On December 9th at 6:51 am, our son Hudson Joseph Meade was born. Being pregnant wasn’t  a glow-y, fun experience for me, so I kept it off the blog radar in order to curb my urge to complain. Now that he’s here, I’m filled with a deep sense of joy and I wanted to share the news. As someone who has always been on the fence about motherhood, it’s been the most heart opening experience imaginable. Looking forward to sharing more as soon as I can catch up on some sleep…

Happy 2012!!

Just wanted to share just a few of my paintings for the upcoming group show at the Brooklyn Collective. Things here have been crazy with balancing illustration deadlines and painting for this show. There is so much to share, I don’t know where to start. Working on this Brooklyn series late at night, between deadlines and on weekends has been so fulfilling . It’s been a long time since I’ve had the chance to paint for a non-commissioned project or promo. Creating these pieces has brought such a feeling of happiness and contentment that I just want to keep producing more and more work and see where it leads me.

This experience has made me realize that as busy as things have been lately, there is a sense of purpose and productivity that brings with it an exhausted kind of joy. A sense of satisfaction that I haven’t felt in a really long time. The hardest part is getting through those rusty, frustrating few weeks of failing and throwing a lot of work in the garbage. That whole process is painful and full of self doubt. But then there is a breakthrough and something else takes over that feels like magic. That’s the sweet part that makes me want to continue to grow.

UPDATE*** Opening at Brooklyn Collective on Dec. 9th. Art, prints and beautiful handmade merchandise by a great group of artists.  Info and address is here. Hope to see you there.

We survived Hurricane Irene over the weekend and spent most of it indoors working with an occasional netflix movie. It was kind of crazy when the subways shut down, shops closed early and the busy streets were empty by Saturday evening. Something about being forced to stay in with emergency supplies in anticipation of the big storm was strangely exciting. Of course I had to remind myself that this was just some sort of flash back to childhood when severe weather equated school closing. Once we started seeing the reality of the destruction and casualties, it killed the fun aspect. But it did force me to work out some major issues I’ve been having with my new series of paintings for an upcoming show in Nov. So that’s positive. Thanks Irene!

Also wanted to share a recent project I worked on with YJ Australia. The article was about different methods of parenting and how out of all of these “theories” being present with your children is the most important thing you can do. With all the conflicting studies about sleep training, breast feeding and attachment parent, it was a relief that being a good parent could be so simple. It seems like being present (in the moment) is the answer to a lot of things. Mastering that skill is a whole other challenge!

Really can’t believe it’s already August! It’s been a real scorcher here in New York but I have to admit it’s a nice change from the mostly foggy summers in San Francisco. Except when it was over 100 degrees a couple weeks ago and our air conditioner died. For a few days I would have loved to be back in that beautiful micro climate. Assignments have been rolling in and I’ve had the opportunity to work on some great projects. Last month I finished the cover of HER magazine’s August issue featured above. Thank you Heather Pierce for being such a fantastic art director!

Lately I’ve been experimenting with textile designs and even purchased a large Wacom drawing tablet so I can try creating vector patterns in Illustrator. Still love the “hand drawn” look but would love to see what a more graphic approach would look like and how it affects my work. Stay tuned…(hope to have something to share soon and maybe get some feedback).

Jessica Swift is a textile designer who’s work I just love. Not only is she ridiculously talented but she’s also a really nice person. After meeting her at the Surtex show I contacted her and she gave me some tips on getting started in surface design  She recently launched a super successful Kickstarter project for her very own line of rain boots. It was fun to back this project and see how many other people got behind her beautiful “boots on the ground” campaign. It’s so inspiring that an artist can have an idea and make it happen through the community.

In other exciting news, The Brooklyn Collective contacted me to have a gallery show in Nov. Ideas for a new series of paintings are bouncing around in my head and I want to get started soon. The gallery encourages artists to also create products like limited edition prints, cards, tee-shirts, canvas totes etc. to sell along with the originals. So…a Kickstarter project might be in my future. Planning on posting the show’s progress here so I can share my self doubt with the world wide web Hope everyone has a great rest of the summer.

Plugging away over here on projects, promos and  settling into our new life in New York. So much has happened in the last couple months there have been moments that have been overwhelming.  Trying to take everything in stride and trust that things will settle down soon. We love our new place and the neighborhood is full of shops, wonderful restaurants and parks close by. It’s really nice to walk out the door and be inspired by the energy of all that’s going on in the city. Last week I went to the Surtex Show to walk the show and to visit my friends Donna and Julia at Lucky Day Studio. The show was so motivating and eye opening in terms of all kinds of applications for illustration. The artists there were so generous with information and encouragement about branching out into surface design. It’s definitely something on my mind. Some of my favorites (besides my friends of course!) were Leah Ducan (breath taking), Rifle Design (charming) and Lesley Grainger (talented and so generous).It’s was great to meet other creatives that really want to share their stories on how they got started and all the reasons why the show is worth doing. It felt like an incredibly supportive community that you just wanted to be a part of.

In other big news last month this piece was excepted into American Illustration 30! After years of entering, I still can’t believe I got  in. The judges includes Nicolas Blechman, the New York Times Book Review; Rachel Cole, Schwartz & Wade Books; Micheal Ian Kaye, Mother New York, Todd Oleham, Told Oldham Studio; D.W. Pine III,TIME; David Saylor, Scholastic Inc. and Dean Sebring, Worth. The show is in November in New York and the book goes on sale sometime before then. When I lived in New York years ago, I would go to the opening, stare at all the wonderful work and long to be part of the show. It took years and years of rejection which make it all the more meaningful.

We moved into our new place last weekend after spending a month living in my in-laws rental house in Long Island. It’s nice to have a place to call home and the new neighborhood is all we could have hoped for. Trees are finally getting green and flowers are blooming everywhere. It seems like a new beginning for everything.

Stars will shine at the sight of you
Ocean waves will rumble from the sound of you
Trees will clear a path for the presence of you
Flowers will bow to the greatness of you
And all the world is enhanced by you…still

—Siobhan Kern

Yukiko passed away on March 14th after a eight month struggle with cancer. She was surrounded by her family and her last message to her friend’s was “Please don’t mourn for me, live happily everyone.” This was so typical of Yukiko, to put her loved ones first, to want more than anything not to cause suffering even though she was in so much pain.

There are so many details that I’ve gone over and over again in my mind. The trip to Japan in Oct., the last conversation we had over Skype and the memories collected over the last ten years. Her friendship changed the my life. She made me a stronger, braver, better version of myself. She inspired my work and taught me to keep going even when I failed (over and over again).  She showed me so much about friendship and love without saying a word. She was such a light in so many people’s life, that losing her has been really hard to process.

All I can do now is find a way to honor her memory by creating a scrapbook for her daughter. When she is older, I hope her daughter can read stories about her mom and see all the silly pictures we took when we were  living together in a small apartment in San Jose. So young and carefree. Unaware that these were the simple times we would long for and remember with such joy.  I miss her in a way that can’t be described.