I realize I haven't blogged all week. My husband and I spent the Memorial Day weekend on a mini-getaway to a gorgeous bed and breakfast to celebrate our one-year anniversary. I haven't really gotten out of vacation-mode since then. (Hence the slacking off.) In fact, it's to the point where I'm thinking about taking a personal day tomorrow and not coming in to work. The weather is beautiful, and I can't deal with being stuck at the keyboard right now.
That said, a few computer-related things do need to get done. Specifically, my personal website. I've been paying my brother-in-law (who is a graphic and web designer) to host my site for the past several years, but we haven't actually created it. I only have the summer before my insane school/work schedule gets going again, so I need to do it soon.
This is where you come in. I want to look at the personal websites of your favorite illustrators. You know, it'll usually be "their name dot com". Some examples are: Keri Smith's, Tomie DiPaola's, or Jan Brett's sites. I want to look at illustrator sites in particular, because I need some inspiration. What are the basic ingrediants to a sucessful site?
Anyway, I look forward to taking a peek at everyone's choices. Thanks for your help!
Showing posts with label Keri Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keri Smith. Show all posts
May 27, 2008
March 03, 2008
Spring is in the air date...
Can you believe it's already March 3? Though the calendar and the 6 foot (plus) snowbanks around my house tell me otherwise, I officially consider it spring. As far as I'm concerned, that means it's time for me to contact HGTV.
For those of you who weren't aware, I was taped for an episode of "That's Clever" last summer. The crew was over my house for over 8 hours (phew!). After everything wrapped up, the producer gave me a little slip of paper with contact info on it. It instructed me to e-mail or call in the spring of '08 in order to find out the air date for the episode I'd be on. "Spring" a is fairly vague term. Especially seeing as how we got April blizzards here last year. I decided it was better to start bugging HGTV sooner rather than later. God forbid I miss my episode! "That's Clever" is on every morning, 5 days a week with 3 artists featured on each show. I don't even know how to set my VCR, and we certainly don't have TiVo. It's absolutely necessary that I find out the date way in advance!
I decided that today was the day to start bugging them for a date. I'll keep you posted if (and when) I hear back.
It's a fun/goofy show, and I know I was certainly silly during the taping (beware - bad puns abound!)...so I may live to regret telling all of you when my episode will be on. Even if I wind up looking sort of ridiculous, national exposure has got to be better than none! I'm excited and mildly mortified at the prospect.
In other news, my hubby and I went on our "date" to Barnes and Nobles last night. We both spent the entirety of our gift cards...plus $9. I bought 3 books - Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith, Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton (can you tell what I'm currently back in college for? Lol.), and Artist Trading Card Workshop by Bernie Berlin.
I'm probably most excited about the Keri Smith book and the Artist Trading Card book. Both will force me to relax, play, make a mess and have fun making art again...with no major expectations of the outcome. I was actually dreaming about ATCs (artist trading cards) last night - how ridiculous is that? (Etsy calls them ACEOs = art cards, editions, and originals.) I love the idea of ATCs - it's just a little baseball-card sized piece of original art that you trade with another artist for one of their cards. You can collect all kinds of mini gems through trading your own tiny pieces. Some people sell 'em. I imagine this happens even more frequently with the very collectible ones created by notable artists. Personally, I don't like the idea of selling ACEOs, I feel that it sort of defeats the purpose and the spirit of the movement. I would love to find a good group for ATC trades, so if you know of any online or in the New England area, let me know. I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself...I should make some of my own little cards first! I'll post 'em up here once I start creating. (o: I can't wait to get started!
For those of you who weren't aware, I was taped for an episode of "That's Clever" last summer. The crew was over my house for over 8 hours (phew!). After everything wrapped up, the producer gave me a little slip of paper with contact info on it. It instructed me to e-mail or call in the spring of '08 in order to find out the air date for the episode I'd be on. "Spring" a is fairly vague term. Especially seeing as how we got April blizzards here last year. I decided it was better to start bugging HGTV sooner rather than later. God forbid I miss my episode! "That's Clever" is on every morning, 5 days a week with 3 artists featured on each show. I don't even know how to set my VCR, and we certainly don't have TiVo. It's absolutely necessary that I find out the date way in advance!
I decided that today was the day to start bugging them for a date. I'll keep you posted if (and when) I hear back.
It's a fun/goofy show, and I know I was certainly silly during the taping (beware - bad puns abound!)...so I may live to regret telling all of you when my episode will be on. Even if I wind up looking sort of ridiculous, national exposure has got to be better than none! I'm excited and mildly mortified at the prospect.
In other news, my hubby and I went on our "date" to Barnes and Nobles last night. We both spent the entirety of our gift cards...plus $9. I bought 3 books - Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith, Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton (can you tell what I'm currently back in college for? Lol.), and Artist Trading Card Workshop by Bernie Berlin.
I'm probably most excited about the Keri Smith book and the Artist Trading Card book. Both will force me to relax, play, make a mess and have fun making art again...with no major expectations of the outcome. I was actually dreaming about ATCs (artist trading cards) last night - how ridiculous is that? (Etsy calls them ACEOs = art cards, editions, and originals.) I love the idea of ATCs - it's just a little baseball-card sized piece of original art that you trade with another artist for one of their cards. You can collect all kinds of mini gems through trading your own tiny pieces. Some people sell 'em. I imagine this happens even more frequently with the very collectible ones created by notable artists. Personally, I don't like the idea of selling ACEOs, I feel that it sort of defeats the purpose and the spirit of the movement. I would love to find a good group for ATC trades, so if you know of any online or in the New England area, let me know. I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself...I should make some of my own little cards first! I'll post 'em up here once I start creating. (o: I can't wait to get started!
February 28, 2008
Yes, you can buy a little inspiration
When I was in high school I hung out with the art and music weirdos (surprise, surprise). My best friend dubbed us his "Muffins". Oh yes, we were even assigned a different muffin flavor in accordance to what he thought matched our personalities. (It's stuck to this day.) When we weren't at school or working at our mall jobs, we spent our free time playing. We'd drive out to the middle of nowhere to listen to a massive quantity of peepers chirping and watch the fireflies. We'd fly kites and swing in playgrounds. We'd hit 7-11 for Slurpees and candy cigarettes. If for some reason, we had to stay in, we'd paint silly pictures together or make elaborate mix tapes for our other friends. These tapes included comedy sketches performed by us and were usually elaborately packaged. We'd dance in the living room while one of my friends played the piano.
These days we've all grown up, have degrees and "real jobs", moved away, some of us have gotten married, and one of us just had a baby (our first mini-muffin! Congratulations, Blueberry!). The point being that the playing has stopped. We all take our art pretty seriously these days. Every painting is geared with thoughts towards the portfolio, every song could be the next piece on an album or musical try-out. It's too bad, because even as adults I think sometimes we still need to play. Especially when you are in an artistic slump.
A few years ago, my job was right off an adorable New England Main Street. There were all kinds of cute little shops that I'd stroll into on my lunch break. On a trip to my favorite one, I stumbled on a book by Keri Smith called "Living Out Loud: Activities to Fuel a Creative Life." I was psyched. First of all, Keri Smith (like me) is an illustrator. Second, look how completely adorable her work is:
The book was a breath of fresh air. It felt like a throwback to my high school days of playful creativity. It's full of little games and ideas to get you to relax, create, and most of all have fun while doing it. Of course I bought it immediately:
There are little activities you can tear and cut directly out of the book. There are stickers in the middle and tear-out postcards in the back. She'd officially won me over. One of her ideas that I did was "Permission Cards". She included a perforated page with different ideas on them. You tear them out, put them in a jar or bowl (my jar of choice was an old Lindt chocolate jar with a big lime green ribbon in it). You say to yourself "I give myself permission to..." reach in, and pull out a little card. They say things like "dance", "create", "dream" etc.
It's a little silly, but that's totally the point. I've got a few days left on my va-k. I think that once my studio is clean, I'm going to kick back, re-read this book, and rediscover my love for creative play once again.
What do you guys do to get the creative juices flowing?
These days we've all grown up, have degrees and "real jobs", moved away, some of us have gotten married, and one of us just had a baby (our first mini-muffin! Congratulations, Blueberry!). The point being that the playing has stopped. We all take our art pretty seriously these days. Every painting is geared with thoughts towards the portfolio, every song could be the next piece on an album or musical try-out. It's too bad, because even as adults I think sometimes we still need to play. Especially when you are in an artistic slump.
A few years ago, my job was right off an adorable New England Main Street. There were all kinds of cute little shops that I'd stroll into on my lunch break. On a trip to my favorite one, I stumbled on a book by Keri Smith called "Living Out Loud: Activities to Fuel a Creative Life." I was psyched. First of all, Keri Smith (like me) is an illustrator. Second, look how completely adorable her work is:
The book was a breath of fresh air. It felt like a throwback to my high school days of playful creativity. It's full of little games and ideas to get you to relax, create, and most of all have fun while doing it. Of course I bought it immediately:
There are little activities you can tear and cut directly out of the book. There are stickers in the middle and tear-out postcards in the back. She'd officially won me over. One of her ideas that I did was "Permission Cards". She included a perforated page with different ideas on them. You tear them out, put them in a jar or bowl (my jar of choice was an old Lindt chocolate jar with a big lime green ribbon in it). You say to yourself "I give myself permission to..." reach in, and pull out a little card. They say things like "dance", "create", "dream" etc.
It's a little silly, but that's totally the point. I've got a few days left on my va-k. I think that once my studio is clean, I'm going to kick back, re-read this book, and rediscover my love for creative play once again.
What do you guys do to get the creative juices flowing?
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