More Brainstorming...

Lisbeth's rendering of her cat's brain...

Lisbeth's drawing of Milkweed as an angel...I may use this as her logo...

Lisbeth's snowflake/mandalas silkscreened on tee shirts will be the first of many items to go in the etsy shop. I am also planning to design fabric using Lisbeth's mandalas over at Spoonflower, and will be creating a line of pillows, tablecloths, napkins, and placemats...

an EEG.

a couple of banner drafts...

I've spent the last two days working on designing the banner for my daughter Lisbeth's new etsy shop, and I've begun to patch together a business plan. I've decided to call the site Brainstorm Studio - this came to me while I was walking around my yard, and I etched it several times with a stick in the snow. I like that the word "brainstorm" describes creative thinking and problem solving, and its reference to Lisbeth's traumatic brain injury and seizure disorder. A seizure is indeed a storm in the brain. And it was available! For the banner I've collaged (in Photoshop) one of Lis's snowflakes in her favorite colors: pink, white and pale blue. (These are the colors of her beloved cat Milkweed's pink ears and nose, white fur, and blue eyes!) Then I decided to lay an EEG scan over all. This really describes Lisbeth's life. Although she is constantly interrupted by seizure activity, she still produces this prolific amount of incredibly beautiful cut paper designs. I've written here before about how a seizure cluster is referred to in neurology as a "flurry" and how Lisbeth has often referred to her snowflakes as "brains." These brain/snow connections are fascinating.

A bit of synchronicity: When Lisbeth was first hospitalized at age six in the summer of 1988, a family friend brought this book to her: Brave Irene, by William Steig. Irene is a very courageous little girl whose mother is too ill to deliver a dress that she has just finished for a local duchess to wear to a ball that evening. So Irene puts her sick mother to bed and then marches alone through a terrible blizzard, into the dark and freezing cold, and against all odds, completes this difficult errand. This story continues to be a favorite of Lisbeth's. I wonder why...