Loveday Funck  Fairy Surreal Art

Where do you go when your spirit is broken? When your heart hurts? When you need to find solace before you are ready to go forth and try again? That place should be home. I love houses: cottages, Victorian monstrosities, even sprawling mansions. You never really know what is going on behind those lovely, crafted facades. As a child, I liked to speculate on the lives of the people behind the shuttered windows and doors. Maybe if I belonged there, I could have that little

A few mornings ago I watched a Tedx Talk by Susan Henckels, a counselor with decades of experience as a psychotherapist. I found the premise fascinating. Every friend that I have that I would credit with intelligence and self awareness seems to believe that they are fundamentally damaged or flawed in some way. They are convinced that they are the walking broken and that it's a minor miracle that they can even function on a daily basis. What if they aren't? What if I'm not?

Five years ago, I enrolled in a marketing class for artists offered by the Arts Council of Baton Rouge. The class opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities and opportunities that I didn't even know were a thing. I applied to some of the local art markets (was somehow accepted!) and my first Art Melt (also, accepted!). That first little bit of positive reinforcement was enough to propel me forward and even though I've faltered here and there, I've kept moving forward. I'd tin

In a surreal moment, an independent fashion artist sent me a direct message on Instagram, offering me a free item if I would agree to post a picture of myself wearing it and tag them in the post. Does this mean that I have arrived? With only 6000 followers, have I suddenly become a Social Media Influencer? Probably not, but it feels weird to be offered another hat. Some days I feel like I am constantly in motion to play every role, juggling masks so I can portray who I nee

Posting a little late this time, which plays in perfectly with the theme of the Two of Pentacles. Life is about balance and scheduling, about frantically trying to achieve all the things. Some days I feel like I only have so many spoons. I have a plan in place that would comfortably use the number of spoons that I possess. I plan my week around this. If I have five difficult tasks, I break it down so that I don't have to perform all the tasks at one time, but sometimes li

An Ace represents a new beginning. Over the course of our lives, we may have many dreams; many new beginnings. Figure out what you want. Find a dream that makes your soul sing, but don't stop there. Research. Figure out the steps you need to nurture that dream, then implement those steps. I'd thought many times since I started working with digital art and photo manipulation that I wanted to make my own Tarot deck. It seemed like a perfect fit, given my family heritage an

I dreamt that I was deep in the forest as a wandering child. The forest was bitterly cold. The snow crunched under my feet as I pushed my way through the undergrowth and toward the cottage of the Crone. I've never known the cottage to be empty, but as I pushed in the front door, the rooms were dark and cold. I moved to the hearth which always has a cauldron bubbling merrily over a crackling fire. This time there was no fire, no cauldron. I shuddered in the cold. I was sh

Things end. The world can come crashing down around your ears. The ground can shake and crumble and crack beneath you. You can pass through the darkest night of the soul, but the dawn does come. The ground will stop moving. The sky will clear and the bright blue of the heavens will beam down on you. New beginnings follow that which ends. The Ace of Swords reminds us that once the emotional dust settles, our head will clear and we can begin again. We can build our lives

We've entered into a new phase of the year: summer in southern Louisiana. The brutality of the sunlit days never fails to amaze me. I try to finish what must be finished early in the day as stepping outside for only a short time leaves me dripping in sweat and exhausted from the heat. This morning, my daughter and I are planning on taking her three year old daughter out to the LSU Botanical gardens to frolic in the sunflowers as small children are apt to do. Maybe. We took

I'm taking this week to celebrate what I've achieved so far this year. I set out with the intention of completing half of my Tarot deck and, half way through the year, I am 22 cards in to the 78 card deck. I will just say it, even if it seems to be pure ego stroking, I am pleased with myself. I've started out a year with vague ideas and vague plans which I usually abandon at some point in February. This time I set a plan. I broke it down into manageable bits, one card a we

The time has come for the Fool to transform. He's learned much on his journey. He is ready to shed the weight of his past and became something new. Life is full of endings and new beginnings. If you aren't prepared to change, if you stay in a rut, you will never evolve. You will never feel the amazing pulse of things becoming. You will never reach even a fraction of your potential. We have to change. We have to evolve. Refuse to become a dead end. If you're feeling unh

Summertime has well and truly arrived in southern Louisiana. At my art market on Saturday, I truly realized this. Somehow I'd forgotten just how brutal the sun can be. I'd forgotten just how draining the heat and humidity are. At my New Orleans market the week before, we'd been under the trees and I'd thought to myself that it wasn't so bad. I could do these summer markets. I just need to be able to hide in the shade. After Saturday, I'm realizing that I need to cut back

Last year at this time, I was preparing for my first three day festival. I've done many single day events and two day festivals but I was feeling a little anxious about a three day event. I made all the lists and all the preparations. I had a tent that was only a few months old. I'd gotten my fire extinguisher re-filled the week before (as required by New Orleans ordinances). I'd purchased re-chargeable lights just for the event. I'd charged up my portable fan and charg

Over the weekend, I worked a three day festival and had a lot of very positive interactions with potential buyers. While I always have the inevitable browser (or several) who insist that I must be using psychedelics to come up with the surrealistic themes of my art, I realize that they are mainly just trying to interact and be clever but their distracting inanity does help me to appreciate that rare browser that really wants to talk about the meaning and intent behind my wor