I spent the weekend at Surtex, the surface design show in NYC.  I saw so many wonderful pieces and met terrific people.  I want to share many of them with you over the next days and weeks.

Keiko Suzuki makes delicate collages from newspaper.  She tears pieces selected by color.  She wets them to create a les textured piece, and she pieces them together to create these fabulous animals.  She is generous with her technique.  You can see a video at www.keikosuzukiart.com/how-my-arts-are-created

Her pieces are unique.  they are so different from the norm.  I will write to here to see how her show went.  I think this is fine work, and I can image kittens playing on notebooks, pillows and wallpaper borders.  What do you think of this art?

Sorry I have not posted for a few days, but I was in New york CIty at a trade show called Surtex.  Here, artists sell and license images for use on surfaces such as paper, cloth, and more.  This is where some of the greeting cards, wrapping paper, gift products, notebook covers, and shower curtains that you buy are born.

There is also the National Stationery Show.  Here, manufacturers sell paper and gift products to retailers.  i collected dozens of business cards from both artist and manufacturers.  Most of them were lovely and effective marketing tools.  however, some were, well, odd.

the most common problem was o try to put too much on one card.  Some little business cards had over 5 images, and everything lacked drama and clarity.  Some were so busy displaying images that it was hard to find the company name and contact information.  one large card had the exact same images and info on each side. Wy pay for 2 sided printing here?

I did not post these error.  Embarrassment was not my goal here.  i just wanted to pass along simple mistakes we all can avoid.

What are your biggest tips on marketing postcards and business cards--positive and negative?

Perhaps i am showing my age, but I still love snail mail. It is a very rare day that I get a REAL pice of mail in among the bills and the ads.  It makes me excited like a little kid.  I send cards for birthdays, sadness, congratulations and just because I have don a piece of art and I want to share it.

This little guy is from a series of birds of spring.  I not only use it for a card, but sometimes I print it up about the size of a playing card and just leave them around my life--at the coffee shop, the library, where ever.  I write on the back some fun message addressed to whomever finds it.  I like to think I create moments of happy confusion all day long.

So to you--Thanks for finding me a racing my little pieces of happy confusion.

How do you spread happiness or best wishes?

I love to draw.  i like charcoal, pencils, and crayons, but most of all I LOVE the feel of a Sharpie pen on paper.  I go a little nuts when I can not find one.  Luckily, I can usually find a lost one on the bottom of every handbag in my closet.

I particularly like how scanning drawings give them new life.  I would have  trouble creating this image all together, but with a little squirrel and a vase of flowers, I can combine them and use other drawings in so many different ways.  I can remove sloppy marks, color them in, and pull them apart.  I think the fact that I can change them with unlimited undo's makes me a better draftsman because I have the freedom to make mistakes.  I wish a scanner could erase all sorts of mistakes, but for now i will hae to stick to pictures.

Do you like to dew? what do you like o dew? With what?
I would love to hear from you!

Meanwhile, stop and smell the roses (and the tulips of spring).

Good mooring!
Every year for nearly 20 years my family has vacationed in South Florida.  We saw billboards for "Butterfly World" many times, and always poked fun at them, thinking it was a crazy tourist trap.  One day I felt like a new experience, and went there.  It is wonderful.  you walk into screened rooms filled with all sorts of butterflies.  If you stand still they land on you.  You can watch children and old people smile and giggle when butterflies land on them.  It is magic.

I took a ton of photos.  Unfortunately, butterflies do not stand still often, and most of the pics are of the place a butterfly has recently been.  But a few came out.  To remember the feeling of being in this wonderful place I am working on a set of butterfly patterns.  What do you think of these?  What do you do to remember great experiences?

This lovely thing is called a piano key butterfly. It's more orange than simply black and white, but its name suggests all sorts of pattern ideas.  So, over the net few posts I will play with this image, and  others of these wonderful butterflies to see what kind of pattern i can make for this spring.  Meanwhile, I would love to hear your ideas of butterfly patterns, your butterfly experiences and whatever else you would like to  share.

One of the themes that i return to over and over is the graphic nature of letter forms.  i used to design new type styles in my school notebooks when bored or waiting.  It was nothing i ever talked about.  I just did it without thinking about it.

Many years later, I was sitting with my then teen aged daughter in an emergency room waiting area, when a relative was being.  Those place seem to defy time, and we had no idea how long we might be.  I glanced over at my daughter to see her designing new letter forms in hr school notebook.  Could it be in our genes?

I love letters because they make sentences and communicate.  I love them because they are one of the earliest things we learn.  I am fascinated by the fact tat one letter can be drawn so many ways and yet remain readable and recognizable.

Here is a recent take on lettering.  Its made up of good old crayons and watercolor paint.  As you put the watercolor over the waxy forms, they seem to fight through the moisture to rise to the surface.

So try your hand at letters.  Beautiful, formal calligraphy or simple crayon marks, its all fun..  I would love to see your ideas.
Talk to you soon,
Mary

Good day all,
Thanks to everyone that read yesterdays post.

Today I want to share with you one of my favorite images from my portfolio.  I call it a Universal Symbol of Celebration.  Do you like it?

I love a good party.  I am big into Christmas, birthday cakes, fun cocktail food, and just about everything that goes with making a big, big deal out of a special moment.  In our house, the kids birthdays were at the end of July, and my husbands is August 1.  So, we always began to plan these celebrations right after school let out in June.  I miss this ritual and these parties.

When I plan a party, I try to grab a good theme.  It helps me create a color story, and then defines some single important image, sort of like a logo.  i have need used the image above for a party, but i have printed in on a wood background and glued it to a wood block, sending it out as a birthday gift.  It is our little secret that the tiny piece of art is a warm birthday hug every day of the year, any time its needed.

Tomorrow this little birthday (or any day) gift will be available on Etsy.  Just search for my name--Mary Wertz and my shop will come up.

If you are celebrating anything this week, -CONGRATS!-If you are enduring some bad days, my thoughts are with you.  Try to make life a little celebration any day you can.

Pattern Agency Concentrates on Collaboration

Hello, Hello, Hello.

If you have found your way here, you are reading the very first entry in the Mary Wertz Design Blog.  Here, I promote my images and those of other artists interested in selling and licensing images for products of all types.

Our little group  works together because we like one another, help one another, and share a similar sense of aesthetics.  Most images display hand made components.  Many pieces share a sense of whimsy and a light touch.  Other pieces begin as photographs.

There are many reasons to buy or license images and patterns.  If you are a manufacturer, publisher, or on-line distributor, you already know the importance of a vibrant print and pattern market.  But smaller businesses and even individuals may love to have something unique or even custom designed.  How about custom bags for your retail store or business promotion?  Can you see a custom pattern on table cloths at your restaurant or picnic?

Please check back often.  I will post every few days if not every day.  Like us on Facebook at "Mary Wertz Designs".  Send me an email at mwcollage@aol.com.

Looking forward to talking more soon
Mary