Art & Craft Fairs 2008...

Last year I experimented by selling my art/prints at craft and art fairs. I personally love going to these events. They're packed with local small business owners (as small as business's can come) who not only create their products but package, transport, sell and market everything about themselves). It's beautiful and it's so traditional. These tiny business's are directly linked to their owners and therefore are fully responsible for the quality of their products (the product is also a "face" and a personality). I adore also (and maybe especially, having grown up on a farm) farmers markets where you can smell sweet freshly baked bread and walk by rows of organic and locally grown potatoes and carrots, beautifully washed and glowing. Necklaces shining in the sun and jars of homemade mustard that make your mouth water as you pass. I don't even mind (some people scoff at such things) older women who sit together, knitting needles clacking as they chat behind rows of perfect mittens and quilts.

Becoming a vendor, however, made me aware of the true work that being a "craft fair" person entails (besides, obviously, creating your products). Fairs are costly: often I rarely earn much of a profit for my business and what little profit is earned is usually spent at the various booths who buddy up with my table (a carton of free range duck eggs here, a pair of fair trade earrings there...). The hours I put into packaging artwork, cards and making sure they don't fly away in the wind has been known to exhaust me. But with that said, fairs can also be addictive. I can't describe how wonderful it is to have real live feedback about your art to an illustrator who usually sits at home (alone) handing in illustrations via the internet. The connections I make and exposure that I gave myself are priceless (plus it gives me the opportunity to educate the public on what illustration is and to quite frankly create whatever the heck I want to try to sell). While the early morning running around (ahhhh... where's my calculator!... geee I forgot to get change again!) and long days hoping for more foot-traffic were nice to escape for a couple months I've decided to do a few more this year, because heck, these fairs and beautiful.

New Illustrations for sale (cards & prints at the fairs only, email me if interested in the originals):
Holly's Castle, Summer Fun, Animal Party, Barnes Garden (with proceeds going towards the Edmonton Humane Society) & Garden Stroll (all © 2008)

Royal Bison(THIS SUNDAY ONLY - from 10am - 5pm)
8426 - Gateway Blvd (Cosmopolitan Music Society Building, Edmonton AB)

Stop & Shop (Highly Recommended: The last show was amazing! On May 16: 5pm - 9pm, May 17: 10am - 6pm, May 18: 12 - 5pm)
10330 - 84 ave (Trans Alta Arts Buidling, Edmonton AB)

Down Town Farmers Market Not to be confused with the indoor Strathcona Market!
Various Saturdays 9am - 3pm (I'll keep you posted when these are, I'm "cutting back" this year)

For those of you who missed my BIG NEWS,

The Big News (in case you missed it)

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 2 FRED!

I had so much fun reading the comments about my last creature (thank you everyone!) that I wanted to see what you would make of the next one.

Here's his stats:
This guy is friends with Stan (believe it or not). In fact, they've worked in the same building for four years this upcoming tuesday. He enjoys eatting pickled corn and root of huginoba (a dark red fruit found in his land) while listening to his favorite radio show (which features local blues bands and interviews with select groups of human rights activists). He's had a bad day, which explains the rather sad illustration of him right now (he was forced to do the CEO's laundry and it was extra gross this time around)

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 1 STAN

I've decided to join the 21 Day Creative Challenge... started by amazing illustrator Gina Perry. Here was her inspiration:

"During Laurie Halse Anderson's keynote at the 2008 NESCBWI conference last weekend, she gave us a challenge. Think you don't have time? She does. At least 15 minutes. Pick a time of day and mark it in your dayplanner or calender. She mentioned that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Also, pick a buddy or two to help you stay focused and on track. I challenge all of you who read this to join me."
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Jannie Ho was how I found out about the challenge: it's her first day too! Check out Gina and Jannie's blogs for more info.

Here's my personal challenge: To create a different character each day (non-human, non-animal). The first creature I'd like the "bloggers" out there to name... Any suggestions?

He's a bit of a nice guy and enjoys peppermint tea and granola with chopped up banana's (cut just so). Each morning he walks to his office and on his way feeds expired meters with spare change from his pocket. One thing he hates is socks, which he avoids at all costs.

New Work Released!

Work from 2003 - 2006 is finally available for all you lovely internet friends & clients to view! This is the big secret I told you about last week and yet I've suddenly become so busy that I don't forsee my website update getting finished too soon. You may either enjoy the slideshow or browse at your own speed in my newly created flickr 2003 - 2006 collection.

9 worst foods you can eat

I have a fantastic announcement coming as soon as my new website is published (almost there)! There's going to be so many new samples it will drive you hog wild!... just you see...

For now, my mind is obsessing over nutrition. I am involved in a publication for the Royal Alberta Museum called the "Wit n Word" whose current theme is food. I've taken the top 9 worst foods from Nutrition by Natalie in her video "Top 10 Worst Foods" and turned it into a quirky illustration. I still have to do her List of Top 10 Foods...

Paws and Claws Gala comes to a close

A huge thank you to the artists who created pieces of art for the first ever Paws and Claws Gala to raise funds for the Edmonton Humane Society last weekend!

• paws and claws gala website
• the painting I donated
• the edmonton humane society

Susan Stevens & Amie Kerman
Igor Woroniuk (pictured with his wife, Gillian) Michelle Schwengler, Marcus Cutler, Drury Straity & Nicola Marie Pringle
Above: Setting up required tying almost 400 bows on chairs... very pretty results.
the art of animals that once lived at the Edmonton Humane Society:
And to those who could not make it to the event, thank you for the donation and/or long hours put into your pieces (Danielle Inglesias, Rachelle Miller & Michelle McBride)!

(pictured: myself, on the way to the gala. photo by my husband).

To see picture of the art donated, please visit the paws and claws gala . I'm going to update it in the next week with the rest of the art and photos of the event.

Spring

It's been a long winter. I've hardly had any time to pick up my paint brush or to think about sketching in the last few weeks. The biggest reason for this is unfortunetly financial but I've been doing lots of creative things. I'm still a graphic designer at the Royal Alberta Museum (see some of my design work on the CKUA concert series poster for example) and am student recruiting for Grant MacEwan's Design Program (the program hosts five majors: Photography, Illustration, Digital Media, Motion Image and Exhibit Presentation: I took the Illustration program in 2000 and graduated in 03) which will mean I'm going to see lots of the province (I'll post some images) as well the Paws and Claws Gala is only days away (I've been organizing an art show for a local animal shelter) I have lots on the horizon (some very cool projects may be coming this summer) and will update you as often as I can manage. Stay Tuned! Oh and yes, this is a self portrait.

Spring Break Artist...

I forgot to mention that I'd be at the Royal Alberta Museum as a guest artist yesterday. I taught a little bit about acrylic painting to the kids who showed up (almost 60 kids by the looks of the filled seats). It was the most interesting experience I've done teaching thus far as I've never been trained to teach children... You might have missed it but I also got on the evening news yesterday doing my little lecture. I of course didn't turn on the tube (who likes to see themselves on tv anyway?). Does anyone know if you're supposed to look at the person interviewing you or at the camera? I never know and usually end up looking back and forth!

Happy Belated St. Patricks Day!

I meant to post this yesterday. It's a clip from an ad we couldn't send because of the elections in Alberta this past month. The mammoth is "moe", the Royal Alberta Museums mascot. I've illustrated him about a dozen times now.

Illustrators, Graphic Designers & Artists

Your business cards are needed by a student. Help her collect a couple hundred cards by sending yours to her. I think it's a fun project!

I adore...

Just a note on cool things I discovered today while hunting for a "Moo Egg" (did not find one...).
•Imagine a messanger bag made of painters canvas... see Timbuk2's designs!
•I'd also love to get my paws on one of Lucha Workshop's monster bags (or scarves... boo, it sold the other day!)
•I have a secret love affair with monsters as well as Matty8080's Zombies!...
•Geninne's birds are so elegant (wouldn't her work look great in my bathroom?)

halloween harvest

halloween harvest, originally uploaded by crystal driedger.

A piece for my portfolio and a reminder to vary my poses (see the last entry I made in which the girl is doing pretty much the same thing... sigh...!) Tunnel Vison.

Garden Stroll: Illustration Friday

Garden Stroll (illustration friday: garden), originally uploaded by crystal driedger.

A soft breeze fills Claires skirt with thick puffs of pink
The smell of lavendar tickles her nose
Butterflies pause as Frogs dance on the rich earth
Green leaves and stone tiles absorb the warm of the sun.
The sweet taste of vanilla couldn't be better appreciated
than on a summer garden stroll.

*made just for illustration friday!

Edmonton Sketch Crawl

I heard of an experiment that someone was doing in San Fransisco which they dubbed a "sketchcrawl". The idea is to go out and draw for an entire day everything that you do or things that you see as you go along. I was inspired and intrigued by the idea so I decided to plan one myself! I urge other illustration readers to plan one in their city. It's a great way to meet other aritsts in their community.

EDMONTON SKETCH CRAWL
(18th international)
SAT, MARCH 29th
11am
STANLEY A MILNER LIBRARY, Down town
(in the entrance if it's terrible outside, outside if it's glorious!)

Here's what the founder had to say:

"The basic idea: to record nonstop everything I could around me with my pencil and watercolors. A drawn journal filled with details ranging from the all the coffee I drank to the different buses I took. After a whole day of drawing and walking around the city the name seemed quite fitting: “SketchCrawl” - a drawing marathon. The crawl was more tiring than I imagined but also more fun and exciting than I had thought. Giving yourself this kind of mandate for a full day changes the way you look around you. It makes you stop and see things just a tad longer, just a bit deeper … needless to say I loved it.

I soon figured out it was much more interesting to do the marathon with a group of artists instead of all by myself! And so SketchCrawl turned communal. After a whole day of drawing it proved to be amazingly interesting and inspiring to share and compare other people’s drawings and thoughts. Different takes on our surroundings, different details, different sensibilities.
The next step was making the SketchCrawl a World Wide event: having people from different corners of the world join in a day of sketching and journaling and then, thanks to the Internet, having everyone share the results on an online forum.

Hope to see some of you out there!

The Dark Side of Crystal.

Perhaps it is the snow that never seems to stop coming down from the sky, but lately I've been a bit under the weather emotionally. Sad, for no good reason. This is why I've created these sketches, which are rather darker than my usual style, in the hopes of getting some of the darkness out of my system (yes, even children's illustrators get the blues).

Illustration Friday: Leap

Illustration Friday: Leap, originally uploaded by crystal driedger.

Maybelle, grown tired of her usual persuits, ties a bow round her head, paints some boiled eggs with patterns and leaps into the air with joy. Has she gone mad or has she just become the easter bunny?

(sketched exclusively for illustration friday, what a gosh darn treat!...)

Disposable Art?

Birthday Party, originally uploaded by crystal driedger.

Every year it is my goal to use the skills I developed while working full time at my last job (I was there for four years and the company sold gift bags, childrens books, greeting cards and other fun things to quite a variety of companies including Walmart, Costco, American Greetings and many a dollar store among other places). One of the downsides of selling to these big companies was that the end results of my work (the actual products) weren't sold or created in Canada. Now normally this wouldn't be a problem, but I am a very far drive away from our nearest border (which for me is Montana, a beautiful state packed with mountains and sweet smelling forests)... and for those of you who have had the wonderful experience of seeing your work in stores it's so so satisfying to see it being touched and admired by real people, even if they are standing on it while it's on the floor (this, by the way, happened to me when I was lucky enough to be able to go on a business trip to Nashville. In a dollarstore in the middle of the city people were frantically searching for the "perfect" Christmas gift bag all the while tossing things on the floor where the faces of my paintings were being covered by the mud on the streets beneath customers boots).

This story reminds me of the reality of commercial illustration, or perhaps illustration in general. We create art that is essentially disposable. Our paintings get admired for seconds, perhaps a few days at most then is thrown away or recycled. There are exceptions to this rule: Children's books can be cherished and read over and over, some greeting cards are saved for years and I've heard of people framing copies of art they've clipped from magazines.

While I know that not every child who gets a card I've created in their mailbox will treasure it I can't stop trying to make similar images than those I loved when I was little. Greeting cards and childrens books were the first things I could call mine and they were certainly evidence that an artist could influence and brighten my world. Not to mention it dispelled the idea that if you wanted to be an artist you had to be "starving". Someone must have been paid to create the cards I got for my birthday and there was no way the artists behind the Lion King weren't being compensated in some way (although at the time I would have licked dirt to have been one of their artists, forget paying me!).

So I'll continue to illustrate and create concepts that might, if I am so lucky, be turned into cards that are eventually thrown away (or at best recycled). Because heck, people might like my design so much that they will buy my card and fill it with money. If that doesn't make my card worth more to someone, I don't know what will!

By the way: Here's the concept sketch:

Childrens Illustrators (dot com!)

I've decided to join children's illustrators (dot com)! Can't wait to see the results. It's an online listing of children's illustrators (719 of them at this point) with access to portfolio, links and bio. Here's my link.

Paws & Claws Painting Finished

barnes garden, originally uploaded by crystal driedger.

Just a quick update that the painting is finished and the website is up with all the other artist involved.

Link Back Love for Valentines Day

Happy Valentines day Friends! I love and adore you all so for valentines day I'm sending some link back love!

For nearly four years I worked with some of the most talented and wonderful people (mainly illustrators) I've ever known. While we have all moved in different directions this last year, a big group of us seem to keep blogs which are actually so funny you'll want to roll around laughing each morning you surf the web!

Kim Grift
Michelle McBride (aka Miss Dishy)
Miss Modderpotts
Jason Dirks
Mike Boldt
Gabriel Wong

websites (for those who don't keep blogs)
Igor Woroniuk
Adolfo Ruiz
Marcus Cutler
Pink Polka (Jenelle Gartner)

Someone I almost worked with (came from same place as people above)
The Lemonade Tree (aka Carmen)