Royal Navy

Imagining seafaring jackets with vintage navy-striped collars–away to sea! Playing with jewel tones in pastel, ink, colored pencil on Borden & Riley Paris Bleedproof #234.

Next week: San Francisco!

Spirit

For me, illustrating is about the marriage of intention with unaltered spirit.

While I switch gears in my career, I'm been creating art for the portfolio around what seem like my two "passion axes": history (narrative) and fashion (aesthetic), two universes I am endlessly inspired by. Meanwhile, my illustration style is also undergoing reinvention by forces of growth and controlled intention....but all the while...unaltered scribbling continues in the after hours, while art-ness puzzles itself out! People from other places appear on computer paper, not caring much for intention:

This is my little way of drawing that is more personal than professional in my mind. I draw like this when I listen to a song that makes my heart beat faster, or at night when it's very still and I slip back out into the studio. My drawers are filled with them and I'm not sure where they ought to live. They're very narrative and feel like little "spirit drawings" to me....for now I plop them into the "Character Studies" page.

I drew her late, after a day of genealogy research. I was trying to capture the feeling when you come into contact with a past that feels very alive, and stories are whispering through you. Do you know that feeling?

2012 In Green Stripes

Happy little new yearrr! How did you ring it in? We celebrated with dear friends, were treated to treats in Liz's farmhouse, I wondered how many New Year's Eve's were celebrated in front of that old hearth and bread stove since the 17th century when it was built...we had 12 skewered blueberries in our champagne glasses, each berry represented a month so we all crossed our fingers for a sweet year! (just a few tart ones!)

Resolving to:

Bake bread once a week.

Invite more COLOR into our home.

Invite more friends and family into our home.

Keep the muscles stretched.

Keep the eyes and mind sharp.

Keep the soul and spirit fed.

Keep trying anything I'm afraid to.

Laugh about it.

What are yours?