FAQ

Background
Where are you from?
I was born in Plymouth, MA and raised there and overseas. I moved to Santa Monica, CA in my early 20’s and spent almost 20 wonderful years near the beach before relocating to Atlanta, GA with my husband in 2013.
When did you start drawing?
I loved drawing as a child and all throughout school (special thanks to my High School Art Teacher, Mrs. Dunbar, from whom I learned so much!), but stopped in adulthood. There didn’t seem to be any room for it in my career as a TV Producer. In 2012 I was seriously injured while filming in the Amazon jungle (more on this below), and during my recovery I started drawing and painting again as therapy. I tapped into something that I didn’t realize had been missing from my life. Once I had recovered from my injuries I went back to producing, but eventually left to become a fulltime artist in 2017.
APPEARANCES & EVENTS
Do you attend festivals or other events?
For up-to-date details of my upcoming events and appearances, visit our Events Page or sign up for my newsletter in the footer of this page.
SHIPPING & RETURNS
How fast will my order ship?
Orders placed by 9am CST will ship within 2—3 business days. Orders placed after 9am CST will ship within 3 – 5 business days. All packages are shipped from Fredericksburg, TX so it can sometimes take 6 or more business days for packages to reach the West Coast via First Class Mail. Priority Mail packages are usually delivered within three days of shipping, but the USPS does not guarantee delivery within a certain time frame for Priority packages (so I can’t either, unfortunately).
Do you ship internationally?
Yes! Please note that if you choose standard First Class international shipping, we cannot promise your package will arrive by a certain date. Sometimes packages are held up in Customs for seemingly no reason, and transit times vary wildly.
What’s your return policy?
Unfortunately, I am unable to accept returns at this time unless the item is damaged in transit, so please review all size charts and details carefully when ordering.
What are your business hours?
I ship packages and return emails Monday to Friday: 9am – 5pm EST. We are closed Saturday and Sundays and all major holidays. If you contact us regarding your order outside of those hours, we'll get back to you as soon as we're back.
ART PROCESS & MATERIALS
What kind of paper and paints do you use?
I typically paint on Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper for watercolor and gouache, or I draw on Canson smooth paper for pen & ink and Copic markers. I always have a sketchbook, portable watercolor kit, and colored pencils with me!
How do you scan and print your artwork?
I scan on a Canon all-in-one printer / scanner, edit it, and then print onto archival fine art paper on an Epson Artisan R3000 printer.
Where do your ideas come from?
I inherited my weird sense of humor from my mom and I consider the greatest gift she’s ever given me. I credit it and a newfound love of painting for literally saving my life during a very dark period after my boat accident. When I finally decided to just draw what was in my head at any given moment instead of wondering whether anyone would “get it,” it was a spectacular feeling of freedom and the ideas started flowing!
Do you do custom work? Can I hire you?
Although I love taking on commissions, I am currently working my dream project of developing a children’s book and am unfortunately unable to accept any more custom work at this time.
You should illustrate a children’s book!
I’m working on this one as we speak ☺
WHOLESALE & LICENSING
Do you wholesale?
Yes! See this section for Wholesale Policies and an application.
Are you available for licensing?
Yes! Send all your inquiries to hellolemonzesty@gmail.com. Thanks!
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Can you talk more about your boat accident in the Amazon?
In 2012 I was filming a History Channel show on gold miners in Guyana, South America. At the time, I had over 15 years of experience producing dangerous and high-adrenaline shows (I was the first woman to film “Deadliest Catch” back in the day!). Producing a show in a remote and dangerous location always carries an inherent risk, but this particular show had the odds stacked against it. Unbeknownst to those of us headed to location, much of the budget had been cut before we ever left the U.S., and it wasn’t until we arrived in South America that the extent of the negligence became clear. One moonless night, while traveling on the river back to camp after a day of filming, our boat hit a rock. The driver of our boat had only one eye and he had no lights on his boat or any safety equipment of any kind. We hit the rock going about 45mph and everyone was thrown from the boat into the pitch-black water. I was knocked unconscious underwater and my cameraman saved my life. We made it back to camp, and when it came time to call a helicopter to evacuate me, it turned out that the entire Emergency Protocol plan was fake (we sign off on these plans prior to filming, and they are used as an assessment of risk in order to get insurance). There was no hospital, no medical plan, no Medevac helicopters. I ended up taking a gold-mining helicopter to a clinic in Venezuela and producing my own rescue. When I got back to the States and told the production company that I would need surgery, I was fired (as freelancers, there is rarely any recourse and we can be fired for any reason). I went on to have shoulder surgery and back surgery and spent almost three years in recovery. I started drawing and painting as a way to stay sane after the surgeries, and it truly got me through this very difficult and painful time in my life.
Holy shit. What happened to the production company?
I believe in The production company’s name was Red Line Films and they went out of business and disappeared.
This has nothing to do with art but…what happened next?
I started speaking up about safety in reality TV – my story was on the front page of the Los Angeles Sunday Times, and I appeared on The Today Show, KCRW and a few other outlets. Most people in the industry are afraid to speak up because of the non-disclosure agreements that we must sign. I felt very strongly that I needed to go public with my story. I still believe that the industry needs to change and must address not only on-set negligence, but also the rampant disregard for basic labor laws. Reality workers not get overtime, health insurance, or job security of any kind. There is no recourse for independent contractors who get hurt on the job. And unlike scripted television, reality TV workers do not have the protection of a union. There is no “code of conduct” for production companies and many of them do not take safety seriously. There are literally thousands of production companies, and as a freelancer it is often impossible to tell the good ones from the bad until you are on location. If you get hurt (which happens frequently), you can be fired. Although I am no longer in the industry, I continue to speak up about my own experiences in the hopes that others will fight back as well.
Anything else..?
Yes! In 2011 I founded Detroit’s first no-kill dog shelter! I had been following the stray dogs in Detroit around for almost all of 2010, and sold a show to Discovery Channel based on their comings and goings. The city shut down the series before we could film because they felt it made Detroit look bad. I was so furious that I posted a video with some of the footage I had shot, and then my co-worker and I formed a non-profit called Detroit Dog Rescue just so we could feel better about the show getting canceled. The video got a LOT of attention (NPR, Rolling Stone, Huffington Post, to name a few) and I got to speak up about the problem (CNN, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News), which led to a lot of donations, and now Detroit Dog Rescue saves over 500 dogs a year!
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