Interview with Kyle & Courtney Harmon of Screen Eggs and Ham

Biography


We are a husband/wife team (Kyle & Courtney) with the most beautiful baby girl, Sophia. We both grew up in Manton, a teeny tiny town in Northern Michigan, where we will be moving back to soon. We currently live in a small farming community Coopersville, Mi just outside of what I think is a huge city (Grand Rapids, Mi) where Kyle goes to Kendall College of Art and Design, for art education. We got to know one another after I caught Kyle staring at me in LaF's High School art class, while we were painting a backdrop for a Elementary Christmas play together. I'm not going to lie my mind was shouting to me, “Oh my god Kyle Harmon, is checking me out! Play it cool, don't act like you care” then I ever so calmly turned away from him and could feel the bright red begin to appear on my face.. (FYI every girl from our school would have felt that way, he was the attractive, athletic “bad boy” type, that wasn't actually bad) Definitely one of the most embarrassingly exciting moments in my life (although I've never told him). From there I decided the best way to nonchalantly get to know him (secretly make him my boyfriend) would have to be of course MSN Messenger. Our messenger relationship quickly turned into actual friends, then boyfriend/girlfriend, then best friends, to eventually husband & wife/business partners.


Why do we print?

We print because we love it, printing brings so much happiness to our lives. It's a wonderful feeling to make a living doing what we love, creating artwork together for other people.




What is your favorite print medium and why?

We don't necessarily have a specific favorite print medium, but our new obsession is with printing onto ceramic pieces.


How long have you been printing and how has your work evolved?


We've been printing on and off together since High School art class (6 years ago) where our teacher Mr. LaFreniere had a local screen-printer come in to teach Kyle how to screen print, and that's when we really began creating together. Our work has evolved and molded into team creations featuring both of our strengths in everything we do, it works out fantastic because what one of us lacks in, the other tends to excel at. Before when we would begin our creative processes we would almost always try to think of elaborate ideas with deep meanings embedded into them and now we try to make things that people would like to have hung in there home, it excites us every time we get another sale to know that one more household will have our artwork hung on their wall.


What inspires you?



Seeing color palettes inspire me. I love going into home depot and making a fool of myself by taking every paint sample I can get my hands on, although I'm quite sure Kyle finds it embarrassing.

How do your promote your work?


We primarily promote our work within Etsy, definitely one of the more important items on my long, ever growing, dreaded “to-do” list.

Are you working on any particular projects now?


We are currently working on making educational inexpensive large posters for children's rooms (a new obsession for me being a new mom), (examples- playfully colorful world Typography maps, numbers, & alphabets) for our other Etsy shop

We also are working on a series of artwork for Tellurex (a company that offers thermoelectric solutions) they will be featured at the Redline exhibit in the Smithsonian Gallery.  The Redline exhibit will feature more than 30 projects that reflect a growing movement among designers, engineers, and social entrepreneurs to create low-cost solutions for everyday problems both globally and locally.
 

Tell us one random fact about yourself


Kyle collects and organizes football cards.   Courtney collects and organizes paint samples.


Check out Kyle and Courtneys Etsy Shop and Second Etsy Shop