art

Art Cards – Week 47 – Celebrations

| terriaw

Last week was quite an eventful week full of celebrations.

We celebrated my birthday with presents, a special coffee treat, pizza for lunch, and hiking.

Then we celebrated Thanksgiving with a day of catching up with my family and cooking together.

Then we enjoyed my family’s annual Cookie Day, a full day of marathon cookie making. I think we made over 20 varieties this year!

Stop by our Flickr group to see the art Michelle and Sandra have been creating over the past year. I love to see how different our styles are. I am impressed with how clever they are in illustrating their daily lives.

Art Cards – Week 46 – Movies and Migration

| terriaw

My inspirations for last week’s art cards were migration and movies.

To cope with the stressful, busy days I’ve had over the past few months, we’ve been watching a lot of movies lately. They can be such a wonderful escape!

It’s that time of year when flocks of geese are flying in formation to warmer climates. I love the v-shape they form as they migrate together. It’s a fitting representation of moving on.

Stop by our Flickr group to see the art Michelle and Sandra have been creating over the past year. It’s pretty cool to see what kinds of images we each come up with to illustrate our daily lives.

Art Cards – Week 45 – Domestic Days and First Snow

| terriaw

It’s hard to believe we have only 7 weeks left of this project. It will be fun to continue illustrating as the holiday season and winter approach.

I was lucky to have a day off last week where I could be domestic, so I spent the day cooking, baking, cleaning and doing laundry. It might sound like chores to someone else, but I loved every minute of it!

We had our first snowfall of the season last week. It was so beautiful! The snow started to fall after I got to work, and it ended before my drive home, so I just got to enjoy the beauty of seeing the snowflakes coming down, and seeing the snow covering the grass and trees the next day. It’s all melted for now, but I’m sure there will be more snowy days to come.

Stop by our Flickr group to see the art Michelle and Sandra have been creating. I love how different our styles are, and how clever they are in illustrating their ideas.

Art Cards – Week 44 – Stripes and Blots

| terriaw

I thought it would be fun to experiment with a prompt from Illustration Friday‘s recent illustration topic – stripes. I used the trees along our hiking trail as the stripes on my card, and a silly silhouette of a couple hiking together, which is what we do every Saturday.

I also thought it would be fun to revisit a prompt from a summer creative challenge where you drop a blot or two of paint on a paper and draw shapes into it. I went for an Autumn color palette and imagery.

Be sure to check out our Flickr group to see the art Michelle and Sandra have been creating. It’s hard to believe we are on week 44 of 52 for this project!

Art Cards – Week 43 – Slowing Down

| terriaw

I am looking forward to taking a typography class next semester, so I’ve been wanting to experiment more with handwritten typography lately. I found some great inspiration this past week, which triggered ideas for my art cards.

It’s been difficult to find the time and, ironically, the energy, to slow down lately, and make some down time for myself, so I thought these cards would be fun exercises and reminders.

As you know, I try very hard to soak up the quiet moments and breath in fresh air whenever possible.

It seems simple enough to slow down and embrace the changing season, right? I’m going to try harder to do just that!

Art Cards – Week 42 – Meltdown and Chicago

| terriaw

Somedays, I think I’m strong. Other days, I’m not feeling it as much. Even the strongest people can have a meltdown, especially when life gets overwhelming. But you dig deep down, take charge, stand up for yourself, and figure out how to make things better. That was the idea behind one of my art cards for last week.

I was lucky enough to observe an event last week that filled me with hope and inspiration. I added the lyrics “may you stay forever young” from a song written by Bob Dylan, which was performed at that event. Very uplifting!

I was also fortunate to be able to join my graphic design program on Friday for a field trip to Chicago.We toured a letterpress and screen printing shop, bummed around the city, shopped at a thrift store and a couple art supply stores, and toured the Art Institute.

It was great fun spending the day with my creative buddies, so it turned out to be a pretty good week after all.

Field Trip to Chicago

| terriaw

On Friday, I took a bus trip to Chicago with my graphic design program.

Not only was it great to spend the day with my creative buddies, it was also great fun bumming around Chicago, shopping and seeing the sights.

We started out with a tour of Evantson Print & Paper, a letterpress and screen printing shop. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a letterpress in action. How cool to get to see it in action.

The owners let us take turns trying out the letterpress. First up, ink the type.

Then, guide the paper through the roller. Can you tell how cool I thought this was?!

Then, admire your finished piece!

We made a stop at The Paper Source, a fun stationery store. After lunch, we stopped at Posh, a cool thrift store full of European vintage.

How could a group of art students resist going into a Blicks!

We ended our day at the Art Institute of Chicago.

What an amazing place! We toured the Soviet Union war poster exhibition, the Impressionists, the American Art, and a fabulous series of illustrated alphabets. The highlight for me was getting to see a couple pieces by my favorite artist, Mary Cassatt.

I cam home with a loot full of goodies, including a vintage NYC map that we’re going to frame and hang in our guest room, a fabulously-designed paper calendar for inspiration, a set of tags for more inspiration, a set of inktense pencils, and just a few sketchbooks!

Not only did it feel good to spend the day with my creative friends, but I came home with revived inspiration and reinforcement that I can’t wait to resume taking classes again in January. One of the best days I’ve had in a long time!

Art Cards – Week 41 – Old-Fashioned to Modern

| terriaw

When I sat down on Sunday night to figure out what I did last week, and find ways to illustrate my week, I didn’t realize the contrasts that would show up between these two cards. Once I finished them, I sat back and noticed an old-fashioned activity next to modern technology.

I can now say that I’ve worked for the launch of a new product. It was a crazy weekend and will probably continue to be crazy busy! Lots of updates, lots of people, lots of hard work.

In the meantime, I’ve taken up letter-writing again to keep in touch with one of my closet friends and keep a couple long-distance friendships going.

It was fun to illustrate the contrasts between old-fashioned letter-writing and my favorite modern technology!

Art Cards – Week 40 – Courage and Faith

| terriaw

I had butterflies last week. I was scheduled to teach my first workshop. And then I was scheduled to teach a second workshop the very next day. So I was nervous facing these two new challenges. Deep down, I knew I would be just fine. I kept telling myself, “just be yourself.”

As it turned out, things went so well that I received positive feedback from the workshop attendees, giving me the boost I needed to take on teaching more workshops.

I was incredibly moved (and saddened) by the recent death of the founder and CEO for the company I work for, so I been thinking a lot this week about a couple of his quotes he made over the years.

Sometimes I struggle picking a moment from the past week to illustrate on my art cards. I am thankful for finding the courage to be myself and the faith to press on when faced with a challenge.