About Us

We've moved! After seven beautiful years in Maple Falls WA, we've returned to Northern California a decade after our home burned in the Valley Fire. We are happy to be back.

While it was difficult to leave the beauty of our home in Maple Falls, we felt the land of our former home and friendships calling to us, and we made the move.

We look forward to continuing to provide beautiful, eco friendly bamboo greeting cards and other artsy gifts from beautiful Sebastopol, California. Our journey and the art continues...with more new designs coming soon. 

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Jocelyn Suzanne brings nature's inspiration into her illustrations with colorful birds, flowers, plants, rivers and patterns from what she sees around her. While sharing the business responsibilities, Jocelyn creates art and designs, John writes poetry and music and handles the shipping and wholesale orders. Its a team effort and labor of love and we are grateful to be on this adventure together.

In addition to offering greeting cards and art gifts we operate a graphic design and marketing boutique Bella Blue Designs. Please contact us for custom design work. Thank you for supporting our small business.

~ Jocelyn Suzanne and John Hoey

 

I was finishing college when I first got to use an Apple computer and "Fractal Design Painter". It was around 1992, and the early digital art program came in a paint can. I was also given a used Wacom pen and tablet from a friend of my mom who realized I had an interest in computers and art. Even though I was skeptical at first, I was told digital art would be the 'future'.  I loved taking my art into the vector realm to achieve such smooth lines, bright colors and crisp designs I find so satisfying but. I didn't take it too seriously for many years. 

Earlier, I had taken a few design classes in high school in the 80s and summer courses at the Art Center School of Design. Neither had computers. By 1993 I had no degree or professional design education but I had 5 years of college social studies classes, a little baby and enough computer art skills to get a job creating ads on the swing shift at a daily newspaper. I loved the printing press and enjoyed working on the computer.

I moved to the Bay Area and got a small contract illustrating for a video game project using a program called DPaint. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluxe_Paint).


Pretty quickly I got a job screen printing and was introduced to Adobe products. It was 1996 and I used Illustrator and Photoshop daily at a fast-paced screen printing shop in downtown San Jose. The Adobe building was  down the road and we were printing shirts for every up and coming Silicon Valley company and bay area event that was happening. I loved it. Working with licensed images like Hang Ten and Peanuts, sports teams, production companies and everything in between, I redrafted old artwork by hand and on the computer and created new artwork on demand for businesses. I learned fast production art skills and even used the dark room now and then.


Those skills helped as I moved on to work at a variety of ad agencies as a production artist and designer, drawing in whatever free time I could find! I learned all I know from the people I worked with.



Once my daughter had grown up my husband and now business partner relocated to a quiet rural town. I worked in a variety of roles at the popular hot springs retreat center and eventually became the publications manager for the hot springs. I was thrilled to be back doing what I loved.


Tragically, in 2015 the Valley Fire burned over Cobb Mountain where home was and down into the valley. Our home and Harbin Hot Springs were gone as were so many homes and businesses. We happened to be away that day doing errands. I had an appointment and had my iMac in Santa Rosa at the Apple store for a scheduled repair. Although my hard drive backups burned in the fire at home that day, my computer and two decades of digital and scanned artwork were safely in the Apple repair store, with us, miles away.

 

 "Treegirl" ink pen - 1995 - original lost in the fire.
 

Bella Blue in the Pacific Northwest

In the years since the fire, I have attended the Climate Reality Leadership Training to educate myself and help spread awareness about climate change. We moved to Washington State and found healing and relief from the trauma of the fire through the beauty of the lush forests and raging river. 

Inspiration flows. While in Washington, I volunteered to help protect and restore local salmon habitat by offering artwork and serving for three years on the board of directors for the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association.

And from wherever I am, I continue to work as a contractor for Harbin Hot Springs remotely, writing, designing and creating publication materials during their ongoing rebuilding process.

Through the love I put into any of my work, I hope to remind and inspire humans to appreciate and cherish the beauty of the natural world around us ~ and to celebrate it through art.



"Cobb Mountain" 2016. Black ink pen drawing scanned to, and colored in Photoshop.

The skills from two decades of digital art has taken a toll on my hands. I illustrate using a pressure sensitive Wacom tablet which allows me to draw for hours - pain free - by using such a light touch.

I draw each leaf, every flower, each section of a mandala carefully to keep the integrity of the natural flow that comes from hand drawn art. I print and offer my designs on greeting cards as a way to offer art affordably Some of the designs are very detailed and are intended to be printed large as wall murals.


Thank you for visiting!
Please get in touch if you have any questions or would like to discuss your custom design project.

Jocelyn