Maybe I was an outlaw, or the law itself.

I completed my first poster for Righteous Babe Records this weekend! Yay! The assignment was to create a poster for Ani Difranco's October tour. About a week prior to starting this assignment, I had a great yoga class where the theme was animals. We discussed how many yoga poses are named after animals, and how sometimes during your practice it is essential to ignore your frontal lobe and go with more basic feeling. For example, when you see a dog or cat get up from a nap, they don't just shuffle to the bathroom, they get up and stretch, yawn, they listen to their bodies. In our constant reasoning we forget to listen to our bodies. I digress.. when I recieved the assignment I went to work listening to Ani interviews and live performances for days. Ideas bounced around, as they do, until I sat down and thought, "What kind of animal would Ani be?" She's strong, fierce, independent, beautiful but "not a pretty girl", outspoken, and amazing. I felt a lioness would fit her perfectly. I also wanted to give you guys a peek into my process. The first thing I do with my lino is a detailed full size (11X17) drawing of the poster, including type. I then put tracing paper over and trace everything. Below, you see the traced picture.

From there, I flip the tracing paper and transfer the backwards image onto the linoleum to cut it. Below, you see the linoleum all cut out and inked for printing!

After printing three colors, I scan them into photoshop and layer them there. I could cut more out of the linoleum, but I really like to keep the integrity of my block, I feel that it in itself is an art form. I have trouble letting go. As for the color scheme, you may have noticed the change of season. As an Upstate New York girl who loves autumn, I decided to embrace the colors of the season. Voila!

I also got time this week to visit a group show that I'm a part of, Rochester Art Supply's Invitational Show at the High Falls Gallery. I fell in love with a silver brick wall behind Mr. Yorke.

And... some sketchbook pages.

Someday you might find you are hungry, and eating most of the words you just said.

Happy autumn, y'all! It's been a crazy month so far, but the most excellent month as well. I'll start out with an in-progress painting for 1975 Gallery's annual Halloween show, this time the theme is "Haunted". This is my second year as a part of this collaborative show, and it's a ton of fun to take part in. 1975 just moved into a new home and totally renovated the space. I was lucky enough to attend an opening there this weekend, and it's AMAZING to see my friends do such a good job!

My latest project that just wrapped up a poster for The Barn Owl, a new store in Penfield that will specialize in bird and science stuff. We had a lot of fun working together! Below, the original sketch:

And the final product!

Here's where the blog gets sentimental, kids. It has been the most wonderful week I never even knew I could ask for. I took down my art show from the Owl House on Sunday. On Tuesday, I received an email from a representative of Righteous Babe Records who had visited the Owl House while my show was up and was interested in having me design for the company. When I was wrapping up undergrad, four years ago, I made it my goal to make art for musicians. It was all that I wanted to do. I first learned about Righteous Babe in high school, when I first got into the music of Ani Difranco. Never, ever, in a million years did I dream I would be working on the project that I'm working on now, a poster for her October tour. Stay tuned for drawings for the fabulous lady and her beautiful company.