Kudos to MOO.COM and Thank you Staples!

I am attending PrintSource tomorrow, and I'm pretty excited! Printsource New York, The Premier Market for Surface and Textile Design in the USA, holds three shows a year in New York City. The Show covers such industries as men's, children's and women's apparel, bed and bath, kitchen and tabletop, paper goods and stationery, wallcoverings, window fashions as well as other surface and textile design applications.

Soooo, of course today I was scrambling and running errands to pick up some new business cards and large color reproductions of my surface designs. And needless to say, I'm thrilled with the results!!

These are my new business cards from MOO.COM, right here in Providence, Rhode Island (although main branch is in the UK). They did a FABULOUS job, great price and quality. They are super for artists, craftspeople, designers, as they allow you to upload up to 50 different images for the back of the card. Those are actually some of my biz cards flipped over arranged around the front side of my card.

And here are some of the larger color prints of my designs, which I had done at Staples. It really is wonderful to see them in print and off of my computer screen!

These are "Nero" approved (my kitty's name)

After some cropping, into the book they go, and off to sleep I go! 4 AM wake up call tomorrow morn to catch the train! I'll report back after the show :)

My work featured....

Hi all! One of my designs, along with some of my fellow e-coursemates work, was featured in Beth Nicholls' blog "Do What You Love For Life".  This was from Module 1 "The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design". We've all just finished up Module 2, lots of exciting things on the horizon ;))

click here>>> http://dowhatyouloveforlife.com/blog/2012/07/21/pattern-course-module-1-showcase-part-5/

Señor Skully-contest for Beta Fashion

Just entered a fun contest at Beta Fashion, "Looking forward to Autumn/Winter the topic of this project therefore is skulls. We're looking for scarf designs that embrace this topic and represent it in a beautiful and contemporary way."  Yep, skulls. Gah.

Well, I've always been fascinated with those decorative skulls that you see relating to the holiday "Dias de los Muertos", and I think that the style of my drawing and work fits it exactly!  Dia de los Muertos is a traditional Meso-American holiday dedicated to the ancestors; it honors both death and the cycle of life. In Mexico, neighbors gather in local cemeteries to share food, music, and fun with their extended community, both living and departed. The celebration acknowledges that we still have a relationship with our ancestors and loved ones that have passed away.

Okay, shameless self-promotion time! Vote for my "Señor Skully"!!! Here's the link!
https://www.betafashion.com/competitionratedesign.aspx?SubmissionID=5812

full size scarf

Beta Fashion is an online scarf shop with a difference – they collaborate with designers from around the world to create unique, creative pieces. It’s an open platform where designers are given themed projects and the public chooses, by way of votes, which designs should make it to the shops.

If you want to Pinterest any of my artwork or photography, please attach a link to this blog and give me credit. If you don't, I will find you and hurt you ;)

Stationery Project-Zenyatta Mandala

This project took a lot of thought! We had to design a stationery set according to a brief from Rachael Taylor for The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design. I've gotten a lot better at not procrastinating, but I think that I tend to overthink things, maybe it's because this is all so new for me (but I truly love it!!!) This one took me a while to finish.

I called this group "Zenyatta Mandala". I was listening to the Police (love Sting!!) while drawing a part of this, hence the "Zenyatta" part of the name. Haha, maybe I'm showing my age here, "Zenyatta Mondatta" debuted in 1980!  "Mandala" is a Sanskrit word meaning "circle", which is one of the motifs throughout.

I LOVE how this came out, I even used it as my Twitter background!

People responded really well in my Flickr group to this mix of patterns.

I would actually love this for a cosmetics bag!!

If you want to Pinterest any of my artwork or photography, please attach a link to this blog and give me credit. If you don't, I will find you and hurt you ;)

My staff

ahhhh...I THOUGHT I had posted this a month ago, but I found it in my "draft" box. Yay me. Always learning!

I'd like to take a moment and introduce you to my staff. Their hard work and dedication has gotten me to where I am today ;)

All hail Nero. AKA "Buddy". Alpha cat male. And the hardest cat on the planet to photograph because of his black, shiny, mink-like fur!

This is Java, my special Bengal kitty. He's part Asian leopard cat, and he's a bit of a nut. But I love him bunches!

The lovely Luna. My constant companion, I am never out of her sight. She's got the prettiest coloring too, peachy belly!

View from my chair at my desk. Never a dull moment. This is Java and Luna supervising me.

And I can't forget to mention Henry the Hall Cat. My new friend. Our relationship is based solely on his need for me to bring him his catnip fix from the garden.

This is Henry (see what happens to his tail when I bring him catnip?) and his bro Mac. Two lovely gingers from next door.

Like I said before, never a dull moment here. They are all such a constant source of enjoyment and really make my day a brighter one :)

Oh, and if you want to Pinterest any of my artwork or photography from here, please attach a link to this blog and give me credit. If you don't, I will find you and hurt you ;)

Gigantor Doodle Board!

Just posting a little progress picture of my Gigantor Doodle Board. This project has become really a fun one! We were given this to do as part of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design, Module 2 course, and at first I was terrified. I procrastinate, for the most part, when working on large surfaces. I never was comfortable painting on a large canvas, that giant, blank, white square or rectangle kind of frightened me, lol!

This piece is on a 20x30 inch illustration board, done with Sharpie markers! I used a few Zentangle patterns that I found on the 'net, but 95% are my own doodles, flowers, and stuff that flows out of my head. I used to do count-cross-stitch, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, and I find that it brings exactly the same relaxing quality when I work on it.

If you want to Pinterest any of my artwork or photography, please attach a link to this blog and give me credit. If you don't, I will find you and hurt you ;)

Lately? Obsessed with Sunflowers...

"For tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun....." ~The Beatles~

I really love sunflowers! It's the first time that I've grown them. A few of these pictures are from my neighbor's roof top garden plot of sunflowers in bloom, mine are the ones that are in bud.

This one reminds me of that "Body Snatchers" movie!

These came out very surreal! From my iPhone using Hipstamatic app. A very low humidity day!

These are not photoshopped or enhanced, see the bee?

Two bees on this one!

If you want to Pinterest any of my artwork or photography, please attach a link to this blog and give me credit. If you don't, I will find you and hurt you ;)

Jardin Loco

I've been a busy girl, I really have to get back to blogging more! Mid-summer vacation time is over, the super-hot weather is creeping in, and I'm back at my desk "working" away on new ideas, doodles, and patterns in the comfort of air conditioning. When you do what you love for your job, it's never really like "work" at all :))

This pattern is named "Jardin Loco", which means "Crazy Garden" in Spanish. I named it that because of all of the bright colors and wildly patterned flowers, typical in my designwork lately. Hope that you like it! All of these patterns repeat, so I think I'll put them on sale at Spoonflower. I'll keep you posted.

If you want to Pinterest any of my artwork or photography, please attach a link to this blog and give me credit. If you don't, I will find you and hurt you ;)

Out and About

I LOVE taking pictures everywhere I go with my trusty iPhone. I actually drive my friends or family kind of nuts because I stop all of the time to take photographs of things that catch my eye or spark my interest.

I take pictures for reference for future designs, of color combinations, of unique shapes, and sometimes of funny things and people ;)



Window of "Pinkberry", Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"PinkBerry", Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts 

"Urban Outfitters" neato window display

"Urban Outfitters", Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts

LOVE the colors here, buoys in an alley in Rockport, Massachusetts

Felted purse at a shop in Rockport, Massachusetts. MY kind of flowers!

Felted purse at a shop in Rockport, Massachusetts. Thought these were cool shapes, a lot like my designs.

If you want to Pinterest any of my artwork or photography, please attach a link to this blog and give me credit. If you don't, I will find you and hurt you ;)

And So It Grows...

A little update on my gigantor doodle board... I've been trying to draw on it a bit every night after dinner. It's kind of relaxing.

I must remember to photograph it in the morning light!

Here is the link to the original post about the project. Enjoy! http://groovity.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-gigantor-doodle-project.html