A place you never want to leave... That was the thought I had when making this print. The details that make a place cozy and warm and inviting, when you love work just because it's so fun to play with things that smell and feel amazing like herbs and old books, or the feeling of a crystal in your palm.

♥ This month's patreon parcel main print! I loooved working on this one.

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An older work, but continues to be one of my long-term favorites! I love the concept of a mermaid witch. ♥ I think this might be one of my most well-known pieces after a youtuber used it in a lofi for witches thumbnail, lol.

This work was done with help from Ravensburger North America and is due to become a puzzle in 2023!

Creating "Enchanting Brew" really opened my mind up to my passion about why I create art. A lot of my work is based in the nostalgia of my childhood, and how art made me feel as a child. A lot of my work's goal is to make people see art in the same way I saw art back then.

And it wasn't illustrations! Sometimes it was Polly Pockets with colorful hair and glittery jelly shoes, it was movies like Legally Blonde that were unapolegetically femme and powerful. It was the art of Arina Tanemura, Super GALS!, Trina Schart Hyman... The list goes on and I'm reminded of old loves all the time. Anyway, point being, most of my target market is adults that are my age(ish) that have a similar love for all this nostalgia. So getting to work on a puzzle that I know KIDS around the country (and maybe world) are going to get to do, and enjoy... I thought so much about how little people might see themselves in these characters. How they might pick one as a favorite, and why, and what pastries they'd want to eat on the table, what pretend they might play after being inspired by the thought of a magical teaparty.

All this made me really emotionally invested in this piece in a way that was new to me and very exciting. A really romanticized view, but... When you're a kid, that is really how you feel about art you love. So I truly hope that some kids are able to feel that from this piece. ♥

I got christmas cards in yesterday, and the design for one of them is this adorable illustration from last year! Hope you're feeling lovely this holiday season! ♥

Right out the gate from this moodboard, I knew I wanted to do a fortune-telling vending machine with a cat in it... Basically a remix of those Zultan machines. My intention was always to have this feel extremely out of place among everything else. It's more western-style, and definitely is not associated with Shinto good luck. But this came with learning quite a bit!

I try to be culturally aware, especially when I'm dealing with mysticism and things like that in other cultures. But I also want to incorporate what I can, I guess to make it feel sort of authentic. This of course can be hard when I'm not really a part of those cultures, but I did a lot of research on luck in Japan!

Have you ever seen or heard of Omikuji? It is a type of fortune telling in Japan. They even have Omikuji vending machines! Though this vending machine is not an Omikuji-style, it's been pretty neat to learn about different parts of these customs. From what I understand, when you go to most shrines, you can typically pay 100P for a fortune-telling.

However, I wanted this vending machine to basically feel... Unsafe. I avoided traditional good luck charms on it, even though I considered adding some, I didn't want anything that would ward off "bad" spirits, essentially making this machine feel... Sketchy. The colors of the cats are intentional too of course, because I suppose there, calicos are the luckiest color. Black cats, in Japanese culture, protect from illness and ward off evil... But because this machine is supposed to feel a bit foreign in context, I sort of liked the idea of an unlucky western black cat. Take what you will! My work is always intended to be narrative, yet vague enough that you can gather your own story from it.

An older piece, but one I've always been personally quite fond of. I love all the greenery and gardeny details. I imagine the smell of soil, rain, and drying flowers. Garden tools always have such wonderful textures and colors, so rustic and inviting. ♥

I'm late, but Merry Christmas! ♥

This month's patreon theme of the month was centered on the magic of art- how I feel when I am inspired, when I'm amazed by what I can create. Working on this piece was really bliss and I am so proud of it. I hope you enjoy it and feel the magic of creation like I do. ♥

patreon.com/ivyalive/

November 2022 Patreon print of the month!

Done in 2020, I still love this piece for all it's Autumn vibes. ♥