Meanwhile, back at the Huntington...

Years ago, I did a project that was a mix of exhibit development and science illustration work for the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. I'm always delighted when their team gets in touch with me again for new adventures in art.

This time I was invited to mine their collections (rare books, cool old plants, fabulous sculptures, historic manuscripts, elegant furniture) and cobble together into a sort of fanciful patchwork quilt that would decorate the windows of their new entrance and orientation gallery.

The idea was to make it a sort of filagree pattern, that would be applied to the windows as a giant vinyl decal. I drew the images in Photoshop first, then converted the final draft to vector images that could be scaled up to fit the windows.



I haven't seen it in person yet, but these pics of the installation process are delightfully fun. (Image credit: Karina White.)



The Huntington's blog, Verso, wrote an article about the project with more fun photos. Fun adventure all around.

Wildflower Month Logo

This weekend I'm cranking out the final poster art for the Wildflower Festival at Mount Pisgah Arboretum. In the meantime, I took one of my early sketches for that poster and converted it into a logo for the Wildflower Month events that will be happening all over the Eugene area. * Este fin de semana, pintaré el arte final para el cartel del Festival de Flores Silvestres en Mount Pisgah Arboretum. Mientras tanto, he estado adapando uno de mis bosquejos para el cartel para ser el logo para los eventos de la Mes de Flores Silvestres en la ciudad de Eugene.

It has been surprisingly tricky to get a good balance of polka-dots on the white petals of the Nemophila! When things are all simplified and graphic in this logo-style approach, finding the right balance of white space to playful dots makes a big difference. (Perhaps more than if one is painting it realistically in a "bug-chomps and all" sort of approach, you know?) * ¡Me sorprendió la dificultad de encontrar la balanza perfecta de pepitas en los pétalos blancos del la flor Nemophila! La combinción de pepitas juegtónes con el forma tan simplificado y estilizado de la flor ha exijido mucha attención. (Pintándolo en una manera más realistica, mostrando cada mordida de los insectos por ejemplo, daría mas flexibilidad para pepitas imperfectas, ¿no?)