Posts Tagged ‘Viva Paso’

I was a few minutes late opening up the shop today and when I got there an unexpected guest was waiting for me. Say hello!

Maybe you don’t see him. That’s ok. At first I was like, “what the?” But on closer inspection I realized it was a praying mantis.

Here’s the same photo, flipped over and zoomed in so you can get a better look at him.

Isn’t he adorable?

If you don’t know already, praying manti are my favorite insects. Not sure if manti is the right word or even a real word, but I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s like using the word “octopi”. It just makes sense. And it sounds cool. Manti. Anyway, I had to squeeze by him with my bike when I walked in and had to make sure one of his legs didn’t get caught in the door when it closed. And wouldn’t you know it, just as the door closed he made a leap for it and landed on my bike chain. Had he waited a second longer he probably would have been squished. I should also mention that I had to stop immediately so he didn’t get ground up in the gear of the bike. Mantis burger, anyone? Little daredevil, this guy.

As much as I loved him and wanted to take him in and raise him as one of my own, I decided to put him in a nearby planter.

I’m not sure where he came from, but it was pretty random to find him chilln’ on my door. I hope he’s happy now and eating plenty of French Toast or whatever Praying Manti eat.

Here are some fun facts you might like to know about the Praying Mantis. I posted these years ago, but they never get old and are always fascinating. So, here you go. Praying Matis are the only insect that can turn their heads 180 degrees. They will eat their own kind. The female will sometimes eat a male during or after mating. They have a one year life span. The are loved by farmers because they eat crop destroying insects. Of about 2000 species there are only 18 known species in the entire North American continent. And this last one might be the best one. They have a single ear located on the underside of its belly. What? And why? An ear on their belly? What do they need that for? I won’t judge. I still love them anyway.

Good times.

– Jeff

* * * * * * *

Need more? Not to worry. I can talk about myself all night. Just kidding, I can’t. Anyway…
– Check out my other praying mantis post from October 2013.
– Not sure how many people read all the way down here, but if you have dreams of owning a cute shop I will totally sell you Viva Paso. Let me know. I’m totally serious.
– Be sure to check out my Society 6 shop if you’d like phone cases, leggings, totes, etc. with my artwork.

This is how the main art wall looked when I got to work this morning.

The goal that I am always striving for in my shop is to have 100 pieces of art hanging on the walls. And if I can’t fit that many on the walls then I am almost willing to say “on display” because I do have matted prints that sit on a shelf and every once in a while I have framed pieces on a shelf too. But here’s the thing, I feel like that’s cheating because it would be SOOOOOOO easy to mat a bunch of prints in those clear sleeves you’ve probably seen around. I have nothing against those and I have them too, but I could easily order a bunch of mats and literally have 100 pieces of art “on display” within one week.

As of this typing I now have 38 pieces of art on the walls. I have 10 matted/sleeved prints and 2 framed prints on a shelf. So, technically, I have 50 art pieces on display. I’m exactly halfway to meeting my goal, but that doesn’t discourage me. It gives me something to work towards. This goal is almost unattainable because every time I sell a piece it’s like a step backwards, but I want to sell pieces, so this is one of the few goals in life where taking a step backwards works in my favor. Trust me, if I never meet this goal, but continue to sell artwork I’m a winner at the end of the day. With that said, today was a day where I was able to add pieces to the wall and here’s how that went.

I started the day with these 6 prints mounted on wood panels that needed to get wired and hung.

Wire is one of those things an artist can never have enough of. When I buy it I usually buy a few packs at a time and always think, “I’ll never run of of wire again!” Until I do.

This image is from a few years ago, but I’ve never had it available as a print on wood until a couple of weeks ago.

This is what the back of my limited edition prints on wood look like. Title written all sloppy like, numbered edition of 50, signed, dated, and wired. Ready to hang before you even get home (or right out of the box if you order online.)

I usually put this style of framed print on a different wall, but between you and me there was some space to fill on the main art wall and these fit perfectly. These are a couple of classic images that I haven’t had available for awhile, so it’s fun to see them again.

Here is the before photo. I posted it at the top of this post, but figured I’d put it here too just so you don’t have to scroll up and down the screen to compare the before and after photos.

There are only 7 new things on the wall, so it’s not a drastic difference, but it’s looking a little more full, which is good.

And that’s it for now. Day 5 of Blogtober is complete.

Thanks for reading!
– Jeff

Things have been pretty busy at Viva Paso this past week. We’ve received a lot of new products. I’d talk about all of them here, but I’ve already done that on the Viva Blog.

Work stuff aside, let’s engage in some random photo time. I’m just going to scroll through my phone to find some things worthy enough to be shared with the world…or the two people that happen to read this. Here we go!

Here’s Elliott with all of his friends. How do kids end up with so much shit? What’s weird is how they’re able to keep such a good mental inventory of it all. If I secretly take one of these stuffed animals Elliott totally knows it’s missing.

Coral and I on Halloween just before hitting the streets for trick-or-treating. It’s hard to see in the photo, but Coral’s eyelid was covered in glittering turquoise to match her sweater. I was in my typical uniform.

Seriously, Postman? You couldn’t walk this one to the door? It took half a jar of Crisco and a Slim Jim to get this out. And while we’re on the Postal theme…

The line at the Paso Robles Post Office on Dec. 19. I think a read about 2 chapters of a book before I got to the front.

When the box of hot cocoa, James, and a ballpoint pen are left alone together.

Pretty random, but that’s just how life goes. A random string of events that sometimes make the most perfect sense or no sense at all.

Enjoy!

– Jeff

The best way to describe ¡VIVA PASO! is probably to call it “eclectic”, as evidenced by this photo featuring paintings, organic seeds, a candle and Marimo Pets. I mean, seriously…