RCRD Tshirt Design

This design is for the RCRD Street Team. This is the group of gregarious ladies in the league who attend street fairs and festivals and parades etc,. At these events the girls promote RCRD and Roller Derby in general. I was asked to create this design by the Committee Chair. It was her idea to have the derby girl in the newsboy style!

Halloween Zombies

Halloween Zombies

The Zombie Walk of Rochester New York is an event that launches the opening of the Little Theatre's Horror Festival. Zombies of all kind line the streets of downtown Rochester NY as we shamble to the door of the theatre. This year my husband and I went as bride and groom zombies! Costumes were easily found at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store and make up was done by me with a Halloween makeup kit from the local drug store. We had a blast and enjoyed seeing all of the other fantastic Zombie costume and makeup jobs on the streets!

Roller Derby End of Season Party Invitations

Each year Roc City Roller Derby has an "End of Season" party and each year is a different theme. This year it's going to be a "Hoedown Throwdown". I was lucky enough to create the invitations for the party. This project was a blast from beginning to end. Since I'll be attending the party, I already had my costume put together along with my husband's so I decided to do a photographic poster instead of an illustration. So for this project I designed and created the costumes, styled and staged the photograph to work with the design of the invitation along with the photo illustration and graphic design. The photo was taken by another league member in my driveway. The hay bale is real but the background saloon windows are a stock photography image purchased off istockphoto. I used a parchment paper background in photoshop with multiple filters and tweaks to get the right feel of the photography for a seamless fit with the background image. My husband was a real sport in all this and the photographer, Marnie Soom, did a fantastic job. The invitations will be printed as posters as well as emailed to league members.

Roller Derby Party Photo Cut Outs

For our Roller Derby Hoedown, guests will be able to stand behind this fun photo cutout for keepsake photos. The mural was painted on 2 4x8 sheets of 1/2 inch foam core and will be braced from behind with 1x2s. The sketch was done small, scanned and cleaned up in photoshop. I created a color rough in photoshop as a guide and then projected the drawing onto the foamcore using a "Tracer" art projector. I used Nova Color acrylic paints. The faces and the edges have yet to be cut out. I can't wait to see the crazy faces people will be making for their photographs!

Running Team T-Shirt Designs

Some friends of mine will be running/walking in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk next month and I was asked if I'd do the design for their team shirts. My friend had the idea of the ribbon around second base and this is my interpretation of that concept. I enjoy doing these kinds of funraiser T-shirt designs when I can. You usually get to have a little fun with the design!

Fun with Party Favors

Our derby team has a party coming up and since derby girls love their beer I thought why not beer koozies in the team color. I printed our team logo onto sticker paper and cut out each to stick onto the koozie. I filled each one with candy and wrapped it up in a treat bag with our themed skull ribbon. The favors will make a great keepsake as well as keep our drinks cold during the party!

Grass Roots Gallery Opening Show

I will have 2 works in the opening show for the new Rochester NY Art Gallery, The Grass Roots Gallery. This is a new gallery owned and operated in part by Mary Bohan and her husband. Their approach to this first show of 15 artist's work is "anything goes". Which is why I jumped at the chance to be a part of it. I've been wanted to start showing my large canvases but have been a little nervous to approach galleries yet since I don't have a large body of work. Rochester offers a ton of great opportunities for shows at salons, bars, restaurants, etc. for artists but this will be my first participation in a group gallery show. Hearing Mary talk, she has great plans for the gallery and has a very open attitude about new and emerging artists so I'm very excited to see how it goes for them, and for me!

Painted Ta-Tas for a Good Cause

This past week I finished a project I've been proud to be a part of. Breast Impressions is a cause to support Breast Cancer education, prevention and treatment. Founder, Judi Grove has enlisted many Roller Derby Leagues to participate in this amazing program and this year she is working with Roc City Rollery Derby, of which I am a member. Breast impression casts were made of 14 of our skater members and then passed out to various artists around the community as well as a few of us skater/artists. I was fortunate enough to get the chance to decorate Ta-Ta Payne's breast impression. Ta-Ta is one of Roc Derby's finest jammers on the new team, The Rotten Chesters. That's my team as well, so I was thrilled to be able to work on a fellow team members boobies!

The breast casts are now coming in from all of the artists and it is absolutely amazing how beautiful and different each of the pieces are! At our end of season bout, appropriately titled "Bouting for Boobies", each piece will be auctioned off and all proceeds will go to the Breast Impressions organization for Breast Cancer Awareness.

To learn more and see many more of these beautiful pieces of art, go to: http://www.breastimpressions.com/ I'm so thankful to have been a part of this process! Four of these artworks will be chosen to appear at the Memorial Art Gallery here in Rochester NY, a huge honor in itself!

Dream Blossoms

I'm currently working on a series of large acrylic on canvas paintings I call "Dream Blossoms". I've labeled them such because my reference is actual flora but in the paintings, the flowers appear dreamlike in their intense color, arrangement or details. Sunflowers with jewels instead of seeds. Japanese lanterns that sparkle and glow as garden lanterns. Cactus that seem to dance along the desert surface. I enjoy the whimsical details that reveal themselves as I paint. I may have a vision of what the finished piece will be as I am painting but the end result is always more colorful and lively than I imagined.

The giclee prints I have of these paintings are retaining the brightness of color and detail of brushstroke. I'm very happy with the outcome. I'm beginning to hold on to the originals as I work towards a showing of the series. They bring so much life to my already colorful walls in the meantime. They will be missed, but I look forward to the opportunity to share them. I have received very positive response on the series so far. Next up, a giant Gerber Daisy!