This just in

I received some samples yesterday of stickers made with my In The Kitchen collection from Momenta. Cute!

Sketchbook Project - In 10 Minutes

Here are pages 2 and 3...with lots more to come!

Sketchbook Project - page 1

Finally. Last night I started working on the Sketchbook Project 2012. My theme is "In 10 Minutes". I want to tell a story, and have planned out a bit what I would like to happen, but for the most part I want my sketchbook to be organic and if it goes in an unexpected direction, thats ok. I want to play - with pencil, with color, with images..... so here is the beginning.

new collection : Violet Fields

A sneak peek of my latest.... something a bit more sophisticated.

What am I doing?!

I'm afraid I might be crazy. I've signed up for the 2012 Sketchbook Project, and my sketchbook arrived in the mail last week. I chose the theme "In 10 Minutes". Oh god I'm scared. I think I need to let it sit for a little bit, while I brainstorm what to do.....auughh!

illustration friday - Launch

We have lift off!

Portsmouth Open Market

This summer my friend Jane and I have taken on a new adventure - like I've mentioned before on my blog, we are selling some art at the Portsmouth Open Market in Strawbery Banke. Our first day was last Sunday, and it POURED all weekend... I sold a few things, but not a lot, and the foot traffic was light, though the rain did let up for several hours in the afternoon.... still pretty much a washout. A few days ago I saw that the weather report for today (Father's Day!) was gorgeous so I decided to try my luck again, this time by myself because Jane had other commitments. What a day! Here are some photos from today - beautifully sunny, though windy. Several friends stopped by (thank you Bashaw Family, and thank you Cathleen & Brian!) The market is exciting and vibrant, with great energy. Lots of kids and families, and lots of dogs. I sold a few things today, though really not much more than last week, surprisingly. I was hearing that from other vendors as well... maybe people don't feel like spending on Father's Day. Ahh well... soon my etsy shop will be up and running, and I will be taking over the world! Jane and I have our next date July 24th. See you there!

Space!

Here's one my new collections that debuted at Surtex a few weeks ago... Space! It was inspired by my friend Benny who commissioned me to do an alphabet space poster for a young friend of his... I'm told it was a hit. Coming up with the A-B-C's was challenging but also a lot of fun, and the rest of the collection came easily after that. Can't you just see this in a little boy's room? hmmm maybe this is the beginning of more boy art for me.....

Portsmouth Open Market

Hello everyone! I'm back from Surtex and NYC (which went great and was very exciting! Fingers crossed that good things happen from it!). Now the weather is warm and its time to focus on my next adventure : I'm participating in the Portsmouth Open Market! I've never done anything like this before, and I'm a mixture of excited and terrified. I'll be sharing a booth with my illustrator friend Jane Tentas and I'll be selling lots and lots of art - digital prints, screen prints, block prints, and these great little wooden tiles I've been making. The P.O.M. is every Sunday from June to October , 10 am to 4 pm, in Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH... come for a visit! Jane and I will be there for four dates : June 12, July 24, August 14, and September 25th. There's a farmers market as well, plus a million things to do downtown. Let's pray for sunny skies, because its rain or shine. Here's my banner I'll be displaying at my booth - look for me there!

Surtex 2011 here I come!

Today marks the first day of Surtex, the biggest, funnest, and greatest art licensing show of the year! If you are in the biz, stop on by booth 321, Artists of Kolea, and check out my newest work. Fun times will be had by all!

Surtex is coming!

Surtex 2011 is just days away, and my preparations are complete! As always, Surtex is run in conjunction with the National Stationery Show, and is May 15-17 at the Javit's Center. If you're going to the show, come check out the Artists of Kolea, booth 321-323, and see my latest collections.... here's a sneak peek....

Lunchtime!

Just a little something I've been working on, which was inspired by an Illustration Friday from several weeks ago entitled "Stir".

Invitations are coming!

Hi Everyone! For the past several months (well maybe more) I've been working with a new invitation company, creating birth announcements, party invitations, wedding invitations, and everything in-between, called Look Love Send. It has been an exciting process and I've learned a lot, and had a great time using my art - and they are almost ready to go live! Our launch date is May 1st, but if you go to our website now and sign up for the mailing list, you'll get 20% off your first order... what a deal! Go now! What are you waiting for?! You can also read about the designers involved, and see whats coming soon. Yep, thats one of my baby collections thats on the splash page.

Here are a few sneak peeks of some of my baby stuff.

Reduction print

Here's the efforts from my first reduction print. The flowers look familiar (ie: see the header above, and also my last collection). This was so much fun, I'm having a really good time in the class. I'm not the greatest at it, but I'm learning a lot and having a good time. With a reduction print, one block is used, and the prints you create are a limited edition, with the one block being carved and printed with each color. For this print, I used 7 colors - a bit ambitious for my first one, but I think it turned out really cute, and using the easy-cut block was just what the name claims - it was easy!

Bird - final

I finished my first print several weeks ago, but have been busy with other things, so now I'm finally getting around to putting up my efforts here. As I mentioned before, this is a linoleum block, and when printing, I tried using one color (shown here) and 2 colors - not shown because I didn't like the way it turned out. My favorite one color attempt was much lighter than the brown shown here - it was a neutral beige, but something happened while printing and a large unattractive dark spot showed up on the paper when it dried...probably another color ink that got on the roller... too bad. The class continues and right now I'm finishing up a reduction print - my first attempt! And because I can't make anything easy for myself, it has 7 or 8 colors. Yikes. I'll post pictures when its done.

Printmaking!

I am taking a continuing education class at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, and trying my hand at printmaking. Here's the first relief that I've done, carved out of linoleum, and on Friday's class I printed with it! Its a lot of fun, and my first real exposure to printmaking, outside of high school and elementary school art classes.... why didn't I take this in college?! This first print was done in black ink (oil based) and during the class I printed several more, and tried my hand at a 2 color print with this bird - one color background printed solid on the paper, and next week I'll print the 2nd color on top, of the bird and worm. I also want to try water based inks (they are supposed to clean up easier). Now I need to start thinking of what my next piece will be...hmmm....

Here's the linoleum block, ready to be printed.

First print!

back from NYC!

For several days I had some fun in NYC, though I had to cut my trip short by a day to get home before all the snow and ice hit, and stopped all travel. New York has way more snow than we do up here in Portsmouth, and I gotta say NYC is really bad about plowing... they have no idea what they're doing. Check out a couple pics ... remember this was BEFORE the snow and ice that came this week.

NYIGF 2011 was busy busy this year, though us in the Licensing Gallery were shuffled around quite a bit before the show, ending up in a location that was weird and really not good for us, when it came to traffic flow of the kind of people we wanted to meet. Oh well. Though a couple good contacts were made and fingers crossed that some great stuff comes out of this! It was great to catch up with some friends I haven't seen in awhile, meet new people, and not be sitting in front of the computer for a few days!

My section of the Artists of Kolea booth.

I came across these letters in Anthropologie... oh man I wanted them but couldn't justify the cost.... maybe I can try some sewing with MY OWN fabrics!

NYIGF 2011

I've been working my little fingers to the bone for the past couple months, preparing for this weekend! Saturday starts the beginning of the New York International Gift Fair, and this is the 2nd year my agent and I are participating. If you are attending, please come on over to the Licensing Gallery and visit the Artists of Kolea booth to see my latest collections. This year I had pins made for giveaways, and oh my god they are the cutest things. I'll definitely be doing this again for Surtex in May (with new art of course!). Hooray for a few days in NYC! I'm making sure they'll be time for a little shopping, a little dining, and a whole lotta visiting with friends.

Illustration Friday - Chicken

Cluck cluck cluck.

More Fabric, of course!

I posted some more photos over at Smells Like Crayons, the illustrator's group I belong to, full of lovely and talented ladies. You can check them out here.