You're My Everything

Made some new pop culture Valentines this year! It is not an exaggeration to say that I have been thinking about this movie for the past year. Give this year’s to the person who you like doing taxes and laundry with, your rock, the Jamie to your Michelle.

Just download right here, print on 8.5x11, and cut into quarters! Digital Valentines are also available to share on my instagram.

The most difficult part of this year’s was deciding which Jobu Tupaki ensemble to draw because Shirley Kurata is a genius. Leave me a comment with your favourite Jobu outfit and maybe I’ll draw some more! Shout out for this year’s goes to my amazing friend Lexy who came up with most of the copy.

Pop culture Valentines from years past are also still available! Arrested Development, Parks and Rec, West Wing, Frasier, Schitt’s Creek, and BTS are all free to download and print.

Ewww Cu-pid!

If you read that title with exactly this inflection, then this year’s pop culture Valentines are for you! Last year went down like a smooth glass of Moira Rosé but the final season of Schitt’s Creek was one of the few highlights. These free printable Valentines are for anyone that you would propose to twice, anyone that you feel jazza’d about, anyone that is simply the best.

Just download right here, print, and cut into quarters! Digital Valentines are also available to share on my instagram.

The most difficult part of this was deciding which Moira ensemble to draw. Leave me a comment with your favourite Moira outfit!

Pop culture Valentines from years past are also still available! Arrested Development, Parks and Rec, West Wing, Frasier, and BTS are all free to download and print.

I Purple You

I have been waiting to draw this year’s pop culture Valentines all. year. And was extra excited when Valentine’s Day coincided so nicely with a comeback. This year’s Valentine’s are for anyone that you think is cutie, sexy, and lovely. Anyone that’s your one your two. Anyone with dimples that should be illegal. Anyone that you purple. No fake love here with these BTS Valentines!

You can download the entire set of free printable BTS Valentines right here. Just save, print on 8.5”x11”, and cut into quarters. Digital Valentines are available to share on social media on my instagram. Feel free to share and tag me!

Pop culture Valentines from years past are also still available! Arrested Development, Parks and Rec, West Wing, and Frasier are all free to download and print.

Happy Valentines Day, ARMY!

Home for the Holidays 2019 — coming Monday September 30!

I’m so excited that it’s that time of year again! The leaves may be just starting to change but I am ready to draw all of your beautiful homes and special buildings for the holidays. Please read through all of the details below and feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions! There will be thirty spaces available this year that will go on sale at noon CST on Monday September 30.

What do I get?
You will receive a 10"x10" or 10"x12" (illustrations measure 8"x8" or 8"x10" with a 1" border) print that has been reproduced digitally on archival quality paper. 

Where can I purchase Home for the Holidays?
You can purchase through my etsy.

Is the vine and berry border part of the illustration?
No, the vines and berries are just for the promotional image. The print that you receive will be an illustration of your home on a white background. 

Where do I email my photo to?
Please email your photo(s) to seguin.marisa[at]gmail.com with "Home for the Holidays" as the subject. If possible, one straight on angle would be best plus any photos in addition to this that you think would help me see the house. Multiple angles are welcome (and encouraged!).

When will I get my print?
I will be sending them out as I finish in the order that they are received. International orders will be mailed no later than Friday December 6. US orders will be mailed no later than Friday December 13. If you need your print sooner than this, please include a note in your email. I will do whatever possible to accommodate requests for prints to be mailed by a certain date but make no guarantees that they will be mailed earlier than the previously specified dates.

Can I see my illustration before you ship it?
Unfortunately not. The elimination of the usual back and forth makes it possible for me to offer these at a flat rate.

Can I request certain colours?
Unfortunately not. Again, for the same reason as above, the elimination of the usual back and forth allows me to offer these illustrations at a flat rate.

Can you ship it to someone else for me?
Yes I can! I'll even include a note if you'd like.

How much does it cost?
$100 + shipping. Shipping costs can be found in the shop when the listing goes live. 

Do you offer refunds?
Once you have sent me your photo your sale will be considered final.

When is the last day to place an order?
The last day to place an order will be Monday November 18 but may be sooner depending on availability.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions!

Go ahead, Valentine. I'm listening.

Another year, another round of pop culture Valentines! If you’ve been not-so-secretly in love with someone for seven years or find yourself in a lot of misunderstandings, then this year’s Frasier set are for you! Seattle, city of romance. Amiright? You can download the entire set of free printable Frasier Valentines right here. Just save, print on 8.5”x11”, and cut into quarters.

Big thanks to my friends Lilly and Alex for helping me come up with and finesse the perfect phrases for each character!

Pop culture Valentines from years past are also still available! Arrested Development, Parks and Rec, and West Wing are all free to download and print.

#100Days of Buildings: 51–75 and a few of my favourite architecture instagrams

#100DaysofBuildings is 3/4 complete! It's fun seeing the evolution of my buildings and watching them become more complex as the series progresses. It's still amazes me how easily some days will be and how other days can be such a struggle to make something that I even remotely like to look at. Honestly, I was expecting them all to be a struggle at this point. I was expecting to hit building-fatigue at around this time but there are just so many iterations of what a building can be that I am still feeling inspired by this project and can't wait to tackle the final twenty-five!

To mark the 3/4 milestone, I thought that I'd share a few of my favourite architecture-focused instagram accounts to follow. If you have any that you love please share in comments! I can never have too many beautiful buildings in my feed. 

@inayali (top)
Montréal-based photographer sharing photos from one of my favourite cities (including its many adorable houses)

@circahouses (bottom)
Instagram account for the amazing Circa Old Houses site. Shopping for your dream house or just want to look at some dreamy houses on the market? You'll love this account.

@patrix15 (top)
The most beautiful, colourful house feed. Mostly San Francisco.

@archi_ologie (bottom)
Aggregate feed regramming beautiful buildings with features like #MansardMonday.

@victorianalliance (top)
San Francisco-based non-profit dedicated to the preservation and restoration of Victorian structures.

@chrisrrrrr (bottom)
When you think beautiful architectural cities, Ottawa might not pop to the top of your list, but Christopher's photos really make this city shine. 

@nalichniki (top), @bezphotonet (bottom)
Beautiful wooden Russian buildings and their details.

And finally, a couple of my favourite window grill accounts:

@windowgrills_tw (top), @rejasdebuenosaires (bottom)
Two of the most underrated instagram accounts. Who knew there were so many beautiful window grill designs?

More #100DaysofBuildings:

• How I started the project
• Process
• Buildings 1–50

Adventures in Japan, Part One: Tokyo

Come on and slam—and welcome to Japan! || A little over a month ago, I arrived in Tokyo at 6 a.m. on a Saturday for my first trip to Japan. I spent just over two weeks traveling around Southern Japan and before the trip was over, I already found myself making plans in my head for a return trip. I'll start in Tokyo, where I spent five days but easily could have spent the entire two weeks exploring.

Koinobori at Tokyo Skytree

Koinobori and traveling during Golden Week || I visited Japan during Golden Week. It's a week at the beginning of May when several national holidays occur so most of Japan just takes the entire week off. This is the busiest travel week of the year in Japan and I would advise avoiding it if you can, but my sister is living there right now so visiting during the holiday meant that she didn't have to use up as many vacation days for our trip. Having come out the other side of Golden Week, I will say that it wasn't as crowded as I was expecting with one notable exception: shinkansen travel. I'll talk about this a bit more in my next post. For now I will just say that if you are traveling around in the weeks leading up to Golden Week, you will probably see these beautiful koi windsocks (koinobori 鯉のぼり) draped over buildings, strung across streets, and decorating the entrances to many residences. They are flown for Children's Day (Kodomo no hi 子供の日) celebrated on May 5!

Green everywhere || Walking around Tokyo on my first morning in Japan, kind of dazed after nearly 28 hours of travel and fourteen time zones crossed, I was struck by just how many plants there are in this city! Whenever I've pictured Tokyo in the past, I've pictured a bustling semi-futuristic metropolis and I was pleasantly surprised with just how much greenery there was creeping around the hustle and bustle of the city. I was in Japan during Golden Week so sakura season had just passed but I'm actually pretty glad that I visited Japan a little later because all of the fresh spring green leaves were out in full. Everything was just so lush. Ivy draped over buildings, trees fluffy with their new foliage, and hot pink azaleas in full bloom everywhere. I had most of the day to kill on my own before meeting up with my sister and her friend later that afternoon, so I stashed my bags in a locker at Shinjuku station (with ease at six in the morning, a luxury that I would not experience for the remainder of the trip) near where our Airbnb was and spent the day walking around the Shinjuku area.

Entrance to Yoyogi Park

Rice paper wrapped sake barrels in Yoyogi Park

Yoyogi Koen (Park) and Meiji Shrine || Yoyogi Park was one of my first stops while wandering around on my first morning. It lies just south of Shinjuku and was a short-ish walk* from Shinjuku Station. Upon entering this park, the city instantly falls away and it is so easy to forget that you are in the center of a city of 13.6 million people. I spent a couple of hours walking around the park, gazing up at the trees arching over paths, exploring a bit of the Meiji Shrine at the heart of the park, and grabbing a soda from a vending machine and reading in a field where there were many other groups picnicking. 

*my friends always get mad at me whenever I say estimate walking times because I like to walk and am a fast walker. I'll say something is a short walk regardless of whether it is ten minutes away or a half hour, so take my walk times with a grain of salt.

Sunrise in Shinjuku, aka jetlagged on day two. View from the balcony of our airbnb.

Staying in Shinjuku || After my day wandering around on my own, I met up with my sister and her friend and we walked over to our airbnb which was only a ten minute walk from Shinjuku Station. We picked Shinjuku to stay in because we knew there was a lot in the area and it seemed like a good location to easily access other areas of the city that we wanted to explore. It's a mix of government buildings, shopping, and nightlife and the difference between day and night really is as stark as the old cliché. I've heard it described as seedy but I would say that "seedy" is relative. Seedy by Japan standards? Maybe. For a city of 13.6 million people, Tokyo is freakishly clean. Seedy by the standards of a lot of other cities? Not even close. Our airbnb was on a side-street of the busy Kabukicho area, the red-light district full of host and hostess clubs and love hotels as well as attractions like the Robot Restaurant, and we felt completely safe walking around at any time. I loved the energy of this area and you could really find something to suit anyone. My favourite area was Golden Gai, a series of narrow dimly lit alleyways full of small restaurants and bars that is a few minutes away from the stunningly bright lights and bustling crowds of the main area. We had some great late-night ramen in Golden Gai (see below).

Walking on the street and biking on the sidewalk || One of the things that I loved about many of the neighbourhoods in Tokyo was that a lot of the side streets didn't have sidewalks and pedestrians just walked wherever they pleased. When cars need to go by, everyone just kind of drifts to the side, the cars are patient, and you almost never hear car horns. A lot of the cars and trucks are also teeny and I loved watching them zip up and down the small side streets. In addition, a lot of people ride bicycles in Japan even on the busy sidewalks. Usually this would bug me, but it was kind of charming in Tokyo. 

Sister checking out the menu in Hello Farmer, a plant-filled cafe in Shinjuku.

Day two started with breakfast at a cute cafe that I had walked past the day before. "Japanese breakfast" isn't really a big thing so you don't have to feel guilty about not eating something more Japanese for breakfast. Western breakfast (especially giant fluffy pancakes) are growing in popularity in Japan. We had some delicious omelettes at Mr. Farmer before walking through Yoyogi Park en route to Harajuku. As much as I absolutely adore and maybe even revere the train system in Japan (the efficiency and wide-expanse of their public transit system nearly makes me weep tears of appreciation), walking will always be my favourite way to see a new city. We covered a lot of ground on our second day in Tokyo, walking through Yoyogi Park and emerging on the other side to the Harajuku district which was hoppin'. (I'm not sure if this was normal for a Sunday or if it was a bit of extra Golden Week traffic, but Takeshita Dori was a sea of people (you can see in the above right picture). After a bit of shopping we headed to Shibuya to see the famous Shibuya Crossing.

It's strange how calm I felt while in the crowd of people in the middle of the crossing. It wasn't until I got a bit of a birds eye view that I realized just how many people I must have been surrounded by! I've heard that the best view is from the Starbucks right next to the crossing but you can get a pretty good view from the train station, too, without having to deal with the Shibuya Starbucks crowds. From here, we took the train to the the Toshima Ward for some Michelin-starred ramen. 

What did people even do in lines before smartphones? Talk to each other?

Spicy Dandan ramen at Nakiryu

Michelin-starred ramen || Nakiryu is only the second ramen restaurant in Tokyo to earn a Michelin-starred rating. We arrived an hour before they opened and there was already a small line (we actually just missed the cut-off for the first group of people allowed into the restaurant). While we waited, my sister and I took turns holding our place in line while the other wandered around the back streets of the neighbourhood. It was lovely and peaceful on a Sunday evening and I loved seeing the contrast of this area with Shinjuku. Much more "neighbourhoody" feeling, with small residences, plants grouped around people's doorways, and small neighbourhood parks dotting the area. A short while after the restaurant opened, we were ushered through the door where we were met with a small counter area of only ten seats. Nakiryu may be Michelin-rated, but you still place your order using a ticket machine, which I love. While you wait for your food, you can watch the chef in action behind the counter. I loved watching him expertly toss the ramen noodles to drain the excess cooking water. We ordered the Spicy Dandan, their specialty, and it did not disappoint! 

Wrapped trees for the Yayoi Kusama exhibit

On our third day in Tokyo, we headed straight to the National Art Center. I was so excited that there were two amazing exhibitions on view that coincided with my trip featuring two artists that I love: Yayoi Kusama and Alphonse Mucha. Since we didn't have time to work Naoshima into our itinerary, I was extra excited about the Kusama exhibit! The museum itself is beautiful, featuring an undulating glass exterior, and merits a visit even if Kusama and Mucha aren't in the house. From the museum, we headed to Mitaka to visit the Ghibli Museum!

Details at the Ghibli Museum. No photos are allowed inside the museum but you can take as many as you like outside!

The Ghibli Museum (aka all of my dreams come to life) || Visiting the Ghibli Museum was nothing short of magical. It's located in Inokashira Park (the park with the swan boats) in Mitaka and is easy to get to by transit. My friend told me that there is a bus that you can take from the closest train station to the park that plays Ghibli music (!!!) but we opted to walk (about 20 minutes) instead. You have to buy timed entry tickets months in advance (I'll write a bit about this in a later post that I plan on writing about general tips) or you can buy slightly more expensive resale tickets if you can't get them through the main site. The museum is absolutely exquisite and will not leave any Ghibli fan disappointed. I was so happy that Mei and the Kittenbus, was the short on view during our visit and I may have even cried a little (ok a lot) from sheer joy.

Alleys of Tsukiji Fish Market

Sister's breakfast ramen on the crowded sidewalk in front of Tsukiji Fish Market

Breakfast at Tsukiji Fish Market || On our fourth morning, we woke up early to try and beat the crowds to the Tsukiji Fish Market, the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. Most of the wholesale action happens in the inner market which you have to book a tour of, but there are plenty of stalls and restaurants in the outer market open to the public. After some ramen, fresh juice, and maguro don (raw tuna over rice), we headed over to Hama-rikyu Gardens.  

Miyazaki Clock in front of the NTV building

The Hama-rikyu Gardens weren't a planned stop, just something that we had noticed on the map near the fish market and Ghibli clock that we planned to visit later, but it ended up being one of my favourite stops in Tokyo. The gardens are home to a peony garden that was just past peak bloom when we visited, a 300-year-old pine tree, a beautiful teahouse, and a seawater-fed pond that is home to all sorts of marine life including eels! If you're walking by the river, keep your eyes peeled for fish swimming along the surface of the water. We spotted a moon jelly and a ray!

After the gardens, it was a short walk to the Ghibli clock to see it spring to life at noon. If you're not in the area, I wouldn't make a trip just to see this clock, but if you happen to be nearby it is a fun visit. The clock, designed by Hayao Miyazaki, whirs to life at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., and 8 p.m. 

Rainbow ice cream! || Ok, so I may not make a special trip for a Miyazaki designed clock, but a rainbow soft ice cream cone? Don't mind if I do. We noticed one day that this mall that I knew had giant rainbow ice cream cones was a few stops past where we were planning on disembarking the train so we made a special trip. One thing you'll notice if you visit Japan is that they love a good soft ice cream cone (ソフトクリーム). In the basement of Nakano Broadway (a large shopping mall that is becoming an even bigger destination for anime fans than Akihabara) is a soft ice cream counter where you can order a myriad of different flavours—or all of them at once! It was pretty humid in the basement and I was expecting this cone to melt a lot quicker but it was actually a surprisingly sturdy. Architecturally-sound ice cream. From top to bottom, the flavours were: strawberry, coffee, vanilla, chocolate, grape, orange, ramune (soda), and matcha.

"The number one rule of kushikatsu is no double dipping." || For our final evening in Tokyo, we headed back to Shinjuku to meet up with some of my sister's friends for some kushikatsu and karaoke. Kushikatsu ("deep fried shit on a stick" as it was explained to me) is easily shareable and makes for a great group meal. I'm surprised that it's not bigger in the States given that it's basically a State Fair smörgåsbord but with a few more vegetables. After polishing off countless deep fried plates and drinks won with the roll of a dice, we left for karaoke to sing our hearts out into the small hours of the morning. Even though the karaoke place that we chose didn't have any songs from Mulan, we still had a stellar view of the neon lights and electric Shinjuku streets below and it was magical. We left in a daze, completely content, and unaware of the Golden Week crowds we would be facing down in the morning when we would be heading to Kyoto...

Additional Tokyo Notes:

All of the ramen that I ate in Tokyo....

Nagi Golden Gai || Our airbnb was a few blocks away from Golden Gai, a hub of tiny restaurants and bars crammed into several narrow alleyways in Shinjuku. After our first night out, we wandered over to Golden Gai to hunt for some ramen in the wee hours of Sunday morning. We found Nagi and, after a short wait outside on the street, were ushered up a narrow staircase that was practically a ladder to the small L-shaped counter on the second floor. I loved the thicker, chewy, noodles that they use in their ramen and the broth was so complex and interesting (I later learned that it is a special sardine broth called niboshi).

Nakiryu || I think I mostly covered this one before, but just to refresh: Toshima Ward, Michelin-starred ramen, get there to line up early, order Spicy Dandan! 

Sora No Iro || Mireille read about the vegetarian ramen at Sora No Iro in a "veggy" magazine at Hello Farmer. Maintaining a vegetarian diet in Japan can prove tricky as many of their traditional foods include meat—especially ramen—so we were excited to try out this ramen at Sora No Iro. I've found a lot of the vegetarian ramen that I've tried in the past to be a let down because I feel they are trying to duplicate their meat counterparts and just fall short. I loved the veggie ramen at Sora No Iro because I feel like it wasn't trying to mimic a meat broth and was just the best veggie broth that it possibly could be! The ramen had what tasted like a spicy sweet potato broth and was loaded with a rainbow of veggie toppings. It was so good that I ate here twice! (You can also get a vegan version of the ramen if you omit the egg on top). We visited the Tokyo Station Ramen Street location.

Rokurinsha || Rokurinsha seemed to be the most popular opinion when I googled "best tsukemen Tokyo". It is also located in Tokyo Station Ramen Street (which is actually just a hallway) and I visited here on my final day in Japan. I first attempted to visit at lunchtime but the line-up wrapped around the corner and down the hall (not unusual for Rokurinsha) and I wasn't in the mood to wait so I tried again later for an early dinner with a bit more success (still a line, just shorter this time). Tsukemen is a dipping noodle style of ramen where you are served a bowl of cold noodles on the side of a bowl of broth and it is my favourite kind of ramen! Probably because I like chewier noodles and tsukemen noodles have a bit more bite to them than other styles of ramen noodles. You can usually order a small, medium, or large bowl of noodles but I don't think I've ever been able to eat more than a small without feeling completely sick after (and this is coming from someone that can eat). It was a very tasty bowl of tsukemen, although not my favourite I have to say (looking at you Santouka).

You hold the Francis Scott Key Key to my heart

Has anyone else been rewatching copious amounts of West Wing lately? If you've been seeking comfort in the Bartlet administration as of late, this year's free printable Valentines are for you! (I start talking about West Wing for one second and already I'm campaigning!) Some people think that Valentine's Day is cheesy, but sometimes we all just need a big block of cheese in our lives. No matter what side of the aisle you're on, everyone can enjoy these Valentines!

Download the complete set here and use them for your Supreme Courting needs. If you'd like to download them one by one for social media, I've also got them on my tumblr.

Thank you as always to my awesome friends for helping me come up with great phrases for each of the characters. Special mention goes to my sister who is the majority leader of the puns.

Parks & Rec and Arrested Development sets are also available from past years. 

All aboard Air Force Fun!

I spent a week in Iceland and didn't take a single picture of sheep

It is currently 20˚C in Milwaukee in early November and the end of July is not feeling as far away as it usually would. I can't believe it's been over three months since I left for Iceland. I had the amazing opportunity to travel with Light Grey Art Lab this past summer as part of their annual Iceland Residency program. Every year, the gallery invites artists to meet and learn from fellow creatives as they explore this beautiful country together. I met up with a group of ten other amazing artists and the three LGAL staff in Reykjavík at the end of July and we spent five days together in Southern Iceland. We hiked into lava tubes, scrambled over moss covered boulders, wandered through fields of flowers as tall as us, and chased many, many waterfalls. Here are a few highlights from the trip!

The view from the top of Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík

I arrived in Reykjavík at nine in the morning to the brightest blue sky and we had sunshine and clear skies nearly every day of the trip. The weather in Iceland is really unpredictable and we were told to bring layers as it can also vary wildly just driving around from place to place. The group that had traveled with Light Grey the week before us got to see the rainier, mistier side of Iceland we were told. 

View of the lake from our front porch

Light Grey Team Ice headquarters was a prefab house on a hill overlooking Þingvallavatn Lake. It was our cozy home for five days of workshops, breakfasts, dinners, and many late night board games. 

During the day we traveled around sightseeing in southern Iceland. We climbed up....

The view from Gaukshofdi)

We climbed down....

Raufarhólshellir lava tubes

We spent a lot of time lying on the pillowiest moss....

This was literally just the side of the road between the house and Selfoss. We pulled the van over just to lie on the moss.

We snacked on wild bilberries (bláber) nearly everywhere we went. Small, dark, round berries similar to a blueberry but smaller and more tart.

We spotted numerous rainbows.... 

And sat on rocks blanketed in volcanic ash....

The rocks beside Þjófafoss

We hiked through the stunningly green, mossy and misty Icelandic highlands...

Near Skógafoss

And visited the foot of a rapidly shrinking glacier...

Solheimajokull glacier

We spent a lot of time chasing waterfalls....

Team Ice behind Seljalandsfoss

And did not stick to the rivers and the lakes that we're used to....

Swimming in the pool at Seljavellir pool was one of my personal favourites from the trip. It is the oldest swimming pool in Iceland and we spent an amazing afternoon on our last day together floating in the mossy, geothermally warmed waters while we marvelled at the vast mountains shrouded in fog that surrounded us.

In the evenings during all of the amazing workshops, I often found myself completely enthralled in whatever we were learning about and would then glance up to see this and remember, "Oh yeah, we're also in Iceland!" 

Midnight sun

I had the best time traveling around with this incredible group and can't wait until I can return to this beautiful country to explore more. 

A few Iceland travel notes:

• You can use credit cards pretty much everywhere for any amount. People won't bat an eye if you pay for a coffee with a credit card. 
   
• A light waterproof windbreaker that folds into a pocket/pouch will be your best friend.
   
• The blog I Heart Reykjavik had a lot of great information that I used while prepping for my trip.
   
• Two memorable meals that I had in Reykjavík: the best fish and chips I've ever eaten at Icelandic Fish & Chips (this is a big statement for me to make because I didn't think that I would ever find better than Go Fish in Vancouver) and a beautiful last evening spent at Snaps.
   
• I stayed at two different places in Reykjavík during my trip. Ordinarily, I would book an Airbnb but I left my planning a bit late this time to book a good one in my prince range. My first night I stayed at Kex Hostel. Despite reading that it was not very centrally located I quickly learned that Reykjavík is very small and walkable and "not centrally located" equalled a short ten minute walk to the city center. The staff was very friendly, I didn't eat there but have heard really good things about the food, and it was a quick walk to the beautiful sea walk along the harbour where I snapped the top picture. My only complaint is that the bunk beds were extremely squeaky and I felt like I was disturbing the entire room every time that I turned. (On the plus side, it was a good bonding topic of conversation with my roommates the next morning as we all apologized to one another for our squeaky bunks). As far as hostel nightmares go, this is a very minor nuisance.
  
  The second place that I stayed was Igdlo Guesthouse. This one I actually would consider "not very centrally located" but it was still only a twenty minute walk to the city center. My room was nothing fancy, but did the trick for a night's stay. The staff was very friendly and it was a very short walk to the BSI bus station which was very useful when I needed to wake up early the next morning to take the Flybus to the airport. 

The light through windows at Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík

Gucci Girls

A bit of fun with the Gucci AW16 collection. I don't draw a lot of people with their bodies so I thought it would be fun to draw a few of the great ensembles in their new collection with all of the great silhouettes, colours, prints, and textures. 

Tiny Homes: Safe

Tiny Homes opens today at Light Grey Art Lab! Naturally, I was super excited to be accepted into this show. Buildings? Tiny things? What's not to love? As what often happens after I receive a prompt though, I spent a while spinning my brain trying to come up with a concept. Buildings are a subject-matter that I deal with often and I really wanted to push myself. Did it even need to be a building? A home isn't necessarily a building. 

I kept coming back to the idea of Earth being our tiny home. It's something that my mind often wanders off and thinks about. I'll think about how big the country is....then the world....and the depths of the oceans....and then the galaxy.....and then ten minutes has gone by and I snap myself back to Earth. 

This piece was also influenced by my recent travels to Iceland (also with Light Grey! Post about this forthcoming....I finally uploaded all of my photos to my computer). I was in awe of the beautiful, vast landscapes of this country and kept feeling very small, but also very safe. There's a cozy melancholy that I hoped to convey through this piece. 

Squares are a very challenging dimension for me to work in and I spent a while fiddling with this composition. The last time that I had to work in a square format I turned it into a circle ha It also started out far more colourful and I muted it down as I incorporated more of the deep space idea and wanted to focus more on the textures. I'm still quite fond of the hills and sky on the version on the right, though. 

I thought of the triptych idea while I was in a meeting at work and spent the rest of the meeting doodling these thumbnails. Once I broke out of the square format it all fell into place nicely. It wasn't going to be a sequential piece at first but these ended up being my favourite thumbnails and I really liked the story that they hinted at. 

You can find my piece as well as work from over eighty other artists in this show in the Light Grey Art Lab online shop! The show opens tonight at the gallery in Minneapolis and runs through October 21.

Botanica: Discovery

Botanica opened last night at Light Grey Art Lab. This show celebrates the origin of our Earth and how plants have shaped our culture and planet. 125 artists drew inspiration from ancient stories, scientific endeavors, historic discoveries, and beyond to create the work for this show.

Once I got over my excitement to be included in this show (I have been known to draw plants on a few occasions before...) I had so many ideas about the direction that this piece could take. I let my mind wander for a week exploring as much plant-related media (podcasts, documentaries, books, blogs) as I could get my hands on before settling on a topic. Many ideas made the B-list (something involving poppies and the Opium Wars? The symbol of the chrysanthemum in Japanese culture? Tulip mania and the Dutch Golden Age?) but someone that I had heard about on a podcast early on in my research stuck with me.

Left: pieces of plant paintings used for layering, right: ancient trees draped in Spanish moss in City Park from my trip to New Orleans last year

E.H. Wilson was a plant explorer that traveled the world (well, mostly just Southeast Asia) to find new plant specimens to bring back to England to be studied and cultivated. Plant exploration continues to this day and I love thinking about how the world is so vast and the plant kingdom so expansive that we are still able to discover new species.

I loved the imagery of a ship being overtaken by plants and it was a great opportunity to illustrate something that I have loved for so long: Spanish moss. I also really enjoyed experimenting with a more subdued palette than I typically use. The most difficult part was getting the sails right. I wanted them to look somewhat accurate but also keep a bit of whimsy to them (thanks Josh for ship reference material!). I took a lot of cues from images of vertical gardens and "vines overtaking powerlines" is also now in my google search history. After that, it was just a matter of when do I stop adding plants?  

You can see all of the amazing work from this show right here or if you are in the Minneapolis area you can stop by the gallery until May 15 to see it in person. 12x16 prints are also available of my illustration from the Light Grey online shop.

This Week / 6

It's finally starting to feel like spring around here and there hasn't been too much to report other than my binge-watching The West Wing over the past few weeks. Here are some bright flowers to celebrate the unseasonably nice weather in the midwest and a few things from the past few weeks:

Botanica // I'm so excited to have been accepted in to the latest call for art from Light Grey Art Lab! You can see the full list of artists right here.

“I just think that ‘Why is the world so beautiful?’ is a question that we all ought to be embracing.”

— Robin Wall Kimmerer

Listen // Speaking of plants, a great conversation with botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer from On Being.

Dreamy Cake Labyrinth // What a beautiful and a bit eerie scene to explore.

Travel back in time // A look at the making of wallpaper in 1968

Saturday Dance Break // UCLA Gymnast whips and nae naes her way through her floor routine

The Robo Show: Bioterra

Robo Show opens today at Light Grey Art Lab! They asked over seventy artists to create pieces featuring their own robot designs. I was really excited about this prompt and wanted to challenge myself to work a bit outside of my comfort zone to try and create more of a back story and environment with my robot. 

I spent a decent amount of time trying to overcome all of the robots from pop culture that I love. A few designs that I have really loved over the years include Howl's Moving Castle, the robot from Castle in the Sky, the Iron Giant, and more recently the mecha suits from Legend of Korra. I wanted to be inspired by them, certainly, but really had to push myself to not just remake the Iron Giant. Sometimes unlearning things is the most difficult task. 

The only thing that I knew from the start was that I wanted it to involve plants somehow. I really liked the idea of combining the natural and the mechanical. I went through a lot of crazy back story ideas (most of them post-apocalyptic just because I wanted to draw the landscape and I liked the idea of my robot surviving and protecting some sort of plant life from Earth-that-was) before I finally settled on a walking conservatory built by a Victorian scientist to roam the earth and collect and house plant specimens. I had recently finished reading Devil in the White City and post-apocalyptic eventually morphed into the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition.

It took me a while to nail down the design of my robot. Editing was really the most difficult part. So many ideas for what to include! It could be anything! I wanted to include architecturally-inspired details, elements inspired by couture fashion, at one point the robot housed an aquarium. Editing to make sure that the robot had a clear purpose was really challenging. 

Lighting and environment are not something that I often tackle in my illustrations. I really enjoyed working on this illustration a couple of years ago and thought that Robo was a great opportunity to experiment with this a bit more. Once I had figured out the robot design, putting it in an interesting setting was the next challenge for me. Showing scale was an important element that I wanted to portray. One of the notable things about the 1893 exhibition is that it introduced the Ferris Wheel to the world, Chicago's solution to upstaging the Eiffel Tower unveiled at Paris' Exposition Universelle four years prior. The wheel presented the perfect opportunity for my robot to rival it in scale. 

I worked through quite a bit of the illustration before deciding that the composition was just too dull to look at and I hit a bit of a roadblock. Inspiration actually came to me while I was procrastinating and watching Jessica Jones. The framing in this show is so fantastic. I was immediately struck by this shot from episode twelve and moved the Ferris Wheel to the foreground of my illustration. (Sometimes it pays to procrastinate!)

And that's the story of Bioterra, the mobile conservatory that visited the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. I can't not think of how the name sounds like "bioterrorism" now but it was one in the morning so what are you gonna do. Be sure to check out all of the incredible robots in the show on Light Grey's website or if you're in the Minneapolis area you can see the show at the gallery until the end of March. 

This Week / 5

Hello Friday! I'm taking it easy this weekend after getting back from a quick trip to Columbus, OH for work yesterday. It was my first time visiting the city and I loved it! Definitely hoping that I get the opportunity to return in future. Hope everyone has something to look forward to this weekend whether that be adventures out and about or some quality Netflix time (I finally started West Wing and am already hooked). 

In other news: The Robo Show opens tonight at Light Grey Art Lab! If you're in the Minneapolis area you should check it out. I've got a process post coming up later today about my piece for the show.

Dear Montréal, when can I move in? // A few of the beautiful buildings spotted last weekend while I was in Montréal with my sister. I could easily just spend my entire visit walking around looking at houses whenever I'm in this city. (Many more building pictures from the trip on my instagram.)

I Love You and I Like You // I didn't have time to make any new Valentine's this year, sadly, but Parks and Rec or Arrested Development cards from years past are still available if you'd like to print and share those! 

You're a Treasure // Even more Valentine options! I hate the holiday but love the amount of great art and puns that are its product every year. Liz made these fantastic (free printable!) Valentine's for the Sunshine Syndicate.

Friday Dance Break // It's not unusual....

This Week / 4

Happy Friday! I am currently on a bus en route to Montréal (well actually it's Thursday night and I'm writing this in advance....and feeling marginally superstitious about stating my plans for tomorrow) because who doesn't want to visit Montréal in January? Spent the last couple of days in Ottawa with my sister. I was hoping to partake in a bit of skating on the Rideau Canal but the weather has thwarted that for this visit (but you'll never hear me complain about it being above freezing). Oh well, next time!

Monet: A Bridge to Modernity // I got to see this great exhibition yesterday. One of my favourite parts of the show was a listening area where they had a few ipods loaded with music by composers that were active around the same period. Listening to the impressions of nature and light captured through music while flipping through books filled with Impressionist paintings seems like such a simple idea but it was totally transformative.

The Answer // I caught up on Steven Universe last weekend and was so in love with the backgrounds in this episode. I mean, the backgrounds are always incredible but they were exceptional in this one. 

Kill them with Kindness // Important read about confronting internet bullies, being a woman in the design industry, and trying to lift others up rather than tear them down.

This Week / 3

Happy Friday! It's been a busy week so I have a whole lot of relaxation planned for this weekend. I've got a sneak peek at my piece that I finished up earlier this week for the Robo Show at Light Grey Art Lab that opens in a few weeks. More on that to come.

I went to see Anomalisa last night and I'm still not sure how I feel about it but if you are planning on seeing it I recommend not seeing the trailer beforehand. I think that not having any preconceived notions about the film and asking what they were trying to say as I watched helped to enhance the story.

Hope that you have something to look forward to this weekend!

What's that Sound by Katlyn Griffin.

What's That Sound? // My friend Katlyn started a cool illustrated series called "What's That Sound?" where she is exploring some of the lesser-known musical instruments. You can read the first one right here and learn all about the theremin. 

A few other things //  Love these beautiful abstract embroiders by Lisa Smirnova. A new Beatrix Potter story (over 100 years old!) is going to be published and it will feature illustrations by Quentin Blake! All of my childhood dreams are coming true. Also loving the colours and mark-making in these desktop backgrounds that Zuzanna Warszczynska created for Design Love Fest.

Friday Dance Break // Because this one never gets old.

This Week / 2

Week three of the new year and I already skipped a week! Oh well, I was in Atlanta for work (and failing to visit the largest aquarium in the world) last week and also had a nasty cough so not much terribly exciting to share. Spent some time painting this week and drawing Miss Fisher when I should have been drawing robots. I hope that everyone has a great weekend and that you East Coasters stay safe and warm.

A Love of Sentences // Rachel (writer of one of my favourite blogs elephantine) started this beautiful catalogue of sentences that she has collected from books she's reading. The site is just as beautiful and minimal as her own blog and I find it so relaxing and inspiring to read through. 

The Special // I enjoyed this interview with artist Kevin Lanthier discussing his photo-collages that explore the history and myth of Vancouver by examining and recontextualizing the buildings that still stand today. (On view until January 30 at Hot Art Wet City if you're in the area!)  

Friday Dance Break // I wish I was BFFs with these awesome ladies. The thing that I currently miss most about Canada is this song being on the radio every five minutes (thank you, CanCon). That and, y'know, universal health care.

This Week / 1

Happy new year! One of my goals this year is to blog a bit more regularly (remember when I used to do lately posts?.....all two of them?). I've challenged myself to do a weekly post about a few things that are inspiring me and probably the occasional trip photo. One week down, fifty-one more to go!

A trip home // Had a great trip home for the holidays. A few highlights include the Lee Bul exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery, staring at the mountains for days, and visiting a few of my favourite people in Seattle.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries // My mother has been telling me to watch this for months and I finally sat down and watched the first season with her over Christmas. Always listen to your mother. I think my 2016 resolutions can be summed up as "Be Phryne Fisher". A badass lady detective solves crimes in Jazz Age Melbourne in exceptional style with my favourite Scooby Gang since Buffy. To say I'm obsessed would be a gross understatement. (There are three seasons on American Netflix). 

“Some novelists....write outlines because they don’t want to get to that final chapter and go ‘Oh my god, what the fuck do I do now?’. I trust in ‘Oh my god, what the fuck am I gonna do now?’. I think that is part of it.”

— Quentin Tarantino

On the creative process // Really enjoyed this conversation with Quentin Tarantino on The Nerdist Podcast. 

#100DaysofBuildings: A few thoughts on buildings

I'm halfway through my 100 Day Project! It feels like it took a long time to get here but when I was compiling all of the buildings that I've made thus far into the grids below, it seemed like it went by really quickly. It's definitely fun seeing them come together into a tiny town.

In my process post about the project, I talked a bit about what makes a building. The first leg of this project has really shown just how vast the range of answers to this question really is! I've had fun drawing inspiration from different architectural styles and architects, delving into a little bit of their history. I've also enjoyed playing with shapes and fitting things together until they look interesting (these have been some of the most challenging days...I could rearrange pieces on the page for hours). 

Clockwise from top left: Calef Brown, Lizzy Stewart, Igor Galanin, Z Berger, Paloma Valdivia, Mary Blair.

I think that I'm so drawn to buildings as a subject because they are something that seems so rigid but contains so many possibilities to infuse with life and character. As an exercise a few days ago, I put together a pinterest board with one hundred building illustrations. It contains apartments, cottages, landmark destinations, skyscrapers, castles. I think that the only things needed to make a building appear to be a building is something resembling windows or doors. Some way for people to interact with it. After that, all bets are off. 

I've been collecting a few links to other building related projects that I've run across recently. I love seeing how other people interpret these structures. The images above are from Anastasia Savinova's "Genius Loci" collage series. (via The Jealous Curator)

Below are some of the manipulated architectural works of Filip Dujardin. (via booooooom)

And finally, if you have a few minutes to watch a video, the fantastic earthships made from repurposed materials in Taos, NM. (via Colossal)

At the halfway mark in this project, it has been interesting to think about how people shape buildings and buildings shape people.