An Aha Moment in Skagway, Alaska

At precisely 10:47 AM on a misty gray morning in Skagway, Alaska, I had an enormous
 Aha! Moment - triggered by this fabric pattern:

I'm not 100 percent sure who the artist is that drew this happy group, but the palette and line work makes me think it is Helen Dardik -I apologize if it isn't, and would love to hear from anyone out there who does know. 

Now, this is a little complex, so bear with me here.

Skagway is nestled in a cove at the end of the Lynn Canal, off Chilkoot Inlet, with towering emerald green mountains draped around it - the gate keepers to the Klondike Gold Fields.   A pretty town, it is frothing with gorgeous blooms that drink in the cool, moist air.

  

We arrived by water, like most visitors do, and were given the day to explore. 

As we strolled the downtown area, I spied a quilt shop sign down a side street.
  

I'm not a quilter, but felt compelled to turn down the street to investigate.  After all, 
it takes art to make quilting fabric, and I was missing that kind of thing.  

Never mind that we were seeing jaw dropping art sliding past our ship every minute of every hour, I was craving the human-rendered connection to those miraculous vistas; patterns, color charts, and Photoshop in use by humans to capture the power of nature.

The magic stuff, you know?

Struggling through the crowds on the boardwalk that resulted from about 7,000 people being poured out of the cruise ships in the harbor, I made my way to the little doorway.

  

Well.

It looked like a good portion of those people were packed into this one tiny shop, the 

 Rushin' Tailor Quilt Shop.

Turning sideways, I eased into the foyer and wriggled my way over to the left wall, where cut pieces were neatly folded into bundles with belly bands, stacked from floor to ceiling.  

Photo by The Rushin Tailor's Quilt Shop in Skagway, Alaska

  Something from Week 1 of  Lilla Rogers' Make Art That Sells  class tugged at my brain.

As I hung there in a space of my own, zooming up and down the corridors of my mind, chasing that tantalizing clue, a little girl eased up beside me and stroked the fabric bundles in the basket thoughtfully.  She already had a piece held carefully in her hand, and she spoke to her father, who was squeezed in behind her.  "I like this one, too...".  I looked around me and saw the same thing going on all over the shop.  Men, women, and children were carefully studying and comparing the thousands of bundles packed into every available nook and cranny, and their faces held a quiet pleasure I had seen nowhere else on this trip.  

I felt like I had walked into a chapel. 

I picked up the bundle of Llama fabric and suddenly, the Lilla Lesson came into sharp focus, running like Surround Sound in my head.  Every single item in the shop was the result of someone's artwork.   An Art Director had bought or licensed the art to use on fabric.  This fabric.  Suddenly, I wasn't just looking at a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes anymore, 

I was DISSECTING the designs, automatically!

See?  Here is one of the main characters from that fabric - a Placement Graphic:

Notice the eye contact, and the sweet, open face that says, "I like myself, and I like you. "

It is part of this fabric design, but it could also be pulled out and used by itself on a child's back pack, wall decal, pencil case, etc.

See these mountains?  See how they overlap and create a whole new motif to look at?  That little overlap area could readily be pulled out and made into a whole new design for a coordinating fabric, or a stand-alone design.

And this little guy could be lifted right out and centered on a child's T shirt - throw on a pair of purple pants, and you have a cutie-patootie outfit!

See what I mean?  Dissected. So many motifs in that one pattern, in yummy colors, that could be pulled out and used in clothing, children's tableware, bedding, wall art and decals.  That is what Lilla kept pounding into our lessons - give the Art Director who is looking at your work some Bang For their Buck.  Give them a lot in every design. 

I wasn't able to see the promise in these individual icons, until my Aha Moment - during the six week course, submissions by my classmates looked like random collections of artfully drawn and colored shapes, pasted onto the requisite 8 x 10 file.  I couldn't see the "X Factor" in many of the ones she selected to review, until 10:47 AM, Skagway time.  I got it!  

Good.  This isn't going to be easy, so I'm off to practice.  
A lot.

Thank you for visiting with me!

Lilla Rogers and A Snail Tale

This past week in Lilla Rogers' online course, Make Art That Sells, Lilla scheduled children's book illustration as the lesson.  Bright and early on Monday morning, she gave us a subject to warm up on:

 Snails.

Obviously, if you've been given a teaser regarding an upcoming Children's Book Brief with a snail as the central character, you are going to hit the internet, 

looking for snail images and expressions.  

That is what children do - they look at body language and expressions, right?  

What I found at first was enchanting and then...ever more disquieting.

Snails kiss. 

They are curious about things.

They will look directly at you, apparently with all four eyes.

All of these wonderful images and thousands more are on the internet, and when I tried to quickly find them again to pay credit to the photographers, I did not have much luck.  I'm sorry about that, because I cannot imagine the work and expertise it took to have these intriguing characters sit for their portraits.

As I studied these faces and postures, I was continuously thrilled with how very human snails look - and took pains to create Happy Snails, Chipper Snails, Upbeat and 

Ready For The World Snails. 

 I was cruising.

                                 I had perky Bookworm snails,

                Wise old snails who used their shells as a recliner. 

And Madcap snails who loved hats.

At 5:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, Lilla posted the full Brief.

Disaster.

We were to illustrate the Hans Christian Andersen tale of The Snail and The Rose Tree.

If you've never read it (and I hadn't) it is a moody story of a snail who has no interaction with the World as we know it; who spits at the World, stomping off repeatedly for long ruminative periods to his snail den beneath The Rose Tree.

For whom he has nothing but disdain.

I was speechless.

Well, almost.  I decried the subject matter to Lilla, then stomped off to ruminate on my own.

Whilst ruminating, I re-read the teaser............which included a suggestion to practice

lettering the words: The Snail and The Rose Tree.

Heh.

So, there you have it. Never, ever, sail off to create the world unless you know which world

 in the Universe you are to create.

Thankfully, Lilla allowed us to interpret the story in any fashion we chose.

She already knew we were going to squawk.

Jolly Mon Rocks The Dock at Ocean Isle Fishing Center

It's Jolly Mon Tournament Time, and this year Capt. Brant added a new 

Fishing Tournament category for the youngest ones.  

Thanks to Rickey Beck and Chris Campbell, we have candid photos 

...and Grandson Brayden 

can show you what a Big Time he had 

at the 

"Rock The Dock" Tournament! 

He caught a Flounder within the first few minutes  - the competition was keen!

Capt. Brant weighed the many fish caught by excited and Very Serious youngsters, just like in an adult SKA Fishing Tournament.  

The young anglers had to walk the length of the dock and present their fish to the Weighmaster - and then hear the news and go back to fishing.  

They had one hour to fish, and every child fished every minute of that hour in 95 degree heat and blazing sun.  

There were No Quitters!

At the Jolly Mon Captain's Meeting on Friday night, all the little anglers received their awards - 

 along with the thundering applause of the crowd.

Champs!

Are you ready for THIS?

Catch a Poagie out of a tank without using your hands. 

Brayden didn't catch the Poagie with his teeth, but did the next best thing:

Is this kid  a winner, or what?

Mushrooms, Vintage Pyrex, and Drawing Mania

My eyes are burning, but my drawing heart is happy!  Lilla Rogers, my instructor for the online course I am taking, has us drawing these two subjects over and over and over.  Meantime, she is simply pouring information about the surface design business into our heads.

Yesterday, I drew about a million Mushrooms.  Well, almost a million.

Tomorrow morning at 4:00 AM, she will give us our REAL assignment.  That's when serious Boot Camp begins, and I can't wait to find out what the challenge is!

Going for a glass of wine and some fresh air.  

I'll keep you posted!

Back To School!

I am FLABBERGASTED and humbled by the amazing talent represented by the artists who will be in my class at Lilla Rogers' Studio School.  I've met most of them in a private group on Facebook, and now I am running to sharpen my pencils and clear my work spaces and get

 In The Zone 

for the start of this online class tomorrow.  

My work tables in Ocean Isle Beach, where I will be taking part of this course.

My graphics work desk in Atlanta, Georgia, where I will also be  working.

As a participant in the class, we will not only be getting invaluable input from Lilla Rogers and her staff for five intensive weeks, but we will also be entered in a Global Talent search sponsored by Lilla Rogers Studio for the Next Big Thing.  The entrants will have their work judged by industry experts and art directors.  Shivers!

Class starts tomorrow, and I can hardly wait.  

I'm Back!

Wow.  Has it really been since October??  Here we are at the end of May, 2013 and it seems like only yesterday that I put my Blog aside to design new fabrics.

I'm so happy with my new styles and new skills in Photoshop and Illustrator; so happy I took this time off to "get in the zone".  Some of my new collections are POWIE as far as color goes, and some are subtle and calm.  I don't know yet which I like better!

Here are some samplers of some of my new collections:

Penny Baloo

Turtle Bay Blue

Turtle Bay Grey

I'm going with the flow and letting it all pour out - somewhere in all of this, my personal "style" has to emerge!

I have been busy, busy, busy, learning Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS5 a little better.  A HUGE help has been this website:

Lynda.com

My tip of the day is that if you are struggling to absorb as much as possible from some new digital software, go and sign up with this website!  There are hundreds of videos to show you how to do just about anything digital.  And the best part is that not only are the teachers great, but you can pause and replay videos endlessly.  

Today is the start of my new online course with Lilla Rogers:

Lilla Rogers online Studio School

And I will keep you posted on how it goes!

Taking A Break...

Hello dear readers - I just wanted to make a quick post to say that I will be taking a break from posting on my Blog until I get caught up with my Fabric Designs, cleaning out my studio, and getting started on the whatever the next chapter of my life is.

Which hopefully includes a healthy family, a happy basket full of grand kids, some sweet dogs and

Quality Time With My Husband. 

Thank you all so much for reading my posts - I can't tell you how much it meant to me that so many sweet people read what I wrote about what was going on in my life.

This world is a great place, isn't it?

Love you all.

Finding The Floor

I've been silent for so long you probably thought I was quitting my Blog - Not!

 What I've actually been doing is searching for the Floor in my Studio.   

The reason the floor was so hard to find is because it was covered with Stuff left over from my tassel and bag business...
thousands of yards of Trims, 
hundreds of pounds of Fabrics.

Stacked in bins were vast quantities of tassel parts. In every nook and cranny were tassel blanks, wooden beads, wooden spindles, small wooden animals, tiny garden tools and flower pots...on and on and on.

All this because in 1995 I designed a line of tassels that I named Lula Belle Tassels, and starting in 1996, it just exploded.  With the help of a fabulous staff, I made and shipped thousands of Tassels, which we made right here in Marietta, Georgia.  Calico Corners put them in 120 stores and it was Game On!

Then, I designed some handbags for the High Point Market one Fall, and BAM!  We were in the Handbag Business.  I started with a few Bags, and wound up with dozens of styles

-all of which required their own bolt of fabric-

and their own bolts of trim

and cases and cases of handles, bottoms, rivets, etc.

I rented more studio space, hired more seamstresses,

more tassel makers,and a manager.  I added larger bags, which we called Satchels.

I decided that we should make painted French Market Baskets lined with a removable Tote Bag...they were an instant hit, and we shipped thousands of those, too.  So many orders came in that we wound up with a commercial paint booth - big enough to paint a small car in.  
And, of course, I had to hire a painter to paint the baskets.  She was amazing.
All of this was fun, but it had gotten very, very big.

I had a wonderful woman in charge of Packing and Shipping, whose name was Julie.

She thankfully kept us all sane and on task, shooing me aside to organize the orders and direct the tassel making, bag sewers, and basket teams.

Then suddenly, Julie left and moved to North Georgia and somehow, things just weren't the same.  I had been designing Tassels and Bags for years, I had a LOT of money in the bank, 
but I wasn't excited about it anymore.

My Husband had built the Ocean Isle Fishing Center and I wanted to go on up there.  

So I closed the Atlanta studio, stored everything, and opened a fabric store in North Carolina.

It was just a couple of miles from the beach,
in one of the fastest growing "Golf Communities"
in the United States of America - Southeastern Brunswick County, NC.

The store was popular, and we had lovely clients who bought tons of fabrics, trims, and accessories.
 They ordered lots of Custom Window Treatments,
Custom Bedding,
Wesley Hall Furniture,
and came to shop frequently
for their favorite thing:
One of A Kind Pieces
that I scoured the Atlanta and High Point Markets and Antiques vendors for.

I had a lovely, lovely staff of women
that I looked forward to seeing
every single day.

Then, the Real Estate Bubble popped, 
the Financial Markets collapsed,
New Home Building stopped,
and things got Real Quiet.

I got homesick for Atlanta.
So, I sold the store and moved back here with all that Lula Belle Stuff.
Which I've been drowning in ever since.

Every time I walked into the tightly packed studio, I got depressed.  All those stored raw materials and painted baskets made me guilty, like I needed to do something with them.  it bugged me to distraction until it finally dawned on me:
Give it away! 

Yesterday, the last load of Trims, Fabrics, Tassel Parts, Baskets and tools drove off down my driveway.  Next week, four men will arrive to dismantle and move out the Skutt Kiln and the huge Slab Roller.  I have made some people very happy.
They got brand new, FREE Stuff.

And, I found my floor.
Which is delightfully bare, freshly painted, and peaceful.
So, so happy.

A Miracle Plays Out On The Ocean

While Captain Brant has continued his journey back to healthy wholeness, I've been very busy rearranging my life priorities.  As we all so painfully learned with Brant's accident, life can change forever in the span of one short second.  

In the blink of an eye.

When one escapes the worst imaginable outcome of an accident, the first thought that  becomes foremost in your mind is that life is short, and life is precious.  

We tend to ignore that crucial fact during our daily routines.

I don't know which group of people on Earth appreciates their surroundings and relationships the most...but I do know that certain folks spend more time on that than I have.  Perhaps it is impossible to be constantly aware of the miracles around you and still be able to do the laundry and shop for groceries, but I will be doing a better job of that now.  I'm honing my "quiet" skills so I can get rid of all the unnecessary distractions in my life - so that I can re-learn how to acknowledge and appreciate the daily miracles all around me. 

Like this one:

Yesterday, September 27, 2012 a very common activity took place out on the Ocean.  Some guys went fishing...but see, it was actually one of those miracles I'm talking about...

Two months and three days after falling 42 feet to a concrete driveway, Captain Brant levered himself onto a friend's boat, braced himself in a chair, and with the help of his brother Barrett and some good friends, left the dock at dawn and went to the Blue Waters of the Gulf Stream for a beautiful day of fishing. 

He took a picture of the sunrise and posted it on the OIFC website: 

After returning to the dock, he posted this report about the trip.

He may not have reeled in a fish, but he was back on the Ocean.  

Now THAT is a miracle to appreciate.

The Universe of Pain

As Brant continues his journey back from the edge of the abyss, I can see the veneer of a deeper wisdom beginning to develop on his face and body.   

Once you have been transferred (very unwillingly) out of your own comfortable existence and into the Universe of Pain, you don't get out of there very easily.  There are, oddly enough, no road maps.  As you roam around looking for a way out, you become familiar with some of the Planets that revolve around the main Pain Planet, and the different atmospheres and types of Pain they have to offer.

There is Broken Bone Planet, Damaged Nerve Planet, Surgical Pain Planet, Bruise Planet, Torn Ligament Planet, Scraped Skin Planet, and more.  Each Planet in the Universe of Pain has its own exotic Pain Levels, but thankfully Brant wasn't given a tour of all of them. 

It is a scary trip, and those that successfully navigate through that Universe always arrive back in their own Universe different than when they left it.  

They are wiser. 

 They are stronger.  

Pain is no longer a shadow Demon, because they have met him face to face.

 They arrive back in their own Universe with a new depth to their soul.

The Price of all that new knowledge is steep.
While you are deeply unable to care for yourself, others who love you step in to take over.  While you are touring the Universe of Pain,
 they are there to soothe in whatever manner it takes.

I watched my Dad do this when my Mom was completely debilitated by heart failure brought on by too many pain meds and the ensuing pneumonia.  In a nutshell, 
he took over her life for her, and did the best he could to bring her relief and rehabilitation.  He lived at the hospital for months.  
Months.

After Brant's accident, his wife did the same thing.  He was helpless, and although in a good hospital, the nursing staff could only jump so fast.  Amy did what was needed: she transferred her life over to the hospital, and did her best to get him what he needed,
 when he needed it.  We sat with her, and him, 
through surgery after surgery, and tried to help him 
fight his way through the Universe of Pain.  

In the end, the fight ends where it began.  With the wounded person.  In the end, Brant took over the navigation through those mysterious waters on his own, and freed Amy up to 
return home to their children.  

Brant took back the helm from the Dragon that roams the Universe of Pain, realizing in the end that the Dragon had almost gained control.  That oily beast had sneaked in when no one was looking, and put his talons right into Brant's wrist and arm, 
but we caught him.

Captain Brant kicked him overboard, 
charted a course back to his own Universe, and throttled up, steering with his good arm.  

He docked at the Rehabilitation Center at New Hanover three days ago, and we are amazed at the difference in him.  Yesterday, he had his first shower, and daughter Caroline regaled us with stories about the "real car" they had there to teach you how to get in and out with the big old injuries her Daddy has.

Last night,  she was in her own bed, Mommy was in hers, and Brayden was roaring around the house with Fin (remember Fin?), and they were all settling back into their routines. 

Life is returning to a new normal, and we will take it.

All the damage will be healed - both psychological and physical, in Brant and in his family.  Life will be different for them in the upcoming months, but everything will smooth out
into a new rhythm.

Brant and all of the family cannot thank you enough for your prayers and support, the gifts of food, flowers, balloons, cards, and phone calls.  

It has been an amazing outpouring of love and respect that helped light the buoys that led out of the Universe of Pain...

 and back home again.

Thank you all, so very, very much.

The Best Medicine of All

Brant is continuing to recover, one careful step at a time.  

Amy has taken him for a couple of spins out in the Fresh Air...

For a man who spends most of his waking hours on or around the ocean, 

you know how good that felt!

And besides the great work of the surgeons, nurses, Amy and the hospital staff, he has been strengthened immeasurably by the outpouring of love and support from all of you.

 But the Sweetest, Best Medicine of All?

I don't think I need to say another word!

A Time For Thanks

For those of you who don't already know, my husband's oldest son, Capt. Brant McMullan, had a horrific accident on the afternoon of July 24th.  While installing a new billboard wrap with his brother, he fell about 45 feet from the top of the billboard down to a cement pad.  He was badly injured but survived the fall, which broke multiple bones and scraped off a lot of skin - but thankfully did not result in injuries to his internal organs.

He has already undergone a long surgery by the meticulous Dr. Neil MacIntyre to rebuild his crushed hip socket and pelvic damage, and tomorrow will undergo surgery to put his arm back together properly.  He delighted us all by moving his toes on command yesterday morning, so he WILL walk again.  He may not run marathons, but he'll be back on that boat and Tournament Fishing before too long.  He and the rest of  Team OIFC have their SKA reputation to defend, after all!

Brant is very strong, and very determined to make the fastest recovery possible and resume his position at the helm of the Ocean Isle Fishing Center.  He doesn't "sit" very well, and although he is in terrific pain, he is already planning how to get himself up 12 feet of stairs so he can get back to work.

For all of you who have sent messages of support and love during these past three days,

 Brant and all of our Family cannot Thank You enough.

Your prayers, emails, and phone calls are a fountain of strength; a sweet net of support for Brant and all of us, and helps so much to hold him and all of us up through this time.

Updates on his recovery will be posted on the Fishing Center site under the Fishing Reports.

Please keep those positive thoughts and prayers coming!

I would be remiss if I did not send a huge Thanks to The Big Guy up above,  who undoubtedly (as a family member suggested) provided Brant with a Guardian Angel who took the fall barely ahead of him and cushioned it enough to save his life.

It is truly a Time For Thanks.