Sail Boats and Art Fairs

So the Milwaukie Art Daze was really tiny and hardly any traffic but at least we got out there and tried it out. This is a year of learning. The photoshoot with Merrick Talent was a much more successful. After moving the shoot from Astoria to the Columbia Gorge we had a lovely shoot with photographer Pete Springer. Here a few of my "behind the scene" shots. Check out Pet's Blog to see "the good stuff". http://petespringer.wordpress.com/

Good Things

My lovely friend, Cori Jacobs is a talented, up and coming artist. This summer she has been exploring the world of pottery and finding ways to transfer her paintings onto ceramics. One of her pieces didn't quite meet her standards so she let me keep it. It totally meets my standards! Cori has been invited to New York for a benefit show sometime in the spring. Check out her website on my favorite people link on the right. Go Cori!

Yoga Instructor Applications

What Happens when you give a yoga instructor application to a children's illustrator and tell them to be creative with the final product? You get a book full of mice attempting yoga poses...

Yes! I am attempting to become a yoga instructor and perhaps yoga therapist. My application will be turned into a book and maybe, maybe adapted into a yoga book for children. Here's a sketch for a few ideas. Maybe I'll actually get this finished by the deadline!

Gresham Art Walk

We hit the ground running! For those of you who know me - I am NOT a morning person. Never the less we are up at 6am and out the door by 7am. I downed a cup of tea and an efusjon can with caffein (ask me more about efusjon).

Sales were good. The crowd was pleasant. The weather was H-O-T. Thank goodness for shade and my $60 canopy.

All in all a successful day. People think being an artist is all fun and creativity. I'm here to tell you. It is VERY hard work! But I love it and I'll never stop doing it.

Special thanks to the Ficken-meister (my husband) for all his support and help. To my parents for making a star appearance and making my dad take over the booth so I could shoe shop with my mom. And to all my friends for their continued love and support!

It Feels Good to be Wanted

Well, all I can say is that it's nice to be in demand. After excepting the invitation to the 2 hour event on Saturday the 25th for the Milwaukie Art Daze I was then offered an all day fee to do makeup for a swimsuit shoot in Astoria...on a yacht! My husband graciously offered to represent me at the Art Daze so that I can rake in some $$ at the beach! Should be a great shoot. I'll post pictures of the boat. I hope I don't get sea sick!

This saturday is the Gresham Art Walk! Wish me luck :)

July Activities

It's been a busy Summer! This last sunday I participated in the Milwaukie Art Market and made a few sales in spite of the bad weather and slow crowd. Upcoming Events that I will be participating in, include:

July 18 - Gresham Artwalk

July 25 - Milwaukie Art Daze

July 26 - Milwaukie Art Market

July 30 - Last Thursday

I'm hoping to have time to create again soon. But in the meantime making sales is good :)

Uliko

Today was a good day. Had a lovely meeting with old acquaintance Chris Linn and Wife Katy. Chris created and owns Uliko; a material production representation business that works as a conduit between designers and manufacturers. His studio is truly unique and will be very inspirational for new and established product design companies.

Chris is looking to build relationships with designers and artists. Please check him out at:

http://uliko.squarespace.com/what-is-uliko/

Happy Friday, everyone!

Latest Illustration

This is the latest piece to make it into my collection. Who can resist a fluffy owl baby?

More mice to come (of course) and some new bunnies (of the earthling variety).

Book Updates

Many of you know I've been working on getting a children's book together to be my debut book. I wanted to give a sneak peak at the latest progress. Keep hounding me, I promise to get it finished and published (one way or another) very soon!

Milwaukie Art Daze

I am so lucky to have been invited by the City of Milwaukie to participate in the Milwaukie Daze Festival! If you can join me in open mic poetry reading, live music and art, please come.

July 25th behind the Ledding Library in Old Town Milwaukie (10660 SE 21st Ave., Milwaukie, OR). Picnic and Festivities from 2-4pm. Hope to see you there! :)

I'm getting some interesting exposure these days! I got a very nice email from the Children's Cancer Association (CCA) stating that they had scoped me out at first thursday and had asked me to donate a piece of my work for a silent auction, fund raiser they are having. This piece (Little Moon Dreamer) will be donated for their event.

They will be raffling off a Mini Cooper at their event as well.

Check them out at: http://www.childrenscancerassociation.org/

thanks everyone who helped get me out there and have given continual support and encouragement (you know who you are) as I nose my way into this new world of children's illustrations and other art ventures!