We’re excited to announce we’ve partnered with Uber to offer all guests who are new to Uber a complimentary ride up to $20 using the promo code ARTSTAR
Uber is an iPhone/Android app that lets you tag your location and summon a professional driver to your side within minutes. Once in the car, the driver will take you wherever you need to go. The fare is billed to your card, with no need to tip, so you don’t have to worry about handling cash.
Just click the promo code below and sign up! You’ll be riding in style in no time at all.
We are thrilled to announce that we will be participating in this year’s Crafty Bastards Fair in DC! We have heard so many incredible things about this show over the years and are so thankful to have the opportunity to participate this year for the first time ever!!
For those of you that have not heard of Crafty Bastards, it is very similar to our annual Art Star Craft Bazaar. The show features some of the best makers from across the country, a beer garden, DC’s best food trucks, family friendly activities + more at Union Market in DC on September 28th + 29th from 10-5.
We have partnered with Crafty Bastards and are able to offer all of you some special deals if you plan to make the trip to the show. You won’t be disappointed, we promise!
There is a small fee to enter Crafty Bastards ($5 for the day / $10 Weekend) but we scored you a special deal – a weekend pass for just $8! Because one day will not be enough, believe me! Enter Promo Code Vendor2013 when purchasing a weekend ticket and you will get the discount!
For those of you who want to take a trip to DC for Crafty Bastards, check out the Courtyard Marriott. It’s conveniently located within walking distance of the festival and they are offering a special rate of $126 per night, September 28th and 29th. Book your room today via this link or by calling 1-800-321-2111 and mention the Crafty Bastards room block. If you plan to stay and shop for the weekend, don’t forget to enter discount code VENDOR2013 when buying your tickets to get a special $8 weekend pass!
Speaking of comfort, we know how shopping for great crafts can make one, well, parched! With that in mind, Crafty Bastards for the first time in history will be serving craft beer. In partnership with New Belgium Brewing, there will be an outdoor beer garden featuring several of New Belgium’s amazing Belgian-inspired beers, plus food from local vendors and food trucks. We have a special discount code for you craft beer lovers, a single day pass and 2 beers for $10 when you enter the discount code CRAFTYBEERME when purchasing your ticket online.
We hope to see you there! Be sure to visit our booth and say hi!
Photo by Mikey Ilagan, Courtesy of Night Market Philly
This local favorite street festival features the best of the city’s ethnic restaurants & gourmet food trucks in different neighborhoods throughout Philly. This Thursday it will be in our hood – NoLibs & we couldn’t be more excited! We will be set up at the festival, along with 9 other local crafters.
Guapos Tacos (one of my personal favorites) Photo by Mikey Ilagan / Courtesy of Night Market Philly
There will be more than 40 vendors offering Philly’s yummiest food for under $5. Yards Brewing Company will also be selling beer. Get FREE beer by signing up for LEVEL UP (this year’s sponsor) online with promo code FOODTRUST or at the event. LEVEL UP will also make a $5 donation to the food trust in your name when you sign up. I think I’ll do just that!
Photo by Mikey Ilagan / Courtesy of Night Market Philly
EVEN BETTER – become a “Friend of Night Market” for $50 & get FREE beer PLUS FREE food, cocktails & more!
My favorite dessert food truck: Sweetbox Cupcakes will be there! Photo by Mikey Ilagan / Courtesy of Night Market Philly
Photo by Mikey Ilagan / Courtesy of Night Market PhillyPhoto by Mikey Ilagan / Courtesy of Night Market PhillyPhoto by Mikey Ilagan / Courtesy of Night Market PhillyPhoto by Mikey Ilagan / Courtesy of Night Market Philly
Art Star artist, Amy Rice, has put up these 4 Valentines that you can download for FREE!
(click the image above to download)
*Tips: Use a heavier stock white paper and set your printer to the highest quality.*
Also, check out our new Valentines Day Section on our website
& pick up a token of love for your sweetie. Enter Promo Code LoveBird for 15% off your purchase through Feb. 15th!
Here are some quick gift ideas:
stitch up messages of love with these kits by Chez-Sucre-Chez, $12.50-$14.50"I Like The Way You Smell" print on wood veneer by Spread the Love, $27You're Sweet letterpress notecard by Sycamore Street Press, $4.50
Free Fare
A Collection of Landscape Inspired Prints by Shawn Hileman April 13th – May 26th, 2013
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 13th, 6-8pm
Free & Open to the public
Art Star is pleased to announce Free Fare, a collection of landscape inspired prints by Philadelphia printer & graphic designer, Shawn Hileman. The exhibition will be on display from April 13th – May 26th, 2013. An opening reception with the artist will be held on Saturday, May 13th from 6-8pm. Light refreshments will be provided.
Shawn Hileman’s first solo exhibition at Art Star will include a series of screenprinted abstract landscapes based on the desire to explore the world. The work will take the viewer on a journey that spans from desolate desert to mystical mountain side castles. An illustrated collection of ephemera will accompany the expansive fields of color and texture. With a keen graphic eye and a lust for playful illustration, the prints will feature a symbiotic relationship between paper and ink
Shawn received his BFA in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and has since worked as an Art Director and Freelance Graphic Designer / Printer. He started Masthead Print Studio in 2010, which serves as a hub for local Philly printmakers to create & show their work. The Studio features monthly exhibitions, curated by Hileman & other Masthead members, as well as special events & lectures. His freelance clients include Urban Outfitters, Academy of Music, World Café Live, and Electric Factory, amongst many others. He also creates his own line of silkscreened posters & prints, which you can find at Masthead, Art Star, Etsy & Little Paper Planes in CA.
Thanks to all of our customers who shopped handmade this holiday season. Purchasing an item from our shop directly supports over 50 national artists – many of whom live right here in Philly. These times are tough, so we appreciate everyone that made a commitment to shopping local & handmade this season. It really makes a difference!!
Now that the holidays are over – its time to get organized. Pick up one of our 2012 Calendars by Art Star favorites: Amy Rice, Rachel Bone, Eleanor Grosch, & Kurt Halsey. We worked directly with these artists to create these calendars & they can only be found at Art Star. We only made a limited quantity, so pick one up while they are still in stock.
Rachel Bone 2012 Calendar
Rachel Bone is a Baltimore based artist, painter & apparel designer whose illustrative paintings center around women on absurd adventures with open ended narratives and symbolism. This series – titled I Bet You – plays with typographical design. Each painting subtly represents one alphabet letter, while still standing alone as individual works of art. Signed prints of the entire alphabet series are available through Art Star. Rachel also runs the hand-printed, folk inspired apparel line Red Prairie Press which is carried at boutiques across the country (including Art Star) and sold online.
Eleanor Grosch 2012 Calendar
Eleanor Grosch is a Philadelphia based artists who loves animals; you name it, she’s probably drawn it! Eleanor’s unique graphic perspective aims to simplify line and playfully arrange form to capture the essence of each animal she draws. She’s well-known for her graphic take on our feathered, furry, and fuzzy friends. With roots in modernist design, she brings the mid-century aesthetic up-to-date.
Kurt Halsey 2012
We have been working with Portland based artist, Kurt Halsey, since we opened up shop in 2004. We had no idea how huge of an online following he had when we asked him to exhibit his work in our shop. He is still by far one of our best selling artists!
Kurt captures small, precious moments in time through his sweet renderings of couples & animals just living life. The imagery is illustrative in nature & the artist typically incorporates text, which is simple yet poetic. The calendar includes all new work, rich in browns & sepia tones of drawings on collaged found papers. Grab this calendar while you still can. We only have 1 box left!
Amy Rice 2012 Calendar
Beginning with not-so-traditional print making methods (hand cut stencils and a Japanese Gocco printmaking toy) Minneapolis based mixed-media artistAmy Rice makes original, one-of-kind pieces by additionally employing acrylic, gouache, ink and collage. Her “canvases” range from weathered wood panels and discarded objects to antique envelopes, age-worn love letters, and found journal pages yellowed with time.
Amy’s imagery, nostalgic and wistful, is largely biographical and reflective of her pensive nature. She draws inspiration from childhood memories growing up on a Midwestern farm, the urban community in which she now lives, bicycles, street art, gardening, collective endeavors that challenge hierarchy, acts of compassion, downright silliness and things with wings.
Amy has exhibited her work in galleries throughout the United States, Canada and the U.K.
Art Star: Tell us a bit about your work. What inspires your imagery? Andrea Courchene: As an artist and musician I am divided between two creative worlds. My process of creating art is intrinsically like refining a passage of music through practice, writing original pieces, or listening to my favorite recordings–it is quite involved. I have always found a special interest in the connections between the sound of music and visual art. Performing music inspires my art with an appreciation for the audience as well; people of all ages can find an instrument, an animal, or a scene which may capture their imagination. I’m also inspired by vintage illustrations, nature and living in New York City.
AS: Are you formally trained? If so, where did you study? AC: My formal education is in music. I have a bachelors and master’s degree in music. I’ve always loved creating art as a hobby as far back as elementary school. I’ve taken a few art classes at both my undergraduate college as well as in graduate school. I recently completed two courses at Columbia University: one in painting and the other, lithography. I’m also starting an etching class there this Spring.
Andrea working on a lithograph
AS: Are you originally from New York? What are some of your favorite places in NYC to go for inspiration? AC: I was born in England and immigrated to Florida with my family when I was in high school. Since then I’ve been lucky to travel around and have recently lived in Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and am now based in New York City. New York City is a wonderfully cosmopolitan city but I find that I am most inspired by my neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan which is always bustling and has the added advantage of two great, enormous city parks on each side: Riverside and Central Park.
poster by Paper Sparrow
AS: Are you able to focus on your work full time? Do you have a day job? Any employees? AC: Paper-Sparrow is currently my full-time work. I am fortunate to be able to supplement my income with freelance performance and teaching music. I do get a lot of support and an extra pair of hands for shipping packages from my partner, Paul, who is also a cellist.
AS: What materials do you use for the original illustrations? AC: It varies from piece to piece. I tend to gravitate towards paint: gouache, watercolors and acrylics with added textures and backgrounds. Other times I simply draw in pen and ink and digitally manipulate the images in photoshop and illustrator.
AS: Any new and exciting projects in the works? AC: This year I’m focusing on expanding my line of greeting cards and taking on more freelance opportunities.
AS: Aside from Etsy & Art Star, where else do you sell/show your work? AC: I tend to sell at a few craft fairs every year in the summers and the holiday season. I also wholesale my cards to a number of boutiques and stores across the US and to a few in Australia.
“Smoky Mountain Gypsy Jazz” by Paper Sparrow
AS: Who are some of your favorite artists/illustrators? AC: I have pretty eclectic taste but I particularly love art of the bauhaus movement and mid-century design. I love scouring vintage children’s books for illustrations by Martin and Alice Provensen, M. Sasek, Sandy Hoffman, Aliki Brandenberg and Brian Wildsmith.
AS: What music are you listening to these days? AC: We always have music playing in our apartment. You can bet on lots of classical and chamber music, jazz, Django Reinhardt and some 60s pop.
Check out our collection of work by Andrea’s line, Paper Sparrow, HERE
We are very excited to announce that our friends over at Half and a Third will be taking over our back gallery space from February 11th – March 19th. They will be creating their own shop within our space.
Half and a Third are local couple Ian Stafford and Katey Mangels. The pair combines their expertise in woodworking and graphic design to create quality goods for the home. Inspired by everything from sacred geometry, world cultures, and mid-century modern design; Half and a Third strive to make goods that have a simplistic beauty & modern charm. Their collection includes a wide selection of items. Shoppers can expect to find furniture, coasters, clocks, prints, trivets, cutting boards, art prints and more.
Please join us for an opening reception for the Pop Up on February 11th from 4-7pm. The event will also include a Free Valentine’s Day Card Making Workshop with Bonnie Kaye Studio. Bonnie will be bringing her beautiful hand screen printed wrapping papers for you to use to cut up and collage a special card for your valentine or galentine! All materials provided. Pop on in anytime during the event (no reservations required). Bring friends! 20% off all Bonnie Kaye Goods during the event.
Complimentary Snacks and Libations provided.
Visit our Facebook Invite and let us know if you can make it
hello! welcome to the home of art star’s new blog. We will be posting artist features, new happenings in the store, events, etc. For the month of April, we will be focused mainly on our upcoming Art Star Craft Bazaar. Erin & I have been hard at work organizing & promoting the show. This year we got in the most applications to date, which is awesome but it made jurying the show very tough. We believe we chose the best of the best. We tried very hard to make sure that there is something for everyone & I think we succeeded in doing that. The complete vendor list is now up on the site – check it out! We will be posting a map of the space w/ booth numbers, along with a corresponding numerical booth number list & alphabetical list, so you can easily find all your favorites. Check back for that soon!
We are also working w/ local artist, Eleanor Grosch, to re-design our website. Eleanor designed this blog for us & the website will look similar. We will have a search engine so it will be easy to find specific items, work by particular artists, etc. We will also be expanding our shop categories & will be able to offer promo codes to our shoppers. We reward our loyal customers w/ a frequent buyer card in the shop & want to offer similar rewards to our online customers. We hope to have this up & running before the holiday season!
Shop Eleanor’s work on our site: ABC’s Print $40Modern Menagerie Mug $12
A couple of years ago someone told Erin and I that there was a rumor going around that we are Electric Factory heiresses and that is how we were able to start Art Star. I thought that was so funny. It couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
an old photo of Erin + I in our gallery! Photo by Angie Mason
We opened Art Star in our mid 20s on a shoe string budget. We were both right out of art school and struggling to make ends meet. We wanted to be able to do what we loved and also pay the bills. Being young and naive was a good thing for us. I don’t know if we’d have had the courage to start Art Star if we had this idea now that we are both getting close to 40.
Since we aren’t Electric Factory heiresses (do they exist?!) and really had no money to speak of, we had to be creative about how we could afford to start our business. We found a space in a new development that was offering free rent for the first few months and we jumped on it. We priced every single thing out, down to the staples. We told people what we were going to do and though many thought we were crazy, others were so supportive and offered their services for super cheap (or free) to help us get started! A woman who i was friendly with at The Clay Studio (where I worked at the time) gave me a Home Depot Gift Card which ended up having $800 on it. I didn’t even know her that well, she just believed in what we were trying to do. One family friend who was a lawyer looked over our lease for free, another family friend did all of our construction work at cost, and the list goes on.
We also came up with the idea to host a Raffle party to raise money. Friends donated art work and we hosted the party at a friend’s house in an old gymnassium turned apartment. We made $1,000. It came together pretty magically and we are so grateful to all the people that helped us get started. We’ve been in business now for over 12 years!
The future home of Black Hound Clay Studio
When Bethany Rusen of Stanley Chester and Albert came to us with her idea to open a co-working ceramic space in West Philly, we wanted to do whatever we could do to help her achieve her dream! We told her about our raffle and offered to host one for her in our space. Small business is important to us and we want to see more women start them!
Please help us, help Bethany, achieve her goals of opening up Black Hound Clay Studio (click that link to learn more about it). We will be hosting the raffle at Art Star this Saturday from 6-8pm in conjunction with the Closing Reception for our Pop Ups, which features Bethany’s line Stanley Chester + Albert, Le Puppet Regime, Wild Hart Paper Company, and West Oak Design. There will be a slew of ridiculously awesome raffle prizes, donated by some really amazing artists and local businesses. Bethany is posting many of them on our Facebook event invite HERE. Raffle Tickets are just $5 each and if you buy 10, you get 2 FREE! We will be announcing the winners at the end of the night! All money raised will go towards Black Hound Clay Studios opening expenses. It is NOT CHEAP to start a business, especially one that requires pricey equipment like kilns.
We hope you will join us! Oh and there will be free beer. It’s the least we can do as rumored Electric Factory heiresses.
