It’s true. You matter. YOU. There is no other you than you. :)
It’s true. You matter. YOU. There is no other you than you. :)
Posted at 12:38 PM in Finding my Creative Voice, Mixed-Media Art + Illustration, Shop Talk | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: jan avellana, kickstarter, shine bright, solo exhibition
I don’t know how day 21 of my 30 day Kickstarter project came to pass, but it has!!! Can you tell that I’m having trouble keeping up? See?! I really DO need to get this project funded so that I can concentrate my energies and efforts into the laser beam of creativity I know I can be! Gah! :) There’s still time to fund me!!!
Posted at 09:08 PM in Finding my Creative Voice, Mixed-Media Art + Illustration, Shop Talk | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: illustration, jan avellana, kickstarter, lollipop illustration, shine bright, sweet
I’m super duper, schmooper excited that this here Uppercase Magazine Surface Pattern Design Guide will make it’s way into the hands of the attendees at SURTEX in New York City, in May 2014! While I haven’t been able to muster up what I need to get there myself (yet!), my heart is so happy to know that at least some of my work will be there in my stead :)
I really feel indebted to Lilla Rogers and Beth Kempton and their Make Art That Sells and Bootcamp E-Course, because I’ve learned so much from Lilla as well as from my fellow art students! I’m currently enrolled in the Bootcamp course (my third Lilla course!) and there just aren’t enough words to describe how life changing and awesome the coursework AND the community of artists are. If you’re wavering one little bit about taking the course, just DO IT! It will be the best investment you will ever make towards going forward with your art licensing dreams!!! This pattern was birthed because of Lilla’s class, so YAY! and THANK YOU!
{ My artwork on the COVER of Uppercase Magazine’s Surface Pattern Design Guide, 2014! }
Earlier, I shared with you about the unreal crazy wonderfulness of getting on the COVER of Uppercase Magazine’s Surface Pattern Design Guide for 2014! I also shared a bit about how the pattern came to be, in this post, here.
Today, I’d like to show you the other patterns I submitted for inclusion in the SPD Guide. I’m not sure which of these will be published on the inside of this fine publication, but three of these babies will happily make their debut :).
Will it be this one? I love stars. These seem playful and energetic and somehow, sophisticated in their wonkyness, you know? What could you see this pattern adorning?
Or this, which I’ve entitled, “Happy Buttons” :) For some reason, I see this pattern as a fantastic lining for a raincoat, or the main pattern in a little girl’s smocked dress!
Or maybe this one? This would make a great tote bag fabric, dontcha’ think?!
I love drawing these shapes!!! These are kinda my signature banner mountain thingys. They remind me here of gum drops. Can you imagine them glittered?!
Or this? This pattern feels a bit Japanese inspired for some reason, and I could imagine it on a duvet cover or throw pillow.
Or finally, this? I can imagine this on a silky fabric, embroidered with metallic threads! It feels all sparkly and fireworkish, the way my heart feels when I think about my artwork making it to SURTEX! Thank you, Janine Vangool and Uppercase Magazine and to Lilla Rogers and Beth Kempton and my amazing, fantastic MATS tribe! :) Hip, hip, hooray!!!
Posted at 12:57 PM in Finding my Creative Voice, Lilla Rogers: Make Art that Sells A/B, Mixed-Media Art + Illustration, Shop Talk | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: Beth Kempton, Bootcamp, Jan Avellana, Janine Vangool, Lilla Rogers, Make Art that Sells, Surface Pattern Design Guide 2014, Uppercase Magazine
I fell behind (just a tad!), with my daily Kickstarter art postings! But I’m back. We’re at DAY 15, just 15 more to go to get my project fully funded!!! :) Let’s go Team Shine Bright!!!
Posted at 12:05 PM in Finding my Creative Voice, Mixed-Media Art + Illustration, Shop Talk | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: be who you are, daily inspiration, jan avellana, kickstarter, shine bright
{ WE'RE AT THE HALFWAY POINT!!! I'M STANDING BY!!! }
1. Persistence is key. If you pursue a dream long enough, at some point you are likely to feel desperate and ridiculous for wanting and for having the audacity to try. That can't be the reason for quitting. Get over the fear and self consciousness of looking like an idiot and remember your "WHY". Only stop if your why no longer matters to you--never mind what other people think. Is your life--inhabit it fully!
2. To desire is risky. It's pretty hard to want something without someone finding out. And the more you put yourself out there, the more potential embarrassment you invite upon yourself if that thing you are reaching for doesn't come into your grasp. Nurture that desire anyhow--fan that flame!
3. Show up and hope for the best! Do what you can, all that you can, and show up. Showing up is half the battle--lots of people think about doing stuff, but few people actually show up ready to go all the way. Be that person.
4. Enjoy the process. While you're waiting for your airplane/ship/lottery ticket to come in, make lots of friends, eat some yummy food, read or write some great books and stay humble, stay grateful, stay gracious. Let the experience deepen your empathy for others. Let the process help you become a better human being--more patient, more hopeful, able to dream bigger and more audacious dreams. Think of the process as practice, a dress rehearsal if you will. Because life is unpredictable, and you might never get past waiting at the gate, so make it good for everybody, including yourself!
5. Sometimes the answer is "No". But sometimes it's "Yes". And you won't know unless you try. So try. And then, try again.
Look for me: I'll be there, standing by at the gate!
Posted at 11:38 AM in Finding my Creative Voice, Mixed-Media Art + Illustration, Shop Talk | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: flying standby, jan avellana, kickstarter, life lessons, shine bright
Posted at 05:00 AM in Finding my Creative Voice, Mixed-Media Art + Illustration, Shop Talk | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: abominable snowman, blue, jan avellana, kickstarter, shine bright, solo exhibition, teal
Jenipher!!! YOU’VE WON the print from the giveaway!!! I'll be in touch to get your mailing info :)! Yay!!!
1. Ask your heart what it wants and needs to be happy and alive.
2. Assure your heart that you will take care of it and be gentle with it’s needs.
3. Do as many kind things for your heart as you can, each and every day.
4. Don’t wait. Start taking care of your heart NOW.
5. Dear, with your whole heart, live.
XOXO,
jan
Posted at 07:14 PM in Finding my Creative Voice, Mixed-Media Art + Illustration, Shop Talk | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: jan avellana, kickstarter, shine bright
“…you are not too old and it is not too late…” ~M. R. Rilke
There will always be reasons not to. The fear of failure and of trying will never go away completely and if you’re waiting for that day when things will get magically easier, chances are it won’t.
So start today. Now. What are you waiting for?
XOXO,
jan
Posted at 06:00 AM in Finding my Creative Voice, Mixed-Media Art + Illustration, Shop Talk | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: green, illustration, jan avellana, kickstarter project, pink, pink typewriter, shine bright kickstarter, typewriter, what are you waiting for
“You must do something heartfelt, and you must do it soon. Let go of all this effort, and let yourself down, however awkwardly, into the waters of the work you want for yourself. It's all right, you know, to support yourself with something secondary until your work has ripened, but once it has ripened to a transparent fullness, it has to be gathered in. You have ripened already, and you are waiting to be brought in. Your exhaustion is a form of inner fermentation. You are beginning, ever so slowly" he hesitated ‘to rot on the vine’.” ~David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea
Late last year, the yearning to give my whole self to my life’s work as an artist and a writer began to make itself painfully known. I’ve managed my entire life to relegate the arts to the margins of my life…but I just knew it was time to let go of that secondary work.
I was beginning, you see, “to rot on the vine”.
My heart felt pulled to extremes: 1) Quit your day job and make art all day and pray that provision will come or 2) Suck it up and keep doing what you’re doing. In the end, a wise pastor suggested I seek God in the third way...and so, “Shine Bright”, my Kickstarter project was born. It’s a way for me to transition out of my “secondary work” and to “let [my]self down, however awkwardly, into the waters of the work [I] want for [my]self”.
I’m ripe. I must gather it in the work that has ripened. This is what my heart is saying to me.
What is your heart saying to you?
XOXO,
jan
Posted at 08:26 PM in Finding my Creative Voice, Mixed-Media Art + Illustration, Shop Talk | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: jan avellana, kickstarter, shine bright, shine bright kickstarter, what is your heart saying to youa
HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?!!!
When Janine Vangool from Uppercase Magazine emailed me to let me know that not only did my patterns make it into their annual Design Guide, but that she also wanted to use my artwork for the COVER (the cover!!!), I sent the most professional email of my life, saying,
“Are you serious???!!!!!!!!”
And she assured me, she was!
I am still in shock and still over the moooooooooooooon ecstatic about this awesome, awesome honor! I mean, I have a major crush on everything Janine does and could only gaze at Uppercase Magazine from afar thinking...one day...maybe one day I’ll be an illustrator too!!!
It’s even featured in their video!!
UPPERCASE Surface Pattern Design Guide from uppercasemag on Vimeo.
But here’s the unpretty back story on this design. I originally came up with some of the elements for Lilla Rogers’ Make Art that Sells Class (Part A). We were asked to design a plate with seed pods as our theme. Here are some of the stages it went through:
I began with some general shapes and a basic idea of the kind of color palette I had in mind.
I chose to change the background to a dark teal color. Then, I changed to a circular format, since our prompt for Lilla’s class was a dining plate.
This is the final design I submitted for Lilla’s course last Spring! It didn’y get chosen for a critique by Lilla, moped a bit, deemed it a failure and assessed it to bits. (I’ll save you details of the inner dialogue!)
Anyhoo, when the Uppercase Magazine contest was announced, I ended up taking a snippet of a pattern I started a while ago for a personal project:
...which gave me the idea for a patchwork/blocky type of design, which then eventually turned into this:
:) So, see?! There was a loooong process behind this design, nearly 9 months or so! As Lilla is always fond of saying, “Nothing is wasted!” and I am happy to say, “It’s true!”
You can get your copy here by subscribing to Uppercase :) Use code: 'USPDG2014' to get $15 off your subscription!!!
Stay tuned to see the other patterns that were accepted into the magazine! :) Hip, hip, hooray!!!
Ever So Grateful!!!
jan
Posted at 07:52 PM in Finding my Creative Voice, Lilla Rogers: Make Art that Sells A/B, Mixed-Media Art + Illustration, Shop Talk | Permalink | Comments (18) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: illustration, Jan Avellana, Janine Vangool, Lilla Rogers, Make Art that Sells, MATS Part A, pattern design, SPDG, Surface Pattern Design Guide, Uppercase, Uppercase Magazine, Uppercase Magazine Surface Pattern Design Guide