It Must Be My 15 Minutes...

This year I've enjoyed an overwhelming amount of attention for my business, mostly due to the fact that I created the Plaza Lights banners this year. I can't thank my hometown of Kansas City enough for all the attention on my little biz! It means so much to have this kind of local support. Here is a clip of the appearance I got to do on Fox4 News a few days ago and also an article that just came out today in the 913 section of the KC Star.

http://bit.ly/1Q0AHKa

http://bit.ly/1Rmk0Iq

Boulevardia!

I'm SO psyched to be a part of one of KC's newest and best festivals: Boulevardia! It's a 3-day music, beer, art and food fest held under the 12th street bridge in KC's West bottoms. You can find me and my beer and meat themed tea towels there in the Maker's Market area. I'll also have all my city tea towels, pillows, prints, and cards too of course. If you're in or near the area, hope to see you there! Just click on link below the BLVDIA image for more info.

http://boulevardia.com

KC Print Giveaway!

I'm giving away one of my 11 x 14 KC prints this weekend. All you have to do is be at one of my shows to enter. Just tell me you want to be put on the list and I'll let you know who won on Monday! Have a great weekend.

Carrying the OneWomanShop Baton for the day

I'm happy to say that I'm carrying the Instagram baton for One Woman Shop today! Check out the link here:http://onewomanshop.com/2014/pass-the-instagram-baton-2/

Local Artist Spotlight: Tag Team Tompkins

     Take two Kansas City book lovers, season them with graphic design careers at a very large social expression company, a strong desire to travel, and mix well. Stir up these ingredients and you have Tag Team Tompkins, a small business created to honor literary wit and wisdom.  They partner well together from years of practice, being mother and daughter.

Madeline and Diane in their home studio with watchdog Bruce at the window

   Today I'd like to introduce you to them in what (I'm hoping) will be a recurring post about local KC artists whose work inspires me. I met Diane when I also worked for that "very large social expression company" and we became fast friends. It's been so great to see her daughter Madeline go down that similar creative path, yet blaze her own way as an accomplished hand-lettering artist. I love their style and the way their products blend each of their talents so seamlessly. Here's a little about the artists and their process:

Diane finds literary quotes that strike a modern note and gathers them together for discussion. In their work, they try to find copy that matches their world view, without becoming preachy. These quotes need to please both of them in equal measure. Then, Diane begins to illustrate them.  Madeline adds her hand lettering and second set of eyes to the mix. When the design is finished, it goes to Bob Atkins, owner of Skylab Letterpress in North Kansas City. His letterpress printing on good paper brings their prints and bookmarks to a pleasing finish. 

Wayne Tompkins (fact checker and data-base designer at TTT) with Bob Atkins of Skylab Letterpress

  Their frequent travels to Japan to visit family allow them to find new tools and materials, and lend them surprising perspectives on their own art.  Those long plane trips ensure plenty of time to read and imagine new work. They have a retail and wholesale shop on Etsy, and also wholesale their printed work locally and nationally. You can also follow them on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/tagteamtompkins

                               

Fun bookmarks ready for market

 A 5x7 print for all the dog lovers out there

Madeline hand lettering 

Another  5x7 print, inspired by marriage equality rulings

  Two "Dire Warning" 5x7 2-color prints

These are two in a series of original paper collages that Diane made for a show in Fukuoka, Japan where her son and his family live.

                         

City Series: Kansas City art print

Yay! It's finally done. The first in my city series of archival prints and as I said, decided to start with my hometown of Kansas City because it's awesome in so many ways. I've picked out some of the famous KC landmarks to illustrate here like the Country Club Plaza, Union Station, Liberty Memorial, the Kauffman Center, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum. The best part is you have choices! I've done the print in 4 different color ways: yellow, blue, and red duotones that all include grey. Or if you prefer a 3 color print, you can buy one at Shop Beautiful, which is located in Brookside or Hawthorne Plaza.
For the 2 color prints in either 11 x 14 or 12 x 16, click here:https://tammysmithdesign.com/shop/kansas-city-art-print/

KC Series: #2--The Kauffman Center

The Kauffman Center stands overlooking our city but not facing downtown or towards the river, rather it faces the creative hub of the city-the Crossroads District. It's a stunning building designed by Moshe Safdie, world-famous architect. When you stand inside the Kauffman you can look out through the glass wall that makes up one side of the building itself. At night the city lights dot the dark and in the daytime you have a view that's far reaching yet more intimate than from a skyscraper.
This piece is 12" x 12" x 1.5" and is mounted on gallery canvas and signed by me. It's for sale on my site here:http://bit.ly/1nAJ9xE

Renegade Craft Fair: Chitown and my new City Series

Just got word the other day that I've been accepted to the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago on Sept. 6-7! I've long been a fan of RCF and have been to this particular fair in Wicker Park several years ago, before these fairs grew so popular. It may have been small then, but I went with some artist friends of mine and we all loved the unique vendors that they chose, so I'm honored to be a part of that tradition. To celebrate that, I'm making a new series of city scenes in wire that will be followed by art prints, stitch kits and more. I had to do one for Chicago to announce the RCF (and I'll definitely do more) but for right now I'm switching back to my hometown. We have so many beautiful buildings here in KC that it's hard to choose which come first. I chose the Country Club Plaza because it's the reason why I live where I do (which is about 1 mile from the CCP). So, to kick off the City Series: KC edition, here's The Country Club Plaza in wire. It's on a 12"x12" gallery canvas and is for sale on my site here:http://bit.ly/SWafWl

Reinventing The State Plate

I've always loved state plates and have collected them over the years. When I was into doing ceramics and mosaics I would incorporate some state memorabilia into my pieces alongside my homemade tiles.  When I decided to launch my own line of products last year, I knew that I wanted some DIY component in some of my products, both because I love to see something textural or hand made and also because I wanted to create something that was a collaboration with my customer--something that they could interact with and add their own creativity to. So when I was asked to do a piece of artwork that had to do with the Missouri River last year for KC non-profit Bridging The Gap, I decided the state plate was the perfect place to start. I purchased plates from all the states that the Missouri River runs through and filled in the gaps (or "bridged" the gaps...hahaha) with shards from my handmade tiles.
When I was working on this project, I got the inspiration to reinterpret the traditional state plate in my own illustration style for a new customer, someone who may love the ceramic versions but also want a more graphic approach with a crafty angle for those who (like me) like to embroider and hand stitch. And that's how and why the Stitchable State Plate kit was born. I have started with the 6 most populous states-California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania-but am working my way through all 50 so if you don't see your state, please email me to see when it will be done or leave a message on my FB page too. These kits are $20.00 in my shop online here and they come with 2 skeins of thread, a needle, an 11"x14" poster with stitch lines to follow and simple instructions. If you're not into embroidery, I also offer fine art prints of each of these state plate posters here. In addition, I've made embossed postcard sets for each of the 6 states that are also for sale in my shop here. The dark areas in the design are covered with a cool emboss technique that adds that little something extra to the trad postcard. They are $11.50 for a boxed set of 10 postcards.

Fantastic People from the NSS Show

One of the best parts of doing trade shows are the people you meet and this year's NSS show was no exception. My good friend Michael Letzig, who I mentioned in a previous post, was my helper for the first two days of the show and man, was his help needed and appreciated! He also has a wealth of knowledge about our industry and has a lot of experience in the licensing world, so his presence was reassuring on many levels. Also I got to meet the Perfectly Nice dynamic duo, who are also known as Bob and Colleen Shea. They are actually mutual friends of another pal of mine, Laurie Keller, and we met by "coincidence" (although I happen to think there ARE no coincidences). They're both amazingly talented people who also happen to be funny, self-deprecating, and warm all at the same time. Then from across the pond, there's Hannah Nunn, who I have never met in person but have been e-friends with for awhile now since she included one of my wire lamps in her book "Illuminate". I'm so glad we finally met in person. Another British designer I met was DuPenny, whom I was told to look up by a customer and I'm glad I did. Her work is black and white and wonderful all over! The woman holding a camera is Petra Kern, a very lovely person who is a designer with AFreshBunch group. She and I became fast friends and I loved hearing about her life in Slovenia. And last but not least, another hometown business, Hammerpress. It was so great to see people from KC at the show plus I've always been a big fan of Brady Vest's work.

My good friend Michael and I at Hudson Commons

Bob and Colleen Shea from Perfectly Nice

Hannah Nunn in her beautiful lighting shop

DuPenny and her booth were a visual treat

Petra Kern and her camera (which she lost but thankfully got back!)

Hammerpress booth-always wonderful product and display

Studio Remodel-Step 2

We went on vacation while our neighbor cut a hole in my closet. I highly recommend leaving for a few days if you're having construction-or destruction-done on your house. Much more peaceful that way! When we returned home, here's what we saw:

He did a fantastic job so now the next step was painting the room and finding some awesome chairs for the nook. I had a Queen Anne style of chair in mind and I wanted to find them second hand if at all possible, instead of buying new. On First Fridays,  I looked around at alot of flea market shops that we have here in KC...and man, do we have a lot! but I didn't find anything Friday night.
Here's a pic of Gary, my studio assistant, laying on his window perch. He was feeling somewhat displaced and kept wandering around the room howling until I brought his perch in. Talk about a creature of habit.

I decided to paint the nook a really dark slate grey because I have a plan to paint a design in that area with the lighter grey that is the room color. I wanted it to feel very cocoon-like but I also wanted a hit of a bright color so I painted the edge of the wall a bright lime green called "New Lime" by Benjamin Moore. Here's what the nook looked like after painting:

Next up was finding the chairs. After I struck out on finding anything Friday night, I went to another flea market we have here called Urban Mining. That's where I found these awesome red velvet Hollywood Regency chairs! So much for Queen Anne. This is much more me anyway:) I also found these fantastic little faux bois tables at the same place. LOVE Urban Mining! 

Next will be getting the floor redone, recovering the chairs and painting the tables. This is taking alot longer than I thought it would and I'm getting a bit tired of having my desk in the living room 

BUT I think it will definitely be worth it.