Hi Reader, Happy September! My GOSH was August a wild and chaotic bonanza of experiences in my world! I taught Pattern Camp, had a birthday (and a birthday sale!), camped at the epically beautiful Crater Lake, my son started 3rd grade, and I spent this past weekend in Colorado with my kids where we went to a college football game, did a super hard hike, spent a lot of time with my whole family, and I even got to go see my very favorite musician, Gregory Alan Isakov, at Red Rocks (with seats...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Enrollment for Pattern Camp is closing this Friday, August 2nd! Hey Reader – Happy Tuesday! I hope you're having an awesome week so far. :) My kids are in camp this week and I'm spending my days in the studio putting the final finishing touches on my Pattern Camp course that's happening this coming weekend, August 3 & 4. I'm so dang excited about this course! Watching students go from frustrated to confident using Adobe Illustrator, from patterns being a mystery to being able to design them...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Enrollment for Pattern Camp is OPEN!Doors close on August 2nd. Hi Reader, Pattern Camp is starting in just 8 days! When I was just getting started as a pattern designer many years ago, I exhibited at a trade show called Surtex in New York City. One of my most vivid memories is of an art student who walked into my booth, already jaded and full of doubt, and asked me if I really thought I could make it as a successful pattern designer in a world that was already so saturated with pattern...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, I want to tell you a story about how I went from someone who barely knew how to use a computer and knew nothing about digital art-making to someone who's created hundreds of pattern designs and has artwork on products worldwide. I first encountered surface pattern design back in 2005 or so, when design blogs were a new, exciting, and very inspiring part of the internet. I saw people licensing artwork to places like Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, and a lightbulb of knowing...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Hey Reader, If you haven't heard the news yet, Pattern Camp is back, and I'm super pumped to let you know that registration is NOW OPEN! 🎉 Have you ever wanted to learn how to create those amazing repeating patterns you see everywhere? Well, now you can, and FAST—in just 2 days! Whether you’re a total beginner or just looking to polish your skills, Pattern Camp is designed to be fun, effective, and perfect for everyone. Imagine this:Instead of spending 6 weeks or 8 weeks in a long, drawn-out...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Happy July to you! I'm in summer mode with my kids over here, enjoying lazy mornings, trips to the pool, bike rides, and picnics in the backyard. It's (mostly) delightful! Ha. Isn't that how it goes the in summer with young kids...? So much fun and also SO.MUCH.CHAOS. OMG. 🤣 On the creative business side of things I've been super busy getting my brand new Pattern Camp course ready to open for registration on JULY 11th!! In Pattern Camp, which takes place over the course of a 2-day...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader – Would you believe me if I told you that I drew that elephant? Well, I certainly did draw that elephant. A long time ago I had a dream of being a surface pattern designer. I'd discovered design blogs and saw artists who were collaborating with companies to get their pattern designs onto products like wallpaper and bedding, and a lightbulb turned on in my brain – I immediately knew that's what I wanted to do. I remember feeling kinda mad that no one had ever told me this was a job I...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Happy Tuesday! I hope you're doing well, wherever you are in the world. Right now I'm sitting in my quiet studio, listening to rain falling on the skylights in the roof. My kids and I had a long and busy weekend filled with bike riding (G learned to ride her bike!), board games, sunshine, pulling weeds in the garden, planting tomatoes, marveling at the poppies blooming, going to look at a free piano that we decided we're going to acquire, more bike riding, and lots of time with...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader – I recently had the pleasure of sitting down for a chat with my good friend Margo Tantau on her Windowsill Chats podcast, which is beloved by many creatives, and I'm happy to get to share it with you today as the episode is live and ready for listening! I met Margo many, many years ago when I was exhibiting at Surtex, a surface pattern design + illustration trade show in New York City, and we became fast friends and worked together on several art licensing projects back in the day....
6 months ago • 2 min read