Mail Art

The image above is one of Ray Johnson's mail art pieces.

For the past year, I've been interested in ATCs (artist trading cards). I even spoke with a fellow Etsian who referred me to the ATC group that she participates in. The problem is that with school, I don't have too much time to create and trade mini works of art, as much as I'd love to.

As I mentioned a couple blogs ago, I recently saw the documentary How To Draw a Bunny which reignited my interest in mail art. Though at the time I didn't know it had a name, I used to do this my friends. I don't think I could keep up with ATCs right now, but I do think I might be able to send out the occasional mail art piece.

Much to my delight, I found a thread on the Etsy forums posted by sparklerama who had also recently seen (and been inspired by) How to Draw a Bunny. We're making plans to send each other some mail art. I'm pretty excited about the prospect.

I'm wondering if anyone out there is involved in an organized mail art group? I've been able to find ATC groups, but just started wondering about mail art. If not, I wonder if it would be possible to get some sort of mail art group together. How would that work? Would you have to send a piece to each person in the group all at once? Or do we all take turns sending one piece to a different person each time? If anyone can enlighten me, I'd be interested to hear it. (o:

Children's books from around the world

Ok, so maybe not around the whole world. Let's say...maybe...two countries.

I love children's books. I mean, it's obvious, right? I'm a member of The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and I'm sure you've all seen my work by now. If not, just look to the right and click on my Etsy shop there.

Anyway, the only things keeping me from buying a ridiculous pile of illustrated children's books and dragging them home are 1) I have no room. I already have bookshelves stuffed with my "grown-up" literature and 2) I have no kids. I suppose #2 doesn't matter that much, but it's nice to have an excuse to be lurking in the children's book section. Just wait until my niece or nephew is born in the spring. With an aunt like me, that kid better like to read!

I've visited about 8 European countries now. I love buying books and music from places I visit. But up until this past trip, it never occurred to me to buy children's literature while I was traveling. I found it difficult to forget about children's books in England however, especially when there's Paddington Bear memorabilia everywhere you go. I saw some stuffed Paddington bears at the Tower of London. Seriously. Beheading, the Crowned Jewels, and Paddington Bear.

I know you can buy Paddington books in the States, but I caved and bought one in London (probably for twice the price). How could I resist clutching a newly-purchased Paddington bear book under my arm - especially when I'd just been standing in Paddington Station?
The next book I bought was in Norway. Luckily for me, they had an edition printed in English (that's what the British flag in the corner of the book means). I probably would've bought a copy even if it was in Norwegian.
Norway (and most of Scandinavia, actually) loves their trolls. And really, fairy tales felt intrinsic to the Norwegian landscape. There were all these evergreen trees and little mustard-colored houses springing up on rocky shores. I believed there just might be trolls in the mountains. Or a witch in the woods who lived in a house made of gingerbread and candy.

I'm now wondering what great little children's books I missed in Italy, France, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, etc...

Anyone else hoard children's books? What are your favorites?

Sketches: The Netherlands and Norway

Sorry about the irregular blogging. Aside from having to juggle two different summer jobs the second I returned, I also seem to have come down with a nasty cold. Ugh. In any case, that's not going to stop me from sharing a few more sketches with you from my travels.This sketch is all I had time for in Amsterdam at the Van Gough Museum. It's a detail from his Emperor Moth painting.

This is a view off the balcony of our cruise ship as we were about to dock in Norway. Below is a photograph:An ancient carving from the Viking museum (my sketch and then the photo):

That's it for this morning. Tomorrow I'll post images from Denmark. In the meantime, have a happy Thursday! (o:

21 Day Challenge: Day 14

Pack rat!

I confess, I am a pack rat. I hang onto everything. Half the stuff I've hung onto has been collected with the excuse, "I could turn this into a really cool art project!" Then it's totally forgotten. Sometimes it's a really good idea to plow through your junk piles and do some serious sorting out. And by "sorting" I mean throwing away, donating, and/or recycling.

I spent the majority of last night cleaning and organizing my house and realized this might be a continual summer-long project. I barely hit the tip of the iceberg by cleaning up the bedroom. After only one evening, I have more than one garbage bag of clothes that will be donated to the Salvation Army. I dug through all my drawers and closet, tried things on, and found myself saying, "Ew! Why have I been holding onto these things again???" If you can pinpoint the year the fad happened, you're probably holding on to it for sentimental reasons and it's time to ditch the item. I also answered the question I've been asking myself all month: "How can I have a closet full of clothes yet nothing to wear?" Well...only about half of my wardrobe is wearable. 1/4 of it fits funny or doesn't fit at all. The other 1/4 is too hideous to wear in public. And the shoes...ooooh. Don't even get me started. (I have a little shoe obsession...ahem.)

The above sketch was inspired by last night's closet misadventures--even a pack rat can reach her limit sometimes. Time to box it up and ship it out! Next stop: my studio! (Though, it's about 150 degrees up there plus humidity, so who knows when I'll get a chance to tackle that mess.)

21 Day Challenge: Day 6

Looks like someone's umbrella broke! Poor puppy.

I snagged my first Etsy Treasury yesterday morning. I spent some time working on it and was proud of the collection of favorites I put together.

Around quarter of 6 last night, I got home from my aerobics class, logged onto my computer and found out my treasury made it to the front page of Etsy!!! I was so thrilled, but since I was home alone all I could do was shout about it in the forums and then call my mom. I was ecstatic! Then I felt like a dork. Hey, it's the small things that make me psyched. What can I say? AspenSpa was kind enough to take a screen shot of my 15 minutes of fame (you can click on the picture to enlarge):

Thank you, AspenSpa!

21 Day Challenge: Day 5

Trust me, this is what I'd much rather be doing today than heading off to work in these thunderstorms. I just want to lounge around my house drinking coffee and listening to NPR. (Minus the scarf, of course!) But a girl's got to make a living. Sigh.

In other news, legendary comedian George Carlin passed away this weekend at the age of 71.

He's one of my and my husband's favorite comedians, and we've attended several of his shows. In fact, the very first Christmas presents I bought for my husband the first year we were together were tickets to a George Carlin show. We've seen him several times since then. So, we're bummed today. RIP, George. Thanks for all the laughs.

21 Day Challenge: Day 4

Yesterday I was shuffling through my studio (which is a disaster area) and somehow managed to impale myself with my art supplies. I guess there was a nice sharp pencil somewhere on my floor that was just looking for the opportunity to drive itself through my sock and into the soft arch of my foot. I am now suffering from medium-deep puncture wound. I washed and scrubbed it out (ouch!) for 20 minutes, but that hole is really skinny and I'm positive there's some nice little graphite shading at the bottom of the wound. I think I just tattooed myself. At least the pencil tip didn't break off inside my foot, I guess.
)o:
This happened the same week that my husband suffered his own foot injury on his recreational soccer team. He and a teammate both jumped for the ball, and the teammate's cleat landed squarely on my husband's little toe...which now looks like a bright purple mini-sausage. It's nasty. So, this sketch is what you get today:

I liked using a bunny for a couple reasons. The first being the big feet, and the second because it reminded me of the Paris Metro Bunny:

Back when I was still in college, I spent a month in France taking two courses over RISD's wintersession. While sitting on the metro with my sketchbook in my lap, I noticed this infamous warning sign to keep your hands away from the doors as they're closing. The bunny was cute, yet at the same time - he's getting injured! It's kind of horrible. A combo of sweet and mean will apparently catch my attention. I entertained myself for the remainder of the stops by drawing him.

Anyway, the lesson of this weekend is that cleanliness is a virtue. There's a mess in my studio that needs to be tackled ASAP...otherwise it's going to come and get me! Now, where did I put those Band-aids?

21 Day Challenge: Day 1

Supposedly it takes 21 days to instill a habit. I've decided to take on the 21 Day Challenge and draw for 15 minutes each and every day for 21 days. I don't have any grand plans or even a theme. My goal right now is just to make myself draw something (anything) every single day. Last night was technically Day One since I drew right before bed. I just didn't have time to upload anything until this morning.
Since I had an elaborate dinner at Blue Ginger this week, and then my coworker brought in donuts yesterday (my weakness)--I was inspired to draw a fat happy piggy enjoying a frosted donut.
If you'd like to join me in this challenge, drop me a line. I'll post links to your blog under a "21 Day Challenge" catagory. It won't exist until I hear back from folks, and you've got to post your sketches in order for me to link to you. Come join me! Really, I could use some company. (o; Here are the results of my first day:

Not much, but it's a start!

What next?

In typical Libra fashion, I'm having a hard time deciding what creative project to work on next. I'm good with a commission and a deadline, but if I don't have either, I tend to freeze up. It would be soooo easy for me to waste my summer, I'm afraid. But since you guys are so good at giving me a motivational kick in the pants, I figured I'd reach out for suggestions.

Should I create more items for my Etsy shop or potential art fairs? Should I create more bee ornaments? More stuffed animals? More little illustrations? Should I brainstorm new products? Or should I work on some "serious" paintings? My children's illustration portfolio? Arg.

Maybe I should take the advice of my SCBWI crit group, and just start with the "21 Day Challenge". (I think it was Anne Marie who put the challenge to me at our last meeting...? I know Gina's been working on this. She posted the results of her exercise on her blog, which you can check out here.) From what I can gather the challenge is to make the time to draw for 15 minutes every single day, for 21 days--no excuses. Maybe it'll jump start my creative process. I hope. /o:

Illustration Friday: Worry

Aren't you a bit worried about this kitty's fate? Me too!

SCBWI

Creatively speaking, the first few years after I graduated art school were terrible. I was desperately trying to find my way in my field, and doing temp work for barely any pay in the meantime...just to survive. I felt so isolated from other artists - all my art school friends were miles and miles away. I was sorely lacking any feeling of community. Not to mention a solid critique. Your family looking over your painting and stating, "That's nice." is simply not going to cut it. I needed solid criticism and suggestions from another artist's eye. But the art pulse in NH felt to me as if it had flat lined. Dead. I couldn't find "the scene" or any scene, for that matter. I started to wonder if I was the only artist in the entire state. You might as well have dropped me off in the desert.

Even back then, I was an avid National Public Radio junkie. NHPR was on all the time. In the car, in the house. I honestly don't think I could live without the radio on. I'm still that way. (If anything, I've just gotten worse!) One night, on the very long drive home from another miserable day of temp work, I was listening to the (now retired) NHPR show "On The Front Porch" and heard an interview with the illustrator John Stadler:

Of course any interview with any illustrator was going to grab my attention and keep it. And here was a published children's book illustrator...IN MY STATE! During the interview he stated, "In New Hampshire and Vermont, there must be the highest per capita children's book population in the world. We have picnics three times a day, then we feel much better and we go back to work." In the interview, he went on to say that he couldn't leave his house without bumping into a fellow illustrator or children's book writer. WHAT???? I thought my head was going to explode. Where was this "close and supportive community"? Have they been hiding from me all this time? Finding them out felt like a search for a faerie village.

I got home, ran into the house, logged onto John Stadler's website where I found his e-mail address. And I e-mailed him. Oh yes I did. I don't remember exactly what I wrote but it was probably along the lines of, "I heard you on NHPR and you said there was a huge illustration community in the state...where oh WHERE??? HELP!!!" (I probably said it less crazy, but that was my point none the less.) To my surprise, he e-mailed me back promptly. He was really nice, and directed me to the Society of Children's book Writers and Illustrators.

Through their website, I found a local SCBWI children's book illustrators critique group near my house. I signed up to join the SCBWI, paid my dues, and was off. Our crit group meets up approximately once a month. It's been a part of my life ever since. Though certainly not as big or prevalent as in NYC or Boston - yes, Virginia, there is an arts community in NH.

We have some great people in our little group. Some published, some not (like me!). Though I can't talk about them all individually, I have previously mentioned Gina Perry. (She's the one whose gallery show I recently attended.)

Illustrator and children's book author, Lita Judge is also a member of our SCBWI branch. Lita's career has really taken off. She has published several books, been interviewed for tv and various other publications, and basically works 24/7. Though she's unable to attend meetings these days, she is always supportive and helpful with any questions that our group has about publishing or illustrating full time. At one of the last meetings I attended, our group went to see her read from her book One Thousand Tracings at Barnes and Nobles. Here are a couple of her book covers:


I haven't been attending the SCBWI meetings very regularly over the past year. Last year, the run up to my wedding was madness, so I missed quite a few meetings. This year, I started attending night classes and that was insanity. Going anywhere would mean homework got neglected for 2 seconds, and that was pretty much out of the question. School is finally over for the summer, so at last I get to attend tonight's SCBWI meeting. (Hooray!) I'll keep you posted on how it goes. (o:

Starting off on a Good Foot!

My Friday has gotten off to a great start! I opened my e-mail this morning to discover that I won a giveaway hosted by Deckled Edge Bindery. She was holding the contest to celebrate her 100th Etsy sale. All you had to do was drop her a line on her blog, she would collect everyone's comments and pull a name from a hat. As it turns out, that name was mine! I won one of her beautiful little handmade sketchbooks. I'm so excited! Just look at this gorgeousness:

I also received a second e-mail this morning from someone interested in having me create a commissioned piece for them. *Cheers quietly to self.*

THEN, I discovered I'm included in yet another treasury this week! This one was created by EllieDee and features my Pollinator bumble bee ornament:

I expect that today's awesomeness will continue into this evening. Directly after work, I'll be picking up my sister and driving out to see the first gallery show of fellow SCBWI member (and fantastic illustrator), Gina Perry:

This all follows on the heels of a fabulous night out with my husband last night. We had dinner at our absolute favorite little Italian restaurant, and then went to see Iron Man. We had great dinner conversation, and continued our discussions long after we got home. We've been together for so long, but somehow we never fail to still find something to gab about. Haha!
Anyway, here's hoping for an equally fabulous weekend. Cheers!

Dirty Little Secret

Well...ok, so maybe it isn't secret OR dirty, but I realized I never ever mention the fact that I have a second (non-Etsy) online shop.

Admittedly, I sort of ignore it. It was the first shop I ever opened, and I almost shut it down due to lack of sales. Almost as if the shop sensed this, I've suddenly been scoring occasional sales from it. Largely, it's been people buying items with my hedgehog and honeydew image on it. The original painting isn't for sale on Etsy since it's an important part of my business logo. Cafepress, however, is the perfect place for me to offer a print or reproduction. It seems people are happy to buy buttons, stickers, magnets, or anything else with Baxter's cute little face on it...which is great! So, I figured I'd give that shop a little TLC today, and admit its existence in my blog. Here it is:

http://www.cafepress.com/honeydewstudio

Cafepress works a lot differently than Etsy. Everything on Etsy is hand-made by me. I'm 100% responsible for the creation, packaging, and mailing out of my items. Cafepress however, is not about handmade. It's much more about commercial items--buttons, t-shirts, mugs, etc. On Cafepress, all I do is upload my artwork and choose the products on which I want my art to appear. Cafepress does all the work with the actual printing and shipping, etc. I get a small percentage of what the item costs. It's not really a bad deal if you're lazy and want to make a little money. People who like your work, but maybe can't afford an original, can always nab an inexpensive keepsake from Cafepress instead. There are really cute buttons, stickers, and t-shirts etc.

I did a lot of work on that shop this weekend, and it still needs more attention. I plan on revisiting (and revamping) the rest of it later this week. Let me know what you think!

Upcoming Art Shows

For those of you who are in the area, I wanted to let you know about two upcoming shows at local galleries:

The first is an exhibit of the work of children's illustrators. It will be running for a month at Kennedy Studios in Portsmouth NH. Some of the artists exhibiting include Teri Wiedner, Robert Squier, and David McPhail...as well as our very own Gina Perry! She's a fabulous illustrator, member of my SCBWI crit group, and author behind The Pineapple Diaries. The opening is May 9th. I'll post further details as I get them.

The second gallery opening features fellow Etsy member, Scott Bulger. It's a solo exhibition of his photography at the Jill Coldren-Wilson Gallery on the campus of the Kimball-Jenkins School of Art in Concord, NH. The Artist Reception will also be on Friday, May 9, from 5:00 - 8:00 PM.

If you're free that Friday, attend a show (or two!) and support your local artists. (o:

Paul Rand

In class a couple weeks ago, our teacher made us each pull a name from an envelope. Those slips of paper had the names of various graphic designers on them. Our newest ongoing assignment is to create a magazine spread for whichever designer we got.

I pulled Paul Rand. He's the one who designed the logos for UPS, IBM, ABC, and Enron (to name a few). It was a lucky draw, because I feel like I "get" Rand's work. It's modernist, simple, and witty.

Paul Rand passed away in 1996, but remains one of America's biggest names in graphic design. What I didn't know about him until my research this week, was that he designed a few children's books with his wife, Ann Rand. As an illustrator (who has been focused largely on the children's market in the past few years) this interested me. Take a look at some of his book covers:


The above cover is the french translation for Rand's book, I Know a Lot of Things. I mean, how adorable! That book (in any language) seems to be a collector's item now. The starting prices that I saw online were $40 and up.


The top two images are covers, and the lower images is a spread from one of the books. I think it's just gorgeous.

You know, it's funny...until this Typography class I didn't think about the people behind the designs we see every day. I guess in my mind, there were big corporations collaborating together and churning out logos and type like factories. I never thought of individual designers sitting behind their desks, brainstorming over letterforms and what way would best brand a company. Now I not only understand that many logos can be attributed to specific designers, like Rand, but I am starting to recognize and appreciate individuals and their work. It's sort of like a door opened up and I've discovered there's a whole other wing in this house that I haven't explored.

I still don't know if I'll ever be a good designer, myself (I still very much have an illustrator's brain). But I do feel like I'm learning and progressing by leaps and bounds. We'll see how I feel after the crit on my brochure layout tonight. I honestly have NO IDEA if it's good or bad. Usually I have some sort of inkling before class. Today? Nothing. I'm sure you'll hear about it either way. In the meantime, go look up Paul Rand online. You'd be surprised how many well-known easily recognizable logos are attributed to him.

Merry Christmas! Wait. Whaaaa...?

Oh sorry, I was having a dream where there was a raging snow storm going on outside and...AAAAAACK!

It's no dream! This is the scene I work up to this morning. I wish I could animate this photo to show you how heavy and fast it was coming down. Welcome to "spring" in New England. One of my favorite old jokes about the area is that we have 4 seasons - Almost Winter, Winter, More Winter, and Construction. I believe we're currently in the "More Winter" stage. Last year we had two April blizzards.
Since I work for a school district, this means it's a day off for me. Yep. I wish I could tell you I'm going to do something marvelous and creative with my day. But what I plan on doing is chipping away at my typography homework. Sorry to disappoint you. Trust me, I'd much rather be finishing that painting for my dad or trying my hand at some ATCs.
Since I have the time this morning (and a big cup of coffee which I have the ability to refill) I'm going to do something a little different in my blog today. I woke up to find that I've been tagged by DivaDea to write 7 random facts about myself. I'm not about to let a fellow Etsian down, so here we go. First, the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Get it? Got it? Good. Here's my seven:

1. Hi, I'm Nicole, and I'm an NPR addict. I'm serious. There is no such thing as silence in my house. The radio is on ALL THE TIME. I started listening to it in college because, one summer, my friend had an internship at NPR in Washington D.C. and I missed her. Now I can't stop. On the upside, I'm more informed about the news than I've ever been in my entire life.

2. My husband has been friends with my sister (and best friends with my brother-in-law) since high school. Even though we grew up right down the street from each other and attended the same church on that street - we never met once. Not until after I had graduated from college.

3. I love seafood, but hate scallops. I keep thinking I should like them so I keep trying them, and still hate ‘em every single time. I think it may be a texture thing.

4. My favorite flowers are lilacs. In the house I grew up in, there was 2 giant bushes of them below my bedroom window. One purple, one white.

5. I used to have a canary named Beck. His name had meaning on several levels. Like the singer Beck, my canary was blonde & could sing. “Bec” in French means “beak” and can also mean to give “a little kiss”. As in “a peck on the cheek”. I thought I was terribly clever.

6. When I was a kid, I took dancing lessons. I tap danced for 8 years. (Sometimes I still kind of miss it!)

7. I often drink tea or some other hot beverage while I’m painting. There’s been many occasions where I’ve almost drank out of the water cup I was washing my brushes out in. (Haven’t yet. Though, I have washed my brushes off in hot chocolate by mistake.)

That's it! It might not be 7 people, but here's a couple gals who I plan on tagging: Sarah at Pink Shoe Diaries, Gina at Pineapple Diary and Pat's Motorcycle Travels blog.
Enjoy!

Illustration Friday: Pet Peeves

I could probably do 100 illustrations based on all the pet peeves I have, but since I don't have the time, here's just one. Haha! As usual, I still can't seem to find the time to crank out a "fresh" illustration for IF, so I dug this one out. When it comes to gifts, I know people say, "It's the thought that counts". But what if it's obvious the person put absolutely NO thought into it?
Now, I'm not talking about an ugly sweater from Aunt Pearl. It may not be your taste, but at least she tried. I'm talking about when the person clearly didn't even think or exert any effort at all into your gift. What if it's something you can't even use? (For example: getting a DVD for Christmas when the person knows darn well you don't even own a DVD player. Ahem. Thanks?) Poor fishy. She's been a victim of a utterly thoughtless gift. Sometimes I think it might be better to get nothing at all.

Just another reason to love Etsy (as if you needed one!)

Over the last two days, I sent my plea for business cards out everywhere I could think of. Including begging on this blog. (I'm sorry, but if you can't whine on your own blog then where can you whine?)

You know why I need so much help? Because these were all I could find in my house for artist business cards:

I'm hoping there's more lying around somewhere. Even if there are, it won't make much of a dent since I need hundreds for this project. The instructor told me via e-mail that over one hundred cards would be a minimum.

I'm a member of several art, craft, and illustration groups so I e-mailed or posted on the sites of every last one of those groups. Only a trickle of responses came in. With one exception. Etsy. The deluge of e-mails and convos from Etsy folks simply blew me away. It makes me so happy, I could do a little dance. In fact, I just might!
The support and help I have received from the Etsy community is astounding. I even received international e-mails. I would hug every last one of you if I could! You can imagine what a difference all of you guys made (and can still make). Especially when some of you are including cards of artist friends and family when you mail me. By the end of the week, my pile of material will have increased 100 fold from what I have now. I expect the final product (the book I have to make) will be fabulous.

For those of you who haven't been following my typography project saga, scroll down and read the blogs from the past two days to catch up. Then, if you haven't sent me your card yet but would like to, feel free to e-mail me at honeydewstudio@gmail.com and I'll let you know where to send it. Although the first half of my project is due next Tuesday, I will continue collecting cards until nearly the end of the semester (that's when the project is due). Every last card is needed and welcome! So, please keep sending them!

Now...onto another topic. (You deserve it. Especially since you've been listening to this homework stuff for 3 days in a row now!) I was browsing at Barnes and Nobles a week or so ago with the hubby. I decided to poke through the art and design magazines and just became overwhelmed.

What I want to know is - do you guys read art mags? Which ones are your favorites? I usually like Juxtapoz...even though it sort of makes me feel like I stink as an artist after I read it. It's like fashion magazines for women - you know you'll never be Gisele but you keep looking at (and comparing yourself to) pictures of models anyway. Haha! Oh well.

Anyway, this month's Juxtapoz was all encased in plastic. I don't know about you, but I hate when I can't flip through a magazine before I buy it. First of all, that plastic is such a waste! It creates so much extra (non-biodegradable) garbage and for what? I mean, is there a special gift inside that they don't want to fall out? Usually not. Basically we're just not allowed to gaze at the magazine before we buy it. Um...no thanks. First I want to know if I'll even be interested in what I'm paying for! I find that most of the other fine art magazines consist of 99% ads. Which annoys me. Art magazines are expensive! I don't really need to pay $8 or more for you to sell me something. If there's hardly anything inside aside from ads, why bother creating the thing at all? I thought ads were supposed to help pay for content. So...are there any other worthwhile illustration/design/art magazines you can recommend? Good articles, great pictures, etc? I want something worth picking up. I think I have another B&N gift card with $15 on it somewhere and I'm looking to spend it! (o:

March? Madness!!!

Welcome to March first in my neck of the woods:

4 to 8 inches of snow today! This was not the pic I had planned for this morning. I was hoping to have "before" and "after" pictures of my studio. I wanted to dazzle all of you with how organized and clean it was, but uhhhmmm...that's not the case yet. I don't know what happened to me this week, but my vacation turned me into a zombie. I didn't get a whole lot done. I spent some time with my sis, which was nice. But, my biggest accomplishments were getting hedgie's front nails cut and booking an estimate for some much-needed work on our house. Woo-hoo! Don't get me wrong, I did start cleaning...I just didn't finish.

It probably is just a fantasy that I'll get it done this weekend at all. I've got homework to do today, and tomorrow I have a trip planned to go see my friend Holly. She's a fellow RISD alumni and illustrator. So, I figured I'd talk about her today.

A long time ago, I decided to base one of my plush characters on Holly. Here's my interpretation:

I can't even begin to describe Holly's work or style. It's a bit strange - sometimes funny, sometimes creepy but always lovely. She incorporates vintage elements into her collage pieces, and her illustrations and paintings take inspiration from different cultures around the world. Maybe it's better if I just show you a few of her pieces:

Holly doesn't have an online shop yet, though I wish she did! She's still working on her website and it's almost done. The only category still missing is her 3-D work. Wait until you see her rod puppets! They're amazing. She used to do these crazy little drag queen finger puppets that I was in love with too. Feel free to contact her for more information on commission work. I believe all her info is included on her site. To get a look at more of her gorgeously detailed art, and to read her bio, go here. It's like a free trip to an eclectic, exotic and beautiful little world! (o;

Illustration Friday: Leap

This was a cover illustration I did a couple years ago for a children's scrapbook. Happy Leap Day, everyone!