(the slow) march of the penguins...

before you start reading this brief post, please know that it was written over the course of 7 non-consecutive days. on the first day, i just managed to type the title. i later edited it on day 4. welcome to the secret life of mothers.

on day 2, here's what i typed:

when our daughter was born three years ago, like every new parent, we wanted to surround her with objects that would stimulate her, etc etc etc, and thought about getting these wonderful animal art cards by wee gallery:

art cards for baby, original collection, by wee gallery

but then i thought, why buy stuff when i can make stuff? so i painted these black and white animal friends for her on little white canvass boards. she loved them and so did our baby son, born 2 years later.

animal friends paintings, december 2010

he also got the art cards as a gift!

art cards for baby, sea collection, by wee gallery

but there was one little problem. he is crazy about penguins, and there were no penguins in the series. so i had to make one:

penguin in the snow

on day 3, i took some of the photos that accompany this post. did not have time to upload.

on day 4, i took the rest of the photos and managed to upload.

on day 5, this is what i wrote:

since he liked my penguin painting, i made these wall decals for him using black and yellow contact paper i bought at the hardware store. they will come off the wall easily once this penguin obsession is over:

penguin wall decal

the simple penguins were inspired from my sketchbook:

penguin happy, penguin sad

the sketches above were also the starting point for a new pattern i developed in photoshop, which i entered in the Tigerprint Black and White Pattern Competition, since it was the only black and white print i had on hand:

on day 6, i typed a few more sentences:

i've been trying to blog since morning, but teething toddlers are too demanding. so i'm speed-typing this at as he tries to bring down the floor lamp. the last manifestation of our penguin obsession was this simple birthday cake i made for him. not sure he even noticed it:

on day 7

did she rest? of course not! added all the links, made final edits, and will hopefully publish momentarily.

as i said before: welcome to the secret life of mothers, where time stretches and flies at the same time.

of rooftops and pickle jars

do you remember the metaphoric safe i had stored all my work in? it just burst open! in a nutshell: i decided it's better to share my work than to sit on it. so i started a tumblr sketchbook, which i have been updating with a doodle everyday.

so what happened? first, common sense. who's going to care that i am making things if i don't show them to anyone? second, i came across this book by austin kleon, "show you work", in which, among many others, i found this motivating quote by dan harmon:

"find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it until the people that are looking for you find you."

i am currently working on patterns with fruits, and here are some oranges from my sketchbook:

oranges

when a person doesn't make use of something they own, in armenian we ask them, "are you making pickles with it?" if i don't want my oranges to become pickled ones, i'd better shout them from my rooftop.

shouting from the rooftops.

throwing out of the pickle jar.

bursting the safe open.

just show your work!

great news!

yes, i have great news to share! and no, it's not another baby. or maybe it is. 

so here it is: my submission to the UPPERCASE magazine surface pattern design guide was accepted! it means my designs will be published in the magazine i can't stop reading and looking at! every page of it unravels a new treasure, and now my work will be on one of those pages!!!! these might seem like too many exclamation marks, but given how happy i am, they're not even close!!!!!!!!!!

cover courtesy of Uppercase magazine. cover art by Jan Avellana

what's more: i will be in amazing company. in addition to the other 99 designers who were selected, there will be expert advice from Lilla Rogers, teNeues publishing, Print and Pattern, and my design hero, Lotta Jansdotter, to name a few.

i honestly can't wait to get my copy. i know it will be packed with valuable information, it will be beautifully designed, and it will be a great read. to find out more about the issue,  you can watch the video below where the editor, publisher, and designer Janine Vangool discusses its content, and also shares great tips on how to stand out in the crowd in surface pattern design. and apparently, i have a point of view. watch the video, you'll see what i mean.

and here comes the best part! consider yourself lucky to have read this: you can use the code "USPDG2014" and get a $15 discount off your subscription. just go here. you will not regret it.

so how was this for great news? it's wonderful news, if you ask me. minus the sleepless nights.

with a little help from my friends

last time we spoke, i was painting coffee. i still am, and it has become an addiction. but i'm not going to show any. why? it turns out i shouldn't be showing so much of my work. why? because clients prefer work that has not been seen before. i found out about this recently when i entered the together again: minted+west elm design challenge. 

now, did you like my introduction? was it subtle enough? i don't think so. please, if you have the time and desire, please do check my entries, and if you like them, please do vote for them! thank you!

i don't want to make you regret you read this post and wasted your time, so here's a little example of my current work. just a tiny little example, the rest is in a waterproof, airtight, insulated, bolted safe.

dream garden, gouache on paper, 2014

(and please, please, do vote!)

i blog therefore i am

yes, i am still around. getting more philosophical by the day - i have to, if i need to accept that for the time being, 95% of my creativity (or whatever's left of it), will be spent on how to make my 10 month old sit down for longer than 2 minutes.

yes, i do exist. even as a shadow of myself. even if i don't feel great. nothing life threatening, but i am slowly convalescing from a hyperactive thyroid which, as it turns out, was the reason, why, well...i haven't felt great lately.

i am at our kitchen table (as opposed to my desk) around which most of my life revolves lately, and i am slowly realizing it's not a bad thing, after all. i remember having read an essay by an armenian writer (or rather my grandfather reading it to us as he did every sunday afternoon, oh, happy days), who was forced to write in the kitchen. and he noticed that the armenian word for kitchen (khoh-a-nots) contains the word "khoh" in it, which means "thought". so here's where thoughts are peeled, deconstructed, chopped, mixed, simmered, and savored. and here's where my idea for the coffee paintings took shape:

since a day doesn't go by where i don't wake up and make myself an espresso, i should not let a day go by without painting a cup of coffee.

well, i haven't really stuck to it (the painting part of it, obviously), but i am doing my best, considering.

here are a few of the many i have been painting over the past month. i do have a plan for these guys. but first i must be able to leave this kitchen.

enjoy your coffee. enjoy your day.

a matter of time

i don't know much about the theory of relativity, but my perception of the time i spend working/creating seems very relative to me. here's my observation: when you're a work-at-home parent, the time you can spend on work is short. so each project seems to take longer. obviously you're spending the same amount of total time to accomplish a given task, but the increments are so small that time seems to stretch. so you have less time, but spend the same amount of time, and then feel like you're spending more time. how is that for relativity?

i came to this realization recently, when i made this tiny painting for a friend who needed it for a school fundraiser. each picture below was taken on a different day.

day 1: sketch

day 2: color palette

day 3: start painting

day 4

day 5

day 6

day 7: done!

i am still confused about time, though...does it really stretch when you have kids? or does it fly? which one is it? maybe both? neither?

or maybe there's just no such thing as time…hmmm…i don't really care as long as i can make time for painting.

i've gotta do what i've gotta do...

warning: this post will be pure and shameless self-promotion (well, the whole concept of a personal blog is self-promotion in a way, but you know what i mean).

if, unlike me, you're the proud owner of a member of  the iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Galaxy families, (or know someone who is), and would like to dress them up for the holidays (or would simply like to know what i am so excited about), you can now check out my collection for the amazing Keka cases.

here are my favorites (all images courtesy of Keka):

do you have a favorite?

i am currently working on new designs, is there something you would like to see?

and in case my designs are not your style, you can check out the collections of fellow designers Esther Cox, Kathryn Pledger, Simi Gauba, Nicole Tamarin, Onneke, Zoe Attwell, among many, many others. it's such a diverse group of designers, there is something for everyone!

end of self-promotion. done.