Courtney and the Vortex

Sedona, Arizona

This past Saturday me and my fellow adventurer, Michelle, (and her dog, Bella) went to Sedona for the day. The weather last week was really nice and I hadn't been on a day trip since March so we spontaneously decided to go for a hike. I've been visiting Sedona nearly every year since I was a little girl (we live only 2 hours away) but I'd never really done any hiking there. My family would always go camping in Oak Creek Canyon and just bird watch and play in the creek all day. But I'd heard a lot about Sedona's vortex areas and thought it was time we checked it out. To be honest, I only had a vague idea what a vortex was. I understood that they were areas of high energy that came directly from the Earth's surface but I didn't know much beyond that. The only vortexes I had experience with were the ones in the water temple in Ocarina of Time so I was kind of expecting them to look like a pit or something. Michelle didn't really know what to expect either so we thought we'd just surprise ourselves when we got there. I did some research beforehand on which was the best trail to hike for beginners and we decided on the Boynton Canyon Trail which is 6 miles roundtrip. Before we hit the trail, though, we made a quick detour to check out the Chapel of the Holy Cross which is a church that's built right into rock face. I'm not a religious person, but it was pretty cool and the view was fantastic. We took some cute selfifes with Bella and then continued on our way.



View from the Holy Chapel of the Cross

By the time we got to the trail it had warmed up a bit but not too bad. I think it was high 70s to low 80s and there was a nice breeze going. The hike started out in the valley but eventually turned into the forest. It was cool to watch the scenery change the further we walked. One of my favorite parts of the hike were these little lilac butterflies that would all gather on the trail and when you'd walk over them they'd burst all around your feet like confetti. I honestly felt like I was in a Studio Ghibli film it was so beautiful. About 30 minutes into the hike we passed a group of ladies that had all gathered around a rock wall and were touching it a lot. We wondered if that was the vortex area but weren't really sure so we kept walking. It's hard to describe but I felt so...content this entire hike. I just felt light, peaceful and happy (which is kind of a rare feeling for me). I just couldn't stop smiling and felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I'd even started my lady time that very morning and was expecting to be in terrible pain the whole day but the pain never came.



Lil desert flower

The only thing missing from this hike was the creek. I just love the sight of rushing water and it would have been wonderful to stick our feet in the creek. Other than that, it was perfect and a large majority of the trail was shaded. We had brought a few snacks so halfway through we took a short snack break and so did the mosquitos, haha. The Boynton Canyon Trail ends with a magnificent few of the canyon but since the terrain did get a little steep at the end I had to climb to the top solo. It was pretty amazing and I felt it was well worth the trip. I sat there for about 5 minutes and just stared at the beauty. I think round trip it took us about 3.5 hours which isn't bad for a 6 mile hike (and with a pupster in tow).



My hiking buddy, Michelle

When we got back to the car we were pretty starved so we stopped at Whole Foods for a bite to eat. I got a roasted veggie sandwich (with chips AND a pickle) and a peach tea. After hiking our butts off all day our sandwiches tasted AMAZING. If I had the money I'd totally retire in Sedona. It's just such a neat place and everyone seems so happy and laid back.


View at the end of the Boynton Canyon Trail

Once I got home I told my dad about my experience hiking through the vortex and explained how oddly calm and content I felt throughout the hike and he said that that was the energy of the vortex affecting me. Apparently, the energy affects everyone a little differently and especially those who are really sensitive individuals (like myself). I thought that was really cool and I will definitely go hiking in Sedona again now that I know how good it makes me feel.

I recently got a fancy new camera and am just lovin's it!

In my next post I will write about this weekend's adventure (I know, I'm totally hogging all of the fun). Today I am leaving for San Francisco to visit my dear friend and fellow crafter, Miss Twinkie Chan. I haven't been to SF since I was 8 years old so I'm very excited to explore and hang out with my babe. Lots and lots of pictures to follow! And to all you papas out there, Happy Father's Day!

Newsflash!

In the past 2 weeks I've accomplished 2 goals that I've been putting off for 2 YEARS. Firstly, I finally had some business cards printed. It's going to be so awesome to hand someone a card now instead of scribbling my contact information onto a post it note or God-forbid, napkin. Second, I finally made my own website!! This is probably the biggest news since you're pretty much a nobody in the art world these days if you don't have your own website. I will say that making the business cards was a lot easier than making the website. Mind you, I didn't make it from scratch but even using a template was a major pain in the butt. My computer would slow down like crazy every time I'd start to work on designing my website so it took about 4 days (and 3 template changes) to finish it. But I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and all of my friends have been telling me that it looks awesome so I'm happy. It you'd like to take a look, just go to:

www.iggystarpup.com

In other news, I recently did my first photo shoot as well. I know how important image is for an artist so I thought it was about time people start associating my art work with me. So I asked my friend, Mr. Daniel Funkhouser, if he'd be able to take some photos for me to promote my business and he obliged. Next on the order of business was to get the perfect DRESS. For ages and ages I'd been wanting a Wednesday Addams-esque dress but I had never been able to find one. I rarely order cloths online but I thought I'd take a chance this once since I wanted this photo shoot to be perfect. I did a search for black and white peter pan collar dresses and found the most amazing dress on Modcloth. It was a little more than I normally spend on a dress but I figured I'd wear it forever so it would be worth the money. Also, Modcloth has a handy dandy feature where real women post their size and how the dress fit them "in real life". Everyone concurred that this dress was true to size and that they absolutely loved it. That was enough for me so I went ahead and bought it. I am super happy with this dress and am now a forever Modcloth customer.

Anywho, I'd been working on one of my anthropomorphic animal illustrations of a kitty wearing a black and white peter pan collar dress sitting on a tombstone in a grave yard. Since I'm using "Courtney Doom" as my professional name I thought, "That would be a cool idea for my photos!" So I asked Daniel if he knew of any interesting cemeteries around town and he said he did. We got there around dusk and I was kind of nervous since I'd never really modeled for anyone before but he did a good job of making me comfortable. It helped too that since I was going for a gothic look I didn't have to smile for the photos. We only had about an hour before the sun went down but Daniel said he thought we'd gotten some good  shots. Since I had had to sit so long without moving though, I had become a perfect buffet for all the local mosquitos and went home with about 10 bites (but it was worth it.)

My friend finished editing the photos a few days ago and sent me over the best ones and I couldn't be happier! I love how they turned out. I'm very lucky to have so many super talented friends that are able to help me out with stuff like this. Very lucky, indeed.

So yeah, I hope that the combination of the business cards, the promo photos and the website finally being out there that I'll see an increase in my audience and ultimately in my sales. Being a professional artist isn't easy but I think I'm doing a pretty good job.

Wish me luck!

Mwah!

 

 

 

Adventure Time!

Yesterday was a really fun day. I went on a photo adventure in downtown Phoenix and had a swell time.

I've mentioned it in a previous post, but I've been working on a photo project called "Camera Swap" with my three very cool pen pals, Melissa, Adam and Nikolaus. I bought some cheap disposable cameras and have been taking random, kookie pictures of events and places I encounter in my day-to-day life. 

I've lived in Phoenix for most of my life but I'd never really taken the time to explore the downtown area so I thought that this photo project would provide a perfect opportunity to really look around for unique/cool spots in the city. Also, the weather was nicer than it's been all summer (it was overcast and only about 98 degrees instead of 118 degrees we had last week).  It was kind of challenging juggling the three disposable cameras and also remembering to take a few with my personal camera but I think I did okay. I had never really noticed/appreciated how colorful and lively downtown Phoenix is since I'd only really hung out there at night.

 In retrospect, I wish I would've taken a duplicate photo of all of the things I photographed with the disposables since I'll be shipping them off soon and won't get to see the printed pictures (that's the point of the swap, to take pictures of your life, then to give those moments to someone else). However, I'll most likely be doing this project again since it was so much fun and now I know to take backup pictures so I'll know what pictures I took. At least I got some photos, though.

 After I took most of the photos on the cameras, I stopped for snax at Treehouse Bakery. It's a vegan bakery that's right around the corner from Trunk Space and Bikini Lounge. I got a Spicy Hot Chocolate cupcake and an Iced Tea and it was HEAVEN. I had no idea vegan pastry could be so good! And the store is owned by two girls, so next time you're in that area and find yourself with a sweet tooth, pay them a visit! (I should've taken a picture of our cupcakes!)

Anywho, I'm really looking forward to seeing the pictures my friends take, especially since they all live in cities I've never been to. Melissa is from Glasgow, Adam from Plano, TX and Nikolaus lives in Cologne, Germany. As an added bonus, all of these peeps are talented at photography so I'm pretty much guaranteed to get some rad photos. I need to make a friend in France now, haha!

In other news, I've also recently become OBSESSED with the show, Adventure Time! In less than two weeks I've watched all 5 seasons and made 3 embroidery hoops of characters from the show (and I have a list of more characters I'd like to make into hoops too). Here's some pics, they're pretty math if I do say so myself!

All of these hoops are currently up for grabs in my Etsy shop, so take a gander at www.iggystarpup.etsy.com

I'm so happy I finally gave this show a chance because I absolutely love it. The writing and voice acting is brilliant! I'm even thinking about going as Marceline the Vampire Queen for Halloween now.

Okies, well, I better get some biz done before I have to go to work. 

I'll see you in the Nightosphere, you sick freaks!