Liz Calvi & The Mark Twain House

I realized this week that I never posted the amazing photos that Liz took of myself and my dollhouse at The Mark Twain House.

You can read my original post about Liz here!

To summarize though, Liz and I had the amazing opportunity to take photos in The Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT. We thought that the house would be a great pairing with the Victorian style of the dollhouse.

Here are a few of the favorite photos:

You can view more of Liz's work here: http://lizcalvi.com/

And hopefully you will see more collaborations between the two of us in the near future!

The Victorian Rabbit

Just a quick update today!

I have continued working on the wedding invites that I posted about last week. The bride I am working with asked if I could make a girl rabbit in Victorian dress that they could use as part of their backdrop. I am very curious about this backdrop and can't wait to see it when I attend the wedding!

This was very fun to work on. As you may have gathered I love drawing/ cutting out hair so a Marie Antoinette style is always an exciting challenge.

I never thought I would create a Victorian rabbit until this project haha I am lucky to have such a creative client.

Liz Calvi

Hello!

Today I wanted to talk about my dear dear friend and incredible photographer Liz Calvi.

Liz and I have known each other for about 19 years, which is really wild considering we are both 22.

Anyway, Liz has basically photographed everything for me since I started talking my illustrations seriously and at this point I wouldn't trust anyone else with this task, not just because we are soul sisters, but also because this girl is seriously talented both technically and conceptually.

Here are some gorgeous photos she has shot of my books and such:

I had been wanting to photograph the dollhouse that I made for my Secret Garden project because I only had shots of the individual rooms and no photos of the entire house. Liz suggested that we try to find a Victorian house to shoot the dollhouse in. I contacted a few houses in the Hartford, CT area (my dollhouse currently lived with my parents in CT) and eventually got a reply from the lovely Jacques Lamarre at the Mark Twain House. Liz and I toured the house and knew instantly that the Victorian charm would be the perfect companion to my dollhouse.

AND we got to shoot there this past Sunday!! It was ridiculous, and beautiful, and so inspiring and surreal to be in this house when I spent so long crafting Victorian miniatures last year.

Liz is currently working on editing the photos but I cannot wait to share them, so as a little prelude to that I wanted to post some of Liz's work, that she has done for me and otherwise.

Besides doing a variety of commercial freelance projects she also does beautiful fine art work, AND she makes jewelry:

Be sure to check out her website & blog

Uppercase Magazine

I am so excited to say that I have been selected to be a part of Uppercase Magazine's Live/Work illustration issue!

" The tagline for UPPERCASE magazine is "for the creative and curious" and this really is the somewhat loose guideline to content appearing in the magazine. Though the content is based in graphic design, illustration and crafting as its starting points, with such a broad statement the articles can be quite eclectic. I think it is this curious bent that makes the magazine unique and hopefully surprising with each new issue." Janine Vangool  publisher /editor /designer

Each illustrator that is featured creates a piece for the magazine, as well as an interview. I will know the topic of my piece by the             end of this month!

Be sure to check out their website and buy all of their beautiful high quality books

http://uppercasemagazine.com/

Wedding Invites

I have been very busy the past week working on the Calender of Tales project and I haven't had much time to come here to blog, or really do anything else to be honest. I cannot wait to post what I have been working on, but that will probably come in 2 weeks.

Besides the Calender of Tales I have been working for the past few months on a very fun wedding invite for a quirky and unique couple. The project was based around Alice in Wonderland and an overall Victorian aesthetic. The couples vision was very specific but I still had room to play, here is my favorite edit of the card with handwriting by my beloved Jenny Nieh:

This coming weekend I am so excited to say I will be taking photos of my dollhouse at the beautiful Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT with the lovely Liz Calvi, but I will get into more detail about that this week!

Also if you have twitter I have just officially joined, my name is @katieskau and I will be posting about my work, as well as other fun things, and I need people to follow!

Plugged

The past week or so I have been working on a really interesting project for a short film called Plugged.

"PLUGGED is a short film written by Dea Jenkins (BFA, Digital Filmmaking, The Art Institute of Houston), based on the true events of a life-altering incident in New York City. The focus of the story, set in a ballet studio, concerns the adults in a young girl’s life who were either unable or unwilling to assist the girl following this traumatic moment."

I created 6 illustrations that will be displayed (and for sale) at a fundraiser for the film this Saturday at:

Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, 55 Bethune St, NYC

From 6:30-8pm

Although I didn't have as much time as I would've liked, I am happy with the simplicity of the pieces, and the gritty aspect that was an important characteristic and something I haven't really explored.

I hope you can all attend the event, be sure to check out the facebook page!

February Birthdays

A few weeks ago I was discussing with one of my best friends Liz about how there are so many birthdays in February, and we named off quite a few mutual friends.

So although I made this quick birthday sign for my girlfriend (whose birthday is Saturday) it can be for any of you out there who have just celebrated or are about to celebrate a Feb birthday!

PS: I have a few very exciting projects coming up. I have also just discovered Neil Gaimans twitter illustration project, and if you did not know this before I LOVE NEIL GAIMAN and it has been a recent dream of mine to illustrate for him, so I cannot wait to participate.

Vicky Healy

In honor of valentines day, and also because I have been annoyingly busy with 9-5 work, I wanted to post about Vicky Healy.

Her work is completely surreal and whimsical but also has a fun playfulness that I feel is so rare in art today.

It is sort of like an escape to another world.

Here are a few of my favorites, and be sure to take a look at her website:

www.vickyhealy.com

last photo by Liz Calvi

A Buffalo Creature

So tonight I wanted to share more of an update about the buffalo I posted a few weeks ago, it is coming along slowly,

but the next time I post about it, it will be finished and hanging on my wall.

I am enjoying this series as an escape from the strong narrative that surrounded my work so much when I was in school, while I don't think I will ever fully get away from narrative it does feel fresh to me.

<3

Nest Studio

So a few months ago I created a logo for Nest Studio, they make beautiful pillows (I have 3 on my couch) out of fabrics from all over the world.

Everything is completely handmade, including the tags which are block printed.

"Nest Studio, based in West Hartford, CT, is a textile studio, where one- of-a-kind decorative pillows are created by two friends, Erica Moses and Maureen Skau. The pillows are made from fabric from all over the world, including Brazil, Bali, India and Japan. Each pillow is different. No two are ever alike and all of them have surprising back." -Taken from their Etsy bio

I would highly recommend checking out their Etsy, as well as liking their new Facebook page.

 

Our Winter Garden

I have been working constantly preparing items for Jenny and I's new etsy shop! Be sure to check it out! Special thanks to Liz Calvi for taking many of the amazing phots for us!

Our Winter Garden