Birds at Starbucks

Several weeks ago, after a quick trip outside of the city, I stopped at a Starbucks near Penn Station, before heading back to Brooklyn. I grabbed a water, an egg, found a seat, pulled out my sketchbook, and began drawing birds. Minutes later, a woman sat next to me and seemed to want to talk. I was annoyed by this at first, because I am like that, but I quickly snapped out of it, and had myself one of the most delightful and memorable conversations to date.

She was an artist (when she was young, she studied under Joseph Beuys), a teacher, a mother of three (all grown), a divorcee (twice), a cancer survivor, and an incredibly passionate person. She spoke fast and with tremendous sincerity, but she was also jovial and free-spirited. We spoke for about an hour before she left for the Beatrix Potter show at the Morgan Library.

This was one of my sketches while we sat together. He is now forever linked to her and that awesome hour at Starbucks.

School Bus Scratch

Yesterday, I sold another School Bus Scratch tee in my Big Bridge Studios Skreened shop, and it reminded me of how many designs I've created over the past few years that were based on Archer's toys. I realized, for the very first time, how much being around toys, and watching my son's joyful interaction with them, has inspired my own playfulness. It is quite possible that the infamous "scoo buhs" (below) is responsible for kicking my creativity back into gear, and reminding me that creating is actually a lot of play time. Thanks School Bus!

This design was hand-printed on my little Gocco machine, while Archer napped, and was one of my first offerings in my Big Bridge Studios Etsy shop.

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Mother's Day collaging

One of the my favorite parts of working with so many cutouts these days, is the unexpected interest of my son. As I'd mentioned in this puppet show post, Archer and I have been using construction paper for spontaneous art-making a lot lately. On Mother's Day, I began noodling around with my scissors and the various envelopes from my birthday cards. As I'd hoped, once I began cutting shapes, Archer's interest was piqued, and he began participating too.

We assembled various things with the scraps lying all over my desk, and then I eventually went back to work on my book illustrations. To my surprise, Archer did not immediately go back to watching his Mario Bros. instructional video. He instead grabbed crayons and more scraps, and created this raccoon and a Mom puppet. I did add the eyes and nose to complete the raccoon, but the Mom was entirely his own assembly. Check out the shoes!!

A Painted Pot Mother's Day

I have been going to the Painted Pot for almost three years with my son, but I have never once painted anything. I guess I was intimidated by the unforgiving free-hand painting. My expectations for myself were too high, and I couldn't bring myself to risk it. Seems so strange to encourage my son to grab a brush and go nuts, yet I did not even try.

After participating in the Empty Bowls Project, however, I was ready to enjoy myself and just go paint. So for Mother's Day gifts for Archer's grandmothers, my husband, Archer and I went back to the Painted Pot. This time, I painted! Mine is the shaker with the birds. I can't wait to go back again.

Empty Bowls Project

I was recently invited to participate in the Empty Bowls Project, here in Bay Ridge. To raise funds for local food pantries, several artists came together to paint ceramic bowls, that would then be fired and put up for sale at the event.

To me, glazing pottery seems very spontaneous, with not a lot of room for error. I wasn't sure what I was going to create, and I felt fairly nervous when I arrived to paint. Although it did, in fact, prove to be difficult to hold my brush steady, and I do wish I would have extended some of lines and used a brighter blue, I really enjoyed myself. It was actually quite relieving to wing it and move on.

This is my bowl after it was fired. I had also tried an interesting brush technique on the sides of the bowl, but it sold before I arrived at the event, and I'm not sure how that part turned out.

Stunning Seattle

Several weeks ago, an old friend from middle school contacted me about an upcoming mural contest in Seattle. I absolutely love murals, and I've done several for New York Cares over the years, so I looked into it immediately.

Choosing one of four humongous walls was easy for me. I chose the smallest one.

From the start, I sketched out a ton of ideas, ranging from birds to floral designs to Alice in Wonderland, but I ended up submitting my first idea: lyrics from Devo's Gates of Steel.

Baby/mama

My first storefront sign design went up a couple of weeks ago in my neighborhood! It was a great experience, mainly because my clients, the owners of baby/mama, were absolutely wonderful to work with.

When I created this logo, I was slightly nervous about how it would translate into a large, three-dimensional sign -- would it read the same way? Would the safety pin show up enough? Would the colors look similar? Well, it turned out beautifully, as you can see below.

The shop opened their doors with a successful grand opening party on Mother's Day. If you are ever in the Bay Ridge area in Brooklyn, I highly recommend you stop by this store. I'm so happy they are here!