You Are A Gem (2019)

Not too long ago, I popped into local businesses with some samples of my greeting cards, hoping that I could get them into retail spaces. One of the spaces specialized in rocks, crystals, and gemstones. I teased them with the prospect of a greeting card that says “you rock” in negative space—surrounded by the names of different rocks and gemstones. Unfortunately, due to shifting priorities, that card never winded up happening.

I wound up adapting the concept when I discovered that I could sell officially licensed Steven Universe products via Redbubble. The idea popped into my head immediately after a friend said to me, “You are a gem.” I’ll put that in negative space, surrounded by the names of the four main characters from the show.

Okay, so I’ll be honest! I spent hours agonizing whether I should include other Crystal Gems like Rose Quartz, Peridot, Lapis Lazuli, or Stevonnie. A consultation with a much nerdier friend led me to the conclusion that I should stick with the four original Crystal Gems, because it got far too complicated beyond that.

To complete this piece, I projected the “YOU ARE A GEM” text onto a piece of 5 x 7 vellum paper. I carefully measured and adjusted the paper to ensure that the text was placed in the right position. Then, I lightly traced the text onto the paper with a pencil.

From there, I rotated the paper and repeated the names Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven in various different lettering. I made the mistake of using some very clunky block lettering in the original version, which distracted from the central text in negative space. Rather than redo the entire piece, I covered these areas with small strips of paper and wrote over them in a new form of lettering.

This added an extra challenge to the editing process. I used Photoshop to blend the “patched” areas into the original piece, and I wound up being very pleased with the final result.

The final edit was uploaded to Redbubble, and despite following all of their guidelines, I was upset to discover a few months later that it had been removed from their platform.

Is this piece available?

“You Are A Gem” is available in my Society6 shop as a greeting card, print, or framed mini-print.

A Small Noise In The Midst of Silence (2019)

During my first visit to Europe, I visited the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona. When I was able to dodge the other tourists taking selfies in front of the work, I lingered with a few of the pieces to learn more about them. Sometimes, it was because I liked them. Sometimes, it was because I did not. In the latter case, I want to understand what the artist intended to do before casting judgment on the final product.

One label featured a quote that resonated with me:

“Silence is a denial of noise – but the smallest noise in the midst of silence becomes enormous.”

I jotted this down, knowing that I would have to use it in a future piece. When I got home, though, I was feeling disenchanted with the lack of originality in my work. It felt dirty to solely exist as an artist who appropriates other individuals’ words for my own profit. With that frame of mind, this transformed into a challenge to pay homage to the original quote through wordplay.

I began by cutting my paper down to 4 x 4 inches. I measured to find the center, then used a stencil to complete the circle in the center. The first few attempts at writing “a small noise” did not work out, so I repeated the process until I got it right. Once the placement and shape were manageable, I colored in the space around the words with a red Sakura Micron Pigma 005 ink pen.

Next, I lightly penciled in a small white border around the edges. The floating capital letters were placed next, included as a reference to Miró’s “Poem” series and his 1968 work “Silence”. Since the red was so bold, I opted to very the rest of the lettering in this piece. I rotated between a variety of “fonts” in my repertoire until the space was completely full.

From there, I erased the remaining pencil lines, scanned the piece, and edited it for prints. If I could go back and remake this piece, I would change a lot of things! But I have grown to love it over time.

The piece was displayed and sold at Flying Lion Brewing in Seattle.

Is this piece available?

“A Small Noise In The Midst of Silence” is available as a limited edition print in my online shop.

The original piece is no longer available.

Buttloose (2019)

In December 2018, I dabbled in fan art with a tribute to the “Bad Tina” episode of Bob’s Burgers. The piece includes an outline of Tina Belcher as she appeared in the episode’s fantasy sequence. It’s filled in with a line from her erotic friend fiction “Buttloose”:

"Everyone touches each other’s butts, and it was great.”

To complete this piece, I (shamefully) used a projector to trace an outline of Tina, because I didn’t trust myself to do her justice. Carefully, I followed the outline with a black pen, then rotated the paper to fill in the text with both black and pink pens.

The piece felt flat with a white background. I experimented with a few different options before cutting it out with an X-Acto knife, then pasting it onto a pink sheet of paper for an extra pop of color.

This version sat in my studio for months, because it felt unfinished. Meanwhile, I was too scared to “finish” it, because I was afraid that any additions might ruin it.

After staring at it in frustration, I eventually scanned it. My intentions were to fool around with it digitally, but when I saw it on the screen, I realized it had been complete ever since I pasted it onto that pink sheet of paper. With a few small edits, I was satisfied with this simple, final version.

Is this piece available?

Greeting cards are available in my online shop.

T-shirts of this design are my undisputed bestseller on TeePublic.

For additional options, this piece can be found on Society6 or Redbubble.

Becky, Can I Ask You Something? (2019)

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the film 13 Going On 30, I decided to make a piece featuring the iconic multicolored dress Jennifer Garner wears in the “Thriller” dance scene. The central image is surrounded by a quote from her character Jenna Rink, in which she asks her tweenage neighbor Becky:

“Can you tell I’m wearing underwear? ‘Cause I totally am.”

Multiple reference images were originally printed out for this piece. I tried to do a full-body sketch of the character dancing, but it appeared to be too busy in my mockups. The dress is so bright, colorful, and recognizable (if you know the movie) that it could clearly stand alone as the main focal point.

After dozens of sketches, I settled on one I liked and recreated it on vellum paper. The drawing was carefully cut out with an X-Acto knife, then pasted into the center of a sheet of 9 x 12 watercolor paper. Once dry, I measured out a one inch border from each of the edges and lightly penciled in a thin white border around the drawing.

With the borders in place, I rotated the paper and filled the space with a Sakura Micron Pigma 005 pen. I chose a relatively uniform style of lettering, so the background appeared consistently gray from afar. The pencil lines were erased, then the piece was scanned and edited for digital purposes.

Is this piece available?

“Becky, Can I Ask You Something?” is available for $125 through Gestalt Projects. The piece is part of their phenomenal online exhibition “What to Wear”.

My Boo (2018)

“My Boo” is the first piece I completed in which words formed a shape or symbol. The idea popped into my head as I was dancing around to Ghost Town DJ’s 1996 single “My Boo”, back in our apartment in Seattle. All of a sudden, I realized that I needed to compile the song’s lyrics in the shape of a ghost.

To complete this piece, I grabbed an 11 x 14 inch sheet of vellum paper, then measured out a rectangle in the center of the page. The rectangle was then shaped into a ghost through a combination of freehand drawing and careful measuring with a ruler.

Once the shape was in place, I rotated the paper and filled in the outline with a black Sakura Pigma Micron 005 pen. As soon as I filled the space, I carefully erased the pencil lines. To my horror, I discovered that I mixed up one of the words in the chorus, and I’d have to do the piece all over again.

This might sound like an overreaction, but it changes the entire meaning of the song! Version one (right) includes the wrong lyric: “I want to be your lady, baby”. Version two (left) includes the correct lyric: “I want to be your lady, maybe.”

To correct this mistake, I grabbed a piece of wax paper and traced the ghost on the original piece. I cut out the shape with an X-Acto knife, then used it as a stencil to retrace the shape onto a new sheet of paper. Then, I repeated the process all over again until the new piece was completed.

At one point, I wrote “baby” again by mistake, but I crossed it out and embraced the error. It was like a little Easter egg, a reference to the piece’s unique history.

“My Boo” appeared at Salon Bar-Kon as part of the Capitol Hill Art Walk. it was one of the first pieces to sell in that show, and in a pleasant surprise, the original version with the wrong lyrics wound up selling, too. I’ve affectionately named that version “My Bad Boo”.

Is this piece available?

This piece is no longer available.