Spring Awakening

Christopher Kane SS14 

I'm 28 years old and for the greater part of my life I have been a crippling perfectionist. I have felt, from the time I was 7 years old, like a walking contradiction. There I was, a natural born artist with a love of expressing myself through paint, but was often too anxious about my work being perfect that it would paralyze me from creating. I never felt like my lines or my drawings were good enough. And as an adult I carried that through with me. I always felt like someone could paint my ideas better than I could until one day, very recently, that changed.

Sometimes, be it fate or chance, you meet people who change the course of your life forever. Almost a year ago I met a boy, another designer in his own right, and fell in love. I'm not one to advocate that love heals all because I think that your life, your happiness, is ultimately up to you. But sometimes you meet someone who holds a mirror to you and shows you what you are capable of, and no other scenario can do that quite like love can. Love is transformative. Love, and I mean real love, forces you to grow, to confront yourself, who you were until you met that person, and who you want to be as a result.

Frieze Art Fair New York 2014

Good Evening My Darlings!!

I hope you've all had an amazing start to your week. I am beyond exhausted right now, and just finished battling with HTML in blogger.com (#$%&!!), so it's about time for bed. BUT, I have been dying to share my Frieze Art Fair 2014 roundup with you all from this past Sunday, so here it comes!!

Are any of you unfamiliar with Frieze (also known as #selfie headquarters)? Well basically it is a BIG international contemporary art fair, that started back in 2012, and showcases around 190 of the top galleries worldwide. It is an exciting spectacle, like the equivalent of NYFW at Lincoln Center to the art world. People go to see and be seen, and I'm starting to believe that the art thrives on this behaviour; we the attendees are apart of the artistic commentary. That said, it is truly an adventure; one that involves a ferry ride to Randall's Island, and is worth exploring, at least for the sake of your Instagram ;p.


This year felt a little like Coachella, with Joe Jonas bopping around, and millennial girls standing in front of reflective art pieces taking portraits with their iPhones while gallerists rolled their eyes. But I guess that was the same last year too. I think the biggest difference for me was the lack of the truly outlandish (i.e. Jeff Koon's Balloon Dog). The art in general seemed a little more relatable but the clothes still remained performance based. The Illustration I drew above was referenced from STYLE.COM's collection of Frieze street style photography. I couldn't help but notice that art was imitating life here, or vice versa, with her Celine SS14 brushstroke skirt and surreal Chanel perfume bottle crossbody bag.

I took in a lot of inspiration from the illustrations and paint handling I saw and I'm hoping to test some techniques in my coming work. Have a look at my Frieze Frame scrapbook and let me know your thoughts. Does anyone else notice that the line between art and fashion is becoming increasingly blurred? You won't hear me complaining - that is my lifelong dream :).

Much love,
Meag xx

Just Another Fashion Blogger?!

A few weeks ago I reached out to a fairly popular illustration blog to enquire about a possible feature of my work. When the response came back telling me, very sweetly, that the blog curator didn't feel I had found my voice yet in my illustrations, I was quite simply...crushed. I've never been one to handle criticism easily. I always, by default, cling to the bad feedback over the good. Positive reinforcement sticks to me like water on a window - it hits and it slips until it's gone. So when I got this first real dose of constructive criticism about my work in a while, I started reevaluating everything, and I mean EVERYTHING...my work, my blog, my graphic design layouts, my Instagrams, every social media post. In part this is due to my own crazy neuroses, and trust me I have plenty, but also because I have been completely and utterly engrossed in social media for the past month. I'm eating, drinking, sleeping BLOG.

Ever since taking the Blog for Fashion Business course at FIT, I've started seeing my blog, my illustrations, my professional website, basically my entire web presence, with a hyper-critical eye. Furthermore, I oversee all the marketing efforts and social media at my full-time job, where I really spend the greater part of my days scouring through blog after blog. And to be honest, the more I've seen recently, the more everything is starting to look the same to me. I feel like there was some sort of memo that was released to an exclusive set of bloggers with the perfect prescription for how to blog with grace, and clearly I was left off the email list. Every outfit seems impeccably styled, every Instagram of aerial view brunches, fresh cut flowers and feet, berries and ice cream cones, life through rose colored designer sunglasses...I started feeling like a total outsider, like a total blogger failure.

Emma Stone - Met Gala 2014

Good Evening My Loves, 

Finally after a long day of not feeling so great, I managed to complete this fashion illustration of my ABSOLUTE favourite look from last night's Met Gala 2014 - the indelible Emma Stone in this stunning Thakoon gown. No one does tonal, pink on pink combos, better than Miss Stone. With that red hair, how could anyone possibly make the same impact?! AND if you follow me on instagram you can enter to WIN a signed copy of either versions of this illustration by #regramming it and tagging my Instagram handle @travelwritedraw!! Winners will be selected at random and announced on Friday. So if you love this illustration, and want the chance to win a signed copy of your favourite version, head over to instagram and show some #regram love. Now back to finishing the Buenos Aires postcard!!

Much love,
Meag xx

FAST FASHION

Jeremy Scott for MOSCHINO FW14 in NYC

Good Morning My Loves,

I hope you are all having a great start to your weekend. I spent yesterday evening and the greater part of my Saturday morning painting for this post, because it is inspired by a topic that I have been DYING to discuss with you all here on Travel Write Draw!! Fast fashion is a contemporary term that has been tossed around these past few years, to describe the crazy phenomenon of quick runway to retail turnaround of high end designs made accessible to the masses. Usually Zara and H&M are names that follow closely in the same sentence. But Fast Fashion for me is a MUCH more loaded term than one just used to describe the $1,500 sweater on the runway today, made available for $15 tomorrow. 

For one, this past February saw some of the biggest designers turning to the culture of fast food and lowbrow everyday grocery shopping (MOSCHINO and Chanel respectively) for inspiration for their collections. Not to mention that every blogger in attendance was already wearing the now infamous golden arches of MOSCHINO to the show, before it even came down the runway. And another prong of the term concerns the mania of instagram where I get my daily dose of anxiety scrolling through my fellow fashion illustrators posting new works everyday, upwards of 5 times per day. All the while, I'm sitting at my full-time job, 5 days a week, wishing I could just run home to sketch, paint, post, repeat.

Don't Wait for Opportunities, Create Them!

Good Evening My Darlings,

I hope you all had a wonderful day today wherever you are in the world. It's past 11 PM here in New York. I've just returned from a midweek dinner and glass of riesling at Momo Caffe with my boyfriend, for some much needed rest and relaxation with my love. Sadly last night marked the end of my Blogging for Fashion Business course at FIT. But we all know that endings usher in new beginnings, and this instance was/is no exception. Our brilliant instructor, social media expert Dalia Strum, left us with some final words yesterday that kept me thinking throughout the day today. She said "don't wait for opportunities, create them" and I was once again reminded that the power is all in me.

Rosie Assoulin: Stripe Sensation

Hello My Loves, 

Once again I find myself working late night at my computer and testing my own creative parameters. Having illustrated these Rosie Assoulin figures for the upcoming Buenos Aires postcard, I wanted to explore some new compositional possibilities. Rosie is undoubtedly my most favourite new NYC designer. The construction of the garments for the FW14 collection and bold, graphic choice of color lend themselves to such interesting visual arrangements. I'm still trying to settle my final composition for the BA postcard, but giving these figures a test run is helping to clear my mind a little more on how it's going to settle. I just keep reminding myself...learn from everything, always a work in progress. Stay tuned because the postcard is almost ready!!

Much love,
Meag xx

Work in Progress: Postcard from Buenos Aires

Good Evening My Loves,

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I've been feeling SO inspired lately, with the redesign of Travel Write Draw, my Blogging for Fashion Business course at FIT, and some much needed critical feedback on my illustration portfolio. I've been painting, practicing, and experimenting more than ever before these days and I can't wait to share the results with you here. One thing I don't do often on Travel Write Draw, is showcase to you all the process behind my pieces. After painting the illustration for Postcard from Rio de Janeiro, and my FIT classmates wanting to know more about the behind the scenes of its creation, I thought it would be really interesting to show the steps that go into illustrating an original Meagan Morrison piece.

Above are four images I snapped this weekend while conceptualizing and drafting my upcoming Buenos Aires postcard. The creative juices are flowing, as are the watercolor inks, and I couldn't be happier. My process for this piece went a little something like this: