Technical Difficulties (and Miorats!)

I didn't post yesterday because I was bogged down in technical difficulties. First, I didn't know what to blog about. When I finally decided that I wanted to profile some of my favorite Etsy shops, I had no idea how to go about getting a hold of the code for their "mini". For those of you not hip to the Esty lingo, the Etsy Mini is the lovely shop pic/link/profile that you can post on websites. Mine is on my sidebar off to the right.
The general consensus on the Etsy forums was that I should e-mail my favorite sellers, ask if they'd like to be profiled on my blog and if so, request their mini code. However, the prospect of writing to people I don't know, waiting for a reply, a code, and probably having to wrangle up some interview questions was simply too much for me. All I wanted to do was a quick blog! This was starting to require serious amounts of work. I promptly gave up.
Today I've figured out how to post someone else's mini on my page, but I've also decided to take the easy way out. I'll be profiling Etsy artists, however I'm going to use a bit of nepotism to do it. (Sorry to my favorite sellers, I'll get to you later!)
These two artists are fellow Etsians, but they're also good friends of mine from college. I'll probably profile one today and one tomorrow. I know they wouldn't mind and I'm not afraid to e-mail them!

First meet Jen:

Etsy Buy Handmade miorats

Jen's a fellow Illustration grad. She doesn't have a ton up in her Etsy shop, so I would highly suggest linking here or here to see more of her work. What I love most about Jen's work is how she's created a world that is so distinctly her. Her illustrations are full of glowing translucent color (hard to believe they're acrylic and oil paintings) and often include collage elements from foreign newspapers collected during her travels. At first glance the cuteness of an image will draw you in. But once you're there, you're assaulted with something extremely creepy or uncomfortable. For example, "Aw, what a sweet illustration of a kitty...HOLDING A SEVERED HEAD???" Haha. I love it. I bought this painting from her last Christmas. It's in my studio and it makes me happy. Go check her out...and stay tuned for another profile tomorrow!