Artists Life Designs

Sorry, but this is not working at all. It's unreadable and way too complicated. To be honest, there's so much going on, it hardly qualifies as a logo.

There are too many elements and most of them are poorly designed. The palm tree is a perfect example of how one should never use the default brushes from Illustrator. Same goes with the gradients presets!

A logo should be simple (not to be confused with simplistic), easily readable (no hand scripted font!!) and memorable. Unfortunately, your logo retains none of these qualities.

Yes, keep it simple. Draw inspiration from similar businesses, and sketch some ideas until you hit a wall. Then refine your possibilities. Generally, your first idea is almost never your strongest one. For starters, avoid pencils if your business sells painted ornaments :)

Also: no drop shadow effects!! (ever)

In addition to the comments above, using clip art or others work in your own logo is bad form, even it you feel it represents what you do. If you are creating art, then use your art.