bunny dee

Riot with my left hand

There I went and didn’t post for months..I am trying to break this habit.

I’m still not so sure about the direction of this blog.  I want it to be personal.  I want it to be more than a pinterest(which I have with pretty everything, because there is so much pretty on pinterest!) or a twitter, with little quips.  Want to know a weird fact?  I once wanted to study political science.  My first year I got to vote was 2000.  The big crazy year with dimpled chads and one person winning the presidency and then it got called away.  It was a big year.  I was one of two people that could vote that year in my catholic high school.  He was republican.  I was a dem.  Man did we rage on each other.  Verbal battles erupted before classes began.  Teachers would have to make us sit down.  Thankfully we only had two classes together.  All the other students seemed to watch us like a circus.  All of them couldn’t vote, but I would of been afraid had they all been able to.  I have a suspicious feeling I would of been painfully outnumbered in most of our verbal fencing.  I was 18, 2000 was my year to make a stand, to finally let my voice be heard.  Then I was crushed utterly by the outcome.  It didn’t mean I stopped voting..it meant I wanted to make a stand.  I wanted politics to matter.  This was all before I knew all the facts.  The lobbying….the rhetoric against women.  How could we come so far and be so behind?  But how far had we come?  Women hadn’t even had the right to vote for 100 years yet.  Women didn’t have rights against spousal abuse until much later…how long had women had the right to choose?  40 years? Too damn few years..how can a country state that all are created equal..perhaps the constitution should be changed.  Not all “men” are created equal.  Can we add a “Wo” to that?  Would that be so insane?

I moved to a liberal city.  One of the most liberal in the US.  San Francisco.  I thought here..of all places there would be equal rights. I was mistaken.  Prop 8?  WTF.  People are people is all I could think.  We are all of the same species.  We are humans.  Where is the logic?  Why is women’s health even a political debate topic?  Shouldn’t it be a right?  Do we have the same rights as our male counterparts?  I think not.

I felt for awhile that I had no voice.  That I wanted to be part of this movement.  I got motivated.  I read “Men Explain Things” by Solnit.  “Bad Feminist” by Gay and realized even more how far we had to go.  I wanted to empower myself.  I wanted to have women feel they could count on an artist to have their voices heard.  I love fashion, I’m not going to lie.  I wanted to make a way for women to speak their minds with visuals.  They don’t have to yelling in the face of the patriarchy.  But they could scream at them visually.  I am here.  I am thinking, I know what the hell is up.  tote_cats_against_catcalls_white I guess my journey is starting to lead me in this direction and I feel awake again.  My art has always deviated towards the feminine.  Only natural for it to flow this way.

Small Town Girl

Longer then I would like since the last blog post!  So much seems to have been going on since I last dropped in.  I’ve had my strange run of health issues.  A lack of taste for the last 3 months which at first I thought was due to a sinus infection..it seems like its allergies though due to our long dry winter here in california.  Which strangely brings me to the subject of my current home for nearly the last 10 years.  San Francisco.  My dream city.  The one that as a kid I always had a love of and perhaps a wish to live in.  When given the chance by my family to go to art school I was given the choice of choosing a place in california.  My choice was San Francisco.  Close enough to be near and dear to family and far enough to make a jump from bakersfield.  I recently however visited Portland Oregon.  I honestly never thought I could see myself anywhere but San Francisco.  That “the city” might always be my home.  I went to Oregon though..and though it was during one of the rainy months(it rained 5 of the 6 days I was there) I honestly felt like something shifted inside me.  I felt a strangeness..like there was some sort of bridge between the small town community that I grew up in(bakersfield) and the city life(san francisco).  I felt the kindness of strangers.  I felt nature in a way I had not ever felt before.  A beauty that seemed to knock me over.  I felt happy for the first time in I couldn’t remember when.  I was having conversations with strangers and since I left there I can honestly say I haven’t stopped thinking about it.  It felt almost like portland was the mistress and SF was my spouse.  I felt bad about having had such a wonderful glorious beautiful time that when I returned to SF my thoughts never left the bridge city.

I’ve had my experiences with making bad decisions about cities.  So I am cautious.  I moved to NYC on a lark.  Thinking OH THIS WILL BE THE DREAM I AM MARY TYLER MOORE.  No..I was not her..I was in NYC and I was just not built for it.  I’m going back to portland in october.  There is something about that place though that warms me, though it rains constantly, the people were so kind.  That is really what hit me.  The kindness..

diana_v06This is Artemis.  She is how I have been feeling lately.  Change, growth, travel, goddesses, light and love.

 

Creature of Cozy Eclectic

IMG_6221Like my art I like things to be a bit cozy and eclectic around me.  I’ve done a pretty big purge lately as far as items go which was difficult to say the least.  Like a rabbit I want to retreat to somewhere familiar, a place where I basically could spend an entire day without feeling caged.  I wanted to share a bit of my room, its weird little pieces and how it came to be this strange den of art and much sleeping.  Not going to lie, I’ve spent a ton of time on pinterest checking out photos under the keywords cozy bedrooms.  Helps to have some inspiration, not to mention give you a guide to limiting yourself.  If I didn’t have rules for myself I think I would live in a room entirely filled with just clothes.  It would be anarchy.  Its best to keep the anarchy out of the bedroom. IMG_6199

IMG_6196Little trinkets.  I find almost all of what I have on etsy or at various thrift stores.  I enjoy going into peoples homes where you have to scrutinize items.  Places where a object owned has a story.  The oregon snow globe is my first ever snow globe from my trip to portland, that and the voodoo doughnut mug.  Had to get that its just too strange not to.  Annie Oakley holds a special place on my wall and my life since I’m born on her birthday.  Buttons galore, the mustard colored travel box holds my makeup items so they can be hidden when desired and don’t take up all the room in the world.  It may not look like it but I’m much less of a pack rat than I use to be…

IMG_6230I’m realizing a few things with trying to keep up a blog..first its hard to take photos of yourself when you are not just using an iphone.  Second its hard to streamline ones content.  I actually prefer blogs that touch on a variety of different subjects.  I have a pretty random mind which is hard to reign in most days.  So anyway here is me in my crazy patterned covered room, hopefully it doesn’t hurt your eyes too much.

Times They Are A Changin

IMG_4774Welcome to the new blog/shop/everything bunny dee! Its a bit of a work in progress at the moment but that doesn’t take away from the excitement of something new and different.  I thought my first post for this blog would be my excitement about something I never thought would be possible…tee shirts with my art on them.  With the cost of printing shirts It seemed like the most lofty of dreams.  Its coming true finally though now..and I honestly didn’t think it ever would.

IMG_4773If you know me, my first question once I get to know you is almost always “If you were an animal what animal would you be?” A little explanation might be due for this to explain my desire for this to be my first shirt I try to sell..When I was born the first stuffed animal I was given was a rabbit.  Hence the bunny dee name which was my parents nick name for me and still is.  My parents don’t call me Danielle, they call me bunny dee, and with the incredibly hard last name that I have I figured this would be easier for people to remember when looking for me online.  To me the rabbit is close to me.  Spirit animals are important to me.  I think everyone is probably deep down some sort of creature waiting to burst forth.  So there you go.  SPIRIT ANIMAL CLUB EST. 1982(the year of my birth).  The Bison has always been an animal I’ve loved and its home is the americas.  I have to say too that my trip to the great pacific northwest really inspired me and put me back in touch with nature/animals and the feminine.  I feel like I could cry with the amount of art I want to draw right now and can’t get out.  Its so constant its almost frustrating!  I missed drawing on the regular like anyone who has a funk..its hard to get out of but when you do it feels like life is so brilliant and passionate.

IMG_4780I don’t want to stop this art train for nothing..well I might stop it for a moment for amazing coffee.  Or chocolate..but then back to running with the imagination, like bison on the plains.  I’m trying to figure out the direction of this blog as well.  I love fashion.  I love dressing to my mood so some of this stuff might be outfit of the day, if I can figure out how to use my SLR again.  I leave you with patterns.  I hope you will come on this journey with me because I need some brilliant lovely weirdos along for the ride.  xoxo