art wall's kitchen is live

The long-awaited kitchen for Art Wall is live. I love it and I love it. You'll see pieces displayed by Bridget Farmer of Bridbird, Jessica Nichols of Sweet Eventide, Jen Hewett, Heather Moore of Skinny Laminx, Samantha Wedelich of Dwell Deep, Jessica Marquez of Miniature Rhino and Lucy Snowe. Stay tuned for some special artist interviews over the next month or so.

introductions are in order

I'm really excited to introduce my super-d-duper student intern: Brittany Kieler. Brittany is a Sophomore at the University of Wisconsin here in Madison in the art department with a focus in drawing. She's actually been helping me with administrative tasks related to Art Wall since last summer pre-launch, but will soon be taking over the artist's interviews and helping with some more up-front tasks. As a student, I'm anxious to hear her questions for the artists already making their way in the real world. I'm also happy to have a little more time to spend on growing the site and taking a few things off my plate. She's smart as a whip, charming and so very talented, she's a star.

inspired by: mood board

Can you tell I'm up to something? This collage is an assignment for an e-class I'm taking called Blogging Your Way, taught by Holly of Decor8 and Leslie of A Creative Mint. This week's assignment was to put together a "mood board" that represents the look and feel of your blog.

I incorporated the pool blue as my main background color, then stitched it to my folder using red thread (a little accent color, just like online). I used the stitching to also represent my love of sewing all things handmade in general. I grabbed a few of Jess Gonacha Swift's drawings for the site which I keep in a folder. There's a few images of art walls pinned to the board, one is from Domino Magazine and the other is from Dujour. I sewed bits of doilies in 2 corners to represent my love for pretty, girly things and tucked a few mini pieces of art inside. The photograph is by Alicia Bock and the parakeet is one of my favorite Gocco prints by AnnaKlara from Art Wall's Studio. It usually lives in my office and helps to keep things prettied-up in that tiny space. The glassine envelope has some beautiful stamps from the Phillipines from the Gocco swap I hosted last year. The stamps from one of the participants were too lovely to toss so I pegged them to the wall in my studio. I included a polaroid because I love the look of them and I use a pseudo "polaroid" frame now and then to highlight images in the blog. Last but not least is the logo card. I printed the image with my Gocco last year and (as anyone who uses this magical little contraption knows) printed this image on anything and everything I could get my hands on. I ended up with a nice little stack of stationery for thank-you notes and general business correspondence.

I really loved working on this little project, I've been so busy online lately that I haven't had much time for doing much with my hands besides typing. I've always enjoyed taking creative classes, learning new things and meeting people. I might pop in with a few more little hints at what we're working on throughout the next few weeks, stay tuned.

february's master bedroom art wall is live!

Hooray! February's Master Bedroom Art Wall is up and live on the website for your viewing pleasure. This release is my proudest one yet because it was the first "room" that I coded myself. Can you believe it? Here's a secret: 5 years ago, when I moved to Madison and was applying for jobs, I didn't know what the following things were: a URL, a browser, a server, or an I.P. address. Well, I guess I still don't technically know what a "server" is but I can talk about them like I do. If someone would have told me I would be the owner/operator/coder of 2 websites and 2 blogs 5 years later I would have spit diet A&W in their face. Anyway, I digress. This room is very subtly Valentine/romance themed for the month of February and I can't wait to introduce each artist a little better. They all have super-unique stories to share with you, I promise.

january's dining room art wall is live!

I'm so excited to announce that January's Art Wall is live!  I'm super proud of the artists this month, you'll be hearing about them and seeing more of their work in the weeks to come for sure.  Have a look and poke around.

updated entryway

I decided to take some time this weekend and refresh the Entryway, both in real life and on the Art Wall website. I did something very unusual and removed all my Christmas decor right away, in part because my tree looked so sad after dying a thirst-induced death, and also because I was just ready to move on early this year. Art Wall's Entryway got a little spiff-up this weekend too and I'm really happy with how it turned out. All of the artists are the same save one Jessica from Miniature Rhino whose lovely heart sampler sold out and in turn had to be removed. Jessica has been stitching her little fingers to the bone so we know she deserves a break. Some of the other artwork was simply switched out: same artists, different pieces. I plan on updating the pages every month or so to keep them fresh. Change feels good this time of year, no?

taking submissions: february's bedroom art wall

Just a quick note to announce that January's Art Wall is closed for submission. Good news: there's always another month in the works, February is now open for business. It's a master bedroom, and it's February, so...romance and love will be a (subtle) theme. If you have something you think would be splendid, please check out the details then submit here.

the family room is live

Art Wall's family room is live today and it's too cute for words. How fitting that this room is being featured in December. I didn't plan for it when I did the schedule months ago, but this is the room we hang out in most during the cold months. Our normal "hang out" room is faareeezing in the winter so the family-room beckons with its cozy fireplace and sparkly Christmas tree. I've decided I need a "buy the entire wall" button for the website-- i'd be the first one to use it. Thanks to each of the 9 new artists. Be sure to click on each piece, read their bios and take a closer looksie. I think they're all pretty special. Welcome!

art wall before::after

If you want to see Art Wall's {real life : illustration} comparison images, I have a flickr set devoted to the ones I can show you so far. One of the best parts of my planning for Art Wall was getting Jess's completed renderings in my inbox, so fun. Each one was like a mini-gift on my screen. My plan is to frame a few of the originals. Hmmm, an art wall of Art Wall, is that too much? Stay tuned...

art wall is live!

Hip Hip, Hooray! After much planning, e-mailing, collaborating, computering, agonizing, talking, spending, smirking, budgeting, coding, cropping, tweaking, typing and printing, the Art Wall site is live today. I hope you like it, I'm pretty proud of it. So much thanks to: the wonderful launch artists, Jessica Gonacha Swift who did the illustrations, Think Bakery who helped with planning, editing and execution, Maureen Leary and Sarah Klein who assisted with the copy, Silicon Prairie for their website development, Brittany Kieler for her help with the little things, and all my cheerleaders--especially my financier (and husband) Ryan. XOXO,

art wall animation

Art Wall Animation from Katie Stephenson on Vimeo.

I've probably watched this little video 100 times in the past 2 weeks, if not more. I think it's just the sweetest. Jessica Gonacha Swift put it together after we collaborated on it. If you want to watch it a little bigger you can see it on Vimeo, full-sized. The song is sampled from a music box. It's called Dylan's Song by Jonathan Yamody, found on The Free Sound Project.
Enjoy the next 30 seconds of your life!

about me, the art wall site and art wall blog

I’ve always been drawn to art and display. At age five I was blowing through my six-color Crayola paint sets at the rate of one per week. By elementary school I was tagging along with my mother to watch her set up exhibits at the museum where she worked. When I completed studies at the University of Illinois, I joined the design department of Paper Source in Chicago making samples and styling products for images used in catalogs and on the website. I later moved to Madison, Wisconsin and continued working in visuals: merchandising clothing and accessories pages and putting together themed assortments for Shopbop.com.

After the birth of my daughter, I retired from corporate life and opened an online shop of mostly Gocco prints. Witnessing the enormous popularity of handmade marketplaces and design-made-affordable publications like the sorely missed Domino made me realize there was something missing from the experience of shopping for art online: the “wow” factor that inspired display adds to the equation. I saw an opportunity to bring the two together.

Art Wall Online was born of my desire to marry my love of art with my background in display and visual merchandising. The Art Wall Blog was started to share this love but it also encompasses other areas of design not found on the website. Basically it's open to anything that inspires me, be it: fashion, craft, animation, home decor, people, shopping, eating, gardening, music, traveling.... I'm not creating any barriers for myself. Please enjoy!

the beginning of it all-first post

I think this marks the beginning of it all for me. I took this picture in 2007 at the now defunct Hable Construction brick and mortar on Perry St. in Manhattan. I adored the composition as a whole, but when I focused on each item separately I was a little...uninspired. I realized that the arrangement and display of these photographs and ephemera was more important than the pieces themselves. That's when my crush on art walls started to really blossom. Today, I'm happy to say that my little crush has grown into a full-fledged relationship as I have this blog and the artwallonline site to show for it. It's a special day. We are... "going public," so to speak. I'll be celebrating this evening in front of my own art wall with a glass of red and some dark chocolate. Care to join?