Onward to the Future

Freelancing and scheduling my time the end of last Summer went really well. I did forget to fit in times to exercise, but other than that, I made time to relax and I got a decent amount of work done.
Classes started again in the fall, and I thought I could maintain a semblance of my schedule, but that did not work out. I did not have any time to work on tarot cards :(

I have just finished the last class of my Graphic Design program! I will be working the next few months on my graphic design / illustration freelancing schedule and hopefully I will have a big chunk of the deck done by April.

Keep an eye out. I will be posting works in progress.

Boston Arts Festival 2013

The fall-sale season and the Boston Arts Festival are rapidly approaching. My summer efforts are coming together and I'm getting paintings all packed up and labeled for next weekend.

Boston Ahts Festival

This will be my first sale of the Fall season!
The festival will showcase of over 50-juried visual artists from the Boston area as well as a performing arts & interactive arts program.This year do not miss:
 
Aug 31st. At 9:00pm fireworks display.
and the grand opening of the new carousel.
 
• Boston: Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park
• Sat, Aug 31st – Sun, Sep 1st, 12 – 6pm. 

 This year I have titled my series of works "Fly Away home" most of the paintings in this series developed from exploring the idea of home, connections and travel. Most of these paintings continue to include wild woodland girls and fuzzy creatures.

Over the summer I've been continuously working on numerous projects and trying to finish up a little Graphic Novel. As practice for my fancy comic my husband (Tomas Swift) and I have been working on a few quick storyboards. I have compiled these little comics and some sketches into a new photocopied zine project that includes all kinds of nifty animals, words and mini story-lines. I'm excited to announce it's debut at the Boston Arts Festival.

For my Fall sales I will also have a new set of pin-back buttons, frog stickers and the limited edition fancy prints from my Kickstarter.

-hope you can stop by.

So, I've been frequenting Kickstarter more and more recently, and it is starting to become highly addictive. One of my favorite pastimes is looking at art and comics and trying to support underrepresented artists by collecting my small change and purchasing little things that they are selling, sometimes I can afford an original piece.

Well, Kickstarter gives you a chance to support a project that is not completed yet, still in production, think of it as investors in a company, sort of.

Often, an creator (usually someone with some experience on the subject) will pitch an idea and ask for a specific amount of monetary support within a certain # of days. In return the creator will offer various different incentives (available only through kickstarter) such as inclusion of your portrait in the comic they are drawing, credit, creative input, a thank you or original art work (some people come up with really inventive things).
If the kickstarter is funded and succeeds your rewards often increase in value and you get the satifaction of helping launch a project at the ground level, sort of like a producer.
If the Kickstarter dose not reach its goal in the allotted time the project will not go into production, you will not get your incentives and your card will not be charged.
So there is a little bit of a gamble involved as well.

In the last few days I think I have backed about four projects, it is so much fun. If the project goes into production the artist will also, sometimes, continue to update you on their progress.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/breadpig/to-be-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-adventure
This has been my favorite kickstarter to follow so far... maybe it has made my e-mail in-box overflow, but it is worth it.

Inspired by my Kickstarter heroes I have decided to launch a project of my own. I was thinking about kickstarting my comic I've been working on, but I decided to launch something a little more reasonable to begin with. This way I can see how things work and iron out the kinks.

I'm really excited about this!

Here is the project:

 http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2101475072/jennifer-lewis-illustration-limited-edition-frog-r

I'm asking for $350 to print 20-500 limited edition prints of my "Robot" painting.
This is one of my favorite paintings and I sold the original fairly quickly. I would like to revive this little guy by getting some really nice prints made.
I set my goal fairly low, uncertain if  raise enough, (the cost of about 30 prints) so if we can go beyond the $350 that would be awesome! I have set additional wicked cool reward levels if I exceed the base amount and I will unlock them as we reach different tier levels.
On my Kickstareter I have some really nice incentives for your pledges such as commissioned pieces (I rarely do commissions), sticker packs and comics, something for everyone so show it to your friends.

Thanks for your support, oh and if you end up making a kickstarter be sure to send me the link so I can support you.

-Jen

Fall is in the Air

Yesterday, with the bustling of students it was evident that fall in Boston will soon be upon us.The crisp air always jump-starts my mind and inspires me to draw up a storm.
Fall may be my favorite season, but also my busiest time of year.

This year I will once again be attending the Boston Arts Festival ( I will be at booth #26)

Boston Arts Festival

at Christopher Columbus Park, between Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Boston’s historic North End.
September

8th to the 9th, 2012

http://www.facebook.com/events/403019166405166/

And, my favorite event of the season,

Fort Point open Studios

October 

19-21, 2012

http://www.fortpointarts.org


This year I will have some new stickers and buttons as well as some shiny new paintings.

Stop buy and say hello.
-Jen

Work Sent Out

I Just mailed my work out to the Three Graces Gallery.

The below pieces will be included in the Tiny Tiny Art Show 9

105 Market St.
Portsmouth, NH

Below are some of my process images, sketches and such.

One arting evening I came home with some cupcakes from Sweet bakery.  I made some holiday tea in out new wedding gift Anthropologie octopus mugs. I painted and nibbled on sweets while Tom played his video games, keeping warm with a cup of hot tea, what a lovely evening.

 

Below are the octopus mugs. look! They have ships on the inside!

The cupcake flavors were; cookies and cream, chocolate chip cookie dough, mint chip ice cream and bananas foster. I think the banana or the cookies and cream was the best.  My all time favorite is the strawberry shortcake.

 

Here are my finished pieces ready to be shipped out. I framed my Blue Squirrel in a cute shadow box frame.

 

 

Hope you can make it to the show, some other great artists will have their work there ad well, including  Kelly Vivanco and Amanda Atkins.

Voltage Cafe Show

Earlier this year I was invited to participate in a group show at the Voltage Cafe. Originally, I thought that I would not have any brand new pieces. For every show I do I try really hard to have at least a few new paintings, for the regulars. This year I have a million events going on in the fall and only a limited amount of work. With some hard work, early mornings and a sudden burst of inspiration I ended up completing three tiny new paintings.

Above are some sneak peeks of the work in progress.

I'm really excited for the opening. It has been over a year since I've been in a show that I could actually attend, and it is in a cute little coffee shop!

Time	Friday, September 9 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location	Voltage Coffee & Art Gallery 295 3rd Street Cambridge, MA

The exhibition will be on view September 9th-October 22d, 2011

Participating Artists Include: Autumn Ahn, Brian Daly, Corey Corcoran, Elizabeth Grammaticas, Jakob Fioole, Jennifer Lewis, Jessica Liggero, Kenji Nakayama, Nick Ward, Polly Becker

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=272404116107110
http://flux-boston.com/

Gearing up For the Fall

I know, summer has just started, but it seems like Fall is just around the corner.

I was just informed that I got into the Boston Arts festival again this year. This year it will only be two days, Saturday the 10th of Sep and Sunday the 11th.

I will also be participating in the Fort Point Open Studios; Oct 14th 15th and 16th.

In between my day job (really a night job) and painting I will be working and selling my work at the FPAC store, right next to the yummy Flour Bakery.

Below are some snippets of paintings I have been working on:

Weekly Walks

Recently we decided to take a weekly walk. It is really quite surprising how close everything is in Boston and what neat little nooks and crannies there are out there to be discovered. The day after thanksgiving we went to the South End to check out Gaslight. Sadly, they were closed, but we got a nice peek in the window. Then we were off to the Butcher shop ( I love the pig sign).

Vagabond Blues

Please visit: http://www.space242.com for more information. -Thanks

Fort Point Open Studios oct 16-18th

Fort Point Open Studios this weekend. Oct 16th to the 18th! I'm cleaning up and will be baking tomorrow, warm banana bread, skull cookies and of course lots of art. For More Info.

POP EUPHORIA

I will be participating in:

POP EUPHORIA Charity Art Show to benefit Toys for Tots The Aurora Gallery 660 Main St. Worcester, MA 01609

http://moduslotus.blogspot.com/ http://www.artsworcester.org/