Startled Maggie

Sketch for Food Slam

2012-01-26T08:08:00.000-08:00

This is a sketch (which I'll finish later with color) for Food Slam. It's one of Mark Granlund's last chapters in The Book of Bartholomew. I also illustrated the chapters Mo and the Tree of Want and Claire Speaks Out. You can read them online or purchase the mini books from Mark.

My cousin Nick created the stop motion animation Stop This Train as a project for one of his high school classes. I love it!

Peek at Work in Progress (Owl Comic Pages 5 and 6)

2012-01-19T06:46:00.000-08:00

Evaporating Hearts

2012-01-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

After - Documentary Style

“In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” ― William Faulkner

Editing! Even if your comic book has no words, you still have darlings to kill. Today, I painted over the thought bubble hearts on page 9 of my owl comic. They may have been cute, but they still ended up on the cutting room floor! My original conception of the comic was narration-driven, but it has evolved to wordless documentary-style. Meanwhile the left over hearts have become meaningless and campy. So good-bye!

Before - Hearts! Thought Bubbles!

Can I read this story without the hearts? One Valentines Day, in the dark, I reached out to turn on the light below the kitchen counter. I aimed too high and knocked off one of the matching mugs Raighne and I had received as a wedding gift. It shattered. I was positive I had made a symbolic mistake and sobbed onto Raighne's shoulder. When Raighne had finally convinced me that he wasn't angry, I leaned back and saw a tear stained heart on his shoulder.

That is an example of a heart that belongs in the story. But if those hearts don't need to be there: Kill your Darlings Before They Kill your Comic!

Storyboard to Comic

2012-01-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

Storyboard

Background

Comic

Click here to see sample pages from my owl comic.

Storyboarding Owl Comic

2011-12-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

This is what I've been working on all month...storyboarding! Next month, painting!

Bosworth Mini Spindle

2011-12-08T07:09:00.001-08:00

Yes, I'm a beginning spinner. The park and draft spinning gives it away immediately!

I own a 3 oz Ashford bottom whirl spindle for worsted yarn, but I needed to spin sock yarn for my miniature crocheted toys. So I got this 1.02 oz top whirl "tornado" from Journey Wheel. I love it! Now I'm just waiting for my Kromski niddy noddy from Mielke's Fiber Arts to arrive so I can empty the spindle. It's full of yarn!

Besides spinning, I finished a prototype of a toy wheel for a commission and I'm storyboarding five pages of the owl comic. Almost done with those! Then I'll sketch the storyboards onto canvas panels and paint them!

Pretzel

2011-11-22T13:51:00.001-08:00

I was invited by Jason T. Miles, creator of Dead Ringer and man behind the small press distributor PROFANITY HILL, to contribute a comic to an art zine. There's an awesome lineup of artists that we all know and love and among these nefarious geniuses he's included my pals Raighne Hogan, Justin Skarhus, and Nic Breutzman of 2D Cloud. My contribution is going to be a short autobiographical horror comic called Pretzel. It's due in January, but I've been itching to start working on the Startled Maggie comics that Raighne proposed.

Craft Night

2011-11-17T11:50:00.001-08:00

Michelle, April, Matt, and Shamu the angora bunneh and I hung out and played with Michelle's new drum carder on Tuesday. I have to get one of these! We helped Michelle card two batts. Then we did drop spindling and needle felting. Before we left I bought 4 skeins of Michelle's yarn (soon to become geirdoz toys), a white knitted winter hat and a pair of green fingerless gloves to keep my fingers warm in my studio. I can't wait to do more drop spindling!

Done!

2011-11-09T08:46:00.000-08:00

The portrait commission that I've been painting for the past year is finally complete. I'm so happy! You can view the painting from start to finish on my flickr portfolio.

MIXed Up

2011-11-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

Raighne & I at the 2D Cloud table photo Amaya McBatman

Nic Breutzman & I at the 2D Cloud table photo Amaya McBatman

Holden Brothers performing at the MIX after party photo Sarah Morean

Thanks everybody who visited our table this weekend at the MIX. Thanks Tom Neely, Neil Brideau, and Noah van Sciver for the good company. Thanks John, Luke, and Garret, the Knot Wells, and Rogue Citizen for making the MIX after party so much fun. Thanks Sarah Morean for making MIX happen! Thanks Raighne for all of your hard work to make this the event special for everybody. Thanks Justin for managing to balance a wedding and MIX tabling duties this weekend (congrats Megan and Bryan). We premiered four books this weekend: Things You Carry, Motherlover, and the mini-comics Arthur Turnkey Vol. 1 and Prizon Food Vol. 1 and Raighne moderated two panels: Anthologies, Anthologies Everywhere and How Not to Succeed. In addition to our 2D Cloud catalogue, Nic Breutzman brought copies of Pornhounds 2 and I had my Geirdoz Toys. We had our best sales of all time.

Yesterday's Painting Session

2011-11-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

Bike Portrait is Moving Along

2011-10-27T07:06:00.000-07:00

Plush You Seattle

2011-10-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Jessica of Plushroom Soup

Me smelling the Geirdoz

On Friday, Raighne and I flew to Seattle to attend the opening of Plush You! at Schmancy. We met Schmancy owner and champion of toys, Kristen Rask. Fellow exhibitor Anna Hrachovec interviewed her here: Kristen Rask Talks Crochet, Craft Community, and Being her Own Boss. We also met zombie strawberry creator Jessica of Plushroom Soup. She is from Minnesota! Credit to her for the pics of the show.

Saturday and Sunday we visited the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery to clean out their Damaged Room (last copy of The Frank Book by Jim Woodring OURS) and chatted with Larry Reid about comics. We visited SAM and the Frye Art Museum, stopped by The Fiber Gallery to buy yarns made of bananas, nettles, and recycled sarongs, and visited Schmancy one last time to snatch up these awesome toys:

Raighne and I bought these toys by the artist KARAMBA!

Workaholic Mode

2011-10-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

Raighne and I are in workaholic mode! He's preparing Things You Carry and Motherlover for printing, collecting art contributions for the [MN] Love anthology, and running a kickstarter for Motherlover (it's creepy and mind altering, you'll love it!) There's a gallery show for Things You Carry at gallery co this Saturday night. Then next week my group toy show at Plush You! opens in Seattle, and the week after that I'll be helping out at Crafterhours at the MIA. I'm hoping to finish up my painting commission and a few toy commissions this month. Once everything settles down (after Minneapolis Indie Expo in Nov) I'm going to resume work on my owl comic. Time to eat some vegan heart cookies and get back to it!

Mo and the Tree of Want

2011-09-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

Illustration for Mark Granlund's The Book of Bartholomew.

Toys for Plush You!

2011-09-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

Making and Unmaking

2011-09-22T06:45:00.000-07:00

Painting is trial and error. My last couple of working sessions were painting over what I didn't like from the session before! I spent hours getting certain colors and then realizing that they didn't look right on the canvas and then painting them out with alternative colors.

For today's session I'll be spending more time on the jacket. I'm painting it in four shades of raw umber. And I'll do more work on the scarf, which looks blue but is actually just shades of gray.

If you want to see the other stages of this painting click here.

Painting Pants

2011-09-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

Eye of the Painter

2011-09-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling with how to paint my commission and concluded that I should read how-to books. Dan Moyer recommended Eye of the Painter by Andrew Loomis. My favorite advice so far is that a) paint the masses, not the details and b) pick out 8 tonal values to work with.

Also, for the past year I've been wondering what to do with left over acrylic paint that I've mixed and want to save for another painting session. I've tried different brands of storage palettes but the paint gets either too dry or too wet to work with. Now I'm trying Loew Cornell Storage Cups and loving them!

Painting Commission Video

2011-08-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

The Soap Factory $99 Sale

2011-08-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Sarah Morean asked me to contribute a sketch to The Soap Factory's $99 Sale. If you want it, swing by:

Sept 9: $99 Sale - $30 ticket 7 to 11 pm with DJ Black Lacquer, fab food by Chowgirls Killer Catering

Sept 10: Morning After Sale - free admission 9 - 12 noon. All remaining works are just $66.

feast of peaches handspun from Michelle

2011-08-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

Buggy Summer

2011-08-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

Gail Marie Kern's bee visiting her garden!

I've been absent from the blog this summer because our live-in studio got foreclosed. That happened in May and it's only now that we're finally settled in to our new space and resuming our art projects.

A few days ago, I began the final toy design for the Plush You! show, and today I start a small painting on paper for The Soap Factory $99 Sale. I haven't done any painting since April. I'm using this painting as a warm up to ease my return to my painting commission and owl comic.

Portrait of me for Kirsten Swank's 1 Photo a Day Blog

A few months ago, I ran into Kirsten Swank. She took a photo of me for her 1 Photo a Day blog and told me about her Burning Chair Project. It's an hommage to Tarek al-Tayyib Muhammad Bouazizi.

Gail Marie Kern, cartoonist and painter, posted a pic of the bee she commissioned from me! Also, Paul Taylor gave my blog a shout out on his facebook page. He is the creator of the graphic novel Wapsi Square. Go read it!

My camera battery is recharging right now, so next week you can expect pics of my work in progress toy and painting and of our new live-in work space.

Flying Saucer

2011-05-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

I finally finished designing and crocheting my flying saucer Geirdoz toy! I'll be sending this to Schmancy Toys in Seattle for the Plush You! exhibit this October. After we move, I'll begin designing my double-sided eyeball squid/octopus toy. I hope the summer holds enough time for me to complete the toy before the show!

Peter Disappeared and Philip Guston

2011-05-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

This is the second page of Peter Disappeared. It's a comic I wrote and my husband Raighne illustrated for an anthology that Nicholas Straight is editing.

For the past month I've been crocheting a flying saucer toy for the October Plush You! show at Schmancy in Seattle. It is slow going. I imagine a shape, I crochet it, then I think of a better way to design it. I unravel the yarn, and I begin again.

While I was crocheting and cursing the heat yesterday, I watched the National Gallery of Art's Philip Guston video. They mentioned the influence of comics on his late paintings. That in turn reminded me of the Spiegelman on Guston Inkstuds podcast.

Wing Injuries, Food Deliveries, Hawk Attacks and a Movie!

2011-05-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

On April 27th while watching the Ellis Bird Farm Owl cam in Alberta I got to see the male deliver a mouse and the female feed it to the chicks. I've been hoping to see this so that I can paint it more accurately in my comic. I was happy to discover that there are not one but three owlets in this nest, which mirrors my comic.

On April 30th the OMS Middle School owlet (in Reno, NV) fell from his nest and broke his wing-tips. He was taken to the Dayton Valley Wildlife Rest Stop where he'll live in an aviary with other great horned owls until he can fly and fend off predators.

Raighne and I visited the Uptown great horned owl nest on Tuesday. We visited once before when there was snow on the ground but found only the perch tree where the male had regurgitated pellets. This time, however, we noticed two ladies with binoculars on the path. We followed their gaze and saw the female and one of the chicks high up in a tree. We could see a little puff of grey down on the owlet and the tight v of feathers crowning the female's head. The crows were doing fly-bys to keep an eye on the owl nest while mallard ducks splashed in the flooded creek behind us.

Birdchick's most recent post about the Uptown nest included a territorial chase, mobbing crows, a cooper's hawk attack on the nest, and a low-flying helicopter. Also, I read in Karla Bloem's Alice the Owl News blog that British wildlife filmmaker Fergus Beely is going to do some filming of the Uptown nest for his film about snowy owls.

Claire Speaks Out Color Version

2011-04-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

I continue to monitor owl nest cams. The Ellis Bird Farm Owl Cam projected hatch date was yesterday, but this morning I glimpsed the unhatched eggs. However, at least one chick has hatched in the Uptown nest. Birdchick posted the scoop and her photos!

The Decorah Eagle nest was attacked by an owl several nights in a row. I knew it had to be a great horned owl and I found the videos. On the second night, the eagle is standing up, trying to stay alert. When he puts his head down the owl swoops in and hits him with his talons.

Sketch for Claire Speaks Out

2011-04-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

This week I am working on the above illustration job. The illustration is for "Claire Speaks Out" a short story in The Book of Bartholomew by Mark Granlund. Once I get the sketch approved, I'll color it.

While I was drawing this I listened to the Science Friday podcast and I heard that Science Friday has a new arts blog called Science and the Arts. I don't understand how I can be so terrible at math and science and still love them so much, but I do.

On the Edge

2011-04-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

This May I'm turning 30 and my husband had me write out a list of "really hard to find" books. One of the books on my list (I admit, it's on amazon) was Lorenzo Mattotti's STIGMATA. I bought a copy of his comic CHIMERA at my first comic con, WonderCon, in San Diego in 2005. (The only other thing I remember about WonderCon was that the man who rode down the escalator in front of me was mobbed at the bottom...because he was Frank Miller.) The point of all this is that Mattotti was just interviewed on Inkstuds. I'm so pumped to listen to it. He's an illustrator I greatly dig and know nothing about.

I'm painting my commission while I storyboard. The cams are helping me round out my owl comic in ways I never imagined. It's worth having to push back the deadline and lengthen the page count!

From the OMS Middle School Cam forum I learned that the Mom's mostly stop brooding when the chicks are two weeks old (thanks Shirley and wikipedia). This week I got to see the little guy. Yesterday he was doing wing-flapping jumps and walking to the edge of the nest. I was afraid he was going to fledge early and end my research prematurely.

Last night on the Ellis Bird Farm Owl Cam, I caught a glimpse of two eggs. On the forum Debbi shared this screenshot of the dad feeding the mom on the nest. When the eggs hatch I'm going to lose a lot of sleep watching this cam.

Life and Death in an Owl Nest

2011-03-31T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spent the day on my painting commission while I kept an eye on the Ellis Bird Farm Owl cam in Alberta, Canada. This past weekend, when reading Owls of the United States and Canada by Wayne Lynch, I learned that "great horned owls in Alberta usually begin to lay eggs in early March whereas those in Pennsylvania and Ohio lay in January and February and the ones in subtropical Florida start in December." Birdchick posted that the great horned owl eggs in the uptown area of MN should have hatched this weekend.

I didn't realize owl nests would be such dramatic forces of life and death! I witnessed the failure of the KEEP nest cam. After that I began watching the the OMS Owl Cam in Reno, NV nest. With five eggs and huge stockpiles of food, I assumed good things lay ahead. Then only three eggs of the hatched, and later two of the chicks died. Now there's only one chick left. At least the snow is finally melting off of the nest in Alberta! And the site that hosts the Valmont Owl Cam in Boulder, CO announced that the first egg (of two) hatched on March 28. Now to get back to my painting...

Geirdoz at Chicago Zine Fest

2011-03-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

If you're at the Chicago Zine Fest this Saturday, stop by the 2D Cloud table. My Geirdoz will be there! Also my mini-comic Manny + Bigfoot and lots of other great comics. Our friend Neil Brideau is one of the organizers, and it'll be tons of fun...wish I was going!

Painting Commission Progress and Nest Failure

2011-03-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

It's time to take a break from the owl comic. I'm going to use my time off to watch nest cams and catch up my painting and knitting commissions. Here you can see the painting commission progress (left) compared to the previous stage (right). Some of the grid panels are starting to look defined and structured. I listened to the lastest podcasts on Birdchick and to an Instuds interview with one of my favorite book illustrators Shaun Tan as I painted.

I have sad news. The Kentucky Environmental Educations Projects (KEEP) nest failed. I'm guessing that the eggs were infertile. Yesterday around 2pm when I refreshed my browser I saw this on the nest cam:

All is not lost. I came across two more great horned owl nest cams last week. The OMS Middle School Nest Cam is in Reno, NV. This owl mother has five young, the first which hatched March 15th. She has a surplus of food cached in her nest and is using it to feed her hungry owlets. The nest was covered in snow recently, but it's all melted. That's not the case for the Ellis Bird Farm Owl Cam in Alberta, Canada.

Plush You! and Owl Comic Covers

2011-03-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

I got accepted into this years Plush You! show at Schmancy Toys in Seattle. The opening is Oct 14. I can submit three toys. I'll keep you posted on the designs as I work on them.

I have the first stages of the front and back covers completed. The tree will be the spine of the book. Which means I'm going to have to reverse the paintings in photoshop. Raighne wants me to paint the title on the cover, but since I have to reverse the cover I'll have to paint it separately. Which reminds me, we decided to throw out "You Are the Great Horned Owl". Any suggestions for a new title?

It's incubation time for many great horned owls. I've spent most of this week watching nest cams. The Kentucky Environmental Educations Projects (KEEP) in Dawson Springs, KY has a nest cam here and Xcel Energy at the Valmont Station in Boulder, CO has a nest cam here. Both owls are sitting on two eggs. The Valmont Station owl has been incubating since Feb 25 (and hatching around March 20th?). Nothing's been posted on the KEEP site about when the eggs were laid.

Here's four screen shots I grabbed from the KEEP nest cam. She spends most of the time incubating, but it's warm enough in Kentucky for her to take breaks from the eggs. They last from 2 to 23 minutes. It helps me to watch for hatching owlets.

There are a few blogs tracking nests. Carl Strang of Nature Inquires wrote a post about a nest that failed in the Mayslake Forest Preserve in Illinois because a snowstorm knocked it down. Mark H. X. Glenshaw has been tracking a pair of great horned owls in his Forest Park Owls blog since Dec 2005. They have raised many families in Forest Park, St. Louis, MI and have two owlets nesting in a tree hollow. Here in the Twin Cities, Sharon Stiteler has been visiting a pair of great horned owls and posting updates on Birdchick. Karla Bloem, the director of the Houston Nature Center, in Houston, MN has a pair of great horned owls with permanent eye injuries in a breeding cage. No eggs yet, but they've been mating.

A Parrot Guiding Progress

2011-03-01T13:50:00.000-08:00

Today, I've decided to share how I'm making my owl comic by using pages 7 and 8. First, I storyboard the pages in pencil. Second, I paint the background color on two canvas panels and draw the storyboard on top. Third, I flesh it out. There is a lot of refining and complete re-imagining if I find a certain posture or position I've drawn the owl in doesn't work.

Radiolab has a new short up featuring Jim Eggers and Sadie, his African Grey Parrot. Sadie is his service animal and travels with him everywhere. Jim has manic depression with psychotic tendencies. Sadie reminds him to "keep calm" whenever she feels his body tremors that signal a manic episode. I listened to this episode as I was finishing page 8.

A Portrait in Twelve Panels

2011-02-14T14:32:00.000-08:00

Last night while reading Eddie Campbell's interview in "Comic Book Rebels: Conversations with the Creators of the New Comics" I came across a quote by Impressionist painter Claude Monet. It was: "You can't paint a picture unless you have it in your head first."

Yes, there it is, TRUTH. Choosing a color scheme, making color charts, setting up the composition, painting out a rough outline of the subject by itself doesn't add up to a painting. I can't paint a picture unless I have the concept of how it should be painted first.

Color Charts

Before Concept vs. After Concept

I did all of my homework for my current portrait commission, but I still didn't have a concept of how to paint it. I was puttering around last Thursday, letting my mind wander and that's when it wandered in the right direction.

What if I pretended the painting was a page in a comic book? I squeezed some paint onto my pallet and divided the painting into a 12 panel grid using a ruler and a brush. I began to paint the first panel of bricks as if it was its own painting, and as if it was the first panel in a comic story. Suddenly it was really great to paint bricks, when normally it would have been a drag. The bricks were part of the story.

I told one of my co-works this concept and his reaction was mixed. "Will it still look like a portrait? Will the grid be too obvious?" My answer is that yes, it will totally look like the person. And no, the grid will just look like another part of the painting. It will get painted away and into the background. The point of the concept is that it will guide me into telling the story of the portrait, and it will fool me into being interested equally in each part of the canvas. It's a good trick, eh?

More Musings on Destruction

2011-02-10T11:18:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid I was a huge fanatic about the painter Robert Bateman. I wanted to be a wild life painter just like him and I was a photo-realist for a long time because of it. Now that I'm painting a book about about the lives of a family of great horned owls I thought about him again.

Robert Bateman destroys his Orca Painting

Here's a wild life painter that feels so passionately about his subject that he will destroy his painting to make the point.

Absorbing Al's Good Advice While Painting

2011-02-09T21:46:00.000-08:00

I began these four panels while listening to the Al Columbia interviews on the comic book podcast Inkstuds (2011 and 2007). He said that he never worries about having a career or meeting any deadlines. He frequently destroys entire projects and lets his artwork deteriorate as you can see in his newest book Pim & Francie: "The Golden Bear Days" in which coffee spills and torn pages become part of the aesthetic. Raighne and I own a piece of original artwork from this book and it still has masking tape on it.

His idea of never worrying about deadlines but rather letting the natural flow of the project dictate its completion appeals to me. It's inspired me to rethink my own deadline for my owl book, and also to let it actually get longer than 40 pages if it needs to.

ps for more things that inspire me read my post on itchy keen Comic Champions.

Buster Portrait

2011-01-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

I was commissioned to paint a portrait this winter. Trouble is, I haven't painted in color in five years. I can't remember how. To add to the challenge, I promise a friend I'll paint a portrait of his cat, Buster.

I paint Buster first. I dig around and find a color wheel. I watch youtube videos teaching color mixing. I read articles on color theory. With trepidation I slap color on the canvas. It's all wrong. Then I do three things that save me: I google cat anatomy. I convert my Buster photo into gray scale. I make color charts on the computer. It works. I finish the Buster portrait. And I know how to paint the larger portrait. Here's my color charts for the Buster painting:

The Mad Hatcher

2011-01-11T18:01:00.000-08:00

Here are the rough paintings for pages 9 and 10 of my comic "You Are the Great Horned Owl". My husband asked, "What is going on with the owl on the right?" Well, the Mom owl is laying on its belly and eating/cleaning the extra egg stuff left over after the baby hatched. I haven't been able to find out why from any internet searches. All I can find are the weird photos and videos of owl Moms and empty egg shells.

In addition to my ongoing book, I am working on a portrait commission. It is a wonderful challenge especially since I haven't painted in color since 2006. It's good to relearn because I'm also picking up on knowledge I didn't have in the first place.

Weird Coincidences and WIP

2010-12-18T06:10:00.000-08:00

I made a dummy to figure out the page count and layout of You Are the Great Horned Owl. I'm notoriously bad at numbers. Even with the dummy I thought my page total was 24. Raighne helped me figure out that my comic is actually going to be 40 pages! "That's the same as Yearbooks," Raighne observed. "Wait, I think it might even be the same dimensions!" The weird thing is, at 11" x 8", it is the same dimensions as Yearbooks, except that it's portrait rather than landscape.

Well, I finished painting the four endpapers I shared in my last post. Here are two new pages for You Are the Great Horned Owl that I'm getting started on. I'm also working on a commission.

Paintings Unusual January

2010-12-04T06:17:00.000-08:00

"Paintings unusual January!" A man yelled that over his shoulder in my dream last night. It was cryptic enough. I interrupted my conversation with a childhood friend to jump off my swing and run after him. "Caught your attention didn't I?" He was walking with his wife. I grabbed his hand. "But what did you mean?" "I want you to paint me some pictures in January," he said. And then my alarm woke me up.

Yesterday I bought a primed canvas for a commission I'm painting in waking life. I'm also hard at work on my "You Are the Great Horned Owl" comic book. Pictured on the easel below is the newly finished page 6, followed by four pages of works-in-progress endpapers.

Marche autour de Paris

2010-11-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

ARRIVAL

We had three hours to kill before the hotel rooms would be ready. Our watches said it was 9am but there was no one was outside and every shop was closed. "Paris is never like this!" One of our traveling companions said. As the puzzle pieces fell into place (it was foggy, we were brain dead from jetlag and starving) I worried aloud, "Are we zombies in a post-apocalyptic wasteland?" Then I made a passing comment about Halloween and someone figured it out: All Saints Day is a holiday in France. We chanced upon an open café and drew pictures. I drained a cup of hand squeezed orange juice.

At the Eiffel Tower. Again. The sun made a brief appearance but once the tourists, the French soldiers and the souvenir hawkers emerged they never went away. We watched with bleary eyes as European families waltzed past, dressed to the nines and mostly in black. The mothers rolled their fashionable toddlers in strollers through the sandy boulevard but each sleek black jacket and set of leather boots they wore made them disappear into the memory of the others.

Hôtel Kensington was our home while we stayed in Paris. The first thing Raighne did when we got our room was to pull the blanket off the bed to look for bed bugs. I said, "A woman on This American Life said they look like tobacco stains." We stared hard at the little dots spread across the sheets. Then I brushed my hand across them. They flew off. "Just sand," I proclaimed. "But what's sand doing in our bed sheets?"

MUSÉE DU QUAI BRANLY
Although we walked past its living walls a dozen times it was the last museum we visited. It was our refuge from the rain when we couldn't find the sewers. We wandered in, we were soaked and the place was empty. There was a white ramp that lead us up to the galleries. We didn't climb, we swam up through a river of words floating down the ramp from a hundred film projectors. As we ascended we saw ourselves as if on a bridge surrounding a mountain, a glass mountain containing a million shelves that housed neatly stored, recorded, weighed, labled, and measured art objects, resting in the cool darkness. We came through a tunnel with no lights and then we were at a fork in the middle of several walled paths with color coded floors. We chose red and it was Oceania. We lost our breath when we saw the first spot-lighted masks and sculpted poles emerge and we held hands and whispered, "This is our favorite museum."

MUSÉE DU LOUVRE
Musée du Louvre is too amazing and this is my only complaint against Paris as well (besides the irritating cigarette smoke in the streets). Every door handle is a master work of Art Nouveau and every street corner is heralded by a golden man on a horse. By the time you get into the salon style Louvre, your eyes have just about had it with all of the visual cake!

GRAND PALAIS
This is the museum where we saw the Monet retrospective. I think this is the first time I ever saw that many paintings by one artist (200+). It was an "ah-ha!" moment in my comprehension of Monet's development as a painter.

NOTRE-DAME AND SAINTE-CHAPELLE
We wandered in awe through Notre-Dame but it was also more than enough dimly lit souvenir clad vestibules for me.

My Mom got lost the next day and enjoyed the wonderous Sainte-Chapelle by herself.

MUSÉE NATIONAL D'ART MODERNE
We hope to guard the art at Musée National d'Art Moderne someday. The guards here are the best dressed. They are most pleasantly aware and so divinely relaxed. I envy them.

LE POTAGER DU MARAIS
We arrived just before Le Potager du Marais opened and lucky us for we were seated without reservations, which wouldn't have happened even ten minutes later. The meal was superb. Here we are with dessert, looks great, but in this case that was deceiving. Here we are entertaining ourselves with joyous thoughts based on blissful ignorance.

FONTAINE DE STRAVINSKY and THE DAY MY MOM GOT LOST

During our meal at Saveurs VegetHalles, before we began a journey to the comic shops on the edges of the city, I gave my Mom directions on how to get our hotel. It was a fairly straight shot, but not as easy (or as long-winded) as following the Seine. We made it directly to our destination, she did not. She ended up north of the river, revisiting the Fontaine de Stravinsky (we had forgotten to photograph it) and Sainte-Chapelle. She also photographed "an old building" which she wondered if we knew what it was. Nope, but it makes an amusing story. She told me later that her favorite part of the trip was when she got lost. And I must say, that is the whole point of traveling.

Photographed by Jeanne Shields and Written by Meghan Hogan

Paris, my Paris

2010-11-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

Here's several reasons why comic book artists should visit France: The Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême is held there every January. Several of my favorite comic artists are French: Lewis Trondheim, David B., Nicolas Presl, and François Ayroles. It's great fun to pop into comic book stores in Paris and pick up their books in French. My favorite magasin de bande dessinée (comic book shop) in Paris, Le Pied de Biche Galerie Librairie (The Crowbar Gallery and Bookstore), carries books by several of them. As you might have read on the Comics Comics blog Fondation Cartier pour l'art Contemporain is exhibiting MOEBIUS-TRANSE-FORME until March 13, 2011. We were very sad that no photos were allowed! But we bought the catalogue and a set of colored pencils with the above Moebius drawing printed on them.

Our favorite art museum was the Musée du quai Branly for its stunning collection and presentation of Oceanic, African, Native American and Asian art. A close second was Du Musée National d'art Moderne. It was my Mom's favorite. Raighne and I favored their paintings by Georges Braque and Jean Dubuffet most. Also we loved the Impressionist collections at the Musée de l'Orangerie and Musée d'Orsay. We discovered that our favorite paintings at Musée de l'Orangerie were by Soutine and Utrillo. At the Musée d'Orsay there were so many mouth-watering delights that I can only note Manet's Le déjeuner sur l'herbe and a room of Toulouse-Lautrec. The Louvre was overwhelming. Its paintings, such as the Raft of the Medusa, the Van Eyck and a self-portrait of an older Rembrandt loom so huge in my memories. I hated how over-crowded with people and paintings it was but I have to go back, since in my haste I missed the Goyas, the Bosch, and the Egyptian and Islamic wings. Our favorite exhibit PERIOD was the Jean-Michel Basquiat retrospective at Musée d'Art Modern. I forgot what a huge influence he has had on my painting.

On our last day in Paris we slushed for miles through leaves and rain along the Seine for lunch at Le Grenier de Notre Dame. We got lost and arrived too late for lunch. We would have to wait for dinner. In the meantime, we retraced our steps in sodden shoes to the 2nd floor lending library of the famed Shakespeare and Company bookstore. A couple of hours later an artist and poet named Pam invited us to her Sunday tea party. We joined a group of travelers (mostly Americans, a few Brits, a Saudi Arabian and a couple of Belgians) around a table filled with tea mugs and cake in the bookstore owner George's third floor apartment. We shared poetry, drawings, and our little bios of ourselves. When the tea party adjourned we ran back to Le Grenier de Notre Dame and had a romantic vegan dinner. I can still feel the warmth of our burbon soy-milk shakes.

6 reasons to go back to Paris? We have to stay at the vegan B&B the Gentle Gourmet. We have to visit the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum in Albi. We have to attend the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême! We have to speak the French we'll have learned (because we bought so many French books on our vacation!) We have to visit the reopened Musée Picasso. We have to visit our friend the comic creator Antoine Dodé!

Thanks to our friend and fellow traveler Susan for the pic of us riding up the side of Du Musée National d'art Moderne.

In the Works: Paleo Art Comic

2010-10-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

When I was getting a B.A. in studio art at Hamline University, I got an anthropology minor and did an independent study in forensic facial reconstruction with professors Barbara O'Connell and Bruce Thomas. I won a Hamline Bush Library grant to create a poster about my reconstruction of Minnesota Woman (bottom photo). I also did a portrait commission for the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council that they used for the cover of an archeology report.

My fascination with portraiture, anatomy, and human evolution is bubbling up to the surface again. Last week I went to the library and started research for my upcoming sci-fi comic. Jane, my main character, is a paleo artist. I'll get to draw bones and muscles, primates and hominids, and facial reconstructions.

Who says research is boring? I'm reviewing anatomy by playing Anatomy Arcade's free online video games. Wack-A-Bone has a tantalizing refrain that you'll chant along with as you play.

Also if you're curious about the history of anatomical dissection listen to Anatomy on the BBC Radio 4 program In Our Time.

Rorschach Rocketship Geirdo

2010-09-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

Doctor Geirdo Heals

2010-09-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

Doctor Geirdo Heals The Doctor Geirdo commission is finished! Here is the Doctor now, healing a patient. The patient is the little red geirdo Raighne stole from me the instant I finished crocheting it. Little Red has a little cold he picked up from me. ...................................................................................................
Monet Handspun Scarf While organizing my yarn stash I noticed that my handmade yarn has begun to accumulate. There's samples Michelle Layland gifted me, plus the green mermaid yarn I got from her in trade, white handspun I bought for a dollar at the thrift store, and the yarn I've been spinning. With with wealth of material, I've begun to crochet myself an artsy scarf. It's all single crochet. The only thing that is emphasized is the color and texture of the yarn. As I crochet, I'm thinking Impressionism, particularly Claude Monet.

Spinning 3 Ply

2010-09-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

I plied this yarn at my spinning teacher Michelle Layland's house. Michelle and I each spun a single on our drop spindles and then I plied them together with a baby blue thread. Michelle had me do the plying on a drop spindle which is neat for someone who doesn't know when she'll get her first spinning wheel... Can't say I've decided what I'll make this into or to crochet or knit. I keep thinking funky winter wear.

Doctor Geirdo video

2010-09-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

Video of my work in progress Doctor Geirdo toy.

Ann's Bee

2010-09-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

Ann gifted me a stash of acrylic yarn so I crocheted her this little bumble bee.

Ferris Wheel at Minneapolis Indie Expo

2010-09-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Minneapolis Indie Xpo we tabled at last week was awesome! It was organized by Sarah Morean and Andy Krueger and hosted by the Soap Factory. There was vegan donuts from The Donut Cooperative.

We hosted five out of town cartoonist house guests for MIX: Dylan Williams, John Porcellino, Noah Van Sciver, Sam Sharpe, and Neil Brideau. In return for a free crash pad they each gifted us an assortment of their beautifully crafted comics. We look forward to return visits!

My ferris wheel was finished in time for MIX but at my own expense. I strained a muscle in my neck which put me out of commission for a week, but it was worth the delight the ferris wheel caused our table visitors.

Pictured below are me, Nic Breutzman, Sarah Tulius and invisible co-publishers Justin Skarhus and Raighne Hogan. Thank you Neil for this pic! Raighne is absent because he spent most of the convention handing out Good Minnesotan #4 to contributors, buying us comics, and attending MIX panels.

Red Ribbon at the Minnesota State Fair

2010-08-31T05:27:00.000-07:00

If you are going to the State Fair stop by the Creative Activities Building. My knitted table runner won 2nd Prize and my rocketship Geirdo is on display. My favorite display was the handmade yarn. Also, the Weavers Guild of Minnesota is giving loom demos!

Home Studio and Handspinning

2010-08-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, the storefront below our apartment that my husband and I were going to rent is not commercially zoned. After receiving the sad news, we had no choice but to give up opening a neighborhood gallery.

Once our depression settled we began to do the math. It became apparent that not having a gallery space changes our lives in a positive way. Instead of a fun but unprofitable business venture, we will have a surplus of income to reinvest in our products and marketing plans.

I can also fulfill my secret wish to learn how to spin my own yarn. Michelle Layland, the talented spinner and knitter that I interviewed in the previous post, is going to teach me how to spin on a drop spindle. The top photo is a skein of her handspun that she traded me for a knitting book. The bottom photo is yarn that Michelle and I are spinning together!

The Addams Family meets Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo meets drunken tiki-bar: Interview with Knitter and Spinner Michelle Layland

2010-07-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

Michelle Layland is a fiber and mixed-media artist who enjoys making deliciously dark and spooky things and shipping them around the globe. A self-taught knitter and spinner, she has exhibited in small venues around Minneapolis and offers her work for sale at msfledermaus.com.

MEGHAN HOGAN: Do you have any crafters in your family?

MICHELLE LAYLAND: My mother is a very talented crafter and painter, and I take after her. I think the knitting comes from my great-great grandmother, who used to make these very complex double-knit socks for my great-great grandfather. Funny how things filter down to other generations.

HOGAN: What gave you the idea to first begin knitting and what were the hardest aspects to learn?

LAYLAND: I started knitting in 2002, after a slew of comically bad blind-dates. I think I subconsciously figured out there were much better ways to fill my time. The hardest part was being brave enough to teach myself out of a magazine with blurry pictures. And since I learned to crochet as a kid, it seemed weird to leave the stitches on the needle at first.

HOGAN: Why and how did you begin spinning your own yarn?

LAYLAND: I started spinning my own yarn very gradually. I found a book that showed you how to make your own drop spindle out of an old cd and a dowel, and I made a very, very crude spindle to play with. It took lots of experimentation for me to get a yarn that wasn't all kinked up and snarled and heavy at first. But even those first attempts seemed to click with me somehow.

HOGAN: Can you tell us the story of your spinning wheel?

LAYLAND: The spinning wheel story! It's just so surreal. I had some very dear friends who had moved to a co-op on Nicollet Island. I was on a waiting list for the same co-op, but it takes years to be accepted, so I was in an apartment downtown, goofing off with my knitting. My friends were helping a neighbor clean out the basement of one of the Victorian houses in the co-op, and found this very old, broken-down spinning wheel. It was in really rough shape--birds had pooped on it, a puppy or something had chewed on the treadle, part of the flywheel was seriously broken, the actual wheel had separated over time...just very forlorn and messed up. But they asked if I would like to fix it up, and of course I said yes. It took me a while, since I had no idea what I was doing at all. But I scavenged books and ordered parts and my dad coached me on how to re-glue the wheel back together, and it worked just fine. A year and some change later, I ended up living in the same house the wheel originally came from. I like to think it was grateful to have a good home, but missed the yellow house it used to live in...and there was no reason not to bring me along!

HOGAN: Describe what types of materials you spin into yarn:

LAYLAND: I spin mostly wools. I love merino and coopworth best, but BFL is so good to spin. I sometimes spin bamboo for my mom, who's allergic. Sometimes I'll mix in beads, and sparkly threads like firestar and angelina, or shredded bits of old silk kimonos or vintage scarves and such. I have a Jersey Woolly rabbit, so I spin his fur too, as well as lots of angora from the farm he came from. I also spin lots of alpaca from a farm I go to locally. So...I suppose I spin just about anything, really.

HOGAN: Tell us about the commission you just received to spin human hair into yarn. How is it different from spinning Shamu the bunneh’s hair?

LAYLAND: A co worker has this boyfriend who had lots of really long, dark blonde hair that just got cut off recently. She asked me if it was possible to spin it. I told her, "Human hair doesn't really have much grab, but if I mixed it with some wool I think it's doable. I've seen pictures from other people who have done it." So yesterday she delivered a nice big bag of really long, clean, pretty guy-hair. I get to experiment now to see what looks and feels appealing. In theory this is going into a scarf, so I need the finished yarn to be soft enough to be kind to the neck. And since human hair is slidey and tangly, maybe I'll need to treat the finished yarn like a mohair, something with a bit of a halo. It's an exciting project!

Shamu the Bunneh has really fun hair to spin. Angora has so much warmth and fuzz to it, and I'm working on a skein of just Shamu-yarn, so I can have his warm fuzz around all the time. If you want a good, fun, quiet fiber-animal and don't have the room for a sheep, I would definitely recommend getting an angora or a Jersey Woolly, like Shamu!

HOGAN: Give us a verbal tour of the Rainy Day Craftroom:

LAYLAND: The Rainy Day Craftroom! It's my little piece of fiber heaven. I have an extra room in my place that I use for my projects, which I painted tomato red with chocolate brown trim. I have all sorts of mixed media pieces and curiosities on the walls. (There's still lots of room for me to fill up!) There's a long desk that holds a lot of my mixed-media stuff--paints and glitter and tchotchkes and fezzes and whatnot.) I have some chairs, and boxes full of interesting cloth and baby doll heads, and two spinning wheels--my old rescue-wheel Hester, and the new Kiwi I call Little Sister. I have a huge black bookcase chock-full of fluff, all kinds. (There are odd dolls and skulls and action figures tucked in here and there, but the main purpose of that shelf is fluff-storage.) By the huge window that overlooks the river I have a small cabinet, with extra fluff and all my mailing supplies and paperwork,as well as a bowl of lovely rocks. Then there are more of my boxes full of miscellaneous stuff that could be useful someday--old masks and beat-up skirts, mutated baby dolls and my Mini Gothic Christmas-tree. There's more mixed media artwork on the walls, and a tucked-in shelved closet that holds more mysterious knicknacks, like my globe of Mars...

HOGAN: How do you come up with the descriptions and titles in your Ms. Fledermaus Etsy Store?

LAYLAND: I try to let whatever I'm working on do the talking at my Etsy store. Of course, I'll show things to friends and they'll come up with the most outlandish tags for things. I love giving things bizarre names, like "Doom Orchid" and "Blood Lollipops" and "Vampire Makey-Outy". When I named,"Vampire Makey-Outy" it was mostly for a joke, and now every time I make some I can't keep the stuff in stock. Which means that "Werewolf Makey-Outy" is right around the corner...

HOGAN: Describe the concept of Gutcreatures and how you came up with it:

LAYLAND: The Gutcreatures started out as a nice, innocent hand-warming creature I made for my friend Gail. It had a nice little lavender and rice bag in it's tummy so she could heat it in the microwave and carry it to the car, keeping her hands warm. Well, Gail ripped it's guts out and made it a backtalking, obscenity-spewing puppet named Mordred the Betrayer. When another coworker fell in love with Mordred, I decided it was time for me to knit up a love-child, which I promptly did. Since I knew that Gail would gleefully rip out the newcomer's guts the first chance she got, I crocheted lumpy, bumpy, squishy guts out the vilest colors I could find. The love-child was a massive hit, and now I've made lots and lots of gutcreatures, all colors and shapes--some with two heads, many with tentacles. All of them have blobby guts as stuffing...

HOGAN: How would you describe your personal aesthetic?

LAYLAND: I would say my personal aesthetic is The Addams Family meets Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo meets drunken tiki-bar. And then they all get into a really big fight with Halcyon Yarn...the whole sordid, tangled mess would be my house.

HOGAN: Where do you see yourself as a craft artist ten years from now?

LAYLAND: I would really like to be making more of my living with my craft work. My eventual goal is to take more time for my website and my spinning, and expand it if I can. More or less, this is my retirement plan--if I'm going to keep working until the bitter end, I want to enjoy what I do...

HOGAN: Is there anything else that you would like to mention that I left out?

LAYLAND: The only other thing I would add is: Don't be afraid to teach yourself new things, even if it's just you and a book and lots of mistakes. You can be a better teacher than you realize, if you're patient with yourself...

Sketchblog: Mechanical Toys

2010-07-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

Last week I picked up two books from MCAD's library: Athelstan and Kathleen Spilhaus's curious Mechanical Toys - How Old Toys Work and Brian Selznick's magnificent children's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I realized my random choice of a children's book was relevant when I discovered that the book's plot revolves around a mechanical automata toy.

One of my main focuses as a designer is making interactive amigurumi toys. Right now I'm focusing on toys that you can take apart and reassemble. Eventually, I hope to expand my designs into the territory of mechanical amigurumi toys. This week I am at work on a toy that bridges the gap between the two: my Geirdoz Ferris Wheel. I hope to have it complete for the Minneapolis Indie Expo in August.

Fun Links:

If you're in the United Kingdom this August do me a favor. Visit the Ralph Steadman curated exhibition Clockwork and Automata at Black Swan Arts. It features an artwork that Mr. Steadman and Keith Newstead collaborated on called The Clockwork Automataumbrella. I'm so jealous of you already.
Watch kinetic sculptor Arthur Ganson on Ted Talks.

Recycled Plastic Yarn Tutorial

2010-07-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

Doug from GreenUPGRADER.com posted this tutorial: Etsy Find: Upcycle With Plarn Plastic Yarn. I bookmarked it until a blue plastic bag from Cub Foods caught my fancy. I used the plastic yarn I made from the tutorial and black vinyl lace to crochet a bracelet.

Recommended listening for crocheting your plastic yarn accessories:

CraftSanity host Jennifer Haywood-Ackerman interviews Lexi Boeger about her non-traditional, hand-spun yarns and techniques (A Chat with Pluckyfluff creator, Lexi Boeger).
For visual accompaniment visit Helle Jorgensen's online gallery of Plastic Sea Creatures crocheted from plastic bags.

Itchykeen Art Fiends Interview!

2010-07-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

I have been interviewed on the ITCHYKEEN Art Fiends blog. Read it here. The editor of the anthology, my husband Raighne Hogan, is conducting a series of interviews of everyone who contributed to Good Minnesotan Episode #4.

Raighne is doing a fundraiser on Kickstarter.com to raise money to cover the printing costs of GMN #4. So far he has reached 56% of his goal. He has 23 more days to get the rest of the money. Contribute here for some fun rewards and become a sponsor of the book!

Handmade Lightbox

2010-06-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I crafted a macro lightbox out of a cardboard box, acrylic paint, drawing paper and tracing paper. I used two online tutorials featured on Etsy and Indestructibles as my guides.
Recommended listening for building your macro lightbox:

Radiolab hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich interview portrait painter Chuck Close and neurologist Oliver Sacks about what it's like to live with face-blindness (Strangers in the Mirror).

NPR Planet Money host Jacob Goldstein on the economics of the art world. (Why A Dead Shark Costs $12 Million).

New Business, New Studio, Back to Painting

2010-06-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Lots of things happening this week! I registered Startled Maggie as a Limited Liability Company, I got my business bank account set up, and I began organizing my home office! I've also started helping my husband Raighne run his 2D Cloud LLC in the same space.

Starting in August we'll be taking over the commercial space below our home office as a studio/gallery. Once there, we'll begin working on our bird comics. I'll be returning to "You Are the Great Horned Owl" the unfinished comic short included in Good Minnesotan #3. Raighne will be illustrating Justin Skarhus's Near Flight.

Once we're in our new studio I'll be painting large scale again! In addition to the paintings for the owl comic, I will be making paintings that are not comics...haven't done that in awhile.

Mini-skirt Turtleneck Design + Collage Show

2010-06-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

I designed a mini-skirt turtleneck for the Geirdoz. There is a little yellow spiral at the top.

Four Geirdoz I made for the Collage show we are hosting at the 2D Cloud studio this Sat night.

Sketchblog: Geirdoz Airplane Ride

2010-05-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

I've been doing doodles for the Geirdoz ride. I'm thinking of having Geirdoz sitting in mini crocheted airplanes as they turn around the ferris wheel.

Sketchblog: Ferris Wheel

2010-05-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

My Mom made a fantastic find last week. She salvaged a plant stand in the shape of a Ferris wheel from a FREE box. She had the idea of using it to display my Geirdoz toys. She also advised me to wrap it in yarn. I've gone a little overboard in my imagination since then. I've started sketching a full-fledged crochet ride complete with interchangeable rockets and monster cars.

Geirdoz visit Stumptown Comics Fest

2010-04-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my husband Raighne and I (pictured here) tabled with our 2D Cloud coherts Justin Skarhus and Sarah Tulius at Stumptown Comics Fest. It was our first time in Portland, OR and it was our most successful convention yet.

My knitted cloth transformed our table into a landscape inhabited by our books and toys. The best part of the fest was observing how people interacted within our creative space. I like making innovative designs that give people a chance to play.

We brought 16 "Sunday Edition" copies of Good Minnesotan #4 anthology (in which my Geirdoz comic debuts) and they sold out. At $5 for a set of 4 books it was a real steal. For anybody looking to snag a copy for themselves, the full print run of GMN #4 will debut Aug 2010. Between now and August we'll be gathering reviews and raising funds for printing.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our table and to Joshin Yamada for taking the pic of us.

Geirdoz comic debuts in GMN #4

2010-03-28T20:00:00.001-07:00

I have a Geirdoz comic in the 4th Good Minnesotan anthology. Here's the first page
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We will have 30 "Sunday Edition" copies available at Stumptown. "Sunday Edition" is what my husband calls the initial small print run that we use to get feedback, reviews, and funding for the full print run.

Tablecloth for Stumptown Comics Fest

2010-03-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

My current project is a tablecloth for Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland. It's an abstract design with little islands of color.

The finished tablecloth will be 8' long x 2' wide. It's knitted in linen stitch with size 11 needles and bulky yarn. Still, at 8 rows per inch, it's taking will power to meet my deadline.

Ancient Geirdoz Fauna (work in progress)

2010-01-20T10:49:00.000-08:00

The Minneapolis Institute of Art is asking for submissions to its Foot in the Door 4 exhibition. It happens once every decade. Anybody can have their piece in the museum as long at it fits in their 1' x 1' cubic box. I'm about 3/4 done with my entry! It's a hybrid between a toy and a soft sculpture.

Trade with Michelle Layland

2009-12-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

I gave my crafting buddy Michelle Layland these two Geirdoz in exchange for a skein of her handspun yarn. Visit her etsy shop and you will find that her lavish yarns and witty descriptions make you wish you owned every skein.

Finished Rocketship Design

2009-11-18T08:58:00.000-08:00

It took me a month of headaches and a lot of pacing around the galleries of the MIA to design this.

The tripod is designed to come apart from the Rocket. It buttons together with a soft red kid-safe crocheted button.

Rocketship: Making the Fit

2009-11-10T08:33:00.000-08:00

My husband, Raighne, suggested that Geirdoz needed egg pods. Interesting concept. I thought the egg pods should have tripod legs. Then they would be Rockets!

Here are two designs. The one on the left is too loose. It needed to fit more snuggly around the Geirdo and so I made the changes that resulted in the more rocket-like form on the right.

With the Geirdoz in the Rocketships you can clearly see which one fits better!

Exquiste Things reviews Manny + Bigfoot & Beard Growing Contest

2009-07-20T16:06:00.000-07:00

Matthew Dick reviewed Manny + Bigfoot in his Exquisite Things blog. He reviewed it alongside my husband, Raighne's mini-comic Beard Growing Contest. Matt says, "I’ve always had a soft spot for mini comics, and these are amongst the best I’ve read in recent times." Please read the reviews they're well written and help add to the enjoyment of the books.

I've included a pic borrowed from Raighne's blog so you can see that he has a giant beard worthy of a medal and the many compliments it receives. You can also see that his mini-comic is held shut with a mini-clothes pin.

Manny + Bigfoot at Walker's Multiples Mall

2009-02-25T09:01:00.000-08:00

Here is a sneak preview of my new mini comic Manny + Bigfoot. It goes on sale this weekend at the Walker Art Center's Multiples Mall. You can also buy it online from 2D Cloud or from the Poopsheet Shop!

Praise for Manny + Bigfoot:
"The story has a sweet expression, wonderful colors, and even a touch of mystery." ----Sarah Morean, The Daily Cross Hatch

"The pastel coloring on the interior pages of this limited edition comic are simply amazing." ----Richard Krauss, Poopsheet Foundation blog

"Beautiful, weird art object" ----Rob Clough, High and Low

"Beautiful, whimsical story told with charm, warmth and humour. Wonderful stuff." ----Matthew Dick, Exquisite Things

Manny + Bigfoot Comic & Game

2008-10-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

Here are two images from my Manny + Bigfoot Comic & Game set. I built this house using the Google Sketchup 3D modeling program.

Below are two images from the Manny + Bigfoot storyboard. This scene takes place in the house.