My Thoughts as Pressed Flowers

When I have ideas for a new piece of art or a bit of music I'll often write them down on tiny papers which end up going through the wash or getting pressed like flowers in crisp pages of unread books. One such idea for a screen print was written down a few years back and has finally seen fruition on a T-shirt. The idea is that of a scene consisting of a lot of "potential energy"- where a lot of chaotic movement is possibly about to happen. The shirt is, of course, for sale here: http://phippsart.etsy.com.

I'm switching to fashion design (Okay, not really)

Starting out a career as an illustrator has been exciting and challenging. I've had a steady stream of work since making the plunge over a year ago, but the finances can still cause a lot of worry- I'll get paid for a job (usually late) and be okay for a little while, but the graph (as I see it in my very visual brain) starts its immediate descent.

All that to say that I needed some kind of steady income to act as a financial base in between jobs. It needed to be something art-related and something I could be passionate about, so I decided to put artwork on shirts by way of screen printing. Though I paint in a very detailed and meticulous way, I do like doing more graphic (err.. bold, not violent) images, and it's a way to relax a little in between the more mind-consuming painting jobs.

Starting up a screen printing shop can cost thousands with professional equipment, so instead I enlisted my friend Dan (a common ally in creative ventures) to help me build something. Well, here's a picture of the press, albeit without any screens attached:



I've been using it for the past week now and it works wonderfully. The fruits of my labors can be seen at my Etsy site: http://phippsart.etsy.com

So far I've just used some of my existing artwork, but I've got a few new things planned for the upcoming weeks, including a maternity shirt. I never thought I'd be designing maternity shirts...