Live Out Loud

"If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you:

I AM HERE TO LIVE OUT LOUD"

- Emile Zola

You're a Rare Bird

A catalogue was placed on my desk today and I absolutely LOVE it: PaPaYa! PaPaYa! features a mixed media artwork that is a combination of collage, journal pages and graphic design. It is a mother/daughter team who has presented their line of journals to us and I can't stop looking at them!

My favorites:

You're a Rare Bird Journal

Follow Your Bliss Journal

And not only is the product great, but the stories about the artists are truely inspiring as well. Anahata Katkin is the primary designer and cofounder of PaPaYa! Her art is kick ass! She is journal artist which is an art that I've been dabbling in recently. I have one completed journal and just started my second one. It's a very relaxing art of found objects, collage, paint, sketch, and words all combined into a world of your own. I need to go home now and start making more art!!!

Award Winning Weekend

Last weekend, over in good ol' Scranton, PA, I was honored at my alma mater - Marywood University during our reunion weekend. It's my 5th year reunion. I was the only one to come back from Class of 2003...kind of sad. But since I was technically Class of 2002.5, most of my friends were older. And just about 75% of the Alumni at the luncheon were over 40 years old. So, after the oh-so-yummy lunch of mushrooms and spinach (for the vegetarians) and chicken wrapped in bacon (for the carnivores), my best friend, Tara, was chosen to present the Recent Alumni Award of Excellence for Professional Achievement to me. Her speech truly honored who I am and who I am becoming as an artist. I really felt special. There were 4 other awards, and we were all given a crystal bowl engraved with our name and the award we received. Then we all posed with the president of the university for pictures. I am very thankful to have received this award and I really owe all my successes to the faculty that pushed me and the friends that supported me. Gotta love Marywood!
To see pictures from the event:
Award Winning Weekend

Cancer Sucks

Last year, a close friend of mine, Kristen Pakla, started a Relay for Life team with the American Cancer Society in memory of her father, Kevin O'Brien. Her team name was "See You in the Morning"...it was the last thing her father said to her before cancer unfortunately took his life. Not knowing what to expect, I joined in her efforts to make a real difference in the lives of people facing cancer and to remember those who have passed on.
During the overnight event we walked over 15 miles to help raise funds that aid in prevention of cancer by supporting groundbreaking research, affecting public policies, and educating people about early detection and prevention of cancer right here in our own neighborhood. The Relay was an amazingly, moving experience and so I've choosen to walk again this year on June 20th. My personal walk is in memory of my grandmother, Florence Filo (lymphoma), and in honor of my friend, Clarissa Alliano, cancer survivor.
Please visit the site and make a donation to support my efforts. We want to continue to remember those we have lost, celebrate those who have survived, and continue to fight back until we find a cure.
Thank you so much for your past and future support!
Click here to visit my personal page.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifeEasternDivision?px=4398421&pg=personal&fr_id=4135&s_tafId=207568

SOLD!

I did it! I sold my first single page illustration!

I've become a vendor through Barnes & Noble's and their Product Development team purchased the below illustration to be the cover of a "tweens" locking diary for 2010.

Tell all your emo pre-teens to get over to B&N when it hits the shelves!

SketchCrawl

The World Wide SketchCrawl 18 was yesterday! Lead by Pixar Artist Enrico Casarosa, SketchCrawl involves people from different corners of the world in a day of sketching and journaling.

Read all about it and then particpate in SketchCrawl 19 on July 2nd in Central Park. Enrico and I will be there.

Creative Kids

I've been laid up for the past 4 days with a torn ligament in my ankle...just me and my laptop. Needless to say, I've bee doing plenty of websurfing. Today I decided that my future kids are going to rock the house when it comes to color theory prinicples!

Pottery Barn's Color Wheel Puzzle:

"Easy-to-manipulate blocks provide endless possibilities for the creation of designs and patterns inside or outside of the wooden tray! Great way to introduce child to the basic principles of both math and architecture, while encouraging both individual and group play. Designed to teach basic color theory principals, and stimulate children's thought process of cause and effect by showing the result of color combinations."

I like the word "excellence".

Today I was going through the motions of my Monday morning in the office when I recieved a very much needed phone call from Marywood University. It was the Alumni Office calling to tell me I had been selected for the Recent Alumni Award of Excellence for Professional Acheivement!
Here is a blurb about the award that I took from my school's website:

Recent Alumni Award of Excellence for Professional Achievement
Award Description
This award will be given to an alumni who has demonstrated significant professional achievements within 10 years of Graduation from Marywood University (Undergraduate and Graduate).
Award Criteria
-Excellence in service to community locally, nationally and/or globally by applying the Core Values of Marywood University in their day to day lives.
-Excellence in achievement in their professional lives by utilizing their education and experiences at Marywood University and serving as a role model for current and future students and alumni.
-Excellence in dedication to serving the Marywood Community thereby encouraging others to witness the potential of becoming active and serving the institution through example.
-Excellence in leadership by displaying the ability to live responsibly in a diverse and interdependent world.

I was very excited to learn I was nominated and won this award, especially because I was told it is very competitive. The award ceremony is in May during Reunion Weekend. I better work on my speech! ;-)

From Artlives Studio

I'm taking a new class that my Yoga Studio is offering - The Channeling Art Workshop.
The Channeling Art Workshop aims to help students to connect with and record personal journeys. Students will be guided through the process of unearthing their creative / spiritual self through symbolism; develop and demonstrate the ability to express their visual / aesthetic sense of design; use color, texture, images and symbols to explore their own visual language.
With one class down, I'm hooked. My teacher is Nadine LaFond and she is amazing. Her statement pretty much sums up how intriguing she is as an artist and a human being: "Making art for me starts with those moments in Life that immediately strike me as lessons. When the underlying tale begins to emerge, I simply follow that energy."
I can not wait for the next 5 weeks of this class!

Marywood Magazine

Just thought I'd share the shout out I got in the "Seen and Heard" section of the Spring 2008 Marywood Magazine.