Another Home for my Necklaces

I had an encouraging meeting today and it looks like another business will be selling my kimono women necklaces! I am very excited that my art is beginning to get out there. There is still much to be done, but I am prepared to work hard!

Hopefully I will get a chance to paint before things get too busy. I have been itching to paint for a while now. There are so many wonderful images in my head that I want to convey in my art. I'll get started then... ^_^

Birthday Fun

My fiancé bought me this beautiful kimono and I can’t stop looking at it! There are so many incredible details. After seeing this, I hope you understand why I try to capture these kimono in my paintings.

Here's a close-up shot. The exquisite design makes me smile!

Photograph taken in Laos by Ken Laffal

When my family and I went to Artsplosure the other weekend, we met an extremely talented photographer named Ken Laffal. He has traveled all over the world and taken the most stunning photographs. He is such a gentle, interesting soul and I truly enjoyed talking with him. When I asked where his favorite place to travel was, he said he always enjoys going back to Asia. Ken captures such beauty and intensity in his photos and I highly encourage you to check out his website. My parents took note of my favorite photograph, framed it, and surprised me on my birthday!

This is a neat bag my parents got me. I absolutely love woodblock print designs. They are so graphic and simplistic at the same time. I will enjoy toting this around with me.

Here’s the restaurant we went to that night. What a fun name!

This is some of the delicious sushi we ordered. Sushi looks like little works of art to me. I am absolutely crazy about unagi (eel). It is so tender and sweet. Don’t be afraid to try it!

When I look through other blogs, I always enjoy seeing other people’s interesting finds or neat presents they receive. My birthday was this past Sunday, so I’ve posted a few pictures above of my favorite gifts. Of course, they are all related to Asian culture and that is why I love them (My family knows me too well).

Another birthday has come and gone and I can honestly say I have learned quite a bit in the past year (especially through the more challenging moments). I will never understand why people dread getting older. With more years under your belt, you become wiser, more experienced, and more appreciative of life. At least, that is what I’d like to think. If you are concerned about wrinkles or crow’s feet by your eyes, cease your worrying now! It just means you’ve laughed a lot and enjoyed life that much more.

Animazement Weekend

Here's my art table. The skateboard helped attract customers!

Earrings and hair clips

Some of the necklaces I sold

Here are some excellent costumes from the convention (click for larger images):


Links from Zelda: Four Swords - They actually have a younger child that was the purple Link. What an adorable family!

Rikku and Auron from Final Fantasy X - They did such a good job!

Chii from Chobits - I'm not sure if this is the dress she cosplayed with, but it's similar.

Cloud and Zack from Final Fantasy VII / Crisis Core

Garnet from Final Fantasy IX

Yet another wonderful Animazement has come and gone. Alas, I must return to the real world.

I ran an art table again this year. My good friend Jacquie sold her items on the other half of the table, so it was nice to share that experience with her. I met so many sweet people that were very generous with their compliments about my artwork. Thank you so much to those of you who stopped by! I also want to thank my dedicated fiancé who was a big help with watching over my table while I explored the convention.

It took me a little while to get used to our new home this year. The Raleigh Convention Center is HUGE! I eventually learned my way around. At first I was a little nostalgic and missed the Sheraton, but I imagine it would have been insanely stuffy (and stinky) with the amount of people that attended this year.

I saw many unique and interesting costumes. Anime conventions give people an excuse to wear clothing that is deemed unacceptable by society. It also allows you to dress up on a day other than Halloween. I always thoroughly enjoy watching the reactions of “normal” people outside of the convention. They look extremely confused as people in costume go dancing past them.

Saturday night we closed up shop and went to the rave (the only kind of rave I have ever been to). The rave at Animazement doesn’t quite fit the definition of a normal rave. Imagine a room that is 90% full of nerds who can’t dance (myself included). There are those exceptional few break dancers or people with “skill”. Multiple violent conga lines and good Japanese music is a must at these raves. The best part is that no one cares if you can’t dance and this allows you to make up ridiculous moves without worry of criticism. Also, where else can you say you danced right next to the narrator of DBZ?

I always feel at home while at Animazement. It is a place where you are accepted, where you can be a big kid, and where you can get away with being as silly or as loud as you want. Ah, what a fantastic weekend. ^_^

Day One at Animazement

Greetings from Animazement! It has been a great first day and I can't wait until tomorrow. I will go into more depth and include pictures in my next post. Take care and enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Animazement

Animazement has moved to the new Raleigh Convention Center this year, so I'm very excited! It will be the biggest, best year yet!


This upcoming weekend is Animazement, a wonderful convention that celebrates anime and Japanese culture. This will be my 10th year going and my second year doing an art table. I will be selling necklaces, earrings, magnets, and prints of my kimono girls and anime related drawings. Please come say hello!

Artsplosure!

My fiancé and I went to the lake the other day and saw these adorable baby geese! I wish I could have taken this little guy home with me.


This weekend is Artsplosure! My family and I have been going there since I was a kid. The streets are lined with booths that have art, jewelry, crafts, paintings, sculptures, etc. There is also wonderful music and yummy food (I recommend the crab cake sandwiches). If you haven’t been to Artsplosure before, you should definitely check it out this weekend!

Graduation and Blog Plans

Doesn't this look good enough to eat? Ah, I remember playing with legos when I was a kid (I still pull them out every once in a while, hehe).


Hello! ^_^

I've been quite busy the past couple of weeks with the exhibition, finishing up classes, and final exams. However, I finally graduated from N.C. State University this past Saturday! It hasn't quite sunk in yet that I am done. School has been my job, my future, and my goal for the past 17 years of my life. It is odd to think that I won’t be staying up until all hours of the night studying anymore. Grad school is something I would like to consider in the future, but for now I am ready to get my head out of the textbooks, enter the “real world”, and create! I am quite excited to embark on this new chapter in my life.

I have decided that I will update my blog two times a week on Mondays and Fridays. I am concerned about keeping the interest of my readers, so hopefully I can find more things to post about than just my artwork.

Animazement is just around the corner, so I will be busy preparing for that the next two weeks. I will explain more about it in a later post.

Have a wonderful week!

Greetings and the First Exhibition

Hello! I have decided to try out this whole blog thing. You can get a preview of my daily adventures as an artist here. Please check out my new website eclaireart.weebly.com if you would like to see some of my work.


I had my first exhibition the other week and I've included some shots from the night. Thank you so much to those of you who came to support me. It was wonderful to chat with everyone and meet some other artists!