Elegance in the Kitchen

I hate cooking. But I love cooking accessories. I collect Le Creuset not because it is top of the line cookware, but rather its beautiful colors and 1920s design. Same with a Kitchenaid. I wouldn't even know how to turn the thing on nor do I care to really learn, but I'm saving up for the mixer in tangerine, because I love anything tangerine.

Over the summer I picked up a seafoam green Sunbeam hand-mixer from a garage sale. It works fantastic, but I simply enjoy its chrome and steel classic Cadillac retro aesthetic.

This passion for vintage kitchen accessories afforded me the notion to screenprint my Art Deco style original images onto cotton kitchen aprons. Sold at craft fairs throughout the Pacific Northwest, aprons by Octavine Illustration have proven a great seller. Although these aprons are highly practical, wearable and washable, I have had more than a few customers who buy the Art Deco style aprons simply to hang in their kitchens. Not to cook with, but rather as a display. These are customers after my own heart.

The cotton kitchen apron pictured is hand screen-printed using my original Art Deco image "Les Filles Veulent Juste Avoir l'Amusement" (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) and is available through my Etsy shop.

A Font Renewer and Creator

I like to think of myself as a font renewer and creator. Cursive, print, italic, gothic, copperplate script ignite a little fire inside. A font tells a story--portraying a mood, feeling and era. To create a symbol that expresses a thought, an idea, an emotion is empowering as each letter serves to create what is in essence, history.

Pictured is an example of a Bat Mitzvah invitation I executed the calligraphy and font design for. The Art Nouveau style font is my very own creation.

The Underdog (C'est la vie...)

Last summer I was approached to illustrate a logo for the storefront of a new boutique in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey specializing in luxury imports from France and Italy. Choosing from three very different mock-ups (Each mock-up I do is a full-scale painting in itself--I hate wasting time on something that cannot stand up on its own.) a final was chosen.

However, I personally liked one of the losers. Leave it to me to vote for the underdog.

So here's the one that did not make it (too much detail rendered it doomed from the get go).

The fate of "The Beautiful Life" was not to be seen by hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of high end shoppers but rather to be screenprinted onto totes and kitchen aprons; had by the individual rather than the masses.

Vanity, Oh Vanity--Southeast 34th & Belmont

I tell my friends from Manhattan that they have not seen hip until they have spent 20 minutes on the corner of SE Belmont and 34th in Portland, Oregon. Recently featured in the New York Times, this corner boasts the world famous Stumptown Coffee, the ultra-chic Aalto Lounge, a state of the art bicycle parking lot and skinny jeans galore.

Next Saturday, February 9, I will be participating in the Granny Panties Craft Bazaar hosted by the fashionable Aalto Lounge. The Aalto and Stumptown share a front entrance and despite an essentially perpetual drizzle, foot traffic is a constant as hipsters struggle to see and be seen.

In fact, rock star sightings are frequent and it is not unheard of to walk into Stumptown (Using vintage machines to grind their coffee beans Stumptown also got the attention of the New York Times.) and hear The Shins playing whilst stirring your coffee next to James Mercer.

This is my first Portland craft fair of 2008. After a fruitful holiday season, I am excited to get back into the swing of things vending my various Art Deco inspired wares.

The tee pictured is one of my best sellers right now and is on my Etsy store and at the Granny Panties Bazaar in PDX February 9.

Sharing the Road--Portland's Bicycle Community

Portland is a town run by the bicycle. Relatively flat terrain, streets that run along a grid as well as a green mentality allow Portland to be the city with the most bicycle commuters.


Last night I watched Foreign Correspondent, a very old Alfred Hitchcock movie featuring Amsterdam. Bicycles dictated traffic and seemed to be the primary mode of transportation along the cobbled Dutch streets.

Bicycles still rule the streets of Amsterdam, but like Portland, they no longer dictate traffic as SUVs now rule the road. And while much of Amsterdam looks as it did through Hitchcock's lens in 1940, the bicycle is not quite as prominent.

Although the city of Portland protects cyclists through legislation, accidents occur. Every year Portland's bicycle community puts on a concert and bike ride to promote bike safety and celebrate the lives of those who were lost to bicycle accidents. The benefit is called "Share the Road."

The benefit is a consortium of local bands. I illustrated this concert poster using as my inspiration a picture I had taken of my sister riding her bicycle through the Dutch countryside. (This was our first international trip together and we had a grand time, despite our ridiculous matching backpacks.)

Each font is hand-wrought and from my own unique alphabets. Along with calligraphy, designing alphabets is my favorite aspect of my profession. A well drawn font can articulate a specific theme, era, and mood whilst drawing proper attention to the message at large. However, the font style must also match the illustration to allow for a well executed event poster.