2011 in Review

January: Ryan & I celebrate our 5 year anniversary at the Madonna Inn. Magical.


February: I get an iPhone. Everything about documenting my life changes.


March: Lucy turns 13. I get pupcakes for all our dogs.


April: Ryan's birthday. I get him tickets to Radiolab live. Also, I get my first real illustration gig.


May: Travel to London for a whirlwind trip with our Illustration Department chair, including a visit with Paul Smith at his studio. This is a paper recreation of his office by some Japanese friends of his. Also, even more whirlwind trip to Paris with Allison.


June: Visit the Neon Sign Museum for the first time! It's everything I dreamed it would be and MORE. Also, I take a leave from school to work at three internships over the summer.


July: ComicCon in San Diego. Wee use this as an excuse to revisit all our favorite food spots.


August: Disneyland! I probably go half a dozen times a year, but this trip was super special because of the Mary Blair exhibit and the new Little Mermaid ride. I am 7 again.


September: Not many pictures from this month...I was working like mad on prepping for APE and starting my last semester of art school. But I did pause long enough to find the perfect Halloween costume...


October: Exhibit at APE! It was my first time ever showing/selling my work in public, so thank you kind attendees of APE for making it such a nice experience.


November: Spend Thanksgiving with Ryan's family in San Diego. His brother has a chicken coop in their backyard, so we picked fresh eggs in the morning. Also, I have a birthday.


December: Graduation from Art Center!

Merry & Bright

Happy holidays & Merry Christmas, dear friends. Hope you have a peaceful and joyful last week of 2011, celebrating with the people who make your heart fullest.

Italian Holiday On The Beach

This was an illustration I did for one of my final classes, where we had to incorporate the photograph of a product into an illustrated ad. I chose San Pellegrino water, and painted up an Italian beach scene for it. Doesn't this whole scene look nice? Especially as we dip into the colder months of the year?

See it large here.

We did it!

Saturday graduation and grad show was incredible - even better than I had expected it to be. Thank you so much to my dear friends and family who came in just to celebrate this moment with me, and to all the support they and all my amazing teachers, mentors and peers had provided in these last three crushing, humbling, and inspiring years. Taking this huge risk was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

10 Facts About Julia Child

I illustrated this final piece as an Op-Art for Julia Child's upcoming 100th birthday on August 15, 2012. Includes 10 facts about Julia - a lady who was a wonderful reminder of it's never too late to start. She published her first cookbook at the age of 49 and starred in her first show at 51. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and the path will appear.

Grad Wall Preview

Big opening grad show tonight! Last night, with the help of my fantastic boyfriend Ryan and my awesome friends David (pictured here, way later than anticipated) and Allison, we put up my grad wall. It took four times longer than we thought and an emergency trip to Ikea, but it's done! So excited to share it tonight with alumni and industry folks!

Two Girls

Two badass women. Graduating means doing a survey of your best work from the last couple years, and these popped up for me. A teacher suggested I juxtapose them next to each other, and I liked that a lot.

Post-It Recap

The Post-It Show on Saturday had a great turnout - so good to see familiar faces in new places. Of course it was a little thrill to see my little post-its out in the world, mingling with other post-its. It was nice to have my first real show at GR2. When I moved to LA five years ago, I lived near Giant Robot and would frequent the shows, secretly wishing I could be an artist and illustrator and be on their walls one day.

And now I'm in my last week of art school ever! Yay!

Sunday Style Section: Colored Gemstones

Love these necklaces from Doloris Petunia. They remind me of Tom Binns' neon necklaces with a more vintage edge. Pick some up if you have the dime, but it's also a great DIY project with flea market estate jewelry and some bright nail polishes (like Emily did here).

The Drawing's On The Wall

If you're in the LA area, drop by Giant Robot 2 for the opening reception of Post-It Show 7 tomorrow night! Lots of great work to be bought for $20, and then lots of great Korean and Japanese food to be had around the area on Sawtelle. Win-win, I say.

P.S. Check out the pieces I did for the show in this post.

Don't Give Up!

Check out this piece I just did for Ten Paces and Draw's December mix tape - it's an illustration to the Noisette's "Don't Give Up" (love that song, blast it when I'm powering through illustrations). Pleased to be alongside awesome fellow illustrators Natalie Andrewson and Fitz Fitzpatrick! And as always, many thanks to Rachel Dougherty and Alyssa Nassner for running the show.

Be A Rooster

I made this piece for a series I did on Cultural Celebrations of the Dead - it's a representation of the Chinese Qingming Festival. The festival celebrates both the beginning of spring (typically it occurs in early April) and the tradition of tidying up ancestors' graves. This image came up in my portfolio to be a really popular one, so I just ordered a set of promo postcards with this image last night. Can't wait to send em out!

Sunday Style Section: Blueprint Holiday

Every holiday season, I come back to this issue of the long-defunct (but still much missed) Blueprint magazine. Everything is so perfect about this cover. And I hope that one day I can talk Ryan into a pink tree.

And I finally found the perfect graduation dress! It's in the mail to me now, and is pretty similar to the one on this cover - which I realized was what I was looking for this whole time.

Along the Seine

Here's a better look at the illustration that I'm developing for a project that I've also used on the cover of my portfolio book. It's a landscape of some apartments along the Seine in Paris, also known as a dream apartment. Looking forward to sharing more of this project as I crank it out over the weekend. And on that note, happy weekend!

P.S. Where would your dream apartment be?

P.P.S. See the illustration larger here.

Little Books

I spent most of Tuesday morning looking out the window every five minutes, waiting for the Fed-Ex truck to arrive with these babies. I designed these mini-portfolios as a promotional piece for my work, and I'm super happy with the way they turned out. They have hot pink spines!

And on that note, Happy December!