A Visit to Lyon Arboretum

August 15, 2019 in Aloha, Inspiration

Wow friends, even after almost four years on O’ahu I can still ge my mind totally blown by the flora out here. I spent a glorious morning strolling though the Lyon Arboretum with my sister artist Zee photographing and marveling at all the absolutely otherworldly flowers.

It was like every time we turned the corner ‘round another bush we would stop dead in our tracks and gasp!

The arboretum is a cool spot that is run by the University of Hawai’i so it is very well cared for and features flowers and plants from all over the world with little plaques describing their names and origins. It’s a truly wonderful place that the school chooses to share with the public.

I mean, have you ever seen a black flower?!

Do yourself a favor and check out the rest of these mind-bending plants, and if you ever get out to O’ahu plan an afternoon at the Lyon Arboretum in Manoa Valley. This is the fourth time I’ve been and no matter what time of year you will see things you will not see anywhere else.

8.15.2019

Visiting Charleston for Spoleto Fest

June 05, 2019 in Adventure, Inspiration

I’m having a blast in my good old hometown of Charleston, SC for Spoleto which is a long running international performance and musical arts festival that showcases some the most incredible talent the world has to offer. Lucky me - my mom and I love doing the events together and she insisted on flying me to town for our tradition of arts indulgences!

Here’s just a quick sneaky peek, next week I’ll have a fun lil travel vlog for my YouTube channel as well as more pics here on the blog. Go ahead and pop your email below to make sure you don’t miss a thing!

And can you believe the size of that flower in my friends’ garden?!?!

6.5.2019

Newwww Tattooooo

April 17, 2019 in Artist Diary, Inspiration

So I got something very meaningful created on my body this past weekend….

A finger tat is an idea I’ve been flirting with for a couple of years now, but I could never settle on a design that I felt was meaningful enough until my fantastic day of hiking and plein air painting with Zee on Saturday. All throughout the day I could not stop staring at her brand new Celtic knot finger tat. Something about it rang true for me, but I knew I needed something a little softer.

To me this knot symbolizes somewhat of an infinity sign, but more so reflective of the actual journey of life. I am one who believes you get out of life what you put into it (for the most part / barring tragedies) so this knot makes me think of life going around in circles, and what goes around comes around, even if it’s not always obvious where we will end up.

I was not actually slated to get this tattoo that day, but we had already arranged to finish the beautiful bouquet on my leg - the 4th sitting, which wound up totaling about 20 hours to create this masterpiece!

I don’t have a good picture of it yet as it is still in a protective covering so my clothing doesn’t mess it up, but here are the happy honeybees about to have a feast

Thank you @zeezytat for your incredible permanent artwork, but more importantly your friendship. I’m so lucky to have someone so inspiring to adventure and create with!! Love you sister!!

4.17.2019

First Time Plein Air Painting!

April 10, 2019 in Adventure, Aloha, Artist Diary, Inspiration, Gouache

I had a truly magical journey into the jungle with my sister artist Zee this weekend., followed by relaxing and playing with some paints I brought along in a clearing by the head of the hike.

I cannot believe this was actually both of our first times painting from nature. We enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous hike through the jungle admiring a variety of ferns, listening to birds calling back and forth right over our heads (which you can hear in the vid below!), and gasping over the brightest greens you can imagine.

We are super excited to do more artsy adventures together and I can’t wait to practice more live plant painting with my gouache paints!

Now enjoy some incredible jungle bird calls:

4.10.2019

Art Consulting Now Available

March 08, 2019 in Artist Diary, Studio, Tutorials, Inspiration

Aloha friends, big news today! I am now available for fine art and art biz consulting! Yay!

I am constantly getting asked advice from how to prepare for an art opening to how to 'be more professional' to basic technical skills. Now I am here for you one-on-one and face-to-face through Hangouts or Skype to help tackle any obstacles between you and the art or art biz of your dreams.

Make sure to check out all the options for working together here

And by all means, keep leaving me questions and comments here and on YT! I am thrilled to share my artsy knowledge with this wonderful community any time:):)

3.8.2019

Nude Hiking :: Part 2 (NSFW)

February 27, 2019 in Aloha, Adventure, Artist Diary, Inspiration

This may seem an odd place to share this adventure, but I have come to look at my blog as a bit of a journal so sharing this incredible experience with fellow art lovers like you seems somehow fitting….

Hopefully you caught this very special blog post from a few weeks ago featuring myself and two of my favorite sister artists hiking a super high ridge line on the Westside of O’ahu. All of the ethereal photos in that post were by my fellow nude hiker and professional photographer friend Stephanie Stein, but today I wanted to share the other photos from that epic day - the ones we snapped on our cell phones while eating lunch, taking photos, and just generally frolicking around.

As I’m sure you can imagine, this was one of the best, most invigorating, and somehow transformative hikes any of us have ever experienced. To quote Emsy as she was climbing ever higher to stand proudly on teeny ledges jutting out over the valley below, “I’ve never been so naked in my whole life!”

In this artist’s humble opinion, being comfortably naked is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. Too often in modern consumerist society we are told about all the imperfections that buying random products can solve without being lauded for who we are naturally.

I mean, it makes sense. It’s hard to sell bullshit to people who are content.

So that’s why it’s ever more important to find joys in our own ways in our own bodies. It’s hard to feel sub par within your body when it makes you feel powerful and exhilarated!

So if you can, try and find an unusual place to be naked soon! Whether you try a naked hike like us, decide to find a secret beach where you can sun your buns, or just sip some tea and read next Sunday’s paper in the buff in your backyard, taking a little time to be naked in nature will make you feel like a whole new person. Would love to hear your experiences in the comments!

PS. If you’re curious, we hiked in regular clothes until we felt nicely secluded then disrobed and continued on. We also learned that at least shorts are needed on the way back down or else one must be prepared for a very grass-tickled bottom during steep descent areas ;)

2.27.2019

Salvador Dali Museum Tour

January 24, 2019 in Art Vlog, Artist Diary, Adventure, YouTube Videos, Inspiration, Museums + Galleries

I just got back from the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL and the collection is as mind-blowing as one could wish! As the world's preeminent surrealist painter it's a real treat to study Dali's works in person. I spent over 4 hours melting into his paintings while learning a lot about his life and the reoccurring symbols in his artwork which I'm so happy to share with you today.

I highly recommend you put this museum on your bucket list and in the mean time you can see and read about the whole collection here.

One of the most important things we can do as artists is to experience other artwork in person and since we can’t all be everywhere at once I’ll be creating more art tour videos to share with you in the future. Enjoy!

And here are the works I feature in the video for you to get a closer look. Click thumbnails to enlarge!

And the photos of Dali and his wife/muse Gala:

originally published January 24, 2019

How to Create Greeting Cards from Your Artwork

January 03, 2019 in Tutorials, YouTube Tutorials, YouTube Videos, Inspiration

Creating a line of greeting cards to sell out of a series of drawings or paintings is a great way that many artists make passive income, which can be key to a thriving career as an artist.

Today I'm first going to discuss a little bit about I chose to make these Happy Hawai'i greeting cards (since they are quite different than the paintings I usually create!) in hopes of inspiring you to look around for opportunities to offer something reproducible within your own art business. Next I'll share my step-by-step approach to digitizing and formatting both the greeting cards as well as the logo'd insert and sourcing packaging. Then keep an eye on this channel (subscribe!) because I've got a video in the works about how to approach shops to carry your cards! Yay!

As artists we love to make things with our own hands. However if everything we make money on is original and made by hand then there is a limit to how many pieces we can sell. Conversely, if we find ways to sell art reproductions or products (or even better, find ways to have other people/businesses sell our products for us!) then the potential for income is as infinite as the popularity of the item.

I hope you learn so much today! Here are some resources for you:

Formatting:

https://www.canva.com

UPC Code:

https://www.instantupccodes.com

Bar Code:

https://www.upcbarcodes.com

Compostable Packaging:

https://bit.ly/2QoKtYB

Plant Raffia:

https://bit.ly/2GWRvV5

Snag a set of Happy Hawai'i Greeting Cards!

https://www.happyhawaiigreetingcards.com

originally published January 3, 2018

Bring on 2019!

January 01, 2019 in Artist Diary, Inspiration

Woo Hoo! I’m starting off the New Year covered in paint from frame making and I’d like to wish you a productive and paint-filled 2019 as well! Cheers to killin’ it every day!

Have you already decided on your productivity resolution yet? If not check out this super handy lil checklist I made in 2017 that is a great tool to help you grab 2019 by the horns!

https://www.caleighbirdart.com/artist-blog/new-years-resolution-activity

originally published January 1, 2019

Rule of Thirds + Making a Composition Grid

September 28, 2018 in YouTube Videos, YouTube Tutorials, Tutorials, Inspiration

Howdy friends, today’s little tutorial is mostly geared towards beginner or possibly intermediate artists, and has to do with the famous ‘rule of thirds’ you’ve probably heard mentioned in the past.

Having strong composition within a piece of art is every bit as important as technical skill when appealing to an audience. Our eyes naturally flow in certain ways when taking in a scene so understanding how to direct and manipulate your viewers’ attention can have a huge subconscious effect on how your work is digested.

This is an incredibly simple and super inexpensive tool to make, yet totally invaluable to any art student, and will probably the easiest tutorial you’ll ever see on my channel! Enjoy!

Supplies Needed:

wood picture frame*
ruler
sharpie
rubber bands
hammer
tack nails
pliers
*it’s important you get wood because plastic or particle will break and split if you try to hammer in tack nails