Get Outta Your Head

He was tired of always being in his head. 

Surrounded by the echo of self doubt and hindsight. 

He had enough!...and so he decided today was the day and told himself 

"GET OUTTA YOUR HEAD" 

and meant it. 

on a side note...my blog template went away. now its been stripped down to the basics. im taking it as a sign to keep things simple. 

black & white

My favorite part about illustrating a piece is always getting to color it at the end. It's like being transported to 6 year old me with a coloring book and a big ol' boxset of 120 crayolas....with every hue of the rainbow with fanciful names such as Mango Tango, Razzmatazz, and Purple Mountains Magesty! pure heaven. 

But sometimes when a kid has 120 options, they get a little overwhelmed and don't know where or how to begin. So I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and bring it back to the basics. I wanted to see what a kid would create if all they had was a single black sharpie. 

So far...its been actually kind of liberating as it lets me focus on a different aspect of me...Its allowing me to focus on the beauty of fonts and focus on shapes and silhouettes...here's looking forward to where this marker takes me.

subtleties and safety pins

I got the chance to see Her by Spike Jonze and it was eerie just how relateable the story was. It was filled with a beautiful hollowness that amplified the simultaneous wish/fear for connection. The movie made me deconstruct how we communicate as a society today with evolving social media and made me redefine what i consider a relationship/friendship. As a result, it made me wonder about the substance of all the likes, follows, and retweets out there in the world and if they really do connect us people. Ultimately though, the movie made me realize not to doubt the quality of the connection but instead embrace and celebrate that a connection was being made when needed.

There were so many layers to this film that i loved and still think about days after....but the one thing that consumed me while watching it was something small. I just couldn't stop staring at it. It was the safety pin that held Her perfectly in place in his pocket so she could see the world with him. It was such a subtle detail that made Theodore's and Samantha's relationship real to me. I could imagine him struggling to find a solution, perhaps placing a box of tictacs or tissues in his pocket to prop her up, or perhaps unsuccessfully pinning her crookedly into place a few times before figuring out the perfect height for her to share the world with him. All these things played out in my head and made him real to me versus just being a wonderfully written character being played by an actor. The safety pin  made me obsess about the subtleties that authors, illustrators, animators, and actors capture that transforms a fictional character into being real.

ferguson the meteorologist

Ferguson the Fox travels the world in a giant floating light bulb fueled by bright ideas. He spends his days chasing clouds and phenomenons and adding lightning bolts to his collection.

I've learned that everyone works differently. Everyone has their own routines and creative habits to get them to wherever they need to be in order to want to sit down and pour onto a page, canvas, or computer screen what's been dancing around in their heads and buried in their hearts.

Some people need a shot of whiskey to loosen the screws. Some people prefer a hot cup of caffeinated salvation to activate the nerves. Some people need the perfect soundtrack playing in the background to stir the soul. And for me it’s all of these things plus scribbling down a few words onto a yellow post-it note. There's definitely something about capturing the point of inspiration as soon as it happens. For me...it’s like bottling lightning in a jar. As long as I have these few words to go back to, I can reactivate the point of inspiration when I need to. But in the meantime...all these thoughts are collected and stored away for safe keeping. At this point, it feels like I've got shelves of jars filled with lightning storms waiting to be released and that's exciting to think about.

My post-it note for this piece read "chasing clouds and collecting lightning"

i wish i was a double-scoop icecream cone...

So...I’ve never been the kind of gal that could convincingly wear a "sexy" halloween costume and not feel silly. And let’s be honest…if you’re a girl and looking for a Halloween costume, sexy is pretty much all you got to choose from in the stores these days.

 But I guess that really doesn’t matter since I walk straight past the sexy woman aisle and streamline to the children’s costumes. The reason?  Simply because the magical option of being a double-scoop icecream cone exists there.

woodland wanderlust

moss, trees, woodland creatures constantly inhabit my mind.

maybe its cause i've always lived in the city. maybe cause i envy children that grew up with woods for a backyard. maybe it's cause i was a small woodland creature in a past life...who knows. i just know i've got a strong case of woodland wanderlust.

Seashell Souvenirs

 
I've been trying to take a few adventures lately in attempt to grow the soul a bit. Meet new people, eat new foods, see new things to inspire the soul. It's been an awesome ride so far and with each trip that i take, it only makes me realize how little i've actually seen of this world and how i long to see more. And no matter how big or small the adventure is...I've always been a collector of souvenirs of the places i've visited. I have certain clepto tendencies... may it be a rock, a receipt, or a giant shell from the sea...it makes me happy to know i have a bit of that of that world with me... just to tie me over until we can meet again.

these mementos remind me of the possibilities, to grow, and to remember to take every chance to make your soul feel brand new again.

dear world, thank you for being inspiring.
dear adventure, until we meet again!

and now in color! :)

Handle with EXTRA care : kitten grams

 mumbles and charlie decided they were going to need extra bubble wrap for their kitten grams.

Dearest friends,

I'm going to tell you a secret..cause we're friends and thats what friends do.

I know of a place, a magical place, a post office where all lost and undeliverable mail find a way to. For instance, a birthday parcel soaked in rain with a smudged adress label. A thank you letter sent to a hard to find address like the easter bunnie's condo. A love letter dated 40 years ago with the incorrect postage. These pieces of mail are all considered UNDELIVERABLES and are destined to one very special post office and crew to help them find their way home.

And this post office is called the Dead Mail Division.

Don't you worry, you can also go there for all your regular post office needs too! The crew will gladly help you with all your EXTRA fragile deliveries!

And in celebration of me uncovering this magical post office...the dead mail division crew and i are sending out postcards of the above image and of Undelivered Mail. If you would like one...please email/facebook me which one you would like, your name, and address of where its going by july 31st, 2012.

thanks for stopping by and yaaay for giving me an excuse to send postcards!
nhu

theres not many things i love more than baked goods but on the short list lies cute home goods. i love strolling the aisles for cute decorative pillows (cause you can never have too many), newly marked down frames, and vases that are begging for me to fill with flowers.

and since i'm not that great of a baker and everything i bake comes out of a cardboard box...i thought i would try my luck at making my first home good product! a pillow! just the perfect kind of flair for a baby's nursery, a frumpy chair that needs a pick me up, or in the arms of a grown adult that needs a hug.

the goal is to start selling them soon on my shop and at the upcoming cons. now...1 pillow down....about 30 more to go...wish me luck.

Undelivered Mail

trying to get back into the swing of things and my oh my...the wheels are rusty.

Lately, its been super tough just trying to even look at my artwork let alone actually posting it up for all of my friends and the interweb to see. i know...this is odd considering i am in a the profession where i should want to show things but call me strange..i just like having things huddled away on my desktop until im ready to show and tell. its odd...and really uncomfortable at times...but im trying. im trying not to care and to chuck all caution into the wind and to JUST DRAW AND POST THINGS and HAVE FUN. yaaaay! in a very strange way, with each post i make...ive realized blogger and facebook is like a poor woman's therapy for crazies like me. slowly but surely...i'll grow up into a real artist and want to show everyone my sketchbook and skip into the sunset. just wait and see. it'll happen. i'm getting my skipping shoes ready so be prepared.

in the mean time....this is mint. hes a growing jackalope and interns at the local post office with his twin sister chip. just testing out the waters...we'll see how far this one goes.