I cross my fingers every year that people will make gifts of my artwork for the holidays from my shop, however, I thought it would also be good to share some "boygirlparty elsewhere" in case you spot these items out and about! All of the items below are things I made or contributed to available elsewhere. Info and explanations below the photo.



1. "Fox, Adrift" print, available exclusively at tinyshowcase.com, limited edition of 100. $20 ea.
2. Limited edition GR t-shirts available exclusively at giantrobot.com in women's and men's sizes, and a couple different colors. Only $15 ea!
3. Reading Octopus Coffee Mug available exclusively at Art Star Philadelphia, hand printed in Philadelphia, available online or at Art Star, 623 N. 2nd St, Philadelphia! $15.
4. original paintings from my art show "Work and Non-Work" on view at Giant Robot until December 5th at 2062 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, or online over here! Paintings begin at $75.
5. "Knot, Thread, Stitch" by Lisa Solomon includes a craft tutorial of embroidered shrinky dink zipper pulls using my artwork! And about a zillion other awesome projects. Lisa rules! Available at book stores, $22.99
6. "The Where, The Why and the How" by Matt Lamothe, Julia Rothman and Jenny Volvovski -- I have an illustration about why chickadees chirp "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" in this fascinating collection of scientific mysteries answered and inventively illustrated! Available at book stores, $24.95

None of those goodies above are available in my shop, but the ones below are! Happy holidays! Less than 4 weeks to go..

It's tonight!
Please come! Please pass it on! Every shared post make a difference.




Giant Robot presents "Work and Non-Work" an exhibition by Susie Ghahremani
Reception Saturday, November 17, 2012: 6:30 - 10pm
Show dates Nov. 17 - Dec. 5, 2012
Free to attend, all ages.


Giant Robot presents the eighth solo show by award-winning artist and illustrator Susie Ghahremani. This exhibition, "Work and Non Work" (the title borrowed from an album by Broadcast), “emphasizes the experimentation and play of miniature paintings and drawings juxtaposed against framed commercial works.” This body of work echoes Ghahremani's distinctly illustrated hybrid of nature, animals, music and patterns.

An opening reception for Susie Ghahremani will take place from 6:30 – 10:00 PM on Saturday, November 17th.
During the reception, there will be live silkscreening of a t-shirt design by Susie Ghahremani exclusively sold in limited edition at this show only.


Exhibition: November 17th – December 5th, 2012
Reception: Saturday, November 17th, 6:30 – 10:00 PM

GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025

http://gr2.net/
fb invite: http://i46.tinypic.com/6icm7t.jpg

the work from my show "Clear Skies & Cloudy Days" is up at Land, 3925 N Mississippi Ave in Portland, Oregon through September 2nd, 2012. you can see most of the show online at this link: http://bit.ly/TCCxAG

(but really, if you're in the area, please go!! this work is definitely meant to be seen in person on its impossibly tiny scale.)

when i boarded my Alaska Airlines flight last week with 3 oversized cardboard boxes ("only" $85 to bring with me as opposed to the $600 3-day UPS cost) i had my heart in my stomach, imagining all the terrible ways my artwork would be defiled in transit! everything arrived safely - kudos to alaska airlines and Nancy at the San Diego airport counter who held my hand through the process.


(by the way, that's our new-ish cat Violet, who is wonderful)

Despite hanging 148(?) pieces on the walls, stairwell and ceiling (and a mural!), installation was surprisingly fun and easy. Pat & Amber Castaldo at Land are just amazingly kind, patient, hilarious people and my friend Janice who helped me install the show has a heart of gold that has left me consistently in awe that I lucked out with a friend like her. she worked as hard as i did - and this was supposed to be her VACATION! what a friend.

While Janice and I measured and remeasured the wall, leveled and re-leveled every painting, hammered and made total swiss cheese of the wall, Amber and Pat (and Vinnie) rotated visiting us upstairs, photographing all the artwork, adding all the inventory, helping us secure all the artwork to the wall, made sure everything was in order for the show, kept us laughing and made us feel at home.

here are all the miniatures laid out on a bench before we started hanging them up, photo by Janice Headley:


after a few more-than-late-nights, the show was hung! i painted a cloudy mural along the stairwell leading up to the gallery in the middle of the night. my cross-stitch collaboration about extinct animals with my friend Irene followed the stairwell up to the gallery as well, and within the gallery, artwork was spaced along all the walls - a blend of mixed media and tiny drawings, larger matted/framed paintings and the miniatures in that photo above. Almost 150 pieces total.

here's a photo of a corner of the gallery -- probably taken around 2am, sometime between painting a mural and poor Janice's computer splitting open along the seam causing us to furiously google who in Portland could do a quick fix!



the stairwell leading up (photos by Pat Castaldo):


my husband flew into town from San Diego to join Janice and I for the opening, and after some mac repair, drinking, eating and karaoke, it was time. we walked over to Land with butterflies in my stomach -- and the opening ended up being SO MUCH FUN! felt like a Susie Ghahremani: This Is Your Life episode with friends from all eras of my life: high school, college, art friends, collaborators and beyond. i felt totally surrounded by loved ones: my amazing artist friends Amy Ruppel, Martin Ontiveros, Jason Sturgill and Emily Martin; collaborators Yvonne and Jeremy from Little Otsu; Lauren and Scott from Badge Bomb; power bloggers/friends Jena from Modish and Greg from Hungry Eyeball; Portland superstars Torie from Crafty Wonderland and Seasons and Jen from Presents of Mind; All-around sweethearts Ed and Laura who housed Janice and I for a couple nights & who made our Portland trip extra-special w/ extra-curricular food, drinking and adventures! & all-around sweethearts Justin and Alisha who helped pass out postcards for the show! Rachel and Tracy, high school pals from Chicago days! Brie, college pal from RISD days! Roya, Ellis, Hayley and Brett and Mina - family friends, but basically family! & more. i am sure i am forgetting more!!




for me, it all went by in a flash - openings always seems to; it was such a great night.

it's scary to prepare and then fly to an art show: it's work produced over years that very few people (if any) have seen. and the travel cost is high (plane ticket, accommodations, transportation...plus getting your art there in the first place). it has all the components for colossal failure! i was nervous as could be (broke out into hives from stress!) this was my first solo show in the area, first show with Land, and i didn't know what to expect.

HOWEVER, it was as unique and wonderful an experience as Portland is a city -- worth every penny, minute and brush stroke. thank you so much to all who came to the opening. It meant the world to me to feel embraced by my friends in Portland & to bring to light some of the art I've been making these past few years since I last did a solo show in such a great gallery space. (Land is an amazingly artist-friendly space and if you're in the area, I strongly suggest you pay a visit - not just for the art shows but for the amazing range of gifts, prints and books they carry in their downstairs shop.)

all is well & i'm a lucky girl!


that's me & michael - photo by Pat Castaldo. you can sense the relief!

Just created this site to share some previews of my artwork for my next solo show: August 10th at the Land Gallery in Portland, OR. http://boygirlparty.com/land/

Fellow San Diego artists & designers! I'm organizing a creative meet-up this Thursday, July 19th at the Blind Lady Ale House, 3416 Adams Ave. Please join us! More info at this event link: http://www.facebook.com/events/492998964060331/

If you're a Yelp member, please click "sound cool" or "i'm in" at this link! It will help our event have some visibility in the listings. Thanks!!
http://www.yelp.com/events/san-diego-arty-party-ii-a-creative-meet-up-for-san-diego-designers-and-artists

i keep thinking i need something exciting to happen in my life to update this journal, but no, i really ought to just get back into regular practice of writing just for the sake of writing. the last few weeks have been interesting. personally, things are great (with health, friends, family, and of course the new, weird, wonderful cat) but with work it's totally manic. some very high highs (speaking and attending the ICON Illustration conference pretty much at the top of that list) and some very low lows (work drama, work confusion, feeling taken advantage of and backstabbed)

as far as work goes, i feel a bit like a pinball machine these days.
like my workday will be going down an easy trajectory then i get caught between awful bumpers of stress. or vice versa -- i have a lot on my plate and think i'm going to go on overload, but somehow sail through easily.
just picture how when you pull back the handle on a pinball machine, how you have that uncertainty -- what way is this going to go? and that is how things feel right now for me career-wise.

but! i feel very invigorated professionally after a wonderful conference. meeting up with friends, hearing inspiring speakers, finally putting a face to so many art directors i've known for years and years - some for about a decade! it reminded me again of how much i love editorial illustration, something i'd very much like to make a return to.

plus! i got to take a workshop with the amazing, insightful, genius, probably-my-favorite-living-novelist lynda barry. it's amazing how a couple hours of exercises can make you feel like you have all the potential in the world, like you have something special to share, worth sharing. she's an incredible person with incredible magnetism, and is also very funny. if you ever have the opportunity to take her workshop or hear her speak, run don't walk.

i also got to meet matt groening, who i've seen around at shows and such, but have never said hi to because i feel like after decades of bros quoting the simpsons back to him, he probably just wants to be left alone. but i got up the courage to say hi and he was SO NICE. like, WAY NICER than most people- and definitely way nicer than someone who's endured that much from fans ought to be! he leafed through my sketchbook (his request!) and said he knew my work - and even did a little drawing in the corner signed "your fan, matt" -- i mean, seriously, SO NICE.

I ALSO got to meet maira kalman!!! that was in anaheim, CA. i drove up to ALA to meet with my editor on What Will Hatch (my first picture book!) (my editor was actually out sick so we didn't even get to meet, sad trombone) but Maira was doing a signing across the convention center, so i zipped over and had a wonderful, brief exchange with her about land of lincoln, beginning as an illustrator in editorial and moving to publishing ("which is what you should do," says Maira)

lynda, matt, maira. that's a triple threat, seriously. THE triple threat.

i feel like a beginner again in some ways. i'm awkward, i don't know how to present myself or talk about my work. i'm TERRIBLE at introducing myself in person or talking to people. my friend allison, fellow illustrator, told me i'm the worst she's ever seen at self promoting/saying hi-- and SHE IS RIGHT. i'm somewhat used to the same kinds of events with the same people, many of whom would probably already be acquainted with my work so i wouldn't have to explain it or talk about it (ie, at my art shows, at giant robot, at renegade craft fair, at the NY stationery show even...) the world of publishing -- although i have been published many times -- is somehow a world i've carefully avoided, and it's new, scary territory.
the world of editorial work is a stranger to me again - because it changes so much, so quickly and i've been out of the circuit for awhile while focusing on my existing clients.

i have a lot to learn.
and i have to remind myself not to get discouraged, because it's so easy to.
and i have to remind myself to keep trying, because sometimes it all feels too hard to keep up with the famously difficult life of a full-time artist. (seriously, all of you with regular 9-5 jobs, with insurance and 401ks and paid time off -- i know we all think the grass is greener, but sometimes i really do think it would be nice to have a little stability. 10 years now! no stability!)

someone at ICON said in their talk that changing your illustration style is like trying to turn a giant ship's course: it's hard to do but worth the effort. i don't think i want to change my "style" (honestly, don't think i could either), but i *do* want to change my life and the way i feel about my future.

as an illustrator, i feel like you're somewhat trained to think you're a job away from never being hired again. and i feel like it gets more and more competitive every year, and i am just not a competitive person.

i want to evolve the course of my work and to reinvest in my career as an illustrator so i can fall in love with working again, whether as a teacher or with more of a focus on traditional books or editorial. it feels daunting to even think about doing anything professionally other than what i'm doing now and the way i'm doing it, and the people i'm doing it with.

but that's all the more reason to give it a closer looks, probably.

i turn 32 in two days. 32 seems impossibly old to me, yet i perpetually feel maybe 26 years old. maybe 24, even. does everyone my age and older walk around feeling stuck in their 20's forever? is that the height of our maturity?

i've been reading a lot and watching some movies, too for the 50/50 challenge (http://www.fiftyfifty.me)
we adopted a new cat. she's weird but we like her.
i've been working on some cool projects like this, this and this.
i went to new york and loved it all over again.
soon, i'm leaving for RI, where i'll be speaking at this event.

but mostly, just thinking about turning 32 and what a weird year it's been.

haven't updated in awhile, but don't really have much to share. i've been taking care of myself the best i can these past two months. took a lot of time off work (for the first time really ever), started exercising more, reading more. doing more of the things i love with the people i love. as i've come back to working, i just don't feel like i have the same mindset as i did these past 10 years. maybe it will come back to me, but right now, i don't feel as "driven" to push myself to work 18 hour days or to sacrifice my own well-being for a deadline. i want to do well & want to create my best work, but i also want to live my life. is it possible to do both?

i can't believe it's been two months since peechee died. it still feels like it just happened. after he died, so did a dear family friend and another friend of ours as well - both horribly to cancer. it's made it hard to focus on anything but loved ones and living each day to the fullest, often times with some tears as we remember our friends and feel fearful of losing anyone else.

focusing on my health and well-being has been helpful and makes me realize how rarely i tend to. i read a book called "making a change for good" by Cheri Huber and in it was the image below. it reminded me of how often i use the excuse "i don't have time to" when it comes to anything fun, basically. see a movie? no, i don't have time to. read a book? nope. no time. go for a walk? nope.

so, since reading that, i try to make time. this is the image from the book:

some mornings, lying in bed i'll think to myself "today is the day i'll pull myself back together. i'll get ____, ____, and ____ done. i'll go to ____. i'll be productive." but by the time i get myself upright, i lose all motivation, like a deflating balloon fluttering away.