Aging Farm Equipment Love

Have I mentioned that I love printing? I think I have. A friend liked the tractor art I did for the Fresh Fridays at the Northside Farmers Market and asked me to do something for her son. My practical nature makes me love an assignment so I tried printing the art on a wooden "box" frame. Not to toot my own horn but I love the way it turned out. It makes me excited to print more things directly onto wood. Maybe collage the background and overprint an image? We'll see. I'm supposed to be packing for the big move in about six weeks. In the meantime, a quick shot of the tractor print on wood. If I can steal some time I plan to print a couple more for my etsy and supermarket stores.

Before and After?

So I mentioned that we're selling our house and eyeing another fixer upper (WHAT are we thinking!?) and a friend suggested that we capture the process on film (but not really film - just little digital blips of zeroes and ones that magically turn themselves into photos that people can see on their computers a million miles away - yeah, that). So I'm thinking about it and I wonder if I can be that organized. I tend to jump into a project and a third of the way through realize that we're completing a total transformation and should have really snapped one simple "before" shot. Still thinking about it. Once we're slightly further along in the process of buying this place I will post some of the MLS listing photos which will suffice as "before" shots. And in honor of this undertaking, and because I'm ambivalent about leaving the place we're in now and have called home longer than any other place, I will post a couple of before/afters to tide us over. More to come.

Early morning with the boy

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Every once in awhile I get a good night's sleep and I get to wake up early with the boy and it's heavenly in the morning. We've been having unseasonably cool weather this summer so it's actually chilly this morning. Jeans, sweater, coffee, etc. We're up on our third floor watching some Thomas. The windows are open and the birds are singing. I love moments like this. It's about to get super crazy around here. We sold our hulking, Victorian rowhouse in the city and we're eyeing a 1910 red brick in a small town. The next few months (and years!) promise hours and hours of sorting, cleaning, packing, dumpster filling, sanding, painting, tiling, etc. What are we getting ourselves into? We just finished five years of all of the above. I can whip myself into a panicked frenzy in no time. But for now we will just sit and listen to the birds and the persnickety British trains and enjoy this morning.

Illustration Friday! - "Worn"

Worn.I love this week's topic. I am drawn to old things that show their history. You can't fake age as gorgeous as the frayed edges of this book cover.Check out all of the other submissions here.

Giant sunflower tote bags

A long time ago I did this woodcut of a sunflower and I've used it a few times on cards and mixed media pieces. Summer is just starting to arrive here in southwestern PA and I got the itch to print up some tote bags for beach trips. I started out simple with three bag options and one ink option but I'll certainly do more (especially if the orders start flooding my inbox as they surely will) in the next couple of days/weeks. I can't say enough how happy mixing up ink and pulling prints makes me. Totes available here and here if you're interested!

String 'Em Up!

I love these things. I can't help it. I love the idea and the letters and the design and the craftiness of it all. We strung one together for our first Open House last week and I'm definitely going to string one up in the boy's room sometime soon. You can get your very own here (fully customizable).Full disclosure: I work for L2. I love these guys  - always have, always will. No one is more willing to indulge my whims and give support to my ideas. This is a super busy time of year for us - thankfully. The Stationery Show in NYC was a success and now we have tons of orders to fill. Get printing, little print gnomes, people want their goodies.

Birds + Bees

I mentioned that some super awesome woman bought a bunch of my pieces from etsy. Well, she practically cleaned me out. I started a couple of pieces and hoped to have them up last week but, as you well know by now, I am an ace procrastinator so I now have only one done. The other is languishing on my table, waiting to be painted. The right color hasn't hit me and I actually have some ideas for pattern so...we'll see. I'm totally out of sorts right now because for a long time we've been in limbo about where to live. We live in an amazing, huge, old victorian row house in the city right now but it's...complicated. There are countless great things about living here but a couple of really bad things about living here. And with the sweetest kid on earth in our lives, the bad things loom large. So...we fell in love with a house today and we're spinning out of control about what steps to take next. Hence the out-of-sortsness. I'm very sensitive about "Place" and "Home" so this is a big issue for me and for S, as well. Sorry for the ramble. I'll shush myself and post the new piece - a pretty bird for May. Goodnight, all.

New stuff in the works - finally!

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Got the burst of Spring Fever energy I needed and I started two new pieces this past week. I have the ink work done and now I'm just mulling over colors. I got so lucky this week, too. A "customer" bought SEVEN pieces from etsy! "Customer" sounds so lame. I consider this person a friend now. I might invite her to my kid's third birthday party, I like her so much.

Anyhow, as great as it is to sell seven pieces (I still can't believe it) it certainly cleans me out and make my etsy and supermarket storefronts look especially bare. Thank God for the burst of energy... Here's a quick snap from the phone camera. I have to admit that I quite like the quality (or non-quality) of the phone pics. I hope to have them painted and varnished and posted by the end of the week.

I thought Spring had sprung but Winter snuck back in

 Two days ago we had our first picnic up on the Overlook and today woke to snow on the ground and more coming down. I keep  laughing because it seems odd and dream-like. This is a "sketch" (in collage) for one of the main images in the Beatrice's Birthmark series. The final illustrations had to be trimmed down to three colors in order to be able to screenprint them  - by hand. But I still love the sketches as much as the finals. Happy snow day, everyone!Oh, here is the final illustration on a greeting card. They sell these over at L2 Design Collective, by the way. 

Spring has sprung

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wall of ideas and inspiration

and I like it. No, I love it. Every year I wonder, do I love Spring or Fall better? I think the winner is Fall but I am in love with Spring right now. Everything is a riot of life. Life finds a way, no matter what. The frozen ground still begets tiny, bright green shoots that will eventually be amazing, strong things that take over our yard. Unreal. I'm feeling excited to make some new pieces and I have stacks of bare boxes and piles of scraps and bits of things to make make make. I am currently working on a series of alphabet cards for a new product for L2 - stay tuned for more details on that. We're heading to NYC in May for the National Stationery Show so now begins the flurry of pre-show activity for us. Here are some pics in honor of Spring and honeybees and hopefulness.

Rainy Day oldie

I'm going through some old pictures on the hunt for something specific. I found this and miss it. I do actually get sad when I sell a piece. I don't make enough to get sick of any of it so when it's gone, I feel the loss. I then wonder if I'll be able to make something to take its place. I love making collages and need to do more of it. That's the bottom line. Get back to work, missy.

Warmer...warmer...

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I am so stoked to report that I coated my first screens in my rinky-dink, basement darkroom this afternoon. The boy is asleep and it's snowing and the time seemed right to mix up the photo-emulsion and get to it. Hopefully this portends an avalanche of inspiration and printing! A great friend came by today with her girl and a box of cinnamon rolls. We spent a couple of hours watching the kids try each other on for size. She asked me to do an assemblage piece for her brother's 40th birthday. It is so great to be asked to create something "for the man who has everything." Thank you for your support! Off to enjoy the snow.

Welcome 2009

Dec 31,2008

Jan 1, 2009

It's going to be a good one, I can tell. We were so lucky to be invited to our friends' cabin on a lake in the woods. We built a fire and baked cookies and drank wine and watched the boys wreak havoc. Is there a better way to ring in a new year? I am hopeful and optimistic about this year. There are so many good things to enjoy in just this first month: NFL playoffs (go Steelers); the inauguration of Mr. Barack Obama. I can not wait to celebrate this; snowstorms (fingers crossed); our new truck (thank you again and again, DPMF); the 36th birthday of my awesome husband - I hope that I can find some time to fit in some painting and collaging and illustrating! Happy 2009 to all of you.

Must make this happen

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I love printing. Screenprinting. Blockprinting. Etching. Potato printing. Whatever. If it involves ink and something to put the ink down with, I love it. I don't do enough of it and I'm hoping (begging, praying, rain-dancing, holding my breath, everything short of reading "THE SECRET!") to make it happen soon. We have a huge basement that's mostly filled with junk but there is ample space for a terrific screenprinting studio. I have 99% of it already done...for real. I can't seem to get the last 1% done but one of the brothers is arriving in less than two weeks and, since he helped build the darkroom, wants to see a return on his investment. In the meantime, I did a little block print for the holidays and then printed it on anything I could find that would accept ink. I put the box on etsy and will use the envelopes for all the gift cards I will give out this year (sorry to ruin the surprise). Merry Christmas, all.

Baby, it's cold outside

The Perfect Tree

As I type it's so blustery and dreary outside. Exactly my kind of day. In honor of the weather and the holidays, I did a piece today. If you know me you know that I am kid-crazy about Christmas. I still like to sleep under the tree when I can. I'm certainly going to be one of those cat ladies that puts her tree up after Halloween and takes it down sometime in April. Anyhow - thanks to everyone who is checking out the etsy site and a big kiss to those of you who have bought pieces. Happy Holidays, all.

Not much feels better than being inspired

The family made this drawing the other night.

I love my studio but it's a mess. Here's the chaos: The wee one is awake so I'm out.

Fall finally arrived and that means that I am in my element. Cold weather, beautiful colors, crunchy leaves, fires in the kitchen for family breakfast, hot cider...it's all magic. And, I'm INSPIRED. I haven't been in a long time but the stars aligned and I'm thankful. I'm working on lots of projects for people that I dig knowing which makes it all even better.  

Thank you, Drew White

Sing, Little Birdy

Drew White is an AMAZING painter and great friend. He's been working like a dog curating shows in Orlando, Florida. He just included me in a show last month. It just came down last week and I'm happy to have a few of the pieces back (and super happy to have sold a piece!). Thank you, Drew. Check out Drew's site here. Here is one of the pieces that came back to me (which is a gift to my awesome husband). More images to see on my flickr site and stuff for sale on my etsy site.