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.

facebook

Two Happy Apples has a Facebook page! It's full of news and updates, and I hope to offer special deals to Facebook friends in the near future. Check it out!

this is. . . inspiration monday

This weeks inspiration comes from Miroslav Sasek. A Czech born illustrator who first studied architechture, and later became known for his "This is. . . " series of books. This series includes such titles as; This is London, This is Paris, This is San Fransisco, and This is the Way to the Moon.

His work embodies is everything I find appealing about 1960's illustration; gouache, angular figures, flattened space. To me, this aesthetic feels simultaneously modern and vintage, like mid-century furniture. A lot of great illustration  came out during this time, actually. And today there are illustrators, like Matte Stephens, whose work pulls heavily from this tradition. So thank you, M. Sasek, for being an inspiration to all of us!

inspiration monday

Sorry, for the serious lack of posting. Blogging is still something I am getting into the habit of doing, so as soon as I get busy it's one of the first things to go. So more blog consistency is high on my list of things to improve!

Anyway, this week's inspiration monday artist is Oliver Jeffers. His books are full of adventure and wonder, and his illustrations are simple and sweet. But, he also has amazing paintings which are very different from his illustration work. My painting is also quite different from my illustration, so I really like seeing an artist who has found success creating various types of art.

inspiration monday

This week's inspiration comes from Austrian illustrator Lisbeth Zwerger. She's illustrated so many classic books; Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Swan Lake, The Little Mermaid, The Nutcracker, Aesop's Fables. The list goes on and on. I actually had a lot of trouble deciding on what images to include because they are all so stunning. 

Her work feels both light and heavy, ethereal and dark. Her work is so still and quiet.  And her color is gorgeous, she is so judicious with red. So today, I raise my cup of tea to the exquisite Lisbeth Zwerger.

what a tiny octopus!

I have never been of the opinion that octopuses are cute per se. Actually, if I ever encountered large octopus, I think I would be pretty frightened. But this photo definitely changed my mind about an octopus's capacity for cuteness.

It also directly supports my long held theory that the smaller something is the cuter it is. Is there something that you think is super cute when it's small?

inspiration monday

from Safety Can Be Fun by Monroe Leaf, 1938.

Today's dose of inspiration comes from, Munro Leaf. He is best known for writing the ode to individualism, Ferdinand the Bull, which was illustrated by Robert Lawson and later animated by Disney. 

But it is his book, Grammar Can Be Fun, that really caught my eye and made me appreciate him as an author/illustator. There is a great post with lots of Grammar Can Be Fun illustrations here.  His enitre Can Be Fun series is a hoot and includes such gems as: Arithmetic Can Be Fun, Safety Can Be Fun, Manners Can Be Fun, and Science Can Be Fun.

I feel really nostalgic when I read his books. They make me think of the youth oriented Coronet Instructional Films that were shown in schools in the 40's and 50's. Some amazing examples of these short films can be seen in the Prelinger Archives.