Cape Cod

I just got back from a wonderful week in the Cape. We rented a big beach house to celebrate my father's 70th birthday and it was a blast. From swimming in the ocean, to grilling out, biking around Nantucket, gallery hopping in Provincetown and having cocktails at night up on the home's Crow's Nest, each and every day was special. I spent a lot of time searching for shells, sea glass and cool little speckled rocks. I love the smells and sounds of being near the ocean and will miss hearing those waves at night before sleep. One day I will live in a cottage by the ocean.

Renegade Craft Fair

Hit the Renegade in Brooklyn this weekend. It took place in the McCarren Park pool. Yes, in a pool. It had just rained Sunday when I arrived, so the pool was fast a sweltering vat of concrete once the sun shined.

But the fair was great with so many talented artists and crafters selling their wares.
I purchased a glass squirrel pendant from "Happy Owl Glassworks", a cute print from "The Small Object" and a typewriter key pendant from "The Weekend Store".

Here are some shots from it. Love the dog!

Chelsea Market

I discovered the coolest place in the city this week with my friend Karin, who was visiting from Austin. She is quite the gourmet enthusiast and was delighted to find that the Food Network was housed in this building. There were all kinds of great shops, foods, wine, and bakeries. Always so inspiring to see new places. Made me want to buy kitchen tools made of olive wood and ramekins the size of kitten paws. (?)This is a shot of one store's cheese selection. I thought that sheep was so cute in the midst of so much frommage!

The Fox and the Raccoon

This is an illustration I did while taking Monica Wellington's Children's Book class at SVA this past fall. I am still trying to get a children's book project and have recently submitted a dummy to a publisher in NYC. She saw the dummy during an interview and asked that I resend it to her after making a few tweaks. Keep your fingers crossed!

Le Poulet

Here is a little chicken I did recently. Been playing with some images for possible licensing.

Bemelmans

I absolutely adore Ludwig Bemelmans (most famously known for the Madeline series)Not only was he an amazing illustrator but also a gifted writer of works of fiction. One of my favorites is Hotel Splendide...a series of short stories, little vignettes of life in a five star hotel banquet hall. He has such light prose that evokes old Paris and Europe. This image is an ad he illustrated for an Italian Cruise line. Enjoy!

Great, old advertising signage

This is the Bloch Brothers building in Dover, NJ. It's an interesting town, kind of caught between old and new. I like that they don't tear everything down there, but assimilate into the old. This lettering is gorgeous and most of these brick buildings with ad murals have been sandblasted or painted over. So glad they kept it!

Woolworths, etc.

I seem to be so nostalgic these days for five and dimes, automats and old restaurants from the mid-century. Places like Woolworths with their packed in window displays and red facades. I wasn't even alive in their heyday, but I am so drawn to places like them. I've read some good books lately that chronicle both Woolworth's and Horn and Harart. This is an illo I did using some vintage ephemera.

Pencil Sketches

When I first started out, I was very averse to doing sketches for assignments, feeling that my style was so loose, that something would be lost in the translation and the final art would suffer and seem too rigid. HA! I learned quickly that if you don't nail down the sketch, the client will have no idea of what you plan to do in final, no matter how wonderful you know inside (lol) it will! So, I put down my favored pen and surrendered to pencil sketches.
It's a good thing too. I now think everything out in this stage, saving LOTS of time in the end.

My Beloved Tortie

Miss Freckles, who turns 16 this summer, acts as studio supervisor. Here she is on my desk as I scramble to find a sketch across the room. So cute!