REDHOT

Girl who loves to dream,

Lives her life to the extreme,
With adrenaline....

Girl who longs to explore,
With the fruit down to the core,
Because she wanted more,
Yes she wanted more....

If you're gonna crash and burn,
Be prepared to take your turn,
In the game of up & down,
Yeah up & down...

(Scent - Up & Down Lyrics)

Hello My Lovelies!!!!

Hope you're soaking up this REDHOT summer to the maximum. Just wanted to blog a quick post before heading to sleep. Too many new, fun, and exciting things happening at the moment to even begin formulating sentences right now. Instead I present you with this Dolce & Gabbana SS12 earring inspired piece. Can't get enough of their almost edible collection. And speaking of jewelry, shout-out to my talented blogger friend/follower Cindy Moniz and her beautiful Etsy Shop. Check her work out for super cute summer finds.

Can't wait to update you all with my new adventures. G night until then.

Much love,
Meag xx

I scream, you scream...

My iPhone Case Designs

New Popsicle Party Print

SHOP - My Society6 Boutique

we all scream for...iPhone cases!! Well, probably not, but I certainly had a blast putting these designs together for my Society6 Shop.

Oh my darlings, I'm ashamed it has once again taken me a decade to post something new on my beloved blog. But, as I'm sure you know, so much has (and continues) to go on behind the scenes. I don't want to disclose anything just yet, but I will say that after three very lonnnggg years of working my a$$ off in New York, things are finally starting to payoff. I'm having one of the most exciting and rewarding summers yet. There are still a few hoops to jump through to get to my next move but at least I'm having an absolute blast in NYC along the way.

So apart from promoting my new iPhone case designs I also wanted to propose just how important it is to never stop believing in yourself. Having hope and perseverance is 90% of the battle. Odds are, if you don't stop trying, something is eventually going to click ;)!! Wishing you all a beautiful sun-kissed week!!

Much love,
Meag xx

Food & Fashion

Karlie Kloss in Dolce & Gabbana - VOGUE Korea

Hello Hello Hello!!!!

My goodness it has been such a long time since I've been on my little blog. How have you all been? I'm not going to lie, apart from being crazy busy with work, I've definitely been soaking up my fav city during its greatest season. Last weekend alone I managed my way through four NY exhibitions: The Met's Schiaparelli and Prada - Impossible Conversations, James Franco's film launch at the New Museum, Cindy Sherman at the MoMA, and Chanel's Little Black Jacket in Soho. Alas, I couldn't get this post up sooner with all my gallery scouring and such.

Anyway, I'm super excited to be posting today's illustration since it was inspired by my beautiful brainiac bestie Emma Kadar-Penner and her thesis topic Food Motifs in Fashion and Textile Design. Miss K.P. just recently returned from a conference in Atlanta where she presented her genius thesis. From the second I caught a glimpse of her exhibit booth, I knew I found inspiration for my next blog post. Suddenly my desire to paint something from Dolce & Gabbana's SS12 collection fit within a food and fashion historical context.

Emma's abstract details:

"Louis XIV understood the economic possibilities of both fashion and food, capitalizing on these industries to synonymize France with luxury. By the end of the seventeenth-century, concepts of haute cuisine and haute couture came to define France's identity as an international arbiter of taste...the oddness of this pairing is why designers have chosen to incorporate food motifs into their designs - the surreal absurdity, playful humor, and unlikely juxtaposition create appealing and commercial fashion moments."

For those of you who have followed my blog for a while, you might remember my posts Living Laduree or Macaron Marie where I advocated that food and fashion are not separate but the same in a life of style. I think Emma does an amazing job supporting this argument with countless examples throughout history where designers have used food as their primary source of inspiration. It is clear in Dolce and Gabbana's SS12 collection that they too understand how food can be both luxurious and every bit surreal/humorous when sent down the runway.

If any of you are interested in delving further into the topic of food and fashion, feel free to email Emma at emmakpenner@gmail.com!!

Wishing you all a beautiful week ahead.

Lots of love,

Meag xx

Congrats Mike & Ashleigh!!

(The Bride and Groom on their Wedding Day!!)

Hello Again My Darlings!!

I'm so thrilled to be sharing this incredibly special Wedding Portrait commission with you all. Many months ago my most beautiful, supportive, friend through the ages, Jill Zimmerman asked if I would be interested in painting a portrait of her girlfriend (blushing bride Ashleigh) and now husband as a wedding gift. I was so BEYOND honored that she believed in my work enough to actually commission me for this super special gift. It took only a few simple sketches to settle on the direction and one fully-loaded photo album to kickstart the final piece.

I have to share just how nervous both Jill and I were about this gift lol. It was, after all, a pretty important illustration. But when I received a text from Jill this past Saturday informing me that Ashleigh was brought to tears at the sight of her portrait, I knew that all the stress was worth it. Honestly, I don't think I've ever felt so emotional over a piece of my artwork before, and the greatest reward has to be having been apart of such a special moment in two people's lives. All around tearjerker!!

Congrats to the beautiful, beaming, happy couple Mike & Ashleigh; wishing you all the love, light, and laughter in the world!! And last but not least, thank you to my precious friend Jill for being so much more than I could ever dream of in a friend. I love you always!!

Much much love,

Meag xx

Cook & Gates

Hello Loves,

Happy happy Sunday!! I'm so sorry for my mini blog hiatus. Life has been so busy lately between wrapping up my evening classes, finishing freelance projects, and working at Cook & Gates. Finally this afternoon I had the opportunity to paint just for me and I can't tell you how good it felt!! For those of you who don't know me personally, I started working with an awesome hand dyed bag company Cook & Gates back in February. I've been meaning to share the news with you all because it has honestly been one of the most rewarding jobs I've ever had.

Sara Gates, the owner/designer, is such a killer business woman. I've picked up so much just by watching her simultaneously run her own screen printing studio Kingsland Printing and handbag line. My lifelong dream has always been to be my own brand and sell accessories with my illustrations on them. Working with Sara makes me realize how easily that dream can become reality. She has supported me so much in my own career, mentioning me in her interview with NBC's Thread NY, and even printing a sample of my textile design for the scarves I'm producing this summer.

At work I do anything from creating techpacks for our handbag designs, the most recent being our backpack for summer, meeting with manufacturers and scouring the garment district for fabric and hardware, to making fun graphics for our hangtags, pocket screen prints, blog posts and communicating with vendors for cool promotional sales etc. The best part has to be working alongside Sara's sweetest french bulldog Janice (aka the love of my life). She wants to be in the action always and insists on sitting next to me at my desk in her own chair, too cute!!

My mom has always said that life is about the journey, especially when it comes to your career. I have to admit that for the first time, in what feels like forever, I'm finally enjoying just that.

Much love,

Meag xx

Postcard from Aswan

Aaahh where do I even begin with the beautiful, serene, Aswan?! Located on the southern tip of the Nile Valley, Aswan paints an incredibly majestic backdrop for a 3 day cruise. My travel companions and I boarded an overnight train (boozy, dance-crazed, sleep mobil) from Cairo and arrived in what felt like the heart of the African desert by morning. I will never forget awaking to my saharan desert painting brought to life. With little time to lose, we disembarked the train and bused over to our immaculate cruise ship/home for three days.

Upon arrival we almost immediately hopped aboard a Felucca, traditional Egyptian sailboat, and became intimately engrossed with the Nile. Watching the sunset over the water was so beyond breathtaking. Walking through the markets at night, visiting the sight of Abu Simbel, conversing with my new friends/kindred spirit, made Aswan an absolute dream. Its impression was so profound that even now, when I revisit these photos, I can still feel the heat of the sun on my skin. Thankfully my friend Adam managed to capture some of the experience from afar.

Hope you enjoy my loves!! Still so many photos to come. Oh and check me quite literally "travel, write, drawing" on location at Abu Simbel!! If you can conceive it, you can live it.

Much love,

Meag xx

Rule No. 5: Survive With Your Head Down

Anna Wintour by Alex Katz

My indelibly brilliant friend, Globe and Mail business reporter Tim Kiladze, pointed me towards this week's New York Magazine article titled How to Make it in the Art World. While I'm still making my way through the dense copy, I did latch to a particular quote by one of my favorite artists, Alex Katz. He proposed:

"It's hard for young artists. You're an adult at 18, but for a painter it takes longer. You don't really get it together until 35 or 45. In the 1950s you had seven or eight years to experiment. But now you have to sell your first show and your second show and get a third show. And if you don't, you're a failure."

While he speaks from the fine art perspective, the sentiment holds true for any genre of art. And I can't begin to tell you how much this little piece of insight resonated with me. I lived by rule no. 5 all year, trying to survive with my head down, trying to keep all my doubts at bay, feeling like everyone was ahead of me. Comparing myself to my McGill commerce peers and their 6 figure salaries felt like a full-time career in itself. But what I realize and accept, as I finally raise my head up high, WAY high, is that the only timeline that matters is mine.

It's your life, it's your trajectory, compare yourself to no one, and measure yourself against only you. It's your dream, give it everything, and hope for the best. And now I've had my head up too long and it's time to get back to work, night class looms, and deadlines are ticking away.

See you on the other side!!

Much love,

Meag xx