Denver Vendor Spotlight: Jayne Morgan Art

1. How did you get your start in the handmade community? 
After my mom took me to my first art show when I was 12, I knew I wanted in on the action.  I went to school for painting and after graduation I got into the art show scene.  My favorite part is meeting artists and makers from all over the world, I have met some amazingly talented people!
 

2. What do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?
I've been creating paintings of honeybears for over seven years now.  My first honeybear painting was a gift for my dad for inspiring me to be an artist and pushing me to go to art school.  The honeybears represent the time in my life when my family would sit down for dinner and before we said the blessing the honeybear had to be on the table.  Whatever bread we had for dinner, we would put honey on it and it would be dessert.  When I first showed the honeybears at my first art festival I found out that other people had a connection with this silly little bear and kept on painting them! 
 

3. What or Who Inspires you?
Some of my favorite painters who inspire me are Duane Keiser and Carol Marine - I got to take week long workshops from them and both workshops were incredible!  I also love Janet Fish's work, her early work really made me fall in love with painting. 😍
 

4. What is your creative process like?
I paint in a lot of layers.  I work on a lot of paintings at the same time - my favorite part is starting a painting.  I work on each painting for an hour or so then let it dry and work on another while its drying.  All my paintings start in acrylic, then I do a last layer of oil paint.  There are paintings all over my studio and all over my house.  
 

5. What is the coolest artistic tip you have ever received?                                                               So when I was just starting out I set up my art at this realty open house, I was set up in a house they were trying to sell. It was one of the first little shows I did after college and I don't think I sold anything. I had a mess of random paintings and I didn't know what I was doing or even what I was supposed to do. Another artist took a look at my paintings of honeybears, landscapes, portraits, and all these random foods I painted and told me that I needed to become "the honeybear lady" - that I could still paint whatever I wanted but to really push the honeybears and make it my thing. So for the next few years I really worked toward being that honeybear girl and its really helped people know who I am and get my paintings out there. Thats been the best tip I've ever received for sure!

6. What can we expect to see from you at Jackalope?
Honeybears!  And other fun, colorful paintings of flowers, hot sauce, and whatever I decide to paint before the show!  I will be driving out to Colorado for the summer in my airstream trailer, I will be coming from Asheville, North Carolina but my studio is in Birmingham, Alabama - so you can expect to see some paintings from my travels out west in my airstream named Norma Faye.  
 

7. Where can we learn more about you?

I post a lot on my instagram page @jaynemorganart and facebook.com/jaynemorganart

You can also find more info on my website jaynemorgan.com and my etsy shop!

Pasadena Vendor Spotlight: Polkela

1. How did you get your start in the handmade community? 

Polkela is a collaboration between Max Podemski and me, Sarah Klinger. Max started making vernacular architecture posters after he returned to Los Angeles from living in New York (where he and I met). Seeing the city from a fresh perspective, he was struck by the diversity of residential architecture and decided to make a poster commemorating it. I followed him to LA shortly after visiting. Because I don't have a car, I was introduced to the city via long walks across town and soon started making my own LA inspired art. We began selling posters at stores around town and eventually decided to create a brand. 

2. What do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?

We come from very different professional backgrounds. I'm a trained illustrator and Max is a professional urban planner. The intersection of our work is a love for cities, particularly their idiosyncratic details. We like to think of ourselves as making LA mementos but for locals instead of tourists. 

3. What or Who Inspires you?

Our work is inspired by Los Angeles-- not the famous landmarks featured in the media but the everyday built environment that is familiar to Angelenos. This includes hamburger stands, taco trucks, storefront synagogues, and the mountain lion in Griffith Park. The city is endlessly fascinating. An ideal weekend for us is one spent walking around. 

4. What is your creative process like?

We start by photographing buildings. We drive or walk around a particular neighborhood, take pictures and sometimes even use google street view. The photos are then used as the basis for our drawings. I make digital sketches before painting a final version that I clean up in Photoshop. Max draws first and plans his posters once he's done. Although we usually have our work printed by a local screen printer, we sometimes feel brave enough to do the screen printing in our apartment. It's a total mess, but we love it.

5. What is the coolest artistic tip you have ever received?

That a flea market is one of the best places to gather inspiration. Try it when you are in a creative rut!

6. What can we expect to see from you at Jackalope?

We will have our full line of products including prints and our new "recuredo de los angeles" bandanas and LABC tote bags. 

7. Where can we learn more about you?

You can follow our work on polkela.com and our instagram account, polke.la. You can find more of my work at sarahklinger.com. Max also writes articles about Los Angeles which have been published in The Guardian and the Los Angeles Times. 

Pasadena Vendor Spotlight: Mike Matola

1. How did you get your start in the handmade community? 

I was poor! And necessity is the mother of invention. I literally had a pen from my job washing dishes in North Ridge and a pad of newsprint paper. The original concept of handwriting full albums of song lyrics to make a portrait was for a friend's birthday present. She loved it. The rest snowballed out of control from there.

2. What do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?

I hand write them! People always ask me if I ever make a mistake. Of course I do! If I wanted it to be perfect I'd do it on the computer. It's interesting that my work is extremely relatable but at the same time extremely foreign to people. 

3. What or Who Inspires you?

I don't know anymore! I'm in a middle ground right now and still figuring a lot out. I think I used up my inspiration a long time ago and now I'm running on hard work and determination. What was that quote? "Good work is one percent inspiration, ninety nine percent perspiration" I'm in perspiration mode! But I do enjoy long afternoons chit-chatting with my small group of friends and peers whom I love, troubleshooting ideas, getting new data, and figuring out "What's next?!?" People put too much stock in inspiration and not enough into hard work. 

4. What is your creative process like?

-figure out what the people want

-figure out what I want

-lay it out

-WRITE!

-repeat

5. What is the coolest artistic tip you have ever received?

Too many! I did a magazine spread for a graphic design class years ago that featured a torn paper edge (because I was in college and 'edgy') I took a really long time digitally creating the torn paper effect. My professor told me "Next time just tear a piece of paper in half and scan it." He was right. It's an old engineering adage: K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid. 

6. What can we expect to see from you at Jackalope?

More prints! I was barely able to bring half of my collection last time. This time I'm all in!

7. Where can we learn more about you?

You can follow me on twitter and instagram @mikematola :)

Denver Vendor Spotlight: Garaffagalli

How would you describe your style?

I would describe my style as eclectic and contemporary. I like going beyond the boundaries of whats normal and think outside the box to accomplish designs that are beautiful and bold; designs that help people make a statement. I admire artists like Joan Miro, David Hockney and Zaria forman. And I admire designer Carolina Herrera and designer house Hermes.

What makes your work unique?

That each piece I create and design, whether it is one of my paintings or one of my handbags, has my very own mark of boldness through the art I create, where each one is a one of a kind. My techniques and my composition of colors, shapes and volume are not conventional yet inspiring. I am a pioneer, always pursuing the gift of uniqueness in everything I do, which is transplanted in my artwork.

What or who inspires you?

I would say anything and everything inspires me, all the time. Im constantly inspired by everything that surrounds me. But above all things, the beauty of nature inspires me the most: the glow of the mountains after a rainy afternoon, the translucent pearl white color of aspen trees with their ever moving leaves, the passion of skiers go down the slopes, the snow that covers everything in white, etc. Living in Aspen Colorado, it's very easy to find fresh new inspiration, all I need to do is open the door and go outside.

When are you most creative?

Its funny to say this, but I feel the more creative, meaning that the best ideas come to my mind, when I take a shower or go for a run.

Tell us a little about your creative process.

My creative process is very spontaneous. When I see something that inspires me or I get an idea for creating something that's cool, I either take pictures or write it down and then paint it. I really don't spend much time sketching what I am going to paint, I just go right to my canvas and start doing it when I feel the inspiration is there to motivate me.

What's the best advice you've been given?

Interesting question. It came from my grandmother, a great amazing artist herself. When I was about 10 years old, my grandma told me: "people will tell you that you should take classes to improve your artistic talent, but I tell you never take classes. Teach yourself and discover who you are as an artist and believe it. The rest is for those who need direction. You, follow your passion"

What can we expect to see from you at Jackalope?

I will be releasing a new collection of paintings  called "Pow Pow". This collection of paintings will be all about skiers and snowboarders, skiing down the mountain on beautiful, fluffy, powder snow. In addition to that,  I will have my collection of unique handbags designed by me and handcrafted in New York City. Each handbag has an original piece of artwork that I paint myself and they are one of a kind, meaning they will not b e duplicated. So say you buy the handbag called "Jump and risk" with the painting of a skier, you will be the only person to ever have that handbag with that painting. Really really cool.

Where can you be found online?

You can learn more about me on my website garaffagalli.com <http://garaffagalli.com/> and also my Instagram account isabellagaraffa_art and Facebook account GaraffaGalli