On Thursday I attended the opening celebration of a store built by Mercy (for whom I previously did some illustrations for a t-shirt line). It’s perfectly located between Clafouti and White Squirrel on Queen West, right across from Trinity Bellwoods.

I’m so excited their line will be available in Toronto again, and the other brands they carry are also terribly impressive, including Italian jewellery designers Iosselliani (I’m a huge fan), Les Prairies de Paris, La Botte Gardiane, and Ascher London – a scarf in the shop inspired my little sketch up top. It was a great night: seeing familiar faces and meeting new, very stylish, people. Congratulations to Jennifer and Richard on their new shop!

For the month of August, I’ve had two fashion illustrations up on the walls of Club Monaco on Queen St West. This is the last weekend they will be up, so if you’re in the neighbourhood, stop in for a look!

Carolanne’s banner is up! This summer I designed a logo and a banner for her quiltmaking business. It was a great project and experience, as we were both on the same page from the beginning with respect to the concept and design. We decided on an abstract acorn motif for a number of reasons like, not wanting to be too literal, and creating an image that is versatile and maintains a flexibility in terms of usage.

Carolanne is a lovely and talented quiltmaker. Impressively she does everything the old-fashioned way, by hand. I learned to piece and quilt by hand from her and her enthusiasm for the craft is infectious! She teaches quilting at the workroom, and if you’d like to see some of her work, you can check out her blog here.

Post Toronto Fashion Week this Spring, Yorkville hosted a Fashion Week of it’s own, put on by the Italian Trade Commission along with Fashion Television. The week was highlighted by a fashion show dance performance at the Glass Factory in Liberty Village.

I was asked by the Yorkville News to create an illustration for their site in celebration of the event. After visiting Via Cavour, I decided to work with the idea of accessories, and the made in Italy stamp you see on the soles of some great shoes. So, the blue men’s shoe is one of my favorites at the shop, and the women’s shoes are Valentino studded ankle-wrap pumps from this season (which I have yet to come across in person). Though I do LOVE LOVE LOVE them. What a fun drawing to do!

This afternoon, over coffee, I had a lovely meeting about an exciting new illustration project. Coffee meetings are the best.

PS my new umbrella reveals a cherry blossom pattern when wet (thanks L!)
Click here to see a close up of the action!

An interview I did with Hardly magazine was posted on their website today. I’ve done two interviews recently and it’s a new experience – normally I’m reading interviews of other artists or I’m the one asking the questions.  Check out the Q&A here!

In the spring, my friend Sonya encouraged me to submit an illustration to 3×3 magazine’s seventh annual professional show. Here it appears in the new annual.

Today’s Metro Globe and Mail should contain a supplement featuring this new illustration I created for Paws for the Cause, a dog fashion show and cocktail party benefiting the SPCA. Pick up a copy and find out how you can support!

This  week I did  a drawing of Leith Clark for her Style Notebook interview. She is the founder Lula magazine, a superstar stylist (um, Chanel?) and overall seems way cool. Read the interview here!

This week I picked up some sample t-shirts from Mercy (one of my favorite Toronto labels!)

Jennifer Halchuk and Richard Lyle, the label’s designers, produce a t-shirt line exclusively for a shop in Japan, and I created these pen and ink illustrations for their current collection. After providing them with the illustrations, they added pieces of Liberty in fun shapes and along the neckline of the shirts, and then had the illustrations silkscreened on top. (You can click each image to view it larger)

I have to say it was really a dream project for me. Working with people whose work you completely admire, and working by hand, is all so gratifying.

The t-shirts are available at Usagi Pour Toi in Japan.