Artist, Mother, Geek – insights from a creative mind
“In rivers, the water you touch is the last of what has passed and the first that which comes; so with time present.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci.
I happened upon this beautiful water feature while visiting Vancouver, BC last summer. Leonardo da Vinci is one of my all time favorite artists, so it was a perfect place for me to stop and soak it all in for a moment.
I was recently checking out the writing of Drew Bennett from BenSpark.com and was fascinated by his photo-a-day story. For the past 4+ years he’s been posting one photo every day, essentially creating a photo journal. Each image by itself is a simple moment, but together they tell an amazing story about a man that cares to share with the world little inside views of his life. I was completely inspired, “I wanna do that!”, then I quickly reminded myself I already have 15 projects that I’ve only half finished. So then I thought, a better plan would be to post an image a day, photo, doodle or otherwise. I’m always looking at the world through my own lens and I’d love to share what I see. I create whatever is in my mind so why not tell others about it.
So in honor of the kickoff of this new direction, the beginning of a new vision I want to share… my artist penguin is the focus. This wasn’t the first penguin I created, nor the most recent. He wasn’t designed to be a icon for my company nor a leader in the pack of designs I’ve created… but that’s what he has become. And, I think he is the one that fits me best. Penguins are a loyal community oriented creature. To me, they are a symbol of a piece in all of us, and this one version is my own personal connection to what I hope to share with everyone else.
Now the goal is to share an image every day – I dare you to do it too!
Check out Drew’s most recent photos:
Thanks for the inspiration Drew!
Over the years I’ve traveled around the country quite a bit. As a kid our family moved from Colorado to California and back to Colorado and later from Colorado to Virginia and back again traveling by car every time. We took a lot of road trips so I learned early to appreciate seeing the sites along the way. As an adult I’ve continued the road trip adventures. before I had kids I would hop in the car and just drive until I got tired… stop and rest and drive back. I love the feeling of exploring when we’re traveling to new places, I always try to jam pack as much into the trip as possible yet leave a little room for those spontaneous “gotta stop and look” moments.
visited 40 states (80%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
My favorite thing about traveling is experience of being someplace new. There is no one specific thing, some places I love the food, some I love the people. Sometimes I’m just driving through but the drive itself is fantastic. Some of the best memories of traveling are little moments scattered from place to place, not anything grand of photo worthy.. just a great moment in some place new.
Some of my favorite locations:
I haven’t had the opportunity to travel to any other countries as an adult, I think that is what I have to look forward to in retirement.
What’s your favorite place?
This past weekend we celebrated my son’s 14th birthday and with the festivities came 3 days of cupcakes. I made them myself… from a box, and despite their non-perfectness, they were quite delicious. We had funfetti (aka rainbow chip) and chocolate with a choice of frostings and added sprinkles. I didn’t do any fancy decorating as teenage boys don’t care what they look like, they just want the sugar, so I let them decorate however they wanted. I think half the frosting went straight from the can to their bellies.
I don’t know why my cupcakes never turn out as perfect as the store bought. Is my oven not as magically inclined at the professional variety?
Cupcakes are always a sure way to bring a smile into a room. I’m not positive what the exact ray of sunshine is that a cupcake brings to the day, maybe it’s the decorating with bright colors and happy sprinkles on top, the swirly-ness of icing on yummy gooey cake, or maybe it’s just the thought of a handful of sweetness we don’t have to share. Whatever it is, I’ve never met anyone that doesn’t smile at the thought of a cupcake.
Last weekend I visited Nomelie, an adorable cupcake boutique in Parker, Colorado. I was visiting as a participant in a tasting with the Denver Tastcasters. We sampled 4 different flavors of mini cupcakes that were absolutely wonderful! The venue is decorated in a lovely semi-victoria theme, a nice casual atmosphere with a hint of pretty girly flare. I thought it was the perfect environment to have a cup of tea and sampling of heaven in a bite size yumminess.
The staff was fabulously friendly and I even had the opportunity to chat with the owner, Selah Davenport for a bit. I was excited to meet someone else with a love for the cupcake. Between Selah’s warm welcoming personality and the tasty cupcakes, Nomelie was a wonderful place to spend some time enjoying conversations with friends. I told her I would stop by some time with some of my own cupcake doodles… although we can’t eat them, I like to think we need to share a little cupcake happiness however we can.
What’s our favorite cupcake flavor?
Winter is fast approaching, at least here in Colorado, and now is the time people seem to start thinking of the penguins again. Although we associate penguins with cold and snow, the majority of the world’s penguins live in warm climates such as Australia and South Africa. This fact inspired one of my first penguin characters, Winter Penguin bundled and ready to tackle the frozen winter days.
If you lived in South African all your life and then came out to play in a winter wonderland, you’d probably want to wear pants too, don’t you think? I think this design fits perfectly with this week’s Illustration Friday topic of “Frozen”.
This winter penguin is available to purchase on a variety of products through my online store.
Color for treats!
For a little festive fun, grab yourself (and the kids) this Happy Halloween coloring page. Just in time for some super sweet grins and goblins!
In 2009 I used this same coloring page for a contest, but that’s been over for a few years now. 😉
I hope you enjoy the Halloween freebie. Also check out the free Boo sign and poem you can use to spread a little extra Halloween Cheer to your friends and neighbors.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, illustrated by Ron Barrett, was one of my all time favorite books as a kid. I loved the concept of food falling from the sky and giant ice cream sundaes. Even more significant for me was, I also loved the style of illustration used in the book. It’s kind of a line drawing woodcut feel with subtle color. The line work creating fantastic depth and texture to every image. It left so much to the imagination yet filled with details.
My own art style was inspired by this technique of illustration. I love the sketchy pencil lines and have enjoyed playing with line shape combined texture.
The movie, on the other hand was great on it’s own but didn’t meet the expectations I had built up in my head. I have no idea what I expected. The original story itself didn’t have any kind of indepth plot or extraordinary action, so the movie had to compensate – and did a great job indeed. There was action and dynamic characters and loads of fun food… but the illustration was so much different than how I knew the story to be, I felt a big disconnect.
Although the movie was vibrant with fantastic visuals, I found myself wishing I hadn’t remembered anything particular about the book ahead of time.
I recently created two Halloween coloring pages for Willow an Artisan’s Market shops located in Littleton and Boulder.
Coloring pages are available at both locations. If you return the finished colored pages to Willow by October 31st, you will receive a coupon for 20% off any one item, good through November 15th.
As I was creating this art I realized it’s more difficult to create uncolored art and accept that it’s a finished piece… and unexpected lesson learned.
click to download