Stone Arch Festival of the Arts weekend

Another huge event for me this year was being chosen to do the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts poster and exhibiting as a guest at the Festival on Father's Day weekend.  For those of you who don't know, there are 250 artists exhibiting, bands perform, food is served and thousands of visitors flock to the site along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.  It was the biggest event I've ever shown my work at and I had a prime location at the center of the activity.

Artistic Indulgence who's booth was next to mine, helped me to 'waterproof' the tent on Friday which proved quite useful for the heavy rain that fell during the event.  I'm grateful for their assistance or it could have been a disaster with all my prints and cards.

Saturday started off with a bang. People, kids, dogs, (lots of dogs) came by to check out my poster and the art I brought. I brought along my sample pencil drawings, scans and explained how I build my shapes and fill them with color in layers in Illustrator.  The poster was printed by Ambassador Press in Minneapolis who also prints all my cards.  They did a fantastic job with the quality and the colors.  I signed and numbered 100 limited edition posters which were sold at Artistic Indulgence's booth.  It was exciting to hear people tell me how much they loved the poster. I told people I created a poster that I would want to hang in my house.

I loved meeting all the people including some of my art college friends, business friends and tons of new contacts. I liked the lady who bought a Columbine print because she had a beautiful columbine tattoo on her shoulder, the Concordia grads who bought my corn cards because they are 'cobbers', the people who love 'poppies' and 'ginkgo' art, and was surprised when people wanted to buy my vinyl decorative banners hanging in my booth.  It was fun to tell people how I make patterns of my art and create fabric thru Spoonflower, how I work with Rug Rats to make my rugs and evolved my Etsy shop into a growing business in two years. I'm a long time freelance illustrator but my personal Arts & Crafts inspired art is breathing new life into my career.

The best weather was on Sunday afternoon when the sun finally came out and we took the back wall off the tent to allow some sun in and a beautiful view of the Mississippi. Thanks to those of you who stopped by and thank you to Sara Collins from the Stone Arch Festival for the opportunity to do this year's poster. It was an unforgettable experience!

Louie Louie Louie Wow Wee

Alan Friedman, Great Arrow Graphics & me

The Louie Awards are like the Oscars for the card industry.  The best cards in each category are announced and awards are presented at a gala during the National Stationery Show in May each year. The Surtex Show where I was exhibiting runs at the same time at the Javits Center in New York City.  Imagine my surprise when the staff from Great Arrow Graphics stopped over to say my firefly card I illustrated for them was nominated for a Louie Award in the Anniversary category. I rushed to the display and stood there grinning. My friend Rich Sherman of J.Ames Greetings was nominated as Rising Star.

Alan Friedman, president of Great Arrow came back the next day to say it won.  I told him it was a dream come true for me.  Great Arrow is a special card company because all their cards are hand silkscreened. (Click link to see their work.) The card I designed had a gold metallic ink which made it even more beautiful. The inside verse said," you still light my fire! Happy Anniversary."  Alan said it was a sweet card and was popular with retailers.  I asked for a picture with him and the winning card since I didn't go to the gala.

If you are interested in what the judging is like for the Louies, here's a video you can watch.  The card industry understands the competition it faces with online communications and how cards keep people connected in a different way.  I still feel it's the handwritten message along with the card that shows people you care.

Surtex Debut

This May marked my debut as a surface textile designer at Surtex in NYC.  It was a solid six months of planning, creating, marketing and spending to get ready but it was worth it.  The greatest time went into developing my illustrations into formats that manufacturers could envision using on their products.  That required trying them in patterns, borders, different color palettes and formats. Those designs were put in a portfolio and on a slideshow format on my laptop.

The second biggest project was designing an 8x10' booth to draw people in.  Many people show their work in groupings or collections on the walls.  I took a different route and took some of my images and blew them up huge on 3 x 6' banners. It had impact without looking too busy.  Plus it was pretty easy to roll up and check as a bag at the airport.  I also brought one of my Solomon Seal rugs and a variety of my cards.

The variety of manufacturers who stopped by to talk included wallcovering companies, retail print companies, dinnerware and fabric companies, scrapbooking, online photo album companies and a few were international manufacturers including Belgium and Brazil.  I felt it was a good solid showing for my first time and felt validated in my decision to go.  I've been busy following up with the people I met and am on my way to securing my first license with one of the manufacturers.

I also met great exhibitors like Kathy Weller next door to me who took this photo and got to see some of my favorites like Kate Spain. Surtex was the right place to be and I believe my work will make it's way into the retail arena very soon.

Duane Boom, Glass Artist

I have to share the talented craftsman work by Glass Artist Duane Boom of Minneapolis. He was at Master Framers Art Crawl last weekend where we shared a space, so I talked to him about his work.  He started over 30 years ago with Tiffany lampshades like the one in the photo.  The colors and glass are true to the originals and are spectacular. I particularly like the Dragonfly one I found on his website and others I saw at the Gabberts Event he showed at in March.

Then seven years ago he took fused glass classes from different artists from around the country.  A sample is the rectangular form below.  He stacked pieces of glass in a box like pixie sticks in the kiln and fired them to create a slab of glass. He sliced it with a saw and ends up with these one of a kind repeated designs that are wonderful. He ends up firing each piece about 3 times. He's been using the patterned glass for unique necklaces, too. Duane also does leaded glass, unique glass buttons and wine stoppers.  A talented Arts & Crafts artist!


You can see Duane's work at the LoLa Show in Minneapolis: http://lolaartcrawl.com/
He is also showing at the Chicago Arts & Crafts Event : http://www.artsandcraftschicago.com/
and check his website:  http://www.boomglassart.com/
and Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BoomGlassArt

The Rug is rugged

Last Fall I placed my Poppy & Pod rug outside my front door to test its ruggedness.  It's an indoor rug but the fiber and backing led me to believe if someone wanted to use it as a door mat, they could.  But before I could say for sure, I put it through a very tough, long snowy winter. Ask anyone, this was one of the worst in Minneapolis.

I'm happy to report that the rug came through with flying colors!  All its colors remained true, it withstood wet boots, salt, sand, sleet and whatever Old Man Winter threw at it. The stitched edge is still perfect and the rubber on the back looks great considering it was frozen multiple times to the concrete.  Now it basks in the Spring weather while our cat Malik looks on. I feel confident the rugs will do well on your doorstep, too.  

Craftsman Restaurant Ambience Review

As an Arts & Crafts Movement fan, the Craftsman Restaurant in Minneapolis was on my curiosity list, not for the food but to check out the interior design.  So last night we dropped in for a drink and checked it out.  I ordered the "Craftsman Manhattan" which took some careful sipping on my part with its twist of homemade cherry liquor, orange bitters and potent brandied cherries.

It had the right backdrop palette of rust, green and yellow on the walls, wood floors and a high chair rail, wooden bar backdrop, stained glass wall lighting and simple suspended ceiling lighting.  My photo shows an example of the dining table and chairs made of metal, wood and black seat covering. A stencil motif on canvas frames were repeated in the dining room and two framed bungalow home and floor plans art pieces were hung near the rest rooms.

A bit odd was the divider shelf between the bar area and dining room with jars of their home grown herbs and pickled items they grow out back. It wasn't visually interesting to look at. (Sorry I didn't take a picture but the diners probably wouldn't approve of my flash.) The outdoor patio wasn't open for the season yet but lacked any Craftsman style with its diagonal lattice and tin roof. The website link shows a view of it in summertime use.

It needed a little something more to make me happy.  Maybe a craftsman fireplace or more pottery or art on the wall to keep my interest. If anyone wants to suggest other Arts & Crafts restaurants to check out, I'd be happy to add them to my list.

Stone Arch Festival of the Arts Final Art

I thought I'd share how the illustration turned out since posting the drawing.  It took a while to select colors for the bridge and water. This shade of blue seemed appropriate for the Mississippi River rather than a blue green that felt too tropical.  Creating the water shapes was fun and very intuitive, not based on photographic reference since the water is frozen this time of year. But I hope it suggests the energy of the river. The people represent the joggers, bikers, families and tourists who use the bridge.  There's St. Anthony Falls and the area along St. Anthony Main where the festival will be held.

The illustration went through a couple revisions. The arch got narrowed, we tried a gradated sky and also a solid color box behind the type but switched that back.  That's the beauty of working in digital. It's very flexible.  So the art is off to be placed in ads, newspapers, web etc. and I need to get  posters printed for the Festival Organizers to sell the weekend of the event. One poster will be framed professionally and exhibited. That will be fun! I'll be meeting the framer soon to discuss.