Sketchbook Project on tour!

This past weekend was the kick-off for the Art House Co-op's Sketchbook Project traveling exhibit with an opening reception at The Brooklyn art Library. I had a chance to stop by, but unfortunately it was close to the end of the night, and by that time they were trying to wrap things up and not allowing anymore check-outs. So, I didn't actually get to browse through any of the books, but it was a cool space with over 10,000 sketchbooks lining the shelves—I can't wait to get back there to peruse the stacks and take a look at how everyone interpreted their themes!

The exhibit will be at the Brooklyn Art Library in Williamsburg until February 27 when it'll pack up to hit the road on it's national tour. I'll coincidentally be in Austin, TX in March when it hits there—so hoping to check it out on the road too! The full schedule/tour dates are on the Art house Co-op's website.

Checking out the Sketchbook Project at Brooklyn Art Library

Opening reception, Saturday February 19

With Kristin Smith-my dear friend and also a participating artist in the Sketchbook Project

I also had a very cool opportunity to share a little piece about my experience with the project on Starving Talent—a resource site and online community for artists, by artists. It's a brand new website featuring all kinds of cool and inspiring articles and resources for creatives in all fields—illustration, design, photography, music, film. Sarah McGinnis—the organizer for the Tilsbury Publishing  project I participated in last May—now works on Starving Talent and and invited me to contribute. I hope to submit more to the site in the future. It's a really cool place for artists—check it out if you have a chance, and be sure to read more about the Sketchbook Project opening there! Thanks Sarah!

Recent commission

I've been juggling several project recently—which has kept me from blogging the last few weeks... Definitely one of the difficult things about balancing a full-time design job in addition to freelance assignments!

But that means I've been busy which is great; I'll be updating my website soon with some of the new book cover designs I've recently worked on, and in the meantime wanted to share my latest piece.

Another friend commissioned me to paint their wedding venue; they'll be creating prints of this to give to their guests at the reception. The venue is at the Breakers hotel in Florida—the architecture of the place is really interesting and it was fun to paint something tropical in the dreary middle of NYC winter! I'm pretty happy with the final piece and it's always fun to do something special for a friend.

As great as it was to have the opportunity to do this project, I'll likely not take any more commissions of this sort for awhile. I'm trying to churn out some new personal work to build my commercial/illustration and graphic design portfolios, and these kinds of projects are hindering me from moving along with that.  I'll eventually return to being open to commissioned landscapes and portraits—but have to keep my focus on other things for a bit...

Inspiration from life

I usually keep from blogging about personal and/or non-work related things—but sometimes life just intersects with work, when something so lovely or beautiful or exciting or interesting happens, that my creative mind just begins to explode with possibilities! The 10-day adventure I took over the holidays—first to Colorado, then Hawaii—was just that for me; and just way too amazing to not share a few tidbits!

I feel like most of the pics I took on the trip are disappointing...I must be the world's worst photographer. (Guess I didn't have enough interest in my art school photo classes to retain much! Or, I could blame my little point and shoot camera....) Anyway-clearly, my natural abilities lie in a pen or pencil and not a lens. But it's also partly just because there is no way for anyone to fully capture the beauty of experiencing things so majestic and amazing as the snow covered mountain tops of the Rockies, the black sand beaches of Maui, or the sun rising above the clouds at 10,000 feet on a volcanic crater. These are absolutely some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen; I also experienced so many fun, adventurous things—like snowboarding for the first time, hiking through a bamboo forest, climbing waterfalls, cliff jumping and surfing! (and yes, all in the same week!)

The trip was incredibly rejuvenating for me. As much as I love living in New York City, I can't believe how refreshing it can be to leave and be out in such big, open, fresh-aired spaces! I haven't had the opportunity to travel as much as I would like, and so for me, this was seeing a world I didn't know existed; It made me feel like I walked through a door to a whole other side of life, just waiting for me to begin to experience it. I find inspiration for my work in so many places—other cultures, other artists, music; But, I feel like the best inspiration comes from personal experiences like these and I'm really excited to digest and translate some of this into some new work.

Boulder/Nederland CO

Took some amazing hikes—beautiful views!

Maui

Everyday started and ended with a beautiful sky

Stopped for a hike on the Road to Hana to climb some waterfalls

Black and red sand beaches on the way to Hana

Stopped at this tidepool on the way to Hana—one of my favorite spots of the trip! Did my first cliff-jumping here!

Watching the sunrise at the Haleakalā Crater

10,000 ft elevation—above the clouds!

"House of the Sun"

Such an amazing morning

Yay 2011!

Happy New Year to all!
I'm a little late catching up with my blogging—2011 has already been off to a very fast-paced, busy start!

I'm full of inspiration and exciting new ideas for this year including some plans to begin to sell some products and prints featuring my art, as well as branch out to some new markets with both my design and illustration work. But—first project in the works: relaunching my website with a brand-new look! Keep an eye out for that soon.

In the meantime, I've been working with some new publishing clients on some book cover projects. I can't share those for awhile, but it's been great to start the year with some new relationships.

I also finished up my sketchbook for the Arthouse Co-op's The Sketchbook Project. The touring national exhibit begins next month at The Brooklyn Art Library in Williamsburg, with a reception on February 19th. From there, the sketchbook collection will exhibit in 9 different US cities through July of this year, including stops in Chicago, Austin, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and more! Over 28,000 artist participated in this project so definitely keep an eye out for the exhibit in a city near you! (Schedule is on the Arthouse Co-op website)

Here are a few of my last pages from "Great hopes and Massive Failures" (a.k.a. a visual diary of my years as a single woman in New York City's sometimes vicious, sometimes hilarious, dating scene!)  I had a blast with this project, and even found myself inspired to keep some other ongoing theme-based sketchbooks...which I'll share some of soon!

Happy Holidays!

I'm very excited that I had the opportunity to illustrate and design Puffin Books' holiday card. It was a fun little piece that also allowed for some hand-lettering, and will be sent to many of the talent artists and authors who work with Penguin.

I'm off for an amazing holiday adventure to Colorado and Hawaii--so sure to have lots of inspiration to start off a new, productive year! In the meantime,   

Happy holidays to everyone, and all the best for a happy and healthy 2011!

Another sketch...

Just have to share one more from the sketchbook project...this one is one of my faves so far

New painting

I'm getting the BEST Christmas gift this year--my boyfriend is taking me on an amazing trip—first to Colorado, then to Hawaii to ring in the new year! Either I've been REALLY good, or he's just the best boyfriend ever. (I'm pretty sure it's the latter!)
Anyway--really hard to match a gift like that--especially because his birthday is also on Christmas day! So, I decided to make him a painting. I was a little unsure if it would make a good gift for hanging in his bachelor pad since my style is so feminine...but I used the inspiration of our upcoming hawaiian adventure and created this image.

....and, he loved it!! :)