Life Changes

It’s been way too long since my last post and every time I try to write something new I end up not finishing my post.  This time I will write something even if it is just an update on what I’ve been up to over the past year.

My priorities have changed or shifted, as I got into my thirties I realized that having a family was something that was very important to me.  I saw mothers and babies everywhere I went, and having a child became my focus.  I’ve always had a fascination with children’s books but as an outsider appreciating a world I was not yet a part of.

Much to my husband’s and  my delight shortly after we were married in the summer of 2010 we became pregnant.  It was so exciting dreaming about how our lives would change, and experiencing the amazing changes my body went through in the first few months of pregnancy.

That winter I was approached to take over teaching the Children’s Book Illustration class at George Brown College, the timing was perfect, morning (all day) sickness was over and I was not due until the end of June.  Having the opportunity to teach a class about a subject I cared so much about was amazing.  Even though I was extremely nervous about teaching a class to people I would consider my peers, I was also excited about the opportunity to inspire other people with amazing illustrations and books.  By the end of that semester I was starting to get quite big, and the aches and pains that go along with the beginning of my  third trimester had made me quite glad it was done.

I continued my coffee shop job up until three weeks before I was due, but by that point all I wanted to do was sit on the couch with my feet up all day.

On the 24th of June our lives changed completely, and our beautiful son Aaron came into the world.  Suddenly the only thing that mattered was meeting the needs of this tiny little boy.  The first few weeks were very bumpy but we all made it through and were able to muddle our way around the proceeding months.  My beautiful boy is now seven months old and I can hardly believe  how he has thrived in that time.  As I write this all down I can’t believe how cliché it all sounds, but all those things people say about parenthood are true.  Its exhausting and wonderful, and you try to cherish every second of it because they really do grow up so fast.

Finally we have gotten to a point where sitting and writing for an hour is possible again, as my boy naps in the next room I can reflect on the profound effect he has had on my life.  My hope is that I can now pass on some of his beautiful inspiration through my art and to others.  If I can spend enough time during the day working on my illustrations I may not have to go back to my coffee shop job.

I will post some photos of my main source of inspiration as well as do reviews on some of the books that have become our favorites. I will also continue to update the work I have done in the past year, although there in not too much of it.  I’m going to start off with devoting an hour a day to work on this, it seems like an easily attainable goal, then move up from there.

What I did over the Holidays (part two)

A good friend of mine recently had a beautiful baby boy, and as part of the shower gift for her I made a little painting for the nursery.  My friend really loves frogs so I wanted to create something that both Mom and Baby would enjoy.

In this photo the paint is still wet but it is a mixed media piece on wood panel with acrylic paint and paper inclusions.

What I did over the holidays (part one)

Things have been a little hectic around our house so I haven’t done an update in a while.

I’ve been painting, drawing and I learned how to knit and over the next couple days I’ll have photos and info on all of them.

This first image is a mixed media painting, I’ve been playing around with paint, printed paper and drawings on tracing paper and combining them to create an image.  The second little painting was going to be for my christmas cards but once again my ideas were bigger than the time I had, so I ended up buying cards to send. I’ll try again next year.

Remembrance Day

In honour of remembrance day I wanted to show you something very special to me.  This is the locket my grandfather gave to my grandmother when he went off to fight in world war two.

October Art Display

I’ve finally gotten around to framing some of my paintings, and they will be on display for the month of October.  They will be hanging in the Starbucks at Dundas and Roncesvalles in Toronto.

Here is one of the paintings, I’m quite happy with these fun and charming images.

So if you are in the area check it out.

Illustration Friday ‘Acrobat’

Here is my submission for this weeks word on Illustration Friday, Acrobat.

Enjoy

I’m working again!

I finished two drawings today, the top one I’m submitting to illustration friday, and the bottom one is a promotional piece that I’ve been working on for a while but have not been happy with.  I scanned both images and edited them in photoshop, the image of the owl needed the most work.  I was a little heavy handed with black ink at one point and I needed to lighten it up a bit.

I will have to finished drawings up shortly in all their edited glory.

Sketchbook Project

A couple months ago I signed up for a really neat project with arthouse.  It’s a really fun idea and I love that it will be available for anyone to look through. The Sketchbook Project would take my sketchbook and hundreds of others on tour across the US as an art show, then have them entered in the permanent collection at the Brooklyn Art Library.

Life is part of the process

Originally I was only going to post about art and illustration related things, but I’ve so many things happen in the last few months that I just haven’t had that much time for my illustration.  

On May first my boyfriend asked me to marry him and I said Yes!  Now because of some other huge life changing events in our lives we decide to get married sooner rather than later.  (no, i’m not pregnant, if you are wondering)

So we set the date for August 28th 2010, which is now in a couple of weeks.  The last couple of months have gone by so quickly and there are so many things left to do, and the closer I get to the wedding date the more worried and stressed out I feel.  My fiance is helping me a little with some of the things on my to-do list but for the most part I’m doing it all myself.  I made the invitations and mailed them out, I’ve gathered all of the necessary marriage paperwork, I’ve done all the reception research, organizing and planning so that our friends and family will have a nice time celebration with us, and I’m even making all of the decorations.

The thing that I’m having the most trouble with is with my own appearance.  I’m now on my third potential wedding dress and I’m still not happy with the way I look.  I just wanted a simple dress that was not a wedding dress that I could wear again, I didn’t like the idea of spending a ton of money on a dress I would only wear once.  So  I found an adorable little white dress with a cute tulip style short skirt, but my best friend thought it would not be an acceptable wedding dress so we went shopping for something else.  We shopped and I was disappointed, there was nothing that we could both agree on.

I did continue my search later that week on my own and I was more successful, I found a sweet white summer dress that had a longer tea length skirt.  It was a little loose around the waist and chest but it looked easy enough to get taken in a little.  I took it to a drycleaners that also did alterations and the woman there had me try on the dress and pinned where it would get taken in.  The next week after I picked up the dress and tried it on I realized it had been taken in too much.  The dress was so tight I couldn’t zip it up, and when I turned it inside out to see what they had done I also saw how bad of a job they had really done on it.

I was so upset about this dress that I didn’t want to take it back for them to fix, I didn’t want to wear this dress at all, it had been tainted with negativity.  I was going to just go back to wearing the first dress but the style of it didn’t really match with the accessories I wanted to wear.  We were going to go shopping again to try to find me something acceptable to wear, but I decided today to try to transform a dress I already have into my wedding dress.  The dress is a really pretty silk but the problem was that it was pink, I picked up some dye remover from a fabric store and made it in to an ivory dress.

I was really excited about the transformation and I’m hoping I’ll be able to wear this.  I don’t care if I look like a bride or not, I just want to look like a beautiful version of me for a day.  

Illustration Friday ‘trail’

This is Hastings he was the man of the house when my best friend and I lived together.  He had free reign of the entire apartment but he had a few trails that he would stick too.