Vintage Christmas


Thinking ahead to the holiday season and working on some vintage inspired Christmas designs. I'm trying to be serious, preparing enough in advance to have some Etsy offferings ready in time for holiday shoppers. But what I'm most excited about is this bit of goofiness- old timey boy and girl with weird, incongruous rat dog. Anyone interested in having them on your holiday card? I didn't think so but, as they say, it never hurts to ask!




365 Creature Feature / A creature a day


I'm so glad my friend Suzi suggested I join Instagram. I've been having a lot of fun using it. I've met new people, discovered awesome arts, started a daily project, and even won a Create and Thrive Etsy shop contest! More on the results of that soon.

I decided to jump on the "thing a day" bandwagon since I have enjoyed following several of these projects over the years and the illustration a day and drawing a day feeds on instagram are a lot of fun. A really great one that is happening now is fellow MATsian August Wren's sketchbook project.

At first I joined the Spoonflower  "A Month of Drawing" challenge and while I really enjoy the daily emails and inspiration Spoonflower sends the initial prompts where just not getting me excited. They were all inanimate objects and I thought to myself "I have sketchbooks full of of creepy little guys and weird creatures. I guess other people draw trees and mountains?"

Hmm.....


I bring you #alilcreatureaday here is no. 1



I'll be posting a new creature drawing a day on instagram. I'm going to try for a year. 365 creature feature. From time to time I'll post roundups here on the blog. So feel free to follow along here or on instagram.

Back from the woods


There is nothing like the Pennsylvania forest in all its mossy, lichen- covered glory. 
I'm so lucky that I get to spend time there each summer.


This exquisite nest made of moss belongs to a Phoebe flycatcher. I felt so guilty for invading her space to take this photo that it isn't even in focus. What a shame she had a very grumpy face and a beautiful nest.

I renewed my interest in a children's book concept I dreamed up while on my woodland holiday last year.  I know a year is a long time.  But a lot has happened since last summer... 
Follow me on instagram for more woodsy photos.

Oh Happy Day: My human baby meets my art baby


Oh Happy Day: Taking my human baby to my see art baby at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum!

I was super excited to take my new little family to see the museum debut of my art and conservation project, The Endangered Species Print Project. My husband is a master printer and photographer who has worked on the project over the years, in fact we met at the print bureau where he used to work. My parents were with us, freshly minted grandparents, it was a feel good event. Also going to a family museum seems much more legit when you are pushing a stroller.

For those of you who don't know The Endangered Species Print Project is a project I founded with artist Jenny Kendler way back in 2009. Jenny and I are artists, environmentalists, and animal lovers. We were searching for a way to use what we were good at (art) to help a cause we were passionate about (conserving endangered species).

Our solution? The Endangered Species Print Project (ESPP). The idea is simple but striking. To create art prints of critically endangered species with the number of prints editioned for each species matching its remaining wild population count.  One of our smallest edition runs is of my painting of the Seycheles Sheath-tailed bat. The last population count of these bats counted just 37 remaining in the wild. So once we sell all 37 of our bat prints, that's it.

Proceeds from print sales benefit the animal or plant depicted. To date our little idea has raised over $12,000. for critically endangered species around the globe. Not too shabby, eh?
ESPP prints by Noah Scalin, John Vilhauer, Justin Richel, Jenny Kendler, Daughter Earth and Feral Pony

Although I'm not one to get to celebratory about my accomplishments (generally I just feel I'm doing what I'm supposed to) seeing the ESPP prints and name up in the museum made me feel really good. The project has been a lot of work. Something Jenny and I scraped out bits of time for over the years after our individual art practices and full time day jobs. Seven years into the project (seriously!?) we are planning some improvements and changes to the way we operate to make ESPP more sustainable and hopefully bigger and better.  Our year long tribute to the last Pinta Island tortoise, Lonesome George, Project George is currently underway.

So far 14 artists have participated in the project which has been included in ten international exhibitions and featured in publications like ReadyMade magazine, Orion magazine, Juxtapoz and the Sierra Club's blog. One of my favorite moments was when a little piece on ESPP was published in the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium newsletter. My inner 11 year old who wanted to be a marine biologist and believed whales are magic (I still do of course) was thrilled!

So if you are in Chicago check out "Rare Nature: The Endangered Species Print Project" at the Notebaert. The show runs through October 19, 2014. Rare Nature and the accompanying exhibit "Nature's Struggle: Survival & Extinction are part of Project Passenger Pigeon, a nationwide effort to call attention the the extinction crisis. And check out The Endangered Species Print Project on our website and Facebook page. New prints by Daughter Earth, Feral Pony, and Jenny Kendler will be released in the coming months.

Sometimes I like to paint realistically, deal with it.  
Moldavian Meadow Viper by me and 
California Condor by Barnaby Whitfield.

All exhibit photos courtesy Jim Schafer.

Ahoy! I'm now on Instagram / new nautical art


The June assignment for the super-fun Lilla Rogers Making Art That Sells Bootcamp was to create a piece of nautical wall art. I documented a bit of my hand-lettering process and will be sharing future process pics on my new Instagram. You can follow along here.

Here is my final illustration. A narwhal, the Unicorn of the Sea.




I designed a t-shirt for the Threadless Characters challenge


I've entered the above illustration in a fun competition on Threadless in conjunction with Mighty Jaxx. The challenge is to design a t-shirt with a brand new character of your creation. Besides having their shirt printed by Threadless, the winner will also work with Mighty Jaxx to have their character created as a limited-edition vinyl toy.

How exciting. I've been wanting to turn this lil guy into a toy! You can score my design (please and thanks so much) and check out all the other great designs here.

pony pals: going west


Pony pals Suzi and Dave have moved back to California. They will carry on with their knitting and environmentalism in a warmer climate. They will be missed! How will I ever get the stroller down the steps without Auntie Suzi?

Suzi and I met at The Corcoran College of Art and Design back in the day. We were in the library which only had 6 computers because it was an old school small school and computers had only recently become something you would expect to find in a library.  She was looking up pictures of cute cats on the internet 10 years before that was even a thing. Basically, she invented the internet.

Also have you heard about the Corcoran being absorbed in GWU and the National Gallery? It's pretty sad. I have the best memories of the college and the great teachers I had there. You can read about it at http://savethecorcoran.org/