Surtex or bust!

For the last few weeks I've been afraid my life might be on a turn down to 'a slightly better life than the average 25 year old' phase. In a very exciting turn of events - my life has just become more fabulous then it already was!

It's official, I'll be showing at Surtex 2008 at Manhattan's Javitz center!!

I'll be in booth 405** and the design frenzy starts today. . .

It's my goal to have 5 designs a week to add to my portfolio while I'm redesigning my website. I've decided to keep a Surtex folder on my desktop to upload five new designs to every Thursday night. I've promised myself I won't sleep on Thursdays until there's a new batch in there. Most of the designs have to have a 'top secret' air to them, but I think it will be fun to document my journey by posting at least one inspirational object or sketch that's fueling my week's stockpile.

As some of you know, I get fan mail from kids ages 5-10 at my job. As an artist the personal letters we get from the babes really help to fuel the projects I work on. My favorite is tacked next to my lightbox in my studio and it simply reads:

Hay people,

You better Draw mor pictchers in 3. . . 2. . . 1. . . NOWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!S

Your friend,

Alex P.

I feel like it was written especially for this grand occasion.

**Hi Everyone! There's been a change of plans. This year I'll be calling Surtex Booth #2518 "Home." Booth 2518 is in Hall 1E. Stop by for a temporary tattoo and a smile :)**

SpinPin - Spin Away

I designed this pattern for one of my new favorite clients to licence . It's entitled 'SpinPin.' It has been growing on me in a very steady way for the last few days. Now I am ready to marry it. I thought the bunch of you would get a kick out of it. If you don't love it now, wait a couple of days.

Behold, My inspiration! I found this picture online and it fueled me.

This photo helped me pull back a bit. At first strike my color story for this was too dark, but it's always hard to realize that's the problem. I just new it wasn't working. When I found this I knew that I really liked the way the blue interacted with the purplish. I thought it'd be nice to post a bit of my thought process, since this 'SpinPin' pattern actually had a thought process :)

Most times it's hard to track the thought process for my work and explain it to other people. Most often it's just me in Gus-Gus mode. There's a lot of that "Ooooh . . . Beads!! Pretty beads! Pretty beads for Cinderelly," in me. That's the stuff that's better thrown into my art and not into my writing. *wink.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Beach!

Happy Labor Day!

Girls With Pens Development Drawings

I've never posted nude sketches on my blog because very early on I received a few choice emails from parents who told me that my blog was big with their 5-10 year olds. Those letters greatly influence my decision to never post any of my life drawing work here for your innocent peeps.

These little nudie cuties are just too sweet an innocent to offend anyone. After a lot of thought I've decided to show them off. This is a big day, a day for a little skin ;)