Scribble Town (ST): Here with us on the Scribble Blog is Doris Sampson!  Doris is an artist full of energy, stories, creativity, and much much more as you will soon find out.  Doris, where are you and what are you up to these days?

See how I found shoes in this drawing? Added eyes to create a shy guy asking for a dance.

Doris Sampson (DS): I live in Duluth, Minnesota . . . U.S.A.  This city is located at the western-most tip of Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes.  It’s awesome!  Like living on the shore of an ocean, from our shore we cannot see land on the eastern horizon.  Weather events can rile up some terrible storms, occasionally over even modern decades taking a freighter to the bottom of any one of the Great Lakes.  The Big Lake is also our natural air conditioner.  Because the temperature of the lake is always much cooler than the air, when we get a wind off the lake, Duluth can be significantly cooler as we’re situated in the valley of a big hill alongside the shore.  Over the hill, much warmer!  I like it this way because I’m no fan of hot weather!

DS: My career as an Artist spans 48 years, and I started Photography shortly after that, too.  I’ve put tons of time and money into taking pictures, and since starting digital in 2002, in total over all my years, have tens and tens of thousands of pictures.  Therefore, big chunks of time have gone into organizing those photos and since digital can fix OLD photos, in recent years lots of time has gone into restoring many, many photos from family albums covering  my Finnish-American family heritage and history.  I eventually will produce books about my personal memoir and probable historic photo books.  I’ve also been a writer, starting with journaling at the end of 1977.  I absolutely love writing, and my computer storage now contains working manuscripts for at least a dozen book concepts, with other ideas piling up behind those.  But I need to update my computer equipment soon so I can better format manuscripts, and art/photos into them, too, to prepare them for electronic self-publishing.  I love that option we have now!

The shape looked like a golf club, though wildly abstract!

ST: When did you start drawing and painting?

DS: As a child I was already a natural artist.  I believe it was genetic as I’m 100% Finnish lineage–and the Finns are genetically extremely artistic.  I loved doing art as a child, all the way through school to graduation.  Because my family was farmer-laborer, I didn’t go to college for higher education–but was smart enough to have done that if there had been money.  Instead, I never sat back on the learning process as a young adult–in any subject.  But rather quickly did return to art . . . painting . . . about 5 years after graduation.  I had two pre-school daughters by then, and began painting on the kitchen table–of course, needing to clean up scrupulously after each session!  Especially because I’d started with oil paints–eventually switching to acrylics to avoid the fumes and possible other contact-toxins from handling oil paints.  Especially Flake White, which has lead.

ST: Was there somebody that encouraged you?

DS: Yes, there was someone who inspired me as an artist starting from a very young age.  Actually, my mother had painted as a teenager with a friend whose name was Marion.  So it was seeing as a child craft pieces my mother had made so many years before by gluing fall leaves on the then-78rpm records.   And then painting the leaves yellows, oranges, reds.  There were three paintings my mother had done that still exist to today.  So those were always on display in my grandparents’ farmhouse in Northern Minnesota.  My father had also been artistic, and had begun art school when they lived in Detroit–I was born in a suburb, Ferndale, at that time.  But he was drafted into World War II and had to quit art school.  Only one drawing my dad did, of the violin maker, Stradevarius, existed then, and to date.  It’s framed and hanging on a wall in my sister’s apartment here in Duluth.  Neither of my parents  were able to follow art as adults.  My mom was a homemaker and my dad a laborer.  Thank God he returned home from the war with just some back problems from a glider crash.  He was in the Battle of the Bulge in the 101st Airborne Division–a terrible event during WWII.

Here is a scribble drawing that reveals a woman by how I filled in spaces with black ink.

Marion, as Mom’s girlhood friend since kindergarten (or maybe it was first grade then–did they have kindergarten so very long ago?) . . . was still her friend as I was growing up, and we’d visit her home in that rural area near my grandparents’ farm on occasion.  Marion had taken up painting during her adult  years, but did extremely few in total that I know of.  One was a stunning portrait of a sister who had passed away, painted ethereally in blues, like the sky, her imagery as of angels.  Riveting to me!  Then, I believe this was after I was an adult with a toddler, as I recall one specific visit with my mom to Marion’s, with my daughter; she showed us another painting more recently done . . . a Moose in a Northern Minnesota swamp, edged with the typical swamp spruce and tamarac forest–a beautiful fall scene that I can see in my mind’s eye still.  Marion was so special to me and I just soaked up her artist-ness into my soul!

This mushroom shape becomes one with some embellishment; not the different pen strokes creating varieties of texture.

My family was always supportive of my love of art and Nature as a child.  I would do Paint-by-Number sets, and, again, I loved art in school.  I would save my artworks and when several aunts and uncles came visiting from Detroit and Florida to Minnesota in the summers, I’d bring out those drawings and paintings to put on an ‘exhibit’ . . . and they’d give me a dollar!  Guess what . . . I still have my best, saved artwork from the first dated to when I was 11 years old, through the 7th, 8th and 9th grades of junior high school!  They can be seen on my website:  dorissampson-lenscanvas.smugmug.com !  For so long I’ve wanted to be an inspiration to children, and here is my first opportunity!

ST: I bet you have been an inspiration to children even when you didn’t mean to be one.  I’m impressed with you range of techniques! You even have collage and modeling pasted paintings.  How did you discover and use this technique?

DS: I don’t remember right now what started the collage/modeling paste paintings.  Since I’ve kept good records throughout my art career, it’s probably written down somewhere for me to find when I can start digging.  But they were fun to do, using materials to build a foundation for a painting; then gessoing that ground (a primer layer); finally painting everything.  Then, give it a wash of diluted burnt umber (brown) acrylic paint mixed in a lot of water and quickly wipe it off again with a soft rag–before it could dry.  Then only a little bit of pigment would remain on the surface of the painting to provide a slight antiquey appearance to it.

ST: How do you handle moments when you get a zoom of inspiration?

DS: Since I do Art, Photography AND Writing, inspiration is more or less a constant on-going thing of which I can never keep up; as much as I would like to.  So Art ideas get noted on paper, some started; Photos are a never ending job in my computer now; and my external hard drive is exploding with accumulated Writing projects, or notes and notes and more notes for those underway, and new project ideas.  What I work on from day to day has no schedule–except to plow into whatever project/s are staring me in the face . . . NOW.

Color can be dropped into a drawing as desired on a computer, for me this was done in Photoshop4.

ST: What other forms of art do you practice?  What are some tools you like to use to create?

DS: Art, Photgraphy and Writing take up all my work time creativeness.  However, I am a ballroom dancer, and good at it.  Genetic I’m sure as both my parents loved to dance and were great dancers in their early years.  Raising a family, I only saw them dance about three times that I can remember.  I sure wish I could see a movie of the years I was never a conscious part of!  Dance  is a wonderful, beautiful and happy form of Art!

ST: How do you find you models for your pen and ink drawings? There must be hundreds of beautiful portraits!

Here I wanted to make a heart shape with abstractions–a very fast swish, swish, swish with the hand kind of drawing.

DS: A couple of the people and pet pen and ink drawings you see are ones I did because I wanted to do them for myself.  The rest are commissions from folks who saw my first portrait promotions starting around 2002.  What you see in my website are what I’ve done.  There might be another couple or so not shown, but I can’t remember at this writing.

ST: I’m sure there must be many, but what is one of your favorite songs?

DS: It’s probably better to ask what are my favorite genres of music.  I love Finnish music that depicts my era of growing up–accordian and fiddle bands.  There are two in particular I have tapes or CD’s of; Minnesota bands, “Third Generation” and “The Finn Hall Band”.  Next, whenever I have an opportunity to work in my office AND listen to music at the same time, I’ll put on internet radio with Pandora.com . . . and I’m already keyed in to Classic Country-Bluegrass Gospel songs by historic Nashville voices from yesteryear to current singers who still have the same classic sound.  On Sunday mornings, we have a local radio station, WKLK, that also plays those old gospel songs.  I absolutely love them, and they are my inner Church every time I listen to them; filling me with the Spirit of God!

I also enjoy classical music on occasion; and my everyday favorite genre is the current “Music of Your Life” station that is streamed via many radio stations across America.  Those songs truly depict the best pop songs I’ve heard over my 70 years of lifetime!  So it would be more correct to speak of favorites in each genre–but that would be too big a project to do!

ST: Your art career has taken you on such a journey!

DS: I started my Scribble Drawings, which I now call my “Human Emotional & Thematic Caricatures . . . or Just Pure Art Form”, when I was taking drawing classes at a local university in 1985.

Do you see how you can add human emotion to a drawing than can be transformed into a man by adding teeth, an eye and a hat!?

University art classes were already far into the “modern” thing . . . be loose, let your mind wander, and finally . . . just scribble and see what happens.  Well, I absolutely LOVED what I did with scribbles, learning immediately that the most important thing to remember is . . . WHEN TO QUIT!  My personal take on it was to use quality pen and ink, and then take a good look at the scribbles to see if or what there was anything recognizable in the shapes.  If so, then I’d start filling in space with my black ink to bring out that ‘something’ . . . or ‘someone’, if it had an abstract human element to it.  Other times the shapes and forms depicted only abstract shapes and forms!  So then I filled spaces in while keeping COMPOSITION in mind; to create Pure Art Form.

I did a large number of them around 1985, and it was the year 2000 when I took it up again.  I was working on a book of poems about the subject of “Love” as a “mystery”.  I wanted to illustrate the book and it occurred to me those 1985 drawings could be termed mysterious.  When I checked them out, I discovered that many of my poems actually matched what some of the drawings seemed to be displaying.  So I included them into my manuscript, and started doing the scribble drawings again here and there until now.  I have about 250 of them now!  These can be seen on my website also:  dorissampson-lenscanvas.smugmug.com.  Find this gallery under ART OF DORIS SAMPSON.

ST: Doris, thank you so much for sharing with us! You have shown us how to look at life, lines, and color in a different way with your creative scribbles!  If you have any tips for parents and adults for how to create with children please let us know.

This drawing shape clearly resembled a pumpkin, so I gave it color and an abstracty kind of face!

DS: As for tips for parents, EVERY CHILD IS AN ARTIST!  Provide the materials for them, and they will draw and/or paint.  Display the Artworks.  Choose the best from every year’s work and place these into an archival album–learn HOW to preserve art and photos archivally, don’t just glue or tape them in.  There are album stores all over the country now.  There is one online source I’ve been able to get oversize albums from in which to store my Scribble Drawings.  It used to be called Century Plastics . . . don’t know if that’s a current name or not.  These albums were acid-free, as I recall, with 12×18 pages of sturdy paper.  A perfect ground for archiving your children’s artworks.  The best of the best artwork/s–mat and frame them!  I have some from my daughters.  Once, when her dad and I went to a conference night, there were pastel painting pictures hanging all around the room–one by each child in that class.  My eyes flew to one in particular that clearly shouted, “This child IS an Artist inside already!”  It was so good compositionally, and with colors, lines, shapes and forms!  Well . . . it was my daughter’s . . . a chip off the old block, going all the way back to both of her grandparents’ generation, too!

This daughter is now an assistant professor in the Art Department of a University in the State of Missouri!  My other daughter is a Certified Public Accountant; and far on her way, too, of becoming a Nutritionist . . . already, via the internet, she is teaching people how to live and eat NATURALLY.  That was something else our family did–we gardened organically, I canned and froze vegetables and fruits; and by golly, both grew up to follow in those footsteps.  The Artist of my two daughters, and her husband, own an organic farm and apple orchard in Missouri!

ST: You are right, Doris, every child is an artist.  Thank you

Ultimately I elaborated on the original (displayed above) by adding red and blue for a patriotic statement, “I Love America!” This is a wonderful example of how and why I plan to produce a line of products, such as greeting cards, from my drawings!

All photos: Copyright Doris Sampson 2013.  Permission for free educational use for children granted.  All Artist Reproduction-Distribution Rights Reserved. Contact Information:  doris.starofthenorth@gmail.com“.  Feedback to Artist is welcome!”

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Now that we’ve celebrated the moms, it’s time for Father’s Day this Sunday! How do you plan to celebrate the special fathers and father figures in your life?

Dads can be pretty tough to shop for.  A great alternative to spending money on a gift is to create something yourself. A homemade gift is unique and personalized, it took time and love to make, and it’s cost effective. And who can say no to that?

Here is a round up of some of our past craft tutorials that could be tailored into perfect homemade Father’s Day gifts:

photo: Oh, Hello Friend

For his morning cup of coffee or tea, why not give Dad his very own personalized mug? With just a dollar store mug, some Sharpie markers, and access to an oven, you can create a one-of-a-kind cup that’s sure to become his favorite! Another great variation is a personalized chalkboard mug. Take that same dollar store mug and grab some chalkboard paint and chalk.

Photo: Unexpected Expectations

Keep the personalized gifts with Sharpies coming with a unique phone case! If your pop has an iPhone, try creating a neat cover for him. With a plain white phone cover and permanent markers, you can design an exclusive phone case. Draw a picture, create an abstract design or pattern, or write a personalized message.

Does Dad have a green thumb? Paint a terracotta pot for him to showcase his plants in! It’s sure to dress up any office, patio, or windowsill.

I don’t know about your dad, but mine leaves pens and pencils all over his desk.

Regardless of their profession, most dads need something to write with so a pen and pencil receptacle makes a very practical present. Try altering this pencil vase (you can use a shorter vase or jar and golf pencils to make it smaller). You can also use the same technique for this wine goblet and apply it to a jar or cup for a perfect pencil holder.

photo: Pro Arts                      photo: Whatever

Maybe your dad has an office or room that could use a little decorating. Try a fun project for beautiful and original artwork to spruce up dear ol’ Dad’s walls. Grab some magazines and recycle them by making a colorful collage. Or discover the possibilities of melted crayon art with this gorgeous abstract masterpiece or this bit of pointillist perfection. Try something a bit more experimental with watercolor paint, salt, and glue.

Don’t forget to wrap your homemade gifts! Here are some great ideas for creative ways to wrap presents with plain brown paper.

Hope these ideas help you get started on a special gift for the dads in your life. Feel free to browse our archives for more fun crafting inspiration. Have a wonderful Father’s Day!

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Scribble Town (ST): Carly Kasner shows us how animations bring to life more imagination than we could imagine.  It is easy to see in her artwork and her approach to creativity!

Carly Kasner (CK): Hello Scribblers, I come from Long Island and graduated from FIT, May 2012. I am a graphic designer with some essence of illustrator mixed in. From the time I was little till this very day, I have had a special connection with cartoons, which inspires and or impacts my work today.

Anime self portrait of Carly Kasner

ST: How are you spending your time these days?

CK: I am currently interning at The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services in New York City. It is a non-profit organization that provides mental health and social services. I design various flyers, books, and print/e-mail invitations there. In my spare time, I have been recently involved in t-shirt design contests between the websites threadless.com, and welovefine.com.

In addition to that, I occasionally create my own characters for fun. In recent years, I do consider my work to be more digital but I still highly respect the traditional methods as well as the digital I utilized InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator as my main digital formats I use whatever tool(s) will get the job done in the best way for my idea/client.

Monster’s Inc scribble shirt by Carly Kasner

ST: Designing t-shirts sounds really fun and it must feel good when you see somebody wearing one of your ideas. When did you start illustrating / scribbling / being creative?  Was there somebody that encouraged you?

CK: The beginning of my creative era was around kindergarten I stumbled into my interest of drawing through the inspiration I got from cartoons and my love for doodling. I used to like to draw dogs. I feel that I was born with a love for drawing.

ST: Your love for dogs is seen in your North Shore Animal League Logo.  I really like how you’ve nested the dog and the cat together.  It’s as if they were hugging each other.  It’s a very clever design!  Where do you find yourself feeling really inspired to create?

North Shore Animal League logo by Carly Kasner

CK: I think my inspiration can come from different sources and/or artists, but I think my, main root was the endless hours I spent in front of the TV growing up. I was a 90s child and some of my favorite cartoons were Courage the Cowardly Dog, Hey Arnold, the Rugrats, and The Angry Beavers. I was inspired not only by the characters image; I was inspired by the stories that molded the characters personalities. And as I got older, I became inspired by Japanese cartoons and comic books a.k.a. anime and manga.

ST: What other forms of art do you practice?

CK: In high school, I did some ceramics, collages, oil painting, and water colors in recent years, I am still partial to the sketchpad and pencil. I try to use that for my creativity as much as possible and even though I haven’t practiced it much lately I am also fascinated by watercolors.

ST: What is your favorite movie?

CK: My favorite movie is Hayo Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.

ST: I also really liked Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle.  The story and images are unforgettable!  Carly, please share any tips, advice, or ways of encouraging scribblers.

CK: I struggle sometimes with accepting mistakes but it is important to accept mistakes and to learn from them. Try not to let them discourage you. I try to look at mistakes as boundaries to define what not to do next time. Keep in mind that you can’t get something right unless you get it wrong.

ST: Thanks Carly! That’s great advice!  Making mistakes is a big part of life and making art.  At least we can say we tried

Sweet Bots by Carly Kasner

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Looks like the weather’s really heating up now! Get ready with some fun beach-themed crafts.  Those of you who barbequed this Memorial Day Weekend may have extra paper plates lying around. Put them to good use with some adorable paper plate beach creatures.

With a few basic supplies, you can create crabs, whales, fish, the sun, seahorses, turtles, jellyfish, birds, and whatever else your set your imagination to!

Photo: Crafts by Amanda

For all of these fun oceanic buddies, you’ll need plain paper plates, paint, construction paper, scissors, and glue. Optional supplies include googly eyes, streamers, markers, and anything else you feel like using!

Photo: Mrs. Killburn’s Kiddos

We won’t go through all the possible directions, but feel free to follow links of photos listed here or experiment and see what you end up with! It’s amazing what a simple paper plate and a little creativity can do.

Photo: Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten

Have you gone to the beach yet this season? What are you most looking forward to this summer?

Photo: Our Little Monkeys

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Hi!  My name is Arlene Tucker and I am a teacher and artist living in Helsinki, Finland.  Last week I spent the day with The Tigers at Your School Kindergarten (H&S International School).  The Tigers is a group of children aged 5-6 years old.  During circle time, I wanted to share with them how our imagination works and what those images in our head are all about.  Also, I wanted to talk with them about how those pictures, stories, and feelings in our bodies can inspire us to create!

Johannes’ image expanded

Adrienne Moumin’s suggested art activity in her Scribble Shop Inspiration post gave me the idea to do this with the Tigers.  I think they really enjoyed it!

Johannes really took his time and completed the snowy forest.  I love how he continued the shadows and trees onto his own imagined picture.

For a good half an hour everybody was coloring away and coming up with their own stories from the unique magazine cutout pictures I then glued onto a piece of drawing paper.  In this exercise you can really see where your imagination takes you.  Another fun part was hearing what would happen next!

When Melissa saw this picture of a baby she thought that the baby is wanting something because her arm is reaching out.  Melissa figured that she is hungry so she drew the baby’s mommy holding a baby bottle filled with milk.  How thoughtful and creative Melissa is!

Melissa wants to make the baby happy

Anni takes us to space! Over there is Earth, Pluto, Mars, a space rocket and an astronaut venturing into the twilight.  Around every corner (or star) is something new and unexpected and it’s all coming from your imagination!

Anni take us to space!

Try doing this art activity with your kids.  Expanding your image exercise is suitable for all ages too.  You should do one with your child or student too!  You’ll never know what lies behind the borders of the image until you try.

For more information about the project please go to Adrienne’s post Exploring the expansion of your image and imagination.  Thanks Adrienne for the inspiration!

To see all of the Tigers’ pictures you can click here.  Share your pictures with us and we’ll upload them to the set.  Email scribblematspress@yahoo.com for more information.

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Scribble Town (ST):  Every year, Youth Art Month (YAM) has a flag competition for each state.  Students from each grade level (elementary, middle, high school) creates a flag design for YAM in their state.  The design can use the National theme: Art Shapes the World, or you can create your own theme.  A winner will be chosen from the three levels and the winning flags will be represented on the posters and postcards promoting the YAM show at the Capitol in March.  The winning student artist will receive an actual 3’x5’ flag of their winning design.  On the Scribble Blog with us is the winning high school student from Minnesota, Chelsea Waite!

Chelsea Waite’s winning NM YAM flag!

Chelsea, what was your first thought when you heard of the YAM project?

Chelsea Waite (CW): When I first heard of the contest, I was excited because I have never been involved in a art contest this big before.

ST: Already you sound like a person who is up for challenges and like to take a chance! How did your idea develop?  What story or idea are you trying to convey with your flag?

CW: I wanted to focus on the idea of diversity. I think diversity is important to New Mexico because of the many different cultures we have here. My first idea of how to represent diversity is in using the Zia symbol. I found that I could manipulate the ends of the symbol to go off into different direction, but then come together in the middle to make one complete symbol. This is how I think the people of New Mexico are, we come from lots of different cultures but live together as one.

ST: Multiculturalism in New Mexico is just one of the things that makes it a special place. How did you decide what medium to use?

CW: I decided that I would use Sharpie and color pencils because it is easy to make small thin lines with these mediums.

ST: How do you feel about your final outcome?

CW: I was happy with my final outcome, but I never thought it would win.

ST: And that’s exactly what happened! What do you like most about your YAM flag?

CW: My favorite element in my flag are the yucca flowers. I didn’t choose the yucca flower because it is our state flower, I chose it because it is not very pretty. Compared to the millions of flowers in the world, the yucca flower is ugly but if you look close enough there is beauty there. I think this represents New Mexico because of that very same reason. This state is often overlooked but if people take the time to look close enough they will be able to see beauty.

ST: That’s such an honest approach to depicting your surrounding.  There is beauty everywhere if we just tune our eyes in the right way.  You are so wise and thoughtful!  How did the idea come into your head?

CW: I came up with the idea the moment I heard about the contest. The idea popped into my head very easily and with not much effort.

ST: And just like that we now have a beautiful YAM flag for New Mexico! Thank you Chelsea for your creativity and taking the time to share with the Scribblers!

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If you live in a college town or anywhere near a college campus, you know what time of year it is… GRADUATION!  It seems every other day this month, kids are receiving diplomas and throwing up their caps. And before you know it, next month it will be time for preschool, elementary, middle, and high school graduations. If you have any grads in your family, why not celebrate this milestone with some sweet treats?

 Photo: Bakerella

These chocolate graduation caps are simple to create and easily customizable for school colors. You can make them chocolate lollipops or just clever candy sans the sticks, depending on your preference. To make them, you’ll need: miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, melting chocolate, chocolate squares (Dove or Godiva make good ones, but even small chocolate covered graham crackers or square chocolate covered wafers will do), miniature M&Ms, sour strings (Airheads Extremes Rainbow Berry Sweetly Sour Belts work great), and lollipop sticks (optional).

You can work in any order you prefer, but we’ll start with the top of the caps. Unwrap your chocolate squares and separate your sour belt ribbons by color. Choose the school color and cut or tear a small piece off (about an inch to an inch and a half in length—you can eyeball this). Draw a thin line of melted chocolate with a toothpick on the chocolate square from the center to an edge and glue on the sour belt string and a mini M&M to match.

Now for the bottom: chill your peanut butter cups in the freezer for a few minutes so the wrappers remove smoothly. If you’d like to make these as lollipops, let the cups return to room temperature (on a sheet of wax paper), then dip the end of a lollipop stick in melted chocolate and carefully insert it about halfway into the peanut butter cup and let it dry.

 Photo: Family Life with a Mom Who is All Hart

Once hardened, adhere the tops to the bottoms with some more melted chocolate and let dry. If they’re lollipops, stick them into a Styrofoam block to dry standing up. If they’re without sticks, leave them on the wax paper.

There you have it! Tasty, adorable, and celebratory treats worthy of your graduate! These are very easy to customize and substitute ingredients. For example, you could use icing or candy coating instead of melting chocolate and you could use pull-apart Twizzlers instead of sour belts. You could even use white chocolate for all the ingredients, so feel free to play around and see what you come up with. Congrats to all the classes of 2013 on their accomplishments and the many more to come.

Photo: Bake Me More

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Portrait of Lewie JPD

Scribble Town (ST): Lewie JPD said hello to us on the Scribble Town Facebook page one day and I am so happy he did! Lewie JPD is a cutting edge visual artist who has lived and worked in Sydney, Tokyo and Los Angeles. His work is a hybrid of imageries – pop, surrealism, collage and comic art – blended together to create zany worlds and characters. His strong use of color and free-styling, casual brush work come together to form eye-catching images that are unique and highly imaginative.

In the midst of excitement where are you and what are you up to these days?

Lewie JPD (JPD): Currently, I’m living in Sydney, Australia, by the beach. Everyday I spend time looking at the clouds and the ocean.

They’re always changing and are magnificent inspiration on a visual level. Of course, I have to dive in to the ocean and swim, too; everyday! Artistically, although trained as a painter, I have spent the last year creating all my new works digitally – on my cell phone! It is a large screen Samsung Galaxy Note and it has a stylus and a wonderful program called SMemo which I use to make art.

Painting 1 by Lewie JPD

ST: That is quite a transition to go from painting to cell phones. I’m so curious to see your new line of work! You have traveled a lot and have mentioned that you grew up in Japan. How have living and being exposed to other cultures influenced your work, if any?

JPD: Growing up in Tokyo was a huge influence – not only on my art – but on my life. I moved to Tokyo when I was ten and stayed till I was eighteen. Then I came back to Australia for art school. Soon after I moved back to Japan where I worked as an illustrator for six years. Tokyo is a very exciting, dynamic city and the Japanese people are thoughtful and kind, innovative and hard working. Culturally, they are incredibly evolved and inspirational. I was lucky to be able to speak Japanese and have been very positively influenced by some wonderful, talented people there.

Dancing Fishface by Lewie JPD

ST: Artistically Tokyo has so much to offer, as well! Is that how you discovered your love for drawing and painting?

JPD: I pretty much discovered drawing and painting on my own. Growing up in Tokyo in the 70′s, we had access to second hand American comics from a book shop in Roppongi – not far from a US base. Over six years, my brothers and I collected well over 3,000 of them – not only well know titles like Archie, Superman, Wonder Woman and Mad, but also, more obscure, equally entertaining ones like Swamp Thing, Sergeant Rock, Richie Rich and Cracked. We loved comics! I guess all those images rubbed off on me and I began to do some drawings and simple comics of my own from around the age of thirteen.

ST: I think your Dancing Fishface would be a great protagonist for a comic. Maybe another future project. I noticed that you even make films! How did this medium come into your repertoire?

Floating Organic by Lewie JPD

JPD: Film making, too, I think, is an extension of all the comic (and book!) reading. Simultaneously to drawing, I began writing short stories in my early teens which lead to writing and publishing humorous zines (20 or 30 pages, photocopied, handmade, editions of 200 – with titles such as Free Spirit and Idle).

I then went on to writing and making short films in my late twenties; animation, comedy radio shows and later, after studying screenwriting at UCLA, feature films.

My latest feature – a coming of age story set in Tokyo – is yet to be produced – but I am confident it will, eventually! Film is a fantastic medium full of inventive and inspired collaboration. I usually make one or two shorts a year on video just for fun and practice.

ST: This is a loaded question, but which filmmakers do you like?

JPD: My biggest influences from the early days are David Lynch’s, Eraserhead + Martin Scorcese’s, Taxi Driver + Robert Altman’s, Nashville + Akira Kurosawa’s, Seven Samurai. These days I think all the great energy is in TV series, not only big dramatic shows like Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad – but also great comedy shows like Community, 30 Rock and The Office. Laughing is the best!

ST: The rumors are right- laughing is the best medicine!

What is the process of designing like when you create murals? The murals, tables, and benches you painted at Harry’s Espresso Bar are amazing! There must be a huge amount of planning when creating on such a large scale.

Harry’s benches by Lewie JPD

JPD: When it comes to art, I am not really a planner. I love to dive in and create things out of nothing, to be in the moment. I have been doing it now for over thirty years – that’s a lot of practice! – so I have enough confidence that even for big jobs like the work commissioned by Harry’s in Bondi Beach, I can just turn up, after a body surf and a coffee, with my bag of paints. I am amped with a positive attitude and start creating, going with the flow.

ST: Earlier you said that everyday you are inspired. Living by the beautiful beach in Sydney encourages that! How do these pops of inspiration come about?

Lewie JPD painting a mural

JPD: I create every day. I carry a pocket size journal with me everywhere – for notes, ideas, comics and doodles – and I have been doing this since my twenties. For me, life and creativity are the same thing. Inspiration is everywhere. Ideas zing around all the time and pop in from nowhere. I spend a lot of time in libraries, cafes and also travelling. On the net, I constantly seek and find works of wonderful artists and get inspired that way, too.

ST: What other forms of art do you practice?

JPD: As I mentioned earlier, these days, I have been able to carry my art studio with me – in the form of my cell phone. I get pleasure from making new images everyday. Most days, I spend between three to four hours – and to since April last year, I have made 1,700 new works. Over the years, I have had various artist studio spaces, where I have worked on large style canvases and drawings for exhibitions, but lately I have been leading a more gypsy-like existence. Art on the go. Suits me well. The joy of expression takes many forms.

ST: Lewie JPD has a new solo exhibition of his latest work – and it’s a world first! – with all of the 28 featured art pieces created on his mobile phone – opening in Sydney at Deus Cafe gallery – 98 Parramatta Rd, Camperdown, Sydney on June 26th, 2013. His website is http://www.lewiejpd.com. Be there!

For another boost of encouragement and confidence to just start creating please go to the Scribble Shop http://www.scribbleshop.com/content/lewie-jpds-words-inspiration. Thanks Lewie JPD!

Lewie JPD’s latest works, May 2013

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How green is your thumb? Do you like bringing a little of the outdoors inside with houseplants? Potted plants are a great way to dress up any room, windowsill, or patio. But while the plants add life and color, the pots themselves are often overlooked. Add some personality to your little terracotta tubs with paint. There are tons of ways you can paint your pots—and feel free to try any that strike your fancy—but two techniques that stand out lately are color blocking and drip-drying.

For this project, you’ll need: terracotta pots (or any ceramic pot), masking tape or painter’s tape, and paint, either acrylic or spray, in any colors you like. As you can see, you’ve got lots of options here!

First, decide how you’d like your pot to look. If you want it to have a base color, start by painting the whole thing in the color of your choice and letting it dry. For those who prefer the natural terracotta to show through, jump right into whichever technique you’re trying.

Photo via Dellie

If you’re going to color block, start by wrapping tape around the pot at your desired height. Next, grab your paint (be it on a brush or in a can) and paint the half you want to be colored. Spray painters should aim for about two to three coats. If you’re using a paintbrush, you can also freehand the line around for a more rustic look.

Photo via The Proper Pinwheel

If straight lines aren’t your thing and you’re ready to drip some paint, flip that pot over! Once it’s upside down, pour a bit of paint around the sides on the “top” (what’s technically the bottom) and start swirling your pot around on its edges so the paint spreads closer to the edge and eventually runs over the sides. Try to do this over something like tinfoil or plastic—paper will stick to any dried paint that reaches the bottom and give you a hard time.

Photo via The Lovely Cupboard

Let your pots dry and then load them up with your favorite plants (cacti, succulents, flowers, etc). To weatherproof these, spray with a clear sealant and then set them up outside.

Et voila! Your pots are as pretty as the plants they hold. Which style do you prefer? Do you have any other favorite ways to jazz up your planters?

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