Live to Create|Create to Live

Happy Anniversary!

A wedding gift from my friend Todd Peterson (see his amazing art at www.artaviary.com)

Happy Anniversary and here’s to the next 25!

Tshirt Rug

C decided to teach herself how to knit a rug. She went to her closet, dug out all the old t-shirts that no longer fit or that had stains, cut them into strips that she tied together and knitted this amazing rug/wall hanging. I love the texture, color and when I look closely I see all the fabric from shirts she’s worn over the years and well, it just makes me happy! What a wonderful way to re-use something tired and worn to make something so lovely. Here’s a close-up of the heart of it:

Why I’m An Illustrator

Let’s start with the obvious—I love color, shape, line, the human form, beauty, imagining spaces & places, expression, psychology, and best of all: working with art materials—paint, paper, glue, crayons, Wacom tablet, Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, InDesign & Dreamweaver.

I like to collaborate. A good collaboration is like a great conversation—balanced in its give and take, seeking to bring out the best in each participant and marked by serious thought sprinkled with good natured humor.

I like the give and take of the art directing process. It’s like a dance—sometimes I’m asked to take the lead and guide the idea from start to finish and other times I’m asked to be led by the process—trusting that my ideas won’t be stomped on.

I like to think outside the box. The act of illustrating something takes you out of your comfort zone. You push yourself to come up with a new concept, a new way to imagine the world all the while asking yourself if your ideas will connect with the viewer of the illustration and if the image fits the objectives of the project.

I like to have a box to bump up against. When I have constraints: size of image, usage, objectives of the project and client’s needs, I feel free to examine every idea within those constraints. As odd as it sounds it is liberating to have boundaries. It makes one push all the more to find a fresh creative way to solve the problem.

I like the idea of multiples and lack of preciousness. I was drawn to illustration and printmaking because you make one image and then multiples of it are created so many can see the image and therefore it can have more of an impact. It’s akin to an introvert vs. an extrovert: It’s not one image sitting in a quiet gallery somewhere. It’s many versions of one image going out and about and interacting with others.

I like the intersection of logical thinking and creative thinking. An illustration project involves black and white/logical elements. What size is the image? How will it be used? Who is the user group? How will it be printed? When is it due? What is the budget? And then there is the creative process. The client wants to create the feeling of x + y so what elements do I need to bring this together? What’s a new way to present the human form? The creative thinking is endless but also needs to be tempered because a deadline is a deadline.

I like deadlines. Yep. I like to know that something has a beginning and an end. I like the feeling of beginning a project and then the satisfaction upon completion of the project. I met the challenge. Much like a marathon, it’s good to just run but it’s also great to bump up against the finish line knowing you went from point A to point B with grace and finesse and in the prescribed amount of time.

I always liked show and tell. I think many illustrators have that forever kindergartener in them that LOVES to get praise for hard work done and a product to show in the end. I love the feeling of seeing a package I illustrated in the hands of a grocery clerk as they run it across the scanner. And yes, I have piped up occasionally to say, ” I illustrated that package.” It feels good. I can’t deny it and the five year old in me can’t help but be happy.

Happy Happy Earth Day!

Here’s to all the folks who make little changes in their lives like: recycling their household waste, buying locally grown produce, making friends with so-called weeds like dandelions and creeping charlie and refusing to use lawn chemicals—I salute you and your efforts to be good stewards of this good earth.

Proud mama

I wanted to share this fun little illustration I did for a musician whose fingers seem to fly whenever they touch the ivories. It’s been a pleasure to watch her talent and passion for jazz grow over these past eighteen years and so I was very pleased when asked to illustrate this invitation.

Chores

A little sketch to illustrate all that’s taken me away from this blog—springtime chores! After a very long and snow-filled winter it is such a blessing to be outside; hearing the birds chirping away, watching chubby squirrels munching away on sunflower seeds from our bird feeder and watching little kids ride their bikes up and down the block. Everyone seems to have a little spring (oops) in their step as they get on with enjoying the beauty all around us. Last night as I drove home from seeing my elderly father, I witnessed a landscape right out of a Grant Wood painting: lush brown just-tilled fields bordered with  strips of bright green grass all set on a backdrop of a dusty blue sky with wisps of clouds floating over…truly breathtaking.

Light & Shadow

A few photos from a trip to Chicago. I loved the play of light and shadow—it feels like the earth is waking up to spring!

Walking On Water

I’m on my sixth pair of Merrell “Moab Ventilator” shoes and I love them so much that I need to post a shout out to the company and whoever designed these amazing shoes. If you’ve ever had foot problems you know that foot pain pretty much feels like a stick in your eye everytime you take a step. I wear orthodic devices to help correct some “design flaws” in my feet and so finding shoes that will accomodate these devices isn’t easy. These shoes allow my inserts to fit snuggly and the wide toebox lets my tootsies do their job of keeping me in fine balance—especially during my daily workouts. So thank you shoe designers at merrell.com for constructing a beautiful and extremely comfortable shoe. You rock!

North American Review

My illustration in the North American Review for the story,"Chasing Saint George" by Stephen Murabito.

We had just returned from a long road trip out east with a sidetrip to Lake Ontario when NAR called with this job. It was fun to illustrate a place I’d just visited.  I also enjoyed finding ways to use the somewhat quirky elements within the story: Lake Ontario, summer love, a St. Bernard named St.George, and the journey back into a time when kids ran free from early morning until way past sundown—with the adults completely in the dark about their childrens whereabouts. (Or should that be whereaboooots—eh?)

Thank You Superbowl

I went to a movie late this afternoon and thanks to the Superbowl the theaters were empty. Bad for the theater owners but wonderful for movie goers: no lines, no cell phones going off during the movie, no one kicking the back of your chair/head. Ah, it was bliss. You could lose yourself entirely in the film (Avatar—WOW!) and the three hours flew by. (This is one of my illustrations from the book, “Thinking of You”—Running Press Pop-Up Book.)