All week I’ve been working on three entries to a show up in Michigan. The theme of the show is “Lines.” Lines of text, lines of people, powerlines… etc. Everything is up for consideration.
I’ve known about this show for a few weeks and seeing as most of my work is made up of small, thin lines in succession – was super excited to enter.

I made three 18 x 24 pencil drawings of plant leaves. From left to right – Monstera, Aloe, Royal Palm.

These are a few of my favorite moments within each drawing. I just loved how the slightest variation in pencil pressure made a shadow or a ripple on the surface of the leaf without me really thinking about it. A lot of random volume occurred in these pieces, so the end result was entirely unplanned and a surprise to me as well. Those are my favorite.

Fingers crossed they are received by the jury in a similar fashion. We’ll see

It’s no secret I love plants. Our home is 3 ferns short of a jungle and I love it.

I’ve also been playing with plants as a decoration for type recently (art mimics life?) and was thrilled to be able to pull out some of my experimentations for a new project.

A few weeks ago I started a project for a terrific friend of mine; the goal to create a sign/framed image with her name to be hung in her new office. I wrestled with a few different types of hand-illustrated lettering, but nothing really felt right. It looked ‘ok’, but it certainly wasn’t exciting.

After a full day of sketching, erasing, more sketching and more erasing, I found myself flipping through my sketch book for ideas. And whambam, found the above page.

Immediately inspired and excited to try this method of lettering for her project, I started to work.

5 hours later, it was complete.

It was a joy to work on, start to finish… which has inspired me to do a few more posters in this same style. On my list of words to illustrate, “Love” was immediately suggested, as was “Peace.” It was such a great project, I’m totally taking requests. Any thoughts on other words?

Having officially opened in November of 2012, I am ashamed to say this was my first visit.

I remember hearing about the groundbreaking back in 2010 and even got a chance to walk by during construction in the hours before a friends on-campus wedding, but this is the first time I’ve been able to step inside.

Before that however, I’d have to make it past the outside. I must have walked around the museum 3 or 4 times; gazing up at the grand angles, admiring the lines of each facade and just drooling over the building in general.

Once I *eventually* made it through the doors, we proceeded through the exhibits.

Imran Qureshi: The God of Small Things

Excuse the shadow…

I just returned from a wonderful week up in Michigan — filled with flowers, arts (see follow-up post on our museum trips) and delicious craft beer.

We started out in Lansing after attending the How beautiful is this stage?

We stayed an extra day in East Lansing to walk around the MSU campus (where my husband and I met/graduated) and to make our way over to the new art museum. I’ll cover that trip in an additional post shortly

From there it was off to Grand Rapids, where we met with more friends, visited Founders (finally), the UICA and a shop I’ve been dying to see; Have Company. Truly a wonderful (and very full) day.

Once back in Ann Arbor, I decided to walk around my parents yard photographing plants and thinking about how I wanted to play with the Sunprint kit I brought up with me.

Pretty fun dead rose leaf.

I ended up convincing the husband, my brother and his girlfriend as well as my mom into making a few sunprints with me, so it turned into an awesome group project. We made a mess.

We’re back in Florida now, and I’m busy updating, sketching, printing… all those things I couldn’t get to while away. We had a wonderful trip – but it’s always so nice to be home

I adore living in Miami.
Aside from our mouthwatering guava pastries and the delicious/ever-flowing café con leche, having access to the water is a huge plus for me.

As of a year or so ago I’ve been extending my water adventures to the realm of paddleboarding, and while I am pretty sure I am not very skilled at the activity — I love it.

Taking my usual coastal exploration slowly and relatively silently into the bays and channels around Miami has been a wonderful source of inspiration and meditation for my work. My paddle board (affectionately named Lulubelle) has given me a literal platform with which to observe and enjoy the natural world of South Florida from a totally different perspective.

Also, Pelicans.

Pelicans have always been one of my favorite animals. Being able to paddle out to the buoys and old abandoned docks they frequent has given me a chance to get up and close and personal with these beauties, and I am so grateful for it.

I went paddleboarding this past weekend up at Oleta and while I didn’t see any Pelicans I did manage to get stuck in a small storm. As invigorating as it was to fight the rain and the waves, having a friend in a kayak tow me to the rest of the boats was incredibly welcome.

After I returned home (and napped), I set to drawing the pelicans I didn’t happen to see that particular day.

Finished!

I added the gilded triangle this morning to finish up the 13 x 19 illustration. I love quick little projects like this, but am now just aching to get back on the paddle board and find something new to draw.

Or more pelicans.

I had been trying to find a little spot I could set up to photograph my larger prints for a few weeks, when I remembered we had a ‘party room’ on the 11th floor of our building.

So I and my trusty husband/assistant packed all the larger frames, pillowcases and prints into our grocery trolley and headed upstairs, hoping it would be empty.

It was indeed empty, but one of the caveats of having so many large beautiful windows is having every slightly shiny surface turned into a mirror. Almost every decent place to set a frame came along with some serious, serious glare. Looking back on it, I should have just removed the glass from each frame.

Lesson learned.

I took a few pictures while we were up there, but will probably need to re-photograph everything without the glass.

All was not lost though, at least I got a few good shots of the pillowcases
Have a great weekend!

Geodes. Geodes.

And more geodes.

That is literally all I’ve been able to draw the past few weeks. I’ve made sketches, small paintings, large paintings and now, pillowcases.

The pillowcases were more out of necessity however, as our Ikea couch pillows are starting to get a little flat and I wanted to spruce up our living area just a bit.

I used two of 4 geode illustrations from my set of 4 canvas paintings as a basis for the canvas pillowcases. The canvas-like fabric is soft, supple and takes the ink really well. Always encouraging.

For now, these guys are going straight to the couch. I’ll see how they hold up to everyday use (spilled items, ferret claws, smushing by various bodies and laundering) before adding new versions to my shop. I may be off my geode kick by then too (one can only hope) and will experiment with a few new designs for the pillows. Any suggestions?

As always, thanks for stopping by!

So, I have a new niece and she is just the cutest.

Seriously. I don’t think they make them any cuter.

To welcome her to the world (and to her new nursery) I designed a little illustration with her name in a heart-shaped field of flowers.
Below are few pictures of the process leading up to the final image
I hope everyone has a fantastic memorial weekend!

I’ve worked with some antsy models before; idly picking at fabric during a figure drawing session; answering the phone while holding a pose, or constantly changing the pose that was *supposed* to be held for 45 minutes… but nothing, nothing, could compare to these guys.
I was lucky if I could get 10 seconds of stillness before they’d bound across the floor, crash into each other and start a vicious playfight that would roll across the living room and into the kitchen. Maybe I could get a foot sketched out before then. Just maybe.

Needless to say, I worked from pictures for this one.

Can’t really be mad, when this is what they look like when not causing chaos and destruction.

This illustration was created for the 2014 Alaska Ferret Symposium and will be available during the auction. It features our little fuzzy terror dumplings, Sigrun and Stitch. I was thrilled to be asked to participate and I wish them a fantastic event!

Prints are also up on Etsy

On a sidenote, I am loving working with pencil and pen like this. Suggestions for the next animal?