Gorjuss Guest Giveaway: Meluseena

Hello everyone, Suzanne here, doing the Friday night blog !  First of all, did you LOVE the QVC feature yesterday, not one product but TWO ! And great demos of how to use them by the talented Dawn Bibby,  wow!  If you bought any of them from QVC first of all a HUGE THANKS but please, check out the Reviews on their website, as someone left a not-so-nice comment about my girls, please let them know you love them 🙂 (not sure WHY she bought them if she didnt like my girls but hey!) ..

Today I received another Birthday pressie!  Dear Sandy (who runs the Official Gorjuss Fan Group) told me there was something on it’s way but WOW, it made me soooo happy! Here it is in all it’s glory !

A beautiful Twilight Diary (From NothingElegant@Etsy)
…that I’ve had on my etsy Wishlist for aaaaages, every now and again I would just go lookat the pictures of it and drool, so it was a perfect gift, I have collected a few beautuful diaries ( lots of korean and japanese beautifully illustrated ones!) but this is just my fave!! It came with a small desktop calendar, AND a mousemat too!  I’ve already made a small doodle on the inside cover, just to stamp my mark on it! ( And to make sure my teenage daughter doesnt ‘borrow’ it!)  Thank you again Sandy ! x (click to view the images larger!)

Now who wants a weekend GIVEAWAY? Tonight’s guest is a dear sweet friend of mine, and I cant wait for you all to meet her… so let’s get to it:

Our guest this week is:

Lisa Falzon – known mostly online as ‘meluseena’. She’s an artist and illustrator, currently living in Ireland – used to live in France & raised in Malta.   Aside from painting she loves writing, reading, internetting, sewing, decadant furniture and styling, the Victorian era, myths, cute things, stormy weather, ostentation, children’s literature, winter, tribal fusion belly dance, following blogs, ruins, Sherlock Holmes, sushi, vintage erotica, poetry, King Arthur… She loves creative people, and creating. Let’s find out more:

Shop address: www.meluseena.etsy.com

Hello Guest Giveaway lovely! Please tell us a little bit about you , who are you, where you’re from!??
I’m Lisa Falzon – or sometimes ‘Meluseena’. If I were to explain myself with just one word it would be ‘creative’, because when I am creative is when I feel most alive and in love with life. One of the ways I create is to tell stories through visual arts or writing. I’ve worked in the fine art field having gallery shows, as an illustrator of children’s books, and an estwhile writer too, with my first book published in 2008 in Malta, by Merlin publishers. O am from Malta, born and bred in the mediterranean – but have since emigrated to France then later to Ireland, where I now live in a cottage with a highwayman, a large large dog and a small small cat.

I can speak Maltese, English, Italian and French – but my mind thinks in English and my heart feels in Maltese, because this is the language I use with the people I love the very most.

Apart from painting and drawing and writing, I also love sewing clothes and making costumes, and tribal fusion bellydance!

Tell us about what you make & your inspiration?
My life calling has been to create things. I was doing this as a child, and even as I grew I was engrossed with building things, drawing and writing stories. It’s so much part of me now that I cannot think objectively about it, it’s part of who I am.

I used to paint in acrylics and oils, but now I’ve settled to mostly create art in the digital medium (Like you Suzy! 🙂 ) through a process of digital collage – a mix of photo texture and drawing. I’m always exploring new design elements, colour schemes and ways in which I can use them to tell a story. All my art is very story/theme driven, I find I cannot draw things with no story. Sometimes books inspire me, fairytales, or a snippet of conversation from someone, or even a new colour trend in fashion.

Selling on Etsy has enabled me to sell prints and other items with my art on them, such as the wearable art, as well as meet and collaborate with excellent Etsy artisans to create unique items themed with my art, such as notebooks.

What is your favourite item to make/sell ?
Although the paintings themselves probably give me the most lasting satisfaction to create, I LOVE making wearable art. A lot of people who aren’t into hanging up prints may want to own something of my art.. and this is an accessible way for people to display their art interests – by adorning their person with it! Each item is one of a kind and always a conversation starter. It’s always thrilling to imagine my buyers, miles and miles away, wearing my art out and talking about it.

Do you have any favourite Etsy items you’ve bought?
A recent purchase I adored were a pair of sock garters from SwanClothing. They’re super to wear with a skirt or cropped pants.. they are Charlie Chaplin-esque and delightfully whimsical and weird. I like statement clothing and it doesn’t get much more eye catching than sock garters.. people don’t know what they are and they stare and stare when they see me in them and this appeals to my diva, Marie-Antoinette-esque nature!

Do you have any other websites people can find you?
I’m probably more present online than in ‘real life’, I wonder sometimes if I am the ghost of my cyber self, not vice versa… But here’s some of my cyberspace abodes…

http://lisa-falzon.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/theartoflisafalzon
http://twitter.com/meluseena

I announce giveaways, post photos and information on these three spaces so do watch them if you are interested in learning more!

Whats the best advice you’ve ever been given?
I’m rather stubborn and wilful, and reticent to advice therefore.. but sometimes my headstrong nature bows to good comm on sense so often thrown at me! And thank the stars for this. I think early on in my art career I was very often told to diversify the content of my paintings. I tended, not intentionally, to draw similar things over and over and not push my boundaries. Entering the digital realm, encouraged by a semi-casual suggestion on a blog where I was co mplaining how the lack of space in my tiny Paris apartment prevented me from setting up my easel and oils was one such boundary push (I was previously suspicious of cyber-created art as many traditional artists tend to be) that eventually led to changing the course of my career. I developed and matured as I began to explore visuals digitally and had SO much fun in the process!

SNEAK PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES:
If you are curious about HOW Lisa’s beautiful artworks are created,  she has kindly provided a step-by-step breakdown of the process at this link:  http://lisa-falzon.blogspot.com/2008/11/download-stepby-step-wip-here.html

Some more examples of Lisa’s lovely work:

YOU COULD WIN: This Fantastic set of THREE pocket mirrors, featuring Lisa’s Fairytale prints! They come in individual bagss, to keep them safe in your purse or pocket, you’ll be amazed how much you use these little cuties ( and with three, why not gift one to someone dear to you !)
To Enter On Blog:  As the prize is about fairytales, why not pick that as our theme this weekend!  All you have to do, to enter, is: Tell us what or who love best in your favourite fairytale, yes, that could mean you think  your sleeping beauty because you hate mornings, or the big bad wolf because you’ve got hayfever and could literally SNEEZE the house down!!! Whatever it is, tell us !

For an EXTRA entry,  we will accept you to VISIT lisa’s etsy shop, find your favourite thing there ( warning: It may take a while, you’ll love it all!!)  and copy the URL ( the www.sitename/faveitem.php bit!) and paste it into your comment here!  Lisa would love to hear your fave items& it will DOUBLE your chances of winning to do both !! ( I’m sure she’ll read your comments too, so please let her know what you think of her lovely Art and wonderful interview she did for you all !

…. Good Luck and have fun, Remember if you are new to the blog, it can take upto 12 hours for your post to be checked an authorised… once its given the ok all further posts should appear instantly. So don’t panic…

To Enter on Twitter: We have a $7 GorjussArt Gift Certificate prize available for a twitterer winnerer too ! Just hit the RETWEET button at the top of this blog and your RT will be entered into a draw too ( the winning tweet will be chosen by random.org too!)

Closes: Sunday Night at around 10pm GMT ( gorjuss time is shown on the blog clock!) Winner decided by Random.org. For Facebook readers, comments must be submitted on the actual blog www.gorjussart.co.uk/blog). You can enter as many times as you want on the blog ( but only one entry on twitter) just no back to back posting ( i.e someone should post between your posts!)

Good luck everyone, and a big thank you to Meluseena for joining us this weekend and of course her generosity with the prize!