“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” ~Anais Nin

Shalon was thrilled with the result and from what I hear, the Bridal Shower was lovely. Congrats Nancy.

I think it was probably some time in March when I started to quietly put on the brakes, responding carefully to emails and ignoring my facebook account. I went about my day-to-day, one foot in front of the other. Life events and new realities had rocked me. In many ways, I was just completely at sea.

By somewhat random chance I met an interesting and insightful woman during this time who (for some reason) suggested I start painting again. Here’s my history with the paintbrush: Love it, but rarely do it. Painted in Junior High & High School and have pulled out the brushes for crafting and the occasional canvas, since. Often expensive and hard to justify, it falls off the to-do list and gets forgotten. Tried pin-striping (with a big thanks to Butcher), which also managed to fall off the list of free-time fillers. For some reason though, when it was suggested this time, it stuck with me.

I saw a Michael’s flyer advertising 50% off all Artist’s Loft products, and decided it was too good to pass up. I went and stocked up, came home and dug out the easel, threw on some music and started making a mess.

Here’s what I’ve been loving about painting: the total chaos of it. As a designer, there are times I’m staring at a file at 6400% zoom, moving something by two pixels. It’s obvious I enjoy graphic design—however it can be technical in nature, regardless of how obscure the layout. There is just something deeply liberating about making a mess with random glops and swishes of colour and not getting caught up in the potential results. I have no aspirations for photo-realism when I’m painting. I’m not looking to create perfect works of art. And so far, when I start opening the tubes of acrylic, I have only a very loose idea of what I’m about to put on the canvas. I just start putting down colour, and let go. You see where I’m going with this. That’s right: painting has been a great way to relax & be mindful. To welcome inspiration and give up control. It’s meditative. Even though the results have been varied—and it’s been one small activity of many—taking time to make a vibrant, silly mess on canvas has been healing for me these many months.

It’s because of the encouragement of someone dear to me that I’m posting these images here on my blog, and may keep doing so. Putting these out there is what I would imagine streaking through a church during mass is like. I hadn’t painted them thinking anyone would ever see them, exactly. So here I am, nakedly showing you a corner of my heart from 2011.

I am sincerely grateful for the support of my family, friends and clients this year. There are some great things on the horizon, and I’m looking forward to them with a fresh perspective and enthusiasm.

Wishing you health, wealth and happiness in 2012. The best, (as they say), is yet to come.

In addition the these postcards, Isaac had a vision for their ‘guestbook’. Something that’s become popular is a photo framed of the couple with an oversized matte for guests to sign on their way into the reception. To make this idea a bit more personal, Isaac thrifted some records that had never been played (Michael Bolton was my personal favorite) and asked if I could do some custom labels for them. At his request, I found high-res images of the Sun, Verve, Apple and Atlantic record labels (from specific years) and manipulated them to include song titles that were unique to the couple. I wound up printing these on Avery sticker-paper, cutting, lining up and sticking them to each record. The results were better than expected—some guests even asked if they were real, until they read the song titles. After the wedding, family of the couple had them framed, and now all four hang in their condo.

All in all, this project was really fun to work on. Dream clients who were enthusiastic and had some really unique ideas (not to mention a beautiful wedding!) Congratulations Isaac & Monique.

I had a lot of fun doing this invite. Hours of bending bezier curves while grooving to Cat Power and Mumford & Sons proved to be pretty relaxing and therapeutic. Robin opted for a digital print, and Warwick did a great job for us. The silver foil-lined envelopes, sparkly star and white ribbon finished it off, all on budget.

A little history on Jen: she was the first friend I had in this life. She was that girl beside me in every pink-icing birthday photo as a pre-schooler. We played in the mud, watched movies like Labyrinth and Gremlins in our pajamas, were there for each other through the barbie/my-little-pony phase, and shared our Ninja-Turtle obsession in elementary school. Life sometimes had us lose touch for years at a time—but thankfully social media made it easy to find each other again (shout-out to Mark Zuckerburg) … I feel truly lucky to be connected to this beautiful, interesting and inspiring woman 20 years after playing Kings Quest on DOS.

To thank her sponsors, Jen asked that I put together a thank-you card. I had a lot of fun with this. They were printed by Warwick Printing in Lethbridge (thanks Lee). The original sneaker vector was drawn by Khia Jackson and used with permission. I added a splash of colour and some copy and voila:

After they were printed, (by Complete Printing in Calgary Alberta) Shalon added the rhinestone two-prong fasteners & sent out the invites in a variety of vibrant envelopes (pictured below).

Shalon showed me the other pieces she’s been assembling for the big day—centerpieces, table coverings and favor bags. Something about the patterns, colors and textures she’s decorating with make me think Chintz and Company meets Guatemala. I can’t wait to see how it all comes together, I’ll definitely snap some photos and put them up on the blog.

Next up are her favor tags and thank-you cards. I’ll post them as they’re ready.

Thank you for all of your comments and emails, your feedback has been wonderful.