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it was another gorgeous, sunny day today, and i loved every minute of it.
there was a new drawing:
some newly assembled file drawers (and no bloody fingers) -yippee!:
+ some exiting news:
i will be doing a two-person show with matte stevens in october at nahcotta!
to top it off, we had purple potatoes for dinner, and they were both delicious + lovely.
ps:
have you heard she + him yet?
say what now? ikea directions make me laugh.
the kids are on vacation this week and i'm in spring putter mode, so we made a trip down to ikea last weekend for a few things we needed. i felt like i really knew what i wanted there, but it still took over three hours to figure it all out and by the time we ate lunch/dinner there we all had that wacky glazed-over look in our eyes. does that happen to you? it was a long day, but i left feeling convinced i'd be a more organized, better person going forward. ha.
i've been putting stuff together over the past few days in between applying bandaids, serving snacky meals on the fly, and enjoying time with the kids and their friends. (i forgot how filthy my kids tend to get at this time of year, when they're outside until its dark and i'm begging them to come in.)
in other news, i have some cool art-related stuff going on:
- i now have a shop on supermarket - i really love the site's spare look and design, and there's some excellent stuff to be found that i hadn't seen before - super fun browsing.
- i'll be participating in the old school show at uppercase gallery this fall.
- i'm looking into a way to have my art available for vinyl cling enlargements to order - a lot of people have emailed and asked me for this option; i'll keep you posted!
it is sunny and gorgeous here - how about where you are? enjoy your day.
one thing i've thought about a lot over the past year is what an adjustment it's been to go from a busy workplace full of friends and peers to working alone. being by myself is sometimes a great thing because it allows me to really concentrate on what i'm doing (or space off in a million directions if it's that kind of day,) but i definitely feel lonely sometimes. and i don't always know how to answer when someone asks me what i've been up to. this was one of those days where i asked myself what the hell did i do all day?
it's a good exercise to think about it.
it started with some coffee and a doodle that became a somewhat elaborate drawing...then there was a bit of time spent packing shop orders and changing the laundry, doing the dishes, a little blog reading + link clicking...and back to the doodle, which i was liking, so i checked to see if i had any gocco screens or bulbs. the next thing i knew i was making a gocco master and printing with orange onto whatever paper i could find around. the color choice was definitely inspired by the lovely ranunculus flowers that continue to be delight me - that, and i had a full tube of ink.
five hours, woosh! gone. there could definitely be worse jobs. now i'm off to pick up the kids and have a bit of human interaction with other parents at the playground. it's a gorgeous day. i hope you enjoy your day, too.
i've begun a major spring cleaning/purge around here. it feels so good! i feel like i can see things again, you know? it is inspiring me to want to paint and rearrange things here and there. it's so much nicer than the way i was feeling all winter - a kind of 'i hate it here. i hate snow, i hate everything' feeling. well, maybe hate is strong word, but a good summary for what i think was a decent case of seasonal affective depression. the older i get, the more important the seasonal stuff seems to my overall well-being. even my pandora stations seem to know it's spring; they're not playing the depressing stuff today. it's all good.
after i put away all of the mittens, hats and snow boots yesterday (and did a little happy dance, which probably sealed the fact that we will get a blizzard in the next few days) i snapped this picture because i suddenly remembered that i like this little corner. the green is cheerful and i am digging pussywillows right now.
this is a new collage/papercutting piece. i love the colors in it. 
i just found out that aprill and i will be sharing a booth in june at renegade craft fair in brooklyn. last year she came as meg's and my helper, and i am so excited that she'll be showing off her gorgeous yarn and wares this time around. i had a great time last year and am looking forward to it - though i seriously need to get my act in gear. we're going to miss you there this year, meg!
finally, i have a very serious question for my gardening friends out there: what do you recommend for a black-thumbed gal with a pretty large amount of shade in her yard who wants to overcome her fears and plant some things that won't die this year? i would love some suggestions. thanks so much in advance!
hi! it's friday, and i'm feeling pretty happy about that.
i think i am in love with the idea of spring right now, having enjoyed a wonderfully warm and sunny day yesterday. it's time - this winter was just way too damn long. and every year when this time comes around, spring makes me feel in love with color again, so i thought i would share a bit of color with you tonight.
these are a series of collages i just finished. 
and these are some lovely ranunculus flowers that are currently making me feel very happy.
have a lovely weekend.
you might remember this piece, which was a commission earlier this year for an extremely nice person. my eight year old was pretty sad to see it go, since she'd supervised much of its creation and kept me company for some of the many hours i fussed over it. she has asked many times time since then for a big piece of art for her room, 'like that one you sent to pennsylvania, mom.'
mrs. bossy can be very persistent. and persuasive.
so on a whim and in secret last week i ordered a vinyl cling in size super huge (4x3 feet) by uploading a high resolution digital file here. it was simple and cheap and i got to approve a proof within 24 hours of the order. it arrived yesterday, and we unrolled it to let it settle a bit. it was wild to see my art in a large format like this - but the quality was really nice and crisp. the instructions recommended a two person installation, but this morning i did it myself with a satisfying and painless outcome. she loves it and i think it suits her room, which is a mix of old quilts and random mismatched sheets. she loves a lot of color and pattern, like her mom.
now i am wondering what other art i can turn into vinyl clings. :)
i caught the papercutting fever this week. i guess i've always cut a lot of paper, but i've never felt wacky about it, like it was all i wanted to do, until this week. i used to use an exacto knife for everything during college, and would happily spend hours cutting tiny circles, rectangles and squares out for my 2-D design class and other little fussy projects, but recently have been using sharp little tiny fiskars scissors much more. i know i'm not alone in loving and feeling inspired by lots of great papercutting happening all over the place lately, like rob ryan (one of my very favorite artists), amy karol's great kits, and skinny laminx's flowers. wow, right? they've all got it going on as far as i'm concerned. 
i was feeling really sick for a lot of the week and started papercutting while watching episodes of dexter on my computer - i had never seen it before because we don't have cable, and i'd written renting it off for awhile thinking that it would be too gruesome for me, but i have had a big old crush on michael hall ever since six feet under and decided to give it a try - it's really excellent and dark and funny. the acting is outstanding and i love all of the characters. so good. definitely a bit gruesome but not as much as you might expect, you know, for a show about a do-gooder serial killer. i've digressed. watching something while papercutting is kind of a nice way to take it slow and not get too gnarled up and stiff because you're gripping the exacto too hard and fussing about it, because you have to look up and pay attention after every couple of cuts, right?
i have been doing this freehand, ie not drawing it out ahead of time + just kind of going with it, and i think there's sort of a positive and negative to that. i like the freeform organic look of it but sometimes box myself into a corner with my lack of planning. it's all a work in progress right now and it's fun to play around with. i've now made it through season one of dexter and am trying to resist the urge to read spoilers about season two. i've moved on to craftsanity + this american life podcasts and am enjoying them immensely. any other good podcasts or tv series you recommend? i think i'm going to be papercutting for awhile now. :)
my friend susan from sulu-design wrote a surprise post about my art today and i am blushing all the way from this portland to her portland. thank you, susan! (i have written about her earrings here before, but if you haven't seen them yet, go and look at them right now - they're gorgeous and affordable and you should own several pairs.)
today is a pretty big day for several of my friends:
it's the publication date for amanda soule's creative family! and there are some lovely illustrations in the book by betsy thompson and photographs by jessie fields. congratulations, women! i'm so excited for you all. amanda is having a book launch party along with an art opening for some embroidered pieces she's been working on at edith and edna this friday night - i will be hiding over in the introverts corner, quietly celebrating while trying not to get in anyone's way, because i predict it might be a little bit crowded. just saying. :)
