swallowfield

hello, it's monday

i'm so excited about the great response to my little sale so far!  just a reminder that today and tomorrow are the last days to order sale priced prints or receive free shipping on original art. you can see my etsy shop announcement for more details. today i am mailing original art to kenya, which is a cool first for me.

i had some girl time with ellie this past weekend. i declare nine and a half to be a pretty great age. we saw race to witch mountain with melissa and her daughter (decently violent for a PG movie, i thought, but the girls declared it 'the good kind of scary') and we had some always delicious vegetarian food at the green elephant. the next day ellie and i visited the portland art museum  and had a swell time together. she said this piece by stuart davis reminded her of matte stephens' work, and i loved that (and it totally does.)   

i will be sparsely here this week and next until i finish up work for a bunch of deadlines. have a great week!

jen-11

in case you haven't heard about it yet, i'm excited to tell you about jen-11, a traveling exhibition i'm a part of which was dreamed up by jen khoshbin last year.

it features 11 artists named jennifer: jen altman, jen bradford, jen celio, jen garrido, jen gotsch, jen hseih, me, jen maestre, jen khoshbin, jen mcneely and jen renninger. there is a lovely jen-11 website you can look at with links to everyone and everything.

the first show will open at artstream studios in rochester, new hampshire this friday night, april 3rd. (i plan on being there and would love to meet you if you come!) in june/july it will be at uppercase gallery in calgary, canada and then it travels to composition in denver, colorado for august/september.

janine at uppercase has made an truly lovely book in support of the show, which is available from her website or at each of the galleries:

and a little movie that i love.

this is some work i made for the show:

nine little 6x6x1.5" mixed media collages on panels.

i'm excited! thank you so much to everyone who has had a hand in this project, and to all of the lovely bloggers who have been writing some nice press about us, too.

so moved.

i was incredibly moved and inspired by maira kalman's piece in yesterday's new york times.

when she posts each month it basically makes my weekend.

and...winners from my two year post!

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two prints of her choice will go to jo:

ooh, i love your artwork so much! congrats on your anniversary, and i really hope i win.
new music suggestions:
fruit bats (nothing new from them, but they are pretty upbeat, and pretty great)
animal collective's latest (dance beats)
"when life gives me lemons i make lemonade" from the boy least likely to's latest (ultimate non-depressing song)
"here comes the sun again" by m. ward is another song that is just so cheerful.
i should just make a playlist of cheerful songs and put it on my blog, maybe!

Posted by: jo | March 24, 2009 at 08:52 PM

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a set of cards will go to chris:

Congrats my dear! so very thrilled for all your successes on and offline!

Posted by: chd | March 24, 2009 at 12:43 PM

kind thanks to everyone who left a comment. i have so much great new music to listen to now. yippee. and i genuinely appreciated all of your nice words.

i would write more, but i have a 9.5 year old copy editor snuggled up with her chin on my shoulder alerting me to each and every typo, while simultaneously whispering 'you promised me we'd go out for bagel...bbbbaaaagggeeeeellllsss...you spelled another word wrong mom...bagels...." 

more new math

i am really loving this site, found via mean mama, (aka liz, who is currently smoking me at lexulous.)  she always has great links.

thank you

thank you so much to all who left comments and music suggestions yesterday! i have a huge new list to work through now, and i'm really excited. 

don't forget to leave a comment on my last post by friday night if you're interested in winning free stuff. 

it really starts to feel like spring to me when i can buy a fresh bouquet of ranunculus at whole foods for less than $10 bucks. i especially love this color, which you might know if you've clicked over from a feed reader in the last year and seen my header. i made a new + overdue header with this year's yellowy-orange ranunculus photo. i like the familiar, i guess. :)  

i am really loving the new decemberists CD, have you heard it yet?  not sure it qualifies as non-depressing though. 

have a great day!

anniversary sale {and a giveaway!}

today is the two year anniversary of when i began selling art on etsy.  my life has changed a lot since that time!  it is still hard for me to call myself an artist, but i am learning to go with the flow on that more lately. 

i'd like to offer a special sale from today through march 31st: i haven't been planning this for a long time or anything, but it seems like a good idea - to celebrate spring, and my etsy-versary. 

1.) all 8.5x11" or smaller prints in my shop are $12 ( regularly $18) - that's a super sweet discount!  fine print:  in order to get this discount you will need to email me through etsy and tell me which print(s) you want and i'll make a custom listing for you in my shop.  

2.) all originals will ship for free, anywhere in the world.  i've changed the shipping on all of them so all you need to do is click to purchase! 

you can see my shop here.

also, i am going to do a little giveaway. leave a comment between now and friday, march 27th by midnight EST, and i will draw two winners with a random number generator - the 1st winner will receive two prints of her/his choice, shipped to one location anywhere in the world. the second winner will receive a set of cards from my shop - also shipped anywhere.  (you don't have to do this, but if you feel like recommending some good newish music to me in your comment, that would be nice. i need some new music.  preferably some non-depressing music.) 

good luck!

thank you so much for visiting my blog and supporting my artwork over the past two years. 

extra light = good

hello! it's feeling spring-like around these parts, and that's been so good. it's inspiring work i'm making for some upcoming shows, and the light is making me feel pleasantly optimistic and less crabby. yay.  my family and i have started planning for a small greenhouse in our backyard this spring, which we're  all looking forward to. i am hoping it will help me with my black thumb.

this one is called, unsurprisingly, in the greenhouse, and it's for a small solo show i'm having at eyebuzz gallery in tarrytown, ny next month. (i am looking forward to meeting tara and tim, the owners, because up to now we've communicated only through email and letters, but they seem so great.)

i've mentioned a few time before that one of my best friends, nicole chaison, has being writing a hilarious parenting zine called hausfrau for the past several years. i'm excited to tell you that she has a real-live book coming out in june, AND that the passion of the hausfrau has been adapted to a play at portland stage company which opens tonight (and was written and is being performed by our dynamo friend lori bess weldon.) if you are local-ish i highly recommend going - i saw a preliminary run last year when it was in the beginning stages and it was  extremely funny and touching and excellent.  i can't wait to go and see it on the big stage.

and i'd like to wish a very happy 40th to my talented pal betsy thompson!  she's just one of many friends (myself included) who will turn 40 this year. i hope i can handle it half as gracefully as she has.

cheers!

march blur

march is a busy month for me every year.  long time readers might remember that my kids' school has an annual auction that i like to help out with, and that is taking up a decent chunk of my time right now. it's girl scout cookie delivery time, too. and i happen to live with a girl scout who takes it all extremely seriously.  

i mailed some art out to stylus, a salon in seattle that has lovely curated shows put on by laurie kearney of ghost gallery  -  i am part of a three person show opens this evening, march 13th, in belltown. you can see my work here and you can email ghost gallery at ghost.gallery@yahoo.com if you are interested in purchasing anything. 

the new issue of port city life magazine has some hand drawn type i made for an article on university of maine art collections - that was a really fun project. there are also some lovely photos in the issue by mav and a nice feature on my friend nicole chaison's hausfrau mothering zine and upcoming book release. (i am excited to tell you more on that soon.) 

(not the greatest photo but i am writing this entry at 5:30am and that's just the way it needs to be today. :) )

there are some crocuses popping up in the yard under the mountain of dirty crusty snow.  the sight of them each spring never fails to make me feel super happy. they're hardy little things. 

i really like shari's new blog: everyone needs a rock

if you have kids: we've been loving listening to the BFG audiobook read by natasha richardson. it's terrific.

my kitchen is on mati rose mcdonough's lovely blog this week.  meg gave me one of her prints last year and i love it. 

have a great weekend!

all right already

this new stuff i've been working on (for a show at ghost gallery in seattle, opening next week) is not an accurate indicator of the weather outside. this morning the windchill was below zero. in march. come on.  but you can tell by looking at the art that i've been busily dreaming of spring, right? 

you've probably seen this oren lavie video around the internet already, but i couldn't resist posting it here  because i love it so much. the stop motion is incredible and i am totally digging the song, which led me to find more of his music. in my brain, this music is now catalogued as the  "come on winter, get over already or i'll have to fight you" soundtrack.