Meet The Maker - Day 3 - New For Christmas

 The Meet The Maker Prompt for today is 'New For Christmas'.

I am super excited to get not only my brand new and refreshed website

up in the next couple of weeks

(I hope!)

BUT also my new shop...

It's been slightly overwhelming & confusing to me

to figure out but I am getting there, there's so much to work out!

I have decided to move away from Etsy and have my own shop on my own website AND the first batch of whimsical goodies I will be posting is a bunch of

my limited edition hand-pressed lino cut prints.

I honestly don't really know why I've never listed my linos,

I have always just sold them locally. But I have SO many new designs and people seem super enthused with them so yeah,

I am really anxious to start running the editions off and getting them listed

and then to keep doing so instead of just squirreling them away!

As always, because of my chronic pain life,

I always run slowly and behind everyone else,

but if you bear with me, these will be the first thing I list and I am hoping

it'll be in time for Christmas... I'll do my best! But in the meantime you can order

some of my colourful & whimsical goods from my Society6 shop.

Meet The Maker - Day 2

 Today's Meet The Maker Prompt is "PIVOT".

I had to think on this one as I didn't think it really applied to me at first &then I realized, wait a hot minute Mandy, you literally and figuratively pivot your butt off every single day!

Firstly, I swing around like a fan all day everyday in my life as a bunny mama. Doting on NINE rambunctious cage free buns, most of whom hate each other & most who are special needs is often a full-time job and I can only manage it successfully by pivoting constantly in an effort to spread myself as evenly as possible between them all.

Secondly, my broken and misfiring body gives me no choice but to pivot. It's a delicate circular dance of turning away from the pain that ravages me & with much tenacity plugging away at my craft (or else I would never get anything made) but then being willing to turn away from my beloved work to rest, regroup and take care of my body so that I can indeed get back into the studio sooner hopefully than later!

Last but not least Cancer. It's been my biggest pivoting point. Last December 10th, a day before his 44th birthday my brilliant honey was diagnosed with a highly aggressive form of cancer. We pivoted instantly from a near perfect life to one full of constant pain, crippling fear & deep exhaustion. And Cancer during Covid well that's been a beast to conquer all of its own! We've had to constantly turn away from all of the scary big bad stuff to make sure we were still functional in life in general, still taking care other (because cancer really shows who your friends & family really are) and also of course taking care of all the demanding buns too...in fact our latest rescue arrived in our front yard the night before the very 1st big surgery!

Now at the 11 month mark of my husband being cancer free, after my shop being closed up for over a year (somethings did have to give!), I can more easily pivot away from the fear of the unknown & happily find myself SO ready to relaunch my website, reopen a brand new shop full of all kinds of whimsies & to brave the post office once again but also to pivot away from all that wasn't working...and that's exciting don't ya think???

Meet The Maker - Day 1

 I am excited to participate in on Meet The Maker Week on IG this week.

So Day 1 is to introduce ourselves so let's give it a whirl!

I am Mandy Saile, I am 42 and work mostly with coloured pencil in a very whimsical style. My work tends toward the very detailed, my palette is usually super colourful and I love to create stories about animals, the beauty of them and the importance of better/kinder relationships with them.

I am also a printmaker working in linocuts and sometimes I enjoy ink pens too.

A large part of my creative journey and life is dictated and ruled by the chronic pain I live with. I suffer from Chronic Migraine, Fibromyalgia and RLS (etc!!!) The pain I live with does hugely inspire my work. My art is like a life preserver, the whimsy & colour of it, keeping me afloat amidst all the suffering.

I am also a Micro-Sanctuary Mama. We've made our family with rescued rabbits for many years now & currently we dote on 9 cage free rambunctious souls; Flynn, Barnaby Fizz, Yuuji, Lesiel, Mooshi-Haroo, Lydia, Korra-Soleil, Misa Adora & Higgins. I can't imagine life without them. They inspire everything I do, to be vegan, to live cruelty free of course to draw lots of buns! They also make for a unique studio schedule as I don't just work in one spot but in several because I need to spend time with them all but they don't all get along, so I rotate between art projects as I move from room to room throughout a day, it's a really fun way to work & my inspiration is never ending thanks to them.

I live with my honey of 28 years in a small city by the lake in Northern Ontario Canada. We are surrounded by a sea of trees and are called The Land Of A Thousand Lakes. We've had the hardest year ever as the past year + my husband has been fighting cancer...it's a long exhausting story but he's cancer free now & I am super excited to get my shop etc back up & running & for things to get back to 'normal' as much as it can after cancer swoops into life!

When out of the studio you'll find me kayaking, diving into books & just being embraced by home, I LOVE just being home with my hon, buns, books & art!

So nice to meet you & thanks for hopping by💖.