Let's Share: The Berkley Blog

Summertime!

Well, we're *almost* starting to breath normally again. Our computer operation is currently taking up a strange area in living room due to the fact that we've only found one phone jack in the house so far and it's not at all convenient (we have DSL.) Despite the inconvenient placement, however, it's so good to be in our new house! 

The last week has taken us to the opening of Ryan's show at Reading Frenzy (thanks to everyone that came out):

Ryan also has a piece in the Grass Hut group show, "The Americans". They had a good ol' Fourth of July opening with four square, lemonade, and a bbq. Our feet love the floors at the Grass Hut but I'm not sure if I'd feel okay paint spattering our new hardwoods.

When we haven't been visiting the art shows, it's been all house stuff all the time. Here is a photo of our new house! This is before my parents came by and did all kinds of yardwork out of the kindness of their hearts. Thanks Mom & Dad!

Most of the house still looks like this but we're getting stuff done little by little.

We still need to repaint the kitchen but we're happy with our new dark brown bedroom and our light grey living room. One of my first missions was to tag the door and claim it as our own!

We got some good fireworks in this year, too. It was a double birthday celebration. Our friend Adrienne is nice enough to share her birthday with our fair country.

This photo kind of reminds me of a Michelle Blade painting (who I adore). 

U.S.A!

Sophisticated Menagerie

This Thursday (tomorrow!) is the opening of my new show - "Sophisticated Menagerie" at Reading Frenzy here in Portland. It features all original drawings from my ongoing "animals in suits" series.

Last night Lucy and I took a break from unpacking and crowded around the one small cleared-out spot in our new house to mat and frame the show. It's quite amazing how much fancier the animals look when behind mat and glass.  I'm really happy with how it all came out.

Come on down to the show if you're in Portland!  We hope to have some updates on the new house and other projects soon.  As soon as we can find our camera, and cords, and, uh, everything else.

-Ryan

Did you think we had left you?

Holy moly!  That was sure a long break.  We have so much to share that it's almost stressful trying to get it all out.  It's like 500 people trying to fit through a tiny door at once.  I'm going to tickle a few of the people to get us a little bit of space and then we'll try to squeeze more through shortly...

New York was a blast and Renegade was super fun.  It was so great to meet so many artists we've admired from afar and it's so nice to meet shoppers face to face too.  Even though I have sworn off working retail until the end of my days, it is nice to do some commerce in person.  I guess I didn't realize that you lose that much of it dealing with the internet business exchange.

Here is a photo of our booth at the starting line:

 

And here is Ryan mind-melding with the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

Coming soon = photos of the great loot we scored (including some great found art on the street on trash day), photos of New York in general, photos of our new house and decorating ideas and accomplishments.  And yes, so far painting two rooms has been a serious accomplishment.  I'm so confused how they get those rooms done in Trading Spaces in two days.  I mean, we spent a full two days exclusively painting our living room (two coats) with no decorative finishes or flourishes.  What gives, TLC?

Action Figure Friday will probably resume a week from this Friday too...Ryan packed up all the figures yesterday so they're enjoying a bit of hibernation until they meet their spiffy new "grown-up" display case. 

Stay tuned...

Outta here!

Just in case you were wondering, this is how many buttons a person makes when preparing for the Renegade Craft Fair.

Actually, this is how many buttons a person forces their brother to make when he's staying at your house while he's in town from Las Vegas.

We're off to the NYC!  And we just bought a house yesterday!  Whoa!  I guess we'll have a few things to write about in a week or so...

P.S.  I issue you my sincere apologies in advance - there will be no Action Figure Friday this week.

NYC in two days...

Our trip to New York is getting so close!  Our house is in complete shambles after spending the last week prepping, printing, packaging, button-making, drawing, collecting, sign making, and doing whatever else it is we've been doing.  If I dare I'll post some pics of the disarray but in the meantime, I really hope we get to see something like this while we're in NY...

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I know this video has been around for a while, but it just makes me feel good about the world. Maybe Ryan and I will stage our own freeze at Renegade.  And speaking of freezing...I hear there will be vegan soft serve at Renegade!  Yum! 

June animal release!

 Howdy,

Today we're pleased to present you with the winner of the June animal vote: The Hedgehog!

(Now available for purchase in 5x7 and 8x10" on the Berkley Illustration Etsy site.)

He is joined by his good buddies, the brown bat and the eye-patched cheetah.

We're busy busy busy preparing for Renegade. I can't believe we fly to New York next week! We haven't even been thinking about the actual New York vacation part yet...if anyone knows of anything tremendous happening in the next couple weeks in the Big Apple, please let us know!  We found out our Renegade booth will be next to our travelling buddy, Bossanova Baby so if any of you Brooklynites are looking for a good time, you should definitely come visit our little corner of the Renegade world.

Ryan is working on some exclusive originals for the show and we're hoping to preview a couple of the upcoming July prints there as well.  There are sooo many awesome vendors participating.  I hope we have time to wander and score some good loot.

Big thanks to my mom for working on our new display system which I think will work out perfectly.  Our previous display system would have been tough to haul across the country and this one should be very travel-worthy.  Of course we'll have photos when everything is said and done.

Have a good week!  Back to work for us...

Indie Fixx Challenge

While we don't want to jinx anything, it is looking fairly certain that we will be moving in the next month. Not only that, but we'll also be making the transition to a space we actually own. (!) More details on that will certainly be coming in the next few weeks.  After renting for the last 10-12 years we're excited to buy some things we've stopped ourselves from getting until we had a more permanent space.  And we get to paint!

I really like this living room layout (designed by Fawn Galli from last month's Domino) and I think Ryan is pretty much on board.  I would like to add some blue and I don't think a white couch would be safe for us.  Any type of animal rug is obviously a no-no too but I like the general feel of the space.

So, do you have a hankering to do some redecorating?  Berkley Illustration is sponsoring a new contest called "Spruce Up Your Place" from Indie Fixx.  Send Jen a photo of your room's design/inspiration board and you could win a couple Berkley Illustration prints as well as a TON of other cool prizes.  Here is the official link for all the details: http://indiefixx.com/2008/05/06/spruce-up-your-place-indie-home-decor-challenge/

Now, to figure out how we're going to pack and move while completing the other 1.6 million projects we're working on...

Saturday morning

Ryan took off this morning with a gaggle of boys to go to the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. I was thinking about doing a post with pictures of my do-nothing morning but then I realized he took the digital camera with him. I really hope he uses it to get a photo of him with Wil Wheaton!

So, I've decided to document the morning using royalty free images from the internets. Typically I wouldn't want to bore anyone with the trivial doings of my day, but I don't get many mornings like this so today is quite exciting for me. Later on, in the spirit of nerding conventions, I might scan and post some gems from one of our trips to Star Wars Celebration in Indianapolis a few years ago.

So far today...

(Listening to Otis Redding very loud.)

Thanks to these people for their photos: Stefan Klabunde, Computer; Craig Jewell, nail polish; Marja Flick-Buijs, coffee; Steve Woods, bagel; Yaroslav B, gramaphone; Katia Grimmer-Laversanne, Crossword.

Another goal for the weekend is to get more photos on my Etsy site. I've been trying to get this done forever so here's hoping it finally gets done!

-Lucy

Those who share - Handsome Furs

Something I'd like to do on this sharing blog is to highlight other artists/musicians/humans who create via sharing. There is just something so nice and inspiring about couples working together. The other night we went out to see the Handsome Furs (yes, that's two concerts in a week which is a record for us these days!). Not only are they an engaged duo band but they were literally sharing the drum machine at one point. So adorable.

Sorry those are a little blurry but considering we were in the balcony and I was zoomed in all the way I'd say they aren't too bad, actually.

[Also, please note that I was typing this a song by the married couple Mates of State came on my iTunes and it was immediately followed by the theme song from Batman, the TV show. That is really weird. I swear that kind of weird coincidence always happens to me. Or maybe I read into things too much.]

Weekend Adventures...part two (with originals preview!)

Picking up where I left off...
Sunday was much more of an indoor day than Saturday which worked out well considering that Portland started to do that crazy ol' rain thing it's known for.

We spent much of the day at Crafty Wonderland in our corner bunker.

It was the second anniversary of the event and I can't believe time has gone so fast (cliche, I know). We sold at the very first sale and really that was the first time Ryan started doing the animal portraits. So, happy two year anniversary to you, animals!

Here is our first booth two years ago...

...and here is the first animal portrait Ryan drew. He's come a long way, no?

[*Fun fact* (For Oregonians) - Oregon Art Beat was filming that day for a segment on the Portland Craft Scene which will be airing on OPB in September!]

Somehow we had enough steam to make it out to the Cat Power show later that evening as well. My camera batteries died right when she took the stage but here is a pic of her opening act, Appaloosa.

We were a little confused when we walked in and saw this pretty lady in a sparkly green tube dress was singing alone with an electronic box. We thought perhaps we had stumbled into Open Mic night by mistake. As she went on, however, we really got into her and even bought her CD. She mentioned later in the set that the other member of the band was held up in London (presumably this was the person who usually controls the electronic boxes) so we have to give her serious props for going it alone. She kind of reminds me of Nico from the Velvet Underground mixed in with a little Stereolab.

Cat Power was grand, of course. Very intense. But concert going citizens of Portland - why must you talk so loud during quiet songs? Why?????

Now that the weekend is over, onto the Etsy business at hand! Here is the sneak preview of the originals we'll be listing on Ryan's Etsy site tomorrow evening. Please enjoy!