hello!
I’m an illustrator, surface pattern designer, and fiber artist from the southern US. I live here with my husband, young son, and our four sweet cats.
I’m Marinda, but you can call me Mindy.
Like most artists, I’ve been making since I was little. Drawing in notebooks, sketching up outfits, crocheting chains and chains of stitches. My drawings made their way out of my sketchbooks and onto my jeans, skin, and even my walls. I was encouraged to pursue art throughout all of my childhood by my dad, an artist in his own right.
My creativity was further inspired by watching my mom’s ingenuity and gentle skill as she created Halloween costumes and anything else my sibling and I would dream up.
I’m a homebody and find it hard to change up my daily routine. I start my day with a mug of lightly caffeinated warm tea latte while I ease myself into awakeness. I try to use the time while my son is in school to work on client projects and explore all the art and fiber design ideas I have stored away in my head.
I have a small studio in my home where I do most of my editing and a lot of drawing and creating, but finding digital art and getting an iPad opened up a more accessible way of making art for me — portability, an endless color palette, digital brushes and pencils, and multiple drawing programs to try. I can take my iPad with me as far as on vacation or as near as the living room couch.
My art is honest, warm, and welcoming. Vintage fashion and color palettes of old vintage prints inspire me. I’m also inspired by the wildflowers I grew up with, like the lilac bushes and yellow jonquils in my grandma’s front yard, or the dandelions that lined the curvy, old, small-town road where I grew up.
about tales of butterflies
I originally started tales of butterflies nearly twelve years ago as a place to share outfit of the days, things I was crocheting, things I found inspiring, and the occassional journal entry. It’s seen me through the early years of motherhood, business changes, surgery, and mental health ups and downs, going through several of its own metamorphoses. But my dream has always been for tales of butterflies to be honest yet hopeful, whether I’ve always succeeded in that or not.
Whatever shape it takes in the future, I hope you’ll settle in with a cup of your favorite tea and have a look around.
it’s my hope that my art is like a little bright spot in your sometimes weary day-to-day. Life isn’t always sunshine and butterflies, but sometimes, it is.
