What’s your business name and what do you do?
Bug-Eyed Co. I create "good-natured" crafting kits and art. I also run Fete Market and Events hosting makers markets all over Portland and Biddeford, cultivating creative community, and empowering entrepreneurs through resources and classes. I also have a small passion project creating funky acrylic jewelry through my biz Sour Flower!
How did you learn your craft?
Creativity runs deep in my family. I grew up around strong women creating everything from my halloween costumes, socks, large scale abstract paintings, dance, ceramics, and more. I love to create with a variety of media from paint to fibers to ceramics. I started with primarily Illustration, participating in numerous college programs and practicing endlessly. Now I follow wherever my interests lead me and learn mostly through a process of trial, error, and repetition.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
I love the process of idea conception to a finished product. I create Embroidery Kits and Felting Kits from scratch, coming up with the design, pattern, and guide booklets for each one. For ceramics I love that I can create products with utility and art. Extra points for sneaking in a pun or quirky bit of humor like my ceramic "fish dishes."
What do you enjoy least?
Paperwork, math, spreadsheets...I know what I am good at and these things are not it.
What’s one thing you wish people knew about your work?
Because I create in such a large variety of media people often assume that maybe I am not the only one making it...but nope! It's all me! I love bridging the gaps of art, product, media, and business. I think some people believe that true "art" can not be business, and I think creative careers are what make this world beautiful and interesting.
What’s one artist you look up to?
Lorien Stern is one of my biggest inspirations in art and business. She has created a whole world populated with a variety of products that range in media and use. Everything she makes is instantly identifiable as her own, yet she freely experiments and creates.
What do you do when you’re not making art?
Probably making more art. Or dreaming of business ideas. Or gardening with my puppy digging in the dirt next to me while I worry about whether my flower seedlings are going to make it.
Night owl or early bird?
Neither...I have one mode: awake and busy or asleep. Although Early Bird because I am obsessed with coffee.
What's your favorite place in Maine?
I love the Mount Battie hike in Camden, Maine. Smalls here in Portland. And Mill Pond Ceramics, where I do all of my ceramic work in Biddeford!