We are going through a prolooooonged heat wave here in New York, inspiring most of us to find cool places to relax and enjoy the summer. To stay out of the heat, it seems like everyone is glued to TVs watching the latest World Cup matches or what team Lebron James was going to choose. For me, I chose to do some research and work on some new pieces for my 2010 Collection while enjoying cool fruits and frosty drinks.

Last week, those that were supporting Brazil during their run for the World Cup were deflated to see their team eliminated from the tournament. It got me thinking of the slow elimination of one of South America’s most beautiful animals – the Hyacinth Macaw. I paired a couple of Hyacinth Macaw’s in my newest painting – “We are Hyacinth, Too“. It is also my biggest painting to date, measuring at 20″ x 10″ and I am super-proud of it. Definitely look for it in the coming days in my Etsy Store as well as the revamped EcoPatterns store which is slowly getting there (glaring at my husband – husband is wilting, while working hard to get the store up). In the meantime, gotta get back to my iced coffee and new sketches.

Sometimes, a change in surroundings is needed. Over the past year, most of our success and headway was made in Manhattan (particularly in the Union Square Artist’s Market) as well as ongoing interactions and collaborations with artists from Brooklyn despite being temporarily headquartered in Queens. After much thought and planning, Ecopatterns decided that change was a concept we’d dive back into.

This week, we packed our boxes and moved back to our old digs on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (where we originally set up shop for our first year in business). We couldn’t be happier. Not only is this move exciting for us personally, but we feel that it would benefit us professionally as well. See, we see a lot of promise for the Upper West Side artistic community. We know there are a lot of cool, hip folks here that would be open to talk shop and share ideas. Stressing the importance of community is key especially to the development and nurturing of artists and their businesses. While we are doing everything we can in the online circuit (with places like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Etsy, etc.) we can’t forget the local, physical aspect of networking. Hey, we can’t let Brooklyn get all the press.

That said, we’d like to give a shout to all of our artist neighbors. We want to hear from you in hopes of getting a dialogue or movement going. What do you work on? Where do you market your work? What are your artistic goals?

Photo credit: Jamie – “From Me To You” Photo Blog <-- please check out her site. it's awesome. also, check out her stunning Upper West Side FREE iPhone Wallpapers set.