ABOUT ME

Hello! My name is Amy; I’m an illustrator. Custom-designed and hand-painted murals are my specialty. I also create hand-painted furnishings and wall art. I’ve been working as an illustrator in various capacities for the past 22 years. I’ve done commercial work for advertising agencies, created storyboards and corporate identity pieces. I’ve also sold my hand-painted items in several retail shops and at local art festivals. Most often my work comes from clients who commission me to create custom pieces.

Hand-painted wooden cheese box, with a view of a Finger Lakes Winery.

I started all this in 1989 when I graduated from the University of Dayton in Ohio with a degree in Visual Communication Design, majoring in Illustration. After graduating, I did all my freelance illustration and painting while working other full time jobs! In June of 2009, I decided that I needed to tip-the-scales and give my illustration business the attention it deserved. I then began working full time in my studio, located in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York.

Me, signing a mural in Corn Hill Fine Wines & Spirits, Rochester NY

I am obsessed with trying to become an expert in mural-painting! I have worked very hard learning about every aspect of custom-designed and hand-painted murals. Over the years, I have painted dozens of murals and I will never take for granted the experience each one has presented me! I’ve painted murals on walls, floors, and ceilings both interior and exterior, and for commercial and residential use. I love all the challenges involved! I hope you will take some time to peek at my portfolio site, www.amycolburn.com where I’ve posted several projects, each with lots of photos.

A mural done for 4-H Camp Bristol Hills, Bristol, NY

Detail of another one of my hand-painted murals

Model railroad backdrop mural in progress

I will always welcome honest feedback! It is important to me to keep growing as an artist, and always be reaching new standards for my work. Your feedback will help me accomplish that!

I’ve also created a unique collection of illustrated, themed alphabet letters. The first product to feature these letters are alphabet letter plaques. Each plaque features one letter, and they can be hung on a wall to spell a word, name or initials! “To illustrate” literally means to tell a story through pictures. Each of the alphabet collections represents a “story”, based on a theme. Hanging them in your home will help you to tell your own personal story!

Two of the illustrated alphabet letters from the "Vintage Farmhouse" collection

The alphabet letter plaques are currently being sold in gift boutiques in Upstate New York, where I live and work. I hope to wholesale to several more shops across the state in the coming months. I’m currently building more collections, painting more letters, and designing more products which will feature the illustrated letters. I’ve created a web site where you can learn more about the letter plaques here: www.illustratedalphabets.com.

This family has placed their last name, from the "Primitive" collection, above a doorway!

One initial, from the "Vintage Farmhouse" collection, hanging from an antique cabinet!

For some reason, I consider my studio just about the tiniest on the planet. I don’t know exactly why I think this. Lately, I have considered that maybe it really isn’t THAT tiny!! Maybe it’s just me! (…No, I’m not particularly large, either!!) By that I mean, maybe it’s just that my plans are big. Sometimes even my work is big! (Like the 150 square foot mural over an indoor pool!) I like to think big, and I have lots of goals for myself and my career. Maybe it’s a good thing that I don’t get too comfortable in that tiny space! ~ I don’t for a second want you to think I am ungrateful. Actually, it’s just the opposite! I am so blessed to have the amazing studio work space that I have now. When I first started out, I was working in my parent’s 200+ year old cellar, in a corner, with no virtually no natural light! (My dad helped by putting in a mixture of both incandescent and florescent lighting.) I worked there for years, even after I no longer lived there. When my husband and I bought our own home, there was a tiny little shed on the property that was used mostly as garden storage. My husband thought I was nuts when I said I wanted that to be my art studio! But, alas, what an upgrade from the cellar! My husband and my dad rigged up the electric, dry-walled the whole interior, and put in windows where there weren’t any! So, now I have a gorgeous view of the backyard, the vegetable garden, the playground, the barn. From where I sit at my work bench, I can watch my kids play in the yard. (<– There’s that “big picture” for ya.)

Honest-to-goodness proof that my garden WAS weeded. Once.

This is not the exact view from my studio, although I can see this barn from my window. I love these old windows and weathered boards.

I am no stranger to very hard work (my friends have been known to pull a “nap intervention” on me!), and I realize that’s exactly what has gotten me to where I am today. Hard work, and good strong roots. I am reminded of that each time I go to work in my lovely, tiny little studio. The one thing that reminds me of this fact most is my work bench (which takes up half of it!). The bench itself is actually a hand-me-down from my Papa, my dad’s dad. He built the bench in the 1950′s; NOT as an art table, but for another reason… (~ please read the whole bizarre story on the “work bench” page! )

Fact: The background on this blog is one of my actual drop cloths. I once had my lovely and talented (photographer) intern Alison Hickey design my newsletter for me. She laid my drop cloth out on the floor, got on a ladder and took a photo of it, making it useful as a digital backdrop. So you see authentic dribbles and splots from past projects!