Artist Spotlight
A Day in the Life of Leeré Aldrich (Lee-ray) . . .
How does your day begin?
Because my office and studio are in my home I try to get an early start (before the kids are up). I’m up by 6:00 in the summer – 5:00 during the school year. After I work out I get to work. As a licensing artist I wear three hats during the day – my business hat, my graphic designer’s hat and my illustrator’s hat. I try to get the business part done first – usually e-mails, letters and phone calls to clients. Then I pick either a graphic design day (product layout) or an illustrator day (designing new art lines and painting). I average close to 60 hours a week of work. But, my number one creative habit is NO TV! We haven’t had a TV for 10 years and without all that negative energy and mindless entertainment my creative side is free to expand. The whole family is the same way.
What are some of your creative habits?
love to sit on my deck in the summer time and create new lines with nature all around me. I often have deer, moose, elk, chipmunks, raccoons, fox and a hundred birds to keep me company. I also like to be diverse. I have several styles, a realistic style, a cute style, a crazy style (like Family Frenzy) and a more contemporary style. It’s fun and helps me to be more creative by designing with all my styles. I have an increased client base because of this too.
What other art related jobs do you do?
I am a licensing artist which means my artwork goes on products for sale around the world. I often have to think about my client’s products in order to design my line because with licensing you don’t have a specific assignment. Ellison and Provo Craft are also two of my favorite business partners. I have designed a good portion of the new Sizzix Impressions line and the graffiti alphabet and wet paint alphabet by Sizzix.
What are your future plans?
I want to continue to expand my licensing career. There is so much potential in this area. I would also love to illustrate children’s books and am currently talking to a big book chain about doing some illustration assignments with them. I would also like to lecture at colleges to help get art students off to a quicker, easier start if they choose to run their own businesses and license their work.
My husband and I are building a float plane and we look forward to having some time to fly it. I want to finish getting my pilot’s license as well. I want to continue to ski until I’m too old to do it and hope to have time to do some recreational ski racing again soon.
Final thoughts?
I have two kids (Ryan 17 and Kendra 15) we have a dog named Moose – my husband –Scott is an airline pilot. We live in Park City, Utah where we built our house 10 years ago. I love to ski, bike and hike.
It was actually digital clip art that got me back into designing. I was a stay at home mom for years while the kids were young. Once they got into middle school I thought about going back to work. I had decided to put out my own digital clip art package (At The Cabin) and contacted Provo Craft about marketing it for me they took it and not only marketed it but also made me a Provo Craft and Center Street Design artist. Then they hooked me up with pcCrafter (who I love to work with) and everything else is history! Even when I’m working 60 – 80 hours a week I LOVE what I do, it never even feels like work.
To view more of Leeré's art CLICK HERE:
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