what's new monday February 19, 2007

"Towards the Tundra" 16" x 20"

Hello friends!

Let's see here, where to begin? A lot has happened over the last two weeks, and I've been slow to update this here blog..

First off, the SCBWI conference. It was amazing of course, entirely inspiring and uplifting. I saw some remarkable illustrations in the showcase, heard some incredible speakers, drank some pretty strong coffee, and most of all, got to finally meet Courtney and Dee in person. As a matter-o-fact, Courtney did such a great job of re-capping the conference, I won't even attempt to do it again. Read all about it right here on her blog (and check out her awesome illustrations, too!)

My trip to New York as a whole was pretty incredible as well. I got to see a lot of friends that I've missed quite a bit since the last time I visited. I was lucky enough to spend a good amount of time with just about everybody I hoped to see, which was a little bit tricky. A lot of phone calls and subway rides. In the end I caught up with folks over beers, or tea, or thai food, or macaroni, or wandering around the Small Works show..and it was all absolutely lovely. It's nice to get a friendly blast of love like that, in one action packed week.

I got back just in time for Valentine's Day, (missing the winter storm in New York by about an hour, hooray!) and I surprised Gabe at work with a box of cupcakes , and a singing telegram from Saint Cupcake. Did I mention that the owner of saint cupcake was doing the singing, and the song was "Let's Get Physical" by Olivia Newton John? Why, yes. Yes it was.

The first few days of being back in Oregon land were filled with a lot of aimlessness and sleeping. The aimlessness persisted, so I painted my office a nice orangish-red color and slept some more. That seems to have done the trick. My brain is alive and functioning again, at more or less..full force. New things are in the works that I'm excited to share with you..

Thanks for checking in so much over the past few weeks, and have a good Monday!

Lovelove

what's new monday February 12, 2007

Hello friends!

I'm still here in NYC, operating on a teeny tiny amount of sleep. I'm having trouble doing things like stringing words together or typing, and my brain officially feels like a fuzzy, fuzzy peach..

All I can say is that I have a lot to say (especially about the fantastico SCBWI conference..) but I'm too mushy to formulate anything coherent.

I will be sure to give a proper run-down of the week, when my brain has returned to a non-peachy state..

Have a great Monday!

what's new..sunday night February 05, 2007

new paintings are available on etsy.

I'm taking a red-eye to New York tomorrow night..

I don't know if it's just nerves about the upcoming conference, or just general carelessness, but I've been living a life lately that is straight out of a super slapstick-y movie. Here are two of my biggest blooper highlights from the week:

numero uno: I fell down our living room stairs the other morning, just like in the movies. I totally slipped, whoop! with my feet up in the air and everything. What made it even more cinematic, (or whatever) was that I was holding a bowl of oatmeal in one hand and a blueberry smoothie in the other. I have a vague memory of thinking..'I'm going to have to let go of these two things if I want to save myself.'..so up they went into the air and all over absolutely everything. Luckily, true to the movies, I was totally fine (nothing was broken at least..). Just a lot of blueberry clean-up.

numero dos: Yesterday I was riding my bike home from the studio in the evening. It was dark, I was cold and tired and really hungry by the time I pulled up in front of our house. It's kind of a tough ride, so I'm usually really exhausted and short on patience under normal circumstances. But for some reason, as I was getting off my bike, and walking it up the front steps to our porch, my belt loop caught on the quick release handle to my bike seat, and I could not get free from it! I also couldn't really stand upright because of the angle. So I had to half squat while I tried and tried to free myself, but it was totally impossible.

Meanwhile there was some random crowd of people passing by on the sidewalk, watching me struggle so I decided to just bring the whole thing inside, and into the light to see what could possibly be the problem.

There I was, doing the chicken-squat-struggle-dance with the crowd behind me, trying to fish my keys out of my backpack that I couldn't get all the way off my back, (so it's contents were spilling everywhere, by the way..) and the more I struggled with the keys, the more my pants started FALLING DOWN, (yes truly..) until I eventually made my way inside and remedied the whole debacle by wiggling free of the cursed pants.

Even though I knew it was the most hilarious, ridiculous thing ever, it wasn't funny.

Well now it's a little funny.

Ok, a lot funny.....

I hope to see all of you New York folks while I'm there! And for everyone else.. I'm bringing my computer with, so I will be sure to post all adventures, and err, misadventures at some point.

Also, my store will remain open this week, thanks to a very loving and handsome human who has offered to do my shipping while I'm away. Hurrah! So shop away for Valentine's Day!

Lovelovelovelovelove

new painting.. February 02, 2007

I just put this new painting up on my welcome page. A nice thing to dream about on these chilly winter days..

what's new monday January 29, 2007

new mini paintings in the store!

Well it seems that I never posted the new illustration-y painting I've been working on.... It took a turn for the worst the other day, and hasn't recovered from it's fall from glory. Sadly, it's been banished to a dark corner of my studio until I can stop being mad at it. (.. a pretty good indicator that I could use some time away from the studio..)

Soon, I'm off to New York for a little creative re-charge time! Land of old friends, gigantico pizza slabs, cheap coffee, dog poo sidewalks, and painfully cold winter wind. Good thing I still have my jacket that looks and feels like a giant sleeping bag!

Here are some fun facts:

One year ago today we were getting ready to leave NYC to move to Oregon. (Wow, this year has gone crazy fast.)

Two years ago today, I was getting ready to launch this website!

On days like this where I feel nostaligic about time, I sometimes like to send emails to my future self ( Yes.. you really can send emails to your future self!) A pretty handy tool, if you want to make some psychic predictions, or just remind yourself to get a haircut.

Hope you are all having a fantastico Monday.

a very busy Thursday.. January 25, 2007

"Secret Houses" available on etsy.

Hi Friends! I just posted a few paintings in the store.

Hope you are all having a nice Thursday. I'm off to the studio to paint a bit more for the Last Exit show.

Thanks to everyone for your SCBWI postcard suggestions! I think I'm going to go with "Stocking Up For Winter"...but I'm in the middle of a new painting that I think might work well too. I'll post it here tomorrow..

vaguely familiar... January 22, 2007

Well, if this little painting looks familiar, that's because it is! I made something similar for the Santa Barbara art festival, and I decided to revisit it for the SCBWI conference. I think I'm going to work on it a bit more before I have it matted for the art display, but you get the idea.

I need to pick an image for my postcard for the conference, and I was wondering what you guys thought. I'm trying to decide between these three images...

a very snowy wednesday January 17, 2007

New mini paintings in the store!

Ahh, what a lovely time of year. It snowed here the other day. Enough to bring little p-town to a screeching halt and send tiny cars sliding into other cars...and to see buses, stuck in snow drifts like giant, tired mammoths.

I spent yesterday in the studio, and I think I might have been the only one in the whole enormous industrial building. It was so quiet and bright outside in the night-time when I finally packed it in to go home. I walked in the middle of streets that are usually packed with traffic and met up with Gabey for a very romantic snowy stroll through the neighborhood.

Now, it's starting to melt and I'm heading out again..

what's new monday January 15, 2007

Good morning fine feathered humans,

Lately I've been letting things stack up into unnecessarily large piles (around my house, studio, office, inbox, brain?) and life is starting to feel slightly inside out because of it. I'm getting ready to go to NYC in a couple of weeks for the SCBWI conference, and to arrange for an upcoming painting show at Last Exit, in Brooklyn.

I'm entering into the art display at the conference this year (*gulp*) so I've been fretting over which illustration I should enter, for quite awhile now. I'm almost done with it, so I'm going to post it here in a few days and see what you guys make of it. I feel absolutely vomitous just thinking about it. Isn't that strange? I think it's because illustrating kid's books is such a big dream of mine, that I feel completely raw and exposed actually doing something to pursue it...(instead of the sweaty-sweaty-avoiding-dance that I usually do..)

I hope you are all having a fantastico three day weekend. I am in the middle of a swamp of emails that I am slowly and methodically returning. So, if you've emailed me in the last week or so...I haven't forgotten about you! I'm getting there! I'm settling down with a big cup of coffee right this minute and preparing to get through them all...

a very knitty wednesday January 10, 2007

New mini paintings in the store!

Well, my first knitting class was fantastico. But I'm still convinced that I have some serious hand-eye coordination issues. The knitting teacher gave me one of those baffled, pitying looks. The very same kind of look that my drum teacher gave me on my first day of drum class a few years ago. It goes beyond being frustrated with my lack of being able to mimic a simple motion, it's the kind of look that says, "I am deeply concerned with your brain functionality." Ha!

All that aside, it was a blast. My sister and I sat together on a little couch and cackled our way through "casting on" and a few basic stitches. It's nice to have her there because we're both left handed and could show each other how our hands were supposed to look, once we got the hang of it.

On a side note, Wendy brought up a good point about the voting for My Favorite Mirror. The process does appear to have you buying something, but I assure you, you do not. You just have to "pretend" to buy the mirror, by filling in the quantity button and checking out.

Thanks for voting!