Apartment Therapy Home Tour

Recently our home was featured on Apartment Therapy! We bought our 1955 fixer about 4 years ago and my husband went to work transforming it not only into a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, but also into the first Passive House in Texas.  Passive House is the most stringent energy efficiency standard in the world, and his company, Equitable Green Group, hopes to build more of this type of building to Texas.

We had a great time doing this photo shoot with local photographer/culture builder Chris Perez. You can see more about him, and the whole shoot, at the Apartment Therapy website.

Blaise House: First Passive House in Texas

Blaise House: Our Moroccan inspired tea room!

Blaise House: Our Dining/Kitchen area with sliding barn doors.

Virtues Art

Recently I began working on a new children's poster series focusing on virtues. The concept is inspired by the Virtues Project, a grassroots initiative to inspire the practice of virtues in everyday life. The idea is that by cultivating virtues, individuals are empowered to live more authentic and meaningful lives, with compassion and integrity.

Misha Maynerick Blaise 2013

The design aesthetic for this series is inspired by an amazing set of vintage illustrations of European countries created by Maurice Labanin in 1959. I really love the little folky details he adds into each of his pieces, and the bright, bold color palette he worked with. 

I am selling these prints individually on Etsy.

Art Prints on Wheatpaste and Greenbox

My art for sale on Wheatpaste (Today is Going to Be Awesome print featured on front page)

...and Greenbox! (2 of my geometric paintings on the front page!)

Prayers for Trayvon Martin

“Until these prejudices are entirely removed from the people of the world, the realm of humanity will not find rest. Nay, rather, discord and bloodshed will be increased day by day, and the foundation of the prosperity of the world of man will be destroyed. Now is the time for the Americans to take up this matter and unite both the white and colored races. Otherwise, hasten ye towards destruction! Hasten ye toward devastation! Indeed, there is a greater danger than only the shedding of blood. It is the destruction of America.”
- Abdu'l-Baha (1912 visit to America)

Etsy Pop-Up Shop at West Elm!

This past weekend I was invited by fashion blogger and show curator Camille Styles to participate in an Etsy Pop-Up Shop at the West Elm here in Austin, TX!  I had heard of these pop-ups happening in other cities and I really wanted to participate in one, so it was a dream come true when I was invited, seemingly out of nowhere, to join! Also, I already have been inspired by West Elm to create some art, so it was a perfect fit. There were some incredibly talented artists and artisans there and I was really psyched to show my art along side of them.

Here is a sample of the artists who were there; you can see the West Elm promo post here:

New Typography Art!

A new piece up at my Etsy shop! This quote is from a poem by Derrick Brown called "A Finger, Two Dots Then Me." I thought it was so beautiful and simple, and for months I have been wanting to create a piece inspired by it! This is what I finally came up with. 

The poem was made into a short film that has won a ton of awards. You can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcoMiGiDRjg

Misha Blaise Design

Designing for an Album

If you want to listen to one of the most sweet and lovely songs ever written, click this link and select song #4: Aimless Day. This song is by my friend Bahhaj Taherzadeh, who plays under the moniker We/Or/Me. He is one of my favorite musicians and he just launched a kickstarter to raise money for his next album!

If you donate at a certain level, you can get this poster that I designed:

You may notice that Bahhaj has fulfilled his minimum desired funding for this project, but he still needs a couple thousand more bones. I don't think he realized how many people are into his music and would want to support the new album.  The point is, you can still donate!

Bahhaj has asked me to design for him several times over the years. I enjoy designing for musicians: whereas in some situations art stands alone and speaks for itself, album art contributes to the overall mood created by the music.

Bahhaj is drawn to a very simple and almost rustic visual aesthetic (in a cool way). The images are tattered and aged and refer to a familiar, yet distant place and time that one still longs for.  I think it goes well with is music, because a lot of his songs seem to communicate a lonely longing as well.

I enjoy the challenge of designing for him because it is a departure from the bright, vibrant colors and busy compositions that I usually create. Here is a selection of a few of the album covers and posters I have designed for him over the past few years:

Best of luck with the new album, Bahhaj!

Misha Blaise: Spotted on Style Carrot and Oh My!

One of my paintings, "Sabreen's Day" spotted on Style Carrot

And one of my typography art prints spotted on Oh My!

Misha Blaise: Today is Going to be Awesome print

Misha Blaise on PopSugar

Spotted some of my typography art on the PopSugar blog today:

Etsy Editor's Pick

A few days ago one of my typography prints, "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," was featured on the Etsy blog as an editor's pick for  "Inspirational Prints for the New Year."  You can check out the post here!

Design by Misha Blaise