Whoo hoo, I'm back

Sue Song and Paulie

It's been a while! Motherhood, job changes and breast cancer - it's been a crazy ride the past few years but I've got my focus and am back in action! I've been working on many projects, and actually have my stuff in a store here in Connecticut. A Cool Chick Place, one awesome cool store that features 75+ artists, vintage and resale clothing. It's a cool-chick one-stop shop!

I have printed 6 lines of greeting cards, am designing gift boxes and am in the process of making decorative flags.  My next step is to expand to more stores, get a studio outside of the house and kick my art business into overdrive. Here's some of my latest work:

LBI Suzie Bell

Decorative boxes

Illustration Friday

I decided to try Illustration Friday and this weeks word is "trail". I actually created two illustrations, this is the first one I completed. Definition for this picture:

a. A mark, trace, course, or path left by a moving body. The act of trailing. The fly is on a completely different "trail" (ha, ha, ha) - Oh Nooooo . . .

Morning Sketches

I love it when I can wake up before anyone in the house and go to my studio/office and draw. This morning is one of those days. I was able to get these three drawings out of my head. It's a great way to get the creative juices flowing.

I especially like the barrel of Monkeys, I think I'll take that one a step further and refine it. It makes me laugh. The Ladybug drawing was in my head yesterday but as you can see with my post yesterday, I executed it in illustrator versus my handy black pens. The drawing of the bashful girl is loosely based on the four year old who is presently asleep in her room. She still has crazy hair, the haircut she gave herself last year (the Mullet!) is slowly, slowly, slowly growing out. Thank goodness.

I'm going to a seminar in Hartford today "Business Strategies for visual artists" I'm very excited to network and learn some stuff. I'll definitely post anything that I've learned. So stay tuned.

Happy Friday

Come On Spring!

March is the longest Month in the year when you live in the Northeast. It's cold, rainy, sometimes snowy and always gray - and you get little hints of Spring with an occasional day of 69+ degree weather - which is pure torture.

I've been very busy lately. I have a few projects in the works, mostly illustration which makes me happy and am in the process of developing more note cards.

I was going trough my drawings the other day and came across this cartoon and thought it was appropriate for the time of year, considering Easter is next week (time flys!).

Happy Spring everybody!

Stationary

Had some fun designing stationary. The pumpkin theme was for my mom's birthday and she loves pumpkins (duh) and the other obviously is for me, I love Circus themes. What a cool concept to make personalized stationary and maybe even logos for people. Kinda cool!

Save The Date Card

Working on wedding invitations and "stuff" and just completed a "Save The Date" card. The couple loves fish (has a big fish tank in their home) and they both work at Disney, so of course I had to think "Disney/Fishie". We'll see if the Bride likes any of them!

I painted the picture of the fish using acrylics, scanned it, did a bit of touching up in Photoshop (needed to add more space at the top and bottom) and then did the layout in Illustrator. I do use Indesign, but I prefer to do stuff like this in illustrator. Once approved, I'll probably do the final piece in Indesign because I'll have to incorporate the details on the back of the postcard. I'll post the final piece when it's done.

I think The Incredible Mr. Limpit was my inspiration

Christmas Land

Now that it's 600 degrees out, I'm working on some Christmas images. In an effort to get inspired, I was thinking if Christmas was like a circus (which it kinda is these days) what would Christmas Land look like? Who would live there and how would they do things. It's a fun exercise. I was also thinking, because of the process I take to do a drawing, I'm gonna create coloring pages of my stuff before I color it in.

Here's what Christmas Land looks like before it's colored in. It can be kinda creepy, cuz I havent drawn in the eyeballs yet.

Candy, presents, animals and elves live in Christmas Land at the moment, and most of them sing and dance when I draw them (if you couldn't tell). The elves are presently in the tent, making gifts. It's a three ring circus after all, they don't have much time !!!

I'm thinking Santa lives in a beautiful coach pulled by reindeer. Also, the more I think, the more I believe there might be some gorillas in Christmas Land too and a bearded elf lady. I'm on a roll. More to come . . . .

Full Set Of Card Images

Chair is done, more stuff on the horizon

The chair is finally done and in place, it's at the Firehouse in New Preston CT. I wasn't thinking and didn't take pictures of the chair, but Chairish the arts did and you can find the finished piece on their website in the artists section under my name (aileen casey). All of the links are not working, but you'll at least be able to see the chair. The auction is in October, I'll post the date shortly.

It's been a busy summer, I have a few more commissioned pieces that I'm working on and I have my first round of note cards printed and ready to roll. I'm thinking about at some point, adding the ability to purchase stuff on my main website . More on that to come.

I'm glad we are finally having some "summer" weather here in the northeast, but they are predicting a heat wave this week (90's all week) and I'm not sure I'm up to it (what a wimp!!), I'll take it over snow any day though!

It's the Autumn Moon Festival and I am off to Dragon Boat races today with my daughter, if I get good shots I'll post them here. I love Chinese festivals, they are always so lively and colorful!

These are pictures of some hand painted boxes I've been working on. Painting them is like meditation for me, so I think by the end of the summer I'll have a thousand boxes (ha, ha, ha).

It's all good baby!

CHAIR Update

Had some time yesterday to work on the chair. It's coming along nicely. I need about another 4 hours and it will be done. Didn't have time to do anything else though, which kinda bummed me out. Need to figure out how to carve out more time.

We did end up going to the Coventry Farmers market, it was awesome. A ton of vendors, super produce and animals (mostly dogs and goats) walking around. Jade even got to get a ride in a horse drawn carriage and a pony cart (all by herself!!). I should have brought the camera!

I'm looking forward to Summer, cant wait till it starts, this weather is driving me insane.

Another Coloring Page!

I just completed another coloring page for Andrees Creations. Claudette Azevedo, the owner of Andrees Creations and the queen of Waffalloons, will be sampling her delicious Belgian Waffalloons at the Coventry Farmers Market this coming Sunday. This coloring page will be available on her website and will be distributed at the farmers market as well.

I understand the Coventry Farmers Market is the largest in Connecticut, so if you live near by, check it out. This Sunday's theme is "farmers breakfast" and the food vendors will be offering free samples. From what I understand, there are also animals to pet, all sorts of locally grown and made food as well as crafts and other fun stuff. My husband, daughter and I are definitely going this week!

P.S. Waffalloons are definitely worth checking out. They are not your typical Waffle, that's why they are called waffalloons! www.waffalloons.com

CHAIRities Chair

I finally purchased the chair that I'll be painting for the CHAIRish the arts event. I was looking around second hand stores (i.e. Goodwill etc.) because I wanted to recycle, and then figured I should probably paint a chair that's in good condition. I'd hate for someone to sit in the chair and have it break (and someone get hurt) - kinda paranoid I guess. So I went to the unfinished furniture place in Manchester and bought this chair "BRANDY-NEW" (as my niece would say). The shape of the chair is great and will be fun to paint my characters on. I'll also paint something on canvas and use it to recover the cushion of the chair.

I had about an hour today in the studio, so I got the primer on. I listened to some David Gray to get me into the creative mindset, I was listening to his White Ladder CD and it was all about love (lost and found) and kinda bummed me out so I switched to Space, a really fun band from the late 90's, I especially like their song "Female of the species"

This is from their first (of two) albums called "Spiders", all of the songs are really creative and fun to listen (and sing!) to. It definitely got me into the right mood for painting!

It's amazing what music can do to your mood! I need to remember that! (ha, ha, ha)

Focus

Been very busy and have been rethinking my fifi's business plan cuz it's not working! Having attended Surtex last year I find I've been very scattered and unsure of my direction (Surtex can be overwhelming from an artists perspective). I've been drawing, painting, doing graphic design etc, but have not felt that I'm making any progress.

Through The Art Of Licensing group (on Yahoo) I connected with Suzanne Cruise an artists agent and owner of Suzanne Cruise Creative Services (cruisecreative.com), she was so generous with her time, and gave me fabulous advice. FOCUS! Find the one thing you love to do and work to be the best at it. Simple huh?!

So I'm going to focus on my illustrations - the pumpkins, veggies, bees and crazy characters will be back in action. I also decided that I was going to focus my energies locally first, gain some traction here, before attacking something like Surtex again. I'll be attending the Glastonbury Applefest this year and will also participate in CHAIRish The Arts tour and auction. It's all good.

I'm also thinking of drawing weeky coloring pages, that will keep me moving. Here's one of my first. Stay tuned for more!

Flowers

This time of year, all I can think about is flowers. Here's the latest in the series of stylized flowers!!

Happy Spring!

Been working on a series of inspirational greeting cards, have done a few more logos and newsletters etc. Am also exploring social media opportunities for artists - boy, there are a ton of ways to get the word out about what you do! Focusing is becoming harder every day! Here's a few samples of the inspirational greeting cards hope you like them (the words and images are all (c) fifishead), let me know what you think!! Email me at aileencasey@fifishead.com

Working on Collection of images

I'm working on a collection of images based on some photo's I've taken at cemeteries. The images are meant to be inspirational, not depressing. If you look at headstones outside of their "context", you can really see the craftsmanship and beauty in the work. I'm hoping these images convey that.

Another Logo Completed

I'm having fun lately working on logos for small businesses. Al Frazza from Page 17 Design connected me with the folks at North Jersey Handyman and I was able to design the logo for their website, I've also been able to do a couple of others lately as well -- citadel packaging llc and media design works, llc .

These are fun to work on for many reasons, mostly becuase they put a face on a business!

Ground Hog Day!

Monday is ground hog day and I will be spending it at the Lutz Children Museum with my buddie Claudette. We will be making Waffalloons for all of the folks who will be waiting to see if "chuckles" a.k.a. Molly will see her shadow.

I created a coloring page that will be on the waffalloon website so if you are inclined, print it out, color it in and have some fun!

I'm hoping chuckles will NOT see her shadow, I'm done with winter!

Waffalloons - Authentic Belgian Waffles


Here's the link to the waffalloon site, these are the best waffles you will ever taste. I had a great time working with Claudette Fantin Azevedo from Andrees Creations LLC and Al Frazza from page17design. check them out, they are worth the trip!