Daily Pattern : By the Sea

Francesca and I were talking about vacations today. The closest that I'm going to come to a vacation in the next several months will be a trip to my parents house in Wisconsin. Though it's no tropical paradise (I'd take a cold paradise over a warm one any day), it'll be a nice, relaxing time away from the city.

I made this pattern with a feeling as my inspiration. I tend to savor those moments when I'm alone. I was thinking about those moments when it's late at night and there is no one up except for the moths. I was also thinking about the few times I've been able to get away and just be. I was upstairs in my home studio tonight to relax and ended up making this pattern. It started as a late night doodle, then turned into this. I was just sitting here thinking. I've had a long day filled with all sorts of projects, people, and places to be. I had just an hour and a half to myself before bed-time.

If this is as close as I can get to a lonely sea voyage, I'll take it. At least I'll have this moment to myself.


A Detail shot of the sea

101 Florals, a new pattern project

I'd like to introduce the newest pattern challenge: 101 florals

101 florals is a collaborative project between Lindsay Nohl and Llew Mejia.

Each week Lindsay and Llew will battle it out as they create dueling patterns around the same floral topics. Weekly flowers are chosen as inspiration, process is shown and progress is made, and the final patterns will be launched side by side. They won't stop until they reach the 101st pattern : A HUGE collaborative work by both artists.

This blog is here to showcase their love for patterns and to juxtapose their styles side by side as they battle it out.

This project was born out of a half-serious conversation about what new and giant projects were on the horizon for both artists. Llew had just graduated and completed his 78 piece Senior Thesis at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and had created and hung many pieces of work for a dual show the week following, and Lindsay had just spent the last several months getting Light Grey Art Lab launched and on it's feet, teaching a couple classes for the spring semester at MCAD, and making it through the busy season at Paper Bicycle.

So now, without further ado, Here's the very first post of Lindsay & Llew's new project!

POPPIES



You remember that part of the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy and the rest of the group falls asleep in the poppy field? Me, too.

In fact, while I'm on a Wizard of Oz tangent, I used to want to be the Scarecrow when I was little. My mom made me some tiny pink corduroy pants with patches all over them and I used to wander around singing "If I only had a brain." I suppose there are weirder things I could have done as a kid. I think this was around the same time that I would toddle around with my sister and tell on her when I found her eating dirt out of the potted plants in our sunroom.

C'est la vie!

Wish us luck on our new project. I wonder what Llew will do...?

GirlCrush Minneapolis with Jennifer Davis & the Jealous Curator

Today I woke up and headed over to the SooVac Gallery in Minneapolis to attend GirlCrush Minneapolis : a workshop by the Jealous Curator featuring my very favorite artist, Jennifer Davis.



I was really excited because there were to be 14 ladies there, all creative people - ready to chat about art and the creative life (all of my favorite topics!) Plus, I was super excited to hear what Jennifer had to say about her own practice.



We had some great talks revolving around being creative and everyone was eager to jump in and chat at length about their own practice and their own struggles as a creative person. It was enlightening and fascinating to see how many different types of artists were there from Minneapolis.



We had a morning filled with great discussion and then an afternoon packed with creating. Each one of us was given a Plywerk panel to create on and Jennifer donated supplies and tears from magazines she had collected over the years.



I must have gotten so deep into my drawing that I missed the "collage" part of the project. Whoops. I don't suppose that's really that big of a surprise, but I ended up "finishing" a piece anyway with ink and acrylic.



After helping run a workshop last weekend (more to come on this soon!), this was a welcome break from the craziness that we've been working through. It was a great opportunity to take a day for myself and really enjoy separating myself from the work for a second, to do something for myself.



Besides treating myself to some "me" time -- I was treated to a really cute array of sweets and even more amazing gifts from Jennifer and the Jealous Curator! I just wanted to say thanks to those guys for the wonderful day! I'm looking forward to keeping in touch and seeing what everyone makes of the days to come!

Call for Art at Light Grey Art Lab!

Light Grey Art Lab has a new call for art! This time it's a little rowdy! Type lovers - if you're interested in being a part of a 50 person poster exhibition celebrating all those four letter words (and of course, the phrases, exclamations, the monologues and the rest of the nonsensical things we blurt out) - this is what you've been waiting for! Head on over HERE to post a link to your portfolio to be considered for the upcoming show! The exhibition will be featured in their brick and mortar gallery in Minneapolis as well as online & in their shop. Tell all of your type-loving friends and make sure to get your name on the list before July 3 to be considered!

CALL FOR ART - Light Grey Art Lab : Night of the Exquisite Corpse

Interested in participating in a 50 person collaborative paper-toy project? Curators Adam Hoppus and Chris Schons have created a fantastic event and they are holding a call for art! If you're interested in creating one of 50 undead paper toys, just make your way over to the Light Grey Art Lab blog and leave a link to your portfolio/ blog in the comments section! Hurry! Entries are due this SUNDAY JUNE 10! Please spread the word to all of your art friends / zombie lovers!

Succulent Terrariums Desktop Background!

Well, I did some quick Photoshop sketching tonight and came up with this little guy after being inspired by my activities earlier tonight. I looked at it a couple times before deciding it'd make a cute desktop background and decided I'd put it up here for you guys! So! From me to you! Here you go!

Download a 1600 x 1200 desktop background here!

I'm recovering from a cold that hit me a couple days ago. It's not fun being sick, but at least you have an excuse to lie about and be unproductive. I had an extremely unproductive second half of Sunday, but in the beginning of the day I taught a Succulent Terrariums class at Light Grey Art Lab to a handful of green-thumbs. It was a lot of fun (though I was trying to pretend I wasn't woozy from this cold!).

I had a lot of left-overs from the class - which is always a perk! And tonight I finally sat down and made up for slacking the night before. I made a handful of terrariums while sitting out on my porch tonight. Here are a couple of them!



Though things have been busy all over the board, I was very happy to sit down and make these little guys. I think I may just have to give away some of them as gifts!