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 Open Studios 2012

Here are some pictures I took during the fall FPAC open studios.

A big thank you to everyone that stopped buy to say hi. I did crazily well, and am now out of prints. It seems like it may be about time to do a re-stock. I'm hoping to order some more prints from iolabs (my favorite printing company, so far) and maybe put together a little postcard pack before the holidays.

Everything That Creeps

October is here, pumpkin spice lattes and warm cider abound as the leaves fall from the trees the open studios season begins.

Last weekend I visited MICE, I had been planning on visiting for a long time but never made it. I'm so glad I finally went. There are so many awesome comic book artists in Boston. I got to meet a few Boston artists in person that I have only met on Facebook or Blogs, neet-o. I also purchased tons of stuff, Christmas presents, stickers, comics, original paintings and comics. Eventually I will take a photo of everything and list all the artists.

I'm still working on my comic. I was planning on finishing it by the end of the Summer but I had to put it on the back burner as the fall approached. With open studios and going back to school there is no way I will have time to work on it until maybe December. My new goal is to try and finish it before MICE next year.

I am still finding things to keep me busy between work and school. Oct 19, 20 and 21 my husband and I will be showing our work at the Annual FPAC Open studios and:

I just finished a 11" by 17" painting that will be in the Everything that Creeps show.

EVERYTHING THAT CREEPS also features a selection of original "B" movie/horror film posters including work by  Sadie Allen, Brenton Barnes, Joe Botsch, Amanda Boucher, Mick Cusimano, AshleyFreeland, Adric Giles, Veronica Hebard, Jennifer Lewis, Nathalie Magri, Gregery Miller, Greg Moutafis, Nick Nazzaro, Joyce Nett, Christian Noise, Shannon Orcutt, Doug Poole, James Swart, and Tom Torrey.

http://everythingthatcreeps.blogspot.com/

                

 Hope you can make it to the opening.
-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

Sweet Candy

I've been collecting Japanese candy packaging for a while now. I love the attention to detail, the cute characters and the amazingly beautiful color combinations. Once in a while you will come across something strangely beautiful and puzzling.

 

http://www.thehoneyday.com/tag/gum/

Mini-Comic

 

Above are some images for a mini-comic I have been working.  Hopefully I will have it done by the end of the summer, then I can start looking for printers.

Meerkat and Wombat

Illustration I did for The Nanker Phelge
http://www.facebook.com/TheNankerPhelge

Summertime

I just finished the first semester of my Graphic Design certificate program at MassArt.
Pheew.. I did not realize that I had not updated my blog since I started classes.
I have been really busy with school, but I did manage to sneak in a few art projects during the semester:

http://www.facebook.com/TheNankerPhelge
I did an illustration for the band The Nanker Phelge
(Meerkat and Wombat)

I just recently finishes a quick illustration for a Paul Frank Contest:

http://www.paulfrank.com/art_attack/rate/entry/250

This summer I will be practicing my newly learned graphic design skills by trying to put a short comic book together. I'm also planning on getting some more stickers, buttons and prints. My inventory is so low right now I only had about 10 prints and 10 buttons to sell at the FPAC spring art walk, whoops!

Back to the drawing board for the summer.
I will be doing the Boston Arts Festival and FPAC open studios before I go back to school in the fall.
see you then.

-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.

Old Label Inspiration

My Husband just ordered a bunch of old labels from Etsy.  Old labels have always been a great inspiration of mine. I love some of these color combinations.  I think the mmmmm good oyster stew label is my favorite, airport whiskey comes in as a close second, it reminds me of an old travel poster.

Tomorrow I start Graphic design classes and frame my paintings for the Three Graces Tiny Tiny Art Show 9.

Days of Painting

 

Collecting picture frames and working on some new paintings.

Below are some inspirational images.

Christmas Tree

For some reason the holidays seem a lot less stressfull this year, I think I'm managing my time a little better and narrowing the amount of random art projects I take on.  I'm also scheduling a little more time for hanging out with friends and seeing the finery this city has to offer.

I set a very strict budget for Christmas shopping, and stuck to it. yay!
My Christmas shopping is done.

This weekend I will be baking up a storm: cookies, cakes and  mince meat pies.  I love the smell of an oven full of pastries in the chilly air of my loft.

Today a ton of painting ideas were pouring onto the pages of my sketchbook.  Somehow I think the cooler weather helped jump-start my brain (or maybe it was the coffee).
Once the sketches form into a little more then the chicken-scratch rough ideas that they are now, I will post some photos.

I have uploaded some new work into my Etsy store.  Most of the pieces I'm working on now I will be secretly stowing in a dark corner until their premier reveal at the Three Graces Gallery in Feb.

-Happy holidays all
-Wishing you a white Christmas


-Jen

Winter Art Shopping

I just rotated my inventory of work at the FPAC store.



The store will also be hosting the
Fort Point Holiday sale:

December 2, 3, and 4, 2011
Friday 4-8pm • Saturday and Sunday 11am-4pm
Opening Reception: Friday, December 2rd, 5-8pm
Festive holiday snacks and refreshments

12 Farnsworth Street • Fort Point, Boston • 617-423-1100
find unique gifts of local art, or treat yourself


http://www.fortpointarts.org/shop/

The Wedding

 

Billy Balls and Garden roses from Fiftyflowers.com

 

Above is our wedding cake.  The cake is an almond cake with chai cream filling and a white chocolate buttercream frosting.  The cake topper is made by "Vintage by Crystal".  The macaroons are made by MadMac.

 

The wedding has come and gone,  so much work!

We had so much fun, the weather was chilly and overcast, but it was a beautiful fall day.  I enjoyed spending so much time with my family and friends outside of the bustle of the city.  It was such a relief to have all the wedding preparations over and done with, finally I had time to relax.

My next show will be in February at the Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth NH.

Enjoy the fall.

The annual Fort point open studios is Oct 14th 15th and 16th.
I'm currently working on final prep and painting hanging while trying to iron out last minute wedding plans... what a lot of work!
http://www.fortpointarts.org/cgi-bin/FPAC?s=open_studios&sub=1

Wedding Bits

I Just finished sewing 50 boutonnieres!

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/

Comic Bits

I started my little comic in the sketchbook for the "Sketchbook Project". Before sending it out on it's travels I hastily made some fairly poor scans of the images. I am now in the process of cleaning up the images on Photoshop and adding text.

Working on a comic, even a mini one like this has proven to be a lot of work, but great fun.

Happy August!

Wedding Design

Weeeeek! After almost a two year engagement it feels like our fall wedding is just around the corner. I am still going to be doing the Boston Arts Festival this year and Fort Point Open Studios. The next few months are jam-packed, so I know the time will just fly by.

I have been hording my vacation time so it will be lovely to have a much needed two week vacation in the country.

Above I have posted some images of the Save The Dates and the wedding invites. I used a gocco printer to print the text section of the invites. I used 4by6 (the company I use for my business cards) for the color map as well as the fox and bunny "paper dolls".

A lot of wedding projects will be hand created to give me an opportunity to work on my design skills. I really need to practice Illustrator and In Design, so I have worked out a Comic/program project for myself. I will be posting some snippets of my work here in the next few months.

Winner Selected

Thank you to everyone that entered to win my mini Nurse painting. A winner has been selected! congratulations TracyDawe! I have E-mailed and as soon as I get a reply with your mailing address I will send her out to her new home. Thanks again. -Jen