tis the season for wonder and splendor and beautiful tables and warm meals and blues and greens and reds and silver and gold all around. here’s wishing you and yours a beautiful start to a love-filled holiday season. cheers!
Category: autumn
holiday! holiday! gifts! gifts!
i’m thinking about holiday season much differently this year. yes, for the past few seasons, i’ve tried hard as i could to buy local, handmade, artist-created wares, goods, artwork. i’ve even tried making things for loved ones. this year, i’m going to focus on simple. very simple. well-chosen words, photographs, pictures, drawings, paper. ordinary things made more beautiful by a new, vibrant approach. maybe an intriguing postcard acutely placed in a gorgeous frame. or a set of vintage silverware with the handles dipped in paint.
along these same lines, in the etsy shop, i’m currently offering simple, hand-lettered quotes on 8×10 paper. whatever quote, saying, words you can think of will be transposed in my calligraphy and sent to you, ready to be gifted, (or framed, and then gifted. or wrapped around something else, and then gifted. or kept for yourself). i figured this was a lovely, cost-effective way to gift my love of lettering to holiday celebrants everywhere.
it’s early, yes, but think how much more you’ll be able to enjoy your egg nog and ugly sweater parties knowing your holiday shopping is all done (and looking pretty beautiful, if i say so)? cheers!
– find the listing for custom hand lettered quotes here!
francis ha says it pretty beautifully
i met the most wonderful man at an art opening this friday last year. and since then, i’ve been experiencing this moment over and over and over again. from a very quirky movie about a very quirky lady, this quote says it all.
words and anchors – tattoo design
drawing and designing tattoos for people near and far has been such a cool and strange and unexpected part of my career. i love love getting to know a little bit (or a lotta bit) about people that i otherwise wouldn’t have met had it not been for the great reach of the internet. even more, however, i love being able to create something meaningful for someone i’ve had the great pleasure of spending some person-to-person time with. it might be faux pas to do work for friends and family, but in my case, having the ability to work with care on something as intimate as a tattoo design has only ever been a joy. it allows me another opening into this person’s life – a perspective i might not have been afforded the opportunity to view. if i could, i’d draw all over my friends and family members’ arms/legs/backs/necks/etc!
this one is for a special and incredible bostonian – marisa, i can’t wait to see how it turns out!
autumn! autumn!!!
it’s my oh-so-favorite-favorite-favorite time of year, and chicago’s delivering some amazingly gorgeous weather for the occasion. and while it’s not quite so picturesque as a new england autumn, the moments of red and amber colored trees, crinkling leaves underfoot, pumpkin pastries and scarf-clad bike rides have filled me with such elation, that all the work i’ve been scoring has made this season all the sweeter. stay on the lookout for some exciting new editorial work involving an upcoming YA book series, a few new tattoo designs, magazine back cover lettering, and these brand new thank you cards, now available in the shop!
although there are still challenges, and moments of unsettledness, and a future that sometimes seems impossibly far away, the optimistic side always wins out. and then the work gets better, and more abundant. thank you for following along!
flip the page – new editorial work
the best part about being a freelancer/small business owner of a creative studio is flexibility in the kind of work i can take on. you’d be surprised, and then actually not surprised at all, at how many venues there can be for hand-lettered text. With tattoo design and wedding envelopes under my belt, not to mention a few wall design branding gigs and some fine art commissions, it’s been incredibly fun and exciting to dream up and wonder at where the next piece of work will come from.
imagine how thrilled i was, then, to receive a call from lourdes paredes, the publisher of a brand spanking new chicago-based yoga magazine. she’d seen my work on the michigan ave lululemon chalkboards, and thought i’d be a good fit for some editorial artwork in the premier issue of illumine. of course of course! not only have i taken her class at exhale spa, but sitting down and chatting with her about the yoga community, bringing people together from all over the city, cross-promoting different businesses, i was instantly inspired and wanted to be a part of something that seemed to speak to a lot of my own personal beliefs. add to that her general inquisitive and authentic demeanor, and the connection was unmistakeable.
for the premier issue, i was asked to design the inside back cover, as a sort of ‘inspiration page’. readers can tear it out, put it on their walls, share it with other people, etc. after having painted a chalkboard wall in my shared studio space at both sides gallery, i knew it needed to be put to good use for this venue. i was also asked if i might take a stab at writing some sanskrit for one of the internal articles. i won’t lie, i was a bit nervous about putting my hand to work on such an ancient and intricate language. it took a lot of practice, and a different approach to the written word as more symbol-focused, rather than letter, or meaning-focused, but after a short while, i got the hang of it. the lovely illumine intern, ashley, even came by the gallery to photograph the work and do a mini interview with me about jilly ink, and my apparent obsession with handwriting.
i’m currently working on the next issue, set to launch this winter, and i’m even more excited for the design in this one. whether or not you’re currently a chicagoan, i’d greatly recommend subscribing to this gorgeous magazine. whether you’re a devout yogi, or someone who’s active in other ways, it’s an incredible resource for living a more fulfilled life and taking advantage of some of the yogic principles in less obvious ways. seriously, read it. or at least go over to illuminechicago.com and scope it out first. (and check out my very own page!)
here’s to more, and different, and crazy, and cool, and interesting work ahead!
new! art work available on etsy
i’ve been receiving a lot of lovely feedback on the newest september show up at both sides gallery in pilsen, chicago. and an overwhelming amount of questions on how to purchase the work, if it’s for sale, where can it be shipped to, etc etc etc.
so! with great aplomb and excitement, i’m proud to announce that all the framed typographical illustrations currently on view at the gallery are also available for purchase through the jilly ink etsy shop. browse away, but remember- these are one-of-a-kind pieces of work, so be quick to the draw if you want one for yourself!
have a lovely and gorgeous and wonderful september autumn day!
the september issue
it may not involve 900 pages of glossy advertisements, and annie leibovitz-esque couture photographs of kiera knightly or cate blanchett, but the september issue (read: show) of artwork at both sides gallery in pilsen, chicago is, in my opinion, pretty spectacular. working in the same space as artist meg frazier has been nothing short of a dream. there are days when we both get nothing done, and spend the day talking about the situation of the artist, how to monitor our finances, what we’d like to be when we grow up, how we pretty much are what we’d like to be when we grow up… and then there are days when the music’s playing (or not, if we forgot to turn it on, and we’re in the zone) and she’s painting and i’m drawing and we’re laying down finished pieces like they’re cookies coming out of the oven. and so, after all that baking.. err, making.. here’s what we recently framed and put up on the walls of both sides gallery, just in time for the september edition of the chicago arts district’s second fridays art walk.
{‘tighter’ | ’10”x12” | $150 w frame }
{‘stronger’ | 8”x10” | $100 w frame }
{‘softer’ | 18.5”x8” | $150 w frame }
{‘smaller’ | 3.5”x4.5” | $25 w frame}
{‘sharper’ | 5”x 6.25” | $50 w frame}
{‘clearer’ | 5.5”x16.5” | $125 w frame}
{‘deeper’ | 19.5”x17” | $200 w frame}
{‘longer’ | 10.5”x16” | $150 w frame}
these lovely pieces are on display at both sides gallery – 1840 s halsted st. chicago, il 60608 – and will also be available for purchase in my shop next week, so send me an inquiry at jilly.ink@gmail.com if you want a stab at them first!
joy and weddings and logos galore
for the past few weeks, i’ve been designing and drawing up a storm here in the (for the meantime) stormless city of chicago. i thought i’d share a few of the most recent projects i’ve finished.
first up, for our recent lululemon athletica store reopening party at the 900 n michigan location, we decided to honor our amazing yoga, run, spin, and dance ambassadors (see the lovley amber cook, rebecca niziol, antonia desantis, mike thomson, karim tonsy, and jim bennit). custom cards housed a very special surprise for them, and i was more than happy to provide the lettering for these inspiring and incredible members of the downtown chicago community.
secondly, a lovely wedding logo for a couple of engaged new yorkers, wilma and theresa. they wanted a design that brought the two of them together with their new shared surname. i think it’ll look lovely on everything they decide to use it on throughout their wedding planning, and thereafter.
and thirdly, the most lovely woman from north carolina contacted me a few weeks ago to design the logo for her wedding photography business. anne liles is incredibly talented, and her style is so indicative of everything i find beautiful about love – the simplicity, the purity, the vibrancy and richness of all the senses. she captures all of that and more, and i was so pleased to be able to design something that represents that, along with her motto, ‘life is art’.
movin on over
hello darling readers! it’s been almost a year now since i got my very first tattoo, and first tattoo design request, and this has prompted a massive revamp in my life and career. i could never have foreseen just how much my life has been shaped by starting down the path of custom calligraphy and illustrative work. it’s always been something i do because i love it, because it’s somewhat natural, because while i’m a writer, sometimes drawing helps me better express what it is i’m trying to share. and now, having jumped down the rabbit hole, i’m so pleasantly surprised and emboldened by the fact that this could all actually lead me somewhere. i’m so grateful for the support and love of friends and family to push me further down the hole, to widen it, deepen it, feel around in all corners and crevices for new or more powerful ways to build upon the strengths i already have. in that vein, i’ve begun to build two separate websites – www.jillianschiavi.com will house all of my personal artistic work, writing, installations, as well as information about my yoga teaching. www.jillyink.tumblr.com will house all things jillyink – from tattoo designs to other freelance calligraphy/illustration work. take a look around both sites; they’re both in progress (especially the tumblr page), but i’m very excited about the possibilities to come from both arenas.
jilly ink 