2012 in a nutshell.

It's been several months since my last post here and there is good reason for that.

I haven't had time.

OK, so that might seem like a crappy excuse, but it's true.

In December 2011 I had a baby which was the most amazing thing and has made 2012 the best year of my life.

Then I had to get ready for my second season at Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly, Michigan (near Flint) and the inaugural season of BlackRock Medieval Fest in Augusta, Michigan (near Kalamazoo). I highly recommend visiting both of these festivals if you are able and not just because of my presence. There are so many wonderful artisans and vendors, shows and jousts. Food is plentiful at both locations as well. BlackRock will run for 4 weeks starting in July 2013 and MRF for 7 weeks starting at the end of August. More details on those later.

We also began selling our candle and melt line at Just For You Resale Shoppe in Johna's hometown of Grand Rapids, Ohio.

Making the product for these festivals and the business in general takes a LOT of work and time. Currently, there are two of us that do this. Jason, my husband, takes care of the custom sublimation side of things. I paint & draw, formulate new candle and soap fragrances and work on some of my publishing projects.

The Higher Intuitions Oracle Deck will be released in the spring of 2013 through Schiffer Publishing. Kristy Robinett wrote the book and I illustrated all of the 44 oracle cards. It was quite a project to undertake while pregnant and still working a full time day job, but I finished the illustrations on time and we are all very excited for the release.

We have a few Holiday Specials on our website, so go check them out. You can get 3 of our 8oz. Jelly Jar Candles for $18 (originally $21), 6 of our 3oz clamshell wax melts for $20 (originally $24) or 3 of the 8.5"x11" fine art prints for $30 (originally $42). Shipping and tax are extra, unfortunately, but these are a great savings!

 We are currently working on holiday orders, creating new merchandise and fragrances and getting ready for our baby to turn one (already?!).

Michigan Renaissance Festival and my art...

It occurred to me that in all of my blogging - OK, so there have only been 8 posts thus far, but you get the point - I haven't shared my artwork.

The funny part is that part of the reason that I've not been blogging as much is because I'm getting ready to vend at the Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly, Michigan beginning in August. It's a huge step for me and I hope that all goes well and people accept me as a new shoppe.

Back in May, Jessica Galbreth put her shoppe at the festival up for sale and somehow I ended up purchasing it. It is quite a story of how it all came about, and I never in a million years thought that I would do something like that, but one day I lost control of my usual fears and shyness and bought the shoppe.

The most interesting part of all of this is that I'm going to be 5-7 months pregnant while vending at the festival and as I get bigger, I am attempting to accumulate enough product to fill the shoppe before I completely run out of energy.

Anyway...the purpose of this blog was the share with you some of my art. I also make soaps, candles and wax melts and will photograph those when they are all ready to go. I also plan on offering other interesting items with my art on them.

Please visit my website at http://www.johnagibsonbowman.com/ or my etsy site http://www.hootsgallery.etsy.com/. I'm a member of the Fantasy Artists of Etsy - FAEteam!



Night Owls 1



Sing Your Song

Practice Patience

Queen of Cups

Partners

All images copyright. All rights reserved. Please do not use without permission from the artist. Thank you!