. I started out doing my usual, quasi-cryptic self-portrait. Then I said aw, hell! No “faith-of-a-mustard-seed” optimism today. I can’t think of anything but the deliciously murderous Rhoda from the 1956 classic The Bad Seed, one of my favorite all-time horror films. Tapping her tap shoes as she charms with her psychopathic, sugary manners Rhoda’s one seed that should have never germinated. Heh, heh, heh! More About: Seed
Rose Colored Life
2008-05-05 06:03:00 Recently, I was accused of wearing those glasses. You know, the one’s that make life seem better than it really is? It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. How can it be wrong to be optimistic? To keep persevering, despite the lousy odds? I can be stubborn in my resolve to try to make things work, maybe to a fault even. But damn, I just can’t live life any other way. This rose, planted by our front door is named Tamora. My grandmother used to live on Tamora Dr. in Laguna Niguel. I’m thinking, that’s good feng shui, and a good sign that I’m on the right path. Yep, I believe it, try to dissuade me, I dare you! More About: Life , Rose
To The A**hole That Dumped A Box of Kittens:
2008-05-04 06:32:00 Thank God there’s an Ethan Mertins to clean up your mess. I sure didn’t want any more cats but my family knows I wouldn’t have left these kittens in that box on the freeway offramp either. They don’t seem any different from any other helpless babies I’ve known in my life… irresistible! More About: Kittens , Hole
An Oldie To End The Week
2008-05-03 07:09:00 Here’s a piece done years ago for a Fall Arts Preview in Orange County. The original was alkyd paint on masonite, my medium of choice. I remember the page designer wasn’t crazy about it but I thought it was a fun solution. I’m sure I spent at least 15 hours on it. And if I recall, it would have been shot on film for reproduction. Then of course, toned by someone in our imaging department. Tonight, I took it into photoshop and added some stuff to suite my current sensibilities. There isn’t more to say except we once lived a lush life in the news art department. More About: Week
Thinly-Veiled Metaphor
2008-05-02 06:43:00 Time to chase away the blues! This week on Illustration Friday the word is WRINKLES. In my humble opinion, the only wrinkles worth talking about, are those we can get rid of. Ladies and gentleman, can I get an amen?
More Layoffs at the OC Register
2008-04-29 07:51:00 This post started as a spam art thing with the words “visual miscellany coifferi.” As far as a quick google search for the word coifferi goes, no luck, but a big haired coif came to mind. However, all my concepts got crowded out because of the cuts announced at the paper today. More friends and colleagues let go today. It SUCKS! And since the layoffs don’t end till Wednesday, the feeling that no one’s job is secure makes it hard to concentrate on anything. That and not feeling well equals another morose illustration. Sorry… More About: Register
Japanese Maple!
2008-04-28 06:13:00 Last week, I got excited when I saw a Japanese maple in the full sun. It was next to a water source so we figured that was the secret (you can’t really see the water bubbling over the rocks here). That garden had a tiki that was pretty funky. But the one you can see in the bottom left has been in my family for at least 40 years, long before tiki was hip. He goes well with the rocks but I’m struggling with the Asian theme meshing with the country garden scene we have happening here. How lucky that our favorite nursery Newell’s is having a big sale (I’m LOVING this recession!), making the maple affordable. Twenty five percent off, whoo hoo! So loads of cocoa mulch and our tomatoes are in too. Now, if we could only block out my neighbor’s motorhome, also on the left, I’d feel in complete control of my domain! More About: Maple
Never Let Me Go
2008-04-27 06:20:00 “Love me much too much…” Boz Skaggs I was antique poking yesterday and came across this photo. I can’t fathom why a family would part with such a precious reminder of someone’s fleeting childhood. So I snapped it up and added some doodles. I made these children mine. Aren’t they lovely? Such happiness in the chubby baby. The second child all broody, and the oldest seems carefree, doesn’t she? They remind me of my sister Leslie and me and they’ll be hung on my wall and contemplated often…
Where Were You In ‘82?
2008-04-26 06:21:00 My friend Suzanne over at Emphasis Mine (and the Register and heck, I can’t keep up where else!) posted a picture with her girlfriends including a song list and things experienced in O.C. in the ’80s. I’m under the weather and I thought yesterday was Friday so I’m all mixed up and it’s photos from the archives folks. Here’s a couple from my ’80s youth. My first job at the Register was in the circulation department and that’s me trying to pretend I was hip. Flying all over the place with a flight attendant friend meant I was ultra-sophisticated, and so cool, it made my hair stand on end! I loved The Pretenders, Bowie, Prince and Berlin then and my passion in life was European travel, boys and did I mention the partying? That too! By the mid-’80s I was in the newsroom illustrating. This photo shows roughly HALF our department at the time. Gwen Wong, Amy Ning (cute!), me (red beret, oh brother), Newman Huh, Stephen Rountree and my ...
Ending This Week On A High Note
2008-04-25 06:43:00 Long lost loved ones, honest words of wisdom from a friend, blooming Van Gogh tulips and truth finally. Bye bye whirly week! More About: Note , Week , Ending , High
How Primitive!
2008-04-24 05:42:00 Oooo excitement when I saw Illustration Friday’s word this week! I love primitive art, folk art, untrained artist art. Well, because I fall into that as a (mostly) self-taught artist. So I queued up Ryan Adam’s Heartbreak album (loveityLOVE it!) and imagined a simpler time. This piece is influenced by that music, naive American art, the Ozz Franca prints I have in my studio, and an old metal doll head. More About: Primitive
The Orphan Works Act of 2008
2008-04-23 07:20:00 A confession: I haven’t been an activist since the movie The China Syndrome came out. But my only real serious thought then while marching around San Onofre was how tan I’d get and would I maybe see some movie stars? This is different. Brad Holland will explain it to you in a webcast interview if you go to the Illustrator’s Partnership website. The bill isn’t meant to take away copyright protection from only illustrators. Lobbyists with big money behind them (Google for example) want the ability to use AND MAKE MONEY FROM any visual image ever produced into infinity. That means photos too! Go listen if you or anyone you care about makes their living creating visual art. More About: Works , Orphan , The Orphan , 2008
Hi, My Name Is Lisa And I’m A Prima Donna
2008-04-22 05:41:00 I’m also a Bad Person and a Baby and I Sure Feel Sorry For Myself a lot. What else can explain why my friend and editor Keith Sharon would have to smooth my prickly feathers from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm with the kicker comment, “I have to talk you through a great day” because of a story I wrote in today’s Register? Or how about me stooping so low that I said to him, “just tell me I’m more special than Suzanne” who is the sweetest, most wonderful person in the whole wide world and a FANTASTIC writer and blogger?(Cripes! I just went to her blog for this link and she has TWO of my illos up. SNIF! waaaaaaaaaa! I’m sorry Suz!!!) Any new relatives out there that are visiting that got fooled into thinking I’m really nice and friendly and loving and giving? Forget it! All I care about is ME ME ME (and I’m boring too). Ok. I’m done now. The story’s funny and Joe was a good sport about it. I know I have some good stories to ... More About: Lisa , Prima , Donna
My Pretty 909
2008-04-21 07:34:00 Les Arbres Estate Yup, these pictures were taken in good ol’ San Bernardino County. The Redlands Horticultural & Improvement Society began as a men’s club in 1889 and is one of the oldest garden clubs in California. I wondered how their 98th annual garden tour in Redlands would stack up to the one I enjoyed last year in Sonoma. Ha! Godzilla guards the estate (more…) More About: Pretty
Georgeann Hope Bourne
2008-04-20 06:26:00 This is a picture of my Grandmother Bourne and my dad Kyle Lawton. Today was her memorial service at Mt. Baldi where she and my Grandpa Bill loved to ski. The service was heavy-laden with things said and unsaid. And I saw my uncle Mike that I haven’t seen since the 60s. From left to right, my half-brother Sananda, me, my sister Leslie, Kyle and my brother Steve. This was the first time Leslie’s seen our dad in forty years. Today, however, was a new beginning for all of us and my grandmother’s memorial brought us together. More About: Hope
Unka Sammy!
2008-04-19 06:18:00 This is a cheater post, an illo that ran with a story this week about how the FHA has raised it’s money cap on loans. OO, does that help borrowers in the OC! Since I have big, BIG dramatic family biz this weekend, I can only squeeze out something quick. Y’all know what I mean, doncha? More About: Sammy
I Have Failed!
2008-04-18 06:25:00 Where have I been? Not an entry since Sunday? I’ve failed to blog every day this week. I’m sorry if you were looking for me. Here I am back again. You can’t get rid of me that easily. Illustration Friday’s word is fail. This poor girl has failed to keep her clothes, her convictions and, ooops! There goes her hair. Those damn black birds. They’ll get you every time. Even a hummingbird’s getting into the act!
Shed
2008-04-14 04:55:00 Old Joe built this beautiful shed from plans found in The Family Handyman magazine. This weekend, he put in the arch and we planted two climbing Colette roses, luckily found at our local nursery because we are both too impatient to wait for bare root season. To the right is our small herb garden and the pear tree I started from a cutting is growing in the terracotta pot, whoo hooo!
Big Ol’ Buster
2008-04-13 06:13:00 Daughter Jordan took this picture of our horse Buster . Right after he tried to bite me on the rear as I was weeding on the other side of the fence. Horses can be brats and Buster is goofy and playful. He’s got this little trick where he’ll act like he’s got no energy on a ride. Yet, when he gets to a hill, he’ll trot up like horses do, not going fast enough to make the rider anxious but he’ll get just enough speed to haul off and buck. He’s tricked me a couple of times with that. Bastard!
Right Brain Rules!
2008-04-11 07:55:00 I am so pooped, and can’t think of a single thing to blog about except I read over the weekend in the New York Times, a story about how valuable creativity has become in this automated world. So, here’s a lovely quote to that effect: “It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery More About: Rules , Brain
Teensy Misstep
More articles from this author:2008-04-10 05:13:00 This image ran in the Register today. Well, not EXACTLY this image, the actual one, after the jump. See, the assignment to illustrate a story about people upside down in their mortgages was so simple to me. No need to over think it. An upside down house right? (more…) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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