Dreamy, Artful Couple with an extra tablespoon of Artful

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. It's been busy times with a new job that I'm slowly adjusting to. Plus some great personal stuff going on in my life but more on that later.

Right now it's time for a new dreamy, artful couple for you to feast your eyes on.

I met Chris Wallace and Linda Santana at Frogman's Print and Paper Workshop, where real magic happens. I fell head over heels for this couple immediately. They are both super talented and so darling to be around. Now to share them with you. Take a look at their work and see more from Linda at her blog . Chris doesn't have a websites so please leave comments begging Chris to get a website up so you can see more of his dreamy work.

Like the last time I interviewed the couple separately so it may seem a bit disjointed.... Here goes!

I took this pic of the two at Frogmans in 2009!

Linda's Work

1. I have known you both for several years and you have always been together and seem made for each other. How long has it been? How did you two meet? Was it dreamy love at first site?

Linda: We met in 2002 and we’ve been together since January of 2003. We met through a mutual friend at a psychobilly show and I relentlessly pursued Chris for 4 months before it was official. For me it really was love at first sight, look at him :) (editor's note, I'm not sure why these two images where at the end of Linda's answer but I found it pretty charming. wing dings are the best.)

Chris: We meet through at a mutual friend who was more or less playing cupid, It was indeed dreamy, but also equally filled with awkwardness.

Linda's Work

2. Were you both artists at the time or studying to be?

Linda: I was in my last semester of high school and at the time I had the equivalent of 8 years worth of art credits somehow…and Chris was really into painting. We were definitely both on the artistic track when we met and it was something we bonded over. He started printmaking at College of the Sequoias a semester before I did and when he would visit me in Santa Cruz he smelled like lithotine so I have a fondness for it.

Chris: I would say so, art did play a role, we always enjoyed looking at art together and drawing.

Chris's Work

3. You both attend the same grad school. Was it important that you both went to the same place?

Chris: As for graduate school, we were not dead set on being in the same program(mainly because it of how rarely that occurs), or even both going at the same time. We did apply at different schools, and made an agreement on what to do if one of use got a fantastic deal. More or less, ether one of us was prepared to help the other one out in case only one of use would go. So getting into the same program, was really the best situation we could have asked for.

Linda: It was really important for us to go to the same graduate school. I went to UC Santa Cruz right out of high school and Chris attended a community college. He transferred to the Kansas City Art Institute when I graduated, and I moved with him so we’d never really been in school together. We just finished our first year at the University of North Texas and it’s been great working side by side.

Linda's Work

4. How are your dynamics working together in the studio? Can you go to each other for feedback or is there an invisible tape line separating the room in two?

Lindda: We work really well together, we are also very honest and respectful with our opinions and bounce ideas off each other. We share most of our tools and equipment and our personalities really compliment one another in the studio- I’m more organized and remind Chris of deadlines, and he’s a great motivator and gets things done.

Chris: We are pretty independent for the most part when it comes to our studio practice. We do give each other feedback, mostly on formal issues, and we give very honest responses.

Chris's Work

5. Do you two ever collaborate?

Linda: Our work is deeply personal and very different, as are our aesthetics so I never really thought of collaborating, I think I would drive him crazy because I can be super bossy! I won't rule it out though.

Chris: Conceptionally speaking we haven’t, but we had help each other with projects. On example was last year Linda and i carved a 4x8 foot woodcut in 3 days, the drawing was mine, but both of us considered that piece collaborative.

6. What's next for you guys?

Chris: I not sure, something zany no doubt.

Linda: We have two more years of grad school and hopefully, we’ll get married the year we graduate, it’ll be our 10 year anniversary and I’m not getting any younger! We’ve talked a lot about going back home to California as well, I’m very close to my family and I get homesick often.

Linda's work

7. Chris if Linda was a bag of chips what kind would she be?
I think Linda would be those fancy purple tortilla chips you would find at an organic grocery store.

Linda... same question about Chris....

Linda: He’s all that and a bag of Fritos.

8. Linda, would Chris rather have rancid bad breath (the kind that makes all your food taste bad) for a year or give up litho for three years?

Linda: This is a hard one! He loves litho, I mean, REALLY loves it, but he’s the sweetest guy ever and always thinks of me, so he’d probably give it up just so I wouldn’t have to put up with his breath funk. It would give him more time to work on the wood and metal engravings he’s been getting into.

9. Chris, would Linda rather eat nothing but fried worms for six months or give up her favorite printmaking process for six years?

Linda is adaptable, I think she would find a new favorite. Plus she is a lover of all animal even the smelly ones, she couldn’t eat them.

You two are the dreamiest artiest! Thanks, guys!!

Dreamy, Artful Couple with an extra dose of Charm

I have wanted to do a post on this dreamy couple for a while now. Their relationship and their work is like one big mixture of a yummy party punch. Is it life imitating art imitating life? I don't really know what that means but I think it is... It's Joanna Goss and Don Picton!

I did an interview with this cutie-pie couple. Sit back, relax, read and look at all this eye candy!

I did their interviews separately so it may seem a bit disjointed. Never you mind that. ( :

1. Was it dreamy at first sight when you saw Joanna? Did you know that one day the two of you would be the dreamiest?

Don: Yes it was, her hands were covered in paint and plaster of paris or other such pasty substance. not in a million years did i think that.

1. First things first, Joanna... How long have you and Don dated? Was it dreamy at first site?

Joanna: Two years this november. i had a good idea when i met him, but it was on a walk in the woods wherein don presented me with a tiny, dollhouse-sized notebook in which he had chronicled our activities and dates since the very first one in superfine micron. i was obliterated by the dreaminess of this present. it was over right then and there.

Don's present to Joanna.

2. You guys work on art together a lot in the same space. How do you manage to make this work peacefully?

Joanna: Don can work super late into the night while i go to bed so that i can rise early and hit the studio first thing. somewhere in the middle we converge. don's got a canon of burned seasons of undeclared, strangers with candy, party down, freaks and geeks, to make art to. and i try not to talk a lot.

2. You're someone who is ALWAYS making art! How does your relationship affect this? How do you keep the art and romance alive?

Don: We both have 40 hour a week jobs, so getting in equal parts for relationship and work time sometimes leaves little time for sleep. also we try to work at the same time so it's kind of like killing two nerds with one stone.

Joanna's Flags

Don's Color and Activity Book

3. Tell me about your collaboration work the two of you have done.

Don: we put out a mini comic zine called comparratives, chronicling our lives before we met. i usually consult jo about colors i should use, since if it were up to me evertything would be grayscale. also we've been doing saturday afternoon photos lately.

Joanna: we are both stupified/satisfied by regalia from bygone ages. dons more comic books, action figures, video games... i'm like handi-crafts, knick-knacks and clothes. so this stuff informs the colors we work with and the subject matter pretty much every time. and since we both have an appreciation for minis, we made a small scale diorama of ourselves at work in the studio and sent out photos as our christmas card this christmas.

our interests and aesthetics are a pretty great match so don built this booth to take to craft sales and from it we can hock our handmade wares, sort of concession stand style. we love to recycle old craft recipes from the 50's, 60's and 70's, like homemade kaleidoscopes and string art and sew hilarious, kitsch-shaped animals from old patterns.
we just really value the handmade object and try to offer up something cool, as often as we have a good idea, to anyone we meet with the hope that it'll serve 'em well. we also wish to spread the message, "take time out to make stuff."

Don's work

Joanna's Work

4. Joanna, would Don rather eat nothing but Doritos breakfast, lunch and dinner for a whole year and nothing else OR only eat his meals in the form of a pill for three years...?

Joanna: Lunch and dinner for a whole year and nothing else.

Don's Work

4. Don, would Joanna rather shave her head and keep it shaved for a year or wear nothing but Tommy Hilfiger tee shirts for two years?

Don: ha, shave her head, i'm still waiting for the day i see her and she does it without having to be swayed by super rad fashion templates.

Joanna's work

5. What other dreamy artful couple do you admire?

Joanna: eric yahnker and alison schulnik. i think they're a couple. they might not be. in fact, if they saw this it might make things weird. but i've seen them together a lot in photos and they are, respectively, wildly productive and seem to be pursuing their creative lives with spicy zest. don and i are both big admirers of the style and ambitiousness of ray and charles eames.

Don: jack kirby and stan lee

Don's Hot Dog Warming Machine

6. What kind of art stuff have you learned from Joanna?

Don: How to properly line up screen prints using acetate, instead of my way, i called it "eyeballing."

6. What kind of art stuff have you learned from Don?

Joanna: He showed me the best possible publication of arts n crafts book ever made (The Family Creative Workshop), speedball @ home screen printing techniques, how to sew--don lends me his sewing machine regularly, how to fix things sans pouting, and i've picked up a ton of comic book and zine knowledge.

Don's Make Your Own Zine Kit

Joanna's Work

7. Don, if Joanna were an animal what would she be? What would you be?

Don: joanna would be the elusive northwestern united states spaz sugar glider, i would be a badass raccoon with a cape.

Joanna, same question...

Joanna: My best guesses are a bat or a mole and i'm a pairiedog.

8. What's next for you two?

Joanna: Shackin' up! Re-wall papering. his and her chip clips, negotiating cupboards and drawers. you know.

Don: a place together with a garage and enough studio space for us both. lots of zines, screen prints, clothing, and the 2nd aurora alley fest.

Joanna's Work

Don's Zine

Joanna's Work

Joanna and Don's Collaboration Zine

Hermit Crab Studios

Dreamy Couples Make the Cover of Dreamy Magazines

Joanna and Don's Collab Christmas Card. Amazing, right? Everything is hand-crafted.

Joanna and Don's Collab Kaleidoscopes.

See and buy Don's work here. See Joanna's work here. She currently has an inactive etsy shop but keeping checking back because it will be filled with goodies soon. If you are near Aurora, Il check them out in June at the Aurora Artwalk.

Recapping

I didn't blog at all in the tail end of last week so I thought I would do some recapping. I have been taking so many photos lately now that I have some dandy Iphone apps that help my pictures look more interesting. I know I know I'm late to the Iphone app game but at least my pics aren't super yellow and blurry anymore?

Thursday my boyfriend and I got out of town and took a long walk and enjoyed the Springtime sun. On that walk I saw this beautiful statue of foxes.

I was also very much in love with this little explorer sitting on top of a turtle. Behind him is a baby bunny also on the turtle, along for the ride.

After our walk we stopped at a restaurant called Pi Perfection. We tried two different kinds of yummy pizza.

Friday night we went on a double date with one of my best friend couples. After dinner we all went to the little arcade in town. As long as I have lived here I've never been to the arcade. It was so much fun and had a lot of rad old games. So cool and awesome that I have to use the word rad to describe them.

I have Dr. Mario for original Nintendo so I was ready to take on the arcade version...

That's really all I have to show of my weekend as far as pics go. Today I updated my etsy shop with these new prints.

Check out the details here

here

and here...

Tomorrow I start my new job but more on that another time. I have some great Dreamy, Artful Couples coming up so keep your eyes peeled! (that sounds gross).

Oh! Look at me there!

Last week I mentioned in a post that I would be featured in Don Picton's new 4-Square. Well now it's here and it can be yours for only $2! That's less than an iced chai at any coffee shop chain!

I haven't seen the whole zine yet but I can't wait to get my hands on it. Don drew the cover here. That's me with the ribbon in my hair. Well, I guess it's pretty obvious which one I am... I love that we are playing Hungry Hungry Hippos in this drawing because I recently mentioned how I want to play that game. This just seals the deal.

Here is Don's description of the zine and some of the pages inside...

Quarter-sized, 28 pages of sheer awesome. the second issue of 4-square has a sportacular Jarrad French story. Ann Flowers's'es's rookie zine yarn involving ghosts, tee pees, and jellyfish spectres. I do a comic that travels from the south pole to the not so deep reaches of outer space. And finally Alex Taylor, a man who has worked at more subway sandwich shops than anyone his age should have, tells a story about....wait for it... fast food jobs.
all this for just 2.00! buy now and put it in a plastic bag with an acid-free backing board so one day when your down on your luck you can sell it for 2.50, that's .50 profit kid. dig this, you but 4,000 copies, resell them when the market peaks, you just made yourself 2,000 bucks to spend on erotic massages. everyone wins.


Get yours today here!

Some Things To Look At

Yesterday was a day. That's all I can say. There were some ups and downs. One of the ups? My boyfriend made these delicious nachos for dinner. Turkey crumbles, homemade guacamole, salsa, onions, tomatoes, cheese and tons and tons of cilantro, my fave. It was delicious.

One of the downs? All the shelves in my art studio fell off the wall. I don't know why it happened but it took me over an hour to finally go in the room and deal with it. I was too afraid to see all the damage. Luckily and surprisingly most things came out unscathed. A few busted frames but art work was still intact so I had plenty to feel lucky about. But now this is what my studio looks like messier than ever. We are going to hang the shelves again today but I'm still a bit nervous of another disaster...

One bright spot in my studio are these awesome vintage owl pencils. I have had these for forever. My best friend Claudia gave them to me one year for Christmas and I hang them up in every place I live in. They are kind of like my version of the lucky horseshoe.

I have recently acquired some amazing art including this crazy beautiful piece by John Medina. We traded last year for it but he had to hang on to it a little while longer. Once I got it I was pleased as punch. It reminds me of the Mountain Monsters I use to draw. I think I'll keep this guy in my studio for inspiration.Also, when I visited with my friend Cassie recently she gave me this beautiful doily painting. I have always loved theses paintings so I am very excited to have one of my own!

Yay art!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday. I hope your shelves stay intact today and everyday!

Lots of Things

Hello hello! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and really enjoyed Mother's Day. I got to go home for a few days and even though I had to drive back on Mother's Day I still got to spend plenty of time with my Mom. We had lots of fun and did lots of shopping and barely made it back in time to see the Kentucky Derby. Did you watch? I think it's the only sport thing I watch. Probably because it only last a couple of minutes. Any longer and I would be bored bored bored.

Okay, I have several things to show you today. First of all sweet Claire at Nothing Happens Unless We Dream featured me on her blog yesterday in her weekly Monday Etsy Loves roundup. Claire always curates a great page for Etsy stuff. I was honored to be part of such a great collection!

Also yesterday I sponsored Abby from Aesthetic Outburst's latest 20 in 20 project. This necklace is gorgeous and it's not too late to sign up to win it. Just go here.
Last week I did not mention that I went to Art Chicago. I met up with some dear friends, Darren and Cassie, and we explored the whole fair. I had not seen Cassie in about a year and Darren and I don't see each other enough. It was just like the year before when we were constantly going to Chicago to set up for our art show there. It was such a sweet day that I didn't want to end.

But alas it ended and now I have tons of iphone pics and names written down in my sketchbook of artists I love. I want to start sharing these with you here.

The first photo I took at the fair was of Genesis Belanger's sculpture titled Somewhat Stable Indulgence. I love dessert art best of all the art so this piece had me drooling.
Here is a better photo from Genesis's website. Click here to see more work. It was hard finding much info about the artist but I think she is a Brooklyn artists who is currently getting her MFA.

Pretty dreamy stuff.

Last but not least are some photos from my recent trip to a natural history museum. My boyfriend and I were out enjoying a nice summer day when we finally decided to visit the Midwest Museum of Natural History. I have lived here for four years and have never visited this little museum that is right next door to my town. We wondered around and looked at all the taxidermic animals and learned little facts along the way. The basement of the museum is home to many live animals including this huge tortoise! It was such a charming place. If you are near the area consider checking this museum out.








Have a wonderful Tuesday!