Some photos of the ceiling in our new space. I love that they took the time to make the necessary pipes look a bit more aesthetically pleasing (compared to our last place). For some reason I find it very calming to stare up when I’m trying to fall asleep.

I’ll be posting new images soon, lots of new work as well as some personal art and craft projects. I’ve also been busy preparing fun ideas for my RISD Continuing Education classes I will be teaching this spring semester – I may end up posting an assignment idea or two over here once I see how they go over with the students.

My new Sunday night hobby has been making playlists over on 8tracks – my pal Susie told me about it and I’ve been hooked ever since. It’s a great way to find new music as well as hearing songs you already love. You can find me here, I’m especially proud of my Providence mix – lots of pals on that one!

The last few months of 2010 were some of the most hectic and crazy my husband and I have ever experienced. I will only mention the highlights (lowlights?): In August my trusty Honda broke down for its last time, and we had to use a huge chunk of savings to buy a newer used car. A few weeks after that I got in a totally stupid car accident, nothing horrible but UGH why did that have to happen with the new car? Around that time we also had a lot of serious stuff going on for both my family and Eric’s. Every time we thought “what else could possibly go wrong now?” something else would happen. Then in early October the loft building we had lived in for the past year and a half caught on fire.

Let me start by saying that I can’t believe how incredibly fortunate we are – the firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to the occupied side of the building and all of our belongings and our cats are ok, and no one was hurt.

The fire broke out in the late evening and luckily both me and Eric were home at the time and we were able to grab one of our cats and our laptops before being forced to evacuate by the police. It was the hardest thing in the world to walk down the hall knowing that our other cat was still inside, we turned our place upside down looking for her and she was nowhere to be found. A big part of me was hoping it was a false alarm, or a small fire in someone’s kitchen, anything but what we saw when we went outside. By that point flames were shooting almost three stories into the air and we were all sent across the street – we had to move our cars out of the immediate vicinity and wait and watch. (To give some background: the building was an enormous mill complex dating back to the 1800′s and was in the process of being developed into condo rental units. We lived in the completed portion of the building and the fire broke out in the much larger undeveloped portion, you can see some before and after images of the site here on Art In Ruins). We watched the fire engulf the building and we were standing there shocked as portions of the roof and walls began to collapse. We waited and watched until about 4am, when the firefighters had managed to somewhat control the blaze. We later learned that they centered a lot of effort around saving the occupied portion of the building – they saturated the roof and walls with water to prevent it from catching. The next morning we were able to get back in with the assistance of the firefighters to grab our other cat who was thankfully ok. We had to hang out in a hotel for a few days until we were allowed back into the building, and we managed to find a new amazing apartment and move our things out within the week.

I still can’t believe how lucky we are and that no one was hurt. The fire has since been determined arson and is currently being investigated by the local Pawtucket police as well as the ATF. Some news stories on the fire are posted here and here and a video here. It took the both of us a very long time to feel ok again, and to get settled in to our new place. I still at times miss our old space (you can see it here on a Design Sponge sneak peek). But things are finally feeling up and back to normal. Good riddance 2010!

The summer has just flown by, I haven’t even had the chance to go to the beach yet! Hopefully I can squeeze in some summer in these last few warm weather weeks. Above are some photos of my new birthday card for Papyrus, out in stores now.

I owe a lot to Giant Robot – they have been an amazingly supportive entity of independent artists and I have had the opportunity over the years to participate in numerous gallery shows in their New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles locations. GR started as a magazine – and still is – and like many other publications they have been hit hard by the recession. The magazine is in some serious financial trouble, recently they put up a website where they are accepting donations. So – to do my part, however small, I am putting up this Sleepy Owl piece up for sale and all proceeds will go towards a donation to Giant Robot. Hopefully I won’t embarrass myself and one of you will be willing to purchase it! Send me an email if interested to make further arrangements.

Sleepy Owl is cut paper mounted on white painted wood, measures 5″ x 7″. Price $65, including shipping. Sold! Thanks so much to Daisy Ha and Sam Kim! Other original cut paper art is available on my Etsy shop right here.

New prints – perfect for Valentine’s Day gifts, hmm? Available here on my Etsy.