Don't forget to breathe.

Today marked a real honor in my illustration career, as I hung my work at the Lululemon Athletica Rochester Showroom. About five years ago, I started going to the gym on a regular basis while I had the wonderful RIT gym to work out in. It marked a turning point in my life. I grew up as a chubby, sensitive kid who quit things easily. I can remember the few times that I did sign up for sports just not working out. For some reason, at age 25, it clicked for me. I lost weight, gained confidence, and gained a healthy outlet for tension in life. As I left college and entered into the "real world", I no longer had a gym membership. I became obsessed with my bike. Each year I became stronger and did more, it became a way to set goals for myself as well. About a year and a half ago, I came to yoga. My New Years resolution was based on three factors; I was training for a 100 mile bike ride, I had hurt my lower back that fall, and I was transitioning out of a dying relationship. I came to yoga for purely physical reasons, but my practice soon became so much more to me. My mat became a refuge, a home base, and as I travel, my mat goes with me. The community that I have met through my home studio, Tru Yoga, have become some of my favorite friends. Sharing the commonality of yoga, we all come from different areas of life and we all have wisdom to share. My outlook on life has changed dramatically through my practice as well. Finally, my practice inspired me to start doing anatomy studies this past fall. The human body is so amazing, and I've really enjoyed putting this show together, and I hope to continue this show as a traveling show that is always evolving. I will be having an opening reception for this show, date TBA. Below, some shots of the show hanging:

Got the flavor.

Dear blog friends, I had a great last month. I launched my website! Carla Bartow (.com) is IN FULL EFFECT! I have to thank my friend Carly for being a huge help, thank you!!!!!

Of course, I made a new business card to match, because that's how I roll. You may recognize this bear from an earlier tee shirt design for Righteous Babe Records.

On a personal note, I saw Mister David Byrne for the first time in my life about two weeks ago. The influence that this man's music, art, and writing has had on me... I can't start to describe. The choreography of the set was amazing, and the music... well... I'm still buzzing.. I am truly blessed.

My latest project has been for The Driftwood Sailors' goodbye show. I am sad that I get to know this band through their last show, as the nautical theme is a favorite of mine. While working on this print, I moved studios, which was pretty major. Below, the first print that I made in my new studio.

Ladies and gents, the final product! I'm really, really happy with how it came out.

She was a young American.

I've been working more on my Thom Yorke self-promotional illustration for my website launch! The website is still being finished up.... it's almost there! In the meantime, I did create an etsy for my posters. Here is the print of the Thom Yorke illustration:

Here's the final illustration! I got a little obsessive about the diagonals in this composition, and I'm quite pleased with the "flow".

I'm still drawing anatomy! I've been thinking about the sternocleidomastoid muscle, that beautiful muscle that connects between the back of the ear and runs diagonally down to the collarbone. I remember learning about this muscle from an old illustration friend in undergrad, and how drawing it makes people look awesome. I also recently overexerted mine during a pilates class.

Also from the sketchbook, what's not to love about a young, handsome David Bowie?

My latest poster is for a wonderful show that's coming up, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at the Bug Jar! What a treat to do a poster for a band that's been bringing it for over twenty years. I can't wait to see them! This poster also helped me to confront my fear of Koi Fish. I had to go to the conservatory to shoot reference of them, and when they come above water with their mouths it unsettles me. When they swim and keep their weird mouths underwater, however, they are quite graceful. Below, the original sketch:

The original print:

The final product! Cheers!

Finally, my illustrations have made it overseas! The band Phly Boyz have printed up some stellar cards!

It's arithmetic, baby, 123.

Spring is here! The "Your Body" Anatomy Show opened at Orange Glory this past Saturday. Since I haven't updated in quite awhile, there's quite a bit to catch up on!
Below, some sketchbooking. I had some projects that I was working on which included likenesses to the people involved, so some facial sketchbooking was in order. Cameron Diaz, anyone?

This is the last piece that I made for the Anatomy Show before I hung it up! Sadly, and happily, it has already sold.

I had the privilege of working with my first international band recently! Phly Boyz are a really fun group of guys, based out of France, who travel throughout Europe (and beyond) to play private parties. Their videos showcase the energy and charisma that the band encompasses! Below, the concept sketch:

The final illustration:

On the drawing board, currently, Mister Thom Yorke. This image is for a self-promotional mailer coming out this month with the launch of... CARLABARTOW.COM! It's almost finished, and I can't wait to get it out there and become one step more professional... and start marketing my illustrations to more music publications and record labels.

Another piece that went into the Anatomy Show, since I love skulls, and diver's helmets, and of course, flowers.

One of my best friends is moving to Florida and opening up a restaurant in the fall! I'm so proud to be working with them in this new venture in their lives.

I'll close out with two more anatomy drawings, arguably some of my favorites in the show. It's amazing to me, when working on a themed show, how different periods of working on the show take on their own sub-genres, and these two belong in a sub-genre of their own.

Please excuse me but I've got to ask, are you only being nice because you want something?

Right now, two musicians that I'm really into have some new music out. Not only is the new music good, the art for their albums is done by linocut artists like myself. First of all, Stanley Donwood has done Radiohead merch illustration for YEARS. His fold-out cover of The Eraser has been on my studio wall since the album came out, I just adore his work. Atoms for Peace's new album, Amok, features his illustrations in the packaging and in some of the music videos.

The second artist that has a new album out I first saw at SXSW at the Palm Door in 2010. I more recently saw her in Buffalo with the Punch Brothers. Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer's "Child Ballads" came out less than a week ago, featuring the art of Peter Nevins. Nevins' earlier album cover that he illustrated for Anais, "Hadestown", was nominated for a Grammy for the album cover design! That's pretty swanky, if you ask me.

Speaking of album cover art, I created the back illustration for Liana Gabel's new album. The type will go under the umbrella for the track listings.

I also created an "evergreen" poster for Liana to tour with for this album.... kind of the fill in the blanks poster.

I got the Anatomy Show poster all finished up! The show is coming up on May 11. It's time to make flyers and get advertising that show.

I'm really excited to see old and new friends at this show in April at Abilene! Record Store Day is such a wonderful hipster holiday. I can't believe how much it has grown in the past few years. I played around with different color layerings in my final output of it... and I can't choose a favorite, I guess I'll let the client do that.

I don't mind you coming here, and wasting all my time.

Hello! Since my anatomy obsession started in September/October, I finally formulated a plan to have an art show of just my anatomy work. I've been working on the poster for about a week now, and I'm really excited with how it's coming along. The show will be in May, and I'm hoping that it can be a continuing themed show. Since I have different media and outlets, it feels really important for me to section out my work into separate shows.

I recently entered an online contest through Creative Allies to design this summer's Fleetwood Mac tour poster. I haven't entered any of their contests since I won the contest to go to SXSW in 2010. It seems like a million years ago now! Here's hoping I win, but if I don't, I have a sweet peacock now.

Here's a photo of the progress work that I did on the piece. I had a lot of fun drawing the tail feathers!

Speaking of progress work, I had an art opening at the Genesee Center for the Arts and Education this past Friday. I took some wonderful letterpress classes here in the printmaking studio, and I was honored to have a showcase of my poster work along with the original linoleum. If you ever wanted to try your hand at linoleum block printing, they hold classes in it!

This past week I learned that the poster that I did for the Kingsley Flood album release has some of the wrong bands on it, as the lineup was changed since I made the poster! Since I am having posters screenprinted to sell at the show, I had to think fast, so I bought a white acrylic marker to write the new bands on the poster. This is really embarrassing... lessons in poster making, I guess. I am looking forward to the show at the Bug Jar this week, regardless, and am so excited to work with the Kingsley Flood!

I've been really into the human face recently, and I remembered today that John Cleese had a great series on the human face a few years back on the BBC. So, I watched that in the studio today and drew John Cleese as my warmup drawing.

My face obsession started when I read this NPR article about people who cannot physically smile and the portraits taken of them by photographer Sage Sohier. There's a beauty to their faces that I can't describe, their eyes seem to hold more emotion than those of people who can smile.


Take care, everyone! It's almost springtime!

You are my lucky star, I saw you from afar.

Wow, I didn't realize that it had been over a month since I blogged last! 2013 has been wonderful and crazy all at once, and it's only just begun. I'll start off with my second linoleum block print of 2013, Mr. T-Rex bicycle commuter. What a cutie pie!

I got to take a trip in the beginning of the month to visit my brother in Brooklyn for his birthday. I got to attend my first gallery opening in Chelsea, How and Nosm at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery. These boys did a wonderful mural that I see almost daily here in Rochester! One thing I love about visiting NYC is taking the train, and buying magazines for my ride home. I always end up with fun photo reference, on the way home I ended up drawing Mr. Walken here:

My art store gave me some brush pens to play around with, and I did a little. I love fashion magazines with makeup advertisements, they're always so glamourous!

I was honored to take part in the Boys vs. Girls show at The Yards at the beginning of the month! It was my first time participating (with fourteen other lovely ladies) in a collaborative installation project. Late at night after cutting and gluing cardboard for hours, things don't always feel awesome, but when everything was finished and we cleaned up for the opening it was SPECTACULAR! Here's a shot of the nautical corner I worked on with a few others:

Here's a shot of an octopus I'm quite proud of and some of the paneling I did on the ship's exterior:

My piece for the show was a mermaid! It was really nice to have a break from my usual media to tap into other parts of my creativity.

SPEAKING OF NAUTICAL THINGS, I went down to Buffalo this past week and one of the stops was Righteous Babe Records!!! I got to pick up my tee shirts, including this jellyfish Ani logo one, and I got to finally take my Righteous Babe pose pic :D
I brought along one of my best friends, Melissa, who introduced me to Ani Difranco's music when we were both angsty teenage girls. We both got to tour the church where the offices are held, and one of my favorite things we saw in the offices was this Philip Burke painting. When I was in fine arts school, unsure of where I was headed, seeing Philip Burke's portrait work for Rolling Stone helped me make the decision to head into the field of illustration. This portrait of Ani was featured in the Rolling Stone table of contents page.

Here's some more anatomy illustrations based on my yoga practice! Your hips don't lie:

Proper posture is SO IMPORTANT to everything in life!

I'll close with one of my absolute favorite poses that makes me feel so strong when I do it! NAMASTE