Laurie Jess - Artist of the Month

"The Messenger" by Laurie Jess

I met this month's artist, Laurie Jess, while taking the online art class Life Book. I was immediately drawn to her use of color and whimsical art style.  She gratefully agreed to be interviewed for my Artist of the Month post.

Laurie grew up as the oldest of 5 girls in Oregon and had the exotic experience of living abroad in Thailand and Malaysia as a teen. Laurie's parents were both educators within the International School systems. This exciting experience greatly influenced Laurie's art as well as her personal life. Opportunities to travel to China while living abroad significantly affected Laurie's life as an adult. She and her husband adopted there beautiful little girl from China.  You can read more about their journey here on her blog.  After adopting their daughter, she and her husband made another life style change and moved to Boulder, Colorado.

Laurie has quite a diverse background in art and a plethora of talents. She began her art career as a High School and Community College Art teacher.  I asked Laurie how she felt about teaching and here is what she had to share:
 

"The year was 1977, bell bottoms were groovy and my hair was long and straight... oh and I graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelors of Science Degree in Art Education.  I became a High School & Community College Art teacher. This was my path for the next 6 years. I loved being an Art Teacher, it was my dream job. Unfortunately during the 80’s, a new campaign against teaching Art in the public schools began. Art Teaching jobs disappeared and almost became obsolete."

Laurie ended up selling BMW cars to support herself.  Although it wasn't her dream job, she was very successful and met her Danish husband when she sold him a car!

Later Laurie expanded her career to include working for the film and print industry as an artist for DC Comics, Warner Brothers and Disney.

As I stated earlier in the post, I love Laurie's use of color and the magical quality her artwork has.  I asked Laurie what her favorite art mediums and tools are and here is what she shared:

"My favorite art mediums & tools are:

Printmaking, Linocut, Batik wax painting, Prismacolor Pencil, pen & ink, Copic Markers, Golden Acrylic Paint and Watercolors. I also enjoy various mixed media, encaustic bees wax & I’m fascinated by Resin. I have also in the past,  had my own full jewelry line and also made stain glass windows, selling them is how I paid for my college tuition."

"My first love will always be Batik Wax Painting. Before College, I used to work in a very cool Batik factory in Malaysia and that was really where I got to combine my love for the fine arts & crafting all in one medium. That was a very special time & experience for me.   Currently I still enjoy Photoshop & my favorite art software is Corel Painter."

Thai Lady

I wasn't sure what Batik wax painting was, so I found this great description of the process on Laurie's flickr photostream. 

"Batik is a process of painting with hot wax onto cloth & then dipping it into dye baths layer after layer for each color and then the wax is boiled out! The cool effects come from cracked wax & dyes."

You can see more of Laurie's Batik wax paintings by visiting her flickr photostream.

I was fascinated by Laurie's career experience with the film and print industry. Here is what she had to share:

"After going back to college for a 2nd career update (late 90’s) and taking 2 additional years in digital art programs at the University,   I graduated as a Matte Painter & CGI Artist. 

What Luck, I took my newly updated Portfolio and I got hired at DC Comics studio.  DC Comics is owned by Warner Brothers.

WOW, suddenly I was working for a world famous art studio. 

That studio position was in the print industry side of the business. I would later go to work for the film side of that business. Initially I worked under the talented & world famous artist Jim Lee. This studio was secretly located in beautiful La Jolla CA (San Diego). My office overlooked the ocean of La Jolla Shores. Once again I had a dream job & dream location.  We designed a beautiful full color comic book that got published weekly with the help of a very creative art team. During these years, I worked mainly in Photoshop as a Colorist. Jim Lee did all the original artwork & drawings for Superman & Batman (among many other DC characters) and I would color them.

I later moved to Matte Painting over in the film side of that industry. I mostly altered landscapes using Photoshop, blowing up buildings & cool stuff like that for films. "

Laurie now works for herself in her art studio called LaurieJess.com. I asked Laurie how she felt about working on her own now and her is what she had to say:

"As for my art career, I was surprised I actually preferred working for myself in my own little, nothing fancy art studio called “LaurieJess.com”. 

For the first time, I get to have full creative freedom, and when I finish an art piece, I actually get to sign it with my own name. Before, everything I did was property of the studios, I was not allowed to sign anything and my name appeared only at the bottom of a proof sheet.  Nowadays, the projects I work on are carefully selected and I do each one with love. I might design a fabric print, spot illustrations for a book or magazine, and hopefully this year publish a children’s picture book. These are areas I love, and have done before, but this time my name will be on it!" 

This is one of Laurie's projects from our Life Book class. It's a special envelope created for her Life Book that will hold compliments and other positive reminders about her artwork. You can read more about this project and how she created it by reading her blog post here. I'm way behind the power curve for our class. I am looking forward to this project. I love how she created the tree overlapping the envelope flap and the fantastic colors she incorporated into this piece.

In the past, Laurie sold her paintings in several art galleries in Oregon. She recently set up a shop on Etsy, but hasn't started stocking it with her amazing artwork yet because of her busy schedule.  She is working on illustrating a new children's book for a musician, song writer and author, Joan Langford.

Traditional pen and ink with watercolor illustration from "Little Big Britches"

Laurie and her mother worked on a children's book together called "Where in the World with Little Big Britches".  Laurie's mother wrote "a wonderful story about a little boy with magic pockets.  He travels the world each time he reads a book.  New adventures unfold as he visits and learns about new cultures."  So far their book hasn't been published but they are still hoping.  I think that the story idea sounds great! And of course I love the illustrations.  If you'd like to find out more about Little Big Britches, read her blog post here.

I asked Laurie what inspired her to start drawing and creating as well as what inspires her now.  Here is what she had to say:
 

"People often ask me how I found my path. I think it's a common question because we're all searching for our true passion in life.

My passion is found in exploring art techniques & creating through different art medium, crafts and this includes the digital world too.  When I become proficient in any particular art, it’s time for me to try something new. This challenges my artistic needs, and keeps everything fresh. I think this keeps me balanced, healthy & it makes me a happier human being.  I can’t really explain it, I just know it‘s like a runner’s high for me, not only do I love it, but I need it. Art is in my soul. 

You asked who inspires me.

These are some of the artist & illustrators who influences & inspire me: 

Lizbeth Zwerger, Dr Seuss, David Catrow, Warwick Goble, Franklin Booth, &  Arthur Rackham. 

My all time favorite Painter is Claude Monet, I love his impressionist style. 

Last year, 2011, I took my first ever on-line Mixed Media Art class. I signed up for a full years worth of classes through Wyanne.com. That experience blew me away, I was so impressed at the impact she has had on me, so that experience is still influencing me currently. She is how I heard about the Life Book Class & why I signed up for another years worth of classes with 14 incredible Mixed Media Teachers. At present, 2012, I have allowed myself to be infused with lots of creative art teachers. I hope some of their creativeness rubs off on me, it a fun way to grow as an artist.  I have now taken 16 on-line art classes. This is a whole new exciting effective way to learn.   I will never stop taking art classes, I love it. I may even start teaching again over at my local community Art center or maybe even open my own art center, who knows! I really just don't have enough time in the day to do all the things I love to do."

Laurie wrapped up this interview with these wonderful words of wisdom:
 

"My thoughts:  I plan to  “be the person I’m best at being”. My philosophy is to try to “remember to be myself, because everyone else is taken”.  Sometimes this can be hard as the internet influences all of our art, it is a subconscious thing. 

It is OK to learn from other artist, I think it is a good thing; many of the old Painting Masters would do that too. They would copy each other as a means to learn. Sometimes I like to copy an old masters Artwork as a means to learn, I think this is OK to do, some will disagree. I actually encourage you to find a favorite art piece that inspires you and copy it. It is a fun way to learn & next time you can make something of your own from what you learned. We all learn from each other as artist and that’s OK! The internet has brought us all together...but I do want to retain a piece of myself too and this is the challenge for all of us! Finding our own special unique self, as we are all created by God. I believe a piece of God lives inside each of us, therefore we must each be magical & powerful creators. Have fun finding yourself through art and discover how empowering it is for your soul!"

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Laurie and her remarkable artwork. To find out more about her, visit her website Laurie Jess.

"Find your inner magic. " by Madi

Zentangle Art Journal Photo Transfer Watch

Here is the other photo transfer watch that I created using drawings from my art journal. I listed this one in my Etsy shop, so it's for sale!

Here is the drawing from my sketchbook:

This was one of the pages that I did for my sketchbook for The Sketchbook project by Art House Co-op. I'm working on my sketchbook now for the limited edition project.

Hope everyone has a creative day!

"Celebrate everyday." by Madi

Art Journal Photo Transfer Watch

I'm so excited about the new watch I made for myself! I used some of the drawings and painting from my art journal. I really enjoyed making this. I even used a tool that I made myself in a Precious Metal Clay certification class in order to design the silver frames! So, I guess you can say this watch is really made from scratch.

Here are a few more photos:

Here are the journal pages that I used for the artwork:

And here is the handcrafted Precious Metal Clay tool:

I made another Art Journal Photo Transfer watch using one of my zentangle pages. I'll post that one this weekend.

"Find your inner magic." by Madi

It's Ankle Bracelet Weather!

These are a few new beaded ankle bracelets that I just listed this week. I'm working on more to send off to the shops at the beach.  I have a lot more ankle bracelets in the shop if you want to pop over and take a peek.

"Make boring exciting." by Madi

Yoga Class

It's yoga class today at Stacie Jewelry!

Silver Om Charm

Silver Om Ankle Bracelet

"Flow with the wind." by Madi

Demo Days & A Very Happy Birthday to my special daughter!

Madi and I had a blast doing demo days at The Muse this week. And today is Madi's 10th birthday!  Happy Birthday to my special amazing daughter!! 

Here are a few photos of our day together at The Muse...

Here is Madi's work.  As you'll see, she got way more accomplished than Mom!  Guess I was talking a bit too much to the customers!

And here's Mom's work...

If you are in the area, I'll be teaching an Art Journal class on Sunday, March 18th at The Muse.  Love to see you there!

"Color in your life." by Madi

Artist of the Month - Kristen Watts

"Gypsy Girl"

I'm so excited about this month's artist! Kristen Watts is full of enthusiasm and excitement which really comes through in her artwork.  I met Kristen in the Art of Silliness Class we are both taking with Carla Sonheim. I immediately fell in love with her artwork.

Kristen grew up in Burien, which is a suburb of Seattle, Washington.  She now lives in Port Orchard, Washington with her husband and two daughters.  Her daughter's Mylie 13 and Ivy 9 are both creative like their Mom. Kristen feels they have a huge amount of potential in the art world so she tries to nurture that as much as she can.

"I Believe"

Kristen has a diverse background including a Bachelor of Arts in Education, 5 years teaching Physical Education, and a career as a journeyman lineman for the City of Seattle.  Here is her story of how she ended up as the amazing artist that she is...

"I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education, specifically K- 12 Physical Education and Health.  As a child I never considered myself artsy, although I did enjoy art projects in school etcetera.  I was more of a "tinkerer" always getting into things.  I remember as a 4 year old getting into the cupboards of the kitchen and without any supervision making my brother a birthday cake (and a huge mess in the process).  Of course it was awful because I combined all sorts of ingredients (anything I could dump or pour into a bowl) in there, but my Mom baked it anyway, and we all had a bite and a good laugh.  I was an extremely hyper-active kid, so sitting still and doing art wasn't even an option that I was capable of then!  My mom forced me to play soccer to get me out of the house when I was in the 4th grade and had me involved in all sorts of activities and sports growing up. I was a very shy and anxious kid, so my involvement in sports kind of helped me make friends, expend some of my over abundance of energy and gain some self-confidence.  My identity growing up was all wrapped up in Sports, (I was a Varsity athlete in soccer, gymnastic and track in high school and played year-round Select soccer on top of the school sports). I played Varsity Soccer in college and still play indoor soccer today. My involvement in sports left very little time to focus on art (or any other thing) at all.  So, in reality I am a newborn when it comes to art, or thinking of myself as an artist!  

I taught Elementary Physical Education for 5 years before deciding it wasn't for me.  I then went on to a 4 year apprenticeship to become a journeyman lineman for the City of Seattle (climbing poles and towers and building/maintaining power lines.)  I did linework for 8 years until I had Ivy, my youngest.  I've been a stay at home mom ever since!  I really became interested in art when my (now ex) Father in Law started painting.  He was and still is an amazing watercolor artist and I admired his work all the time.  He finally sat me down one day with some paper and paint and helped me complete my first watercolor painting.  It actually turned out pretty good, and I was hooked.  But at that time, I worked long hours and didn't really have the time to do much in the way of art.  I played around with painting every now and then, and did more arsty/craftsy things at that time.

What really got me started painting and believing in myself as an artist was Kelley Rae Roberts book, "Taking Flight".  When I first picked up that book and thumbed through it, I knew I had to have it.  It was the first book that I had ever seen that actually showed you how to paint in the style I loved and admired.  I bought it right then, went home, read the whole thing and immediately started painting.  I gave everyone in my family a painting for Christmas  a few weeks later, and got such raves and compliments from my friends and family, that I knew I had to keep learning more!  For awhile I was very discouraged because I couldn't for the life of me, draw or paint a face that looked at all decent!  So I went in search online to find out how and discovered this whole incredible online world of art!  I enrolled in my first online workshop, Suzi Blu's "The Goddess and the Poet".  I finally learned how to draw and paint a face that I could live with...AND that was my first introduction to art journaling too! That was 3 years ago and I haven't stopped creating since!  I also learned a lot about creating backgrounds and drawing/painting faces in Monica Zuniga's "Inspire Me" and "Pencil Drawing" classes on her Ning site Hands and Heart."

"Facing the Sun"

Kristen's artwork is so full of life and color.  I asked her about the materials she uses in her mixed media.

"I love to use all sorts of decorative and hand painted papers, vintage book pages and anything with texture to start to build my background.  Golden Fluid Acylics, Caran de' Ach neocolor II, watersoluble crayons and Twinkling H20 watercolors are my favorite painting mediums.  But I also love Pitt Artist pens, the Big chunky kind with a brush tip, they are so "juicy" they last forever and stay wet long enough to use your finger or a paintbrush to blend colors.  I use them all the time for shading my faces.  I've really come to love using a Bic white-out pen for decorative details as well.  Prismacolor colored pencils are a must have for me too. Sketch books, journals and altered books are still my favorite (safe) place to create, so I have a whole stash of them! As a general rule for me....there are no rules!  Nothing is off limits as far as materials to use.  I like to recycle, and find new uses for everyday ordinary things (like used dryer sheets for example! See my youtube video tutorials) I love texture in my paintings, so just to name a few...I've used cheesecloth, buttons, foil, glue, aluminum tape, egg shells, gesso, modeling paste, crackle medium, puzzle pieces...I could go on and on!"

"Bird with a view and Loitering at the Cafe Necklace"

 Kristen also creates beautiful jewelry with her art. Here is a little about how she goes about her creative process for her jewelry.

"As far as my jewelry creations go, I started out experimenting with soldering prints from my artwork between two pieces of slide glass.  Soldering is (at least for me) NOT as easy as it looks!  I'm not very good at it at all, but it's fun and I plan on continuing to learn and practice. Just as in my mixed media projects, I love to find a way to use found and recyclable objects in my jewelry.  For example, I love beach rocks (I can spend hours sifting through beach rocks, I LOVE them!) and I have loads of them from collecting over the years!  I wanted to find a way to use them in jewelry pieces, so I began experimenting with resin and all sorts of other things to make interesting pendants.  My latest thing is using spent brass bullet casings in my jewelry.  Originally I just wanted to saw off the ends and use the round part to glue on to other elements for an interesting effect, but I've tried all sorts of saws, dremels etc...and couldn't find a way to cut through them!  This has led me to using the whole casing and wire wrapping and beads, a whole new world of possibilities!  I'm really excited about some of my bullet pendants I've created so far( a far better use for bullets, don't you think?)!  Now I really want to learn more about metal working and jewelry.  So as you can see, one things keeps leading to another and I have SO much to learn!"

"Brass bullet jewelry"

I asked Kristen what her favorite and least favorite parts of creating her art are.  Here's what she had to say.

"My favorite part of the artistic process is coming up with ideas, techniques and new ways of creating whatever effect or end result I'm after.  I love seeing and "feeling" a piece come together out of thin air!  I also love to watch the effect my art has on other people.  I love getting feedback on my work, because it inspires me to do more.  I guess you could say I'm an "idea factory" and I love when I can take an idea and find ways to make it come to life!  

My least favorite part of the process is when it DOESN"T (come to life).  I often get stuck and have a multitude of unfinished pieces laying around.  I can't stand it when I can't finish something, and it's usually because I get to a point that I like, and am afraid to proceed because I'm afraid I'll ruin it!  Sometimes I'll have an idea of how I want something to look and then realize I don't have the skill to achieve it (or don't have the confidence...) so the piece remains unfinished...in limbo."

"Silence leads us to the truth"

Kristen just received some exciting news, 7 of her art pieces were just accepted to The Blue Water Artworks Gallery in Poulsbo, Washington.  Her artwork will be exhibited some time near the end of March or the beginning of April.  

"Lady Bugs Leaf"

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

While reading about Kristen and admiring all of her artwork, I came across a few of her Zentangle designs.  I love them! She is making me want to get out the Zentangle journal again.  

"29 Faces Challenge: Face #13"

Kristen is participating in an art challenge called 29 Faces Challenge.  You can read about it in her blog post here.  The idea of the challenge was created by Ayala Art.  It's really fun to look at all of Kristen's faces that she has created so far.  Her challenge to herself is to create 100 faces, so this challenge will get her off to a great start.

"We Three"

Kristen has a few special artist's that have inspired her.

"I thought I'd mention some of the artists I admire and who inspire me as well:  Kelly Rae Roberts, Suzi Blu, Monica Zuniga, Pam Carriker, Flora Bowley and Jesse Reno.  I see myself leaning more toward an abstract style in the future and would really like to learn how to paint more like the last two I mentioned, while still using inspiration from the others and incorporating my own unique spin on it all! I am so excited and in love with making art!"

I hope that you have enjoyed getting to know Kristen and her incredible artwork.  If you'd like to discover more about Kristen and her art, here are her links:

Artplay Today website

Artplay Today blog

Artplay Facebook

Artplay Today Etsy shop