Macaroni and Glue: Featured Artist -- Hearts and Laserbeams

This week's featured artist is Steph Calvert of Hearts and Laserbeams. Offering everything from these supercool robot melamine plates to the "Fruit and Nuts" print series (see "Peach Robs a Bank with the O.C. Kids" below), the Hearts and Laserbeams shop is tons of fun to explore.

Tell me a little about yourself and what you do.
i'm an artist/designer living in long beach, california with my husband josh and cattle dog jimmy the greek. hearts and laserbeams has been my full-time job for a full year now, which is so exciting! there's two facets to the business which really helps it pay the bills. the main source of income for the company is freelance graphic design for various apparel companies doing fun character tees that later show up in places like hot topic and walmart, and then the more creatively fulfilling side is my own personal artwork. i love painting, drawing, sewing, knitting, crocheting, needlefelting, and pretty much any other crafty thing i can get my hands on!

What 3 words best describe your work?
wacky goodtimes fun!

What inspires you?
in my own personal work, i like to pull a lot of reference from things that have actually happened to me, jokes that have come up among friends, and other fun ideas that just come up. i'm totally into robots and cupcakes and stick figures so they all play a pretty big part in my artwork!

What drives you to create what you do?
my biggest driving force is that if hearts and laserbeams doesn't work out, i'll have to go out and get a real job!

What makes your work unique?
there's a real sense of lighthearted fun to it. i'm a big believer that i should be having fun doing what i'm doing since it's my own stuff - if i'm not enjoying myself than what's the point?

What role does your work play in your life? What role would you like it to play?
oh i am always working on some level, whether it's actually creating artwork, or spending time on the internets marketing the hell outta my stuff, or making mental lists of all the things i'd like to get done! i feel like i do have the ability to shut it off though, so that i can have good solid quality time with family and friends. i think ultimately i would love to be able to cut back on the work load a little, and concentrate more on the art/design side of things and less on the backend stuff like web design and accounting, but i'm honestly not a big enough company to hire help yet!

How do you see your work and/or your business evolving in the next five years?
i hope i hope this real estate market picks up because when we finally sell our condo we'll be moving to a place with room for an art studio, meaning i can start screenprinting my own tees again! (if you or someone you know is looking for a condo in downtown long beach, ca, be sure to check out www.1919beverlyway103.com!) along with that, i'm working towards designing coordinating lines of housewares and paper goods so i can start concentrating on getting wholesale orders from shops across the country - in the next five years i'd love to grow that to the point where i'm making more money from my own artwork and less from the design work i'm doing for others - it's just way more creatively fulfilling, you know? i wanna be the next paul frank! but you know, the paul frank where paul frank was still there. :)