I did this print in 2001. It was originally a black monotype, but at the request of a friend who liked the design but also loved color, I applied washes of water color to give it its “tropical” feel. Hence the title: Tropical shoes. It hangs proudly in my friend’s apartment.

You may have noticed (or maybe not!) a watermark on many of my pieces of work. And maybe (again, maybe not) you’ve wondered what the heck it is.

First exploration of the Renewal theme

The final entry

J. Jill, a women’s clothing company, each year holds a “Nature of Compassion” contest to design a T-shirt that will be sold to raise money for homeless women. Each year has a different theme. I decided to use the contest to experiment with some of Illustrator’s tools I hadn’t used much: custom brushes and symbol sets and sprayers.

Of course, because the T-shirts were to be screen printed, and the contest rules limited the number of colors allowed, I came up with a second version that I submitted, above right.

My approach was to design a shirt that I’d want to buy and wear. I wanted to avoid anything that seemed too “feminine” or what I call “frou-frou.”