the aliens

I just got back from a super fun trip to Boston. Mister is in a play there that opened this past weekend. He plays Jasper in Company One's production of Annie Baker's play "The Aliens".

The show is amazing! It's centers around two 30 year old drop outs who hang out behind a coffee shop in the fictional town of Shirley, VT and the 17 year old coffee shop employee who they befriend. Annie Baker wrote a beautiful, heartbreaking play and director Shawn LaCount does a wonderful job bringing it from the page to the stage. Alex Pollock is pitch perfect as KJ, Jacob Brandt is tender and endering as Evan, and Mister gives an intense and honest perfromance as Jasper.

I am so proud of the entire cast and crew of "The Aliens". If you are in the Boston area, I highly recommend going to see this play. You can read the reviews here, and go here to purchase tickets.

illustration friday is spooky

Illustration Friday is a wonderful website that provides a topic every Friday, and participants have a week to come up with a piece that reflects the word. Then they upload it to the Illustration Friday website and get to share their work with a community of artist.

It's a great concept, especially for people like me who sometimes have trouble being completely self-directed. I've always felt, with regards to illustration, that limitations can be really freeing. That's a huge part of why I love working with clients on custom pieces.

 I've wanted to start contributing to Illustration Friday for a while now and this week was the perfect week to start! So here is the first in what I hope will be a long succession of Illustration Friday posts. The topic this week was 'Spooky' and the print is now available in my shop.

inspiration monday

image © Heidi Kenney, My Paper Crane.

Today's inspiration comes from Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane.  I've been following her for several years, and am such a huge fan! I first stumbled upon her when I got the idea for Two Happy Apples and started to wonder if it was possible to make a living making art. When I discovered her work, a whole world of professional artists and crafters opened up to me.

Her blog is great reading, especially when I feel like I don't have the energy to be creative. She runs a very successful business, bakes constantly (her cakes are amazingly elaborate!), is an very hands on mom, somehow finds time to hunt for thrift store treasures, and oh yeah she just wrote a book! You really should check her out, I have no doubt she will inspire you too.

marcel the shell is the cutest

Jenny Slate, of SNL and Bored to Death, and Dean Fleischer-Camp have have created possibly the cutest animated short of all time. Seriously, this thing is so sweet,  I've watched it about a zillion times. And if you haven't seen it yet, please watch it here. It will make your day, I promise.