“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs

and developing our wings on the way down.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

Last night's altered book class was SO much fun.

What a wonderful and creative bunch of women!
We spent the evening painting with gesso on the covers of our freshly sanded books.

I offered up an assortment of things to combine with the gesso (lace, mesh, twine etc) and I have to say I was SO absolutely impressed with the what people came up with!
I can't wait to see what amazing art is created over the next 8 weeks with this group...

(sorry this took so long to finish writing but i have a feeling you will understand once you read this,and if you have forgotten part 1 and 2 they are still below)

The Quirky Art Cafe

part 3

“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.” ― Zig Ziglar

So, I decided to have a real cafe in my studio.

But to be perfectly honest, I really wanted someone else to do it for me.

When I got home from Spain in May, I dove quickly into the things for the cafe that I knew I could do...rearranging the studio to make room for a coffee counter, cleaning things out, visualizing, finding the perfect counter and making it "look and feel" the way it would best look like a cafe but then came the hard part....

All the legal shit.

Coincidentally, I met a woman at an Art Walk in July who apparently was a coffee shop set up consultant and I was THRILLED. We met a couple times and she validated all the ideas I had with her expertise and knowledge (basically affirming for me that this could really happen), which I really needed at that point.

Then she disappeared.

I tried to get a hold of her but she wouldn't get back to me.

Eventually, I learned in September, that due to serious family issues, she was no longer available to help me and I was left completely on my own once again....

So, after a lot of feeling sorry for myself, one day I just thought "Oh fuck it!" and I finally went to the official places I needed to go, talked to all the official people I needed to talk to and found out all the official things I needed to do. And once I learned what I needed to do....

I honestly wanted to just give up.

But the problem was, I had already "done" it. The cafe was already built, rearranged, sinks in and ready with espresso machine....so I couldn't give up now. A good friend wrote to me at that point..."Hmmm maybe you should have looked into all this BEFORE you actually made it into a cafe." And for a moment, I thought the same... I thought "Oh, I am SO stupid for not having looked into all this BEFORE I did everything.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that IF I had asked what I needed to do first, I would NEVER have gone and done it. I know that I would have given up way before I ever started. The ONLY thing that pushed me through to the end of this was the fact that it was already done.

But it was so hard for me.

All along I kept thinking "I am just an artist, I can't do all this stuff." I felt so far out of my comfort zone, that most days I seriously woke up feeling nauseous about what had to be done that day.

But....I just made myself do what I needed to do, one small uncomfortable step at a time.

And every day, when I would get completely overwhelmed, by fear, money concerns or whatever, I would just go sit in my studio, and reassure myself that this WAS the RIGHT thing to do. I just knew that people would love to come in and enjoy my space with me.

So then, the next day I would get up the courage to go do one more uncomfortable thing...

(like measure every square inch of the lot and the building complex, convert it to metric and then draw up three different site plans TO SCALE for instance....)

It took so much longer than I thought it would. I didn't have the money to go out and hire people to do things like site plans for me or figure out what stock structure (with incorporating) to have, I had to do it all myself.

And now that I am on the other side of it, I am glad for that. I have learned so much and I really did it! I really accomplished something that I honestly didn't think I could do.

I also realized that I needed to get used to the idea of owning/running a cafe on top of my art career as much as I needed to to get all the permits for it. And starting things from scratch meant there were thousands of decisions to make. I had worked in cafes before (the only job I have ever had except for being an artist), but in all those situations, the decisions were already made for me and I just did my job. Here, I had to decide everything....what hours to be open, how I would make all the hot beverages, how the cash register would be programmed, what kind of food would be served...etc. Plus, along with all of this, I still had to maintain my full time art career at the same time- drawing caricatures at events, doing commission work, teaching classes and workshops as well as keeping up with the all the family life responsibilities at home.

One great coincidental thing was that I was able to get the cafe ready right before my trip to another caricature convention in Florida, where I got to spend time with my amazing, caring, talented caricature artist friends, which by that time I REALLY needed.

I opened 3 days after I got home from Florida.

By the time I opened November 23rd, I was really ready....in every way. I no longer panicked about the time commitment of being there 5 days a week from 8-5 or how I would manage responsibilities with my drawing commitments or my family along with it. I just knew that it would all fall into place and it really has.

It was a CRAZY, CRAZY month in December....I was open full time at the cafe 5 days a week, I had a grand opening, 17 caricature event gigs, many commission pieces to do for Christmas and an altered book workshop at Victoria School of the Arts.

But I made it...

and I love my little cafe/art studio even more than I did before....

and honestly, I really didn't know that was possible.

I am thrilled with the response and the feedback I have received from people....

• I love meeting longtime residents from the neighbourhood and hearing their stories of how long they have lived here, other special little details of their lives and just how they have LONGED for a cafe in the neighbourhood for years.
• I love that I have regulars who come, sit and chat about what's going on in their day so far, and inquire about mine.
• I love that I have an after school rush of kids and parents, popping in from the toboggan hill or skating rink across the street for a hot chocolate or chai latte.
• I love that I can work on my drawings or paintings when its quiet at the cafe and how even when people come in, how interested they are in what I am working on.
• 

and most of all,

I love hearing how much people feel at home

in my little art corner of the world.

So here we are on the threshold of 2012.....Happy New Year Everyone!

“Often, it’s not about becoming a new person, but becoming the person you were meant to be, and already are, but don’t know how to be.”
― Heath L. Buckmaster

The Quirky Art Cafe

part 2

One of the first things I did when I got the keys to my new studio, was to spend a night there with my best friend Jan. We brought wine, snacks and slept in sleeping bags on the floor in the fresh, empty space. We wanted to celebrate my studio and coincidentally enough,
it was also the 25th anniversary of our hitch-hiking trip around the South Pacific together.

It was perfect...
you know, since we had spent so many nights sleeping on strange floors during that trip, this was an appropriate way to celebrate.

Spending time there, while it was empty, was really important. I had a lot of ideas of what I wanted it to be but I really didn't have one clear, single vision. However, I found that the more time I spent there, the more I could feel my way into the vision.

Of course, I thought it would be cool if it was a REAL cafe,
but there were TOO many complicated
thoughts in the way...
you know, thoughts like:

• I still have a preschooler at home and two other young kids in elementary school, how could I possibly be committed to hours at a cafe as well?
  
  
• I didn't have the kind of money to invest into buying all the equipment that would be needed for a real cafe.
  
  
• Besides...who would let me have a "real" cafe together with an ART studio...certainly not the Health Board and Food inspection people.
  
  And the biggest thought hurdle....
  
  
• I am just an artist... I couldn't possibly do all the business things involved with running a REAL cafe.

So I let that idea go and just worked on what it could be, WITHIN my comfort level. I had been teaching altered book making and art journaling for a number of years and knew that it was something I could offer and that might help pay the bills. I would also do my own painting and caricature commissions there.

As far as the design of the studio, I really wasn't sure until my friend Leanne gave me her old oak dining room table and some wooden chairs, and suddenly I could see it.... it would LOOK like a cafe, even if it couldn't be one. Old dining tables and an eclectic collection of chairs, paintings on the walls, and great music, and of course, tons of art supplies.

So I went to work to set up a "pretend" cafe that would be my art studio....
I managed to find two more second hand dining room tables and things started to take shape. I spent time shopping with my little 4 year old Piper in tow...at second hand stores and new stores and quickly things completely fell into place. I found hugely discounted furniture that just happened to look like it was made for my shop. I moved furniture around so much to make sure that the flow felt right and wanted it to be something that my home has never achieved—organized to the point where everything had a place to go away to.

It all just came together so easily.
I began teaching a summer class, 2 months after I rented the studio and had a full teaching calendar starting in September along with my caricature gigs. When people walked in, the most common comment was that it felt like I had been there for years.
For 2 years that is what my studio was....and I loved it.

It was so wonderful to teach without having to cart all my supplies somewhere else and to just have my environment around me. I also loved having birthday parties there. I think in the last two years I celebrated over 25 little girl's birthdays with caricatures and journals.

But the best part was that it was the place where I could go to escape the chaos of the rest of my world.

I must admit that at first, I found it really difficult not having my art supplies at home and felt at a loss, wondering......"What DO people do at home when they don't have art supplies?"

But over time, the separation allowed me to focus more intently on the 2 major elements in my life— my family and my art, without the distraction of the other. It also encouraged me to start sleeping more again (for years I only slept an average of 4 hours a night).

At the studio, I vehemently protected how "open" my studio door was to the world, and in time, I managed to reacquaint myself with all that felt lost from years of giving everything I could to the 3 little people in my life.

In the fall of 2010, when my daughter went to grade 1, I suddenly had days to myself again, for the first time in 14 years. It was a great year! I did whatever I felt like doing. I felt total freedom and loved that I didn't HAVE to be anywhere except where I wanted to be. It was an amazingly creative time and so healing. I did my caricatures, I painted, I managed to have my first solo painting show at the Naess Gallery and then flew off to Girona for another life enhancing caricature convention.

When I got home from Spain, I knew that the time had come for my studio to evolve into something more. I no longer needed the kind of silence and solitude I craved when my days were spent defending my sanity against small children. Plus we really needed to somehow bring more money in our lives.

My trip to Spain with my brother Weston and my son Ry was definitely the precipice for my studio's evolution into a real cafe and thankfully,
I had NO idea what was involved in putting a cafe in my studio....
because IF I would have known then,
I would never have climbed those stairs.

Next, I will tell you about the last 6 months which have changed my approach to business in more ways than any six months prior in my 47 years.

The Story of the Quirky Art Cafe...
part 1

When I was a kid, after everyone in my family was asleep, I would pack a big suitcase and sit in the living room pretending to be on an airplane flying to Paris. I had never been on a plane but the thought of travel was exciting and I always pictured myself having a little art studio (something that had the look and feel of a café) somewhere in Paris.

In 2001, after drawing caricatures for 17 years, I finally started my own little art company, offering event caricatures, illustrations and teaching mixed media. I named it the Quirky Art Café because as much as I love drawing live caricatures, I also have strong impulses to paint and doodle in other styles. I thought a company called "Quirky Art" would allow me total artistic freedom. And the "Cafe " part came because I love cafes. On my website, I even had “Deep in my imagination exists a little art studio somewhere in Montmartre in Paris” above my logo.

One day in March 2009, I noticed a little shop for rent. Even though I wasn’t too sure I wanted to move out of my home studio just yet, (or that I could afford it), it was more perfect than I could have imagined! Having a studio in my own neighborhood, with a huge storefront window overlooking the beautiful park and playground of the school my kids attend, seemed almost too good to be true.

Something inside of me knew I had to do it.

I really had no specific plan for it at that time, but I just felt that one day I would. Fortunately, Mark, my husband, is almost as trusting of my intuition as me and together we decided that yes, I should rent it.

The day after signing my rental agreement with my landlords Hans and Gretel (I am not kidding), I was taking some pictures of the building from a distance and I suddenly noticed something I hadn’t realized before…the shop next door to me (which Hans and Gretel own and operate) is called the Salon de Paris and they have a huge Eiffel Tower on their sign.

I guess I finally did have my little art studio in Paris after all.

So, that was 2 and a half years ago.
Next, I will tell you how it evolved into what it is today.

her mid-life crisis refused to let go,

so she disguised it as a fish so that no one would notice....

"When in doubt, make a fool of yourself.

There is a microscopically thin line
between being brilliantly creative
and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth.
So what the hell, leap."
— Cynthia Heimel

Three years ago, I attended my first caricature convention in Raleigh, North Carolina. I bought a $100 wacom tablet for a workshop that was being offered. While it was fun to play around on, I really struggled with drawing on a black tablet and see the image show up on the laptop. I couldn't get used to the disconnect between my drawing hand and where the end result was.
So I never moved any closer to digital drawing as a result.

Until this Spring.

One night in March, while watching Bill Maher, I started by doodling on my iphone, with my finger.

Then I borrowed my little friend Emma's ipad and bought a stylus, and suddenly the potential of what I could do finally over shadowed the technical learning curve I feared.

On my way to the European Caricature Convention in April, I met up with my good friend, Jon Casey, (who is a master at live digital caricatures) in San Fransisco and confided in him that I was finally seriously thinking about getting into digital. Over wine, we discussed the kind of hardware and software he used, he offered tips and suggestions and was VERY encouraging, especially about doing live digital gigs.

In Spain, I watched Harold from Holland draw brilliant digital caricatures on a cordless tablet and at that moment I thought "OK, now I especially like that". I spent the week watching him create caricature after caricature, print them out on small 4" x 6" postcards and I was hooked.

All I could think was.... "Yup...I want to be able to do that".

So, a couple weeks after I got home, I bought the Cintiq 12W, choosing the smaller version because its easier to carry around. I already traditionally draw quite small (8.5 x 11) so it seemed like a good size for me as I would be I would be using it mostly for gigs and bringing it back and forth between home and the studio.

I must admit...when I first started drawing on it, I felt lost. It was kind of like standing at an endless buffet table, not knowing where to begin eating, completely afraid that I would pick all the wrong entrees and then my brain would be too full to digest what I really needed to learn. I knew that eventually I would be able to do SO MUCH cool stuff, but I realized that I needed to start somewhere familiar, to avoid feeling overwhelmed, (plus I had 2 live digital gigs booked less than 3 weeks away and had to be ready).

So first, I spent a lot of time looking over the digital work that I admired. I dissected it and tried to think about how I wanted mine to look, and tried to figure out exactly what tools would I need to use to make them look that way.

Since, I really do enjoy drawing in my traditional live gig style (and because I have been doing it for 27 years), I figured it would be better not to stray too far from what I already knew. So, I figured that if I made the digital tools work the way my familiar markers did, then the transition might be simpler.

I opted for Photoshop because I already knew how to use it quite well and I set up a "mock gig" at my studio and tried my hand at live digital drawing. It went ok, but there were things I didn't like about photoshop.Corel Sketch Pad came with my Cintiq and since I remembered Jon saying he liked Corel, I thought I would try it. We instantly hit it off! I quickly figured out which tools acted the most like what I was familiar with and then I made a cheat sheet for myself to remember what tool settings those were. I practiced a few more times and it just felt so easy.


I have done 5 digital gigs now and 3 digital commissions and I LOVE IT.
Digital allows me a freer approach to drawing, which is relaxing and refreshing after 27 years. I love not having to be so committed to the line. Marker is just so unforgiving.

As a result, my relationship with digital is lighter and more experimental, fueled by the ability to "undo".


I don't know exactly where I am headed...but I will definitely be bringing my Cintiq with me.

A different kind of jet lag...

I have been home from Spain for 4 weeks and still I feel new thoughts, ideas and revelations from my time there, catching up with me, pulling at my sleeve and forcing me to adjust my life to make room for them.

The day after I got home from Spain was the deadline for my vendor application to the Fringe Festival, a Festival that I have drawn caricatures at every August for the last 24 years. (No matter where I traveled in the world, I always came back to Edmonton in August to draw at the Fringe.)

This year, the vendor fees went up again and after almost a quarter century, I finally felt the crushing frustration of living with a career that functions regularly on a "breaking even" mentality.

I just feel, after doing caricatures for 27 years, that I am finally done with the whole "pay money to set up somewhere to draw and maybe make some money, or at least break even." arrangement.


In Girona, I was so inspired by the vibrant little shops everywhere. I spent many hours walking down the narrow streets, enjoying the culture of cafe/street life that is definitely a part of Spain's magic.

As I browsed the funky little shops and cafes, I couldn't help but question the functionality of my little shop, back in Edmonton...my "pretend cafe" that is actually an art studio. A place that confuses passerbys with its perpetual "Sorry we're closed" sign and the fact that it looks like a cozy cafe but "no, we don't serve coffee."

So, in my jet lag tiredness, at the very last minute, I decided I would not apply to the fringe this year and instead, I would take the $2000 + that it would have cost me to have a vendor booth there, and I would invest it into my own little shop.

I would now make it into a real cafe, one that sells espressos and lattes and some baked goods. I would try to give our neighborhood a little taste of that funky little shop/cafe essence that I experienced in Spain. I would also hopefully supplement my art income and possibly even be able to increase it to help with the ever escalating costs of raising 3 kids.

So, I have been busy.
Almost every moment of the past four weeks, I have been researching permits and licenses, looking for sinks and details about plumbing, shopping for supplies and equipment, making a million decisions and looking for that perfect coffee counter to serve the coffee from. There is still a LONG way to go to get actually up and running as a real cafe but its on the way and will be opening sometime this August.

I will still do my caricature gigs, and it will still be my art studio— where I draw my commission work/ paint and the place where I teach art classes (and bring in other artists to teach some classes and workshops), but now it will ALSO be a funky little place to come get a latte or cappuccino, a light snack, a slushie, or maybe buy a painting and/or get your caricature done.

And possibly just by chance, some of those hundreds of people that I have drawn for years and years, might come to my little caricature shop/cafe (which is only 20 blocks away from the Fringe) to continue to get their yearly caricatures drawn.
(my "mocked up" sign that will finally go on the outside of my shop.)