The Fabulous Mr. Gant

Last week I sat for a portrait painted by a local artist, Davey Gant. Gant is currently painting like a mad man for a show opening at Leedy Voulkos in Crossroads in June. The show will feature an estimated 200 portraits of the artists and art affiliates of the Kansas City Crossroads Art District. While I waited for Davey to stretch the canvas, I nosed around his studio, taking pics of his current work. I love artist's studios...I've always loved my own...inspired to set up my new one. And, a big thanks to Mr. Gant for making me feel a little less guilty about my messy work process and paint-stained everything. On the other hand, as he began to paint my hair on the portrait, I noticed him painting a dark brown halo around my head..."are you painting my roots?!" I exclaimed. Sure 'nough.

Illustration Friday: Clumsy

"Grace? She died years ago!" Or, in my case, was never born. I am clumsy and messy....and longing for grace. 50% of my time is spent stumbling and tumbling, the other 50%, cleaning up my messes. So, needless to say, I related well to this week's Illustration Friday topic, Clumsy. Clunk. Boom. Bang. Blurg!

Handmade by K&Company...

...and me, and Kimberslice, and Kristen. Our new line is just now hitting stores. It was super fun to concept and design...and I even got a lot of illustration time on this bad boy. It's a fun eclectic line including illustrated postage-like stamps, flashcards, adhesive papers, tags, wooden embellishments, ephemera, old fashioned and photobooth picture frames...and on, and on. I even did some fun, funky satin and feather flowers but we need to get a decent studio shot before I post them. I'm having a grand ol' time with rhinestones, satin flowers, and feathers...so I'm sure that romantic inspiration will influence my work next month in the Late Show Gallery's Valentine's show. Ahhh, mixed media, I love ya.

Illustration Friday...Into The Wild.

Mmmm, the opportunity to use green in my illustration. Ironically, my favorite color, but I rarely get to use it. This week's topic on Illustration Friday, Wilderness. Just another opportunity for me to toss a wild animal head onto a chick's body. Oooh, and draw mushrooms, which I haven't done in aaaaaages. Crazy, wild fun.

Where love is kept

Having been one of many effected by breast cancer (my grandmother died of it years ago), I began doing paintings last year depicting nudes of woman who have had mastectomies. I received several responses to the work. A friend of mine shared with me that she has had a mastectomy and the scar, which looks like an "L" is referred to by her kids as a scar of love. I loved that story. And because this friend has been so gracious to me I wanted to do a painting inspired by her story. This was the result. I hope she loves it as much as I loved her sharing with me, among all the other great things she's done.

....Easy as 1-2-3, Baby you and me girl!

Several months back I illustrated lotsa pieces for a new line our company has coming out, Handmade. Super cute, super fun stuff...equally fun to make. We did lots of quarkly little things in the line, including flashcards. I've always wanted to design/illustrate a deck of playing cards and flashcards, so it was a joy to doodle these. Anyway, it was designed a bit ago but has been in production, and until it hit stores I had to keep my doodles to myself. But the line is out now... so I no longer have to keep mum. Later this afternoon I will be heading to stores to see how the line looks, set in store. More pics of the line to come.....

Illustration Friday

I drag my feet, over and over. Draw all the time but never get my stuff up on Illustration Friday. Oh, I did it this time. You bet your ass I did. Topic was "confined." These ladies are tangled together for life.