Anisa Makhoul took 10 years to come back to art

Our own Anisa Makhoul answers your questions about creating art for surface design. We asked the artist to select three questions pertaining to her art career. These are her fascinating answers.

Q. If you hadn’t become a professional artist, what kind of career do you think you would have chosen?

A. If I couldn’t do anything artistic at all, I would have studied herbs/flora and religion. I’m very interested in folklore, folk magic, and African American folk spirituality. I dream of traveling to the Caribbean and studying under a root doctor. Maybe I’ll still do it one day.

Q. How old were you when you knew you wanted to be an artist? Did you strive to get your art on the refrigerator as a child? Describe your earliest artwork. 

A. When I was really young I used to draw pictures with my crayons and then put prices in the corners, like 5 cents or so, based on how good I thought it was. I’d force my parents and grandparents to buy my drawings from me. I wasn’t just going to give them the art for the refrigerator. 

Q. Did you have formal art training? Thinking back to art school, what’s something you learned in a classroom that you still use to this day?

A. I have a BA in fine art printmaking from Minneapolis College of Art & Design. I started out as a film and photo student and ended up graduating in hand printmaking. I never even considered illustration as a career. I thought I couldn’t draw because that’s what my drawing teacher told me. In fact, after I graduated from art school I was very sure that I had no place in the art world. After college I started sewing handmade dresses and doing fashion design. It took me 10 years to come back to art. Everything clicked when I began allowing myself to draw things in the wackiest, most relaxed way I could. I started enjoying drawing, and getting better at it. 

Anisa's clients include: Vogue, Compendium Books, Anthropologie, Flow Magazine, Taproot Magazine, American Greetings, Trend Bible, Cost Plus World Market,  TeNeus Publishing, TJ Maxx, Design House Greetings, Godiva, Hallmark, Harrods of London. 

Anisa Makhoul's work reaches the home decor market

Anisa Makhoul loves to design patterns and loves to travel! She has lived in Amsterdam and travel extensively, most recently to Germany with the agency for Heimtextil. About Anisa recent work for the home decor market, she writes "I like that I can see these on a number of home decor products. I love a bright happy pattern. There’s a good amount of folk art invoked here, which helps to tell a story. I obviously love pattern on pattern and any opportunity to pattern clash.”

My Heimtextil Diary

For our first time exhibiting at a trade show in Europe I decided to keep a diary of each day’s events. Ha! Easier said than done. There was so much excitement, so much going on and so many people to see and places to go, that my diary plans fell apart immediately. So here are just a few random highlights of our adventures in Heimtextil.

I left behind record cold temperatures in Boston.

I flew to into Frankfurt, where the weather was lovely… much more pleasant for walking and exploring the old town, and having dinner with my artist friends. I was delighted to find that Frankfurt is a very walkable city; the tram, subway and buses are easy to use (and free with your Heimtextil badge!).

Anisa's rendition of Römerberg, the rebuilt "old town" of Frankfurt.

The show was tons of fun, especially meeting all the people. I met some artists I have consulted with, as well as clients I have wanted to reach for a long time. There were lots of new faces from the US and abroad.

One of the highlights of the trip was meeting Janna Krupinski for the first time! Although she has been with Jennifer Nelson Artists for almost a year, we had never actually seen each other in person. It was wonderful to discover that Janna is as funny and smart as she is talented. 

Artists Janna, Rae Ritchie, Anisa Makhoul and myself all stayed together in an AirBnB. What a treat! We had a great time. One of my favorite parts of being an agent is the enduring friendships I have with my artists.

I wondered how I would fare in Germany since I don’t speak that language. Just fine, it turns out. The German people are very kind and accommodating. Having a few German words and phrases to express please, thank you, and good day goes a long way.

Wow! Heimtextil is a busy market, with some beautiful elaborate booth construction. Two doors down from me, a designer even built a log cabin in the space. The show was really something to see.

Lots of beautiful work was on display. This is a new market for us and I realized we still have more to learn. Prints at Home Decor shows are HUGE (~24 x 36")… so our prints looks a little small in comparison. Most of the artwork is repeat patterns, as clients are buying and licensing for wall, furniture, bedding and other home surfaces.

In comparison to a show like SURTEX, Heimtextil offers more for your investment. The booths are ample size, the tables are amazing and come complete with lockable tables and a small cabinet. The extra chairs, lights and tables do not cost a fortune. The space is large and the aisles wide. 

There was a good feeling of camaraderie with my Blue Print friends as well. Brenda Manley was just across from me and Paul from Cinnamon Joe was just around the corner. Friendships with other agents makes the world feel a little smaller, even thousands of miles from home.

After the show each night we had had one delicious dinner after another: Indian, Italian, French and the last night, Vietnamese. Frankfurt is a cosmopolitan city with lots to offer. Then we came back to our AirBnB where the artists painted, and we drank wine from teacups and talked. That was my favorite part!

Rae Ritchie sketchbook (left) and Anisa Makhoul's (right)

Saturday we took a train to Freiburg to be tourists for a day. It is a charming little town! We took an early train from Frankfurt, ate spaetzle (German pasta/dumplings) with wurst and lentils, found an amazing o market in the square and an little shop where Christmas is happening 365 days a year! On the way back, Anisa even bought champagne for us to enjoy in the train!

Overall, the trip to Heimtextil was a success. We licensed work for window coverings, bedding, pillows and rugs in Mexico, US, Europe and Asia. We met several US clients and very importantly expanded our database to many new clients from around the world. 

Now that the show is over, I am going to enjoy some R&R in Budapest (where my brother lives) and visit the Szechenyi Baths in the morning before the US is even awake! Pure bliss and $20 for a one-hour massage. I can hardly wait. :) Jennifer

Anisa's Mural for Mud Bay Pet Store

I was recently hired to do my first mural! My client was a local advertising agency who produced the mural for their client, a pet food shop. I’m sure this helped to make things go smoother, as the agency was able to act as a go-between for myself and the customer. Mud Bay is a beloved Northwest-based pet food company with a number of locations in Portland and Seattle. The brief that was given to me by the creative folks at the agency spoke of a "welcome to Northwest Portland" message. I'm proud to say the mural is one of the first things you’ll see as you get off the freeway and make your way into the quaint, charming neighborhood of Northwest Portland. The town is filled with Victorian and Craftsman houses, so we reflected that in the mural, and added lots of pets.

This is my original artwork for the mural. There were a few revisions before it became a mural. The building owner wanted his own dog in there, so the gray dog was changed to cute dachshund.

Here’s the final mural. It's amazing they were able to do this! Though I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that there are a few changes and touch-ups I wish I could make. (That's the artist in me.) Also, it looks as if they stretched the drawing. Now I wish I could go in and add more flowers, they look a little bare.

Overall it was a very exciting experience. It’s also super cool to see your art work so large like this! Hope you enjoy it too, Anisa

Anisa's stunning portfolio book!

As we are getting ready for BLUE PRINT + SURTEX in May, I want to share the artists' portfolio books! First up, the über-talent, Anisa Makhoul! Want to see work before the show, just ask! Enjoy - Jennifer

Ready, Set PRINTSOURCE - here we come!

After a very successful show last year, look for artist’s agent Jennifer Nelson to return to Printsource in New York City on January 10th and 11th, 2017. Jennifer will be there representing the terrifically talented illustrators of Jennifer Nelson Artists: Anisa Makhoul, Bee Brown, Jennifer Orkin Lewis, Jill Howarth, Kelly Angelovic, Lauren Lowen, Miriam Bos, Rachel Grant and Rae Ritchie. 

“This is one show that we come back to every year. It has been good for us before and now we have some new artists to introduce, so we expect it will be even better,” said Jennifer Nelson from JNA’s Boston office. “These days it’s not uncommon to do business with a client for years without ever actually meeting in person. So we relish these occasions when we can meet face-to-face with the wonderful people who buy our art. Sure, it’s business, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves.”

With an expanded roster that now includes nine amazing illustrators, Jennifer looks forward to dazzling art buyers with a wealth of stunning new images. JNA’s artists specialize in a kind of hand-crafted look that conveys a warmth and sincerity that’s hard to find in today’s digital world. Although each artists has her own unique style, all of them create works that are quirky, feminine and fun. 

“It will be great to see our favorite customers again this year, and to meet some of them for the first time. Of course, the best part is meeting new people and making new friends! The art attracts people to our booth and that naturally starts a conversation.” Attendees should make an appointment with Jennifer in advance, to avoid disappointment. “If we miss you in January we’ll have to wait until August, and that’s just too long!”

Jennifer Nelson Artists is still a relative newcomer to the surface design world. But since their launch in January of 2015 they have been creating piles of new art and making literally hundreds of licensing deals. “We’ve been busy!” said Jennifer.

Printsource is the main resource for surface and textile design for America's major manufacturers, retailers and catalogs, covering such industries as men's, children's and women's apparel, bed and bath, kitchen and tabletop, paper goods and stationery, wall coverings, window fashions and other surface and textile design applications.

Nearly 2 years of Greeting Cards from Jennifer Nelson Artlsts!

In January, we will celebrate two years in the business - these are the cards we currently have out in the marketplace. Enjoy!

Hello! My name is Anisa.

WEEK ONE: Flow Magazine has asked me to blog for them on Wednesdays all month.  We thought it would be fun to share these posts over here too! 

I was born in Lansing, Michigan, and I was a very creative child.  I was always interested in sewing or painting, or anything that involved colors. I studied printmaking at Minneapolis College of Art & Design.  

After college I just wanted to travel the U.S.  so I funded my trip by sewing hand made dresses, and selling them at music concerts, It was a great way to see my country.  It also started me into a business printing, sewing and later manufacturing my own clothing. 

I made clothes and sold under the label Makool for many years.  When I gave birth to my son 5 years ago, my love for travel and adventure won again and we decided to move from Portland, Oregon to Amsterdam, NL.  

Anisa at work.

While living in Amsterdam I fell in love with the canal houses and the bicycles and I began painting and drawing. I started taking classes in illustration, and before I knew it I had a new career.  

Last year we moved back from Amsterdam, to Portland.  Portland is on the West Coast of the U.S. right above California.  It's in a temperate rain forest.  It rains a lot here, but the rain makes it very green.  

The city is covered in moss, ferns, fog and old growth trees.  It feels good to live here, the city seems to glow green, it’s very healing.  I missed this living in Amsterdam. 

I’m excited to share my creative process as well as some of my inspiration over the next few weeks.  I hope you’ll visit my website and follow me on Instagram.

Enjoy! - Anisa

WEEK TWO: I thought today it would be nice if I gave you a tour of my new studio. Part of the incentive for me to move to Portland from Amsterdam was that I would have a new house. Our house was finished last June and we were able to move in after a long wait. My favorite room is my studio, it’s open with concrete floors and floor to ceiling windows facing the south. It’s a L shape so it’s hard to photograph, also on the day I took these picture we had some unexpected sunshine in Portland, it’s very rare.

You can see my cat “Happy Kids T.V.”, showing you the butterflies I did for this month’s issue of Flow. She’s a Devon Rex cat and she likes to come to my studio and find things she can attack. 

This is where I spend the majority of my time. I like to draw with pencils or calligraphy pens, and paint with gouache, ink, or acrylic. I mostly don’t keep sketch books unless I’m traveling. I prefer to make a bunch of drawings, and tape them to the wall. I work with my drawings in photoshop and I find that having them taped to the wall, lets me see everything I have without toggling through folders. 

Thanks for stopping by my studio. Next week I’m going to introduce you to some of my friends. - Anisa

WEEK THREE: 

This week I wanted to show you how I stay creative and social.  Having creative social outlets helps me to stay inspired, by thinking about making art in different ways. 

Portland is a very creative city, I feel fortunate to be a part of the art community.  Last year a group of women artists started an event called “Ladies Drawing Night”, it a private group,  when I was asked to join I was very excited.  The group meets once a month, we get together to sit around a table, drink wine, share snacks, and make art.  This has connected me with some amazingly talented local women, whom I admire, and it’s been a great resource.  Last month I brought my camera along to share a picture with you. 

(pictured here, from the right around the table is  Lena Podesta, Adrienne Vita, Vera Brosgol, Peg Serena, Tara Lilly, Kinoko Evans, and the little blue person on pink paper is by Rilla Alexander) 

Another project I do with friends is “Stamp Art Club”, once a month we each make a postage stamp based on a theme.  There are four of us, and we make these images to share on  Instagram.  We have a hashtag #stampartclub if you’d like to view the whole project. 

The artists are Tara Lilly from Portland, Oregon, Monika Forsberg from London, and Kate Mason from Australia.

One great thing about stamp art club is that it keeps me in touch with friends who live far away.   We are doing a project together so we can’t fall out of touch, also it insures that I have one playful assignment every month that’s just for myself.  So much of what you do as an illustrator is making work for clients, constantly thinking about what the client wants can get tiresome. 

I hope to encourage other creatives out there to begin some sort of “creative playground”, someplace where there’s no pressure just connecting with other artists in fun ways.  It can help to get you out of your own head, and the connections you'll make are priceless. - Anisa

View fullsize

WEEK 4: I used to think I couldn’t draw, but now I think drawing is like a muscle if you don’t use it’s not very strong and the more you use it the better it works.  

When I was in college, I always got C’s in drawing no matter how much energy I put into the class. This was discouraging for me and I only took the required amount of drawing to graduate art school.  I ended up studying photography and printmaking.  

After college I went on to teach myself how to sew and design patterns for clothing.  I did some screen printing on the clothing, but not very much.  I spent the next 10 years building up a business, selling hand made clothing designs.  Meanwhile I always felt something was missing.  I noticed myself spending time on the internet admiring the work of artists and illustrators. 

It was when I moved from Portland to Amsterdam that I stopped the clothing business it just wasn’t possible to move it.  I had a lot of time to be alone with my creativity which was really nagging me.  I felt lost not having a creative outlet.  One day when I was on Amazon shopping for books a suggestion caught my eye. It was Lilla Rogers “I just like to make things”, the title alone spoke to me and I ordered the book.  Shortly after, I began taking her classes, and things just snowballed from there.  Today I couldn’t imagine not drawing and painting every day, it feels like I’ve been doing this my whole life. 

Here’s a suggestion to get into drawing.  Give yourself an assignment.  I used to tell myself I’m just going to draw an object 50 times.  I discovered if you draw a chicken 50 times it’s not possible to have 50 bad drawings of a chicken a few of them will be interesting and pretty good. It’s a great way to get yourself into drawing and to discover your style. 

Thanks you for spending the month with me, I loved blogging every week.  - Anisa

JNA artists in FLOW!

Wow, wow, wow! I am SO HAPPY to see the artists featured in FLOW this month! If you don't know, Flow - check them out here. You can subscribe to the magazine, Flow Weekly, find inspiring blogs + articles + great links to illustrators worldwide, and more! Design delights abound!

Both Jennifer and Anisa are featured this month!

Jennifer Orkin Lewis's (August Wren) gorgeous feature!

Complete with stunning postcards to mail!

This is one of Anisa's pieces that first caught my eye.

More exciting work to share in future issues and a book! Enjoy! - Jennifer

The Portland Chimney Swifts

I recently got a really great commission and I wanted to share it with you. 

Portland hosts North Americas largest concentration of Vaux’s Swifts. Every September the birds nest in the chimney at Chapman Elementary School.  Vaux Swifts normally nest in hollowed out snags of old growth trees, but we have lost a lot of our old growth trees, and the largest population now nests in this chimney here in Portland.  In the 80’s when the birds began nesting in the chimney the school stopped using it’s heating system during the weeks of roosting.  Students and teachers wore sweaters and jackets until the end of September.  In 2003 the Audubon Society donated a new heating system to the school. Now the chimney is maintained sorely for the Swifts.  

You can imagine my excitement when I was approached to illustrate this beautiful scene.  The Swifts are a beloved Portland event, hundreds of folks gather every night in September to watch the show.  Enjoy - Anisa

Stamps by Monika Forsberg

As a member of Jennifer Nelson Artists I enjoy the work of the other illustrators but I don’t often get to see them or work with them. Here’s what happened when we had a rare chance to collaborate.

One night at dinner whilst doodling with some fellow artists, I  noticed that some of us have a tendency to fill up every available space in a drawing, while others (like me) tend to use a lot of negative space. So I thought I’d try switching it around and experimenting with adding art to every inch of the page.

I met Anisa Makhoul  my fellow artist at JNA for the very first time this summer. We met by the sea in Brighton when she was travelling around in Europe with her family. Anisa and I enjoyed a couple of days together and our sons Oslo and Reginald became friends, laughing, eating ice cream and getting up to mischief. I love Anisa's work, she is a fantastic girl and so funny. We had a blast and we said “We need to find a way to collaborate.”

What we came up with was to make stamps, because its a way to travel the world without getting on a plane. Being an illustrator gets rather lonely sometimes and projects like these are a brilliant way to communicate and spend time with like-minded people.

The first theme chosen was horses so I indulged in a bit of pony homage and drew some chubby horses. Then I got sidetracked into making motorcycles as my mind raced away with a made-up word association game. Horses - Horsepower - Motorbikes.

Anisa chose the second theme: love. I got off to a rocky start but then I started drawing little tiny Mexican tin hearts and soon... my love stamp was born. That’s the true story behind my new stamp art. Enjoy - Monika

Welcome Anisa Makhoul!

What can I say? I am simply overjoyed to announce Anisa Makhoul has joined us! Anisa has a talent like no other in the industry. Her quirky sensibility married with this cozy home style is simply irresistible to me and I hope to you as well!

You can see more of Anisa's work here and by requesting a private gallery of her work. Welcome, Anisa Makhoul, we are SO GLAD you are here! - Jennifer