Surtex is just a couple of days away! The Montage Licensing team is already en route to NY, representing the work of 16 artists, (including mine). Surtex, the international marketplace for original art and design, is in its 26th year. Montage Licensing, owned and operated by veteran licensed artist Kimberly Montgomery, is at Booth 464, so be sure to stop by and meet Kimberly and Heather!

Kimberly has been a small business owner for 20 years and a successful licensed artist whose work has been featured on hundreds of products, so she brings years of experience as an artist working with manufacturers and their needs to the job of  promoting and supporting other artists looking to license their work. Kimberly also offers consulting and portfolio review for artists who are looking at licensing as a next step. She's also one of the nicest people you'll ever meet!


I am not going to Surtex this year, but will follow the excitement over the next few days from a few of the artists represented by Kimberly in their popular blogs: The Moon From My Attic, by Alex Colombo, Joan Beiriger's Licensing, Tamara Holland's Bean Up the Nose Art, and Marilyn MacGregor's Artsmarttalk.

Good designs inspire me: Betsy Bush at GCU

Betsy complimented me this morning by blogging about my cards at GCU-for a design challenge Corrie Kuipers created on behalf of GCU and its artists. It was such a nice gesture and I had not noticed this challenge yet, so I wanted to genuinely thank Betsy in my own blog because I have been a fan of her designs as well.

I visited Betsy's Dragonfire Graphics shop a month or so ago and found a series of designs I loved. I'm always inspired by good designs and Betsy's birthday series is one of my favorites. It's a challenge to edit your ideas when you're designing cards--when you are specifically trying to express feelings from one person to another, the purpose of cards, you just want to fill the design with all of the wonderful things that come to heart and mind, but the sentiment and thoughts do have to be clear and not cluttered. I think these designs, 3 of her birthday series and two from other collections, are so good because they are simple, clear, and lovely.

      

There are a lot of artists on GCU and I think half a million or so cards--something for everyone!

sharon