I recently finished working on a couple of very fun illustrations for the University of Minnesota’s latest campaign, which centered on a theme of light. For my part of the campaign, I illustrated two scenes that tied in with research done at the University. The scenes were then printed onto window clings and installed in glass walkways, giving the general effect of stained glass. It was a fun challenge to create something that had a little more of a “stained-glass-y” look than my usual work, which meant some heavier, more angular lines and more intense colors.

The first of these pieces has been installed at the Minneapolis airport concourse, and tells the story of how researches at the University developed a way to create fertilizer using wind turbines. The illustration features a farm scene with rolling hills (which is now familiar scenery to me here in England!), with a windmill showering the fields with its sciency goodness and making them lush and green. That’s not how the technology works in real life, but we get to be metaphoric in the illustrated world! Below are images of the art on its own, and how it looks installed at the airport (click on the images to see them larger). Huge thanks to Doreen Hoff and Janay Blazejewski at Olson in Minneapolis who were a true delight to work with! Someday soon I’ll share the other illustration and how it looks installed in downtown Minneapolis!

It’s time to share with you the third installment of Denise Swanson’s Devereaux’s Dime Store mystery novel covers: Dead Between the Lines! As always it was a pleasure to work on this book cover with AD Mimi Bark at Penguin Group. This time around the mystery involves gardening, so it was fun working all of the gardening supplies into the background of this image. I will look forward to reading the book when it comes out in March 2014!

First, I apologize for my long absence from the blogosphere! For the last several months I’ve been working on two big projects which have kept me from doing much else. One was a big move — to England! My husband landed a two-year post-doc at Durham University in the North East of England, so we sold our condo in Chicago, packed up our belongings, ourselves and our dog Logan, and flew across the Atlantic to start a new chapter of our lives in the UK. It was a big project, but now I’m working from a lovely new studio space on the second floor of our house with a view out the window of rolling hills and sheep.

The other big project I’ve been working on is a line of greeting cards! It’s long been a goal of mine to illustrate greeting cards, stationery, gift wrap and the like, and I’ve finally gotten the chance to work on greeting cards for A Smyth Co., a card wholesaler owned by Amy and John Smyth. I’m so excited to be given the chance to create tons of illustrations of whimsical animals and hand-drawn typography in bright, fun colors. The full line is still being worked on, and the cards won’t be in stores until 2014, but I wanted to give you a taste of them here — I hope you enjoy!