ADVERTISING PORTFOLIO

PRODUCTS

FOOD










KIDS


"Big Shirt Boy" (Target catalog comp)



"Faces" (Target catalog comp)



"Dad & Son Photographers" (Target Catalog Cover Comp)



"Dad & Son" (Target Catalog Cover Comp)



"Fishing" (fabric design)


"Transformer Boy" (Target catalog comp)



"Girl with Doll" (Target catalog comp)



"Girl with Dolls" (Target catalog comp)



"Girl with Tray" (Target catalog comp)



"Boy on a Swing" (storyboard frame)



"Vanity" (fabric design)



"Girls with Balloons"



"Girly Girl"



"Shy Girl"



"Backyard Readers"




"New Boots" (Target catalog comp)



"New Clothes" (Target catalog comp)



"Santa Girls" (Target catalog comp)



"Boy with Laptop" (Target catalog comp)



"Kids on a Sofa" (Target catalog comp)


 
  HOLIDAY

Holiday Wreath

Wreath on Door

Hot Chocolate

 


"Christmas Tree" (Target catalog comp)


"Tree and Toys" (Target catalog comp)



"Thomas O'Brien" (Target catalog comp)

"Reidel" (Target catalog comp)


"Wine Glasses" (Target catalog comp)



"Brush Set" (Target catalog comp)



"Gifts Spread" (Target catalog comp)



"Gift Boxes" (Target catalog comp)



"Checking my List" (Target catalog comp)



"Purse" (Target catalog comp)



"Sweater Girl 1" (Target catalog comp)



"Sweater Girl 2" (Target catalog comp)



"Science" (Discovery Channel Store catalog cover comp)

MISCELLANEOUS


"Villa" (Mueslix commercial storyboard frame)



"Roast" (Hormel commercial storyboard frame)



"Hotel" (fabric design)



"French Farmhouse" (Hormel commercial storyboard frame)


"Hair Product" (storyboard frame)


"Flowing Hair" (CVS concept comp)



















"Street Scene" (storyboard frame)



"Sleep" (Breathe Right commercial storyboard frame)


Kohl's cover, rough concept



"Store Display" (Target concept board)


"Windy Skirt" (Stationery design)





"Retro Cooking" (fabric design)



"Retro Vacuuming" (fabric design)



"Retro Laundry" (fabric design)

Show-Off

Know anyone like this? Four-legged or otherwise? Always needs to be the center of attention, the life of the party. But this is the secret of a good party, and a good life. Thank goodness for those extroverts!

Bugged by a Bird

Today I was bugged by a bird. I stepped out of my house and heard this startling clear chirping. Not in distress, not singing exactly, just...chirping out a greeting, over and over and over. It was so close that I looked to see who was doing this, and a beautiful little finch, pale yellow and tan, was hopping from branch to branch on the shrub next to me. At first I thought I must be disturbing a nest, but the shrub was sparse and I could see no nest. So I proceeded down the walkway to the back of the house, and the bird followed me the entire way, chirping her head off. She had no fear of me, and came so close I thought she was going to sit on my head. I turned and headed back to the front of the house, and she followed me from tree to tree, chirping and flying close to me. Not dive bombing, nor agitated, just perky and curious. This is wierd, I thought. There's no nest, no baby bird on the ground, no other adult bird around. I went into the house and she continued to chirp and sing outside the door. I decided to go out again just to see what she would do, and she followed me around no matter where I walked.

Maybe this is a sign, I thought. Maybe it's my deceased mother coming back in the form of a bird to say hello. My mom would do that, you know. "Mom, is that you?" I whispered, hoping the neighbors wouldn't hear me. I knew this was silly but I couldn't resist. "OK, Mom if that's you, come and sit on my finger" and I held my hand out. The bird was so close I could almost touch her.

Now wouldn't this be a great story if that little bird flew over and landed on my outstretched finger?

Well it didn't. It just played hard to get, hopping around, chirp chirp chirp.

This is the end of my bird story, and don't tell anyone about it because they will think I am nutty. But I'm still thinking it was Mom just telling me to have a nice day.

GARDEN GIRL - Compost Queen

Retro Prom

This was me, on Prom night, many many many years ago. Well, wait a minute. I was never a blond. I had short hair, not exactly like this. I didn't wear a red dress either. And I certainly didn't have such large feet. Did I have a wrist corsage? I don't recall. Did I even go to Prom? I don't recall. Anyway, let's pretend this was me on Prom night.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY - Fierce

Here's an oldie but goodie from the archives of my paintings. The red-eyed dog jumping through the hoop looks pretty fierce to me, not to mention the gun in the hand of the shadow!

For more bizarre domestic landscape paintings, check out my website: www.andreetracey.com. Go to the Paintings section and click on "Suburbia Collection".

New Cover

This magazine cover was fun fun fun to work on, although creating all the words required more discipline than what I normally can muster! The headline will be "Word Power" and announces the annual writing contest. It was to be made clear that it was the physicians who were submitting the articles. I decided not to change the face as much as I originally planned (see previous entry). Instead I just gave him different eyes and a pair of glasses for a totally new look.

Doctor's Bag

This is a component of the collage/illustration that I am working on. I couldn't find any photos or scraps of a doctor's bag that I could use, so I more or less made this up. If you look closely, you will see that it makes no sense at all - kind of like one of Escher's drawings that have steps going up when you look one moment, and then down when you look the next. How does this bag close? What is that strip at the top? Are they inside the bag or outside? But hey, I'm an artist and I have what's called "artistic license". Nobody will notice unless YOU blab. My favorite quote: "People notice only what you tell them to notice, and then only if you remind them". (Dr. Kornblum, renowned fictional magician in the novel, Kavalier and Clay.)

Whew

Here's my darlin' Suzi-Q, looking worried. But there's no need to worry because it was a BENIGN CYST! How rosy the world looks today! Also, just so you know, she isn't really a blurry dog. She just looks that way because she is always on the move, even when sitting for a portrait. She's a terrier, what do you expect?

Love My Dog

I discovered a lump on my doggie's back. Gulp. It's small, but it's still a lump. Gotta take her to the vet, a trip she fears so much that I get anxious, too, and then she gets even more anxious because I'm anxious, and so it goes.

My Cover Illustration

What a fun assignment this was...I was encouraged to use my collage techniques, with a mixture of photography and decorative papers and hand-drawn elements. The art director/graphic designer was a peach. She presented her thoughts for the cover in a very clear manner yet gave me free rein, so it made my job easy as well as fun. Thank you Janna!

Shy Girl

I had this little painting up for sale during last weeks big open studio event. One fellow walked up and looked at it and repeated the writing out loud to his male companions, "Shy Girl." he says."YEEEEAAAH right!" and all his buddies laughed hahahahahaha. No really, she IS shy! Shyness is exists, it's out there! And 5 minutes later, a woman walked up and purchased it for her daughter, whom I am sure must be shy. At least for now.

City Girl

The big open studios event, "Art-a-Whirl" starts tonight. Grab your purse, and c'mon down!

Girly Girl

Now that Spring is here, I want to be a girly girl, but none of my spring clothes fit! This happens every year. Somewhere during the course of our long dark Midwestern winter the girl who used to fit into her wardrobe disappears and pudgy winterworn version of her appears in the spring. Sigh. Ok, out come the exercise resolutions along with "I must eat better" mantras. Or maybe I'll just go buy new clothes in bigger sizes. (forget I said that last part).

Paint your Nails

Paint your nails, get a new hairdo, a new tattoo, whatever it takes to get yourself moving, and come visit the 2008 Art-a-Whirl Open Studios event! (if you live outside of Minneapolis, you will have to buy a plane ticket in addition to the above). My studio is in the Northrup King Building, a historical site (former headquarters for the seed company of the same name) and home to 175 artists of varying talents: fine arts, crafts, furniture, apparel, etc. There will be demonstrations, music, free parking - an entire day of artistic diversions!

Dates and time are on the side bar. For more information and directions, see northrupkingbuilding.com.

See ya there!

Choices

Sometimes I have a hard time making decisions, probably because I'm such an annoying perfectionist. I ask, Is it right? Is it wrong? Is it good or is it bad? But I've found that the best way to settle my confusion is to ask, Does it work?

Reading

Read any good books lately? I just finished Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, and like it is with all good books, I really didn't want it to come to an end. I just wanted to stay in the book, to open it up every night and continue to be involved in the plot. The writing was so good that I often reread sentences just to savor them one more time. But dang, I finally came to the last page, and now my life is empty without these characters. The novel is based on the history of the Golden Age of comic books and features two artists, cousins, who rose to fame in the 40's. It's loaded with adventures - it begins with one of the cousins being smuggled out of Nazi-infested Europe in a casket, and includes the appearances of Houdini, Salvidor Dali, a cousin who gets marooned in Antarctica, someone who attempts to leap from the Empire State Building - and these are not even the comic book heroes who show up now and then in their own adventures. If you want to discover more about the author and the real life events and characters that inspired his novel, you can visit this website.

Spring Cometh, Trash and All

It's been so long since posted! Partly because of an illustration assignment (more to come on that), and partly because of the flu!

Today I photographed a sight that captures the schizophrenic nature of spring in Minnesota. The gray clouds that smothered us for months disappeared and a blazing turquoise sky shone through, complete with Canadian geese returning, to reveal a non-postcard sight: the absolute last heap of snow. Black, icky dirty snow, and all of winter's hidden treasures of pop cans, candy bar wrappers, condoms, combs and fast food wrappers. I loved seeing that dirty heap of snow - because it is the last remnants of winter...yayyyyy!

APRIL FOOL'S DAY

I woke up this morning to seven inches of snow! Some parts of Minnesota, my lovely state, received ten inches! Mother Nature, this is SO NOT FUNNY!!!!! I was really looking forward to seeing the lawns green up, the robins hopping, the daffodils popping... and now I have to shovel again. I'm going to ignore this little setback, and think about the tropical days ahead, with sun and lakes and greenery blooming all around!