Tell us a bit about yourself name, location, affiliations, personal stuff.

My name is Amanda Blake, I live in Portland, Oregon with my husband, son, daughter, two cats and a dog. I was born here in Portland and grew up a couple of hours south in Eugene, where I attended the University of Oregon and received my Bachelor of Arts degree in fine arts before returning to Portland in 2000. In the seven years it took to get my four year degree, I also studied watercolor in Siena, Italy, attended the Chautauqua School of Art in Chautauqua, New York, worked at the Science Museum in London, England, and spent some time unsuccessfully looking for work in Dublin, Ireland. After finishing school I worked in coffee shops and bad restaurants until taking the jump to being a full time artist in 2003. From March through October I travel to art shows around the country to sell my oil paintings.

Apart from creating things, what do you do?

I read countless books about dinosaurs and dogs, play peek-a-boo, and do whatever else I can to keep my moppets happy.

I have a love/hate relationship with cooking and if there were five more hours in a day and someone else to clean the kitchen afterwards I'd have fresh baked bread and cookies and multi course Indian meals every day, but unfortunately I usually have to clean up after myself so I just do it on occasion.

I used to travel to exotic locales. Currently I travel to art shows, Washington DC to visit family and Disneyland (guilty pleasure). I find great joy in airports and plan on traveling more when Henry and Frances are older.

What first made you want to become an artist?

For a brief time while in college I tried to convince myself that I might do something other than be an artist and studied French, art history and psychology with very little success. Although, as I write this I'm not quite sure how I thought French or art history were better career choices. I also dabbled in mediums that might have had slightly more practical career paths - photography and graphic design. I eventually reconciled with fact that painting was what I really wanted to do. Luckily I had some teachers that encouraged me and I grew up in a family of working artists (all of whom I've introduced to Etsy: firedupceramics, robinrussellceramics, and robotzombiemonkey) so art as a career has always been a viable option.

Please describe your creative process how, when, materials, etc.

Sometimes I think of the title first and the piece comes after. Sometimes my work comes to me in dreams -sounds ridiculous but true. Sometimes I just like a color or a pattern and base a painting around that. I read books about superstitions. I make countless lists and fill journals. My studio is filled with boxes of old photographs and incomplete collections of antique encyclopedias.

I'm always working, sometimes I try not to but I can't really help it. I work on paper, wood blocks, birch panels in pencil and pen, oil paints, watercolor and gouache, and some occasional gold leaf and china marker. I love my gocco printer.

What handmade possession do you most cherish?

My art collection, the latest addition being a print by Leannegraeff.

Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and web sites besides Etsy.

penguin book of symbols
hey nostradamus
lolita
omnivore's dilemma
me talk pretty one day

the graduate
vertigo
the wizard of oz
goodfellas
rushmore

vampire weekend
the walkmen
wilco
bob dylan
pavement

flickr
angry chicken
bloesem
huffington
gmail

What advice would you give to artists who are new to Etsy?

Read the wiki, read the etsy faq's, take good photos, do a couple of treasuries.

What are your favorite features on Etsy? What new features would you like to see?

Truly I love it all but I'm anxiously awaiting stats and already consider it my favorite feature. I'd really like to have the ability to search my sold listings and conversations.

How do you promote your work?

I travel to about eight art festivals a year, on occasion I blog, I love flickr. I've participated in the poppytalk handmade market. I try to send out postcards to my mailing list a few times a year but I'm not terribly organized so I do that a lot less than I'd like to. I've been fortunate to be featured by many design and art blogs.

In ten years I'd like to be...

Finally taking those trips to Turkey and Morocco. Aside from that I want to be doing the same thing but with a personal assistant.