Something Old and Something New

After twenty-five years of Hawaiian life, my parents recently relocated from the North Shore of Oahu to the Middle of Nowhere Utah.

As I prepared to vacate Brooklyn I packed my warmest clothes and made sure that I hadn't forgotten leggings and scarves. I laughed/cried when I got to unpacking at my parent's place and realized I'd absent mindedly packed not one, but two bathing suits. Old habits die hard.

I quickly busied myself poking around the joint, making sure that things were put "just so". After all, just because it's a new location doesn't mean that things should change. (This is where I start singing Fiddler on the Roof's 'Tradition! TRADITION!')

New: This "woodland upstairs tree". My mom was set on two trees this year! Witness our first major 'Hawaiian Christmas' violation. I can safely bet you that no one in Hawaii decked the halls with two trees this year....

New: ALL of these Ornaments! What? New Ornaments? This is not adhering to protocol. Ornaments can be given as gifts or purchased to commemorate important life milestones. They can be bought on vacations and picked up in small doses at after Christmas sales. They are NOT supposed to be bought in bulk to fit a theme!

But... this tree is pretty cute. I kind of do adore those funky little owls. You know I'm prone to loving you know who?
Old: The teddy bear snow on the windows saved my mom from my skepticism. I was totally afraid she'd shirk this very important tradition. Growing up in a snowless existence makes fake snow on the windows vital to creating the perfect holiday vibe. I was worried that with all the powder on the ground outside this vital bit of decor would go the way of the Dodo. How could I have ever questioned her? Oh. Wait. I know How:

New: This Downstairs Blue Spruce Christmas tree.
Ahwuah? A blue Christmas tree? It is pokey and sharp and unlike the Douglass Furs and Palm Tree Christmases that I was raised on. I paced around it, suspicious like a cat.
I poked around and slowly located all the important things that make for a perfect Christmastime.

Several Ice Cream Angels polka-dot this suspicious spruce. This may come as a heart-attack inducing shock, but I wasn't always wicked cool. As a seventh grader I became obsessed with making these ice cream spoon angels. Their little wooden bodies are crocheted into proper holiday get-ups. I turned a pretty fair little business selling them at the Blaisdell Craft Fair. Mom saved just the right amount of them to bedeck the tree forevermore. Their little mouth-less faces have been a Christmas constant ever since.
This Maneki Neko is a good luck cat. It's important that he's prowling in the branches. He brings a great New Year.
This Santa Icicle is one of my very favorite pieces to put on the tree. I like his crystal blue eyes and his snowy beard. There is part of me that secretly loves and the way he can stab people into being nice with his pointed stare and facial hair shiv. Hmm... right about now I'm loving the way this blue tree showcases the ornaments....
This chubby little mermaid speaks directly to my well documented obsession. It reminds me of perfect Christmas days by land and by sea.
This rainbow block was my first ornament way back in 1982. How could my parents know this Mary Blair-esque decoration would so perfectly speak to my design aesthetic decades later? It's one of my top five favorites on our overflowing tree.
I think I was eight when this ornament was wrapped in the brightest candy cane red wrapping paper and labeled with my name. It might have melted my brain. I'd never seen anything so perfectly beautiful.

Ever since it's been my "magic glass flying pony."
Never mind that it is not glass, it's some form of iridescent plastic. Forget that it's a Pegasus and not a pony, its title has stuck. I remember thinking it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

Its presence on the new/odd/strangely alluring tree reminds me that The Christmas Spirit can transform things. So I might be in a snowy Utah Valley instead of frolicking on the beach of my youth, but my family is here and the ground is white and we're warm and lucky to have each other. I hope your holiday was family and fun and fabulous, on that note, Mele Kalikimaka and a Hauli Makahiki Hou!

The Mood is Right! The Spirit's Up!

Coming Undone

I'm still in the throws of an uber gigantic project that screams at me every time I try to find a moment to myself. It's been about two months of eating and sleeping said project.




Here are a few of the million things that sit undone. They hide in the shadows and mock me.





I itch to attack them.



You'll see them here in anticipated done-ness here at She Sure is Sketchy in the OH-So-Wonderful-New-Year that is creeping closer, ever closer.

Pantone Finally Gets Down With It

Me: Hey Pantone, do you know what the best color ever is?

Pantone: The color you've been blog rocking since 2006?

Me: 'Bout time.
Welcome to the party!

The first time I fell in love, when I very first felt that twitterpated feeling I've been chasing my entire life, I realized that when I'm head over heels I feel the same way about the object of my affection as I do about water. Even before I knew I was going to fall madly in love with She Sure is Sketchy, I knew what color it needed to be....

1.© AHMED... 2. © vjhreeves 3.© floralgal, 4.© Sarah Schloo, 5. © marksternphoto,6.© ArtsySF

These photos are visual manifestation of what I think of when I think of the purest inspiration. I am always happiest when working in this color. It pulls me to my roots and takes me home.

Pantone's color for 2010 takes me to my happiest place.

This bodes well.

Snakes on a Blog

That's right! Monkey-Fighting snakes on a Monday - Friday blog!

When I have a concept for illustration I grab the closest piece of paper I have and I scribble random lines on it. I know that my memory is not as awesome as it should be. I'm only 27 but I forget some of my best ideas if I don't make a note. I think when I'm old I'll be one of those funny red-hat ladies with yarn bows tied on all my fingers. The digital age and Google Calendar has made life much, much better. Regardless, I like things tangible and scraps of paper are my preferred medium for note taking or scribble drawings and sketchy thinking.

These snakes first happened at Joya's on Court Street.
Nothing says snakes like a writhing bowl of mundo-delicious flat noodles. I love Joya's because the food is delicious and the service is bad. They have paper on all the tables and if you're a sketchy Brooklynite who always has a pencil tucked behind her ear this is a great place for inspiration while you wait forever and ever for your yummy food -- hence the snakes.

First snakes were sketched in itty bitty scale - around 2x4".
I liked them enough to give them some time and I hit them with red pencils on 10x10" paper.

These are done with my preferred Col-Erase red pencils in cadmium red.
I recommend buying them and trying them out - well that is if you're not in the Brooklyn or Manhattan Burroughs. Finding them here is getting harder and harder. If you must buy them in New York please just stay away from Chelsea's Utrecht and Lee's Art Shop across from Carnegie Hall - those are my haunts and I have dibs.

I always think better when I see my art in red line. I realized these snakes were almost cool but that their faces weren't entrancing. Snakes need entrancing faces. I played with them in pencil once I loved their mugs I attacked them with pastel, watercolor, gauche and digital ink.

When I got to this "finished" stage I was so disappointed with these guys. I thought they were going to be awesome when they were in that very first thumbnail stage. Now they seemed to be missing some face-punch snakiness. I uploaded dirt and grass variations and called my brother. Ashton starts every conversation we have about my work with "OK, but what's my percentage?" ;)

One of the best lessons I learned in college was from a professor who said "If you want to know how your art is going to be received ask anyone you trust. They don't have to have any artistic inkling to know what's wrong or what they think. After all, they're your audience." We looked at them online and I talked about the pros and cons of dirt vs. grass. I was weary of grass because The snakes were already green and I didn't want to lose them. At this point Ashton really wasn't earning his keep. Then he was like "Nah they look great, keep them on Grass. Just do something to make them different than the grass, like you know something artsy you can do." 2 points.

I suggested we add more rocks. He said "yeah, rocks can be good, just make them artsy." So I started scribbling in pastel while we kept chatting. "Kid, you've got to give me something better if you're going to earn that ten percent, yo."

"What if you gave them scales?"

This is where working with younger brothers becomes exasperating "Butch, they already have scales!"

I pictured him shrugging when he said undaunted in his Hawaiian boy attitude "Dude, give them more scales." I hung up exasperated, grabbed a glass of water and came back to the drawing board when I realized,
gee that kid is genius. Meet the snakes, in all their "more scales" glory.

listening to right this second: "right round" -- flo rida

Crunch-Time

Things About The Girl Who Blogs Here

I'm being friends with this cool girl who has a blog that's introspectivy with words, not with drawings like me. That is not how we roll here at She Sure is Sketchy, but I like it. Jerry and I kicked back and watched about five hours of In the Actor's Studio the other day. Here is the marriage of the two.

(sometimes I sit in studio audiences)
This is my stab at Jimmy James Lipton's ten questions.

1. What is your favorite word? magic
   
2. What is your least favorite word? Don't
   
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Tracy effing Chapman
   
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally? rules
   
5. What sound or noise do you love? the tearing of velcro, the clip clop of stilleto heels on cobblestone, always and forever the crash of the sea on the sand
   
6. What sound or noise do you hate? angry yelling, Chris Martin, canned laughter
   
7. What is your favorite curse word? I'm particularly fond of the word 'bitch'. example: This rain is a total bitch.
   
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I'd like to work with animals maybe in a zoo, but maybe in the wilds of Africa
   
9. What profession would you not like to do? I would hate to be a lawyer and have to defend things that I have to know are bad or wrong
   
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Well, look that wasn't that hard, was it?

So here's where I should probably stop, but everyone is doing this 25 things on facebook. I haven't decided how I feel about that kind of sharing on that site. I feel much more at ease sharing on my blog. I have been thinking about some random things about me and sense I am being introspectivy today. I thought I'd get it kicking here for a horse of a different color.

• I want to hate Katy Perry. I just can't. This annoys me.
  
  
• I'm terrified by heights and escalators.
  
  
• I know how to make horse shoes
  
  
• I'm actually really effing good at making horse shoes
  
  
• If I could take any work of fiction, film, musical score or character that's ever been and claim it as my own, I'd pick Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes and I wouldn't think twice.
  
  
• When I was five I used to go to the bathroom in kindergarten and cry uncontrollably while I slid down the wall ala Lifetime Movie. Usually my tears were for the world. The most memorable time I cried because the whales were going extinct and my future children might never see whales
  
  
• I cared a lot more about my future children at five than I do now. Hand me that electric blanket.
  
  
• I still believe in Santa Claus.
  
  
• I can tie a cherry stem with my tongue. Twin Peaks inspired me to add this to my repertoire. I don't really like cherries, but I like being able to do this.
  
  
• My BFA is in film with an emphasis in animation. I always thought I'd use this to create an independent masterpiece of genius. Lately I just really want to direct a GAP commercial.
  
  
• Growing up my bedroom was closer to the beach than it was to the living room. I'm sometimes envious of kid-me.
  
  
• I have the movie 'The Parent Trap' memorized in its entirety
  
  
• I fall in love at first sight
  
  
• I have a book of tattoo ideas in my sock drawer
  
  
• I have no tattoos
  
  
• I sleep in the shape of the letter K
  
  
• I can't seem to pass a golden retriever without stopping to shake hands and make their acquaintance
  
  
• I have a weakness for the kind of boys that can pull off Buddy Holly glasses.
  
  
• You can bet your ass I would never ever spell Panic! At The Disco without the exclamation point.
  
  
• I moved to NYC at 18 for the music and the art. That's why I'm still here. Also cheese shops on Smith.
  
  
• I'm crazy allergic to mangos.
  
  
• I have a novel half way written in a sketchbook at the bottom of a pillowcase. It's called "surviving ebola".
  
  
• I would rather my jewelry be plastic or platinum
  
  
• I pick up six pack tops of soda cans when I am walking in the city and when I get home I slash them to bits
  
  
• someday I'm going to sail the world

OK that's enough introspection for forever. Sheesh this is exhausting no wonder She Sure is Sketchy is more about the ART.

Entangled

A quick concept swatch.

Thankfully

An ex-boyfriend once diagnosed me as suffering from "movie-life". If it could happen to Julia Roberts it can happen to me. I was supposed to be riding horses in Italy tomorrow. I missed my plane to Europe when "bad day Saturday" spiraled out of control. I was taken to the wrong airport then the wrong terminal and then the wrong life - in that order. Air France refused to help. Instead of finding myself in seat 34A I took a Red-Eye F train - landing me back in Brooklyn.

On a scale of 1-to-Suck 2009 has seemingly failed to launch successfully. Things have not been up to snuff. Embarrassingly enough, I was sure that this trip to Europe was going to fix the entire year. Missing my flight and then realizing that there was absolutely nothing that Air France was willing to do to get me on a plane was devastating. When I thought about what I was thankful for on "bad day Saturday" all I could really focus on was the fact that when I am wealthy and successful I will be able to take Air France down stone by stone. I decided it would be best to start with a defamatory Super Bowl commercial. Luckily, today rolled around and I had the chance to reassess.

It might sound trite, but I'm thankful for Thanksgiving. I am grateful that I have a day in my life devoted to remembering how much I have and how freely I am given the things that really matter.


At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
-- Albert Schweitzer

• I'm thankful that when I got back from the airport mad depressed and disappointed I had a warm and inviting home to sprawl out in. I am not so naive as to think that when other people have bad days they have a wonderful place to lay their head down.
  
• I am thankful for the plethora of invites to Thanksgiving dinner that rolled in the second it was discovered that I'd be spending the holiday state side.
  
• I am overwhelmed by my 'urban family' of friends who take me into their homes and their lives. They pull me in and love me no matter how quirky or odd I am.

• I'm thankful for my roommate who leaves me notes of encouragement and warm cookies on the kitchen table. It is a relief to come home to someone who is always fun and positive to chat with after a long day of drawing robots.
• My clients and the projects I'm handed offer me the chance I have to live my life as an artist in New York City, a rare and marvelous gift.
• I am thankful for great music, good books and sunny Fall weather - things that make every bad thing seem better.
• In this time of uncertainty and fear in the world I am thankful for Brooklyn, for the inspiration it provides me and for the way it makes me happy to be alive.
  
• I am indebted to my kooky family. They are among those rare kind of families who are truly and unconditionally there for one another. They make me laugh when I want to cry and vice-versa. I can't believe I get to call them mine.
• I am grateful that I have lived my life in the best of two places. I would most certainly have a much different outlook if my parents hadn't decided to raise me on the edge of reality, nestled against the coast of the Pacific Ocean. I won't ever be able to understand how or why I was handed such a blissful and perfect childhood.

• I am always thankful and will forever be grateful I am an American.
• And on this day of days I am thankful for potatoes, mashed and otherwise.
• I am thankful for you.

I'm grateful for long and flourishing beautiful Autumn days and for the wild fire of sparks in my life that kindle a flame inside of me. It's amazing how lucky I am. Happy Thanksgiving, my loves.

Give Me Time!

Everyone I know has flying dreams. I never do. I have running dreams. As I sleep (well when I do) I run and run, sprinting in a hurried and never lightened pace.

In my waking hours I always say and I always think and I always wish "If only I had more time!" I'm pretty sure that's what they're going to put on my gravestone. On a lighter note Check out these wicked clocks and buy yourself some freakin' time.

Simon Says Clock
by dustfurniture

My studio wall would be ever so dapper with a tangerine Simon Says!

Modern Animal Clock - Owl
by decoylab
This one belongs in my woodsy bedroom.

Metal Geek Clock
by YOUgNeek
This one belongs in the office of my future but yet unmet husband... I'm so attracted to nerdy hot that it smarts. Haha. I kill me. Can you imagine? I'll meet you at pi for pie!!! Be still my wild untamed heart.

Hand Painted Clock Autumn Calling
by madteapartyfurniture -- Isn't this etsyian's name the best?
I wish this clock matched some aspect of my current decor scheme. It's so Edward Gorey it's scary.

Red Flower Clock by Chromalab
In the words of my favorite philanthropist, Jen, when it comes to this clock all I can say is "Love." If you got some time, go read her blog! Be forewarned though, you'll spend a lot of time on it. Jen's log is hilarious yet thought provoking and sometimes about cereal.

Where Did The Time Go Clock by cybermoon
Here's to clever. I like the stark contrast on this little swatch of clock - but I think keeping it on my wall would just depress me. After all, where DOES all the time go? If I could stop asking myself this post wouldn't have even happened! (Indecently it's taken way too long.) In other news, Cybermoon hails from Coeur D'Alene. Some day I will too.

I've been in wild creation mode for weeks now. When you're running a freelance business and you're working a full-time job and you're single and dating and keeping up friendships finding time for everything is always an issue. often have full and epic dreams involving me and Hermione Granger's Time Turner. These lovelies are the next best thing ;)
listening to right this second: "tangled up in blue" -- bob dylan