I recently did a workshop at Second Home, my coworking space in Lisbon. The space is filled to the brim with plants which is one of my favourite things about working there, so we thought it would be fun to use the plants as the inspiration for the workshop, titled How to Draw Plants! I had fun teaching the class, always so exciting to see the light in people’s eyes when they are doing something creative and enjoying (and surprising) themselves. I also had fun whipping up a little handout for everyone to take home with them, so I thought it would be fun to share here as a download for you to use if you’re not sure where to start when it comes to drawing plants, or just want someone to hold your hand through the process a bit. These are things I think about when I draw plants! If you’d like the full PDF, you can download it here. And a few peeks at the workspace/inspiration, below :)
Ethereal Jungle for cloud9 fabrics
Fabric Design was one of my first pattern loves (it’s a close contender for the top spot in my heart, along with wallpaper), so when I landed my first fabric collection, Grey Abbey, with Cloud9 Fabrics about 6 years ago, I was over the moon and so emotional and grateful about it. When I unpackaged the sample bolts I received, tears were streaming down my face. And I’m so pleased that these collections continue to mean so much to me. Ethereal Jungle is my tenth collection with Cloud9 (wow!) and as I unpackaged this one, it was like going back to day one — full of gratitude, emotion… and tears.
Ethereal Jungle is extra special to me because it was created during my first year living in Lisbon, a magical, raw, exciting, scary, inspiring chapter. I’m still living in that chapter, though more settled than I was when I first arrived, and still loving it. It was a time in my life when I decided to make big changes, to fix things that needed fixing, and one of those things was my relationship to work and my pace of life in general. Ethereal Jungle was my statement about slowing down. About investing my heart into every print and not letting any through the gates of my portfolio if they didn’t deserve to be there. Quality over quantity. Soul. Time spent. I intentionally took my time with each print, I took the long way, often choosing to manually fill in my coloured elements as if drawing with marker vs. a quick digital ‘fill’ in my drawing software. I decided if I wanted it to have soul it needed to have a human touch as much as possible. So, I took my time with this collection and I’m so pleased with the results. I hope you love it too. And I can’t wait to see what you create with it, so please share if you use it for a project!
Here is a look at the collection, which is shipping and is popping up in stores now! If you’d like to find out where to buy it, you can search for where to buy it on the Cloud9 website.
FIELD TRIP — our fourth show!
Our next Field Trip event is so close! It’s happening next Monday, May 20th, 2019 from 1-8pm in New York, in a beautiful, light-filled loft not too far from the Javits centre and many other NYCxDesign Week events. It’s is a pattern and illustration event conceived of by a small, diverse group of established artists. This our fourth show and we are so excited! Every year we try to make it special, and this year is no different — we have a pretty magical little giveaway we’ll be giving out to all guests which I can’t wait to share. And we have a mix of past artists (Ampersand Design Studio, Bikini Sous La Pluie, Carolyn Suzuki, me, Kelly Ventura, Nottene, Suzy Ultman, Sara Boccaccini Meadows, Monika Forsberg) and 3 new ones we’re really excited about — Lillian Farag, Carrie Shryock, and Jessica Nielsen!
When I started this event four years ago with a group of other talented, motivated women, I had no idea how well the concept would be received or how it would grow into something so special… it’s truly one of the things I look forward to most in the year. It’s a chance to connect with clients and the artists-turned-friends I plan the event with, and it’s also this wonderful punctuation point in my year — it gives me something to work towards, some structure, a deadline for my work and really forces me to move things forward, in the best way.
This year I’ll be debuting my newest collection, Good Vibrations. It’s a groovy collection with themes of optimism and joy, and inspired by 60s and 70s aesthetics.
The event is invite-only. If you’re an Art Director or potential collaborator and will be in New York on Monday, there is still time to request an invite! Just send us a request to invites@fieldtripshow.com. Hope to see you there! Otherwise, if you think we’d be a good fit for a collaboration and would like to see the collection online, please give me a shout and request access to my private portfolio.
Sending out so many good vibrations to you all!