101Florals : Cosmos, Inked!

Tonight I was getting ready for my Tools of the Trade Class at MCAD and I got lost in messing around with ink. I figured since I was already covered in black ink, I might as well keep going, so I made my pattern tonight with the tools I had handy.
I love that school. Also - I can't believe that it 's starting already.
Where did the summer go? I'm not sure.

Either way, it's nice to break out the ink and do some florals by hand this time.
I did a page of icons, scanned them, cleaned them up and tossed them around. I like how random they are.



Here's what it looks like repeated!

And here's what it looks like before all the coloring and tossing!



I'm in my 9th year of teaching. I'm not sure how that happened either, but hey, at least I'm headed into a fun semester.
Keeping busy, that's for sure.

This week is going to be a doozy, I've got my first week of school to teach for one of the two schools I'm teaching at this semester (MCAD is school #1, and CVA is school #2!!, a doctors appointment (no one ever looks forward to those...), Work #1 (Paper Bicycle) and Work #2 (Light Grey Art Lab) ... and hopefully some personal art in there for the upcoming shows.

But! If all goes well, I'll be rewarded by smiling faces at school and some awesome long awaited packages in the mail. Wish me luck! Agh!

Biker Doodle: Frederick

Frederick is amazingly dexterous for a man his age. He believes it is the biking and the reading. He usually carries a book with him to read at a coffee shop or to share with someone on the bus.

101 Florals : Ouch. Prickly.

I just got back from a trip to the Virgin Islands, where I saw my fair share of cacti growing off of the rocky cliffs.

My friend Atom made a point to try and gather as much plant life as he could while we were there (not a good idea) so he could take it home with him to good old Minnesota. (This was, of course, after repeated warnings that customs would get him on his way back in.)

I remember after a couple days of gathering seeds and little plant cuttings - we went on a guided tour where the guide told us there were poisonous plants all over the island of St. Thomas.

This didn't stop him from continuing to gather specimens til the end of our trip.



Which he promptly ditched at the airport after seeing how intense the customs guys were!

I chose to focus more on the cacti-element than the actual prickly pear.
Here's an endless field of pointy cacti.

101 Florals : Magnolia Jumper

Colorway one of my magnolia ditzy pattern (calico)

Let me tell you a story...

It's very seldom I get a chance to go shopping. I mean, actually go shopping, like, in a real store. These days it's been hard to find the time to go out for a couple hours and just browse.

So. To combat that, I spend a lot of time putting all sorts of things in various digital shopping carts, amassing hundreds of dollars of things, then closing my browser window. It's some kind of fake shop-therapy, I think.

The most dangerous times are when I am actually near my purse and I'm doing these things, -- or if some stores make it easy to pay with paypal. Then it's all over.
One time in particular, I was on one of my favorite clothing sites and saw a kind of harem-pant style floral jumper, I put it in my cart, and before I could talk myself into closing the browser window, I bought it, along with a million other things I shouldn't have.

I don't know how many of you have seen me, but I'm about one foot tall, and I believe that most clothes that you see on the models are built for someone that has a torso that is longer than an inch. So I get this thing in the mail a couple days later, put it on and I look like a cheap circus clown with a saggy top and lumpy knickers.


Now, this would be the colorway of choice if I were to wear a granny night-gown or a floral shoulder-less shirt!

I will now leave you with that thought as you stare into the depths of my ditzy-floral-print. If I ever design a line of jumpers, this would be the pattern I'd want on it.


Here's the original ink drawing I used to make this limited-negative-space pattern!

Also posted on 101florals.blogspot.com

Biker Doodle: Dolores

She lives with her dad, who is a meteorologist and calls her Dolly. She knows a lot about the weather because of it. She doesn't know where her mom is.

Biker delay

This week's biker will be posted on Thursday!

Biker Doodle: Isla

Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays Isla goes for a two hour bike ride. Then she meets up with her man at nine p.m. and they go out to dinner.

101 Florals : We want a pitcher, not a belly itcher.

You asked for it! (Well, not you, but, you know... the song... nevermind).



I spent about two last night coloring, drawing, working and swearing over this one -- then I scrapped it. Pitcher plants are weird. They kind of look like snakes, a little bit like those tooting pipes (anyone know what I'm talking about?) in old Mickey Mouse Cartoons, and sort of creepy.


Here she is in her full glory!

My second attempt at this pattern went a lot better and I tried a technique I haven't used in patterns for a while. I have this really nice brush pen that I used on a rather bumpy piece of drawing paper. The effect was a little dry-brushy and looked a lot more rough than I usually draw. I like it.


AAAAnd a closeup!

I'm getting ready to head somewhere tropical next week -- St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands! It's been non stop craziness between the work we've been doing, teaching and the couple of shows that we're getting together for Light Grey Art Lab. (Which I am ultra excited about!)

I know there is never a good time to take a vacation, but you've gotta get one in where you can fit it in. Just book one and go. I know that as fall gets closer things will just get crazier. So, while I made this one from a fairly tropical plant, I'll hopefully have loads of new inspiration for my florals when I return from paradise!


The Scan of my ink drawing! Unedited!

cross-posted with 101florals blog!

Biker Doodle: Jonathan

Jonathan runs in marathons. He likes to spend his extra money on lawn ornaments, which he switches out biweekly.

101 Florals : The End-of-spring Tulips

You know it's spring when the tulips come up, but you know it'll be summer soon when they start to fall apart. The petals droop strangely on the stem, and they slowly peel open.

I love tulips, but I really love them when they're in that weird state.

This one was inspired by a gouache study I did earlier in the week. I wanted to get back to doing some things that were very human-looking and really expressive. I absolutely love gouache and don't use it enough. These days it's hard to get out all of your paints, set up, and sit down for more than a couple hours -- so, when I do, I savor the time.

I am sure that some of the inspiration from this one came from the Fairytales and Florals art opening I was at on Friday. Everything there was pastel and dainty and there were more than a fair share of flowers.

Also featured on 101florals blog

Biker Doodle 2: Randy

This week's biker is Randy. He plays the trumpet in a marching band. He says it's just for fun, but secretly he'd like to make a living from it somehow.

101florals : Chrysanthemum Wallpaper

Good morning, internet!

As I write this, I'm groggy and still trying to make sense of how early it is for me to be at work. If you're looking at the time stamp, you must be thinking: "Yeahhhh...... right..." -- but, seriously, waking up is hard to do. (especially when you're a night owl)

I waited til the last minute to make this one, but went the extra mile to make it into something I loved. I spent my day yesterday waking up late, running over to St Paul and going to meetings -- then getting a moment of solace at a coffee shop with good friends.

So, as I stared this pattern around 10pm last night I cursed myself for procrastinating. Mondays are tough and today is no exception. I've finally transitioned to listening to the 50's station on pandora, which made working late so much easier. I spent a good 5 hours or so drawing, re-drawing, and singing at the top of my lungs into the wee hours of the morning while I finished this guy.



Chrysanthemums are fun to draw. They're weird and curly and yellow (one of my favorite colors). They remind me of outdoor, spring weddings and of vintage wallpaper.

My plan, today, is to walk over to the coffee shop next door and buy myself a giant latte in celebration of late nights, getting things done and waking up early the next day!

(cross posted with 101florals blog!)

Biker Doodle 1: Penny

Project officially starts now! I wanted to try painting a lot of these and work on fleshing out some people-illustrating techniques. Tuesdays will be my official posting days.

 This first character is named Penny. She has great interest in the economic and ecologic impact of food culture.
 

Biker Doodle

It's summer and therefore it is time to start a new time-consuming, all-encompassing, totally fun project. I love the stuff Lindsay and Llew are doing for 101 Florals. It inspired me to work on a weekly art challenge about some things I really really enjoy: bikes and drawing characters.
The Twin Cities are loaded with bikes. They're chained up onto anything a u-lock will fit around. So I'm going to put my phone to use and take some pictures of some bikes I see. Then I'm going to make up the character that they belong to, and post'm every Tuesday.

This first post is a freebie (for me), because the first bike I took a picture of is mine, and the first person I drew isn't a made-up character, it's me.

101florals: Banana Flower Pods

Seriously -- you could have fooled me. After last week's temperatures, I would have sworn that I had just taken a vacation in the tropics rather than a stay at my parents' house in Mequon, Wisconsin.

Temperatures were in the 100s, and I was wilting under the summer sun.
It's been a while since I've been on a real vacation and this was as close to a week of rest and relaxation as I was ever going to get.

I spent my time swimming in the pool, eating vegetables from my parent's huge garden, and bumming around the house with Francesca.

Both of my parents are go-getters. They have an incredible amount of energy and they never skip a beat. This year their project-pride-and-joy was their 30 x 45 foot vegetable garden. I spent some time in the sun while I was there - picking radishes, harvesting beets, (delicious, I know.) and taking the occasional instagram photo of a head of cabbage.

I was definitely impressed by their inspirational gardening efforts and even more impressed by the dozens of canned, pickled radishes and beets my mom made after the harvest. (I'm almost positive no one will want to hang out with me over the next month as I finish all these off.)


Here is my pattern in repeat. Pods! Everywhere!

I actually had a great time just being.
It was also awesome seeing my brother, Brian. I don't get to see him much - seeing as he's in a different state - but when I do, I'm reminded of how funny and awesome he is.

I really miss all of them a lot. It's great to go home, but I'm always a little melancholy as I leave. It never seems long enough.

This one is dedicated to my family. Here you guys! I made a pattern for you!

So, in honor of hot days and relaxation. Here's my 101 florals pattern of the week, the center part of the Banana Flower in repeat.

Cross posted with 101florals blog.

101 florals : Clematis, forever zen

So, yes, I took a couple liberties on color here with this Clematis, but I think this pattern is better for it.

The whole time I was making this pattern I was practically in a trance- fueled by streaming meditation music from one of my new favorite channels on the radio. I walked around Uptown with my good friend, Francesca, doing the coffee-shop tour of Minneapolis as she snapped pictures of colorful fixies.

We crawled around Uptown, Minneapolis, handing out flier after flier for an upcoming show at our gallery, when we finally stopped into a store I had been wanting to visit for nearly a year.


Detail shot of the color-against-color work

My sister laughed at me later when I told her that I stopped in to Eye of Horus, a local shop for people interested in the occult, tarot, and things of the like. Though I got a chuckle or two from her, I was super excited that I had finally gotten the chance to go in. The place was filled with crystals, tons of books on all of the subjects I'm interested in right now, and all sorts of neat things. The women that ran the store were awesome, and calming.
Francesca told me afterward that one of the women had "one of those voices" - where you just want them to talk at you for days.

I had a 10 minute Reiki session with one of the ladies at the shop, and went on my merry way with a new deck of Tarot Cards and a book about Witches in 1800s Europe.


The sketch that started it all

I guess the point of me telling this story is to explain the feeling I got while making this piece. It was meditative, to say the least. I'm sure after a day of being in zen mode, I was ready to make some art that reflected my thoughts. And here it is!


(cross-posted with the 101florals blog! )

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!