I'm an artist, surface pattern + fabric designer, author, mama, and online teacher in Portland, OR. I believe in the power of art-making as a tool for radical self-care. I help people feel a little bit brighter and a little bit less alone through the art and products I make, the words I write, and the classes I teach. Come join almost 10k people in my colorful, uplifting world!
Want a FREE 38-page PDF guide all about pattern design?
|
Hi Reader, Happy Tuesday! I hope you're doing well, wherever you are in the world. Right now I'm sitting in my quiet studio, listening to rain falling on the skylights in the roof. My kids and I had a long and busy weekend filled with bike riding (G learned to ride her bike!), board games, sunshine, pulling weeds in the garden, planting tomatoes, marveling at the poppies blooming, going to look at a free piano that we decided we're going to acquire, more bike riding, and lots of time with friends and neighbors. Life is so full and busy these days! I've been teaching my Unleashed class for the past few weeks (we're already half-way through the 6 weeks!), and the twice-weekly live gatherings have been a delightful balm for my soul and a wonderful way for me to get back into more regular art-making. I go through phases where I make a lot of art and then I don't make much for a while as I get immersed in more computer-based work. I'm really happy to be entering a more art-heavy phase right now, and it's feeling so good to paint! Here's one that I created last week: I'm feeling pulled to create these made-up landscapes, so that's feeling kinda fun! We'll see where it takes me. I also have quite a lot of paintings filling the walls of my studio right now, and I'm realizing I need to spend some time photographing them and then having a big painting sale! So stay tuned for that in the coming months. In other news, I also spent a good chunk of time recently creating THIS! The Pattern Design Primer. It's a 38-page guide for anyone who's interested in learning more about pattern design and how to get started. I created a course called Pattern Camp way back in 2014 that was an absolute blast, and then I retired it in 2017 as I was in the throes of early motherhood, BUT I'm bringing Pattern Camp back this summer! Yes! So if you want to learn more about pattern design and see if designing repeating patterns on the computer is something you might like to learn how to do, download the guide! It's totally FREE.
Until next time.... LET'S BE FRIENDS ON IG!
|
Jessica Swift.
I'm an artist, surface pattern + fabric designer, author, mama, and online teacher in Portland, OR. I believe in the power of art-making as a tool for radical self-care. I help people feel a little bit brighter and a little bit less alone through the art and products I make, the words I write, and the classes I teach. Come join almost 10k people in my colorful, uplifting world!
Hi Reader! I hope you're having a wonderful week. I'm enjoying a quiet Thanksgiving week at home this year with my kiddos instead of traveling to see family like we often do (well, more like a "quiet" week – I hear C and G bickering about something in the background right now, which is pretty standard), and it's funny how things work out so perfectly sometimes... We loosely planned to go to California for Thanksgiving and then decided to go in December instead. Then we made plans for a...
Hi Reader! The refrain-on-repeat in my house right now is "I'm sooooo excited for Christmas!". I wonder how many times I'll hear that between now and Christmas morning? 1,000? A million? Infinite? I still remember that feeling so well from when I was a kid – the bouncy, tangible anticipation so huge I could barely stand it. Waking up in the middle of the night on Christmas to sneak into the living room to stare at the presents under the tree in awe. Removing one torturous ring each day from...
Hi Reader, What a day here in the United States. I took myself for a long walk earlier today to absorb the news and to wrap my mind around the huge changes coming our way that will impact us in the months and years to come, both here in the USA and around the world. Wherever we each fall on the political spectrum, we're ALL on the human spectrum, and I think most of us can probably agree that there's a lot of darkness in the world right now. A lot of division in this country, and a lot of...