This year had so many ups and downs. Began nicely and took a big dive until the beginning of the summer. I picked myself up, sorted out my priorities, and life has been wonderful since. Some highlights from 2013 were:
• This semester that had just finished was fantastic and hard as hell. I learned so much.
• I opened myself up to new things: food, music, art methods, etc. I said no a lot less, and in result had fun.
• In the world of friendships, my school friends and I have really became a tight knit group. We're all in the same boat and we all understand each other. We support each other, and I have so much to thank them for. They're keepers.
• I've been trying to begin some kind of career in illustration/the art world, and although it's been a tough one, I've been feeling more and more confident as each day passes and I've been making things happen. I set up a portfolio website, I made a physical portfolio book, I created my own business cards, I've contacted companies to get myself out there for potential freelance jobs. At this point I'm determined and I won't let anything stop me.
• Aside from my potential growing illustration career, at the end of the semester I began an internship at a screen printing company in NYC.

My determination is growing more and more everyday, and with 2013 ending I have so many plans for myself in 2014.
The beginning of 2014 is already booked to be fantastic because I will be visiting Portland for a week!

My goals for 2014:
• Continue with illustration and get as many freelance jobs as possible.
• Work as much as I can and save money.
• Graduate in May!
• Move to Portland in July.
• Create & sell more things for my Etsy store.
• This will be the tough one, but I'd like to get a book deal; I have so much brewing in my head that I'd love to get into a book. An art book, that is. I ain't no writer.
• Grow collections. I have so many art books that I invested in this year and I'd like to see that expand. I'd also like to begin vinyl collection. I got a record player for Christmas which I'm super excited about.
• Mainly, I just wanted to make life happen and be happy, in Portland. Life goal.

I want to make 2014 the year to make things happen. That's my main goal. To make things happen. Here's to a wonderful new year!

MARIAKAY.COM is an official thing!

I bought website space on Go Daddy a few months ago. Took my time getting it up; made like five different layouts before I finally found one I was happy with. Condensed sections, added more pictures, changed the sidebar - so much construction.

Anywho, it's finally my official art portfolio website. Still have plans of adding more of my work within the next few weeks, but it's at a point where it doesn't look empty and that makes me happy.

I also took initiative to start up a new Tumblr filled with my work and crafty things and whatnot. I have another Tumblr in which I use to reblog photos I like. It's more of a inspiration blog (it's come to use SO many times when I needed a push for projects). I wanted to create a Tumblr where I don't reblog and all photos are mine. The only reblogs are music posts and that's it. It's still super fresh, but don't be afraid to follow me!

I was excited to share a major step for me. It's a little nerve-wracking to make a site dedicated to you, but portfolio websites are a thing; they're a thing to help you get noticed and get assigned work. I'm excited for what's to come now that I have my site up and running! Making strides.

Hope you all had a great holiday season! The new year is right around the corner, how exciting!

Every day that passes, the more I feel the need to build a professional name for myself. I wanted to make business cards for myself, so I went down the cheap route. I figured it's not so bad to make my own with the intention of getting professionally printed cards down the road.

I figured the first place to start was with card stock. I visited my local office supply store and bought some. Next, I measured and cut my cards 2 X 3.5 inches.
Afterwards I thought of a simple design and went with it.

I wanted to make my cards look like tags, so I made a little stencil for cut out corners and a cut out circle. I placed the stencil over my cards and colored them in with markers. I picked three colors to add some variety.

After coming up with my logo a little while back, I figured it'd be nice to carry that through to my cards. My friend gave me the idea of carving out little stamps in erasers, so I carved my logo into two separate erasers.

I found my black ink pad and stamped each card with both of my stamps.

When I was through with the front, I found my favorite alphabet stamps and stamped my information on the back. Took quite a while, but I got it done eventually.

Just when I thought I was all done, I decided to add some finishing touches of orange zigzags, which feels like it completes the cards.

I do like how they came out, but I would really like to buy a bulk of professionally printed cards. I have the design all ready to go, but I may have to put those on hold for now. Can't wait to get them printed though!

As the semester is coming to an end, I'll finally get around to posting all things I've been meaning to post for a while. Here is one.

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I bought this denim jacket in early fall. Everyone has had a denim jacket or two in their lives - it really is a style that never dies. When it does die, it always comes back; we can't escape the jean jacket.

There are so many ways to style a jacket to make it your own: studs, rhinestones, patches, graphics, and the list goes on and on.
I wanted to decorate the back of my new jacket. I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I just grabbed a bunch of fabric with all intentions of winging it.

All of a sudden, inspiration hit. I found the fabric I needed, and went along my merry way.

I started sewing minty green patches of fabric on the back to fill up the space as the background. There were two different minty greens, similar in hue, but I didn't care. I liked that random feeling.

I wanted to make somewhat of a 'Japanese rising sun', so I used red fabric with a floral print. I used thin strips of the same fabric for the rays.

To finish up and make it look somewhat complete, I sewed a lace strip on one side. It needed some kind of awkward but a working balance.

And there we go. A fun spiced up denim jacket. If yours is naked, dress it up! Make it fun; make it your own. Do it up.

This week has been quite a busy one. Busy, but fun. With a touch of stressful... I think it's safe to say that I experienced all of the feelings this week.

01. The beginning of the week I decided to make my own business cards (which I plan on discussing in a future post). Had all supplies ready to go, so I went forth and created a small batch while watching the new American Horror Story.

02. My friend, whom I haven't seen in ages, asked me and a few of my classmates to participate in this fundraiser she was a part of. Artworks Foundation put together a live art event to raise money for sick children and young adults. Aside from the artists creating art during the event, there was music, caricatures, a photo booth, cupcakes, and an open bar. It was a fun night and I'm glad to have been a part of it.

03. I took a shot of my friend drawing a couple at her caricature station. I was supposed to be one of the caricature artists but being that they only needed two caricature artists, I gave up my spot for my friend to take part of the event. I assisted a bit at the photo booth station for the night.

04. This entire weekend I dedicated to two projects. This is one.

05. This is the other. Both projects are due this week coming, right before Thanksgiving, hence being the stressful part of my week. I'm on a roll and have accomplished a lot this weekend. But I'm just ready for a break. I'll be able to breathe when these projects are done and over with.
Thanksgiving is around the corner and I'm very much looking forward to enjoying the holiday with my family and relaxing a bit!
I'm just happy this week is done, even though more stress is to come. Bring it on, I say.

Years and years ago I went through a hardcore decoupage phase. When I bought my first bottle of Mod Podge, I wanted to decoupage EVERYTHING. My headboard was one victim.

I ripped up newspapers (my parents had thrown out Greek newspapers, in which I took out of the recycling bin and used; the majority of that newspaper is on my headboard mixed in with other newspaper scraps. It took a while to cover the whole surface but it eventually got done.

It felt empty with just the newspaper, so I searched through lyrics of my favorite bands I was listening to a lot at that time and tried to find a lyric relating to dreaming/sleeping. I settled on a quote from The Birthday Massacre's song The Dream.

'Her fabulous invention, what strange imagination shown. Her glorious intentions, a sea of doubt beneath her own. It said "you're not the first to dream this, little girl. You know it's never happened once in this world. It never crossed my mind that one so young could hope to find a power greater than my own".
She never did what they told her to and they'll never see her dream come true.'

Being one of my favorite songs from them, I felt it was appropriate and just worked out perfect.
I cut out a bunch of letters from magazines and decoupaged them on. For finishing touches, I added some patterned scraps around the corners and other spots here and there.

Find some Mod Podge, or any type of glue, collect magazine scraps, and go decoupage something! Believe me, it's lots of fun and addicting. My friends can attest to that!

It's been over a year since I did a proper 'SS' post, but it's never too late to get back on track!
Here are some highlights from my week.

01. I found some spare time to experiment with new fun crafts. I plan on making collar necklaces for my shop. This is the second one I'm currently in the middle of, and they're actually coming out kinda cool! I'm excited to make a bunch more. Accessories are fun to make, for sure.

02. My friends and I took a lunch trip down to the Trailer Park Lounge in Chelsea. It's so damn kitschy; for the longest time I avoided it because there's a toilet in the front of the restaurant! But my friends wanted to go, so I gave it a chance. The burgers were SO. GOOD.

03. My professor surprised us with a field trip on Thursday. We visited the Society Of Illustrators. Every so often, we'll go on a field trip there for whichever gallery showing is relevant to what we're up to in our classes. The show they currently have features original artwork for children's books. Some illustrations are absolutely amazing. This floor is my favorite; it is SO red, and features artwork from Paul Pope, a comic book artist.

04. With the semester slowly coming to an end, I've been knees deep into final projects. I've been trying to work every chance I get, and here's one project I've just started this week. I'm building a miniature set of a room, which I'll post about when it's all finished. I'm really excited to finish this up, mostly because I just want to be done with it. But it is a fun and different project I got myself mixed up in. It's nice to have variety every so often.

05. To end the week, I attended a roller derby game with friends, the last of the season. I'm happy I was finally able to attend a game before this season ended. I didn't realize this was the last game, so I got lucky! Our home team won, woo!

To end the post, here's a Warpaint video. I'm addicted.

Can't believe it's been two years now that I've had this blog, boy does time fly for sure!

No need to make this a long post, but I just want to express appreciation to visitors, and I'm excited for what the future will bring as I will continue to document life and what comes with it. This year alone I think I've accomplished a lot, especially a certain mindset [as much as this year had plenty of downs, I still rose above with the help of family, friends, and the oh so many goals I have to keep my mind and myself busy and productive].

I've made technology advances, bought website space to make a portfolio website [which I'll post about when I'm done and happy with it!], participated in fun events and projects, and have created so many goals and more fun projects to come. I'm content with the direction I'm heading in and thinking about everything that will come makes me super motivated and ecstatic to continue on and make all of my dreams come true [as cheesy as it sounds]!
So many smiles!

For those who don't know, I attend FIT (The Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC) for Illustration. Earlier this week, we Illustration students participated in a cool event that a professor of ours created. He's a new faculty member and he's doing so much for us and our program, which all us students are super appreciative for.

For a few weeks now, we senior class have been planning designs to do chalk art on the panels outside of our school to promote Homecoming as well as our Illustration program.

I'll be honest, I was dreading it. I hate people watching me as I do my thing, but when the day rolled around, it was actually exciting. Our school security roped off the area so students could work without being too distracted by passerbys.
As the day progressed, we all made headway and our nervous and anxious feelings disappeared.

It was interesting to see the kind of folk that passed by while we were working for 8+ hours outside on a busy street. We had plenty of people ask about the event, the chalk and materials, and directions from tourists. There were some creepy moments, and other hilarious ones.

We got dirty, extremely dirty, but it was all worth it. Working out in the cold for so many hours did us good by placing us in a situation we never thought we'd be in and enjoy so much in the end. I actually kind of miss that feeling of working out in the open and conversing with people who stopped to observe and compliment us all.

Aside from those passerbys, I was interviewed twice (which I embedded at the bottom of the post).

Overall, it was a great experience and great exposure on everyone's part. I can't wait to participate in future events that will be as much fun as this.

Here's that video I mentioned. I was interviewed by a Chinese station, I wish I took down their information, or at least understood the language to figure out what they're saying!

You can find more photos in Instagram and Facebook under the hashtag #ChalkFIT. Everyone did such a wonderful job!

First of all, how is the new layout? I've been wanting to change it for some time. I missed the simple post layout with a constant reading flow; got a little tired of seeing the thumbnail to 'read more'. Took me some time to find a new layout and jazz it up. But I think I finally got it.

Anywho, my first project for one of my classes this semester was to create an image that represents "adventure". I wanted to do a space scene. I sketched out a couple of ideas and thought to do my version of a "Trip To The Moon" - two friends taking a trip to the moon to celebrate a birthday.

I inked out the earth which I used mosaics as inspiration.

I colored it in - watercolor and colored pencil.

I decided to do it on wood. I painted it black with chalkboard paint. I glued the earth down and then created my rocket ship and moon, and splatter painted the galaxy bit.

The majority of the subjects were watercolor and colored pencil. I made it a super duper mixed media piece; I incorporated thread to represent the fire coming out of the rocket, and thread and magazine scraps to create the flag decoration wrapping around the moon.

My professor showed us the Georges Méliès film last semester and I guess it just stuck with me. Here's the colored and rescored version featuring Air in the soundtrack.

01. Sony Cyber-shot RX100 - I've been dying for a new camera. I was interested in investing in a DSLR, but I'm a simple person with simple needs; I basically like point & shoots. A friend told me about this amazing camera, and after seeing photos other people have taken, and even testing it out in person, I've concluded this is the camera for me. Maybe someday soon I'll think about going for it.
02. Malachite Spec Laptop Case - Speaking of investments, I mentioned I got a Macbook, right? Being that it's brand new and pretty damn costly, I obviously want to take good care of it. Can I has forest green case, please?
03. Kuzy Keyboard Cover - On the topic of jazzing up but protecting my computer, I think this light pink keyboard cover will look nice with the green case.
04. Dirty Laundry Ratatat Boots - I came across these clear faux-Docs boots that I think would be so much fun to wear. I adore fun socks and these boots would show them off for sure. And they seem effective for winter and rain.
05. Mermaid Shampoo & Conditioner - Browsing through other blogs, I've read a few reviews for this shampoo and conditioner and I've concluded that I'd LOVE to smell like a mermaid! I have an idea of what a mermaid's scent it (no, not fish) and I've read that the scent is what you'd imagine to be. I want to give this a try for sure.

And to cover my music of the moment, Keep Shelly In Athens released amazing new music last month. This is their recent music video. Amazing, amazing.

I created my first packaging label design! (Which is not a real label that you'd be able to find in stores, just make note.)
The assignment we just finished for our general illustration class was so scattered. Every student assigned another student a project; everyone got to play the role as the art director and illustrator. I was assigned to do a label design for a product that was picked for me.

The sizing and specifications were included: the only two colors were this minty green and white (with variations of grey), two hands holding garlic on a rope creating somewhat of a symmetrical piece, and a decorative border around the product name.

A jar top was also part of my assignment, including garlic and more decorative elements with the same color scheme.
All of it done in handy dandy Photoshop.

I went the extra step to print out the label true to size and glued in on a container.

After coming home from the critique, I didn't know what to do with the container, so I put all my sewing pins and whatnot in there. All fits perfectly. I'm just happy I'm putting it to constructive use.

And as I finished typing this all up, I experienced a serious case of déjà vu. Seriously such a strange phenomenon.

Aaaand, I'm back. I've been absent for a little over a month mainly because this semester has been so time consuming. Aside from school projects, I've had a lot of projects and such that I've been working on in my spare time, which I definitely will talk about in future postings. And in between all of that, I have become a proud owner of a Macbook Pro! I think I've mentioned in other posts that I've had such desktop issues this year. I finally gave it up, moved on, and invested in a Macbook that I plan on using as my one and only computer. So far, no complaints at all!

So with all that being said, I should be getting back on track with posting regularly, and maybe even finally getting back into my weekly posts that I have so badly neglected in 2013.

To the topic of this post, the past two months have been birthday central for friends and family, and I wanted to share a little gift I put together for a friend of mine.

Long story short, we're taking a book illustration class this semester. Aside from the fact that she adores llamas, the story she wrote is about a llama who loses his stripes. I thought it'd be cute to make a striped llama on her shirt in connection to her story.
His name is Jake.

I added a pink llama friend to match the stripes and mint colored shirt.

I sewed on buttons for eyes, and embroidered a nose and mouth, while swapping fabrics for their ears.

And there you go, a llama shirt.