New York Times live drawing interview!

Hey everyone!
I finally get a chance to breath a little and sit down and update my blog! Phew! The past few months have been a flurry of activity and travel that I will try to catch up on in a few posts soon, but for now I wanted to share my live drawing interview that I did a few weeks ago with The New York Times Children's Book Editor Maria Russo. I still am pinching myself that it actually happened. It was such an honor and SO much fun to chat with Maria while getting to draw live in real time for Facebook. In case you missed it here's the Facebook link:

https://m.facebook.com/nytimes/posts/10151146327034999

You can see me work and learn a bit about my process, upcoming project, and which animals I DON'T like to draw!

More to come soon on my other recent activities... stay tuned!

jxoxo

Urban Craft Uprising this weekend!

Hey all!
I wanted to mention that I'll be signing and selling copies of Before I Leave this weekend at the Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle! (UCU is an AMAZING and huge indie craft show where you can buy oodles of amazing wares from crafters both local and abroad.) I'll be there to draw in books and I'll have some fun little giveaways for folks to enjoy too!

Also, my husband Aaron Bagley will be drawing in copies of the book Rocking Fatherhood which he illustrated. The books author, Kris Kornelis will be there signing as well!

So come on out for some book and crafting fun. The signing schedule is below. We'll be at the UCU booth. Hope to see you there.

Sketching on a sunny afternoon

Happy weekend!

I for one can't be more excited its Saturday. And to start it off withe a bang, I'm doing some sketches for a joint project that I'm working on with my husband Aaron. It's always so fun to collaborate with him and I feel like each time we work together we get closer and closer to having a unified artistic voice. With out last show back in September, we did joint writing and drawing for our comics art show, 1828 Lincoln St. This time we are taking a slightly different approach, with Aaron is doing all the writing and the initial sketches while I am doing the final art. I don't want to say too much more about it, but will show more as we get more completed. 

Other than that I'm just in the process of revising my portfolio and making some new postcards for an upcoming visit to NY to meet with my super awesome agent Alexandra and my amazing editor Neal at Roaring Brook Press. So lots to do-but all art related so its very fun!!! Back to the paper!

What's up 2014?

Hey everyone
Well, sadly I succumbed to the holiday madness and haven't posted since just before Thanksgiving! So quick catch up:

My lovely husband and I did our booth at Short Run just after Thanksgiving. Short Run is a local comics festival that features self-published works as well as comics and books from small publishers. It was our first time having a booth at the show and it was super fun. We both debuted our graphic novels at the show as well! When we do work together or print up our books, we do it under the name Gorilla House Press. We have a tumblr of joint work there. Aaron is insanely prolific, so a lot of the work on the tumbler is his, but it's sort of a catch all for all of our random work.

What else? I am nearly finished with the illustrations for Boats For Papa, which I am really loving working on, so a part of me will be sad to be finished. But it just means I'm that much closer to getting it finished in hand-which is AMAZING to me! This has been the best creative project I've ever got to do in my life and I've cherished every moment of it! And also once this book is finished I'm onto book two already! What??? How did I get so lucky?! I am so over the moon I still can't believe my dream has come true! So at least I have another awesome project to look forward to! I'll keep you posted as things come up.

But that is really the bulk of what I've been up to. That and juggling a million work and holiday things. So I'm glad to see the new year come around to allow for new things to unfold!

Also, here is the front and back of my promo card I sent out this year. It features my favorite twin badger brothers, Tic and Tac, being silly as usual. So happy new year to you all! I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store.

Graphic Novel Northwest

Hey all

Short Run (seattle comic/ small press festival) is just around the corner and we are getting ready for the show! In conjunction with having our comics for sale at Short Run at our booth, Gorilla House Press, Aaron and I are participating in a show about graphic novelists in the Northwest! Original pages from my first graphic novel "Diary of a Wiener" and Aaron's "Ouroboros are on display Shoreline Community college through December.

The opening reception for this exhibition of graphic novel art is on Saturday, Nov. 16, from 5 to 7 pm.

Eisner Award winner David Lasky curated the show (and made the poster) at the invitation of Shoreline CC, and he chose Seattle artists who have made (or are working on) long-form comics (the literal meaning of "graphic novel").  Original artwork is on display by:

Aaron Bagley

Jessixa Bagley

Ellen Forney

Colleen Frakes

Eroyn Franklin

Roberta Gregory

David Lee Ingersoll

David Kelly

Megan Kelso

David Lasky

Mita Mahato

Greg Stump

Tom Van Deusen

Max Badger Woodring

The exhibition will be on display through November and December in the Administration Building (1000), near the school's main gate.  Some of the work will be for sale.

Shoreline Community College is located at 16101 Greenwood Ave, North, in Shoreline, WA.  By bus, the #5 from downtown ends its route at the college.

1828 part two

Hey all
Things are busy is book world for me these days. I've been painting all of these summer beach scenes for my book lately which is funny because outside my window is a glorious colorful fall! I guess that's how it works in book land sometimes, always living in another world.

Anyway, I wanted to do a follow up post with the rest of the pieces of the show that Aaron and I had last month. So without further adieu, here part two of 1828. Enjoy!

1828 art show

Hey everyone!
It's be a month I've been off blogging. I was quite wrapped up in makin' lots of art- the best reason for not spending more time blogging! My husband Aaron and I created work for a show we had a Joe Bar in Seattle. Here is a synopsis of the show and some images of the work! The show is up until October 8th at Joe Bar ( 810 E. Roy, Seattle, WA 98102) Some if you are in town, come and check it out while you still can. Enjoy!

1828" is a collection of illustrations and comics based on the house built by Aaron's great grandfather Marvin E. Pack. Two long generations of Mormon relatives inhabited the house until Aaron's parents took over. Years of de-cluttering revealed many bizarre religious and antique occupational relics. The house invokes its own mythology by leaving a trail of such esoteric delights. Aaron and Jessixa explore the visual vocabulary inspired by this very real Salt Lake City house and expand on it's oddities through a series of comics and ephemera.

Labor Day drawing!

Hey everyone

Summer continued to fly by and now fall is fast arriving. All the while I've been been busy working on my book Boats For Papa and about a million other things. The big thing that is just around the corner for me is a joint show at Joe Bar in Seattle with my wonderful husband Aaron Bagley. We are doing a drawing/comics show inspired by Aaron's parent's Victorian house in Salt Lake City, Utah. We are working on the pieces together, drawing and painting them all simultaneously. We love getting to do joint projects and this one is extra fun because of the personal connection. The show opens Thursday September 12th during the Blitz Capitol Hill Art Walk! The opening is from 5-8. If your in town come check out the show!

Okay, back to drawing!

City Arts Fest 2012!

Hey All
I've been on MAJOR blog and picture book hiatus the past few weeks. My husband and I just finished a nearly 300 drawing installation for the City Arts Magazine art festival, City Arts Fest- a four day long festival around the city of visual & performance art, music, lectures and pop up performances. Our installation is in the hub site of the three day long festival, called "Culture Club." 

Our piece titled "Grizzly 1971" is a series of portraits based off of a year book that we found from Seattle's Queen Anne High School from 1971. We drew 280 yearbook style portraits based off of the senior class. We then made up names and titles & clubs for the students, mostly very strange and funny.We created a walk-in year book room where all of the portraits were displayed as well as two small  trophy case like pocket displays that flanked the doors of the venue as you walked in. We wanted to breath life back into an otherwise banal and forgettable account of the past, the yearbook.It took us nearly two months to draw all the portraits.

The show will be up in downtown Seattle at 411 Union Street (between 4th and 5th) through October 20th. The venue is free to enter and is open from noon-11pm Oct 17-19th, then from noon-9pm on Saturday the 20th. If you are in town check it out!

For more info, go to: http://www.cityartsfest.com/

Jessixa.com is Alive!

Hey All!
I wanted to announce that my website is back! It's been undergoing some retooling for the past six months or so, and now it is complete! It's been beautifully redesigned by my wonderful husband, Aaron Bagley- for whom I am sooooo grateful for all of his hard work to get it running. I'm also very proud of my little animations (made by moi) that are non-flash so they are friendly for all viewing platforms!

So enough jibba jabba- Check out my website!

jessixa.com

ALSO- just a little reminder that I am still doing my daily hot dog journal website "Diary of a Wiener"-so if you want a daily dose of hot dog and waxing the philosophic, start following me!
diaryofawiener.com


Thanks happy viewing!
-Jessixa

A literary Map of Seattle

Hey everyone!
I just wanted to share this cool painting that my husband, Aaron Bagley, did for The Stranger's new literary magazine, A&P. It's an illustrated literary map of Seattle! Pick up your own copy in this week's Stranger. It's very lovely.
  
Here is a link to the artile as well! Check it out online!
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/literary-map-of-the-olympic-peninsula/Content?oid=13186580

Artache Sunday Sunday Sunday!

Hey everyone!
Today is the Artache Art Flea Market at Vermillion Gallery in Capitol Hill! Here's a little taste of what will be at the show:

Come see some them in real life. They wont bite. 1508 11th Ave. We'll be there from 3-8pm! One day only!
Jessixa

Artache this Sunday!

Hey campers!
This Sunday (November 13th) Aaron and I are going to have a booth at Vermillion Gallery's monthly art market "Artache" in Capitol Hill.

We are showing/selling all new work! I am showing work from my latest series "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps"

and Aaron will be showing selected pieces from his Gardenism series and his portraits of the ficticious "Numbers" family.

Come check it out! We'll be there from 3-8pm!

Vermillion Gallery
1508 11th Ave
Seattle WA 98122

Thanks! Hope to see you there!
jx