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We hope you’re enjoying week 2 of the SpoonChallenge: A Month of Drawing. If you’re just now joining us, it’s not too late to sign up for the SpoonChallenge to receive daily drawing prompts, creative inspiration, and interviews with amazing illustrators and pattern designers. Share what you’re sketching with the hashtag #spoonchallenge on your social media platform of choice. If you’d like to jump in, follow the link after our artist interview to sign up for the SpoonChallenge!

Meet artist Beth Snyder, one of the creative ladies behind the letterpress company 1canoe2.

1Canoe2


What’s your day job? Do you create art or design full time?

I’d say that I design 50% of the time and I run 1canoe2 50% of the time.

Workspace_1
Workspace_2

In what medium do you best like to create?

Personally, I love fabric. Carrie (Shryock, Beth’s partner at 1canoe2), who does most of the illustrations for 1canoe2, paints with watercolor and gouache.

Tools_1
Tools_2

Describe your creative process. What’s a typical day like for you?

Our creative process is that first we brainstorm – either with our whole team or just Carrie and I, and then Carrie takes all those ideas home and works on illustrations. I scan the illustrations and then we sit and design together until we’re happy with the final product.

1canoe2 work

There is no typical day. That’s one of the best things about what we do.

Do you like to create repeating patterns? 

I like to take a little flower or something from one of Carrie’s illustrations and make it into a repeating pattern. You can make it look totally different that what it originally was.

Floral pattern

What’s the coolest thing you could imagine seeing covered in your artwork?

Well, we’re about to paint the side of our barn studio in one of Carrie’s original plaid patterns. We’re talking a 40ft wall — that’s about to be really cool!

Plaid Barn

How many times do you revisit or edit designs (or artwork) before releasing a final version?

We really don’t ever revise our work. We sit and work on it together for 4 or 5 hours until we’re happy, but we hardly ever do revisions after that first time we sit down together.

1canoe2 lost

What does design mean to you?

I think it’s translating an illustration or piece or artwork or your own experiences into something functional. I have a big brain and I use it!

Product_3

What song would best describe your creative process?

I think there’s a Bob Dylan song “I Don’t Want to Talk About it”. Just kidding, definitely “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea.

What’s in your toolbox?

Well, the great thing is that since Carrie and I have been doing this for over four years now, we have a nice library of hand lettered phrases and textures and patterns to work from. It’s really interesting to see how they come together in ways that they weren’t originally intended.

Textures and Phrases

Who influences your work? (this can be anyone, not just an artist) and why?

Carrie influences my work the most. She has a totally unique perspective and she doesn’t let me get by with anything but the best. She has a truly original vision.

If you were a protagonist in a novel, who would you be?

Laura Ingalls Wilder! She’s my fave.

What is the one place in the world that you would like to visit?

I’d really like to go somewhere in the Indonesia area. I’ve never been anywhere in that general region.

If you could only create art with one tool, what would it be?

Mine would be a sewing machine.

What’s a favorite tip you’ve learned for either creating art or design, or staying motivated and inspired to create? 

The more you create, the more you create. You just have to practice. It’s something you stay in shape for. And stop looking at Pinterest! Great inspiration and work doesn’t come from Pinterest, it comes from outside. If it’s on Pinterest, it’s already been done!

Buffalo

See 1canoe2’s lovely goods on their website, see their creative exploits on Instagram, visit their blog, and their fabric shop on Spoonflower.