too busy to come up with a reasonable title.

it's been far too long, i'm so very sorry. here is my latest illustration, "what if... we could live in the clouds?" thoughts?

phew, it's been a busy busy time as of late. i thought my thesis professor whitney sherman was joking and/or crazy when she told us we would accomplish next to no work on our thesis following spring break. turns out? way correct. i have two sketches that are supposed to be in the pipeline that are in fact just chilling out in my brain. sort of. i'm doing my best to stay current over here on the blog, so thanks for being patient.

in other news, i was told that my "what if... flowers bloomed with your every step?" will be the cover of the juxtapositions publication for mica's exhibitions in may-july, aka, the commencement catalog. that is neat.

in which digital coloring corrupts alissandra's soul.

spring break afforded me the luxury of attempting this piece both in gouache, as per normal, and as a fully digital adventure. i prefer the gouache piece (super apparently the second image) both aesthetically and because working entirely digitally made me want to die a little bit. but! here they both are, "what if... you were friends with the monsters under our bed?"
while there are a few magic things that only digital techniques can truly accomplish, my loyalties lie with paint. and brushes. and pushing them around on real paper in real life. i am trying to build up an arsenal of digital skills to incorporate in my manipulation of my final illustrations even when using gouache (like, for example, the colored ink lines and the unifying "nighttime" layer i added after the fact) to maximize the potential digital color has to offer, and to at least be reasonably competent, should something particularly lend itself to being digital. but really, i just don't enjoy it much. bummer, because it is way cost effective, and man it's fun being poor.

also, it features a boy! hooray.

heart-sleeve studio version 2.0.

happy almost-spring to everyone! apparently, it's actually tomorrow, but whatever, that's not going to stop me from announcing that i have mega-updated my website wow! you may or may not have noticed the slight color-shift around these bloggy parts, and that was to color-coordinate (because i am a giant nerd) with my shiny new site. my twitter matches-ish too. what can i say, other than "i'm sorry?"

anyway, you loyal readers won't find much new work that you haven't seen here, but i have included the first few "what if?" illustrations on the new site. the big updates are purely aesthetic: a slightly changed palette and big-time layout & design things. swing on by heart-sleeve studio and have a look-see (special tiny preview coming up right now!):


lastly, i finally made the leap into a seller's account with etsy, which, if you aren't already familiar, is kind of like an ebay for handmade things. now, my declarative is a bit misleading because while i do now have a shop (at heartsleevestudio.etsy.com), there is presently nothing in it. baby steps. i do have a few things just dying to be taken home, like these delightful postcards of inanimate objects saying nice things, but i'm still getting my bearings in the etsy world, so bear with me. in the meantime, feel free to contact me directly at alissandra@heart-sleevestudio.com if you're interested in things of mine becoming yours. hooray! i hope you like the new site, and please let me know if you run into any bugs, since me and web-design have a cursory relationship at best.

hey! look! for real!

the opening for the mini-mini exhibition i am in was a week-ish ago at the push gallery in phoenix! since i couldn't be there myself, it's nice to have verification that my work was in fact in the show, looking precious. thanks, internet. see more photos of the opening over at spraygraphic's mini-mini art show profile.

the end! more things soon, but i don't want to spoil the surprise. let's just say it starts with a 'w' and ends with a 'hatifyouwerefriendswiththemonstersunderyourbed?' stay tuned.

oh hi, spring break, nice to see you.

my dailies exhibition is officially down! phew. thanks to everyone who came to the opening, signed the guestbook, and/or flagged me down on the street with kind words about the work. for those of you who couldn't make it to the show, below are samples of how the illustrations were laid out for installation for the months of january through may. in the case of the real show, the text was hand-written beneath each image, but scanning/piecing these poster-sized prints was so not an option (both because they're giant and i'm lazy):
uploading these samples serves a two-fold purpose: to show everyone ever my sneaky calendar-style layout (of which i am very proud), but also to satisfy my completist tendencies and have the entire year available on the interwebs! now the images that were created pre-weekly blog updates can be seen and enjoyed by all.

i am also selling limited edition prints of the dailies. if you'd like to take home a tiny piece of the project, let me know. they are 3-inch squares with a 1-inch border, editioned in series of 25, signed, and include their respective line of handwritten text. AND THEY ARE ONLY $12. with maybe a tiny bit of shipping if you're not close enough for personal delivery. would this be an appropriate time for a pokemon catchphrase? maybe. anyway, there that is. enjoy!

lastly, this post officially marks the end of midterms and start of spring break! i have plenty to do throughout the week, but i am relishing the free time i will have to go to the book thing (baltimore's non-profit free bookstore), the evergreen (my local coffee shop of choice: comfy couches, free wi-fi, and epic lattes) and just have the opportunity to do things at my own pace. mmmm.

THIS IS WHAT COMMENCING LOOKS LIKE.

for all the cool slash terrified seniors, commencement exhibition proposals were due this week. this basically means you have to show your department slash exhibitions how you wish to represent yourself and mica career as you graduate and are thrust into the real world FOREVER.

my proposal circles around two things: i don't like to frame my work, and i like things. i feel like the second you throw my illustrations in a frame they're far away, even if you are smushing your face against thee glass. so i elected to paint "frames" on the wall (meaning just silhouette-y frame shapes) and float my what if? illustrations on top of them, glass-free, in a sort of salon-style grouping. additionally, my fall thesis book a mixtape story will be on a shelf (silhouetted with paint to look like a quirky table) with the accompanying mix for listening. also, tiny vase of flowers because i am just that kind of girl. lastly, my hug-a-city friend will be returning as the host of this tiny sitting room display, hugging a for-real 3D chair. the photos of her in action will be displayed amongst the what ifs, like family photos.
cute? me? hope so.

mini-mini.

i am trying, as i may have mentioned, a full digital finish for my next "what if" piece, which will officially be "what if... you were friends with the monsters under your bed?" that's to come, but for now, some experimentation with fully digitally colored things:

these are two of my dailies from last year, perhaps you remember them, from december, "...and now for something completely different!" and from august, "oh, no." i colored these for spraygraphic's upcoming mini-mini exhibition, which arguably, psychically entered my brain and developed this show specifically for me to submit to. it's uncanny that their show is for 4" square art that will be showing in three arizona galleries (push gallery in phoenix, cartel coffee lab in tempe, and conspire gallery in phoenix) that triangulate my permanent address. if you happen to live near my address (but not me), check out the mini-mini show tomorrow night at push, or later in the month at the other two locations.

anyway, so tiny alissandra digitally colored illustrations. i'm still on the fence about the whole digital thing, both the way it feels to work that way, and the lack of finished art object to show from making it. i like the tactile: books, dolls, and things that also happen to be art, and digital is zero-percent any of those. but my flat aesthetic suits a digital approach, so here we are. testing the waters. thoughts on the whole "oh my god no paint" situation?