The Artisan Group is proud to announce today’s Artist Spotlight Feature is Ilene Price of Ilene Price Designs!
ILENE PRICE DESIGN
I create and design mandalas using watercolor and ink. I started drawing them a few years ago and what started as “personal, meditative, organic doodling” has blossomed into a business. For those that may not know what mandalas are, they are circular patterns and images that can be found in cultures all over the world and have been around for centuries. They appear in nature, astronomy, art, architecture and gardens, are used in healing practices and represent things like wholeness, unity and harmony.
I am inspired by nature and everything that surrounds me. My designs are colorful and funky with an organic feel and each one is paired with an inspirational tagline such as “Be Soulful”, “Be Magical”, “Be Amazing” etc. This form of expression is a perfect union between my structured graphic design background and my inner artist.
After I finish a watercolor it scanned into my computer, which allows me to hand-make a variety of gift items such as notecards, matted prints, t-shirts, jewelry and more. Over the past year I have sold my products at different art and craft venues and through word of mouth. In fact, The Artisan Group found me at an art show!
As much as I enjoy hand making all of the gift items, my goal is to eventually license out my work, maybe for a line of home goods, tote bags, fabric textiles, paper goods, yoga clothing etc. That way I can keep creating new designs and do less production work. I have so many ideas and just not enough time to make them!
What is your favorite product from your shoppe and why?
It’s hard to say what my favorite product is. I like my prints and notecards because they show the whole mandala with its inspirational saying. But I also love taking tiny magnified sections of them and creating jewelry and magnets.
I can definitely say that my favorite design is “Be Yourself”. I use that one as my branding logo. It was the first one I ever created and when I finished it, I knew this was what I wanted to do. I was trying to find my creative voice for a long time. I was finally “being myself” and letting go and I immediately began drawing more.
I love photography, I always have. I am forever snapping pictures everywhere I go, recording what I see or whatever inspires me at the time. Objects and landscapes are color, texture, shape and line. A pile of garbage or a crack in the sidewalk cropped in a funky way can be as beautiful to me as a sunset.
I also love rearranging furniture, decorating and scouring craft fairs, flea markets and garage sales for great finds. I still love typography and do some graphic design for family and friends. You can take the girl out of the design studio, but you can’t take the design out of the girl! (Thank you University of the Arts!) I am always jotting down ideas for all kinds of new creative endeavors. I have a plaque hanging on my wall that says, “Do something everyday that makes you happy.” I try to be creative in some small way everyday.
But by far, my biggest love and “hobby” when I’m not making art is my family, my husband and two children, eleven and sixteen. They keep me very, very busy.
What do you like best about The Artisan Group?
Community. I feel that I am a part of an incredible group of talented artisans who don’t hesitate to share ideas and support each other. Everyone is real and sincere. I know it’s been said before in other artist spotlights, but it’s true… there is no competitive feeling amongst us, at least not that I feel. It doesn’t matter that one member may make the same type of item as another member. We all have our own creative spirit and voice and we wish only the best for each other. It’s really wonderful. I’m thrilled to be part of this group and to have this opportunity to get my work in the hands of celebrities. It’s all kind of surreal!
