Thanks Jen Goode!

One of the nicest designers out there, Jen has a regular column she devotes to interviews with other designers. I'm happy to be one of them! Check out her great website-full of wonderful positivity and fun art, as well as "Inside Designer Minds".

http://www.jgoode.com/blessings-in-art-created-by-sharon-fernleaf/

For the Pirate in Every Cat

I live with five cats, all rescued. At least two of them would be pirates if given half a chance! This design is from Rotem Gear by R. Jean Roth. She has a great sense of humor and a wonderful shop online.

Birds Bag from Zazzle.com

Birds Bag from Zazzle.com

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For bird lovers and birders, these cute original feathered friends are a great way to support your favorite pets. A stocking stuffer or gift idea. Bird love! Fun original art.

More of My Favorite Artists

Lucia Salemi does adorable paintings of animals and is very supportive of other artists. This "Good Kitten" sticker is from her original art.

Saint Cat :)


"Good Kitten" Sticker by Lucia Salemi, Zazzle.com

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Art, Generosity, and Success

Kindness matters. Generosity makes a difference in the world. Why? Because it makes the world a better place to live in. That's got to be a good thing. Good work.There are a lot, a lot, of talented artists and designers in the world. Many of them are now online, so standing out gets harder to accomplish every day, but I know I am most drawn to work by designers who are also nice people and generous of spirit. I think a wonderful measure of success, beyond income and audience, is how many others you genuinely care to help toward their own goals and success. I've met a few artists who fit that category. I want to share some of these artists and their work here.

"Success is relative. Try to enjoy the ride."

Corrie Kuipers is one of the most talented, prolific, funny, and generous artists I've met. Her
high level of skill and output always amaze me and her work just makes me laugh. And laugh.
This is one design a crafter would love! You can get it here.

Another artist whose work I enjoy is Jen Goode. A genuinely nice person with a strong social conscience who also helps a lot of artists/designers gain exposure with Inside Designer Minds, an interview column on her website. She's always been very helpful and generous with her time since I met her on Great Gear, a group for POD designers and shopowners.

I hope you check out their work. It's Friday--have a great weekend!

Reading With Cats

Cat Duty: Bookmark

Life with cats is full of humor. It's also a life filled with love. This is an example of cat love...cats feel it is their duty to help at all times. Here is on e of my cat companions helping while I read, in case I lose my place :) Always so selfless, these guys!

Always double-check your text: Best Dog of the World Potato!

I enjoy writing for greeting cards and creating designs that include text because I love words and images. So I'm an illustrator. I love what I do. And I think my work loves me back because I bring humor to it. Humor's important and almost always welcome. Together, we create a happy environment for working.

Take translation of another language for example. Unless you are fluent in another language, translating your native language into that other is tricky business. I can laugh at myself pretty easily so it wasn't too embarassing today when I realized I had made a little mistake in a few designs I'd translated from English to Spanish. As in, "Best dog of the world potato!" Here's what I did.

I used a Google translation widget (word monkey)

exclusively for expanding some of my father's day designs to Spanish speaking people. What's funny is that when I typed in the phrase that I wanted to translate such as, "World's Best Dog Dad", I received "mejor perro del mundo papa". Okay. However, when I cross-checked it today (wish I'd thought of it earlier!) and put that spanish phrase in to translate into english, it morphed into something nonsensical, or "world's best dog potato!" 

I took one year of Spanish in school and I have a copy of Spanish for Gringos, but even that high level of preparation for tackling a second language is no substitute for careful double-checking of text when you design :) I had the designs for exceptional dog potatoes up on Zazzle for several days before I thought to go back and cross check the spanish into english, so I'm sure there were a couple of people at least who had a good chuckle. That's not a bad thing.

If you know of any dog potatoes out there, I've got t-shirts!

Love and Cats

One of my favorite websites is Gimundo, where good news, and only good news, is "served up daily". Today they have a video of a rat and cat relationship that is too cute! The rat loves the cat. And who doesn't love a cat? I live with five rescued cats and can't imagine my life without them.

One of our cats, Mama Cat, so named because she looked to have given birth many times in her homeless life, came to live with us via our backyard. She moved in and insisted on coming into the house and taking over. There were 4 other cats there already. She was built like a tiny bulldog, had the personality of a junkyard dog, and was clearly in control of all the cats in her vicinity. She fought with dogs and cats alike when she was outside. This little all black cat had decided we were to be her new family and so we were.

Now she has been with us for 4 years and she has learned to trust in that time that there will always be food, always be a lap to sit in, always be love and affection given freely. Her personality has changed completely. Now she is affectionate with us and at least tolerates the other cats! She also plays. One thing that hasn't changed is when she runs in the door every time it's opened to let her back in. I think she still doesn't completely trust that she'll be allowed back in. Trust is hard, but she has come a long way. Complete trust, well...every day a bit more :)

Love makes all the difference. It transforms and heals. I have this cat and love design here. I think loving an animal really can heal the world. It can heal an angry cat and that cat can in turn heal us with her love and affection.

Swine Flu and Animal Terrorism?

Last week there were stories of Swine Flu all over the news. Being an artist, I wanted to try to draw something in response. Something that wouldn't be offensive, as it is a serious illness and people have died. It was the fear and panic in all of the newscasts that bothered me the most. We're constantly warned of new threats and it seems we need to live in fear of something at all times. I've seen it referred to as "a culture of fear". It's impossible to really"live" in this mindset. So, humor was the only way I could respond to it.

I was playing with some design ideas and as an animal lover, I wondered about this animal connection--mad cow disease, avian flu, and now swine flu. What if... the animals were getting back at humanity for the long history of poor treatment. What if...they all got together, organized, and...voila! Terrorist animals. It was kind of a fun idea. Let me know what you think.