Inspiration - Paper Runway Dresses

More New York inspirations...there was a great display of paper dresses created to showcase creative ideas and papers, hosted by the National Stationery Show and Kate's Paperie. I loved the full length black dress complete with paper mache dog a and paper chain leash. Details on the dress that really impressed me- the cut lace texture of the bodice and skirt with stripes from white typography on black background- just gorgeous!

I want a coat like this! Also thought the skirt back details on the middle dress were wonderful with elaborate folds and a single pink flower, and the fresh and fun color combos of this right outfit won me over.

For the girly side of you, ready for a summer garden party... I expect the butterflies to take flight in a beautiful flutter of color and light...

I am impressed by taking this paper to a more organic, leatherish state. The stitching detail was great!

SURTEX 2011

I returned last week from the Surtex Show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. My agent had a booth there and I went for meetings with current and potential clients. I exhibited for three years on my own at Surtex before joining with my agent and I still have quite a few memories of the thrill, nervousness, anxiousness and stress of doing a show. It requires a lot of new work, creating displays and banners, marketing, getting your display materials TO the show, set up, and many many days and weeks of designing and analyzing what you are presenting, and then three high-adrenaline days of hoping it's all good and people love your work. When the show is busy, you feel like you are flying and love meeting manufacturers...when it has it's slow moments you wonder why, why, why did you come and do this and question the very crazy career path you've chosen.  Such a roller coaster ride. It's a very different experience for me when my agent has a booth and I come to the show but I am not singularly responsible for the booth and manning it. I do miss having a booth that is all mine and a bigger showing of my lines and styles. But for the first time at Surtex I actually arrived without being sleep-deprived for the week prior and a result, enjoying the time more.  After meetings I wanted to attend, I was able to see the National Stationery Show and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, both of which are happening at the Javits Center at the same time and are lovely and inspirational! 

Here, with the charming Phyllis Dobbs, at the Jewel Branding booth. Phyllis and I roomed together in Manhattan and walked the show together. It's great to see the show with another artist and see what they notice first and like.  It's the first time we've roomed together and with hotel rooms the size of tiny postage stamps, that is a lot of close together time. It was fun and I think she actually survived my snoring...

Phyllis and myself

The Opening Night Party for Surtex was at Battery Park and a good chance to relax, eat, drink, be merry and connect with new and old friends. We did notice the Stationery Show people got the indoors area and the artists were sent to the covered tent outside... hmmmmm....oh well, more scenic views of the park for us! I about died when I saw a rat run across the sidewalk that was the size of a small cat. Oh, New York. That rat's home is probably larger than my hotel room.

I loved getting to know Corinna Buchholz of Piddix and Erin Sarpa and Ilene Guy of Simon and Kabuki more over cocktails. And Amy Medhurst, the Licensing Manager Goddess for Mary Engelbreit always makes me laugh so hard I want to pee my pants!

Corinna, Robin, Phyllis, Erin and Ilene

Robin and Amy

New York Moody Rain

Ah, New York. What a fascinating city. The three days I was there for Surtex, (and I'll write more about that after doing some needed follow-up) it was damp, cloudy, rainy and grey. Fog and clouds covering the tops of buildings, everything dark and shiny with the wet reflections of the moody sky. It didn't matter so much as I was indoors all day in the Javits Convention Center, but it did remind me of living in Chicago  and the midwest with damp spring weeks and thunderstorms. I felt cold and wet a lot.

The view from our hotel was the spectacular view I usually have when in New York. Other windows. It is interesting to see the buildings come to life, workers arrive, lights and computer screens glowing... makes me wonder what life would have been like if I had moved here after college. I considered Boston, New York and Chicago and at that time, Chicago won. I love my life and where it has taken me but it is still interesting to be reminded of the other possibilities of where I might have gone.

Monday night Phyllis and I took the subway to SoHo and Little Italy. It was quite empty, probably because of the weather. I had a great dish of pasta (Paglia-something-something-Mamma) and fantastic time walking the neighborhood streets.

New York, you are beautiful in your dark, mysterious, moody ways. But I was ready to leave you and the damp rain. So back to LA I flew last night. Hopeful to be back in warmth and sun. As I walked up to my car in the long-term parking I could see I left the car window down (yikes! I am lucky I still have a car!!) and while I was gone, it had rained. Inside seat and carpet wet and soaked. So I guess I'll be living with my damp, rainy grey New York state of mind awhile longer.

Couldn't we all do with a trip to Paris?

Paris...my recent project took me there in my mind! I am so excited to share I have done my first  novel cover for print and ebooks for my immensely talented writer and friend, Corine Gantz. Her novel, Hidden in Paris, is out now and is a story about three American women running away from their lives and starting over in Paris. It has already received over a thousand requests on the goodreads.com giveaway and there will be more giveaways coming. 

As a side note, Corine's  blog, http://hiddeninfrance.typepad.com is one of my favorite reads. She is a native of France and shows lots of beautiful international design and decoration inspiration and has a truly authentic voice and perspective. Luckily for me, she had beautiful pictures of France that she took on one of her trips back there. Please check out her blog and book. I'm very excited for her and wanted to share!!

http://hiddeninfrance.typepad.com/hidden_in_france/2011/05/hidden-in-paris-the-novel.html 

http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Paris-Corine-Gantz/dp/0983436614/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304450085&sr=8-1

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11094417-hidden-in-paris

now I need a croissant...

Things I love... Mom's Mushroom Bowl

The other day I was looking through a West Elm catalog and my heart almost stopped when I noticed a bowl mixed in with the table items. It was a white enameled bowl with line drawings of mushrooms going around the top. I grew up with that bowl and loved it! I've never seen anyone else have it. Countless salads of crisp lettuce with mandarin oranges and glazed almonds were tossed in it by my Mom. It's one of my favorite serving pieces of hers. So when she visited a month ago I showed her the picture, laughing at how her artistic taste is still in fashion!

And a couple weeks later, a box arrived at my door and she had sent me the bowl! (thanks Mom!) I am so excited to use and enjoy the mushroom bowl. I was pretty shocked when I put it next to my own appetizer  ceramic platter and saw the similarities in line and character of the drawings. Just goes to show, with the discussions of inspiration, how deeply rooted our inspirations are. Years of seeing a style, an illustration, a color... it influences the way you see things. It also makes me realize how much I like to have some sentimental touches in my kitchen. As they say, it is the heart of the home, and it's full of memories from smells and tastes and favorite recipes and... the mushroom bowl.

What do you love in your kitchen? What puts the smile of good memories on your face?

Fantastic Friends

My friend Lorri emailed me today. She had read today's calendar quote (today's was by me) which was about how life is richer with a fabulous mixture of friends. Thank you Lorri...a giant hug to you! I just don't know if I really take enough time to thank my friends for their important place in my life and for how they enrich everything I do.

I am really fortunate... and I mean REALLY fortunate... to enjoy the companionship of such smart, funny, witty, together women. I have mom friends that I met through my children and their schools. We do carpool together, cover for each other with watching kids when meetings and such arise, research the next school, share notes on the latest article on education, etc. We met through classes, being room moms, scouts, karate, dance, soccer and all those other miscellaneous sports and activities. Then there are the women from my Master Mind class, the kindred spirits who support and encourage self discovery and business and entrepreneurial growth. There is my dear neighbor friend who will be over in a second if I need her. And my old college roommate friend, who years later, with both of us settled in LA with families and houses, still connect like we did when we were 20. Time has changed us, but we have found our paths continue to wind and twist in a similar dance. She is a fabulous sounding board, a calm voice on a rocky day, a kindred spirit. Another friend I met while working in Chicago (where I happened to meet numerous long-time friends), also out here on the west coast now, is like family. We proudly call her "aunt" to our children. And my licensing art buddy, while she lives up in northern California, feels like she is in the cubicle next to me, as we work away with the speaker phone live, chatting about the new designs we are working on and sharing an unexpected inspirational discovery.

To my dear friends, all of you, I can not thank you enough for the beauty and unique perspectives you bring to my life. Giving, caring, compassionate. You make my life full and colorful and hopeful and vibrant. I hope I am able to give back a fraction to you of the support and friendship you have given me. I am blessed and rich beyond measure from all of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Inspiration Origins - Blog Hop

Lately there has been a lot of talk amongst artists I know about the difference between using something for inspiration and using something for copying. How do you see a world of fascinating visual ideas but still craft something special of your own? When we start out learning we look to other artists. We learn from them but it’s important to evolve and find your own voice, your own look on the journey- something original and unique. There is a big difference in being inspired vs copying someone else’s work. Unfortunately it has become more common for people to confuse the two, especially when images are so available on the internet. As a creator of art, I am the owner of it. My rights to my images- my copyrights- are necessary for my very livelihood. I’m happy to take part with other artists in this blog hop, examining the issues of inspiration and using it to evolve your own style.

Growing up I was hugely influenced by colorful, beautifully illustrated children’s picture books. I could stare at the pictures for hours. Maurice Sendak, Hilary Knight, Rosemary Wells capitavated my attention. I loved line drawings, whether loose and carefree or exact and detailed. Characters with personality, stories shared in colorful pages- this inspired me to draw and create my own characters. And many of the works of art I saw every day, pieces by my mother and father, left a permanent impression in composition, line and character. My mother silkscreened cards with hand drawn type and a contemporary illustrational style. I was surprised to see her winter trees after all these years and see the lines and structure that has found it’s way into my own trees in my winter landscapes and my Deco Park fabric line. Truly the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree... still, the feeling of the linear work is a jumping off point that a whole new composition blooms from. Inspiration from my environment was a starting point in my visual language and my work expands beyond it.

I shared my mother’s love of Charles Harper’s clean and modern view of nature, beautiful creatures shown in the simplicity of their forms. His geometric interplay of shapes make orderly and striking compositions. My BFA education heavily favored a Swiss Bauhaus design approach and I think I didn’t use a typeface other than Helvetica till well into the 90’s! I do numerous pieces with a clean graphic design aesthetic. In my Modern Garden line, I can see the influence of Charles Harper by seeing nature in clean graphic forms. Solid bold color reflects back to many compositions I enjoyed by him, although my own color combinations are more fanciful and less realistic.

Creating something of your own requires time to experiment, thinking/listening, and following your own instincts. It takes self confidence to put something uniquely you out into the world vs copying something. Our discoveries, our mistakes, our repetition of work starts to bring out subtle ways that we find ourselves gravitating towards a visual language that is our own voice. Have the courage to evolve your own look and follow that voice. Craft the pearl that is uniquely yours from the grain of sand that is your inspiration.

Please read more from this blog hop and artists who share how they use inspiration while keeping the integrity of their own work:

http://joannezsharpe.blogspot.com/2011/03/find-your-beautiful-voice.html

http://sharynsowellartblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/be-inspired.html

http://embellishmentskids.blogspot.com/2011/03/be-inspired-blog-hop-aaron-christensens.html

http://chrischunart.blogspot.com/2011/03/be-inspired-blog-hop.html

http://www.vickieleastudios.com/art-licensing/so-what-inspires-you-a-discussion-about-originals/

http://monicaleestudios.com/blog/

http://www.brendapinnick.com/2011/03/02/be-inspired/

http://itsmollysmith.blogspot.com/2011/03/be-inspired-designer-blog-hop.html

http://www.droozdoodles.com/2011/03/be-inspired-blog-hop.html

http://phyllisdobbs.info/2011/03/02/creative-inspiration/

http://www.jgoode.com/its-about-inspiration-not-duplication/

http://suezipkin.typepad.com/blogging_with_dyslexia/2011/03/be-inspired-create-from-your-heart.html

http://bethparkerart.wordpress.com/

http://janemadayblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/sweet-inspirations.html

http://www.terriconraddesigns.typepad.com