#MarchMeetTheMaker, Fat, Instagram, Nude, Sketchbook
My favorite feedback is when a woman sees my drawings and see herself in them. I’ve heard from many women that one of my of my curvy nude women looks just like her own body and is beautiful, so it makes her feel better about her own curves. Or someone wanting a commissioned drawing of her own body because I make fat bodies look so beautiful.... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, 365accordionproject, Instagram, Sketchbook
I’m a few days behind again… but still in the game! Which kind of feels like it applies to my art career, but substitute years for days… or even decades! Which brings me to my advice. Start now. Do a little something every day… even if it’s nothing but drawing a few leaves. Carry a sketchbook and pens (or an iPad and Apple Pencil) with you everywhere you go. Just doing a little something every day can add up to a whole lot in a... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, 365accordionproject, Instagram, Sketchbook
Day 22: Proud of I posted this project on day one of #MarchMeetTheMaker for “favorite to make,” but I’m sharing it again today for the “proud of” prompt. Paducah has a wonderful non-profit art center called the Yeiser Art Center (@yeiserartcenter) that supports local and regional artists, has great programs for the community, and also has some amazing international juried exhibitions. I’ve been a member off and on throughout the 15 years that I’ve been in Paducah. Each year they have a members show where anyone who is a member can show a few pieces of art. I’ve never participated in it before, but in January of this year the director of the Yeiser, @lexieabra, encouraged me to enter and I did at the very last possible minute. I have a hard time entering local shows, because I kind of feel like I have saturated the market in Paducah. It’s a small town with a small – but fantastic – community of artists, and I have my work in two places in the downtown/lowertown area year round and also do several pop up markets throughout the year. I worry about overexposure. So sometimes I refrain from participating in extra shows. But with Lexie’s encouragement, I entered my #365accordionproject sketchbooks. I didn’t even know there was judging and prizes for the show, and I missed the opening reception, so I was quite surprised the next day when several people congratulated me on winning best of show! And on top of that, it came with a cash prize! This is a tough piece to know what to do with, because it’s... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, Instagram, Sketchbook
Day 21 of #MarchMeetTheMaker: Throwback These images are from 1991-1993 when I was in grad school at @scaddotedu. I started grad school as a painting major and did the last two paintings in this post during my first year. Everyone in my classes and the professors who came to my critiques and reviews hated them. I wasn’t very good at talking about what my work was about, and they were seen as just pretty, decorative images with no meaning or depth behind them. At the time, being conceptual was all that mattered; you could put a pile of trash in the middle of the room and as long as you could make up some good bullshit, you’d be just fine. Meanwhile, my paintings were being trashed every time. Just when I was about ready to throw in my paintbrush, someone from the fibers department came to one of my reviews and said, “You’re just in the wrong place; come see what we are doing in fibers!” So I did. And I changed my major (which is not easy in grad school!) and switched to fibers. I started learning about screen printing and batik and sewing and what I was struggling to do with paint became easy with fabric dyes, inks and paints! Not only that, they were very well received. I haven’t really done a great deal of fiber work since grad school, but what I learned was invaluable and became part of my growing arsenal of techniques. The first image is batik on silk, the second is (mostly) screen printed on cotton. The last two images are acrylic... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, Instagram, Sketchbook
Day 20 of #MarchMeetTheMaker: Design process My design process is pretty fluid. I start with a general idea, gather (or take my own) photographs for reference and start by doing a light pencil sketch of the main subject – whether that’s a figure or insect or flower – and then grab my favorite pen ( #uniballsigno) or my Apple Pencil – and start inking. The main subject is the only one that is planned and sketched first, the rest just flows intuitively out of my mind and my pen. Once I’m done with the drawing, I might scan it and clean it up digitally to turn into prints, patterns or other products. I have a huge stash of images to pull from when I want to create products or patterns. These days I’m doing most of my drawings on the iPad in Procreate with the Apple Pencil, so the sketch stage happens loosely on a layer that I then trace for more precision. I keep the “ink” drawing on separate layer from the color. Scanning step is eliminated, and I may vectorize the drawing in Illustrator if I need to be able to pull out elements, resize and turn it into patterns. #ijustwanttodrawprettypictures... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, Birth Month Flowers, Flowers, Instagram, Sketchbook
Day 19 of #MarchMeetTheMaker: Dream collaboration I don’t really have a specific company that I dream about working with, but I would definitely like to license my work to companies that make fabric, wallpaper, bed/bath products, tableware/kitchen products, etc. I currently offer all of these kinds of things through print on demand companies like @printfulhq, @printify, @spoonflower, @gooteninc and a few others, but I’d love to get licensing deals with companies that have their own manufacturing and markets. Time to stop being afraid, work on my portfolio and start submitting my work, right? #ijustwanttodrawprettypictures... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, Instagram, Sketchbook
Day 18 of #MarchMeetTheMaker: Mistake or lesson I’m not sure if I’d really call this a mistake or lesson, but my biggest ongoing challenge in my art and design career (and the rest of life, too, for that matter) is my struggle with being organized, managing my time and being productive. I get a lot of stuff done, but in a kind of random and reactive way rather than a planned and strategic way. I’m an expert at buying planners and writing in the first few pages, convinced that if I just find the right system, I’ll magically become an organized, methodical, structured person who makes a plan and sticks to it. Somehow, that hasn’t quite happened... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, Instagram, Sketchbook
Day 17 of #MarchMeetTheMaker: What I’m working on Sundays are my planning days. The sun came out and so Pixel and I sat outside for a bit to do some planning for the upcoming week. I’m using the 15 Minute Planner Method by @stephcrowder_ from my current favorite podcast, Courage and Clarity (@courageandclarity) to plan out the most important things I have to do in the upcoming week. I am not a natural planner and I suck at sticking to schedules. But I need to get better at it to make sure all of the things I’m juggling get done! #ijustwanttodrawprettypictures... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, Instagram, Sketchbook
Day 16 of #MarchMeetTheMaker: Workspace (tidy/mess) I have a lot of different workspaces in my home/studio for different things that I do. Here are photos of most of them. Know that if it looks tidy it’s because I just spent time cleaning and organizing and haven’t been working in it much. Anytime I’m working on anything, there’s crap absolutely everywhere! If the weather is nice, I take my computer outside and soak up some fresh air and sun. #ijustwanttodrawprettypictures... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, Birth Month Flowers, Flowers, Instagram, Sketchbook
Day 15 of #MarchMeetTheMaker: Motivation/Goals My main goal has always been to be able to be a full time artist. I’m fortunate to be able to support myself with creative work, between web design and branding and art – and to be able to work for myself for the past 12 years. 2018 was my best year in terms of making money from art/product sales – and that is hugely motivating! I also stay motivated to keep creating new things by doing challenges like this one and my current year-long state flower and insect drawing project. Well, that and the fact that I just feel compelled to constantly draw! I’m showing my most popular product ever – my 2019 Birth Month Flower calendar. The success of this calendar is hugely motivating and is driving my goals for the upcoming year of making products. I really enjoy designing websites and plan to keep doing it, but my big goal is (and always has been) to make my art and my own design products be my main job and to be able to only take on client design work that I’m truly excited about. P.S. There are still 10.5 months left in my calendar (it goes through January 2020) if you want to buy one. Link in bio. #ijustwanttodrawprettypictures... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, Books, Instagram, Sketchbook
Day 14 of #MarchMeetTheMaker: How I learned I’m a couple of days behind on these posts, so I’m going to try to catch up this weekend, so expect a few more posts from me than usual. Back on day 2 for “how you started”, I talked about making ceramics and drawing as a little kid and through high school. After that, I studied drawing and painting at @oglethorpeuniv (1985-1987) and @universityofga (1987-1989). I did a tiny bit of ceramic sculpture, a medium bit of painting and a whole lot of drawing! For six months between my junior and senior year, I participated in the @ugacortona studies abroad program in Cortona, Italy (1988). In addition to drawing and painting while in Italy, I also learned some paper making and book binding. My favorites to make were accordion fold books, filled with my drawings. My love of that format continues, as you’ve seen if you’ve been following along! I’m showing a couple of examples here of accordion fold books that I made in college – 31 years ago, when I was 20! The first one is about an an inch by an inch and a half with a hand drawn snake alphabet inside. The second is 3.5 x 5 inches; the cover is handmade paper and the drawing inside is a montage I drew from photos I took of the main street in Cortona, Via Nationale. I could probably write 100 pages about my art education, but I’ll leave it at this for now and add more in other posts.... 
#MarchMeetTheMaker, Instagram, Sketchbook
Day 13 of #MarchMeetTheMaker: Photography Taking photos of my work… I absolutely do not have a good process for this! Since I’m doing mostly digital things these days, it’s not an issue, I just have to save the files from Procreate or Photoshop or Illustrator. A lot of my drawings are small enough to scan, which is also super easy. . When I do need to photograph things, I want to do anything but shoot them on a white backdrop. For my jewelry, I use props like chalkboards, bones, trees. Although I’m showing an image of a camera here, I mostly use my iPhone. I also use a lot of mockups for when I’m creating print on demand products with my drawings, either created on the POD website or ones I make myself in Photoshop....