Artisan Profile: Claudia Pearson
Allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite series of items I’ve seen this year: Claudia Pearson’s seasonal collection of towels, calendars, and prints.
Born in England and trained as a graphic designer, Claudia moved to New York in 1994 to work as an illustrator. Over these past sixteen years, Claudia has illustrated for a variety of clients, including The New Yorker, Elle Decor, GQ, and Calvin Klein. In addition to her commercial gigs, she published a children’s book, Tribal Alphabet, in 2008. If you’re acquainted with Claudia’s work–or some of these images here look slightly familiar–this is possibly because numerous design blogs have celebrated her seasonal series, including Design Sponge and The Kitchn. And in fact, after I talked to Claudia last week, Terrain‘s “holiday gift guide for foodies” email popped up in my inbox, featuring Claudia’s seasonal towels!
These food focused illustrations bear a marked contrast in style from her other work (which is featured on her website). The food, while flat, is bright and earthy: minimalist without being barren. When Claudia first started selling on Etsy in 2008, she listed just a few pieces, including a seasonal tea towel calendar. Because her calendar had a such a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, she asked her friend, Chef Sung Uni Lee, to create recipes inspired by her product illustrations. She then illustrated these recipes as cards and prints.
Claudia sells many items you can mix and match, for yourself or as gifts, including a 2011 tea towel and calendar, a set of Four Seasons tea towels (or just one, of your favorite season), recipe cards (with the illustrated recipes mentioned above), larger prints of those recipes (I especially like the plum ketchup print), or a Buy Local Coloring Book, for the doodler/kid in all of us!
Claudia is selling her work in person at the Union Square Holiday Market (as part of the {New New} Etsy booth) until December 24th and at Gifted until December 23rd. Her last shipping day before the holidays is December 20th, so if you’ve seen something that’s piqued your interest, order now!
Finally, if you’re in the Union Square area of Manhattan, wander through the Greenmarket (*you should already do this!). After chatting with the vendors and farmers and buying the food you need, take a moment to swing by the GrowNYC tent: Claudia is collaborating with GrowNYC by illustrating seasonal posters for them to display. You might be able to spot her illustration of winter squash. In the Spring, they’ll be featuring her illustration of herbs.
Stay tuned for a question and answer post with Claudia about what inspires her, her background, and her connection to seasonal eating.
