Feel Good Art for Awesome People

I am so happy to say that we had amazing sponsor this January: the wonderfully talented Lisa Barbero who makes “Feel Good Art for Awesome People!” Lisa is a wife, mother, and artist-extraordinaire so, without further ado, I will hand it over things over to her!

“I decided I was an artist when I was in kindergarten and it took me about 27 years to finally believe it.”

LisaBarbero

I would definitely say I’ve had a lifelong and passionate love affair with making stuff. But then again, I’ve had an equally lifelong and passionate love affair with Cap’n Crunch. Yup, the cereal. After years of putting up with the Cap’s bittersweet love, I finally hold the secret wisdom of being able to eat those sugary, golden nuggets without cutting up the roof of my mouth. Maybe one day I’ll write a book called “Zen and the Art of Eating Cap’n Crunch”. OMG. That’s so the *new* title of my memoirs. It’s a fitting replacement for “Jurassic Park Scarred me for Life”.

Oh right. Back to the art stuff. I dig on raw line and the unexpected and infuse my work with modern color, original typography, and old fashioned hand drawn imagery. The end result is art with hints of romance, whimsy, inspiration, and lots of soul.

“I believe in true love, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and lots of simple living. Without taking myself or my work too seriously, I strive to make beautiful and emotional things.”

I enjoy the whole art making process and can’t see myself ever living something other than a handmade life. It’s important to me to do something different; to be inspired by my life, my environment, and the work of others, then make something completely unique that can inspire others in turn. I like being a part of that endless creative cycle.

*****

Lisa was born in Washington D.C. and has lived all over the world from Georgia to Germany. She currently calls Rochester, New York home where she lives on an acre and a half of pseudo-suburbia with her soul mate and their munchkins.

Website     Art Shop

Not only is she hilarious and amazingly talented, but she is also roughly from my neck of the woods in Upstate New York (near where I went to college!). WOOO NY PRIDE! I digress. While all of the prints in her art shop are stunning, I decided to share a few of them with you that are perfect for celebrating the upcoming holiday of love! Enjoy! And a big thank you to Lisa for sponsoring Our Cozy Cubbyhole this month! :)LisaBarbero_Print1 LisaBarbero_Print2 LisaBarbero_Print3LisaBarbero_Print4

Design School Update – January 28, 2012

I hope you all had a nice weekend! I spent most of the weekend working on homework and was very productive. Since I have been at school for a couple weeks now, I figured it would be fun to update the blog with a few of my recent projects.

My first big assignment in my color & design theory class was to accurately mix paints and create a color wheel with the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. I painted swatches of color, cut them out, and assembled them on a presentation board. I was very happy with the way my wheel turned out! :)ColorWheel1 ColorWheel2

My first assignment in my design process class was to explore and depict the eight elements of design. Inspired by our recent trip to wine country, I decided to take my own wine-themed photos (rather than find pictures in a magazine or on the internet) to demonstrate each of the elements in a “wine list” menu. The project may not make much sense to you all because you don’t get my verbal presentation that goes along with my assignment but I felt like sharing it anyway! The presentation was a success and I walked away with full marks!ElementsOfDesign1 ElementsOfDesign2 ElementsOfDesign3

Perhaps my favorite assignment so far was my first floor plan for my technical drawing (drafting) class. The entire thing is done on a drafting board with a parallel rule.  All non-horizontal lines are drawn using triangles, shape templates, and a scale ruler (not a single freehand line in the plan). Drafting is very time consuming and tedious but I LOVE it! My first attempt at a floor plan was a total success (and I hope my teacher agrees… I turn it in tomorrow)!DraftingFloorplan1 DraftingFloorplan2 DraftingFloorplan3 DraftingFloorplan4

I am also taking a sketching class (to improve my freehand drawing) and a computer graphics class (where we are learning Adobe Illustrator this quarter). I am doing very well so far in all of my classes so I hope I can keep it up! I am truly loving school… I practically live for Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Every day that I am there I feel happy, inspired, and on the right path! Besides snagging Walker and Bo, attending this school may be the best decision I’ve ever made. :)

Erika Is Lazy Dot Com Backslash Cards

Hey, remember almost a year ago when I said I had a few cards that I wanted to frame and put above my computer desk? Probably not since it was pathetically long ago.

Yeah…. I never did that…

Until now! And you can thank Walker for me finally getting my butt in gear and getting these on the wall. Just before Christmas he ordered himself this really awesome Italian movie poster for the spaghetti western “Once Upon A Time In The West” (which we were actually lucky enough to see on the big screen last year!). When it arrived, we bought a really cool floating frame for it and he had it on the wall above his desk the next day. Inspired by the fact that my side now looked so bare, I went into the closet (yes, I had even already bought the frames for my cards… that’s how lazy I’ve been!), scribbled a little love note in one of the cards (Walker did the other but we kept them a secret from each other for now), framed the cards, and put them up on the wall.

Apologies in advance for the terrible pictures… it is gloomy out so the whole house is dark and (big surprise) I am feeling too lazy to remedy that.SeahorseAndGiraffeCardsFramed

What I am looking at while writing this post! :)

What I am looking at while writing this post! :)

It is still looking a little bare because I am still trying to figure out what to hang above them. But the are officially (and finally) on the wall so it is a step in the right direction! PROGRESS MY FRIENDS! Baby steps. :)

Erika

I’m Erika, an interior designer with an aesthetic that is a mix of California Bohemian, Mid-Century, and Scandinavian influences with pops of fun color and loads of natural materials. Plus plants, plants, and more plants!

My sweet family (Walker, Juniper & Hank, as well as pups Arlo & Guillermo) just reloacted from Los Angeles, CA, to Lincoln, NE. We would love for you to follow along with us on this journey!

 
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