Lace Up Your Sneakers

A little digital artwork by me for Potter Park Zoo's early summer Wild 1 Mile. Which is pretty much the coolest race around.  So kiddies throw on your kix and start training...

Illustration sneak peek

©2016

VERY excited about this upcoming project.  More info as it unfolds...

Advertisement Art

I've been having fun playing around with digital illustration and patterns as seen in this ad art for Potter Park Zoo.

Beautiful Brooke & the Bunnies

Brooke with "Faux Fur."

Brooke from Michigan recently restyled her bedroom. Included in the upgrades was a chunk of art by me!

(This is pretty much my favorite kind of photo, thanks for sending it Amy!)

Featured here is lovely Brooke with my piece (now her piece) "Faux Fur" hanging above her bed. I hope it leads to exciting dreams.

If you're ready to make some arty changes to your home sweet home or looking for unique holiday gifts, check out my online prints gallery. Neighborhood shoppers can also stop by Lansing Art Gallery.

Thanks Brooke!

Cello-brate the Holidays with Art

©2015

Cello from the Band Geeks series will be showing at Lansing Art Gallery this holiday season.

At 2.5 x 3.5 this little piece of original illustration makes for a great stocking stuffer!

New Minis at Lansing Art Gallery

©2015

Next Tuesday you can visit these brand spankin' new minis at Lansing Art Gallery!

"Dog Walking Dog"
"Dramatic Wolf in Rain"
"Band Geek"

Also, no pressure but tiny original art makes the perfect holiday stocking stuffer...

Mini Art Wednesday

Dramatic Wolf in Rain

©2015

Peaces on Earth

I guess Halloween really is over... Which means it's time for me to put together the digital illustration & layout for Potter Park Zoo's upcoming holiday card.

Speaking of winter & zoos... I hear zoo memberships make great gifts for adventure seekers.

Happy Halloween!

 Photo courtesy of the Broad Art Museum #ArachnoBROADia

Halloween is my favorite!  Much to the chagrin of my mom, I've never missed a year of dressing up...

I hope you are having a fun day too.

#IMaBat

Kid Artravaganza!

"They're buying baby hair" Junicorn age 5

My current projects are all in the sketches phase & not really that exciting to look at right now.  But my favorite kid in the whole world has some amazing new art in her gallery.

Check out her work now!  

T-shirt Design: Wild 1 Mile 2016

While I did not create the actual 'Wild 1 mile' logo, I did create the digital illustration / tee-shirt design around it.

The race is slated for June 2016, so your littles have plenty of time to start training!

Faux Fur finds home

Faux Fur has found a home!  And while I'm very happy to spread the art to other people's walls, I will miss this one for sure.

Fortunately, prints are still available in my online gallery, so we don't really have to say goodbye...  We can simply say good buy.

Time | Place Award Winner

"Faux Fur" was one of 6 pieces to win a cash award at the statewide Time | Place exhibition!

I'm so excited!  I honestly don't think I've won a legit award since I was in eight grade...

The reception was a great time and my piece will be exhibiting until the end of the month, so there's still time to see it in person!

Zombie Zoo Brew Marketing: Featuring K8 Art

I'm a big fan of the Seba's short-tailed bat, so it was fun to let the little guy shine in the marketing pieces for this brand new zoo event.

New Print Available: Security Pigeon

"Security Pigeon" is now available as a print (bag, phonecase & other swag too) in my online store.

Get your's today!

Current Exhibition: TIME | PLACE

Space by John Murphy, porcelain

TIME | PLACE
50th Anniversary Competition at Lansing Art Gallery
September 1-30, 2015
Reception: September 11, 7-9 PM

My piece "Faux Fur" will be exhibiting as part of this juried show.  Please stop by and see it in person, or even better, attend the reception! 

In the Land of Art, Summer = Winter

It's summer temps but wintertime design... I illustrated/designed this piece for Potter Park's upcoming winter wine and beer tasting.

If you live in mid-Michigan, watch their website for tickets to this truly unique winter event!

Ladybeard Bees: Harvest 2015

This is my 3rd lucky harvest year as a hobby beekeeper. In spite of an incident that involved angry bees sneaking into my shoes and a new rule that I will always duct tape my shoes closed in the future, the rest of the bee-milking went perfectly!

It was a lot of hard work and I could not have processed the honey without a lot help... My mom lent me her kitchen & was in charge of bottling the sweet sweet gold.  Husband was the muscle in charge of carrying heavy stuff and cranking the extractor. I was the uncapping queen, slicing all of the capped frames open and emptying out the extractor after spinning.
Now team Lady Beard Bees is exhausted and resting our sticky feet.

Faux Fur Framed

My friend & fellow artist Mike Scieszka framed my illustration "Faux Fur" for the Time | Place exhibition and it looks so beautiful!

I hope you can make it to the gallery during the month of September to see it in person!  Date to remember: reception on September 11, 2015. 

Halloween in August

I just completed some artwork for the zoo's big "Boo at the Zoo" event.  And now I'm really preoccupied with figuring out what my Halloween costume is going to be...

The Samples

New Medieval/fantasy samples for my agent.
I feel exactly like George R.R. Martin.

Mosaic owl sighting

The recycled bottle-cap mosaic owl that my husband & I helped the patrons of Scrapfest create was spotted at the Old Town Main Street location.

I'm glad he has a nice new home! It sure beats a landfill...

Live Art Alert: Time | Place Exhibit

I'm very excited to announce that my piece "Faux Fur" was chosen for the Time | Place exhibit! Juror Rebecca Ruth Hart, the associate curator of contemporary art for the Detroit Institute of Arts, chose my illustration along with 38 other pieces for this statewide art exhibit.

This show runs September 1, 2015 - October 1, 2015 with a reception on September 11.

Copyright: All rights reserved 2015.

Scrapfest Public Mosaic

I had the pleasure of organizing a public mosaic this weekend at Scrapfest.

My husband & I smudged the back of recycled bottle caps with thick glue so festival patrons could stick them onto a 3x4 piece of lumber, transforming it from scrap & wood into a big piece of funky art.

It was so much fun watching people of all ages flex their arty muscles! And the result turned out pretty cool.

Dress your phone in my art

Is your phone a boring disgrace?  Do you often find yourself in social settings without any conversation starters?  Well I have the solution for you. Dress your phone in original art and become the super cool person you were destined to be!

In other words... Arty Iphone cases are now available in my online gallery. Make your phone & ultimately your life more interesting today!

Spring has almost sprung

I had a preview of Claudia Campbell's Enid Spring (illustrated by me) this week.  It's looking great and I can't wait to see the finished product!

Wine, stein & my design

I am putting the final touches on this year's program for Wine & Stein.  I hope you'll be attending this awesome fundraiser next week for our local zoo!

This is a 21+ up event, so you'll need to leave the baby at home.  Just be sure to get a sitter first. Neglecting your infant is frowned upon...  Even if it is for one of the most enjoyable zoo events of the year!

Sneak Peek: Enid Spring cover

The book will be available soon!  To tide you over until order day, here's a peek at the final cover design.

Spring is coming

Enid Spring by Claudia Campbell has moved on from my illustration table to the design and layout phase!  I'll be sure to post details on how you can order your own copy of this delightful and poetic children's book.

#ThinkSpring

Beautiful board builds frames

This is my second year as a board member for the East Lansing Art Festival.  So it's pretty much my job to make sure you don't miss out on all of the excitement over this 52nd annual arty weekend!

I hope to see you May 16 & 17 along the beautiful downtown city streets of East Lansing!  In the meantime, the board will be honing our framing skills.  I've already mastered pealing plastic off of static-ee plexiglass...

Bunzo & the Tattoo Tree

"Bunzo & the Tattoo Tree"
All rights reserved 2015.

New 5x7 "Bunzo & The Tattoo Tree" is now available for purchase, message me for details.  Or customize a print today!

I've been obsessing over 'Bunzo' the bunny from the film Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter by the Zellner Bros.  If you haven't seen it yet - DO IT! Not only is it super delightfully weird, but it's so visually beautiful that your eyeballs will eat it up.

It's that thing where...

I'm a bit swamped with projects that are too young to blog about. To make up for my lack of art right now, enjoy a piece by my favorite artist... Miss Junicorn.

Ice Marbles are BACK

Sad flower-box is naked no more!  Thanks to a few water balloons & a little bit of food dye.

Bright Lights Art City: K8 illustr8 in Colin Firth Movie

Photo stills: Arthur Newman 

A few years ago I was contacted by representatives on behalf of the Colin Firth / Emily Blunt film Arthur Newman asking to license two of my illustrations "Wheels on the Bus" and "Expect the Unexpected" to be used as set dressing.  I signed the contract, received the licensing fee and sent the images.

Even though I was very excited about the whole thing... I understood that the scene might be cut or the art could be positioned badly, so I tried not to get my hopes up.

I waited and waited and WAITED... And when the movie was released, a strange thing happened.  I didn't see it. I completely chickened out. Basically I wanted to keep the hope alive that my art was used, without confirming just how it was used...

This week my favorite customer from Canada emailed me about a recent purchase and mentioned "I was watching a movie yesterday, "Arthur Newman," and saw one of your paintings!"

I had to see it for myself and went straight to Netflix.  Much to my excitement, both pieces were large scale and on screen for a few seconds.  Whew!

The only thing that could make this any better would be if Colin Firth was standing in front of them, blowing kisses at me. Save that for the sequel?  (click the pix to zoom)

Get Excited for Enid Spring: Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek of a new project I'm so excited to illustrate... More to come!

Very happy to be working with the talented author Claudia Campbell on this lovely book.

2015 Wine & Stein Design

Even though this part of the world is sprinkled with snow, my brain is thinking spring.  Here's a preview of my art for Potter Park Zoo's spring 2015 Wine & Stein.

If you are 21+, mark your calendar for this super fun evening event with food, spirits & animal friends!

Digital Witness

The powers that be ended up using a different version of my digital illustration - but this one is still my favorite.  I wanted to go with a feeling similar to the victory scene at the end of "Neverending Story."  Plus, only a disturbed person would turn down an owl ride...