Not too long ago, I came across an amazing mixed media artist and her beautiful artwork just blew me away. Miranda Banks is a mixed media artist and blogs regularly on her blog, Clare Plantation, where she posts her art progress, inspiration and every day life. After reading her blog, watching her youtube videos and looking at her art, i knew that I just had to interview her and I am so glad she agreed. Here is the interview including images of her absolutely breathtaking art!!! 1. Tell us a little about who you are and what you do? First of all, it's so exciting to be able to share a little bit of me with you here. I was very humbled to be interviewed by Rosalina. I haven't come across her work before but what I see of it now, I find it very inspirational! Thanks so much Rosalina! My name is Miranda Banks and I am a freelance artist, teacher, blogger, writer and building business owner under the name of "Clare Plantation". I currently live at home with my parents and take no shame in that! My career I have chosen all depends on me and what I make of it. I am my own boss, employer, secretary, treasurer and public relations executor in which all have started from nothing. My business is a labor of love and allows me to sell and advertise my artwork in a creative way. I am a recent college graduate with a major in art and minor in English. So what do I do with all of that...is Paint! I am a painter straight up and down and I have never doubted or been wrong with that affirmation! It is what I love to do, it's what I love to study and I hope to do for the rest of my life! 2. What type of art do you create? I really enjoy making artwork that is strange and unnatural only by way of the placement of things but I want them to be aesthetically pleasing. I also like to create artwork in an abstract/traditional style that is busy and has many things to look at, which allows the viewer to find new things each time they look at my work. I like to hide things and create space that allows the viewer to step into my work as if in a dream, technically surrealism but pretty and not creepy. So I like to have the viewer say "Aaaahhhh cool!" and then followed by a good long stare because they keep finding things new and different. I want to have the viewer sit and stay a while. But then again I like to do good ole traditional pieces every once in a while because master works such as Monet and Van Gogh send me over the edge in obsession! So my traditional paintings of portraits and landscapes, I fill it up with tons of detail to allow the viewer again to experience new things. I mainly create paintings on two surfaces, one being the trusty canvas and second, pages of journals I buy and create myself. I love to work in journals and create pages that accumulate and provide memories that I can flip through day in and day out. Sometimes I use my journals as alternatives to sketchbooks which allow me to create a larger painting. Still I don't do away with my sketchbooks. I use them for drawing studies so that I know what I can draw later in my journals and eventually paintings. I am a lover of paint and I enjoy finding new ways to manipulate it using different combinations of color on the color wheel. My subject matters range from all kinds of things but most of all, I really enjoy nature such as mountain scenes and western landscapes. I've been crazy about little elements of nature such as the rings in tree stumps, wood grain, pine trees, florals, fawns with white spots, leaves, ferns, red rock formations, cactuses, birds, gems, crystals all immersed in gobs of paint Van Gogh style. I've now realized that liking Van Gogh is going to cost me in that I'm gonna need a lot more paint! So in typing all of this I have come to the realization that my style is one hot mess! I like so many things all at once that when I create, it tends to all fall out on one surface. So technically I'll call myself "The ADHD Collage Impressionist" 3. Favorite art materials? My go to materials are simply paint...lots and lots of paint! I usually create a base layer and use my trusty Apple and Barrel acrylic paint either by paint brush or finger. When I do paintings, I use Golden's or Basic's brands paint just for a more richer pigment, opaqueness and thickness. I use different art journaling techniques to spread it around. And then my next favorite art materials are only just to name a few, the Gelli plate, paint pens, under painted paper, my hand carved stamps, white out pens, watercolor and so many more. Being a mixed media artist is so great because it allows you to work with so many different materials all at once instead of being stuck with just one. Hahaha, there goes my ADHD again. 4.If you can live anywhere in the world where would it be? If I were to live anywhere it would have to be the desert or the mountains/forest. I choose these places because it is where all of my subject matters reside. I like being in tune with God's beautiful creations and staying far and away from major busy city life. Visits to the city are fun but I must live and be with complete nature! 5. Favorite color? My favorite color if anything would be pink but when it comes to art, EVERY color. Here of late though, I have a slight obsession with metallic gold. I use it more as an accent rather than full on color. Ever since I was a little girl though, I drew and colored rainbows all the time and really liked Lisa Frank's bold and bright colors, especially her beanie babies...hail to the 90's! So I pretty much just stay in tune with my 10 year old self when it comes to color and never leave out a single color in my rainbow! 6.Any other interesting facts about you? I am a child of God and with that privilege I paint the feel good things in life. The majestic colors in a landscape, the innocence of a fawn, the humility of a flower next to a proud pine tree, the beauty and mystery of a crystal and life in all living things. These are gifts to us here on earth, the least I could do is say thank you and honor him in all that he is with my art! Find Miranda Banks on her blog and etsy shop: BLOG: http://clareplantation.blogspot.com Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ClareARTly Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/clareplantation Instagram:https://instagram.com/clareplantation26 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/clarechicful Pinterest:https://www.pinterest.com/clarechic/ Some of Mirandas' awesome art: 
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Today as I woke up from my sleep, I began to wonder about the bohemian business. What is a bohemian business anyway? I have often described myself as a bohemian and many of my art pieces are named with titles such as "boho flower girl" or "bohemian flowers." I am not sure what led with my identification as a bohemian but I just felt like my style could be described as bohemian. So early Saturday morning as I was waking up, I started thinking about my art business and how hard I was trying to make my art also my business. As I was thinking about this I started thinking how my art biz ( still in the making) is kind of a bohemian biz. So out of curiosity, I googled bohemian business and didn't really find too much on my search and I thought I'd write a blog post on what I think it means to be a bohemian and what a bohemian biz is to me. What is a bohemian Well to me a bohemian is somebody that is a free spirit and creative. They are artist, writes, poets...etc. They love to travel and explore different cultures. The are attuned to nature and love being around foliage and bright flowers. Wanderlust comes to mind when I think bohemian. I see bohemian women wearing flowy dresses and skirts and flower crowns adorned on their head. I see beautiful artistic jewelry. I feel they are dreamers. They are aware of social problems and want to fix them. They are deep thinkers. These are just some of my ideas that come to mind when I think of a bohemian and I do feel like I kind of fit that description, however maybe not entirely (I don't wear flower crowns but I kind of wish I did). Some images of bohemian style..... (Sources of images are on caption with links to images) 
Source of photo http://www.woohome.com/interiors/35-charming-boho-chic-bedroom-decorating-ideas
This is a dream catcher by wonderful artist Rachael Rice. website: http://rachaelrice.com
Found image on Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/192177109069495707/
So what are some bohemian businesses?
Well here is what I think can be a bohemian business. 1.artist ( art that is super colorful, lots of patterns, collage) 2. Writer 3.poet 4.musician 5.tea shop owner 5.coffee house 6 artisan boutique 7.art/creativity studio 8.flower shop owner 9.travel accessories shop (think wanderlust and products such as vintage/colorful suitcases and travel stationary...etc 10.crystal shop owner 11.meditation/yoga teacher 12.guitar player 13.wine and art lounge 14.photographer 15.jewelry designer (long beaded earrings, lots of turquoise, feathers) Okay this is a list that I came up with and of course this is just my opinion. And I must also say that people are so much more complex than the labels that society creates. So although bohemian can be described a certain way and some may identify with this "title," they are obviously more complex than the label. Bohemian can mean many things to many people. Let me know what bohemian means to you.  I am not sure but I think I may have creative ADD. I am continuously jumping from one creative project to the next, from one style to another, and from idea to the next. I really need to focus but how? I can't just do one thing. I can't just paint flowers or i will get bored. So I move around a lot creatively. One day I am painting abstracts, the next day it's bohemian inspired collages with so much color and pattern that it almost just looks chaotic and then I am back to just basic and simplistic drawings. "They" ( the art world, bloggers and other creatives) say that you gotta pick a focus area and stick to it at least for a while. The problem is that I get seriously bored. I can't just stick to one thing. I will get incredibly bored. So I like to cal my self a bohemian artist......an expressive artist....an artist that loves lots of colors (preferably bright), lots of patterns, and lots of expressive marks. Maybe my art gets crazy sometimes but you know what? I gotta be true to myself. I am who I am and I need to embrace it. In other news.....I am trying to kind of focus my art business and give it more direction.I put a binder together and decorated it with my aesthetic and tried to make this organizational tool really creative. Inside, I have my business goals, my creative plans, and my many to do lists. And below is my really messy kitchen tables. I keep my pens, markers, color pencils...etc on the table and create art whenever I can. My husband gets mad but oh well. I like it like this. Well hopefully I can get a bit more focused!  |
Let's TalkWelcome to the Let's Talk section of my website. This will be the section where interviews, discussions, and sharing will take place. We can think of this place as a private cafe on the moon. 
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