About Bella Blue Earth
Bella Blue Earth is nestled in the foothills of Mt. Baker deep in the mossy forest where wild rivers flow, salmon spawn, and bald eagles feast. Jocelyn Suzanne brings nature's inspiration into her illustrations with colorful birds, flowers, plants, rivers and patterns from what she sees around her. While Jocelyn creates art and designs, John handles the business and wholesale orders. Its a team effort and labor of love and we are grateful to be on this adventure together.
Our business is small - we truly appreciate you shopping with us and with our stockists. Please contact us with any questions!
~ Jocelyn Suzanne and John Hoey
About the Artist
I’ve illustrated for fun since I was a child. Most of my life I drew with ink pen and colored pencils. Now I use Adobe Illustrator’s “pencil” tool, with a Wacom Intuos Pro pen and tablet, a form of art called “vector” art. The tablet lays flat on my desk and I look my monitor as I draw. Vector art is infinitely resizable because it does not use pixels. Vector graphics are points, lines, curves and shapes based on mathematical formulas. I love to work with the crisp lines and smooth curves.
After two decades as a full time computer production artist, rarely finding time to create my own artwork, my hands had become worn from the busy, fast paced production work. Drawing was painful and difficult and I had to stop the work I loved. Eventually, after some years went by, I realized the pressure sensitive Wacom pen tool offered me a chance to draw pain free with a light touch and gentle grip on the thick pen. It took a few years of practice each night to feel adept using a digital pen for my art. But with practice, the technology that wore out my hands also ended up offering me a way to draw. For the first time in my life, after decades of creating for other people for my job, I finally began to focus on my own creations.
Repeating patterns and unlikely combinations of colors in our natural surroundings fascinate and call to me. Like a puzzle, I’m consumed to find a way to draw the underlying fabric and pattern of nature that originally caught my eye. Once I begin a piece of art I often spend many months on it. Vector art allows infinite zoom and the ability to really dig in and experiment with shapes and colors. It’s sometimes hard to stop adding details.
Most of my art features scenery of Whatcom County. More recently my focus is a giant climate “envisioning” illustrated narrative, intended to inspire hope and imaginative innovation in future generations.
My husband and I moved to Washington after a wildfire. Most often my creative projects are driven by my passion for faster climate action and responsible stewardship of Earth.
I'm honored that my art has been used to help support N-SEA, Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, helping support salmon recovery in Whatcom County, WA, where I currently serve on the board of directors.
My artwork can also be seen in many projects for Harbin Hot Springs, Northern California's cherished hot springs retreat center located in Lake County, CA where I continue to work full time as a graphic design contractor to support the rebuilding efforts after the devastating Valley Fire of 2015.
After we lost our home in the wildfire I attended the Climate Reality Leadership Training in Denver, Colorado in 2017. You too can participate in this program to help educate your community about climate change. Visit www.climaterealityproject.org/training and help make a difference!!
If you are looking for graphic design or custom illustration for your project, please visit BellaBlueDesigns.com.
Thank you for visiting!