akela surf swimwear

I couldn't be more excited! I just received the first prototype bikini top from my Akela Surf Flamingo print collection! I had the pleasure of taking it for a spin on my last surf trip to Southern California! Many thanks to the awesome Akela Surf family!

Ali Kurzeja wearing the Marilyn top from her Akela Surf Flamingo collection after a surf in Cardiff.

Akela Surf Ali Kurzeja collection "Marilyn" top.

Checking out the waves at Ocean Beach.

Ali Kurzeja's Akela Surf Flamingo print

A peek from the Akela Surf catalog!

Akela Surf website artist page

Mere-Made surf shaper sporting the Society Short in my pattern collection.

floral textile painting workshop

I had the pleasure of traveling to Brooklyn, NY to take a floral painting workshop with lovely and talented artist Helen Dealtry! The class worked on experimenting with different ink painting techniques. It was fun to loosen up and paint intuitively, without laying in my pencil drawing first. My favorite piece of advice Helen offered was, "If you make a mistake just keep going! The more you try to to fix it the more attention will be drawn to it!" Below are some photos from the workshop.

Helen's beautiful ink and gouache paintings.

Helen's class demo.

Our pretty studio space with fresh flowers and mimosas!

My ink painting in process.

Close up of one of my ink paintings from the workshop.

american greetings

One of the best parts of being an illustrator is getting to play around with different styles and techniques and explore all of the different sides of my personality as an artist. Here is a little hot sheet of some of my favorite designs I have created and conceptualized for American Greetings.

 All images are copy righted by American Greetings.

1st place minted winner!

I have some very exciting news to share! I received first place in the Minted For Art's Sake Design Challenge! Below my piece is pictured along with the other top contestants. Congratulations to all of the participating artists and thank you to everyone who rated my piece!