Awe

When we were kids, we were devotees of anything that had to do with the Muppets.  We loved Kermit and his gang and the Fraggles.  Emmet Otter's Jug band Christmas plays in our home every Christmas Eve (much to my Dad's dismay).  Heck, our last two dogs were named Merlin (after the wizard AND the dog in Labyrinth) and Fozzie.  Henson productions that delved into the realm of fantasy and fairytale were even more compelling: the Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, the Storyteller series filled our brains with thoughts of art, magic, and monsters.  When Jim Henson passed away in 1990, when I was thirteen, the world felt like a less happy place.  Luckily his work has been continued by his children, and this weekend, my siblings and I had the great fortune to see a screening of the movie Labyrinth with Brian Henson sitting right in front of us. Henson, who is now chairperson of the company, introduced the film, and, together with the Froud Family (Brian, who conceptualized the monsters, goblins and faeries of the movie, Wendy, who sculpted them, and Toby, who was the baby in the film but is now an amazing puppeteer and sculptor in his own right), discussed the making of the film afterwards.  What a magical evening!

I own several of the books by Brian Froud. I remember getting Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book as a Christmas gift when I was in high school, and now own the Goblins of Labyrinth, too.  It was awesome to hear them talk of the rather mundane way such a fantastical work took shape.  Little did they know that we had recreated a goblin/David Bowie scene from the movie using a Cabbage Patch Preemie in place of their son.  It's recorded for posterity.  It's a tribute to the imagination that took root in us in Germany, when we were undistracted by American television.  Brian Henson also voiced Hoggle, one of the main characters in the movie, who we've imitated for the last twenty-five years.

Working Hoggle's face

Hoggle

But I was excited to meet them mostly because of their work on the Storyteller series.  As a kid, that series was like turning on a light switch inside of my imagination.  Or maybe setting off fireworks in there.  Brian Froud also helped conceptualize the series, while Henson was the voice of the Dog, the storyteller's companion who also helped to spin those delightful yarns.

The Dog from the Storyteller series, puppeted and voiced by Brian Henson

Afterwards, we were lucky that Brian Henson came out into the audience and was willing to stand there for photos with fans.  I had wanted to give him a notecard with the Hans-My-Hedgehog illustration on it, but didn't want him to think that I was hitting him up for a job, which was not the point. A few people had tried it in advance. So we told him how happy my mom would be to see the photo, and then I thanked him for helping to give us all an imagination as children.  He smiled and thanked me and added, "We were just having some fun."  Thank you Jim, thank you Brian, thank you to the Froud family...your fun changed our lives and gave us verdant, luscious imaginations. It made creativity and art sit at the forefront of our imaginations.  For that, we will be forever grateful.

Me, Brian Henson, and my siblings Chris, Meghan and Josh at the Museum of the Moving Image

Thanksgiving Stuffing

...but not the kind I would have expected! A year ago today, my shop was still an idea. I had no business card, no shop, and only a few drawings.  I didn't launch until the end of January, so I am very pleased with these past ten months.  This weekend, I started work on a new line of items: plush ornaments (and soon, toys) for the shop.  I am no seamstress, so my good friend Deb (of www.bunniescandream.etsy.com and www.harlequinlionhead.etsy.com) helped me out with the trial line. My very talented Aunt Judi will be my sewing partner, making sure the quality is very high and that the plush animals are delightful and whimsical.  Here are some shots from the first attempt!

Disaster afoot? Me with scissors.

Master Jeweler Debbie Liu at work with the sewing machine. Woman vs. Machine: who will win?

Stuffless animals.

Stuffed but not stitched...

A fabric menagerie. 

My Second Fair---Crafts in Chelsea

What a great experience! I shared again with my friend Deb, a talented and creative jeweler of Bunnies Can Dream Jewelry and Harlequin and Lionhead Jewelry.  We had a large space, 10x10 feet, as big as some Manhattan apartments, on a tree-lined street in Chelsea.  The day was gorgeous, crisp and perfectly autumn (with some pretty strong wind gusts, though our tent did not blow away), and after a few days of rain, lots of delightful shoppers came out.  Really, the best part was what I call my "market test".  It was great to see just what the reaction to the prints were.  Even if people didn't ultimately purchase anything, they always smiled looking at my work, and that made me really satisfied.  On top of that we were surrounded by some very creative individuals and I even came home with some really yummy vegan spicy caramel popcorn from Woodside Bakehouse (and later scored some vegan Peanutella there for my brother), and a really killer skirt from Rock and Salt. Love it.

Baskets of holiday cards and giclee prints

First attempt at a hanging display. 

Our whole tent...and one of the vendors from an amigurumi shop across the way.

Happy Halloween!

May today be filled with ghosts and goblins and witches.  May the air smell like dying leaves and candy.  May the sky remain a beautiful sapphire blue tonight.

Adrienne Adams, "A Woggle of Witches"

Where I work

We just moved into a larger, more affordable apartment in Queens.  It's a bit of an adjustment but I adore having a bit of space to work.  For the first time since college, I have a space that's just dedicated to drawing.   Right now it's just a card table but when money is less tight I'll invest in a nice table or desk. I decorated the space around the desk with things that make me happy and inspire me.  On the table you will see a porcelain lamp. What you can't see is that is is carved with trees to remind me of the woods.  There is also a little troll I bought as a present for myself after I received my master's degree and a piping pig reproduction of a medieval sculpture.  I have all of my supplies: pencils, pens, colored pencils, envelopes, giclée prints, cello bags, paper cutter, etc.  Some are kept in a castle tin I've had since I was a child.  Above the desk you'll see a signed print of a winter castle by Gennady Spirin, a lovely illustrator whose work looks like the Limbourg Brothers with a Russian twist.  Above that is a print of "Snow White and Rose Red" by Trina Schart Hyman, a woman whose detailed and gorgeous watercolors made me want to be an illustrator.  To the left is my own drawing of "Hans-My-Hedgehog," to keep me working with a sense of wonder, while to the right is an engraved reproduction from Rabelais' Dream of Pantagruel: it's a monster playing his nose as a flute. My brother bought that for me because I own two nose flutes.  Above that are two more medieval reproductions: a running knight and a jousting knight.  Below, we'll see a metal name plate of Zur Böttcherstraße, that street in Bremen with all of the toy shops that I loved as a child.  Below that is my self portrait as Snow White, and to the far left, a tiny print of Domenico Ghirlandaio's Giovanna Tornabuoni.  The photo oddly looks a bit fisheyed, but really, everything is straight.  So now, once grading is done, comes a drawing binge...and I can't wait.

My tiny, sweet "studio."

My Favorite Halloween Books

Halloween is my favorite day of the year.  My parents were very keen on the holiday, as was my aunt, who would send Halloween packages to our house that were the cause of eager excitement when they arrived.  My mom had Halloween records to play that were riffs on classic songs..."I've Been Working on my Costume"..., "When the Witches go Flying Along...", to which I still remember the lyrics.

But we'd always have a stack of Halloween books to read as well.  My favorites are here. You've heard me speak of #1 before. It's the most classic and won't really scare you but will get you in the spooky mood of the holiday.  The Haunted House and the Goblin are the two best ones for giving you slight chills up your spine.  Jack Prelutsky and Marilyn Hafner are geniuses for shaping my love of this day so much.

Another perennial favorite was Lonzo Anderson and Adrienne Adams' "The Halloween Party", the story of a boy named Faraday Folsom who, on the way to a Halloween party, wanders off into the night forest after a small troll. He's introduced into a world of trolls and witches and tiny elves.  It hits the perfect cold October-air sensation that you only get late in the month, where witches really do lurk in forests and ride their brooms high into the grey clouds that are lit by moonlight in a sapphire sky.

For its sweetness, I loved two other books: "How Spider Saved Halloween" by Robert Kraus, which tells the story of a spider who dresses up as a pumpkin after neighborhood tricksters smash the pumpkin at his friend's house, and "The Biggest Pumpkin Ever" by Steven Kroll, about two mice who unwittingly tend to the same pumpkin in the patch, making it...the biggest pumpkin ever.  

Two books bordered on creepy and TOO CREEPY for me, "In a Dark Dark Room and Other Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" by Alvin Schwartz and "Very Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." 

The first is more for kids, and has become the favorite book my nephew, Gavin:

It's illustrations are cartoonlike but creepy:

 

The second book, also by Schwartz, is the stuff of nightmares. It's illustrated with nightmarish imagination by Steven Gammel. Great job for scaring the CRAP out of me, Mr. Gammel. 

Creepy.

See what I mean?

The last book I've recently found. The watercolor paintings are exquisite and the story is intriguing.  Look for repeating details, like the moths, throughout the book.  It's called "Zen Ghosts" and it is by Jon J. Muth.

It's the most wonderful time  of the year!

Christmas on Coney Island

Last year was my first Christmas in New York. I wanted to have a card that varied from my usual style and that was fun and silly.  What better place for all that than Coney Island? My first visit to Coney was totally memorable.  As we watched the sideshow performers do crazy and terrible things to their bodies, I was called from the audience to pull the sword from the sword-swallower's throat.  It was terrifying and awesome and completely real.

I always liked these performers ever since the litany of Hissa the Snake Boy from the Frederick County Fair repeated itself about a million times as we stood in line for some ride or another, I think either the Zipper or the Ferris Wheel.  "Hissa! The Snake Boy! Alive, alive, crawling all over his body!"  One time I told my class about Hissa as we were looking at some circus imagery and I completely lost my composure by laughing.  It was the kind of I-couldn't-stop-this-laugh-even-if-you-put-a-gun-to-my-head laugh that leaves one speechless for a minute or two.  I vowed to never mention Hissa again in class, lest I risk all respectability as a professor.

My mom used to tell me about how my Grandpa, who passed away six years ago, used to go to Coney and ride the Cyclone.  I knew then how my card should look.

Have yourself a silly little Christmas! My plans for this year are even more bizarre.

"A Coney Island Christmas" Ink Drawing by Jessica Boehman, Digital Color by Meghan Boehman

The Pink Tomato Paperie and Me

Just over two years ago, I was living in Wooster, Ohio for a visiting professor position at the College of Wooster.  I was living downtown in a gorgeous studio over the local steakhouse.  On Saturday mornings, Amish farmers on their way to market would wake me with their horses on Market Street.  The college was a fine place to work and I truly enjoyed every day I spent there.  It was a relaxing, healing sojourn after the brutality of grad school.  It felt like a balm on my soul.   I explored the town a tiny bit at a time so it could continue to unfold for me during my short time there.

About a month or so before I moved there, I became engaged to my longtime beau, Mike, who is now my husband.  One afternoon, as I was exploring, I finally went into the Pink Tomato, a paperie and invitation shop (with its own Aroma Lab!).  I was looking for a stamp to use on wedding envelopes.  What I found was inspiration for my future.

That day before I left, I had ditched my plans to buy wedding invitations online and had designed my invitations with the professional help of Christy Hoffman, who was very pregnant with her handsome son Dane, who was born a few weeks later.  The invitations were just gorgeous. Before I left Wooster, they had also designed my save-the-dates, my table numbers, and my wedding programs, and had even printed my annual Christmas cards.

Wedding Program and Invite. (Photo by Love Me Do Photography)

My wedding invitation (Photo by Jessica Marie Boehman)

I remember when Christy saw my Christmas card, she said, partially in jest (I think!) that I should sell my stuff at her store.  I didn't really think so much about it until a few days later, when, during grading final exams, I decided to go and show them a portfolio.  I felt frantic with excitement for the next few days.  I had come to Wooster to teach art history and I had loved every second of it.  How could I be so lucky that this little town could give me the two things I loved the best?  It was a town full of blessings and it was the best place for me to be at that junction in my life.   Over the following months, I made a few designs for the Pink Tomato to use exclusively on wedding invites and other print cards.   About a year later, we would find a working relationship that suited us both better, and it came organically as I designed tattoos for Christy and her husband.

After I moved to New York, I was feeling restless and a bit out of myself. I hadn't yet started my jobs.  It was early summer and I teach college, so I had a few months.  I started conceiving the idea of an online shop.  I didn't know that NYC would provide the inspiration for me.  After we moved into our new apartment and I saw the Delacorte Clock at the Central Park Zoo, I knew which way I wanted to take the shop.  But it was during the rigor and exhaustion of teaching at three schools that I became desperate to find myself again.  That semester, my shop was born on the Staten Island Ferry.  It came to fruition in January 2011.

It pleases me so much that the beautiful ladies who sparked my imagination now play such an important part in my shop.  They print my beautiful cards and even sell them in their new shop on 221 Beall Avenue in Wooster.  Though I have left Wooster behind, my art is still there, and that makes me so happy.  Thanks for everything, Christy and Jodi!  I hope now you understand how you've changed my life.

My cards at the Pink Tomato Paperie in Wooster, Ohio

My Halloween Cards at the Pink Tomato Paperie in Wooster, Ohio

Penguin with Drum and the Brementown Musicians at the Pink Tomato Paperie in Wooster, Ohio

The Pink Tomato Paperie in Wooster, Ohio

Eco

Today I just placed a large order for my holiday cards. I'll be printing them on a tree-free letterpress stock, so the new items will be more eco-friendly and even more luxurious. The Christmas cards will be large and will be paired with gold envelopes and liners, while the Halloween line will have orange envelopes and liners.

You can see these in person at Crafts in Chelsea on Oct. 15.  Hope for good weather as it is outside!

If I am quiet for a few weeks, please be patient. I am in the middle of moving and the semester.  More drawings are percolating in my brain.

On the Third Day of Christmas

My true love gave to me three french hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

Unfortunately due to a moving snafu and the start of teaching, I won't be able to complete the fourth day in time for Christmas (and my fall art sale in Chelsea) this year, especially if I hope to complete an envelope liner. But I am very happy with the three plump hens.  They came to fruition on September 11, ten years after such a sad day.  Living in NYC this year, it was more potent than I expected. I was glad to have something for my hands to do.  Do you recognize the same border from the partridge? I think it looks much different with its new French inhabitants. 

"The Third Day of Christmas" Pencil. Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Teeny Tiny Bat

Has anyone seen that cheesy, wonderfully weird movie from 1979 called "The Halloween that Almost Wasn't"?  We watched it all the time as kids. It starred Judd Hirsch as Dracula, who works to try to convince the Halloween monsters: the mummy, Frankenstein, the werewolf, and the witch, that Halloween should not end.  It even ends with disco dancing and leisure suits. What's not to like?  In a ridiculous scene where Dracula has to get through a locked door, he shrinks into a tiny bat to squeeze under the door. You can even see the string pulling him through. It's awesome (look at 8:40), as Dracula repeats "Teeny Tiny Bat" to grow smaller:

This one's for you, Dracula!

"Teeny Tiny Bat" Pencil Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Here she comes to save the day

I made this pet portrait from an image that a photographer friend supplied to me. The dog, a handsome rescue named Pepper, was dramatically lit and seemed so heroic and earnest.  There was only one thing to do.  This one's for you, Lonnie! I hope you like it.

"Pepper Heeds the Call of Justice (after a photo by Lonnie Kishiyama)" Pencil. Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

An Ode to the Rats I've Loved

Second in my series for Halloween 2011 is this image that I made while under Hurricane Irene house arrest.  Before rendering and coloring, the sketch of this drawing reminded me of the animated rats and mice that I always admired growing up: Justin from "The Secret of NIMH" (based on the book "Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh" by  Robert O'Brien) and Basil from "The Great Mouse Detective" (based on one of my favorite childhood books, "Basil of Baker Street" by Eve Titus).  They had an intelligent cool factor to them, especially the latter, who was based off of Sherlock Holmes.  I remember squeezing in between two pieces of furniture in my sixth grade classroom during our hour to read books in order to create a little haven for myself where I would not be disturbed. That's where I followed the adventures of Basil.

The rat is an appropriate Halloween motif (and one that is significant to me, living in NYC), and I wanted to think about what he might dress up as for his own celebration.  Naturally, he became what you see below.  His wide stance and flowing cloak is an ode to those mice and rats of my youth.

"Vampire Rat" Pencil and digital color.  Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

A Prickly Halloween

I'm designing a new line of Halloween illustrations that will be made into cards.  I'd almost prefer to send a Halloween card than a Christmas card; it's my favorite day of the year.  For one day, you can be anything or see anything.  On that day, I really believe in ghosts (though I really do) and goblins and witches and werewolves.  My most memorable childhood costume was the year I was a wizard, complete with false beard and nose and wrinkles, courtesy of my sister, who had learned the basics of theater makeup.  I will never do that again; I almost ripped off my skin at the end of the night trying to remove the skin.  Moreover, my nose wiggled in the weirdest way when I ate and my friends in school were a little creeped out by that in the cafeteria.  In recent years (and probably because I'm an art historian), I've tended to the historical, turning saints into costumes. Two of the more successful were St. Lucy with her bloodied eyes on a plate and St. Joan of Arc, complete with dancing flames crawling up my legs.

I love the smell of October air, that crisp, apply, candy-scented air that makes you wrap up with a scarf while enjoying the last rays of the sun's warmth.  I love the smell of a whole bag of Halloween candy.  Each year, it smells exactly the same.  I love the whole atmosphere of Halloween night.  After all of these years, it still feels magical to me.  Every Halloween, I still read Jack Prelutsky's "It's Halloween!" to myself (my mom read it to us when we were young). I look forward to the day I will read it to my children.  There was something very comforting about going to sleep on Halloween night listening to the final words of that book:

It's late and we are sleepy,
The air is cold and still.
Our jack-o-lantern grins at us
Upon the window sill.
We're stuffed with cake and candy
And we've had a lot of fun,
But now it's time to go to bed
And dream of all we've done.
We'll dream of ghosts and goblins
And of witches that we've seen,
And we'll dream of trick-or-treating
On this happy Halloween.

I've decided to do a line of macabre images (coming soon), but in line with my shop, I had to add one sweet card.  This is the first in a line of hedgehog holiday-themed illustrations. 

"Happy Halloween, Hedgehog!"  Pencil and digital color.  Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Crafts in Chelsea

I'll be here with a couple of friends: Debbie of Harlequin and Lionhead and Bunnies Can Dream Jewelry. A few tables down will be two more jeweler friends: Melanie of MyCinta and Brooke of Porter Gulch Jewelry.

My goal is to have the new Christmas card line plus Halloween cards...from the cute to the macabre...for your own delight and perusal.  This benefits the arts program of PS11.  Come down for Christmas and birthday gifts, treats for yourself, and tasty food!

A Baby Blue Nursery

Baby Boy Nursery with Dancing Animals

I just received these photos from a lovely customer of the darling nursery she's created for her son with six of my drawings.  She double-matted them in pale blue and white to match the walls and crib.  I can only imagine what a happy childhood this little baby will have when he arrives this September.  Best wishes for a safe delivery!!

Two pairs of best friends in a blue nursery

On the Second Day of Christmas

My true love gave to me...two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

Inspired in part by the song and in part by the two doves who always nested in my parents' backyard. Every year they sat there together on top of the old swingset. Sometimes she was large and pregnant.  Other times we watched them build nests.  They always seemed like such a happy pair.

"The Second Day of Christmas" Pencil Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Drawing #2 in my 2011 Christmas series.

Christmas in July--A Partridge in a Pear Tree

I'm working on a new series of Christmas designs in keeping with my current shop theme of menagerie.  I've decided to limit the series to the first four days of the Twelve Days of Christmas--the partridge, the turtle doves, the French hens, and the calling birds. These will be printed as luxe cards on metallic stocks with gold envelopes and liners.  I'm pretty excited about how they will look in the end...Christmas is definitely the time for luxurious things. Here's the first day.  Because he's the root of all of the gifts, I've nestled him within a pear tree and a pear and holly mirrored border.   Enjoy!

"The First Day of Christmas" Pencil Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Hedgehogs in a Briar

"Two Hedgehogs (For Jackie and Sam)" Pencil 2011 Copyright Jessica Boehman

This is a design that I originally made for my former college roommate's thank you card for her wedding.  I modified it to be its own design.   I've been playing in my head with this idea for a while and I was glad to realize it for a friend.  I've been working with mirroring and knotwork since college, when I worked on my senior concentration.  The combination of hedgehogs and wildflowers is a motif common in Finland, where she now lives, but I modified it to have personal meaning as well.  I used roses, fiddlehead ferns and blackberries, all of which appeared in my own wedding bouquet.  I quite fancy this one. 

Bang a Drum

"Penguin with Drum" Pencil Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Finally, the last in the Delacorte Clock series. I'm glad they're over, especially as we might be moving away from the vicinity of the clock itself. They are so handsome as a set.  The penguin house at the Central Park Children's Zoo is awesome. You can push your nose against the glass and watch as a penguin comes face-to-face with you.  They are buoyant and happy as they bob in the water or shoot by under the surface.  Up above, they hop and preen and push their wings back in the funniest way that makes it look like they are Italian and are ready for a fight.

"The Delacorte Animals" Pencil Copyright 2010-2011 Jessica Boehman

Rosin Up Your Bow

"Hippo with Violin" Pencil Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Finally another installment in the Dancing Animal series inspired by NYC's Delacorte Clock (still my favorite place in this town and what I'll miss most when we move out of the neighborhood).


The Hippo was a bit daunting to me, but actually, I love the way he turned out.  I started real work on this one on the Staten Island Ferry and it is my first finished drawing since ending the semester grading. It feels good to be back after such a long delay.  It's hard not to think of the Fantasia Hippos dancing in tutus. Maybe this guy plays the music for them...One more to go: the Penguin with Drum.  Happy Summer Break!

Flip It

"The Bird"  Pencil Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Inspired by New York City.

Spring at the Clock

The Delacorte Clock in Springtime

Ai Weiwei's Zodiac Heads

I'm lucky enough to live just a few blocks away from a free outdoor public exposition of Ai Weiwei's Zodiac Heads, a series of massive bronze casts of the twelve heads corresponding to the twelve Chinese lunar years.  Especially due to the recent political scandal and arrest of the artist in China, having these at such a close distance feels like a real treat.  The level of realism varies wildly...the rabbit and monkey are almost cartoonish, while the tiger and rooster have a lot of textural detail.  Stealing the show, as he normally does, is the dragon.  He's dynamic and beautiful and full of life.  There's also something to be said for its gory connotations...after all, these are heads on spikes.  It's worth seeing if you get to NYC or Central Park...it's by Pultizer Fountain (59th and 5th, between Central Park South and the Plaza Hotel).

For Everett

My family has never been short on imagination.  I was lucky to grow up before the rise of the video game, the iPod, the iPad, the smartphone, and the internet.  My mom filled our rooms with shelves of books and art supplies and games that made us think.  When we were bored, she'd tell us to read a book, but just as often as not, we would be outside playing some made-up game that was desperately fun.  To this day, walking in to a children's book store, especially magical ones like Books of Wonder in NYC, makes me feel nostalgic and sad and yet very happy, all at the same time.  My youngest brother had, and still has, an especially developed imagination, and he would spend hours fighting dragons and roaring like Godzilla as he pretended to battle Mothra or Gidorah or some other nasty Japanese monster.  My oldest brother once made a drawing of Josh as he pretended to be Godzilla. Now that my oldest brother has a son of his own, I thought I'd reimagine that scene.

My baby nephew is awesome. He's perfecting animal noises and will soon be at that age when he'll enter the world of dragons, dinosaurs and giant mutant lizards from the sea.   For a birthday present for my brother, I've drawn his son, now about twenty months old, dressed up for trick-or-treating.  He's wearing his trusty dragon costume, designed to impart courage and to elicit monstrous roars.  Hearing a step behind him, he starts to turn.  What's that behind him?   I was  influenced in equal measure by Chris van Allsburg, Bill Watterson, and Maurice Sendak...three of the 20th century masters of drawing and storytelling.  It's an homage to children with imagination and to that perfect age when a backyard can become a place of wonderful adventure.

"Boy vs. Dinosaur" Pencil Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Detail, "Boy vs. Dinosaur"