A blast from the past

Three years ago I did some art for a Hood Eggnog commercial (a New England dairy company, for those of you outside their area of distribution). Now that Mad Men is so popular, this commercial seems even more relevant today. Mmm eggnog...

May 2008 be even better!

Well, 2007 was a great year for me: I started jennski.com in June and changed my career from graphic design to art - something I couldn't have done without the support of a wonderful husband, my family and friends, who always knew I had it in me. I also have to give a mighty thanks to Etsy! Because of that lovely site I got picked up by a publishing company, and was found by Lilla Rogers, of Lilla Rogers Studio, who is now my agent. I always knew I wanted to be an artist since I first held a crayon in my hand as a child, and it makes me feel very happy and grateful that I'm doing what I love, which a lot of people don't ever get the chance to do.

Also this year I was in my first gallery show (along with many other great Boston-area artists) in Design Nearby, at the Pinkcomma Gallery in Boston's South End. My work even made it into a Hood Eggnog TV commercial! 2007 was great, and I can't wait to see what 2008 brings!

Working on a painting for the Hood TV spot

My plan for 2008: to work, work, work and promote my butt off! I'm planning to come up with some more products with my designs on them, and I'm excited to get that and some other surprises going.

Finally, a big, fat THANK YOU SO MUCH to all my customers, blog readers, and other fans of my work! You guys really keep me going. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Have a great 2008!

Spice up the Holidays!

The Hood eggnog commercial is finally up on Youtube!
Mmmm I want some!

I'm so excited, I just can't hide it any longer!

This past Monday I wrote that something exciting was going on, that I would talk about it soon, and that it was somehow related to the Hood Dairy company... Well, here's what's happening (drum roll, please): My artwork is going to be featured in a TV commercial for Hood Eggnog! Hood (a New England dairy company, for those of you outside their area of distribution) is introducing a new line of flavored eggnogs - Cinnamon, Pumpkin, Gingerbread and Sugar Cookie - which they are promoting on TV. I don't know the specifics about the script, but the commercial features a fabulous retro family whose house is decorated with, among other things, a number of pieces by yours truly. The commercial, entitled "Spice Up The Holidays", will air all over New England between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm so excited!

So here's how it all came together: I was contacted by Jim Kent on behalf of Airstream Pictures last Friday. He explained that they were shooting a commercial for Hood Eggnog, and they needed to dress up a mid-20th century home in Maine in a retro style. He had seen my work online, and thought it would be a great fit. Naturally, I said yes.

On the tightest of schedules, I had just a couple of days to come up with a ~3'x3' piece to cover a bookcase. Jim was incredibly accomodating, getting me the right size board himself, dropping it off, and then picking up the finished piece two days later - all while coordinating all the minutiae that goes into shooting a TV spot two states away! All in all, they used my new prints (which will be featured at the Design Nearby show), five paintings from my private collection, and the big, square, custom, bookcase-cover thing I made specially for them.



Here is a pano shot of the set. Can you spot my pieces there? (click to enlarge):



Here's a hint:



It looks so pretty! I can't wait for it to air! :-)

Thanks to Jim Kent, the Garrand Agency, and HP Hood.

Hoodwinks Ice Cream, ca. 1974

The Hood company has been selling New Englanders milk, ice cream, and other dairy products for decades. People driving south into Boston on I-93 can still see the old Hood plant's smokestack (they've since moved to Chelsea, MA). My grandfather, a machinist, worked for Hood from 1941 until his death in 1974, and he made the molds for Hood's Hoodwinks line of halloween-themed ice cream bars. My father says he remembers my grandfather bringing the molds home and staying up long hours working on them, trying to figure out how to make all the different-flavored ice creams flow into the molds while keeping their shapes. I wonder where the molds are now? I would love to see them!

So why am I writing about Hood, you ask? Believe me, I'm dying to tell you... but I'm going to wait a little bit before I spill the beans! :-)