“A man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales resistance.” C.S. Lewis

Once upon a school day a dear friend of mine and I were at the park by our school dancing around trying to get it to rain (or something to that effect) when we noticed a group of squirrels sneaking up on a poor defenceless Ginger in the pavilion doing school. They would come together and then separate, hiding behind trashcans as they went. We started speculating on why he was their target. He posed no threat that we could see.

"maybe they think he's a tree. he is tall."-H
"but he has that flaming red main. why would he look like a tree?" -L
"...on fire?"-H
"oh my gosh! they think he's a Fire Tree! he's gonna catch all the other nice trees on fire, destroying their homes! they must get rid of him!"-L

"what if they think he's a god? like a special tree because it can be on fire and not burn up."-L
"they could think he is in danger of being put out if it rains...'We Must Protect the FIRETREE!!' "-H

  Needless to say, as we were silly high school girls, we started referring to him as the firetree. We did it more because of the happy memory of our goofy conversation then because of him. Soon the FireTree was its own entity outside of our friend (at least in my mind).  A few months later i dated this nice young man who was a natural redhead. I was goofing off with one friends and referring to him as a FireShrub because he was to short to be a tree. Thus another Fiery plantae was born. My dear friend/co-creator of Fire plants pointed out that i, too, was a redhead but i wasn't natural. I dyed my hair read, so i was a different kind of fire plant. I sort of leached off the greatness of the redheads so i was a Vine, FireVine. Thus An innocent goof off launched a strange obsession. We now refer (sometimes) to these three redheads as the FirePlantae. Mostly my friend refers to me.

I decided that these sounded like very beautiful plants. Now they are characters in my mind with personality's that are similar to the people they were created after. Here is a quick sketch of the first born one:

I did this in 20 minutes so yes, it looks terrable. I decided that if the point of the FireTree is that its tall why not make it the tallest tree in the world? Yes dear readers, this is a quick attempt at a Redwood.

"Ads are the cave art of the twentieth century." Marshall McLuhan

Today my Creative Genius jumped out of the window (yet again) and broke his leg. This then depressed my Muse and she shut herself in a closet. my Concentration was pissed at how pathetic they both were and shut himself in his room to read. so here i am trying to get something done and i cant. so here is a very low quality picture i started on Sunday morning. its an illustration of the random stuff that runs around in my mind..so it's a self portrait...kinda. another kinda self portrait. my scanners being a jerk today to so I'll post the rest of the photo later.

“Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.” -Rose Franken

Today was yet another day of envy. i saw a lot of adorable couples and thought "wow... i have never been that cute with anyone I've dated" . So, I draw adorable people doing something besides kissing or standing.

I've been trying new couple poses. also new ways of drawing hair. first was the curly hair (previous entry), now straight. soon i shall draw dreads and waves.

yes i know its to big but i wanted you to see his freckles...yay freckles! I'm rather proud of the girls expression. this is the first time i think i actually got the emotion across. Also her shoes are great in my opinion! I'm as bad at shoes as hands. Hands are the bane of my existence still, though i drew em without a reference this time. again my poor guy is wearing a t-shirt and a long sleeve shirt under it. my men dress so lamely.  =] but then again he's adorable so lame clothes are OK.  well maybe he isn't lamely dressed but not as creatively on my part as the girl is.

A toast to love whose requitment is somewhat questionable and to love whose requitment is very much known one way or the other

After watching chick flicks with a lovely friend of mine, I've realized that love is one of those things you can never know about. One can spend all their time daydreaming and fantasizing about a person they can't possibly have because of some little slightly suspicious thing they said. A person can't possibly know who to like, if it could possibly be love, weather it could ever happen...anything really. You could spend all your time mooning over one person while the person of your dreams is there next to you comforting you when it doesn't work, asking "why do you go for these people when you know good people are all around you?". The right person for you could be on the sidelines just waiting for you to stop obsessing over that other person. The right person could not know your right for them when you've been dreaming about them all the while.

Swept off her feet by LAurelEllis

Some things are obvious. If you never talk to the person then it wont work. If someone really likes you they are gonna show it in some way. People will ALL WAYS read to far into things. If you spend all your time around them then most likely something will happen at some point, weather it will amount to anything later is another matter.

Then we have when a person is a huge part of your life and suddenly disappear, what the heck do you do then? Keep dreaming? most of the time that's just painfully unproductive. But then there are people who find this the most comfortable way to approach feelings. Not having hope of something happening could help them just enjoy the warm feeling of loving the absent person. Being able to like (love?) without having to worry about messing it up or the person not being who they thought they were is very comforting sometimes.



Of course then we have the issue of how seemingly imposable things happen all the time. People end up dating the person they have liked for a very longtime, who were uninterested and several years older, maybe in an entirely different social group. A couple could actually fall in love from across the country, maybe across the sea. Like they say "absence makes the heart grow fonder". If one person being in one place and the other was in another was a real reason for affection to not count then how the heck does being married/ dating an Army person work? It wouldn't! They are proof that seemingly  impossible things can happen. But if these impossible things happen then there really is no hope that we as poor little students of love could know anything. It seems to me that the best thing to do is just roll with it. You like someone? Well let yourself like them. If you slip up and say something to them when you don't want to just go with it. Who knows, maybe they are the one, maybe they aren't. You just have to try... and this turned out much longer then expected. i apologize for the length of this considering i didn't end up saying much.

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Mark Twain

Whilst i was sick my loverly friend Hannah told me to draw a giraffe. i have never drawn a giraffe before... it was a humbling experience.

"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living." -Gail Sheehy

I've been listening to a lot of Traveling songs lately. Ah, the call of the Airport! Really I'm starting to get tired of Colorado. I normally go on at least one trip a summer because of ARTistic Pursuits Inc. (my parents Art curriculum company). I work for them and they normally need me to help work a conference but this year I wasn't needed. Now I'm itching to go somewhere. So from this need to go somewhere and habit of listening to traveling music (most of which is written/sung by Michael Nesmith) I have created a girl with a guitar in an airport.

I'm rather proud of the guitar in this picture, though its simple. Its the first time I've drawn an instrument (besides a drum set) since 7th grade...actually more like 6th.

"So to who I used to be and the life I thought I wanted, Goodbye."

I was just listening to my Itunes when a song my brother had given me came on. It made me cry, truly, for the first time since the break up. It was Brightest by Copeland. I suddenly got this image in my head and had to draw it. This is a self portrait of sorts. The stuffed dragon's name is Risa. My boyfriend gave her to me for valentines day this last year.  So here it is. The Goodbye to Torrey. Maybe the first of a few but I'm still saying goodbye.

"If you find yourself here on my side of town
I'd pray that you'd come to my door
Talk to me like you don't know what we ever fought about
Cause I don't remember anymore
I just know that she warms my heart
And knows what all my imperfections are
And she said that I was the brightest little firefly in her jar

And I just know that she warms my heart
And knows what all my imperfections are
And she says that I am the brightest little firefly in her jar"

Brightest by Copeland
Brightest video

"For who could ever learn to love a Beast?"

"I can! I can!"-Ariel and Laurel inunison

My sister and i always wondered why the Prince that Beast turns into is always uglyer then the Beast he was before. this happened not only in the Disney one but the ballet, the Fairytale Theatre, and silent versions. i decided to make a version of beauty and the beast that remadyed that. in my version Belle turns into a beast instead of beast becomeing a man.

Belle in the forest

Belle and Beast Reading

Belle half transformed

i am currently trying to draw a picture of Belle (non-Monster-itized) asleep in beasts arms. this is the quick planning sketch (above).

"Its a girl!!" -Lumier "I know its a girl!" -Cogsworth

I remember as a little girl watching Beauty and the Beast with my big sister. She would always put on her homemade Belle dress and we'd sit two feet from the screen staring up into Belles beautiful face, wishing we could be her. My sister actually grew up to be Belle in many ways. Ariel grew into a headstrong bookworm with amazing looks. she spent all of her time reading adventure books, like The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf by Gerald Morris, and watching fantastical movies. when the rights to  Disney's Beauty and the Beast Musical became public our acting troupe became the first high school to perform it. we were actually one of the first acting troupes in America to perform it. Ariel, of course, played Belle and it fit her perfectly. I on the other hand was a napkin. obviously this fantabulose story didn't effect me nearly as much as Ariel, or at least not in the same way. Ariel was effected by everything in the story. I was effected by the dress. The Yellow dress that almost every little girl in the early 90's wished she could wear. Ariel became Belle, I became a Ballgown designer. 

Belle Dress by LAurel Ellis

As a teen overly obsessed with historical clothing i soon realized that Belle was in a castle. If i was in a castle and got to wear a ballgown i would choose the most amazing one. Frankly the fact that her dress was yellow bugged me because a duchess or baroness could wear yellow but this is a castle with a prince! there should be a ballgown of the queen's should there not? and what are the royal colors? Red, Gold, and Purple. i therefor decided that my Belle  would wear a ballgown of Red and Gold. the red is a deep Burgundy that fades into black. the Roses and the embroidery on her bodice are a dark, almost brass, gold. i didn't include purple because i couldn't find a purple cloth that would go well. I am Currently working on making this dress. I shall post the finnished dress when it's  done. =]

"Start from the begining and go on from there."

 "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop."- The King of Hearts

Welcome my dear friends to the first post of MotleyMince.  This will be the acompanying blog for MotleyMince Productions.  So being as this is an Art Blog i should probably post some artwork, huh?

"See how the celery stalks!?"  LAurel Ellis

This was my first Photoshop Piece. i did this October 18th, 2009 while at Rehersal for Bunnicula. i had watched  Rachel  play Harold (the family dog) and JP play Chester (the family cat) for about an hour. they kept doing the same scene over and over so i drew it.  this is the part were Chester and Harold find a white Celery in the kitchen and Chester is telling Harold that the drained veggies are going to become Bunnicula's minions. this is the line where he says "Just imagine that innocent piece of celery in your paw, becomeing a monstrous, undead vegetable of the night! See it, Harold? See how the Celery stalks!?"


well thank you for reading this! i hope you read again!