To quote Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz: (sort of) Wow, if I had a nickel for every time I was commissioned by a musician, I’d have two nickels – which isn’t a lot, but it’s cool that it happened twice.
Mid February I finished a commission I did for a musician! I designed a singles cover for Lo & the High Road! I started by sending them different shades of green, tree designs and word placements and then it eventually came together! https://loandthehighroad.com/#
In June I was commissioned by local musician Bella Cat to create a singles cover for an upcoming song! Since she wanted people on the cover which is not my specialty I brought on my friend Felicity –https://www.instagram.com/novanight87?igsh=MTBxMHNwMGswZ3N4Mw== ! I started out by sending over different shades of orange, yellow, red, green, blue and purples then we started to work on placements of the Kid and Superhero. After a few drafts and consultations Felicity finished off the last details like word placement, our handles and glow via computer! It turned out so cool and this is the link to her website https://bellacatsoul.com/ .
On June 12th I got to do a really exciting activity with Rosemont Elementary School with my good friend Jesse Halton. We started out by talking about my book Roadtrips and Rainbow Trout and my experience with reconciliation. Then we handed out copies and original pages from the book for the kiddos to colour in. Afterwards Jesse did a language lesson with the translations in the book, both Sinixt and Ktunaxa. In September my book and the coloured in pages will be going into the story share up at the Nelson Skatepark! The turtle page was everyone’s favourite by far and one kid had my book at home!
Then on June 24th Jesse came over and we put the book back together … well almost. We took the original book pages that the kids coloured in and laminated them then rebound the book. Then did that three more times with the kids coloured in pages as photo copies. A copy for Rosemont School, The Public Library, The Storyshare Project and the organization we are working with.
June 13th I did some VERY late night prepping as I forgot that I signed up for the Game of Shrooms the global mushroom art and seek scavenger hunt! Because I forgot about the event I seriously lacked in the advertising department and I was also unable to hide them over town and just at Cottonwood Falls as I had a market the day of. I ended up making 3 small prints and 5 magnets and hid them around the park, I posted hints on my instagram story and occasionally took a noodle to see if any had been found. By the end of the market they were all gone! https://yumfactory.com/projects/gameofshrooms/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabD0wBauj-Xgk7bIc-G4z9RW35NOypIP4ZcNPZ9HMO4fh917GwUwh3xZh0_aem_u1Sud7H1O8FNOAFk-eJWkw#artist-map
Mid July I finally finished some really cool bookmark designs I had been working on! They are the different Basic land cards for a card game I play called Magic the Gathering. I am pretty sure if I put the actual symbols on them I could get in trouble so I tried to do work arounds! In order there is the Mountain, Swamp, Plains, Island and Forest Land cards.
August 9th and 10th I joined https://abbywilson.ca/ at her studio as she very kindly shared her space with me for the Columbia Basin Cultural Tour! It was very warm, she helped me gather names for a mailing list and gave me art tips… she also gave me lunch! Overall a very fun experience. I also did a raffle for an original watercolour piece and the couple in the bottom right hand corner photo won it!
August 11th I stayed up to watch a meteor shower and painted my friend’s cat for their birthday!
Blog Catch up time has come once again so come along as I cover a lot of excitement!
January 24th I participated in my 3rd Art Throwdown at The Royal in Nelson! I decided to paint the mountains up at Whitewater Ski Resort this time. I absolutely love how it turned out and by the time the raffle winners were picking out which one they wanted to take home the glow in the dark paint I used started to glow!
February 9th I vended at the Sweet Soirée Market put on at the Legion in Nelson! Along with my stickers, prints and cards I also had with me a collaboration project my friends and I have been continuing over many months with 3D hand painted fidgets and my other friends hand made night lights!
March 5th I took a noodle up to Whitewater Ski Resort sadly not to ski but instead I got to check out the retail shop where my art was being sold! I have tried for years for my art to be sold in the shop up at the ski hill so this was REALLY exciting for me! They had two print designs and two bookmark designs and by the time I got everything back I only had a couple bookmarks returned to me I believe as everything else sold!
March 15th I did a big bottle run with many friends assistance! Quite a few people gave me bags of returnables and my friend with a big van drove us to the bottle returns. I think it took us about an hour and a half. I am using bottle returns to pay for my vendor fees all market season!
February 7th and 8th. This year’s theme was cross pollination! Also this year I partnered up with my friend and we were mobile art installations instead of stand still ones like I’ve done in previous years.
My friend Aloria and I were Dandelion Faeries, Aloria made the skirts and I made each of us staffs of dandelion’s going to seed. Unfortunately this February was extra chilly so Aloria only joined me for the parade and I rode solo the second night and it sure was cold but there was some very cool installations!
July 2nd I helped prime the back of the NDCC for Mural Fest! We did have to end early as it started to rain quite heavily.
July 5th – 7th I attended StarBelly Jam Music Festival! This was made possible by Apollo Suns, the very kindly gave me a weekend pass and as a BIG thank you I mustered all my “people drawing skills” and drew each of the band members! Look them up on Spotify, I highly suggest seeing them live.
I also volunteered at Kaslo Jazz Festival but that wasn’t really anything related to my art endevours.
August 28th – September 3rd my Dad and I went to a VW van meet up in Oregon, USA called Descend 10. There was a makers market during the event so I took some items with me along with specifically designing 4 Van stickers , cards and colouring pages. Those items have since been uploaded to my website!
September 21st and 22nd Isaiah and I vended at the Passcreek Fall Fair! There was over 30 vendors, bunnies, turkeys, lawn mower races, fair rides, food and music! The only thing it really lacked was a stable wifi connection as many of us had to resort to cash only.
September 28th my friend and I were at the Saturday cottonwood falls farmers market! My friend 3D prints fidget toys. It was such a beautiful and sunny day! (October 5th was my last Nelson Farmers Market for the 2024 season).
October 11th on our way to Nakusp hot springs for Thanksgiving we stopped at the Silverton, BC General Store to restock a few items! https://silvertongeneralstore.ca/
October 17th – 20th I vended at Linden Lanes Pumpkin Fest! It was super cold and quite wet but I bought a brand new tent from one of my neighbours and made friends with the cows and ate many many crepes!
October 25th Isaiah and I drove to Nakusp after he was done work to be ready the next day to participate at the Basin Summit Mushroom Festival / Expo ! This event was really really fun, I made a few new connections and overall it was quite enjoyable! I also made “fungi flavoured” mystery bags with my art and Spellbound Crafts stickers! https://www.instagram.com/_spellboundcrafts_?igsh=Ymw4ZWttdzR3YTV4
October 27th Isaiah and I were at Tarry’s Hall (between Castlegar and Glade) for a Halloween Market!
October 29th a sighting of my book in the window of Urban Legends on Baker st in Nelson! Photo credits to my friend!
November 9th at Tarry’s Hall for a 1/2 days Christmas Market and Borscht Sale! About 30 vendors in a 2 story hall, there was lots of foot traffic and many stickers being purchased! I did 2 trades with Forage and Soothe! https://www.instagram.com/forageandsoothe?igsh=MTI1Njc1emxjaXZ3eQ==
April 13th I vended / attended ECLIPTIC a rave in Salmo that my friend put on! There was a few vendors including myself and I raffled off one of the whales from the lantern festival! The whale was safely transferred to its new home and is hanging from the ceiling seen in the last image!
April 20th I vended at a 420 themed market in Ymir! It was super fun, warm and there was soooo many doggo friends! Sadly the stickers I had designed for 420 didn’t arrive on time but otherwise it was great fun!
May 11th was the Mothers Day Market and the start of the Nelson Farmers Market Season! It was hella hot out and half way through I had to stop eating and drinking because later that day I got my wisdom teeth removed.
May 26th was the Spring Fling at Mount Sentinel School. It was exceptionally slow and we were in the gym. I did make the woodcarver that was beside me quite happy with my art and he gave me some wood rounds to draw on.
June 5th I was on Baker st for the Wednesday Market and on June 16th I was at the Saturday market! At the Saturday market these two absolute legends bought FOUR Mountain Dummy Thicc Lg stickers!
June 22nd Isaiah and I drove to Slocan Park for a very nice market and I would like to return next summer! There was music, sun and some very tasty treats, definitely worth the drive!
June 29th I participated in Artwalk for the second year! I had 8 pieces in very nice wooden frames that my Papa made! My location was on Houston st at a nice ladies Pottery studio called Ovo. This year’s theme was outlines of animals and inside local locations. Like Bear Cubs / Trout Lake , Coyote / S.S. Moyie and Frog / Fletcher Falls. All have sold except the Elk / Idaho Peak and Canadian Goose / Lakeside Park , they are $120.00 and if you’re interested please use the contact page to inquire.
I am doing a bit of a catch up in Blog Posts so bear with me!
The Polka Dot Dragon Lantern Festivals theme this year was Deep Sea Dreamlife, I decided to build two cardboard Whale Sharks! I used cardboard from my workplace , a lot of paint, tape and a lot of late nights. Between three people we managed to shape and paint these whales! Originally I only wanted to do one but then I suddenly had two in my home! The second whale was a bit bigger and I didn’t finish painting it till about 30 minutes before we had to be Lakeside Park to set up.
The final set up looked beautiful! The whales hung by fishing wire in my tent with glowing lights and I had gotten those round lights that make it look like there is water on the ceiling. I also had whale sounds playing it was all quite magical and everyone absolutely loved them!
The Pride stickers arrived and somehow I ordered the wrong size … again. I will not be ordering full size ones unless these ones sell out as I simply can’t afford that.
This year I made 4 new Pride Mushling ! We have Aroace, Lesbian, Pansexual and Genderfluid. Each one has its own little saying personalized to its Pride Flag. All of these are Dishwasher safe and weather resistant.
