Child at Art

still playing with pattern design

2009-12-09T22:45:00.004-05:00

tis the season

2009-12-01T16:55:00.005-05:00

... to design a series of wrapping papers. I like the mod quality of it. I think I'll try at least two more color ways in this pattern. Hopefully a whole family of designs will follow this one.

a girl can dream...

2009-11-20T14:27:00.008-05:00

How nice it would be to do some custom wrapping paper and a lovely little sticker... I think I favor this concept. I guess it's time to cross my fingers and hope the client feels the same.

la vida logo

2009-11-19T10:55:00.008-05:00

I've been living in the land of logos lately. Blog post ideas have been pushed aside in favor of getting through this glut of work. But I guess that a good problem. Hopefully this post will restart the blogging, in spite of the fact I'm crazy busy.

my aquarium boys

2009-10-15T14:24:00.002-04:00

Our hero the sting ray flying overhead. Another great facet to the San Fran trip. Watching sting rays is still my son's all time favorite thing to do for 2 years running.

the exploratorium

2009-10-10T09:43:00.003-04:00

It takes a pretty great museum to revive a nap deprived three year old late in the afternoon after a day full of enough sites and sounds to fill a week in normal life mode. The Exploratorium is that kind of museum. Hands-on doesn't begin to describe the extent to which children and adults alike can immerse themselves in science. Some of the exhibits were so simple yet so absorbing. Like this beach ball/safety cone/air blower contraption. The museum was absolutely a highpoint on our San Francisco trip chock full of high points.

walking in san francisco

2009-10-10T09:34:00.005-04:00

I have only just begun to mine the riches from our recent trip. These are from just one morning walk. So much color, texture and wonderful sunlight. With sweet little front porches and potted gardens seemingly around every corner.

one seahorse done... one to go

2009-10-05T17:08:00.009-04:00

red trees

2009-10-05T16:35:00.008-04:00

I think I'm ready to print this one. To me it feels like a very loose interpretation of Japanese fabric design. I wonder if my forest of red trees needs a little white outline of a stream running through it to pull it altogether... or maybe I should just stop tweaking and print already.

views of yosemite

2009-10-02T21:07:00.009-04:00

Three days in Yosemite provides enough natural beauty to just about make your eyes glaze over from over-stimulation. With a three almost four year old, it's not about the strenuous hikes or roughing it on the Muir Trail, but maybe it's the beginning of all that... maybe we're a future family of committed outdoor enthusiasts. It feels like we're forging that path.

Highpoint: watching the debut of Ken Burns, The National Parks outdoors on the floor of Yosemite Valley with the projector's light illuminating the high granite wall behind the screen... faint as mist. Sitting with a hushed crowd of park visitors of all stripes, it felt monumental.

cool collection found

2009-09-23T09:10:00.009-04:00

When you've worked in the same office for 8+ years every so often one has to do a little purging. It's amazing the things you unearth. I kept some favorite concepts for future reference but my favorite discovery of the day was this little gem: a collection of found letterforms I started way back when and forgot. I think I am going to resume the exercise, get a good collection going and digitize them all. Sorry for the pesky scrawly stuff on top. It's my new personal mark. However if you squint at it, it kind of works with the black background and the supersaturated colors. This may be a pattern idea in the making. (Hence the pesky watermark) Only two days until the most excellent vacation ever. San Francisco here we come.

tree in need of a cool swing

2009-09-16T09:21:00.007-04:00

I have a great giant tree in our back yard that just screams for a cool swing. These are going on the short list: from shiver me splinters. The top one is covered in vintage fabric. The bottom is covered in fabric from Joel Dewberry's Deer Valley collection. Very lovely stuff. Now if only the back yard were not so soggy and mosquito infested.

Found via aesthetic outburst

a sketch of an etch a sketch...

2009-09-14T12:48:00.006-04:00

why?
this is a mental note post to myself and to those who may like the following sentiment I recently heard on the radio on the way to work.

what?
to paraphrase:"Our minds are like etch-A-sketches, sometimes we get shook"

who?
said by Regina Spektor in an interview on NPR about that pesky phenomenon of having a great idea that you loose before you set pen to paper.

Frankly it happens to me all the time, mostly when I drive or right before I fall asleep. It's a big part of the reason I started this blog: Idea Loss Prevention.

But then it got me thinking about etch-a-sketches and long drives and childhood and the intersection of all three. Our minds need to wander. Our hands need to doodle. I can still remember some of those monumental drives across country. Treading that delicate balance between car sickness and boredom armed only with your imagination... it builds character.

Our little family is about to embark on a big trip. It entails a long flight and lots of hours in a rental car seeing as much of the Pacific northwest we can cram into a week. I bought an etch-a-sketch. My son is currently mastering stair stepping lines and lop-sided squares. Even so, I can't deny the ease of popping a DVD into the laptop on a cross country flight. Frankly leaving the DVD player at home is not a risk I'm willing to take. But I do hope we can bring the etch-a-sketch along and minimize the hours spent in total catatonic tune-out. What can I say I'm nostalgic.

fun posters from Able Design

2009-08-24T13:09:00.008-04:00

A fun menagerie from Able Design available here. I love it when I find talented designers with fun kid-oriented side projects. These posters have such lovely textures and patterns within them.

who needs sock puppets...

2009-08-22T10:37:00.005-04:00

How cute are these cool monster hand tattoos.
Also available in non-monster animal flavors here.

enjoying my new cool pen

2009-08-17T19:44:00.008-04:00

I'm drawing my way through the sea horses. Before this it was artichokes. I can't imagine what I'll get fixated on next... I'm just glad to be drawing. I'm ashamed to admit it's been over a decade since I've drawn with any sort of regularity. I'm determined to change that. This blog is supposed to be the place where I fight to get my mojo back. But more often than not, I just post about the beautiful things I see others doing. What does that mean when you can't bring yourself to express yourself on your own blog. I think it means you're afraid. Afraid of sucking... afraid of someone else thinking you suck. Like there's some sort official suck police just waiting for me to post and then they'll pounce and a wall of derision and judgement will shower down on me from all four corners of the internet. Well that's enough of that. I've set a goal to do fifty drawings. I probably won't put them all here. I just need to put pen to paper and do it.

terrible yellow eyes

2009-08-12T15:05:00.012-04:00

Terrible Yellow Eyes is a collection of works inspired by the classic, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. But it's so much more than that. It's a testament to the enduring power, beauty and fierceness of Mr Sendak's most beloved book.

Spend some time on Cory Godbey's blog and discover an army of monster lovers with vivid imaginations and great illustration skills that count Mr Sendak among their heroes. It's one of my all time favorite blogs... and one of my all time favorite books. You can read more about Cory's project here.

Top: by Cory Godbey
Bottom: by Dan Matutina

terribleyelloweyes.com

hello llama!

2009-08-11T15:51:00.003-04:00

And hello to Meg Hunt, the talented illustrator responsible for these lovelies and tons of other inspiring illustrative works which you can peruse at your leisure here. I guess it's no surprise to know I love the hello llama pattern shown above.

And her personal work entitled waving not drowning is such eye candy. I love the intricate textures and patterns. I'm so glad I stumbled across her creative universe. I intend to keep close tabs on meg. She's super talented and she has a great blog too. I totally love the pen and sketchpad she recommended in a recent pos t (totally worth it). Visit Meg and get inspired. That's what I like to do.

meghunt.com

photos from the festival

2009-07-23T10:41:00.006-04:00

Art cars at Artscape, not exactly the height of coolness in my book. But my son was pretty stoked. Anything with wheels is cool, but stuff with wheels AND lots of stuff stuck to it... it totally made his day.

another favorite from the festival

2009-07-18T15:33:00.008-04:00

Two of my favorite things: inventive alphabets and botanical-inspired art. I'm so glad I stumbled upon illegible ink at Artscape today. And I'm also very grateful to the artist for allowing me to add these to the blog's breadcrumb trail of beautiful things that should not be forgotten.

favorites from the festival

2009-07-18T15:02:00.010-04:00

It's Artscape here in Baltimore, which usually means unbearable heat and humidity. But since this summer, Baltimore has temporarily morphed into San Francisco, it's a swell time to do the art thing. The Broken Plate Pendant company always has such lovely things. I have couple pieces. But that doesn't mean I don't want more. In the event you too would like a lovely pendant, earrings, buckle or ring, you should check out this site.

shiny happy things

2009-07-17T08:16:00.013-04:00

Shiny Happy Things from The American Visionary Museum. I'm starting a new habit. I'm going to try to take photos of things that catch my eye to and from work. It should be a great way of breaking up my commute into more pleasant bite sized pieces. So this is the first post... from right down the road from my office. Here's to stopping to smell the proverbial roses...

The AVAM has this great class series where you can learn to make your own Shiny Happy Things taught by Shiny Happy Thing artist Bob Henson. The class is going on the to do list as well. More pics here.

a good field trip

2009-07-11T16:47:00.008-04:00

Today we went to Larriland Farm and drank a lot of root beer and picked cherries and watched llamas take naps and then took a nap of our own on the car ride back. Next time we go, I think we'll set out earlier and bring our own ladder. I want to make it to the blueberries and raspberries before we run out of steam. More pics here.

Vintage Rosemary Wells

2009-07-11T14:13:00.020-04:00

My mother in law was doing a little attic cleaning and ran across this favorite book from my husband's childhood: Rosemary Wells' Impossible Possum. I'm familiar with Rosemary Wells. I've seen the stout, cute guinea pig-like creatures that populate so many of her books. We're quite fond of her collection of nursery rhymes. But this book is nothing like those.

I recently read in Leonard Marcus' Minders of Make Believe; a very thorough history of childrens book publishing in the U.S., that it used to be common practice for children's book illustrators to be awarded a 1 or 2 color illustration assignments when first starting out. It was the publisher's way of testing the popularity of new talent with a less expensive print run. I think some of the most beautiful children's books are a result of these spare palettes. Rosemary Wells' use of line and texture is just amazing. The simple black and red color scheme calls to mind my son's favorite children's book: Virginia Lee Burton's Choo Choo, also entirely red and black. I'm so glad this book has made it's way out out of the attic and onto our shelves.

Discovering Errol Le Cain is a very good thing

2009-07-08T13:01:00.009-04:00

I love his use of line and pattern. With no formal training in art, he had a very prolific and successful career as a children's book illustrator and commercial artist. You can read more about his career and peruse a complete listing of his published children's books here. These lovely illustrations are from The Sly Cormorant and the Fishes" and "The Twelve Dancing Princesses". Flamenconut kindly offered to let me post these. Her flickr page is a great place to get lost for an hour or two. That is, if amazing children's book illustration happens to be your thing.