Hey!
It's mid-October here, peak leaf color is on the way but we haven't had a frost yet so there are still summer flowers left blooming too. It's a wonderful contrast and it makes the season even more present to me.
Fall is such a resonant and textured time and I find myself drawn to pumpkins every year - this year I made checked pumpkins into a pattern design.
I wrote about the whole creation process here on my website - I combined the rounded organic forms with my favorite checkerboard pattern, then added raggedy crescent moons, simple flowers, and spider webs. The trial and error, the bald spots that made me start over, the way the sharp green accent sits with the fall oranges and golds.
I liked this collection so much that I ordered myself a table runner with the main pattern.
The full set of patterns
Which brings me to something that really bothers me about the art industry:
The Art Outside the Velvet Rope
Surface pattern design and functional textiles are so often dismissed as "decorative art" - as if there's a hierarchy and making something you can actually use puts it at the bottom.
This is gatekeeping nonsense that keeps art behind velvet ropes. It's the same mentality that says art belongs in galleries, not on your table. That "real" art is precious and untouchable, not something that you can use and enjoy everyday.
Nope…not in my world!
Art that lives on your table, that marks your seasons, hangs on your fridge and sits on your desk - that’s valuable, not less. That's art as it should be: accessible, useful, part of actual life and soul.
Everyone deserves beautiful art in their lives. Not just people who can afford gallery prices or know the right collectors.
Your Own Wild Marks
If you're drawn to making your own marks and patterns, the Wild Creation Studio Companion Kit has the raw materials from my practice: 46 high-resolution marks, unedited process videos, and prompts that have helped me. Not instructions—materials to play with and make yours.
What Calls to You?
I'm curious, which calls to you right now - bringing more art into your everyday life, making your own marks, or both? Hit reply and let me know. I read and reply to every message.
Share Your Light!
Monette
P.S. When my table runner arrives, I'll share photos of it on my own table so you can see it in live action…
