Colette

Milkweed

Travel or Travail

I'm headed off to Michigan tomorrow! I'm so excited to see my parents and my kitty again! We're going to be doing fun things like visiting small town natural history museums, hiking, road trips, etc. so the posts will continue.

While out an about today I found this really nice suitcase. I already have a respectable little stack so I wasn't in the market for any more but it just had lots of nice little details and the tag say it was made in Portland Ore and has Paul Bunyan on it, how could I not buy it!

Toast soup.

The huge three times a year antique expo was yesterday, so exciting I love antiques! There were so many unusual and outrageously expensive things I wanted, but I was happy with my little haul of vintage velvet ribbon and paper ephemera.

I've already added my new paper bits to my Ephemera blog.

This cat wins the cutest neighborhood cat prize! Her face is like a little teddy bear. I miss my own kitty so much (she living in Michigan with my family), so I love spending time with the neighborhood cats when I can.

Shop Update!

I'm doing a rare weekend shop update tomorrow, it seems like time slipped though my fingers this week! I'm going out of town on Wednesday and I wanted to do one last trip to the post office before I go. After that the shop will be on partial vacation until I get back, you'll still be able to order things but they won't be shipped until July 31st

I'm so excited about these new brooches how could I wait until I got back to list them?

I'm also pretty excited about these brooches with these new bee drawings.

Bossy squirrel

This fella is going to be in the shop later on this afternoon!

Also thank you all for your nice and encouraging comments about the rabbits and mechanical animals! Once again I with there was an easier way to reply to each one individually, but I want you to know that I appreciate every one so much!

I have to admit that I have some Monday blues today. However, there are only really two things happening this week that I don't want to deal with, so I am going to spend the rest of the time doing exactly what I want and having fun, and I'll manage to get though those other things just fine.

Pan

Okay, I did end up trying to make a goat paper animal this weekend. I don't totally love it, but I'm happy.
I'm not sure when these will be in the shop yet, there are lot's of agonizing decisions ahead for me (what color for the background negative space??), but I'm going to spend this next week working on getting them ready to be printed!

Oh also, an interview

Stephanie Levy was kind enough to interview me for her blog Artists Who Blog. You can read it here.

Goings on from last week

Anja gave me this fantastic hand!

Then we went to a botanical garden we hadn't been to before, it was in the forest, peaceful and cool.

(photo by Anja)


That same day I also went to the rose garden, always lovely and photogenic.

Thursday Rebecca and I went to Amy Ruppel's opening. She has got to be one of the nicest people I've met in Portland, and her artwork is fantastic. (photo by Amy Ruppel)


It was so beautiful on the way home, the city was filled with golden light and cottonwood fluff.

Bunnies and an Anniversary!

The little rabbits are finally going to be put in the shop tomorrow! This time I mean it!
I was finally able to photograph them to my satisfaction and I have the descriptions written up and everything. There will be these four:




*Update* I will be updating with these at about 10am PST

A funny thing happened today. I was taking a morning walk and stopped to commune with a neighborhood cat who is particularly friendly. I was just sitting there petting him when without warning a squirrel fell out of a tree right in front of us! splat! The cat and I were both stunned for a beat but the squirrel wasted no time scampering back to the nearest tree, and good thing to because as soon as the cat god over his surprise he was right after it, but too late. It was sooo funny I wish I'd been filming it.

Lastly, I almost forgot what with other things going on but as of yesterday I've lived in Portland for a year! It seems amazing, at different points this year time seemed so rush past and other times it went so slow. It's a milestone for sure, when I first got here I couldn't imagine that I'd make a year, I was so homesick, but here I am!

Swift as a deer

The last animal of the suite is a deer of course! Really, how could it not be? Actually several of you suggested a goat, which I'd actually been thinking about myself, and I do really like the idea, but in the end I really wanted a deer. This one makes five and I think that's probably is a good number, so maybe I'll do a goat if I print a second edition of these or something. Or maybe I'll just do it now, I don't know yet!

Daily drawings

This is the last batch of daily drawings I added to the shop, most are sold now though!

MS Weddings!

Hey look....


Yep, that's a piece by me in a Martha Stewart publication! They contacted me back in January because they want to start including clip art with original designs by actual artists, so they had the project in mind and commissioned me to do the art for it. It was kind of a dream for me, so I was completely freaked out! I immediately started second guessing myself because it was going back to a style that I had sort of moved on from, and worrying that my work wouldn't look clean and professional enough for this particular publication. Looking at it now though I'm pleased, I think turned out nice and most important it looks great with the project! They couldn't have been nicer to work with either, and I'm so surprised and pleased they put the info about me right on the page, I only expected it to go in the back!
You can see it online as well here

Squirrel Friend

The latest edition.

And all of them together so far. I think the next one should be some sort of hoofed animal, yes? Yes.

Elephant

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out!

Thank you for all your feedback about the pomeranian! It was about half and half, so I'm still conflicted! I think I'll just decide which face seems so go best will all the others once I finish all the animals

Bakers Dozen Print

I'm super excited to tell you that I now have a print available at Bakers Dozen!

Bakers Dozen is an online shop that commissions artists to do editions of 13 exclusively for their shop.
Also, I added a new daily drawing and new notecard to my shop.

Pom Wonderful

Meet number two in the mechanical animal series, its a pomeranian! I'm trying to do animals that are not that typical to me, i.e. not wolf-like/fox-like animals, and I adore pomeranians.
Okay but I need your help because I'm so bad at making decisions. I made two versions of these with different faces, one has a tiny face and one a bit bigger and I'm just not sure which one to use. I'm leaning toward the smaller face, but I'm afraid this is one of those times where I like something and every one else thinks it's weird. So tell me do you like Pom a. or Pom b.?
a.

b.



Let me know your thoughts!

Musique

I've been obsessively listening to Great Lake Swimmers the past few days. I first heard them a year ago and it was love at first listen! Their lyrics are so earthy and beautiful, they make me want to draw. Here are a few of my favorites:


You can listen to more songs on their website or on the CBC Radio3 website
I don't really like going to concerts that much anymore but I would sure go and see them! Wouldn't you know it though, they're not paying in Portland but they will be where I used to live in Ann Arbor! They were probably just here or something, I'm always the last to know about things like that.

The chorus in the underground

Wow thank you all for the fantastic shop update yesterday! Every one of those new little pieces sold out, I'm so happy they are so popular and you like them so much. I have just one daily drawing to update with today. It's sort of unusual for my current work because I actually drew her face instead of pulling one from a book of victorian fashion plates.

Ikea was having a sale on these large frames so I was finally able to frame a drawing my dear friend Nicole gave me for my 21st birthday! It looks so nice framed and I love it so much.



I saw a huge snail yesterday! That is one thing we don't have in Michigan and I like them very much.

Shop update!

I'm going to be updating the shop with these drawings today!


I'm pretty fond of this badger, I draw her a lot.


Guardian of the Honey

I often have pictures with animals that I variously call "wolves" or "foxes" but they actually don't mean that that is what they are. These animals are furry wild animals that are sort of a stand in for animal or forest spirits. They represent something wild and non-human to me, rather than actually being a specific animal. They often take on human characteristics, but they bring a piece of their feral selves into whatever they're doing. I'm pretty bad at explaining things like that about my work, but hopefully that gets across what I mean!