Christmas Inspirations

Hi all!
A quick note: I have significantly updated my website! There is one little glitch I have just noticed-- on the portfolio page, the Christmas dove piece continues to haunt you when the cursor is off the thumbnails! I will be fixing this problem shortly. But check it out anyway!
Speaking of Christmas cards...
Well, this year I am neglecting to paint my annual Christmas cards, unfortunately. I was on a roll, three years in a row, but I just couldn't find the time for 2011's rendition. So, instead, I decided to show you some really wonderful retro cards and advertisements, all of which I find pretty inspiring.

I can't resist starting off with my favorite: Mary Blair!

Here's a Disney illustration from 1952. The use of green is a little odd here, but I love the line work on the buildings. I think it's also pretty funny to see the traditional Disney characters drawn in their usual style, with Mary's trademark technique surrounding them.


©Mary Blair, 1952.

I'm not sure when this Christmas card was made, but I really enjoy the simplicity of it. The texture is really nice, also. Although, the rocking horse's eyes make me slightly uncomfortable after some time.


© Mary Blair

Not a card, but still for the holidays! This character is my personal favorite of the bunch. Her way of handling children still has the largest influence on my personal work. I also enjoy that this piece required such a limited color palette.


© Mary Blair for Meadow Gold

While on the hunt, I also found some really fun card illustrations from the 1950s. The first is from "Better Homes and Gardens," illustrating a happy family in the most traditional sense possible. I love that about old illustrations. Even if life wasn't really this perfect, the world sure pretended it was! Wonderful limited color palette here, also.


© Better Homes and Gardens

This is an old children's card from Carrington. Again, the simplicity here is just wonderful. Apparently, there are some Carrington card collectors out there. I can't imagine what kind of lovely goldmines those folks have.


© Carrington

Now, this I just found really funny! Talk about simplicity-- Santa in his most basic form, selling electrical appliances. I'm not sure what woman today would really want a slow-roaster or waffle iron for Christmas, but I won't judge either. This was printed sometime in the late '50s or early '60s.


I don't have anyone to copyright it to. :(

And last, but not least, a really fun card illustration from 1960 by Hallmark. The card was made for First Lady Mamie Doud Eisenhower. Apparently, Mamie was responsible for the pink bathroom trend that graces millions of homes today (or once graced, as I'm sure many have sadly been torn out by now). Click here to read the really interesting article on Mamie's love of pink influencing America, which I discovered was attached to the illustration.

© Hallmark via The Eisenhower National Historic Site

I hope this makes up for my lack of personal work for Christmas!

adios,
caitlin

Features, features, and some more features!

Hey all!
I realized that I never updated you on my fun discovery a few weeks ago! After taking Kellan's suggestion to Google my own name, I found that other folks had, well, found me! Let me tell you, it is one of the most exciting things to unexpectedly see your work featured on another website. (Unless, of course, they've stolen it. I suppose that would be a different kind of exciting.)

Here's the links to each page:

Halogentv.com wrote an article on They Draw and Travel, and They Draw and Cook. My Zippy Zucchini recipe was at the top of the page! This was a nice treat, and was posted on my birthday, no less.

Avocado Sweet also did a piece on They Draw and Travel, and sampled both my Austin map, and fellow Square Carouselian Catherine Fontenot's Northway Park guide. About my work, they said, "Two maps that immediately made me want to go to Texas: Active Austin by Caitlin B. Alexander which includes a plea to 'Keep Austin Weird' and identifies the Armadillo World Headquarters."

Another Wordpress site to feature TDAT was Valesulfilo, which included my Austin map again, as well as previous Square Carousel member, Shannon Snow's, Savannah map.

I also found my map on a Tumblr page!

The most interesting feature of them all though, I must say, is the one I found written in Portuguese. The author was comparing cat totes, and mine was at the top of the page! It's so interesting to wonder how this ended up on her site, because it had been a year (at the time of the post) since my Etsy screen-print shop was selling the bags! In the post on Nao Me Mande Flores, she asks "Which one of these cute cat totes would you rather take home? I want them all!" I am proud to say (after translating all the comments like a dork!), that my tote was one of the most popular in the bunch! Good to know I have some Portuguese fans!

On another note, I finished my recipe for They Draw and Cook's youbeauty.com holiday contest. They'll be announcing the winners soon. I hope someone from Square Carousel wins a prize! That would be so fun, but if not, it was a blast anyway. I always love creating pieces for TDAC and TDAT.

"Superfood Salad," Gouache and Digital, 2011.
That's all for now!
adios
caitlin