Text by Joseph M. Schuster • Photography by Mike Jensen

Linnea Riley’s passion for art is the result of both nature and nurture. Her mother was artistic; her maternal grandfather helped create a nature-study art course used by the Field Museum in Linnea’s native Chicago. “When I was a girl, I spent hours at the table, doing those lessons.” By the time she went off to the University of Illinois, she knew she wanted to be a painter and decided to study art. Halfway through, she changed her major to advertising and journalism. “I got nervous about being able to support myself as a painter,” she admits.     
   After graduating, she returned to Chicago and did illustrations for Montgomery Ward home furnishings ads before she and her husband, Michael, moved to California, then to Holland and England. “We wanted adventure; we wanted to see the world and live somewhere we hadn’t been before.”
   Eventually, they landed in Aspen, Colorado, running an import store for winter tourists. “But what do you do for money when you have two daughters to provide for and it doesn’t snow and there aren’t many tourists?” Ironically, to gain financial stability, she went back to her first love, art, and began the annual series of poster calendars that have become her trademark.

(a) The muffled cat (b) and the holiday-hued pencil come from two of her whimsical Christmas cards. “The green half of the pencil says ‘nice,’ while the red says ‘naughty.’ Notice that it’s more worn down.” (c) Linnea manages the business from a home office, but does her creative work on “a beautiful upper patio filled with flowers overlooking Lake Washington.”

(d) An illustration from the 2007 calendar reflects Linnea’s fascination with wind-up toys. (e) Her book, Mouse Mess, inspired a children’s activity box. (f) An impish bear skates across a Christmas card.

Today, Linnea’s work has turned into a cottage industry for herself and her family. Husband Michael, an MBA, handles the business side. Daughter Johanna designs the website and has her own popular “Hannah” calendar series. Daughter Kate used to help out, but is now an award-winning teacher in Hawaii.
   Linnea lives and works in a circa-1900 carriage house the family bought when they relocated to Seattle. “It became clear if we were going to grow, we couldn’t do it in Aspen. Getting in and out by plane for trade shows and press checks was too difficult from there.” Her home is quirky, she says. “It has a lot of charm. You can still see the three arches in front where the horse-drawn carriages would enter.” Her pride and joy is a lush city yard she tends herself “for therapy.” In season, it explodes with acanthus, violets, and blue hydrangeas.

(g) and (h) A sneak peek at illustrations for Linnea’s 2009 calendar. “It’s a complicated process. I often try out and reject as many as 50 different concepts for a calendar drawing before finding one I like.”

Aside from her calendars and cards, Linnea has produced two children’s books. One reviewer called Mouse Mess—about a mouse who invades a family’s kitchen—”a tasty frolic.” Her second book, Song of Night, was a collaboration: Daughter Kate wrote it and Linnea did the drawings. “Working with my daughters has been a rare and wonderful opportunity. When they were young, I saw them as children, but I’ve also had the chance see them as fully capable adults who are good at what they do. What a blessing.”

(i) The bulletin board is a collage of personally meaningful images, like the center photo of the Hawaiian garden where one of her daughters married.  (j) The antique portable typewriter still functions for short notes. “I don’t find new things like computers interesting to look at.”

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