Electric Cheetah

I had the wonderful opportunity to hang my work at a local restaurant called The Electric Cheetah. Don't you just love the name? It is one of my favorite restaurants in Grand Rapids. They have fantastic soup and if you know me, I'm a sucker for soup. I hung a variety of work. Some of it is older and some of it is brand new. All of it is for sale. So please stop on by. Eat some food. Look at some art and maybe buy your favorite piece.

From my sketchbook

Now that I have a baby I have a lot less time or doing my own personal work. His nap times are spent getting my paid illustration work done. I try to squeeze personal paintings into the little cracks of time when he is playing happily by himself or with my husband. This has unfortunately resulted in many ruined paintbrushes when he suddenly starts crying just after I've mixed the perfect color and I leave it on my brush thinking I'll be back before it dries. I should know better. As a result I've been doing many more pen and ink drawings. They are quick, portable and the only clean up required is putting the cap back on the pen. I've been doing a little series of odd creatures. I've always loved drawing animals and no one can deny my affinity for the odd and the quirky. I thought I'd share the spring hare and naked mole rat I have finished. Enjoy!Share

Illustration Friday: Breakfast

Last week Tuesday Wilbur narrowly avoided becoming breakfast.
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Milton, Jerry and Winston

A few more little paintings using those cute little 3x3 canvases.

Coffee Cups

I found a great deal on some small canvases. I thought I'd try something a little different than I normally do. I decided to make some simple brightly colored images. I used three of the 6 3x3 canvases I bought to make a little set of coffee cups. They will be available for sale when I move into my studio space. I think the bright colors will be great to attract attention if I hang them in the window.

Illustration Friday: Satellite

Watch out for low flying satellites.

Illustration Friday: Ripple

This illustration was done for Iguana Magazine. A small Spanish language magazine for children.

New Stamps

My Favorite Things Rubber Stamps just released some new stamps from my designs. There is geeky Who's that Guy set and an Earth friendly Who's that Girl. Check them out at www.mftstamps.com

Festival

It's the beginning of June again and you know what that means? Festival of the Arts! I've been involved with Festival for three years now. I volunteer at the Regional Art Competition helping artists drop off their work and carting accepted and rejected entries to their proper locations. I will also be gallery sitting this year which mostly involves looking at art, talking about art, making sure people don't touch the art and telling people where the bathroom is. The art this year is exceptional. If you have a chance to stop by this weekend you should! You can check out the Festival website for times and location.

I entered and was fortunate enough to have two of my paintings selected. I'll share my favorite one; "Ancestry."

Illustration Friday: Fearless

I was fearless as a child.

Illustration Friday: Detective

Who could have made this hole in this apple?

Little Monsters

Wow, a month sure goes fast! My son is a month old already and I'm back to posting, painting and designing. I've been working on a few designs for a small company called Trendy Tykes that makes embroidery patterns and children's clothing. I came up with a few cute monsters for a little monster outfit they make. I'll be sure to post a link to it once they have it on their site. Here is a little preview of one of the monsters.
In the spirit of posting pictures of little monsters, here is my little monster, Wesley Luke.

Illustration Friday: Brave

Sometimes we imagine we are braver than we really are.

Illustration Friday: Perspective

"Sitting atop a tiger certainly give one a new perspective on the world." mused Matilda.

Illustration Friday: Propagate

Propagate is a great topic for me this week. I'm currently 39 weeks pregnant and wish that *@$ stork would just deliver that baby already!

Illustration Friday: Adrift

Here in the cold snowy north there isn't much to be adrift on so I chose to draw a drift. Poor little bunny. I'd head south if I were him.

Illustration Friday: Muddy

It is a muddy, mucky world out there.

It's been said

I thought I'd share a little doodle from my sketchbook with you all today.

NPR Calender

I got my NPR Calender in the mail yesterday! It looks great. All of the artists they chose are incredibly talented. I feel a little overwhelmed and very honored to be included in the same publication. I'm the inside cover, the page that describes NPR and their member stations.

I have a few exciting announcements and a few recent jobs that I'll be posting in the next few days. I've been working hard and getting a lot done. Now I need to catch up on all the little things like self-promotion and sleep.

Post it note fun!

I love doodling while I'm on hold. 

Winning Legs

The painting I call "Legs" has won two awards at festival this year. The first is the Elmer & Rita Zinn Memorial Award and the second is a purchase award from Brooke & Jonathan Shuff. This of course means that I will once again be up on stage in front of people trying not to pass out or trip over my own feet. I managed last year with a migraine so I'm sure I'll come out of it fine this time around. Don't get me wrong I'm extremely flattered that there are people out there that like my work enough to recognize it publicly. I just have terrible stage fright! 

Art Festivals Galore!

This year I had the wonderful opportunity to volunteer with the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts. I helped with the art take in for the Regional Art Competition. It was amazing to see all the high quality entries that came in. I also entered and am very excited to announce that three of my pieces were selected. 

Legs 

NPR Candy Store

Octo-toilet

The Regional Arts Competition will be located at the old Art Museum at 155 N. Division. An opening reception will be held Friday, May 29 from 5 – 9 pm with the exhibit continuing through June 14.

I also entered the Muskegon Museum Regional Art Competition and one of my pieces was selected. 

Tea with a Tiger

The Muskegon Museum of Art will open its Regional Exhibition on Thursday, May 28, at 10:00 a.m. The public is invited to attend an opening reception that evening from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. Artist awards will be announced at 7:00 p.m. The exhibition will be open through August 5, 2009.

I also want to say congratulations to my fellow Grand Valley State Illustration grad, Chris Mrozik, for winning the Robert and Veronica Youngman Memorial Award. Great work as always!

NPR Illustration

Whew it's been a busy week! I finished the illustration for NPR. It's definitely one of the most detailed paintings I've done in a long time. As much fun as it was I'm very glad it's done and submitted. I think it turned out great and can't wait to see it printed in the calender! 

Illustration Friday: Impossibility

I have always believed in the possibility of the impossible. 

Prints for Sale!

This is just one of the many images you'll find for sale over at POD Gallery. Take a minute and check them all out and buy one or two if you like! 

Forgetful Girl

I've been working on belated birthday cards lately. I thought I'd share this poor girl who forgot her friends' birthday. At least she remembered eventually! 

Easter Doodle

I visited my parents church this morning for the Easter service. The service was on power, particularly the power to change. Being the contrarian I am, I did a little doodle about how some things never change. All I had was a purple gel pen and the back of a bulletin. I kind of like the purple ink on the yellow.

Illustration Friday: Fleeting

I went to see The butterfly exhibit at Frederick Meyer Gardens this past week and was struck by the fleeting beauty of the butterflies.

Long Legs

Everyone wants to be a little different than they are. Some want to be thinner, smarter, cooler or just able to keep up.

Illustration Friday: Talisman

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of talisman is religious iconography. Instead of just recreating existing iconography I decided to make it a bit more personal and do a self portrait of my self as a saint. I don't personally attend a church that worships saints or displays icons but I've always love the images and have gone to churches just to spend time looking at their icons. I gave myself a pink bunny. If I believed in luck or lucky objects it would be a pink bunny.

Joyful Mouse Tote

Spreadshirt Market Place Product

Joyful Mouse

I've created a little shop where you'll soon be able to find all kinds of fun little products with my images on them. The selection is limited at the moment but there will be much more to come! Just click the "Shop" link on the right or click the cute mouse tote and you'll be on your way.

Tea with a Tiger

Tea with a tiger.

A flick of his whisker
A blink of his eye
You pick at a biscuit
And prepare to die.
You begin to wonder
as he cradles his cup
Will he nibble politely
Or gobble you up.
Will he lick his whiskers
With his sandpaper tongue
Or dab neatly with a napkin
When his meal is done.
Will he politely request
You tip your head to the right
So he can finish you off
Without any fight.
Will he go quick
Or take it slow
When you have tea with a tiger
It’s so hard to know.

Gravity

Sometimes you win the fight, sometimes you lose.

Tea for Two

I liked this cute little bundle of flowers as soon as I doodled it. It's made with ball point pen, a couple highlighters and a Post-it-note.

Wire Bunny

I'm cleaning my office, listening to Bob Dylan and what do I find? A few bits of wire. I had to make something with them. So I present to you Wire Bunny. He's wiry.

Pretend

I don't mind the spooks

The creeps or the weird.

I don't mind shivering or

Shaking 'cause I' scared.

I don't mind the heeby jeebies

If the light come on in the end.

I'm ok with ghost stories 

As long as they are pretend. 

The little things

It's the little things
That brighten the day
Wash the streets
And push clouds away.
It's the little things
That lighten the mood
Cheer the heart and
Make me feel good.
Big things are fine
Once in a while
But it's the little things
That make me smile.

Late

Just a quick little drawing this week. It was the first thing that popped into my head. Take from that what you will.

Strings

I'm so glad the topic of Illustration Friday is Strings. I've been working on a pillow in my spare time for the past couple weeks and just finished it. Naturally, I'm very excited to show it off. My mom gave me an used sewing machine for Christmas last year and I've been making small projects and fiddling around with it since. I made one pillow prior to this one and am now starting one with a giraffe on it. All the fabric I used I got as a white elephant present last Christmas. I think i was more excited to get a giant bag of fabric scraps than I was to get most of my other presents. I sill have enough to make at least ten or eleven pillows.

Turtle

Lady Aberdean

Lady Aberdean is pleased that I have moved my blog.



Prudence Petigrew is less than amused. She's always like that though.

I'm a Winner!

I just got home from the artist reception for the Grand Rapids Festival of Arts. It was nice and incredibly busy. I always love looking at other people's work. It inspires me to do more of my own and challenges me to do even better work.

When I went to pick up my name tag I noticed there was a little gold star on the corner. I asked the lady working the name tag table what made me so special. She told me I had won an award and handed me the award list. Sure enough I got a purchase award! Sure, it's not as prestigious as a juror award but I'll take it. It's always a great boost to my confidence to learn that someone likes my work enough to pay money for it. No matter how many paintings I sell I think I'll always be just a little surprised when someone wants one.

Accepted

I found out on Friday that one of my paintings was accepted in the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts Competition. It will be on display at the old art museum during Festival June 6-8. Come on down, check it out and vote for it as peoples choice!

Festival

Every year Grand Rapids has the Festival of the Arts. There are bands, art displays, booth after booth of food venders and most notably an art competition. I've never entered it before. I'm not really sure why. It would be great exposure if one of my paintings were to win. I decided this year I'm going for it. I've got nothing to lose, really. Now I have to go through the hard decision of deciding what to enter. I went through all the art I've created in the last two years. I have three file folders full of things that are 8x10 or smaller and an entire portfolio dedicated to things that are larger than 8x10. It's a bit overwhelming. I have it narrowed down to about ten pieces right now. Wish me luck!

Lucy-Fur

For those of you who don't know my good friend, Karly, and I have been working on making our first batch of wine. It will be Pinot in about three weeks. We decided, after a rather unfortunate incident (don't worry the wine is fine) to name the wine after Karly's dog, Lucy. I did a little illustration of her for the wine labels and Karly will be laying out the text. I can't wait for it to be done!

Blog troubles

After hosting my blog on my own website for a while I;ve decided to move it back to blogger. I've had nothing but trouble wih my server. I'm going to move my favorite images from the past few months but the rest, alas, will be lost to cyberspace.