Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Davita



Jamie McCoy, Artist

PCC: Tell us a little about yourself.
Cupcake Topper with Plantable Seed Heart
JM: I'm from Iowa originally, but have moved a lot over the past decade or so, living also in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and now Missouri. I have Bachelor's Degrees in Neuroscience and Psychology, with a minor in Biology. I have a cat named Mike Gordon (Gordy for short) and feed two stray cats that I've named Lenin and Theobromine. 
PCC: What do you create?
JM:
 I am an artist and love to do many different types of art, but my favorite and most sustaining art form is papermaking. 


PCC: What made you want to become an artist?

JM: I've always considered myself a pretty creative person, but it wasn't until I was working at a very stressful job, specializing in social work, that I decided to sell the work that I did. I was really at the suggestion of my best friend, Amy, that I opened an Etsy shop for my papermaking. 

PCC: Tell us about your process. What materials do you use? 
Seed Bomb Pea Pods
JM: I used 100% post consumer waste paper scraps, such as junk mail and scraps from other artists' work to make paper. I also use beautiful wildflower seeds to make the paper plantable and for my seed bombs. 
I am the first Etsy seller to design the seed bomb pea pod favors. When you search now, many other sellers have tried to copy my work, but none has quite equaled to the quality that I've been able to offer. These are one of my favorite pieces of work. 


It's my custom orders for brides that I enjoy probably the most. Especially my plantable seed paper place cards. I take a lot of pride in creating work for customers' big day. 

Plantable Wedding Place Cards
I like the brightly colored seed bombs that you receive when you purchase my rainbow assorted seed bomb sets. 
Heart Seed Bomb in Cobalt Blue


This year I designed a wall sculpture out of my handmade paper in an attempt to demonstrate that not all fine art is paint to canvas, but can be made of many different other types of media. 

I made this for myself, but I just love this painting that I did a couple of years ago. Its spray paint on canvas and has my favorite Neil Young lyric, "Its better to burn out than fade away..." It turned out great and is one of my prized possessions. 


PCC: What Advice would you give to someone who wanted to make a living as 
Sprouted Seed Bomb
JM: I honestly believe that if you are passionate and if you treat something as your full time job (often more than full time), really focusing not just on the part of the job that you love, but also on the necessary evils like marketing and taxes (which are personally my least favorite tasks), with a little bit of luck, your hard work will pay off. It takes a lot of sacrifice, but in the end nothing in my life has been more worth the work. 

PCC: Tell us what you’re passionate about outside of your art?
JM: I am a huge live music fan. I travel a lot for music festivals and life rock concerts. Some of my favorite bands are Phish, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, and Trampled by Turtles. When I can, I go to music festivals like Wakarusa, Summer Camp Music Festival, and my favorite, the Great Blue Heron Music Festival. These are my sanctuaries, and really help me offset all of the hard work I do throughout the rest of the year. I'm also an avid animal lover and have been a vegetarian for 6 years. I have volunteered with animal rescue groups that transport animals across country and try to make visits to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY as often as possible. 

PCC: How do we find you? 
Etsy: www.davita.etsy.com
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/davitarecycledgoddess
Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/DavitaRG
Twitter: www.twitter.com/DavitaRG
Instagram: www.instagram.com/davitaisart
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/davitaphotoart
Newsletter: www.tinyurl.com/davitanewsletter


Check out some of Davita's other cool items, beautiful ideas for Valentines, Mothers Day, Baby Showers, Earth Day, Birthdays, Weddings and any other time. I love these.

Plantable Butterfly Seed Favors
Plantable Favor Box
Plantable Peapods

Twins Plantable Peapods
Plantable Peapods

Wedding Placecards with Plantable Heart
Heart Confetti
Plantable Seed Paper Earth
Spourted Seed Bomb
Davita's Wildflowers in Bloom 

Friday, February 6, 2015

The Pairabirds

Tabitha Brown, Artist


Yearbook Nancy
PCC: Tell us a little about yourself. 
TB: My name is Tabitha Brown. I am an illustrator and designer from Illinois, USA. I live 45 minutes north of Chicago. 

PCC: What do you create?
TB: I create illustrations using digital hand-drawing and scanned papers. My favorite subjects are nature, women, and girls.

PCC: What made you want to become an artist?
TB: I have always enjoyed drawing and crafting. After graduating high school, I knew I wanted a career that allowed me to constantly create art. I decided to go to the American Academy of Art in Chicago to study illustration.

PCC: Tell us about your process. What materials do you use?
Amethyst
TB: First, I sketch out a general idea on paper. Next, I flesh out the design in Adobe Illustrator using my Wacom drawing tablet. Drawing tablets allow me to replicate the flow of my pencil/ink sketches (and, it makes deleting mistakes easier!). 
If I need to add textures or scanned papers, I take the illustration created in Illustrator into Photoshop. 

PCC: What Advice would you give to someone who wanted to make a living as an artist? 
TB: It takes a lot of tributaries to fill the lake. Meaning look for as many different sources of revenue to make your income. For me, this means selling on Etsy, doing commissions, using print-on demand services, and several other ways to sell my work. Another bonus of having plenty of tributaries is that when one becomes a trickle or completely dries up, you have sources to cover you. Similarly, be on the look out for new streams and keep a lookout on any blockage and pollution in your old streams. 


PCC:  What are you passionate about outside of your art?
Balancing Act
TB: I love reading books with women as the main characters. Graphic novels, historical fiction, memoirs, mysteries, science fiction, and on and on! My love of reading, I think, translated into my enjoyment of foreign films (I love reading subtitles!). 


PCC: Anything else we should know?
TB: If you visit Chicago/Chicagoland area: get pizza, a Chicago-style hotdog, and hot wings. Don't trust the weather. It may be a balmy 70F on Monday, but a blizzard on Tuesday.

PCC: How do we find you? 
www.thepairabirds.com
www.etsy.com/shop/thepairabirds
twitter.com/thepairabirds
www.pinterest.com/thepairabirds/


Other work from Tabitha Brown that we love:


Night, Mountain
Je T'aime
Yearbook Grace
Bird Woman
Feminist
Free
Lookout Birds
Prism 4
The New Girl


All artworks are the property of Tabitha Brown and may not be copied, reproduced or altered without her permission.