Happy 25th Birthday to Deb! She is the artist & illustrator behind Pineapple Buffalo, sister of Rich, and, of course, friend of mine! Above is just a sampling of her work, which you may view on her website & and you may even purchase some of her other paintings here! I couldn't possibly put all of my favorites on this post, because it would basically be all of her paintings, however, these are four of my absolute favorites! The second painting of the green and blue landscape {titled Landscape Three} is at Rich's house and it is gorgeous! Deb & her boyfriend Dom, who is also an artist are headed out to the sunshiney & artsy goodness of California in a few months. I will miss them like so, however, it gives Rich & I place to stay in Cali now!
Below is a little sneak peek for Deb {and for you!} of her birthday present I am working on that will hopefully be finished tonight! The fabric immediately made me think of her and it has been neatly folded for a few months waiting to be used.
Deb is also my partner in crime in our Adobe InDesign class, which is going so well. The first class was sort of a review for me, & confirmed that I did, indeed, teach myself the basics. However, the second class was a lot of new things & I learned some great tricks that make will such things as newsletters, even simpler to execute. Now that I am taking this class I have decided to go full speed ahead! Back in March, I was struggling with the idea of how to translate my creative desires into my everyday working life. Did I want to I want to go back to school for Museum Studies? Did I want to actually DO art & study Drawing & Painting? Or...did I want to go into Graphic Design?
I had not really considered Graph Design & I think the only reason was because I always equated it with Advertising. Advertising was a career I thought I was headed straight for after college. I interviewed at few firms and was completely turned-off by the whole process and the attitude of these firms {i.e. We are the greatest.}. After an interview that consisted of developing an on the spot PR campaign for Willow Tree Chicken Salad {apparently THE greatest chicken salad in all of Rhode Island, nevermind the World...something I will never experience being vegetarian & all} then being called back to conduct my own 10 minute interview with the IT guy of the firm, followed by 10 minutes to write an article all about some wacky software I did not understand, I decide Me + Advertising = No love. Plus this world consumes too much. Consume! Consume! Consume! I do not need to be encouraging that.
Alas, I have completely digressed from my point. My point being, I submitted an application for the Print Design Process & Production certificate degree at Rhode Island School of Design {RISD} & I am .:SO:. excited! I have been so inspired by such blogs as Print & Pattern, Oh Joy!, & Kirin Notebook to go for Graphic Design and design beautiful stationary, paper, fabric...any surface I can design on! It seems so obvious, but I just never thought of Graphic Design outside of Advertising...that is my flighty little mind for you...my head is usually in the clouds.
Hey! It is sunny and 76 degrees in RI today, I am going to finish up work & go enjoy it! Peace!
p.s. I am finally breaking out the gocco printer. It has been sitting in its little box for far too long! Hopefully I will have something to show after this weekend.