Pink Skies, Lavender Lava and Fools Gold...

Happy first day of Summer everyone!

Here's a sneak peek at the latest Screaming Mimis ad, with both backdrop and palette loosely inspired by the work of mid-century abstract artist (and founding editor of Artforum magazine) Arthur Secunda: whose awe-inspiring torn paper collages Jeff and I spotted for the first time at the Palm Springs Art Museum and have been in love with ever since.

Those perfect desert colors, dusky pinks, soft sands, and silvery shadows, are so dreamy and so elusive that I probably have thousands of swatches in my color libraries, so it was especially fun to sift through them all to try to capture the ever-so-fleeting tones of magic hour in the high desert!

Summer adventure wise, in what has now become basically an annual tradition of life-imitating-art-imitating-imaginary-adventures we were actually semi-coincidentally packing up the wagon and setting sail for the high deserts of Eastern Oregon pretty much the minute after I dashed the ad off to print...

On the itinerary: teepee camping, tumbleweed spotting, bird watching, scout guide assisted campfire building, sandy picnics, ghost towns, petrified forests, and, at the very top of our sightseeing list, the Painted Hills at the John Day Fossil Beds. Every section of the park has a different color winding through the landscape, from the aqua blue craters that looked like the surface of the moon to soft rolling pink and green hills that looked like something out of a 1920s German fairytale, to my personal favorite, the tiny psychedelic pink, orange, and lilac volcanic mountain-scapes that were almost too otherworldly to comprehend:

I'm so beyond obsessed with even the very idea of the lavender rhyolitic lava in that last shot that I still can't stop thinking about it, and we took a mini detour at every roadside rock shoppe in hopes of finding a tiny souvenir. Instead, we ended up with a bit of a geology bug, big chunks of pyrite, rose quartz and petrified wood cluttering up every surface of the house, and giant boulders of all of the above at the top of our wishlist for future landscaping plans. Oops.

We're already hatching plans for another high desert adventure later in the summer, in hopes of finding both the hot springs and the wild horses that eluded us this time around and taking so, so many more pictures of pretty, pretty rocks!

As always, there are oh so many more photos over at Instagram, along with the usual rotation of pottery adventures, cat portraits and new plant friends!

Happy Spring!

I can't resist making a quick post to share the latest version of the Screaming Mimis ad, due out in April, starring one of my all time favorite Spring color combos, melon-y pink and dusty mint!

L. ❤. V. E.

Happy Valentines Day!
Here's a sneak peek at this years Screaming Mimis card:

You can also check out the Spring Fashion issue of Paper Magazine for a lavender, dusty rose, and lemon chiffon springtime garden party version, which should be on newsstands any day now!

Inspired in equal parts by the Cecil Beaton and the Bright Young Things:
The paintings of Romaine Brooks:
And the fact that I've spent nearly the entirety of 2012 thus far watching practically nothing but Busby Berkeley musicals, as an antidote to both a persistent case of general ennui and an unexpectedly long recovery from a troublesome wisdom tooth operation, and I really couldn't have asked for a better prescription!

Here are a few of my favorite ultra kaleidoscopic musical numbers so far:
Hope you're all having a magical day so far! We'll most likely be found curled up on the couch with the kittens, reveling in more Busby Berkeley, and dining on fancy mashed potatoes, wild mushroom soup and ice cream sundaes, all of which sounds just about perfect to me! Meow!
❤

Deck the Halls!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
Just popping in for a quick post to share the latest Screaming Mimis ad! I spent a few weekends in a row scouring antique malls for the perfect vintage ornaments to draw (Yes, this is how I do my research!) and of course stumbled on oh-so-many that were just too cute to leave behind, so one thing led to another and we're now enjoying the warm sparkly glow our first ever Xmas tree! PS. You still have a few days to pop in to the Creative Growth Pop-Up Shop at Screaming Mimis for amaaazing stocking stuffers, one of a kind handmade ornaments, and a certain cat sweatshirt that is definitely on my wishlist!

Into the Trees...

Happy waning days of Fall everyone!

I started this post at the first tiny flutters of fall-hued leaves, when I was absolutely ecstatic about daily sweater weather, blustery days and hot cocoa times, ready for foggy days at the shore and for the squrrels that live in our chimney to don their tiny acorn hats. The time has been slipping away like crazy ever since and I'm finally posting just as the first frosts set in, while the sun sets at the extremely untimely, forever surprising and ever-such-a-bummer hour of four o'clock in the afternoon.

In any case, I didn't want to wait until the first snowdrifts to share the Fall Screaming Mimis ad, inspired partly by Laura and Kim's epic West Coast road trip, partly by legendary 70s California rock climbers The Stonemasters:

and partly by our mutual obsessions with vintage canteens!

Not to be outdone by my own illustration of the perfect imaginary camping trip, Jeff and I cobbled together a last minute itinerary built around a friends magical woodland wedding in Arcata and set off on our own dreamy early Fall impromptu wander of the Northern California and Oregon coastlines:
Despite being armed only with a few scrawled post-it lists of hastily researched campsites, a couple of vague sightseeing recommendations, a recently acquired super cute though not-terribly-mechanically-sound future veggie oil powered station wagon, a list of camping supplies that consisted, in its entirely, of 1) marshmallows and 2) fire, and a borrowed tent that resulted in a comedy of errors the first time we tried to set it up, or maybe even partly because of those things, we kind of had the best trip ever, an absolutely epic ramble through some of the most amazing landscapes the West Coast has to offer!

Here I am, wayfinding, as snapped by Jeff:
After a mini inland detour for a quick peek at the Oregon Caves and Chateau, a Wildlife Safari and hopeful but sadly not-to-be Treesort adventure (Note to future wanderers, the treehouses are sometimes booked up to a year in advance!) we decamped to the coast for a few days of beachcombing in Humboldt County, whiling away the hours along a few of my new favorite shorelines in the world, watching the surf from a redwood lined perch at Moonstone Beach and barely making it back up the cliff to camp at dusk weighed down with every pocket full of insanely beautiful rocks, gemstones, and petrified driftwood via Agate Beach at Patrick's Point State Park.

Here's Jeff, hobo camping at Moonstone Beach, as snapped by me: We saw a million giant trees, veered off on every scenic highway and byway, and hiked through a million ancient forests and fern lined canyons. A few of our absolute favorite spots in the Redwoods were Fern Canyon, the Big Tree Wayside, and Ladybird Johnson Grove, but I would love love love to hear about more secret spots and local favorites for next time! Of course, we also had to pull off at literally every single tourist attraction along the way, from a quick stop to visit Paul Bunyan at the Trees of Mystery to new favorites the Prehistoric Gardens and the West Coast Game Park Safari, reported to be the largest wild animal free range petting zoo in the country, where we had an extended hangout with the cutest herd of baby deer, got chased around by angry swans and had all of our clothes gnawed on by tiny Satanic goats, which was maybe kind of the best thing ever?

Here I am posing for the classic tourist shot at the Prehistoric Gardens:
Since this recap has just barely crept across the Oregon border, I should probably save the rest for another time. Stay tuned for foggy cliffs, baby seals, deco bridges, neon tidepools, clam chowder and lots and lots of antiques!
♥

California Dreaming...

Happy first day of summer everyone!

The mailman just arrived at our doorstep bearing the Summer issue of Paper Magazine, containing my latest ad for Screaming Mimis, which was ever so loosely inspired, in both subject matter and palette, by the dreamy impressionist boating scenes of 1930s California artist Edward Cucuel:

all of which make me hope for at least a few sunny afternoons spent floating down a lazy river this summer, parasols, straw hats and tiny tea sandwiches in tow. In the meantime you can find me doodling away in our new backyard, which is currently a meadow of buttercups, lounging on our newly estate sale begotten and freshly lemon yellow spray painted patio set with a homemade meyer lemon simple syrup italian soda, my new summer beverage obsession!

Sunshine Day...

The Screaming Mimis ad for Spring, inspired by art deco florals, dream bicycles and 1920s picnics, and informed, just for fun, by the Spring 2011 Pantone palette:

was dashed off to print back when there was still frost on the ground, but I've probably been obsessing about a proper garden ever since, and now that Spring has officially sprung here in the Pacific Northwest, we've been strolling the nursery aisles every chance we get, poring over seed catalogs, pricing arborvitae, and sourcing climbing roses for our chainlink fences with impossible visions of a rococo pastoral urban backyard:


I'll let you know how it goes!
Last image via Colkinikha.

Miss Candy Twist...

h hello there! I hope everyone had a magical Holiday and super festive New Years celebration! We spent the entire month of December on maybe the biggest project of our lives, knee deep in crumbling wallpaper, crackly tiles, enamel paints and sawdust, finally collapsing in a heap of exhaustion well before midnight on New Years Eve, but waking up on the very first day of 2011 to the sun streaming in the window of our brand new 1920s bungalow, which I shall have to save for it's very own post!

I was able to sneak in a few bits of drawing here and there, the Screaming Mimis Holiday Ad Spectacular, par exemple! The Holiday ads are always a favorite to draw, we went with a Candyland theme this year:

Inspired, of course, by the sweet shops of yore, and my own addiction to old fashioned hard candies of all stripes, particularly of the seasonal variety:

My confectionery allegiances generally lie with either taffy pulled by hand in a pink striped facade on the tiny main street of a forgotten Victorian seaside town or dusty boiled sweets via faux frosting topped vernacular English storybook cottage a la Santa's Village:

But I do also adore the modern day apothecary aesthetic, good old fashioned sugar craftsmanship and frequent art collaborations of modern day avant candy lab Papabubble. Here are some of their handmade spiral lollipops available at Bergdorf's:

A collaboration with Barcelona based designers Sebastien Cordоliani and Frank Fontana exploring traditional Murano glass techniques as applied to sugar:


And a pretty epic exhibition by Erica Browne, wherein participants were asked to grow their own sugar crystals and then bring them to display in the stores windows:


Having had 'candy as art' on my to-do list for the past, oh, decade or so, I am, of course, very much obsessed and always make a mental note when I spot someone else using sugar as a medium in their work. Garden of Delight by Marieke van der Bruggen made the blog rounds a few years back but definitely warrants another mention:


And, last but not least, Elsa Hedberg's candy and sugar icing baubles, on display at Beyond the Valley via Style Bubble:


Ps. Peppermint swirl type courtesy of Jessica Hische at Daily Drop Cap.

Go For Baroque!

This is ever-so-slightly belated, but probably one of my faves, which makes it kinda worth posting a month or two late:

Hello Spring/Summer-ish Screaming Mimis ad!

Probably one of the things I love the about fashion illustration in general and the Screaming Mimis ads in particular is creating cute imaginary locales for cute imaginary kids to live in, and when in doubt I tend to go for Baroque, thus the French Provincial by way of the 1970s teenage bedroom, which is probably just about what my dream office would look like, given a) a house of my very own to wallpaper to death b) a teeny-tiny budget and c) a couple of summertime weeks of decor scouting roadtrippery!

First on the my wishlist would be this altogether perfect pink and green velveteen number, found whilst scouring the internets for the perfect furniture to draw for this very ad, but sadly already sold for a song:


I also love love love how the ad fit right in with this super adorable editorial which just so happened to be in the very same issue of Paper Magazine:

Styled by super cute Los Angeles based Wardrobe Stylist Shirley Kurata and shot at one of my all time favorite places in the history of the world, the Madonna Inn!

Which was also one of our all time favorite photoshoot locales when we lived in LA, as seen in these outtakes from a Gravy Train!!!! album cover shoot from oh-so-many years ago, which also involved smuggling in a carload of stuffed poodles, googly eyed plastic bunnies, big eyed kids and giant furry gonks from ye olde prop library:


If you've never been, I highly recommend you pay a visit to the Madonna Inn immédiatement, if only for a quick slice of Pink Champagne Cake and a mug of pink sugared coffee on your way up or down the California Coast, but one look at the magical rooms and pink vinyl boothed and gold bedecked steakhouse and you'll pretty much have to stay the night:


PS. On a semi-tangentially somewhat related note, see that hair, way back up there, in the ad? That's basically my summer dream hair & any tips on how to achieve such a look would be greatly appreciated! I'm desperately in need of some Spring/Summer hairstyles as I seem to have sprouted a spectacularly unruly and extravagantly overgrown mane of waist length Manson girl hair over the Winter months and need all the help I can get!

❤ Fawn

In Other News...

Here's a little sneak peek at one of the early drafts for the new Screaming Mimis website:

which has since gone live, complete with a mini online shoppe and cuter than cute new blog!

Yay!

Tiny Pierrettes...

A few quick shots of some recent works in progress, ten 10" x 10" pieces for an upcoming holiday show in Australia:

Full details and more updates soon, I promise!