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 days 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...
10 days 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...
24 days 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...
about 2 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...
about 2 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....
4 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, and happy April! I just returned home from 2 back to back trips – the first to Palm Springs for an intensive business retreat with the Mark Makers Mastermind group that I'm part of for the second year (that's us up at the top there!), and the second with my kiddos to Colorado to visit my family and to go to my cousin's baby shower. Two very different trips, and both so fulfilling and rejuvenating in different ways. It was so nice to have a bit of a time out, which is not something...
4 months ago • 2 min read
"I believe in the invisible. I do not believe in the definitive reality of things around us. For me, reality is the intuition and the imagination and the quiet voice inside my head that says: isn’t that extraordinary? The things in our lives are the shadows of reality, just as we ourselves are shadows." – Duane Michals I love this quote. It reminds me that there's so much here than what we can see with our eyes. It reminds me that just because I think something, doesn't mean it's true or that...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Happy March, Reader! I hope so far this month you're having as much fun as my girl G here, who carries sunshine with her wherever she goes. She's obsessed with Taylor Swift right now (I mean, aren't we all?) and did an impromptu performance of Shake It Off the other night before bed that might be my favorite thing ever that I've captured on video. If you know the song, watch the GIF at the top here and picture her saying "oh my god, I just gotta shake it". I might have a future star on my...
5 months ago • 1 min read