How It All Started

I have been an artist and an illustrator for a number of years, but I had always stayed in the 2-dimensional realm. It all started last summer, when the chicken and I were really into decorating. Like many juvenile-acting adults of my generation, I am attracted to the cute and the superflat, especially when it comes to animals and representations of animals. I am the proud owner of 3 Ugly Dolls. I have jewelry with small birds on it. I have been unable to throw away my old stuffed animals. When I recently visited my old friends in California, almost everyone one of them made a comment about my Paul Frank-dominated wardrobe.

from k studio:



So when the chicken sent me this picture from the wonderful k studio of Woodland Creatures, it was of course no surprise that I was delighted. It was just exactly my aesthetic (that is, the cute part of my aesthetic, vs. the raunchy side of my aesthetic, which we'll get to later).

I mulled over this pillow for some days; I had just invested a decent sum of money transforming my apartment from a post-college (well, let's be frank - post-post college) dump into a more mature aesthetic - which is, to say - reasonably adult. Bright colored mismatched walls had transformed into creamy neutrals. Rooms had been assigned 4-hue color schemes. I was maintaining a book of floor plans - to make sure things fit before I actually purchased them. I was a devotee of apartmenttherapy. Things were looking up. How did Woodland Creatures fit in?

Well, it would have fit in perfectly. But I didn't want to spend the $100+ price tag on it. It dawned on me - I called up the chicken - "I can do this myself!"

Now, mind you, I had never considered myself a sew-er. I could sew on the occassional button, but I had always left mending to the experts (eg: my mom or the local dry cleaners). But I had just had an inspirational summer. I had painted several rooms - complete with scraping and priming! I had covered radiators with toxic heat-resistant silver spray! The chicken and I had laid down 400 square feet of laminate flooring with our bare hands! These were unprecedented achievements. If I could do that, I could do anything. Right?