i love it when customers take the time to email me and let me know how my work fits into their lives! it’s an extra special bonus added on top of creating the work itself. check this out:

“my friends bought one of your cards for me because i had to let my best friend go. she was a rez dog from east glacier montana and she was my best friend for 12 years. she took care of me when i was sad and she would throw down the coolest style when she caught frisbees. she wanted to herd real bad, but i could get her to not chase the deer that would hunker down in the campground where we lived. before she adopted me the locals in town called her hubcap because she liked chasing cars. it’s a popular sport with rez dogs. i think she would love your artwork. the elk with the owl, butterflies, chipmunk, snake, quilt style. it hits close to home, geographically and in our hearts. thanks for your creations.”

if you’re a regular reader, you already know that each month i’m featuring a different in-depth customer interview. this is a great opportunity for me to get to know some of you a bit more than the quick email messages we’ve shared over the years, and for all of you to get to know one another as well!

this month i’m featuring kate harback, a local portland supporter! here’s kate in her own words…

I am Kate, more frequently known as “Popsicle’s Mom” around my neighborhood (he is a Jack Russell/Chihuahua).

I first encountered Jill’s work in the form of note cards sold at local grocery chain New Seasons. I subsequently met Jill through friends of friends, but it took me a couple months and running into her at Portland’s very special Crafty Wonderland to put it together… “Oh, Jill is Jill Bliss.”

I have collected several things from useful (fabric covered journal) to less useful (bird form who looks down at my desk from a high shelf).

Her work also blends well with other collections in my house– slip casted ceramic tiki mugs made by friends, or pottery thrown by me in classes. As much Jill stuff as I have around and use, I have gifted even more to friends, family, and colleagues– always appreciated.

Having a garden and living in a city with neighborhoods full of interesting gardens, I really love Jills garden esthetic. I volunteer on the board of the Montailla Farmers Market. Jill graciously offered up some sketches of veggie starts from her garden for a t-shirt design for the Market. They turned out amazing. Even Portland Mayor Sam Adams wanted one.

thanks kate for all your support and enthusiasm throughout the years!

jessica and george emailed me the above photo, the art collection in their front room includes my bear and pika posters! so awesome! i never get tired of seeing my babies out in the world!

if you’re a regular reader, you already know that each month i’m featuring a different in-depth customer interview. this is a great opportunity for me to get to know some of you a bit more than the quick email messages we’ve shared over the years, and for all of you to get to know one another as well!

this month i’m featuring not one but TWO customers! catherine and erica’s names were familiar to me from my weekly order-packing, so it was a treat to meet them both over tea and snacks last month when they came up to portland! witty, whip-smart and fun, these two are an unstoppable force of nature! i’ve dubbed this duo with the combined name of “catherica,” but i’ll let them introduce themselves to you individually.

ok, catherine first…

tell us a bit about yourself! for example: how do you pay your bills?

 I am a clerk at UC Berkeley. I moved to the Bay Area from Los Angeles for college and just fell in love with the Bay. I loved the Bay so much that I never quite got around to moving back home. I’ve lived here since 1997, and have no plans to move back in the near future.  I miss my parents and my sister and her two gorgeous girls terribly, but I can’t seem to tear myself away from the East Bay.

 I know it’s way cooler to claim to prefer San Francisco. I’d definitely earn more street cred, but truth be told,  I’ve always been an East Bay sort of gal. I love going into the hustle and bustle San Francisco for the day, but I love coming home to the quiet and calm of my beloved North Oakland neighborhood.  And you know what else  we’ve got on this side? I killer view of the SF skyline. I sometimes go up to the BART platform in my neighborhood just to peak at it, especially during sunset on a clear day. Absolutely stunning, and something you just can’t get over on the other side. 

is there something you’d rather be doing with your time? 

Of course! I love working with the student body. They definitely keep me on my toes and keep me young. I love that I am still immersed in my college setting, well after classes ended for me. I loved college, and it’s a privilege and an honor to bear witness to the mental and emotional growth of the student body. 

However, I absolutely love traveling, craft beer, writing and going to concerts. In an ideal world, I’d find a way to incorporate every single one of these things into a career. I haven’t figured out how to make that happen just yet! I’ll keep you posted…

hobbies? personal history? whatever you feel comfortable sharing with the world! 

 Future academic pursuits have been weighing heavily on my mind as of late. Since I discovered it as an undergrad at UC Berkeley I’ve been rather obsessed with disability studies and plan to pursue a graduate degree in the field. It’s a burgeoning academic field that explores disability as a cultural phenomenon- a social construct rather than simply a physical, mental or emotional personal  defect or tragedy. The ways in which it permeates and intermingles with so many other fields of study, and within each and every conceivable community, while remaining a community in and of itself absolutely fascinates me. 

 As far as leisure is concerned, I love combining travel, concerts, and trying out the local microbrews. Luckily, I’ve found friends who like to do the same thing. The last trip I took which included all three was up to Portland in March to visit my friend Hollie and see The David Mayfield Parade. The lucky girl that I am, my friend Erica and I were granted a meeting with one very talented and gracious Jill Bliss. I still can’t believe my invitation out for a drink worked, and am still kind of swooning over it!!! We were so excited, and had to try to act like normal ladies instead of total fools. I had my california poppies embroidered pencil pouch on me in my purse and wanted to show it to her, but couldn’t figure out a way to organically incorporate it into sitting together over tea and pastries. It just didn’t work, so in my bag it stayed. So so so very silly. She made it, she knows I ordered it, and is one hundred percent aware of what it looks like!!! [lol - i'm blushing!]

After that, we did a whole lot of snack walking ( a phrase we learned and have co-opted from Jill herself). The food in Portland is stupifyingly delicious. My pants are still snug as a result of the trip. I’d move there for the food carts alone, not to mention Stumptown and Little T and Potato Champion. I still crave another Stout Milkshake from Bagdad Cafe. Beer for dessert? Yes, please!

This past December, Erica and I went to Asheville, NC to see the Avett Brothers NYE shows, and the food and beer are amazing!!!! I was closer to Michigan than I am on the west coast, and as a result was able to guzzle quite a bit of Bell’s beer. I was over the moon about it. I was able to try Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, both on draft and in bottle, which is rare and much sought after here on the west coast. 

This coming July, Erica and I will be back up to the pacific northwest to see The Avett Brothers. Who knows, maybe I’ll get to show Jill my Blissware then! 

do you remember the first time you encountered something i made? what was it? 

I first received a jill bliss original due to my purse being stolen  five or so years ago. I was super sad about losing not only the purse, which I loved, but all of the contents as well. I knew it would be a pain, not to mention expensive, to try to replace them all. Luckily, it was my birthday a few weeks from then. So, I decided to email my friends and family to ask them to pretty please replace some of the  items for me. I gave them a list of the things I knew were definitely in there.

My birthday came around, and I received a package from my best friend Jeannie, who had moved to Omaha. One of the things she decided to replace was my checkbook cover. This was back in the days when jill bliss fabric goodies were made from bed sheets. It’s this lovely gray background with white flowers on it, and a coordinating fabric on the inside. She also replaced the compact mirror I had with with a jill bliss california poppies mirror. I could NOT stop looking at that thing. NO, not the mirror side :)  The side with the poppies on it. I was fascinated.

I immediately looked this stuff over for hints as to where it came from. There was a tag on the checkbook cover that said BLISSEN on it. I looked Blissen up on the internet and found the website, and looked through it and was completely enthralled.  Had my purse not been taken that year, I could be living in a sad jill bliss-less world!  That just wouldn’t do.

what’s your favorite jill bliss item and why? 

I have been thinking about this all week, and I can’t come up with just one.  It has also caused me to realize how very much Jill Bliss stuff I’ve been lucky enough to collect over the years. The ones I really love are from the earlier Jill Bliss days. I absolutely love my mirrors!!!! I’ve gotten so many compliments on them. I should have bought SO many more while they were still available. I use the notecards to keep in touch with a college friend of mine who introduced me to jill bliss products, so those carry a heavy dose of sentimental attachment as well, as does the checkbook cover she gave me because it was my gateway into the line itself. I also really really love my pencil pouch and my slim wallet, because they have gorgeous embroidery on them in the california poppy pattern. I am a sucker for california poppies, and just had to have them when I saw them. 

tell us a bit about your own artistic  dreams and inspirations!

 I’m no artist by any conventional standard or current definition of the word. But I adore writing. I have really come to love traveling as well, despite the logistical problems it can often present. My desire to travel and see new places is unfortunately often in direct conflict with my desire to keep my wheelchair intact. So far, the damages haven’t been too severe, despite being rather frequent. So far, the good still outweighs the bad. It’s a giant hassle at times, but I am generally very happy with my travels. This has required that I develop a new “hobby”, in the form of  learning a bit of wheelchair repair myself, rather than relying on technicians in strange cities. 

 I’ve been writing about my adventures, and this has been a huge blessing. It helps me process it all, while it simultaneously forces me  to continue to hone my writing skills well after  my college years. Ultimately, I’d like to publish a travel guide for people with disabilities. There is such a dearth of information out there on the topic, and I’d love to have one to use for myself. So I figure the need must be out there. 

I’d also really love to be teach Disability Studies in a college setting, and/or teach and foster disability rights in a community organizing capacity. I am so thankful for the opportunities I have been afforded in my life, and would love to be able to give back to a community that has given me so much and is so deserving on so many levels.

and now erica!…

tell us a bit about yourself!

I’m originally from the east coast and came to California to start grad school. Moving 3000 miles away was the perfect reason to take a cross-country road trip, and visit a lot of new states and see friends along the way. One of my favorite memories is of reaching California after eight days on the road, and randomly stumbling upon Mono Lake, a 700,000 year-old lake between the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s known for being so salty fish cannot live in its waters, and the water has a slippery, oily feel to it. The lake is ringed by volcanoes, and has many tufa, stunning limestone towers reaching out of the water. That beauty is true of the entire Bay Area, and I can see why people love it here.

While I miss having four seasons, we almost always have perfect weather here, the constant sunshine makes me happy, and being able to wear dresses most of the year means more room in the waist for snack walking! Being able to travel two hours in any direction and hit everything from wine country to redwood forests, beaches to snow, and farmlands to the sea has pushed me to explore all this side of the country has to offer.

One of my goals since moving here was to visit Portland, and when I finally did it last month with Catherine, it was just as great as I heard it would be. I am still dreaming of PDX’s food carts, especially The Pie Spot and its tiny, delicious pies! I also can’t wait to get back to Powell’s Books and get my book-loving nerd on. My love of traveling and my luck to have friends who are up for exploring with me has filled the last three years with adventures and memories with old and new friends. I can’t wait to see what the next few years bring.

is there something you’d rather be doing with your time?

Other than something psychology-related, if you asked me what I’d like to do at any given time, my answer will likely involve a combination of the following: traveling, concerting, eating, and dancing. As a grad student, I don’t have a lot of money, but what I do have goes towards these things (and also my ever-growing shoe collection).

I love exploring new places, hearing live music, and trying foodie spots wherever I am, and this usually translates to always being up for a road trip (however impractical it may be – a 14-hour drive to the Sasquatch Music Festival at The Gorge [above]? Flying across the country to see The Avett Brothers [below]?

Hiking in Point Reyes during a huge storm?

Yes, yes, and yes!), going to lots of concerts (17 so far this year), and taking snack walks (many thanks to Jill for introducing me to this oh-so-perfect phrase – I think I’ve said it at least 5 times a day since you first mentioned it, which tells you a) something about where my mind usually is, and b) how cool Jill is).

I also love taking pictures and capturing all of the wonderful people in my life, the beautiful nature I’ve seen, and the yummy foods I’ve been able to try (again with my love of food). As you can see, snack walking in Portland with Jill Bliss involved my taking a picture of little t bakery’s amazing grilled cheese sandwich (Hi to Jill in the right corner of the shot!). Lastly, I have a large spot in my heart for dancing, and this means I can sometimes be found having an impromptu dance party in my office to start the day. With the blinds closed, of course.

do you remember the first time you encountered something i made? what was it?

I was first introduced to the beautiful world of Jill Bliss when I stumbled upon her Native Herbs Journal in a small stationary shop in 2005. I was enamored with her lovely take on flowers and after I filled that first journal, I replaced it with a new one. I’m now on my 5th Native Herbs Journal, and one of these has been my trusty companion through many different phases of my life in many different places. From college in New York, to a few post-college years in Boston, to grad school in Berkeley, and all the trips in between, I have usually had one stowed in my bag (or luggage).

Over the years, these notebooks have held everything from random musings to song lyrics to To Do lists to notes at a cookie decorating class. Most recently, Volume 5 accompanied me to Montreal for the child development conference. Going to academic talks for eight hours a day is much more fun when you can write your notes on these gorgeous pages!

I like the Native Herbs design so much, I have it on my zip pouch and the print hanging on my wall.

In fact, I had to stop myself from putting the design on my iPhone case, and went with the gorgeous poppies design instead. I’m branching out though – I just added the Blue Beach Journal to my collection!

what’s your favorite jill bliss item and why?

That is a tough question to answer! My first instinct is to say the Native Herbs Journal, since I am clearly very attached to always having one, and I have to say, Volume 1 is my favorite. The great thing about having journals is that when you go back and look through them after awhile, their pages hold a snapshot of your history. Flipping through my first Jill Bliss purchase, I’m comforted by being able to read exactly what I was thinking and feeling at a given point in my life, and can smile at the moments captured in those writings and think about the ways my goals and perspective have changed over the years. Her designs have brought loveliness to many moments in my life, and it started with that first journal.

tell us a bit about your own artistic dreams and inspirations!

Right now, my main focus is on school and getting that Ph.D., but I’m still working on figuring out what I want to be when I grow up! Professionally, I’m not yet sure whether I want to be a researcher, a professor, a clinician, or something else I haven’t even thought up yet. Personally, what I know is that I always want my life to involve family and friends, psychology and community, music and snack walking, purpose and growth. How that will manifest itself is still unclear, but I want to make a difference in the best way I know how.

I draw inspiration from the wonderful people in my life, the clients I see, the students I teach and work with, the beauty in my surroundings, and the psychologists working to understand how humans think, understand, and learn, and helping them persevere. While anyone who knows me will tell you that grad school sucks the life out of me most days, I like to think (and hope) my work will make a difference, especially for minority and underserved children.

What drives me on the harder days is the belief that even when the task feels overwhelming, I have a purpose, and that purpose is to help families weather the hard things life throws at them and make it out okay. Cheesy, I know, but in this line of work, it’s what keeps me going. My daily motto is adapted from some Avett Brothers lyrics: “I came to break the bad; I came to cheer the sad; I came to leave behind the world a better way.” I am here for a reason, and this is the best one to describe why I try to make a difference. And when things get tough, I can always write in one of my Jill Bliss journals!

thank you ladies! what a treat to meet you last month and share a ton of laughs, and then get to know even more about you here!

….aren’t my customers the best?!

each month i’m featuring a different in-depth customer interview. this is a great opportunity for me to get to know some of you a bit more than the quick email messages we’ve shared over the years, and for all of you to get to know one another as well!

marlene’s name shows up frequently in my orders in-box, so it was lovely to have this opportunity to get to know her better!

Hi! I’m Marlene and am an urban planner for a town on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I am also a graduate student pursuing a Master’s of Public Administration. I live near the bay in Plymouth, MA with my husband and two small dogs, Madison and Roosevelt. We are slowly (very, very slowly) renovating a big, old house that was built in 1905. I’m pretty lucky in that I have a lot of opportunities in my life to do creative work. I work at a very large scale to improve an entire community by planning for the future, building bike paths, preserving land for parks, building affordable housing, and reviewing new development projects. I also get to be creative on a smaller, more personal scale by planning my own garden, fixing up my own house, and decorating it with all of Jill’s great artwork!

This spring’s to-do list includes: sewing new potholders for the kitchen; planting a yellow magnolia and two dogwood trees, along with some non-spreading bamboo along the fence; and painting my attic yoga room. This summer, after finals are done, I’m going to sew roman shades for the yoga room using Jill’s grass print fabric… wish me luck! When I’m not at work, or school, or yoga, or busy with a project on the house I like to run, cook, travel, and read. Pie is my absolute favorite food and I’m working through a collection of 300 recipes. Since I have a couple of 10Ks, ½ marathons, and a fall marathon in my calendar, I have no regrets about pursuing my pie “research.”

My first experience with Jill’s work was Christmas of 2006. It was our first Christmas as homeowners and my husband Kevin filled my stocking with all of these awesome notebooks that I completely fell in love with. If I remember correctly, he gave me a set of the mini-journals (I’m currently working on filling up my last one), the native flower address book, native flower and native herb journals, a set of tide pool pins, and a tide pool T-shirt.

Clearly, I have an awesome husband! Since then, I’ve collected just about everything I can. I use the sea lines and tree lines notebooks for all my school work, and keep my reading notes in a grass fabric-covered journal. I’ve most recently received a copy of the Drawing Nature Journal, and can’t wait for my garden to start coming back to life so I can use it. But since we just had a snowstorm here, that may take awhile. I think my favorite Bliss item is my pencil pouch, though. Everyone laughs when I pull it out of my handbag, especially my secretary who always asks if I’m the second grade, and if I keep all my school supplies in there.

Right now I’m pretty happy with the amount of time I get to dedicate to my creative pursuits, given my professional aspirations, but someday I’d love to be able to spend more time sewing, learn to quilt, paint a mural in my foyer, visit all the great museums and have a season’s pass to the ballet. Until then, I look for ways to enjoy the art that is all around me, whether it’s created by people or nature, hanging in the Met or tattooed on somebody’s arm. It’s all good.

wow, marlene! thanks for sharing a bit of yourself with me/us – i am blown away with your collection of goodies, your job, and your idyllic-sounding life! …and i can’t wait to see those curtains!

each month i’m featuring a different in-depth customer interview. this is a great opportunity for me to get to know some of you a bit more than the quick email messages we’ve shared over the years, and for all of you to get to know one another as well!

like aeronwy who i featured last month, sebastiane has also been supporting my endeavors pretty much since the beginning, buying lots of gifts for friends over the years, and she’s even sent me gardening supplies from her company once i got my garden [below]!

tell us a bit about yourself, sebastiane!

The topic of ME usually makes a quick “bee line” to my choice to live artistically in all facets of my life. I relish seeing and taking note and giving due attention to people and the objects they create. I am drawn to people who are passionate about their craft, whatever form it takes… fine arts, carpentry, design; I gain such joyful inspiration from those who create the objects we surround ourselves with in our short time on this beautiful blue marble! I also take much pleasure in the manner in which wonderful opportunities have come my way, as experiences with the most wonderful people and activities I have enjoyed have happened because I was open to them… or merely turned left instead of right.

[sebastiane & mia, the chiweenie]

“All good things happened when I moved to Oregon.” I have said this often in these twenty-plus years that I have lived to the north of my birth state. I wonder who I would have become if I had lived beyond my childhood years in San Francisco, the city of my birth. I have such wonderful childhood memories of the shapes of the city and its’ surroundings, and a very strong connection to Jill Bliss’ earlier work because of it; however, I became a visual artist and a dedicated admirer of Jill’s work today, more from my own meandering path up and down the coastline and not from a solitary place of inspiration.

[limited edition jill bliss letterpressed poppies print]

One of my earliest memories was running through fields of wild California poppies in the open fields behind our hillside home. I feel grateful for the freedom to have explored my environment in such a joyful way, as it inspired the vivid imagination and creativity that I hold dearly today. I have strong sensory memories from childhood of these fields of wildflowers, while the habitants of these spaces, the crickets and ladybugs, drew me in to the miniature world I draw inspiration from still. It gives me great pleasure to watch the evolution of Jill’s natural inspirations as she migrated north and see every detail that she has observed as a line or color on paper.

Follow me from San Francisco to Huntington Beach, California as I skateboarded my way through childhood to adolescence, and where I lived next to the most open space of all, the Pacific Ocean. My childhood was full of the beach-inspired freedom of that locale. Temperate days of outdoor exploration and nights of “arts and crafts” with my mother. A giant cabinet of craft supplies could be opened on any given day to create groovy shadow boxes, macramé, baker’s clay figures, beading, crochet and knitting. I became a “producer” of handmade objects from that precious education.

When she bought herself a new sewing machine, my mother set up her old Singer next to hers and taught me the art of sewing. I sewed all of my clothes for years thanks to her generosity and developed a “vintage” sensibility, sewing old patterns with new fabric to create my own unique “look”, and of course, when I needed glasses to see far away, only a pair of vintage rhinestone cat eye glasses would suit my aesthetic. I have now collected over thirty of these wearable art pieces and wear them everyday.

[sebastiane's glasses collection!]

<80′s nostalgia segue begins here>

Living in the “OC” with crowded beaches inspired my comfort with the solitary nature of art practice, both in the kitchen and the craft room, but also pointed me in a rebellious direction, away from suburban pursuits. Setting myself apart from my sunny and structured surroundings inspired a full-time practice of art, both creating it and “living” it. My artistic sensibility was expressed in my Punk attire: the ever-changing color of my Mohawk and spiked hairstyles, my black leather jacket, and Army Surplus combat boots- Can you believe my mother helped me pick them out?

[ha! my mom, amazingly, used to help me cut and dye my hair in the fashion of all the new wave english 80's bands i admired at the time! and apparently my parents always made a point of having their morning coffee the same time i left for school just to see what get-up i'd be in for the day! - jill]

[above: sebastiane in the 80's, on the merv griffin show! - i found a snippet on youtube! i totally remembering seeing this on tv and thinking "hey, they forgot the new wavers!" below are pics of me as my '85 bananarama-influenced new waver self with my boyfriend and best friend. this was all i found, my mom must have the really good 80's photos!- jill ]

I walked the concrete grid of Orange County in bondage pants, hand-sewn underwear-as-outerwear, and ten pounds of hand-made “jewelry”. Envision so many metal hose clamps, fishing line weights, crab claws, Barbie doll arms, and found objects hanging from my body that I was dubbed Mrs. “T”. I thought I looked unique and beautiful, while others winced their noses and shouted their impressions. It was through this effort to stand apart that I began to find my artistic expression in not just my appearance, but also my daily actions – I began to live an “artistic life”- I was still the smiling girl running through wildflowers… just covered in metal works and stronger for the experience.

<80′s nostalgia segue ends here>

[elemental firewater print]

tell us about your hobbies and passions!

My mother said I didn’t have a sweet “Tooth” but sweet “Teeth”. I did my first solo baking, creating an English Lemon Pound Cake from scratch, at age nine, and baked every cake, cookie, pie, candy, and dessert after that… including my own birthday cakes. Baking and creating gorgeous edibles was my magnificent obsession- this and creating with crafts permitted my never-ending imagination to remain always open. When asked as a child what I would become, I said a pastry chef.

I spent my teen years sketching photo-realistic charcoal portraits, drawing miniatures in pen and ink, and sewing everything I could – Fabric was a dollar a pound in LA’s garment district back then. I enjoyed the creativity of differing art mediums, all the while, developing my “eye” for photography. I practiced as a photographer of local punk bands. Later through a series of serendipitous opportunities, I was photographing more and more popular bands like The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Clash… ultimately seeing my photographs featured in Los Angeles underground music magazines. When asked as a teenager what I would become, I said a professional photographer.

By age 21, I had photographed the top bands of the day and envisioned my life as a “work to live, live to work” scenario – Living a very fast-paced, disconnected life but not moving further in the pursuit of other dreams. Luckily for me, my parents chose to relocate back to the Northwest, near to their own roots, and offered me a change of scenery and a chance to attend school in the college town of Eugene, Oregon. “Where is U-gene”, I asked? I hadn’t heard of it, but up for the adventure, I drove up with them, planning to return south after a long “visit” if I should not like the change of scenery. I took one look at the valley of green hills devoid of hillside homes and surrounded by natural spaces and… hated it.

[turtle city poster]

It’s not “Just like our home in Huntington Beach but greener” like you said! Feeling deceived and completely out of my element, it took time to “lift the rocks” so to speak, and find what WAS beautiful about this new, much more wild space. Through the natural course of time and the kindness of new friends, my Oregon “ambassadors”, I ultimately found my way onto the hiking trails in and around the Willamette Valley, to areas where wild things still grew, and where I could still lean down on my elbows to engage with the miniature world. I began gardening by buying a flat of annuals, then I planted some daffodil bulbs, eventually I made jam with homegrown raspberries and Marion berries, and in time I learned that perennials were the plant “gifts” that kept on giving. It was in Oregon that I learned to be a gardener.

It was here in Oregon that I also learned how to “learn”, taking full advantage of the skills and generosity of the Fine Arts department faculty of the University of Oregon. Photography took the initial lead interest due to my prior experience, but I embraced design, ceramics, stone and wire sculpture, drawing, animation, and filmmaking, all the while still baking desserts for others and still sewing, bookbinding, paper marbling, batiking, building stained glass windows, and creating objects of papier-mâché… I increased my “production” of art objects, nine fold.

Making art for art’s sake was satisfying in the structure of art school’s terms and courses, but upon completion of my studies, I became more entranced with ephemeral art, time-based art practice, and the beauty of objects that are not considered artistic, but that we share our lives with daily. I started to scale back on the collection of magnificent objects and instead found the beauty of the pieces many take for granted. Voluntary Simplicity became my mantra- the idea of living with less to enjoy life more. In this mindset, the objects I surrounded myself with must truly add joy to my life. Jill Bliss’ artwork has always met this criteria for me.

when did you first discover my work?

It was in college that I first imagined a collective of artists banding together to support one another; I wanted to offer a portal for female artists to sell their art. “Sorry”, a visiting artist once said, when discussing this dream… “It’s already been done. Check out the website, Blissen,” she said, “to see how Jill Bliss had created a space for her and her fellow artists to sell their unique creations.” I was only disappointed for a moment that the idea was already floating around, for I was then immediately excited and supportive of this group of artists who appeared to be making a living doing what they “Love”… always my own goal.

[the infamous datebook and note!]

and do you remember the first thing you bought?

I thought my first Jill Bliss purchase would be the fabric Poppy necklace… Drat, sold out! Instead, as I attempted many forms of organization for my college career, my first actual “treasure” was the beautifully horizontal Urban Gardens 54-week datebook. Jill drew my childhood poppies and flowers AND the outlines of the San Francisco rooftops I had enjoyed throughout childhood. I used this book through several terms of school assignment deadlines and project schedules – I no longer add to it, but do not see a need to part with it, as it holds a large part of my wonderful college career in a “time capsule-state” to help remember the experience…. Years of college become a BLUR, after all. When I open my Jill Bliss datebook I feel the excitement I experienced in learning (as well as some of the unrealistic deadline stress).

One of my favorite parts of this datebook, my first Jill Bliss piece, is the little note card that she hand-wrote a kind message upon. It became the bookmark for my current calendar week within the book and solidified my impression of her as an artist who was generous of spirit and deserving of every success. And I wanted to help her get wherever she wanted to go, one mention at a time…

People who know me know that I share what I love, and when I discovered Jill Bliss’ work, I shared it with everyone. I found her work to be my favorite gifts for friends. I have bought many prints for myself over these years, but triple that number for gifts, turning countless friends into Jill Bliss admirers. The Native Flowers notecard book is the gift I buy again and again and is always admired for its’ beautiful practicality, to always have a gorgeous card on hand is an appreciated gift. Plus it inspires the treasured communication method of “thoughts to pen to paper” and always brings bright smiles- the sign of a successful creation.

[the infamous poppy poster]

what’s your favorite thing i make?

Exemplified by the number of copies I have purchased for friends, the iconic California Poppies art print is my favorite. The colors contrast against the gray days of Oregon and lift my spirits every day. It is my favorite for another reason as well- it’s a “converter” – People who care “beans” about art and claim to not know what they like in art, see that print hanging in my home and almost always share a positive assessment of it… Wow! I love that image! The colors pop! Jill is turning my non-artistic visitors into art appreciators! I am truly enjoying her collaborative pieces with other artists now and have begun to collect many limited-edition pieces of hers.

[califoregon birds gocco prints in situ]

Jill was the talk of my home this past season when I opened my home to twenty family members, despite removing most every piece of furniture and artwork in preparation for painting. One dear cousin noticed a print on the wall… Who is this artist? Jill Bliss. And who made this one? Jill Bliss. And this one? Jill Bliss. Me, the ever-observant artist, had not noticed that in removing almost all my artwork for the project, had left only her work on the walls for guests to enjoy. Five prints still hanging, all Jill Bliss – that speaks volumes to me of the joy I gain from her work.

[sebatiane's garden!]

back to YOU, how do you pay your bills?

Online. Once again with less sass: Remember, all good things happened when I moved to Oregon. What I did not know is that I would ultimately find a most wonderful source of employment just walking distance from my home. In the post-college days, I was a barista, a fishmonger, a pastry baker (not quite the pastry chef, but better hours), an interior artistic painter (to the restaurants and salons in Eugene still wearing my paint strokes on their walls… it’s probably time to repaint), and even shared-for-hire my planting suggestions as a landscape design consultant. I enjoyed the diversity of each day, tempered by the stress of irregular income flow.

“Good things happen when you are open to them.” In 2001, I was high up on a ladder painting the highest peak of my home when a woman drove by and called from her car, “Do you want to work for me?!” Hearing of me as a Jill-of-all-Trades, my neighbor inquired if I would “baby-sit” her garden products business while she away. That one “YES” decision has positively influenced these many years that followed. She became my employer, my friend, and my mentor. I now have the pleasure of using every aspect of my valuable college education (even the math). My position utilizes all of my creative skills of art and design to produce well-crafted goods for gardeners, and I take much joy in being part of the garden industry, where success is based on respect for our natural world.

As I share the artwork of Jill Bliss with excitement, so too can I share with pride the work that I do. I use not only my design skills to create print and advertising collateral for our business, but I am using my entire “skill-set”, even crafting and inventing, as we create new garden products from inception to realization. Did I mention my workplace is dog-friendly? I can do my best work without worry of my canine “kids” left alone, as they all come with me to work each day

[sebastiane's pack]

is there something else you’d rather be doing with your time?

A.B.C.D…. Always Be Chasing Dogs: I share my life with the delightful company of four unique “Anipals”: a Greyhound, a Tibetan Terrier, a Chihuahua, and a Chiweenie. I would always wish to be walking and hiking with them more. Like the appreciation of beautiful art, the joy that my furry companions bring to my life, and I try to bring to theirs, is immeasurable. To me, they are People with Fur.

[sebastiane's liam]

The garden industry, like our gardens, is seasonal. When the flowers begin to bloom and gardeners turn to watering and maintenance, that’s when I can look forward to reading the next Laurie Notaro book – Her “word art” makes me laugh like Jill’s art makes me smile – constantly! AND when I can return to redecorating my home with a new set of wall colors fit to compliment my Jill Bliss artwork and uplift during the gray days that will eventually follow. AND when I begin to think of travel: I hope to soon be restoring a 1964 Thunderbird with a friend. I picture future road trips back down the West Coast, as I drive this “futuristic” vintage car, looking through my vintage cat eye (sun)glasses, in my drive to places both of my childhood and future. It’s time to get back into my childhood mind as an artist, remember what I was able to once see freely and stay open to its’ influence for my future dreams. Life is short on this beautiful planet – I wish to savor every moment, like this – I have enjoyed every moment of this opportunity to speak of the talent and share the influence of my favorite artist, Jill Bliss. (picture me smiling)

[sebastiane, weeding the garden!]

wow, sebastiane! thanks for sharing a bit of yourself with me/us – i am so lucky to count you as a super customer and supporter! thank you!

inspired by all the meetings and stories i shared with many of you during the holiday season sales events, i’m introducing this new monthly feature to my blog! each month i’ll feature a different customer to learn a bit more about you and your daily lives, including the things i’ve made and you’ve bought through the years, and your experiences with those items.

this is a great opportunity for me to get to know some of you a bit more than the quick email messages we’ve shared over the years, and for all of you to get to know one another as well! first up is aeronwy, who’s been supporting my endeavors pretty much since the beginning, no matter where either one of us was living.

tell us a bit about yourself, aeronwy!

I am a Level 5 Nerd (the ne plus ultra). My four great passions are singing, reading, psychology, and the NFL. I love performances of all kinds – musicals, plays, operas, ballet, indie concerts, symphonies, stand up comedy, and of course the games of my beloved New York Giants. I don’t know what it is to be bored, unless I am on a very bad date.

I have a curious nature and a pretty good memory for personal characteristics, such as things people enjoy, or random facts about their family members. I get really excited reading and researching things and passing knowledge on to people I recall will have an interest in them. You can frequently find me entertaining others at the intersection of mania and sarcasm.

I have a seriously defective internal compass when trying to navigate cities. I can’t really say I get lost, because that would imply I occasionally know where I’m going, which is generally untrue. Getting myself to any destination successfully usually involves a collaborative effort on the part of coworkers, friends, passing strangers, and hopstop.com. Somos un equipo!

sooo, where are you living these days?

I wasn’t born in the US, but I grew up in Queens and am a New Yorker down to my bones. I studied at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia, and then moved to Okinawa, Japan about a year after graduation. I had always wanted to experience life in another country and I figured there would never be a better time than while I was young and unencumbered by responsibilities like a career, mortgage, or kids. It was an unbelievable experience, but I grew homesick during my second year, and decamped back to the States.

Since I’d lived and traveled all along the Eastern seaboard, I thought I’d try the West Coast for a change. I had heard good things about the Pacific Northwest, so I chose Seattle. That city has an excellent music scene thanks to KEXP, the world’s most fabulous radio station, and John Richards, my hero of a DJ. Needless to say, I spent most of my free time there going to shows, and just generally re-acclimating to life as an American. (Japanese shopping carts: baskets. Our shopping carts: boats.)

In the end, the culture and climate of the West Coast just wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t have the funds to move back to NYC, so I told myself I had a choice between the last two swaths of the country I hadn’t sampled: the Midwest, or the South. I am not a huge fan of heat, so I decided the Midwest would be a better bet. I considered Madison and Milwaukee but eventually settled on Minneapolis. (In my mind they were the Three Musketeers).

I stayed in Minnesota for four years. It was time to grow in a new direction – to try stability over itinerancy, to save money instead of spending it, and to take a stab at having an honest-to-god J-O-B. I accomplished a lot there in terms of learning life skills (swimming, driving, cooking, gardening, investing). Eventually I had enough of a financial cushion to make the big move back to New York, which I did just this past summer. It was a leap of faith to quit my job in a terrible recession, but I knew from past experience that I could start in a new place with nothing and land on my feet, so I just held my breath and jumped. (Swimming lessons ~ they came in handy!)

It’s funny what you observe when you travel and reveal where you’re from. Sometimes I would encounter fascination, other times hostility. New York is a city that looms large in everyone’s imagination. They feel like they know it even if they’ve never been there, because it’s the setting of so many movies and momentous events. People can be judgmental even though their position has no basis in fact.

I once read a statistic that said 75% of Americans live within a 50 mile radius of where they were born. I didn’t have any real reason to go to the places that I did, other than that I wanted to be able to say that I tried different things. I didn’t want to look back later in life and wonder about what could have been. I can confidently say now that there’s no place I feel more at home than in New York, and my adventures validate that conviction.

i’ve also never asked you about your amazing name and how it’s pronounced.

My name derives from the River Aeron in western Wales, although I’ve been told that it can also mean ‘berry’ in Welsh. It’s pronounced “i RHOUN wee”, rather than “EYE rhoun wee”.

do you remember the first time you encountered something i made? what was it?

They say college is a time to expand your horizon, and Bryn Mawr certainly did that for me. I think I was in my senior year when I first discovered DIY art and craft websites, including the Wonderful World of Jill! (FYI, this domain name is available in case you ever want to open your own theme park).

The first artwork of yours that I ever laid eyes on was California Poppies. I can’t describe how it captivated me. The best I can say is this: every time I meet someone new, they tell me they think my name is really pretty. It’s just something I’m always told. And that’s how I felt, seeing California Poppies. SO BEAUTIFUL. I immediately adopted it as an online avatar since I am camera-shy, and discovered that your art is like my name – everyone loved it at first sight and wanted to know where it came from. I love sharing information and educating people, so I spread the word far and wide about how special your work was. (“Recycled sheets! How cool is that?! You will be one of only 15 people on the planet to have this print! Buy it now!!”) Having gone to a women’s college, my belief in promoting a female artist in her independent business is very important to me.

what’s your favorite jill bliss item? tell me why and how you use it!

Hands down, my planner. Well, you call it a planner. I call it my Life Book. Some people can’t imagine leaving their cell phones at home; if they do, they double back to retrieve it. It generally won’t kill me if I forget mine, but my Life Book? No way. I cannot function without this thing! Sure, there are birthday parties and dinners with friends. Everyone has those. But the details of the exercises my chiropractor gave me to stretch my muscles? In here. The name and address of a well-reviewed restaurant in Flushing that I’ve been meaning to try, along with a list of recommended dishes? Yep. The IP address of my router’s admin page? Very important. The names, dosages, and frequencies of my various medications? Present and accounted for. Subway and bus maps? Bookmarks? Tickets to future events? Goes without saying. Library books that I want to take out next? Songs to download from new bands that I just heard? Affirmations that I want to be mindful of? (“Observe, describe, and participate.”) Check, check, check. Let’s just say Post-Its and I are BFF.

My last full mouth X-rays were in June 2007; my bitewings, November 2010. The fax number that you need to send your paystub to in order to get an employee discount from Verizon is 1-800-711-7788 (not found on their website!) The W Hotel downtown is offering free ice skating on their roof every day from now until Feb 11th, from 2PM-10PM. A starry view of the city for a $12 skate rental? I’m so there. Hmm, it appears the wholesale district of NYC is a few narrow storefronts between W 27th and 28th between Broadway and 6th Ave. I need to go check out the merchandise there. Those are the operations that supply Canal Street hawkers; maybe I can skip the middleman. The new Mountain Goats album is coming out March 29th. The world’s largest dinosaur exhibit is going to open at the American Museum of Natural History on April 16th, followed three days later by a dental cleaning. (My momma raised me to have good oral hygiene).

You know how you go to the doctor or the salon and as you leave, they schedule your next appointment and try to give you a reminder card? I tell them not to bother; it’s all going right into my book as I stand in front of them, and I’ll just throw out their card anyway. I hope to god I never lose this thing. It would be like losing half my brain. Don’t judge me, people! I’m a Level 5 Nerd, remember? Organization is our religion.

tell me about your own artistic dreams and inspirations!

I trained in Fine Arts Photography while at Bryn Mawr, and later at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, but have stopped pursuing it. What I loved most about it, even more than composing my pictures, was printing them. There’s something soothingly ritualistic and primitive about washing reels, agitating trays, timing exposures, and burning your paper with a piece of cardboard with a hole cut out in it. It’s precise yet imprecise at the same time. You can never exactly replicate the same image twice, which is both seductive and infuriating. Needless to say, that aspect of the art has been lost with the advent of digital photography. Photoshop is completely uninteresting to me. I still love going to exhibits and putting my knowledge of the history of the medium in context, but I sold my equipment when I downsized to my Brooklyn broom closet, and now it’s time to explore other avenues of expression.

The photographers who most closely approximate my own personal style are Lee Friedlander (in vision and intent) and Margaret Bourke-White (in subject matter and composition). I’m also inspired by Paul Strand, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Walker Evans.

As I mentioned, I love to sing. It’s as natural as breathing to me. I have a pleasant voice, but nothing worth writing home about. In my mind I am secretly Rosie Thomas. (I guess this is not so secret now. That’s ok. I’m sure Rosie won’t mind.) Maybe someday I will make time to learn an instrument. It’s hard to pick just one activity when I’m attracted to so many things.

I adore watercolors, especially ones of nature scenes, animals and plants – obviously. I’ve signed up for an 8 week class at the Sewing Studio (thanks, Groupon!) and maybe after it ends I can go further and try stitching little projects. I would love to try my hand at lithography, letterpress, bookmaking, and fashion styling. Really, I am just so enthusiastic about the act of creation that there’s nothing I wouldn’t want to attempt!

At the end of the day, being an artist is not an easy life. It’s a path fraught with uncertainty, self-doubt, and often, poverty. Whenever I think of Glen Hansard busking on the streets of Dublin only to win an Academy Award twenty years later, or Betty Smith, sitting at her kitchen table scratching out “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” while raising two daughters as a single mother during WWII, with no idea that her creation will someday become enshrined in canon, or you, Jill, initially bending over handfuls of found fabric and now hailed by DailyCandy and sold at Barnes and Noble – well, these are the true artistic inspirations in my life.

wow, aeronwy! thanks for sharing a bit of yourself with me/us – you are equally inspiring to me!