marissa falco presents: miss sequential

tinker, tailor, soldier, spy

2011-12-29T12:36:00.001-05:00

Papercut zine library grand re-opening!

2011-11-09T11:09:00.002-05:00

This weekend, as it became apparent that I was getting a very nasty cold, I left the house anyway to attend the grand re-opening of the Papercut Zine Library at its new home in the back corner of Lorem Ipsum books.

When we walked in, the shop was full of zine-appreciators, all listening to a zine reading. After the reading we milled around, took a peek at the collection, and found a table with zine-making supplies so anyone who wanted to could make a page for their comp zine. Friends, we all know I can't resist the opportunity to try out a typewriter. We stood at the table to do layouts, and I typed some text quietly as the first band of the night began to play (The Low Tide; I really liked them!). And from the weird old books and supplies on the table, I made this:

I feel like there might be more to that story, or maybe a fake archaeology zine that may need to happen in the future. For now, I am so excited that the zine library has moved into my neighborhood, and I hope to visit often, read tons of zines, donate extra zines from my collection, and hopefully see more zine-related events in the future. There used to be so much of a zine presence in Boston, and I miss that.

Something Sweet at the WSAC on November 4th

2011-10-25T10:48:00.005-04:00

Hi readers! If you are local to Somerville/Cambridge/Boston and are free on November 4th, stop by Something Sweet at the Washington Street Art Center.

The WSAC is hosting an art auction and dessert buffet to benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition. Over 20 local artists have donated work for the show, and you can bid to take home your favorite piece. I am donating a giclee print of one of my favorite drawings, this one:

Yes, a print of this drawing could live at your house. Totally exciting, right?

The event is Friday November 4th from 6-9pm, and admission is $10 or a donation of canned food or new clothes. Hope to see you there!

Upcoming art shows + appearances

2011-09-23T10:55:00.002-04:00

Friends! I wanted to alert you to a bunch of art events I'm involved with in the next few weeks. Come see some art!

September 24 (TOMORROW): MICE (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) in Porter Square, 10-6. I will have copies of META and Miss Sequential.

October 1: Tangled group show at the Washington Street Art Center in Union Square, Somerville, MA. I have an embroidered piece in this show. The opening is from 7-10pm.

October 4: I also have a piece in a taco-themed art show in honor of National Taco Day! At Cantina La Mexicana in Union Square, Somerville, MA at 6pm.

wonder what i know now

2011-09-15T21:54:00.007-04:00

Did I tell you about when I went to the Jejune Institute? What about the adventures that followed? If you read Miss Sequential #3, I mentioned a little bit about it in my stories of exploring San Francisco, but I didn't want to spoil the details for anyone else who might want to participate. Well, if you were curious about what I was talking about very mysteriously in that zine, or if you participated and were curious about other people's impressions of the whole thing, you will be happy to hear that I joined creative forces with Carolee and we made a beautiful zine about our experience.

From Carolee's description:

The Jejune Institute opened in 2008, running its covert third-space reclamation project until the spring of 2011, when the Games of Nonchalance culminated in a day-long Socio-Reengineering Seminar held at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco. Part cult, part art project, and part Alternate Reality Game, the Jejune Institute defied categorization and definition, particularly for those who were its most deeply involved participants.

This zine is an amalgamation of experience and rumination. There is no way it can provide a comprehensive portrait of all the Games of Nonchalance were or tried to be. It merely scratches the surface of all the mystery and mind-fuckery that followed.

This zine was made in time for this year's San Francisco Zine Fest, and when I say "in time for," I really do mean "in the nick of time for" ... up until two days before I was sending Carolee bits and pieces and maps and my version of the cover (of which there are two: two front covers), and then she expertly assembled it, in record time, into this amazing, thoughtful artifact of our experience. I enjoyed seeing it for the first time as a reader would, which was a unique experience in itself.

At present, the zine is available through Carolee's website, superdilettante. While you are there, do take some time to peruse her other projects, all of which are thought-provoking, beautifully-made, and generally remarkable.

San Francisco Zine Fest: this weekend!

2011-09-01T21:38:00.002-04:00

Readers, if you happen to be in the Bay Area this weekend, you should most certainly stop by the San Francisco Zine Fest, which is being held at the SF Fair Building in Golden Gate Park (near the botanical gardens! go wander around there, too! it is otherworldly!). I have been to this fair for the past two years and it is a fantastic, fun, and exceedingly well-run event with zines and comics for every (yes, every!) interest.

I will not be in attendance this year, but my latest project I alluded to in my previous post will debut at the zine fest. Yes, it's true! The topic of my latest zine is very much connected to San Francisco, and so my friend Carolee will have a limited number of copies available at her table. Do stop by!

If you, like me, will not be in SF this weekend, do not fret! I will make a blog post about my new zine with ordering info this coming Monday, also known as Labor Day, also known as a great day to lay on the couch and watch a Dirty Jobs and/or SVU marathon on tv.

Old zines, new zines

2011-08-22T11:11:00.003-04:00

Hi readers! It's been a while. While I was having a summer, Miss Sequential was reviewed in an article in the Library Journal focusing on out-of-retirement zine-makers. You can read it here.

And another thing! I've been working on a new zine. It's a little different from past issues, but not completely. I'm not going to tell you what it's about just yet, but here's a photo from yesterday's layout session.

Look for an announcement on this blog (probably next week) on where you can get a copy!

New project: Draw Your Vegetables

2011-06-13T09:48:00.003-04:00

It's summertime in the northern hemisphere, and for many of us that means more fresh vegetables, finally. Because this is my first year participating in a CSA, I thought it would be cool to draw my vegetables each week. Not only will this help me to keep a record of the veggies and fruits received (so in planning for next year, this is good "was it worth it" evidence), but it will get me thinking about seasonal recipes and what the heck to do with 20 heads of lettuce (instinct: run away screaming).

Keeping in mind that many people eat more vegetables this time of year, I thought it would be cool to start up a Flickr group called Draw Your Vegetables, a chance to share the contents of your crisper every week (or as often as you'd like to draw them). So whether you participate in community-supported agriculture, visit a local farm stand or farmer's market, grow your own vegetables in your yard, or go to the local supermarket, please join us. All of these vegetables should be drawn!

Orderly Disorder tour poster

2011-06-12T17:59:00.004-04:00

It's been a busy few weeks! In the midst of everything, I agreed to draw this flier for Orderly Disorder: Zinester Librarians in Circulation Tour, a nine-city tour of the southeast and midwest by a crew of zinester librarians in a magical zinemobile. The tour starts off in two Sundays from New Orleans, and makes stops in Atlanta, Murfreesboro TN, Pittsburgh, Cleveland... well, you get the idea. See the website for details.

The group didn't have a set idea for the poster, so they left it up to me to come up with a concept. I pictured the zinemobile as an ice cream truck with wings and lots of zines fluttering around, so that's what we've got here. There was an awful lot of text to fit in, so I alternated a few different styles of hand-drawn type to create an hierarchy of information and to look cool. I also incorporated the list of stops and participants typed on my typewriter, which gave it an old-school cut-and-paste zine look.

The zinemobile isn't coming within several states of where I am, but if you're in one of the cities it plans to visit, be sure to check the blog for more info. The zinester librarians will be reading from their own work, which should be really cool.

Owls!

2011-06-06T13:42:00.004-04:00

I've been waiting for ages to be able to show this to you. Several months ago, a friend of the family (actually my sister's oldest friend--I think they've been pals since kindergarten) contacted me about designing baby shower invitations for her sister. They wanted to use an owl theme, and they didn't have too many requirements besides that, so I was free to add what I thought would work best. This is what I came up with.

They also wanted me to design a thank-you note that could be sent to party guests following the shower. We agreed that I shouldn't reinvent the wheel, so I traced the owls from the invite and kept it simple.

I had drawn the initial illustrations in ink, and then colored them with watercolor. In order to keep the watercolor effect, I printed all the invitations and thank-you notes on my home inkjet printer. This was possible because we didn't need too many invites/thank you cards, but for a larger print run I'd definitely consider using a printing service in the future. I love printing and comping, but I also like taking a break while someone else takes care of all that stuff, you know? Catch a movie or something. Anyway, the cards all turned out great, everyone loved them, and it was a fun little project for early Spring.

Interview on the Craftland blog today

2011-06-03T12:12:00.002-04:00

Exciting news: today I am the featured artist on the Craftland blog.

Craftland is a store in Providence, Rhode Island, that sells items made by indie designers, many from New England and others from faraway lands. Craftland has carried my goods in their special holiday sale for the past few years, and they currently carry a lot of my handmade items in their year-round shop. It has always been a great experience working with them, and they have helped me bring my work to a larger audience, so when they asked if they could interview me for the blog, I said OF COURSE.

The interview features lots of discussion about my work space, philosophizing about winner medals, some stuff about my zine history, and other topics. There is also a photo of me looking cool as a cucumber drinking a beer from a glass (fancy!!) at Vesuvio Cafe in San Francisco. Vesuvio is directly across Jack Kerouac Alley from City Lights bookstore, and with all those Beat poet connections it is an ideal place for being cool. Just saying.

Thank you Craftland! And thank YOU for reading.

Attn: zine readers! Many Mails!

2011-06-02T09:32:00.003-04:00

Dear people who have read my latest zine, Miss Sequential #4,

Thank you for reading! I wanted to assure you that I was not kidding about the mini-zine that you could get from me if you sent a SASE. Here is a photo, so you will know it is real:

Look at that cover paper. Fancy! This is a zine of drawings of all the mail I sent out from January-March 2011. Yes, I drew all those mails.

And I should say that SASE is the ONLY way you can get one of these mini zines. They're not going to distros, they're not going to be with the rest of my zines in my Etsy shop.

If you haven't read Miss Sequential #4, you can order it here.

If you want to read the mini Many Mails zine only, you can send a SASE (or an IRC if you're outside the USA) to:

Marissa Falco
65 Newton Street #2
Somerville, MA 02143

Note: Zine dimensions are about 4 x 4.5 inches, so any envelope that will accommodate that will be perfect. If you are in the USA, a 44-cent stamp will be sufficient.

Open studios April 30 + May 1: one more thing!

2011-04-29T20:09:00.002-04:00

Friends! I received a question from someone about whether or not you should bring your own supplies for the letter-writing party at my open studio tomorrow and Sunday. This is the deal:

I have made some special-for-the-event stationery AND postcards which you are welcome to use. I will be digging through my paper stash for some coordinating envelopes. I also received a donation of some stationery from the Letter Writers Alliance from their recent letter-writing party and it is very cool. You can use that, too. No charge for any of this stuff, by the way.

However, if there is a special paper you want to use, or maybe you write all your notes to friends on Atlantic City postcards or something clever like that, well you are certainly welcome to bring it for yourself. Either way, no problem!

And I will also have a selection of stamps available, in case you need one. Because if you're gonna write a letter, you're gonna want to mail it.

Ok! See you tomorrow, or maybe Sunday!

Miss Sequential #4

2011-04-29T08:24:00.006-04:00

Miss Sequential #4 is now available! Subtitled Outgoing: My Life in Mail, this issue of Miss Sequential chronicles the way in which the mail (the US Postal Service, pen pals, etc.) has figured prominently in my life from birth to the present. It is an autobiography framed by the act of correspondence. It is entirely hand-written, as though a letter from me to you.

You can get my zine through my shop on Etsy, although if you need to arrange purchase another way just contact me at thimblewinder at gmail dot com and we'll work something out.

And of course, this zine will most definitely be available at this weekend's Open Studio + Letter-Writing party, which is tomorrow and Sunday.

FILL-anthropic

2011-04-26T14:28:00.003-04:00

I forgot to post about this earlier!

This is a logo I created for FILL-anthropic, an organization started by one of my friends from home, Karen Gilbransen. We worked together to come up with a logo concept that would suggest a glass-half-full optimism about doing your part to make a difference in our hometown community of Willimantic, Connecticut.

The logo was created in black and white to keep printing costs minimal (flyers and postcards can be printed on any photocopier) and to keep the beverage generic (though if we're being honest, mine would have to be one of the house brews from the Willimantic Brewing Company). A color version could be an easy change in the future.

From the organization's Facebook page:

Raising money for local non-profits is as easy as going out for a drink and leaving a donation. It really is that simple. Once a month we meet at the Willimantic Brewing Company, spend time with friends and meet new ones. We ask for a donation of $5. That money goes to a local organization that we choose.

Lynda! Barry!

2011-04-16T14:52:00.002-04:00

Lynda! Barry!, a photo by thimblewinder on Flickr.

Last night I went to see cartoonists Lynda Barry (One! Hundred! Demons!, What it Is) and Alison Bechdel (Fun Home) read from their work and discuss comics at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Right before the event, while people were still trickling into the auditorium, Lynda sat in the front row, re-braiding her hair and tying on a bright red bandanna. My hero.

Open studios April 30 + May 1

2011-04-13T20:26:00.004-04:00

It's that time again! Somerville Open Studios is in just a few weeks, and I will be showing my recent and older and maybe even FUTURE creations. And so will you.

Wait, what's this about you? That's right. Should you come visit my studio on April 30 or May 1 between the hours of noon and 6pm, you may very well create some art of your own. Making and sending mail is a big part of my creative process, so I've decided that my open studio should include a casual letter- (or postcard, or thank-you note) party, because good mail is something to be shared. Also, I am thinking about making brownies, which are also something to be shared.

In addition to the letter-writing business (and you don't have to if you don't want to), THERE WILL BE A NEW ZINE if that's your sort of thing. There is also a possibility of looking at some zine flats, and some stuff I'm not quite finished with, because process is cool, and I'm going to show some illustration work I've done this past year. I'm not sure what else, but it'll be fun.

You can find my location, a map, and an artist statement right here.

Brilliant Mistake + Your Secretary cover

2011-03-31T13:25:00.003-04:00

This is a zine cover I drew, commissioned for a valentine-themed split zine by Carrie of Brilliant Mistake and Jami of Your Secretary. They wanted something valentine-related, but kind of unexpected or campy, and we decided that rats in love was the right way to go. They were planning to have the cover silkscreened in one color of ink, so I took that into consideration when I was making the drawing. It was a fun project to work on, and I enjoyed reading the finished zine. I hear that you can get a copy of the zine from Quimby's Bookstore in Chicago.

I have another recently-finished illustration project I'll be able to share soon. Stay tuned!

Presidentine/New Year's 2011

2011-02-14T16:05:00.001-05:00

I accidentally wished a bunch of people "Happy 2001" instead of "Happy 2011" when addressing these cards to friends & family. Whoops.

Artists and their Bookshelves

2011-02-14T13:54:00.002-05:00

Today I was featured in a ginormous, image-heavy blog post about artists and their book collections and means of dis-/organization. My two bookshelves are featured, as well as a few words about what the collection means to me.

The author of the blog is the very talented Jessica Gowling, who makes awesome nature-inspired artwork.

Temporarily Out of Hibernation

2011-02-12T12:47:00.002-05:00

Hello readers! It's been a long winter, and there is still more to go! I've been laying low since the holidays, thinking about what I want to make next. I've been working on some illustration projects that I can't share just yet (soon, soon!) but rest assured there has been lots of art-making and project-planning happening on my couch if not in my studio.

I'm currently doing a lot of drawing (for me and for other people) and am working on a new zine.

If you like to plan in advance, you could mark April 30 and May 1 on your calendar. That weekend will be Somerville Open Studios, and I'll be exhibiting again this year. Here's a photo to give you a clue of what my projects this year will entail:

... more on that very soon!

Holiday closings / shop now if you're gonna

2010-12-13T10:24:00.002-05:00

Friends! A bit of consumerism this Monday morning. Just wanted to let you know that the Thimblewinder shop is closing NEXT Monday, 12/20, at noon. This gives you a week to do any pre-holiday shopping, and gives me time to mail things to you before I start my holiday holidaying.

I mean, maybe you need this scarf as modeled by Elvis, so that you're properly outfitted for a Blue Christmas:

Think about it.

Stuff I Made

2010-12-06T20:11:00.002-05:00

Hi all! Bazaar Bizarre was great, even though I have a cold I had a really great day. I wanted to let you know that there is a lot of stuff left over, so if you couldn't make it to the BBB in person, there is still an opportunity to check this stuff out in my etsy shop.

Bazaar Bizarre Boston this weekend!

2010-12-02T09:15:00.002-05:00

Hi guys! There hasn't been too much going on here lately because there's been so much going on in my studio lately. Bazaar Bizarre is this weekend, and I've been working on all kinds of stuff that YOU (yes. you.) can purchase for yourself or others on Sunday. Exciting! Here's a peek:

You may have heard about my winner medals, as I've been talking about them pretty much nonstop since I started making them this summer. But now, in addition to winner medals and CUSTOM winner medals, I'm putting winner medals on other things, like the pillow above, which I like to call "Sleep with a Winner" ha ha.

Oh yeah, and the custom winner medals will be in full effect at BBB this weekend. Because sewing them at the fair would be kind of nuts, I'm taking orders and will mail them to you by the following Monday. So you get a winner medal AND some mail. Brilliant!

What else? I'm still not done with the swimmers...

These are silkscreened cotton jersey scarves. They are SO soft and cozy, and work well for outdoor warmth as well as indoor accessorizing. I imagine it would also be nice to wear one of these scarves after you swim a heck of a race at a swim meet, just saying. I made a prototype for myself, and based on the reaction from my swim team I knew I had to make more. So these will be available at BBB, and I do expect to make more in the future.

So that's it! If you're in the Boston area (or anywhere in New England and like to road trip for crafts), you should stop by Bazaar Bizarre this weekend. Hope to see you there!

I drew this: Bazaar Bizarre poster thing

2010-11-18T16:39:00.002-05:00

Yup. Drawn for the Bazaar Bizarre Boston, with a back-to-school/reunion/cute school supply theme.

I just learned how to make Ben Day dot pattern in Photoshop (kind of shameful that it took me so long to look it up), so that's used here. Coooool.

What else? I have all these ideas for things I want to draw, but no time to draw them. So the list grows longer...

Crafty trunk show tomorrow!

2010-11-12T11:24:00.002-05:00

Attention Boston-and-nearby readers! I'm doing a trunk show at Magpie in Davis Square (in Somerville) tomorrow, 11/13.

Winner medals? Oh, yes, they will be yours.

This will be an assortment of crafty things I make, some of which would be awesome presents for other people or, let's be honest, for YOU, because you totally deserve an awesome present. I'm also bringing some stuff from past seasons (crowns, magic wands) which will be marked down. Party on a budget! You know it.

New zine! Miss Sequential #3

2010-09-12T21:19:00.003-04:00

Yes! A new zine!

I finished this one a few weeks ago, but then went on a 2-week road trip between San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR, making stops at both the Portland Zine Symposium and the San Francisco Zine Fest. It was awesome, and I intend to make a zine or comics about the adventure. But that's why you may just now be hearing about this.

Miss Sequential #3 is a 32-page zine about my trip to San Francisco in 2009, featuring lots of travel-journal writing, my drawings, and collages of ephemera I collected throughout the trip. This zine is much less strictly-comics than most of the things I've been working on lately, but it reminds me a lot of the zine I used to write, Red-Hooded Sweatshirt. I think it's great, and I am assured by those who have already read it that you will totally love it.

Now available from my etsy shop.

Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright

2010-09-11T11:31:00.002-04:00

Or, rather, OK.

Congratulations, you're OK! Maybe that's great, maybe it's a little cheeky; you decide. Available at the thimblewinder shop. I'm working on some more designs for these, and will be offering monogrammed ones (yes!!) very soon.

So what's the deal with the winner medals? Mostly I just like them. Also, in high school I had this penpal named Jeremy who lived in Massachusetts. He and his pals wrote this crazy zine called The Banana Revolution and gave out winner medals to deserving friends of the revolution. One autumn, Jeremy and his friend drove through my hometown on their way to see They Might Be Giants in New Haven, and called me from the pay phone at Walgreens to see if I wanted to hang out. My friend Liz and I met them at the Taco Bell next to the graveyard (Which sounds totally hot and dangerous, right? I can't believe my dad let me out of the house.), and they gave me a winner medal and took my soul. Just kidding about the soul part-- they were nice dudes, and we hung out in the parking lot and had awkward zinester conversation.

Visit the hell out of my table (please)

2010-07-12T13:37:00.004-04:00

So, if you have been reading Miss Sequential and wondering when you might get to see me LIVE and IN PERSON, I have good news for you. I'll be bringing my comics/zines/self/etc to a variety of fairs and fests this summer/fall:

THIS Saturday 7/17: Art Beat, Davis Square, Somerville MA (with the Bazaar Bizarre)

8/21: Bazaar Bizarre summer fair, Union Square, Somerville, MA

8/28 + 8/29: Portland Zine Symposium, Portland, OR

9/4 + 9/5: San Francisco Zine Fest, San Francisco, CA

9/25 + 9/26: The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (M.I.C.E.), Boston, MA

I'm planning to have some new stuff out in time for the late August/early September fairs, so stay tuned!

New zine!

2010-06-10T08:25:00.003-04:00

Yes, it's really true! I made a new zine.

31, as it is called, was originally conceived as a 31st-birthday party favor for not only my friends attending my birthday festivities (we went to the Barking Crab, it was AWESOME), but also all the faraway friends and family who I wished could be at my party, too. And after a bit of reworking, it's now available to everyone! That is pretty exciting.

Ordering details are available through etsy: ORDER 31 ZINE HERE, or if we're see-each-other-in-person types, you can hand me cash minus the shipping cost. YES.

As this is almost entirely collage and illustration, it's the first art zine I've made, and it's really taken me back to my cut-and-paste roots. I ran out of glue stick for the first time in about 6 years! Crazy.

Interviewed!

2010-05-31T20:31:00.003-04:00

So the nice folks over at the Barnard Zine Library interviewed me recently. I collected zines for much of my teens and twenties, and recently donated a large portion of that collection to the zine library's archives. You can read my thoughts on getting into zines, zines I've made, and the importance of archiving zine materials in a library setting here:

Barnard Zine Library: Donor Spotlight

Open Studios: it happened!

2010-05-27T12:35:00.003-04:00

Wow, I can't believe it's already been almost a month since Somerville Open Studios! I didn't get a chance to post right after the event, but I think it was a success. Thanks to my friends and family for stopping by, and also to all the neighbor-strangers who wandered through my apartment all weekend. You were all perfect guests!

The night before, my friend Jessie came over and we ordered a pizza and set to work setting up my apartment for the event. We came up with this display in my living room, so people could peruse the merchandise:

It was unseasonably warm on that Sunday, so I made sure to run out and grab a box of popsicles to have on hand for everyone who wandered in. Also, my friend Michelle made that container full of "Puppy Chow" (rice chex with chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar) and we snacked on that all weekend.

Jessie had the great idea to display all my original drawings from Miss Sequential #2 on a clothesline setup across my kitchen windows. People were really into it, and read all the panels as they snacked.

Finally, a quick snapshot of my studio, which was finally set up (after nearly nine months of living in this apartment) in time for this event. It's not this clean anymore!

I'll have more posts soon on the special paintings I made for open studios and the photocopying of a new zine project.

counting down the hours

2010-04-26T09:58:00.003-04:00

still working on stuff for open studios! hope to see you there! may 1 + may 2, which are swiftly approaching.

Getting ready for open studios

2010-04-22T09:56:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone! Not much posting in these parts lately, because I've been so busy making things for somerville open studios

Here's a sneak peek:

Open studios are May 1 + May 2. If you're in the area, you should stop by and see what I've been working on!

Stuff for sale!

2010-04-02T16:17:00.003-04:00

In preparation for open studios and postcard-sending season (you know, you should really send them year 'round, and some people do, but mostly they make the rounds when everyone's gone on summer vacation) I had a bunch of postcards made up from some of my drawings. They are all available in sets of five (five of the same card, no assortments just yet) from my etsy shop.

For you, blog readers, a preview:

We have the swimmers, because I love swimming:

We have the ray-of-sunshine-in-your-mailbox self portrait dedicated to anyone who is digging themselves out of SAD and/or just needs a little sunshine:

And, finally, we have the thank-you card that is either UNSPEAKABLY INSISTENTLY SINCERE, or ACTUALLY KIND OF A LITTLE CHEEKY, depending on who you are and who you send it to. Knowing me, it could be either, or, and all of the above on any given day. It all depends what you write on the back!

Coming soon: New postcards!

2010-03-25T16:22:00.002-04:00

Just in time for the postcard-writing season! Watch this space for more info: a selection of my drawings turned into postcards will be assembled into sets and available soon via my etsy shop. Probably next week.

rear window

2010-03-24T22:07:00.002-04:00

My friend Ericka broke her ankle a few weeks ago, and was fitted with a walking cast. Ericka is an avid photographer, and does a lot of photography around her city, Minneapolis. As she most often travels by bike or on foot, the boot has definitely been cramping her style. Last week she mentioned wishing she could get out and take more photos, but the boot was hampering her mobility. That instantly made me think of Jimmy Stewart's situation in "Rear Window," and I was inspired to make this drawing.

Sunshine Sometime

2010-03-14T21:35:00.002-04:00

It feels as though I've been drawing a lot lately, I just don't have a lot to show for it. This is a sketch I made over the winter, in efforts to make the winter blahs go away. Today I inked and painted it, and pretty soon it will be printed on notecards for me and mine and you and yours.

Right now I'm watching Beautiful Losers, a film about independent artists in the mid-1990s. It's amazing. I'm starting the part about Margaret Kilgallen, one of my biggest influences/inspirations, and it's just really great to see and hear her (and the other artists, too) talking about why they do this and where they're coming from. You know I draw swimmers, well, the other day I remembered Margaret painted some swimmers, too, and for a second it felt like such a tangible connection to someone I'll never get to meet, but whose art has influenced me for many, many years.

Working from Hoth

2010-02-22T18:35:00.003-05:00

At my place of work, if you should choose to take your laptop and work from home for the day, it is customary to leave a post-it note with the initials WFH (working from home) on the side of your cubicle.

A few weeks ago I was working from home and made some joke about it being more like working from Hoth, the ice planet from "The Empire Strikes Back." And then, of course, I knew I had to draw it.

This is my second recent piece starring me as Princess Leia. I have a feeling there will be more.

Happy 2010 and Presidentine's Day!

2010-02-20T17:47:00.003-05:00

This is what happens when your plans for holiday greeting cards fail, you are distracted when new year's rolls around, and you're not particularly into romantical Valentine's Day sentiments. Watercolor on watercolor paper.

Abe! I must draw you more often.

Hourly Comics 2010!

2010-02-03T23:22:00.000-05:00

Drawn for Hourly Comics Day, Feb 1, 2010.

The best new blog I forgot to mention here

2010-02-02T12:11:00.003-05:00

Not enough drawings in your life? Well, that, my friends, is about to change. For the year 2010, my friend Sarah Coyne and I are planning to draw something EVERY SINGLE DAY. It's a feat not to be underestimated, but I believe we are up to the challenge. We started January 1, and will be rolling through until the end of December. Follow us, or just check back in throughout the week: two-story sketchbook

Workin' for the Weekend

2010-02-01T07:31:00.002-05:00

Hi there! I've been out of commission for the better part of two weeks with a nasty cold. While I haven't been doing as much drawing lately (most of my time has been spent sleeping, watching the last few disks of Battlestar Galactica, and reading In the Woods by Tana French), last night I realized that before I got sick I forgot to scan this, um, tribute.

It took about five viewings of the classic SNL Chippendales audition skit to truly get Patrick Swayze's hips and the flop of Chris Farley's hair. Hopefully it's not too soon! Thanks for the laughs, guys.

Hey, dudes.

2010-01-20T19:38:00.003-05:00

Hello! The watercolor madness continues. This week I finished the above painting, which will be on display at the Hey, I Know That Guy portrait show at the WSAC this Saturday night in Somerville.

What else? I'm getting pieces together so I can install a bunch of them on Friday evening at Berryline in Harvard Square. I'm not sure how long they'll be up there, but swing by and have some yogurt and check 'em out.

AND the new zine/comic is now available in the thimblewinder shop.

Miss Sequential zine #2

2010-01-19T11:39:00.004-05:00

Yes! Here it is! Months in the making! Miss Sequential zine #2!

This issue is a daily comic version of my everyday September 2009. I wanted to try my hand at a daily comic for a couple of reasons:
1. I like reading daily comics, and find the minutiae of other people's daily lives interesting. i wanted to challenge myself to find something interesting about every one of my own days.
2. I was somewhat doubtful that I'd manage to make a second issue without something like a DRAW EVERY SINGLE DAY directive.

This zine is 36 pages, 5.5 inches square. Pricing is as follows:

$4 to be mailed to North America
$5 to be mailed somewhere outside North America

(if we see each other in person, you can hand me $3 and we'll call it even!)

Now available in my shop HERE.

Droid Daydream

2010-01-12T11:18:00.002-05:00

Again with the watercolors. Upon watching the first five minutes of Star Wars for research for this drawing (couldn't remember which arm is outstretched), I was reminded of how totally Girl Power Princess Leia is, and that I need to watch the trilogy in its entirety ASAP.

Crush cards (and prints) now available!

2010-01-09T13:11:00.002-05:00

Remember my crush painting from a few months back? Prints and these adorable card sets are now available from my Etsy shop. Check it out! Just in time for Valentine's Day or whenever you feel like letting someone know you care.

Special Delivery

2010-01-07T10:00:00.002-05:00

Drawn for the Draw Drawings Every Day show at the Washington Street Art Center in Somerville, MA. The opening is on Saturday and there is more info here.

Can't make it? Check out the GINORMOUS VERSION.

There Was a Dream and One Day I Could See It

2009-12-31T08:36:00.005-05:00

Ahhh, this drawing. Long story. When I moved in downstairs, Sarah made it her mission to convert me to listening to the Avett Brothers as constantly as she did. This took about one listen to their latest album, "I and Love and You," and I was totally sold. We went to see them in October and I was completely blown away and MAY have almost cried during their first song because it was so overwhelming. Awesome music, great performance, good-looking dudes.

Fast forward to me and Sarah having a typical conversation on instant messenger a short time later. The topic of "The Hottest Thing You Can Think of Right Now" was discussed. This was item #2: The Avett Brothers showing up on your front stoop with a basket of fresh eggs.

Stay tuned, there are more where this came from.

Happy new year!

Documentation of Historical Events

2009-12-28T11:43:00.003-05:00

This year I decided I wanted to give mostly handmade gifts for the holiday season. This would allow me to spend more time than usual making things (since it's for someone else, I have to put in the time!), and not go too crazy, budget-wise. Of course, I underestimated the time needed to hand-sew the binding on a quilt for my parents (next time I'll know to plan for my initial estimate plus 3-5 hours), which cut into my time for other projects. With a strict deadline looming, I knew I had to sit down and draw until it was done:

This is a portrait of my grandfather Edward in the Army in 1944, just after receiving a medal at Anzio Beach. He recently sent me a few photos of himself from that era, and I was excited to use them as drawing inspiration. After one disappointing attempt at a realistic drawing, I decided to go with my heart and make it cartoony. My grandfather loved the drawing, but told me that I'd drawn him wearing the wrong boots. It's ok, he didn't make me re-draw them.

I've enjoyed playing around with some watercolor for the shading and am going to try to implement that in a few more projects I'm working on right now. Color can feel so daunting when you're used to working in just black and white, but I like the challenge of stretching a limited palette to its full potential.

Prints now available!

2009-12-16T19:48:00.004-05:00

Bazaar Bizarre was great, and I've finally had a chance to list all the good stuff that was left over from the sale. Namely: prints! I made prints of a bunch of my favorite drawings from this blog. You can check them out at thimblewinder.com

Also, today I signed up for Somerville Open Studios! That's not until May, so stay tuned for more info over the next few months. I'm sure I'll have a lot of photos of my process to share.

progress!

2009-12-01T07:20:00.004-05:00

I've been ridiculously busy working on stuff to sell at Bazaar Bizarre Boston this Sunday! I don't even want to think about how many hours I've spent hand-sewing little projects in front of the television.

At this point, my inventory of finished projects includes sixty of these little guys you saw in my last post:

Silkscreening + hand-sewing = the proper balance of assembly-line and time-consuming.

If you can't make it to the Bazaar Bizarre, don't worry, anything that's left over will be up in my thimblewinder shop on Monday.

More about BBB later!

and now for something mostly related

2009-11-24T14:55:00.002-05:00

hi! it's just under two weeks until the famed bazaar bizarre boston and i'm hard at work making all kinds of tiny delights. traditionally most of the crafts i make for the bazaar bizarre are sewn, but this year my goal was to include MUCH more of my illustration in my creations. for example, these little squares of felt that will become holiday ornaments. i drew the ornament, and then silkscreened them onto the fabric:

i've been doing some illustration for the bazaar, too:

Now featured on the Charmingwall blog!

2009-10-30T08:31:00.002-04:00

Hey guys! A quick post to let you know that I am a featured artist at the blog over at Charmingwall, the big gallery behind the Six By Six gallery.

You can read the interview HERE.

Also, in other super exciting news, the Six By Six Gallery is keeping my painting up for another month, so if you're in the city you can stop by to see it through the month of November. Woohoo!!

portrait of the artist with a portrait of the artist

2009-10-20T15:55:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, Sarah and I took the Bolt Bus to NYC to see our paintings on display at the 6x6 gallery and run around the city. New York was, as always, a playground of awesome and a delight for the senses. We visited a few of my favorite places and I finally got to go see Mood (terrifyingly full of fabric!).

Early in the afternoon we made it over to the gallery, which is deep in the East Village. Seeing my painting in the gallery was great! I don't show often, so it's always a thrill to see something I made hanging up for all the world to see.

I'm working on tons of stuff right now, so expect more posts very soon!

halloweening

2009-10-05T09:21:00.002-04:00

Drawn for the Halloween party at my place of work. Last year I started using the "monster colleagues" theme, and people really liked it, and I really liked depicting office workers as monsters, so here is a new werewolf for this year. I think his confused expression and the eyeball are my favorite parts. The eyeball is a shout-out to the Shel Silverstein poem about the eyeball in the gumball machine. You remember, right? It's right between the red and the green, looking at me as if to say, "you shouldn't have any more gum today."

sneak peek: new zine coming soon!

2009-10-02T15:34:00.003-04:00

hi there! well, september is over and i have been keeping so busy. so busy, in fact, that not only did i do things every day, but i also drew pictures of what i did every day. it's true! check out a couple of sneak previews of my upcoming zine, miss sequential #2: sequential september.

the new zine should be out this month, as soon as i finish scanning and editing and copying and stapling. stay tuned!

crush

2009-09-16T13:03:00.002-04:00

Something new! A painting for the Six by Six Gallery in NYC. I haven't received confirmation of when it will be on display, but I'll be sure to post about that.

Other exciting stuff lately:

- Getting Miss Sequential #1 into stores! If you have a suggestion of a place that might carry it, let me know. Want your own copy? I still have some! Check out the ordering info HERE.

- Working on a daily comic for the whole month of September... phew! I was so good about doing these, but am a little behind this week. I've been taking notes and I'm sure I'll get back on track. This is shaping up to be a nice little zine in itself, probably available in print sometime in October.

Thirsty Thursday drawings

2009-09-02T11:00:00.002-04:00

My work has a monthly social hour called "Thirsty Thursday," for which I get to design the flyers and email ads. For a while I was doing these kind of sleek type-only ads, but then sometime this spring I decided I needed to inflict my silly drawings upon my colleagues:

This one was for August. Timely and topical, as both fresh produce and vampiric vegetables represent.

This one was for July. I was going for a Don Johnson/Hawaiian tourist kind of thing. Monochromatic because I like using up all of one color ink in the printer, and because I seem to have a fondness for cyan lately.

SF zine fest!

2009-09-01T17:36:00.003-04:00

That's my table at the SF Zine Fest! That event was basically the one thing (besides the harassment from my friends) that made me REALLY REALLY sit down and make a new zine after such a long hibernation between issues. I finished the zine two nights before the fest, and copied/stapled it the day before the fest. It was basically my exact zine-making method from college, but with less panicked, sleep deprived chatter and fewer chicken fingers. And it happened! I printed it! It exists!

The fact that the zine exists at all kind of freaks me out, to be honest. It's been a long time since I made something for group consumption (brownies and holiday cards excluded). There is barely any writing, because I've discovered that printing words post-journalism-school makes me hugely nervous. Somehow I can send out a zine with scritchy drawings and wonky margins, but I can't conceive of writing much of anything and feeling super about it (yes! blog! i know!). Maybe someday I will come to peace with all those journalism school ghosts. Is it weird that when I write something informally, I see the faces of my old professors looking at me critically? Yes, I'll draw that, too.

So anyway, the fest! It was a lot of fun. In some ways it felt like I'd never stopped making zines at all. It was completely natural to me to roll up, set up my table, stare at people across the room, and deal with the weird people (present company excluded) who inevitably show up at these things and blow my mind. I met some people who read my old zines, who remembered me, which was terribly exciting. I met some people I'd only heard about in passing, but who were, like, BIG DEALS in the zine world. I made faces at the people across the aisle from me. There was some gossip. Just like old times! Thank you, SF Zine Fest, for the unstated "good to have you back."

So now that I've sent out nearly my entire first print run, I've been thinking about what to do next. I want to make a travel issue, with comics about all the adventures I've been on in recent years. Also? Kind of thinking it would be cool to do a daily comic for the month of September, just to keep the habit of drawing. I'm not saying I'm gonna post it every day, but maybe once a week? Should be interesting, right?

New zine!

2009-08-28T11:46:00.002-04:00

Hello again! I've been super busy this month, working on an exciting project... a new zine!

Miss Sequential #1 is 20 pages of mostly comics and drawings, with a little bit of writing as well. Topics include things I've been thinking about and things that have happened to me. Everything has been drawn or written by hand! And there's only one page that's a "rerun" from this blog, but it's been reworked rather nicely.

You can get one for $2, which includes postage. I accept Paypal to thimblewinder at gmail dot com. If you don't have Paypal, you should email me at that address and we can work something out.

This is the first zine I've made in something like EIGHT YEARS. Which is completely crazy, in that I used to make zines once a month (or so) when I was in high school. It was tough to get going again, but now that I've printed this issue, I'm really excited to make another one.

Look for another post later this weekend! I just returned from San Francisco, where I attended the SF Zine Fest, and I have lots to say about that.

drawings for other people

2009-08-03T19:40:00.001-04:00

Hello! It's been a while. I'm not sure what I've been up to since drawing all those portraits back in February, I think I needed a break after doing all that drawing.

Now that summertime is here and the days are longer, I've decided to try incorporating more drawing into my everyday life. One way I've been doing this is by taking the pressure off, doing mostly quick sketches and doodles. For instance, the portrait of my dad, drawn on an envelope I was mailing him last month:

And the going-away card I made for my friend Gretchen, who is working in France for the summer:

Here's a postcard I made for my friend Thara (pictured on the right):

Here's a postcard I made for my friend Ericka, who remarked that she didn't have to leave her bed in order to run errands around Minneapolis:

(those last two are drawn on these great 8x10" corrugated cardboard flats the production people throw out, and we designers scoop up, at my work)

And one last drawing, for me, rendered with ballpoint pen on the styrofoam take-out containter from Uno's:

I'm moving apartments this week, but I do have more to share, so expect another post very soon!

The Sketchbook Project

2009-02-23T23:46:00.003-05:00

This, my friends, got a little out of control in the very best way possible.

About a month or so ago, I joined a project called the Sketchbook Project, a brainstorm of the guys at Art House Coop. Fill a Moleskine sketchbook with artwork based on the theme "Everyone We Know"? Alright, this I can do.

I decided to illustrate 32 of my Facebook friends' status messages in my own cartoon/caricature style. Over the course of several weeks, I collected the most interesting (drawing-wise) status updates and logged them in a notebook. I then set out to illustrate the best of the list.

I'm lucky my friends have such weird adventures.

I like to challenge myself, and I decided that 32 drawings in about a month in a 3x5-inch sketchbook was KIND OF challenging (ha). But I also decided to limit myself to drawing as quickly as possible--this helped me to get my ideas on the paper quickly, and stopped me from getting too critical about composition (which I couldn't afford to do with 32 drawings to do). These are meant to be sketchy and simple, and I think they worked out well.

One of the most fun aspects of this project was getting to draw people I've always wanted to draw, and getting to draw a few friends/acquaintances who do a lot of drawing themselves! (like missy, below, who draws all kinds of awesome comics and illustrations)

To see the whole set, check out my flickr here: Sketchbook by Marissa Falco

To learn more about The Sketchbook Project and the touring exhibit, go here: the Sketchbook Project

Pretty Swim Caps for the City Swimmers

2009-02-17T17:00:00.004-05:00

Design for new team swim caps for my swim team, the Boston City Swimmers. We'll be printing them in dark blue ink on orange caps; this is my first design for swim caps. It's not all that different from designing a t-shirt (and those may be next).

We're gonna look so fierce at our next meet!

initial sighting of the guinea-corn

2009-01-20T13:50:00.003-05:00

this was an image i had tumbling around in my head for a while, after seeing this scene in a dream over a year ago. finally all sorts of things aligned (the image, starting to paint, hearing about the upcoming cute show) and it's come together as a painting! this is the largest one i've made yet, it's something like 14 x 18 and i'm having a hard time finding a box to mail it to the gallery...

oh yeah! it'll be on display at ellO gallery in portsmouth, new hampshire, as part of their "cute show" (not the death and destruction one, hahaha, that's another painting waiting to happen... revenge of the guinea-corn, perhaps?) during the month of february.

amelia's sinuses

2009-01-18T10:35:00.003-05:00

a new painting i made for a show at the washington street arts center in somerville. it was a short show, but a great combination of ideas, styles, and techniques.

amelia is painted in acrylics atop a layer of decoupaged book pages, all on canvas.

more soon!

eta: megan let me know about this cool time lapse video of the exhibit...

bazaar bizarre boston!

2008-11-24T11:42:00.000-05:00

what i've been up to lately. i am involved in organizing as well as selling stuff this year, so i have been super-busy! here's the flyer i made for the event.

halloween, corporate style

2008-10-16T14:22:00.005-04:00

i'm on the social committee at the publishing company where i work, and every year our work throws a pretty excellent halloween party for employees and their kids. this year i was in charge of flyers and invitations, so one afternoon i sat down with a sharpie and sketched out these monster co-workers:

then i scanned them into the computer and colored them in photoshop. i decided to keep the flyers simple, because of the simple drawing style. (you're not seeing the entire flyer because most of the rest of it is boring details including my work's name, my work's address, and really i need to stop getting so much fan mail there. i'm sure you understand.)

i am secretly hoping that someone will pull me aside and very seriously ask me if i used them for inspiration for any of my characters. "am i the werewolf on three?!" 'fraid so.

something spooky is brewing

2008-10-10T13:30:00.002-04:00

More long-distance murals for Eastern Perk (701 Main Street in Willimantic, CT). I'm not sure if they've had a chance to hang them yet, but I do know Karen likes it when I write about things.

Fun fact: Did you know that when I was in 3rd grade, I won a Halloween drawing contest and had my portrait of Dracula printed in the Willimantic Chronicle? That likeness was much scarier than this one, but that's ok; we don't want to scare the customers away. If my mom still has a copy of my 3rd grade Dracula, I'll try to scan it in and post it here.

I briefly considered giving this Dracula a red mug with red steam, but that's just gross. Too much True Blood lately, folks.

Who are these mysterious Perk patrons? Beats me, I just draw 'em.

I have known there to be several haunted places in the Willimantic area, and just want to say, in case any ghosts are reading this over anyone's shoulder, Hello, welcome, thanks for mostly not scaring the bejeezus out of me, and I know this isn't what you look like, it's just a Halloween thing.

more movies i've watched

2008-10-05T22:48:00.002-04:00

i still don't know what to say about "the dark knight" except i really enjoyed it, but am still not ready to see it again. it was intense.

sorry seth rogen and james franco: i'm sure you're fun to draw, but MIA's song "paper planes" has been stuck in my head since i saw the first preview for your movie. also, i just about cried when you guys were in the woods: so brilliantly ridiculous.

p.s. fun fact: i would never wear a ski mask because i find them TOTALLY SCARY. file along with fright masks and clowns under the category "disguises that mostly freak me out." see also: most wigs.

barack steady

2008-09-26T11:29:00.005-04:00

let me break it down for you, friends: sometimes i need to get a little political.

sometimes a public figure is too entirely perfect a candidate for a marissa-made portrait. sometimes it takes me months and months to be able to get the drawing-in-my-head to commit itself to paper. this one has been bouncing around in my brain for a few months. today i give you barack steady, a 1.25" button (pin, badge, what have you) in celebration of the man himself. not only did i design the button, but i assembled them on megan & sarah's button machine, fueled by chicken pot pie and HOPE. i am rather thrilled with how they came out.

this is a limited edition of 96 buttons (with a possible second edition to come, should there be a need), and one of them can be yours! i'm asking for a $1 donation per button, and all donations will go to obama/biden '08.

if you're someone i see in person, you can just hand me a dollar and i'll hand you a button.

if you're a faraway friend, ordering info is thus: buttons are $1 each with an additional $1 shipping. the $1 shipping covers the cost of postage/envelope and will cover up to 10 buttons. so if you order 3 buttons, you send me $3 for the buttons + $1 postage = $4. cool? payments can be sent to me via paypal to thimblewinder@gmail.com. if you don't have paypal, kindly email me at that same email address and we'll figure something out.

edited to add: hello readers from http://blacksnob.blogspot.com! ~~i have currently sold out of the first batch of these buttons (as of 10/5), but will have more available in about a week.~~

buttons back in stock as of 10/11. get 'em while they're still here!

summer & andy are getting hitched!

2008-09-17T09:01:00.003-04:00

this is a project i've been working on for a few months, and it's finally finished! my friends summer and andy are getting married this autumn, and requested wedding save-the-date cards and invites in comic strip form. you know how much i love drawing my friends in cartoon form, so of course i said yes.

first up was the save-the-date, which they wanted to have printed up as a postcard. they came up with the copy and the general concept of featuring their vintage airstream trailer (hitched, get it?), and supplied copious reference photos. i did a lot of drawing, and was really happy to hear that the only edit they wanted me to make to my initial sketch was to make andy's beard more robust!

then it was on to the invitation, a much more involved creation. we went back and forth on format, size, and pretty much everything else for a few months. unfortunately, if you're going to draw a comic that you want to print at 100%, you have to know things like trim size and know that they're not going to change. once that detail was ironed out, they supplied the copy and the art direction for the various frames, as well as many, many reference photos. the first two frames they had very specific requests as to the identical shoes they were wearing when they first met (old school vans) and the jazz club where they eventually fell in L-U-V (jazzy, crowded). the direction for the last panel was, "... and then i want it to end in a WEDDING EXPLOSION. you know what i mean."

i've heard that their 3-year-old nephew was the first to realize that summer and andy's dogs had made it to the wedding illustration. but of course!

i think it turned out pretty well! summer had it printed offset on french paper muscletone (very hefty) in a chocolate-brown ink. there's copy on the back, too, which was set in estilo script, a font i got from veer that captured the fancy-but-fun aesthetic of the wedding.

a couple of days before printing, we realized that there was a need for an rsvp postcard, too. i decided to keep it simple, and snagged the gorilla drummer from the invitation to make a cameo here:

this was a great project, made especially enjoyable by working with friends who were totally into having fantastic invites. i most appreciated when, after showing them my second sketch of the invite, i said "it's going to be much more detailed than this when i ink it, TRUST ME." and they did.

congrats-in-advance, friends! i am very much looking forward to attending your wedding explosion.

caricatures from the castle

2008-09-08T12:49:00.004-04:00

I've been so busy with projects lately! One of them is still top-secret (ah, the nature of other people's wedding invites), but this is one I can show you. I think I mentioned that I'm one of the organizers of the Bazaar Bizarre Boston this year. One of my duties so far has been drawing stuff to promote the event (which is on December 7th from 12-7, so you'd better be there!), and this is a sample of such. These are the little icons we use to personalize our posts on the Bazaar Bizarre blog. The crowns are important, since the fair will be at The Castle at Park Plaza this year. I don't think it's much of a stretch to say it will be royally entertaining.

paintings

2008-08-27T13:35:00.002-04:00

for some reason i never got into painting. something about the lack of control of the brushes, the lack of lines outlining everything, the idea of being patient and letting it dry... never really appealed. also, i felt like i had no good ideas of what to paint once the paints were out there in front of me.

but then i ended up planning/curating an art show at my work (so i needed to bring in something i made), and my friend millie said something really funny that i knew i had to draw, and the planets aligned and i made this:

it's dinner with el chupacabra, of course. it came out exactly as silly as i hoped it would. the color is a little bit off on-screen, but you get the idea. funny stuff.

and then, because i can't just make ONE of anything, i made this:

shoe shopping with bigfoot

i'm not sure how much i'll be able to paint (takes time and ideas!) or how much i'll paint vs. draw in the future, but i had so much fun making these and feel like there may be at least a few more paintings in me.

summertime movies 2008

2008-08-10T21:50:00.003-04:00

this summer i've been watching a lot of movies. sure, ticket prices are higher than ever, but i can think of no better way to spend a sweltering summer day away from my apartment. this is the first installment of illustrated impressions of the films i've been watching. and on to the summer blockbusters!

stepbrothers, starring will ferrell and john c. reilly. sophomoric gross-out humor? CHECK!!! i liked this movie because it was completely ridiculous. watch out for the sleepwalking scenes, some of my favorites.

mama mia, starring amanda seyfried, meryl streep, and about twenty other famous people. i don't like musicals, but i do like ABBA and several of the actors/actresses in this movie, so it was enjoyable. it was appropriately silly and fun, and the only thing that would have made it better was if it were a singalong (attention theatres: do it!!!).

the x-files: i want to believe, starring david duchovny, gillian anderson, and isn't that really enough? i had suspicions that this movie would be terrible, honestly. i was a huge x-files fan when it was on the air, and felt that i couldn't go without seeing this movie... happily, although it featured zero aliens and nearly as many weird monsters, it was decent and i mostly enjoyed it. "mostly" because it really didn't capture what was so wonderful about the series, which was the overwhelming feeling of possibility. this movie was very grounded and realistic, considering that this is the series that once had a storyline about people being possessed by an extraterrestrial being that leeched into their eyes in the form of a swirly black oily substance. some wacky stuff, but nothing like that.

graphic design nerdery

2008-08-06T11:33:00.003-04:00

this post isn't something i drew, and it's not even related to comics at all. it is, however, a hilarious-to-me scene from the movie "american psycho."

i went to see this movie when it came out, but the hilarity of this discussion was (mostly) lost on me until i started working in graphic design. i saw part of this movie the other day (due to the new batman movie, it seems like there are tons of christian bale movies on lately... no objections here!) and realized just how great this scene is:

bazaar bizarre promotion

2008-08-03T18:57:00.002-04:00

i'm helping out with some duties for the bazaar bizarre boston this year... my first project was designing these fans to promote the event to vendors and customers at the art beat festival last month in somerville, ma. this has been a fun project so far, and there is lots more to come!

anticipation

2008-07-14T21:48:00.001-04:00

more murals more murals more

2008-07-07T21:43:00.002-04:00

bits and pieces of another mural i made for eastern perk coffee shop in willimantic, ct

these are acrylic on kraft paper, since i'm painting them long distance it's the best way we've found to go about it.

more soon!

Hark, is that rustling taffeta I hear?

2008-06-07T21:48:00.004-04:00

Prom season, yo. It is upon us, I suppose, if you are in high school or you are the chaperone sort. Recently I was talking with my friend Courtney (see her high school self in row 3 of the below) about this comic, and after I emailed it to her, I decided it deserved a post here.

So, the prom: I'd been looking forward to it for mostly fashion reasons for a while. Around the time we had to buy tickets, my friends and I realized that those cool dudes we knew from ska shows probably weren't going to go with us, and that our best pals (in other grades, from other schools) really would be the best prom dates ever. And so it went:

Footnotes:
a) Courtney didn't end up going with us to prom after all. I think she had mono or something?

b) That t-shirt i'm wearing was handmade by me in graphic arts class (really one of my first PROPER graphic design experiences). It was the label/sticker on the records in the triple-seven-inch version of Cub's "Come Out, Come Out" album. The silkscreen process was totally dope, with THREE color separations (violet, magenta, and lime green) and I made one for me and one for my penpal Mara who took me around NYC to see some of the sights mentioned in the Cub song "New York City." Wow, that's quite a footnote!

c) Other funny things I am wearing: vintage polyester warmup jacket I found in a box in the hall at school, the same glasses I still wear, the yellow mini-cardigan I picked out at Urban Outfitters in the big city (ie. Boston), which I got as a birthday present from my parents. The dress in the ska show scene is amalgamation of all the mod dresses I wore in that era.

Don't worry, old-timer! You can see the super-ginormo size here, to inspect all my crosshatching and continuity issues.

ballad of the long-distance muralist

2008-06-01T23:57:00.003-04:00

my friend karen recently opened up a coffeeshop in our fine hometown of willimantic, ct. in preparation for said coffeeshop, karen asked me to draw a few things for her.

there is a long history of me drawing things for karen, in fact we first became friends when she was directing a production of "alice in wonderland" at my high school, and i was working on sets and costumes. "i need a tree bleeding color," she said, "i saw the tree in a dream, and that's what it needs to look like. can you make that?" and i did. there were other drawings, and projects, after that.

this project was a little bit different (no bleeding trees involved), we wanted to make a mural that would be a little bit new yorker cartoon, but in color, but not realistic color, and incorporate the eastern perk logo: a steaming cup of the day's brew. here's what i came up with:

and! the window murals have gone over VERY well with the shop's visitors, so there may be more of these guys in the future. i've been sent back to boston with a roll of kraft paper and license to draw even more colorful coffeeshop patrons.

inspiration: how to make a repeating pattern

2008-05-12T10:50:00.001-04:00

as seen on http://www.designspongeonline.com/

how to make a repeating pattern

inspiration! so i won't forget.

the artist as an organ grinder in the distant past

2008-05-05T23:05:00.001-04:00

pencil, then ink, then watercolor in sepia-like tones. just because.

( pard in the parlor )

2008-05-01T09:22:00.002-04:00

i am lucky to have a wonderful handmade journal/sketchbook from superdilettante, featuring all different kinds of paper including this yellowed page from an old dictionary. i decided to use it as a drawing prompt, and made a single illustration with images based on the words and definitions on this one page. can you figure out what all the references are? i think i highlighted most of them in red for you.

coffee and banana

2008-04-30T22:41:00.002-04:00

process sketches from an illustration project for a friend. proposal began with a cell phone conversation:

"hey, remember when you drew a picture of a hot dog for me?"

". . . a hot dog?"

"yeah, a hot dog."

"oh. wait, was it a dancing hot dog?"

"yes!"

"okay! i remember that."

"right. so do you have time to draw me a banana? and maybe a cup of coffee?"

news flash: i buy stuff

2008-04-30T22:31:00.002-04:00

this month it felt like i was getting a lot of packages delivered to work. i felt important.

defense!

2008-04-11T15:36:00.001-04:00

an oldie, from the vaults. this was a one-off card i made for a friend years ago, wishing her luck on her thesis defense:

the blonde-haired girls are both me, with different hairstyles.

shirtless guy with his chest painted is my favorite, though!

new stuff soon...

when all else fails, draw television

2008-03-27T13:42:00.003-04:00

the march 27, 2008 episode of America's Next Top Model, expressed in real-time tiny illustrations:

maybe more like this soon. i do like my programs.

one of those days

2008-02-28T22:22:00.002-05:00

art directing tattoos on the subway

2008-02-25T09:44:00.001-05:00

for a larger version click HERE.

for art direction of your very own tattoo, email me.

february is eating my brain

2008-02-24T11:30:00.001-05:00

amelia earhart's sinuses

2008-02-18T11:38:00.001-05:00

The Sampler is crafty like ice is cold

2008-02-07T12:17:00.000-05:00

this sketch was done for this great craft-related organization/network/awesomeness called the sampler, which brings samples of indie craft items to potential purchasers. it's really a clever concept, and one i have participated in a few times, so i was excited to have the opportunity to help out with this drawing!

the sampler headquarters has recently moved to boston, massachusetts, and alison is curating a special sampler featuring lots of local handmade items. we didn't want the drawing to be too "pahhk the cahhhh" and overly boston, so i opted to include a more subtle detail to indicate the boston area.

like a lot of my drawings, i did a few sketches before i finished the drawing. check 'em out!

barbe bleue

2008-01-21T18:02:00.000-05:00

this is a project i made for my french translation 3 class when i was in college. we were assigned the story of barbe bleue, or blue beard, to translate from french to english in a creative and interpretative way.

all of my classmates wrote up translations that were fairly straight and true to the story. the night before it was due, i got out my sharpie, my crayons, and my construction paper, and made this:

i thought it would be funny to make it into something on the idea of a children's book, but very, very dark (thanks, creepy storyline). simple drawings with crayon to highlight the two most significant colors.

due to my minimal grasp on the french language, i kept the translation fairly literal but embellished with my own sense of humor and details i thought would add interest to the story. for instance, there are a couple of crusty punk characters and a hero that rides off into the sunset on a vespa scooter.

i'm only showing a sample, since i'm still thinking i might do something with it someday. i'm glad i wouldn't let my teacher keep it. je suis desolee, marie-cecile.

regarding photocopies

2008-01-14T11:45:00.001-05:00

at my first publishing job i did a LOT of photocopying. my coworker paul and i would stand at photocopiers all day, copying manuscripts. sometimes i'd be stuck at the copiers alone and my mind would wander, as it has been known to do. this comic came about when i pondered the face of the dude on the wrapping around reams of letter-sized paper. it was never finished, but does that really matter?

found in my closet yesterday, probably drawn around 2001-2003.

view a piece above, or follow this link to see the whole thing up close.

doodle

2008-01-13T14:22:00.001-05:00

found in a box of stuff from college. i'm not sure when i drew it, though it's possible that it was during college. my math skills are not that bad, and i haven't given much thought to long-distance calls since i got a cell phone. relic from the past!!!

beware the missed opportunity for comedy gold

2008-01-13T14:18:00.000-05:00

(thanks danielle and karen for the extra prodding to draw this!)

hair commandment

2008-01-08T21:35:00.000-05:00

partially because i always "forget" and disobey, partially because it's fun to draw blackletter while you're at brunch.

2007: the year i discovered my patronus

2008-01-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

i found it in a dream, in a kitchen with exposed shelving and lots of wood paneling. on the shelf sat the most unusual piece of taxidermy i had ever seen, a truly rare specimen: a guinea pig with a single horn, suspended until the end of time in mid-hop.

the plaque read: guinea-corn.

my patronus. sent to protect me, and guide me on my way.