can you picture that September 28, 2006

Image from Muppets From Space, 1999, Columbia Pictures.

Hello Friends, it's Thursday! I hope you are all having a good week out there in the world.

It is fun times around here. We have a major house load of humans staying with us this week, and I think we have just enough space to squeeze everyone in.

Coffee and egg sandwiches are magically being cooked up in the morning, tomatoes are being watered, guitars and banjos are being plucked, whipped curried potato dinners and gigantico green salads are being made, drums and keyboards are colliding in the basement. Every inch of this house is being used, from the tip of the backyard, to the musty corners of the bedrooms. It feels a lot like the house in Muppets From Space, (pictured above.) Hurrah!

In the middle of all this, I'm getting ready for another art fair in about two weeks. This one is in Santa Barbara and it's a three day event that looks pretty spectacular. I'm trying to squeeze every bit of inspiration out of my cells to produce more paintings. It's kind of challenging but surprisingly fun. I think that I like to paint the best when there is a little chaos, and a little pressure...

More to come, please check back again soon!**

What's New Monday September 25, 2006

"Balloon Repair" sold

Hello Friends, Happy Monday!

It’s officially autumn here in Portland land. I love fall food (pumpkin bread and apple crisps making it to the top of the list.) Mostly I just love the cozy feeling of summer disappearing and the cool weather setting in.

We just got back into town after an amazing week in Chicago land and I have so much to tell all of you, I don’t really know where start. Ok, focus Johanna. Focus!

First off, a bit more about The Renegade Craft Fair. It was incredible! Swarms of people wandering around, heart stoppingly beautiful crafts, and awesome neighbors (Punkin Pie Productions, Vaya Bags, Mr. Pickles, Fern Works). I wish I had more time to come say hello to all of the awesome crafters and artists. I ran the booth by myself this year, and I was amazed by how generous and helpful everyone was.

A humungo rain storm swept through the fair at the end of the last day, making the whole break down process really wet, muddy, and hilarious. I had a brief moment of hysterical laughter when I was trying to collapse my tent in the middle of a sloshing mud pit of despair. Luckily there were lots of kind and helping hands around, so I lived to tell about it.

There is a lot cooking back here in the studio, so I’m going to be updating pretty frequently in the next few weeks. Thanks for stopping by and check back again soon!

What's New Tuesday September 19, 2006

Hello Friends. Happy Tuesday!

Wow, what an amazing weekend at the Renegade Craft Fair. It was great to meet all you kind, supportive, creative, helpful and awesome humans. I just want to thank everyone who helped make this the most successful event I've ever done. It was incredible! I don't really know where to begin, my brain is still processing the whole weekend. More about the fair and my awesome neighbors, in a few days...

I am relaxing now with Gabey and his family, here in Chicago Land. The weather has turned cold and rainy and I have a little bit of a cold to match. It's so nice to be curled up on the couch watching movies, eating roasted apples, and drinking tea. The best! I'm sort of back to business today, making my way through the fantastico aftermath of the weekend..(stacks of emails to be answered and images that need to be updated..!) But I'm taking breaks to watch really important things like, Best Celebrity Mug Shots, on VH1.

I have one painting that didn't sell at the fair. I just made it available in my etsy store. I will be making a whole new batch of paintings over the next few weeks, and putting them on the site at the beginning of October. Please check back again! If you would like to receive email updates about new paintings feel free to join my mailing list.

Have a great week everybody, and thanks again to everyone who came out to Renegade!

what's new Monday September 11, 2006

The Renegade Craft Fair in Wicker Park!!

Happy Monday! Hope you are all enjoying your September.

It's busy times around here. I am in the last stretch of painting and preparing for next weekend. I can't believe it's here already....

The Renegade Craft Fair!!

Renegade Craft Fair

September 16-17th

11am-6pm

Wicker Park

Chicago, IL

I'm heading out on Friday for the windy city. I have a whole new batch of paintings that I'm going to be bringing to the fair, and I can't wait to put them out!

I've just taken most everything out of the store on my site, to avoid any purchasing confusion. I will be posting all of the new paintings (sold and unsold) in the artwork section of this site, next week. Anything that is unsold, will go back into the store as well.

I've included a map here, and made my booth pink. It's booth number 86. I'm going to be running the booth by myself this time (sniff* I'm going to miss you Wendy!) so come on by and keep me company, any old time!

Viva la Renegade!

Renegade! September 09, 2006

Yay! I week from today is the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago! I can't wait!!

what's new tuesday September 05, 2006

Stocking Up For Winter, 16" x 20" for Illustration Friday

Hello Friends,

Happy Tuesday! I hope you all had a nice three day weekend.

It's that season again! Canning season! A time to take things that have been growing all summer, and stuff them into jars to eat throughout the year.

Now, I am not particularly adept at this task. In fact, I've never tried it. My family and friends on the other hand, are experts. They can everything from peaches and cherries to beans and tomatoes. Pickles and berry jam. Applesauce and pears.

Every year for as long as I can remember, my parents have spent Labor Day weekend in a hot and steamy kitchen, canning rows and and rows of sticky peaches. By the end of the weekend they are gathered around the beautiful finished jars, sweaty and tired, waiting anxiously for each one to seal before they are stashed safely away for the winter.

So it's no wonder I guess, that I've been painting canned things a lot lately. Especially since this is the first year that I've been around all the canning in quite awhile.

Next year I'm hoping to get a canning lesson from my Mom. It's the kind of thing that you need to learn properly, and not just for aesthetics. One false step (with the temperatures, or the sealing of the jars) and you could be eating one of your canned pears in December, and then keel over dead from batchulism. Dead I tell you! Or, so the disaster scenario in my brain plays out.

So for now, I'm going to just paint about it.

illustration friday August 31, 2006

Ratty Race, for Illustration Friday

So I have a little bitty obsession with long distance running. Marathons, relays, that kind of thing. It could be that I grew up in Eugene, running capitol of the world in the 80's, home of sweat bands and knee high gym socks. It was the birthplace of Nike when it was still a cool little company, and a lot of running stars trained there... Mary Slaney, Alberto Salazar, Steve Prefontaine.

It could also be that my family is really passionate about running. We did lots of little races when I was younger, like the "Truffle Trot" on Valentines Day, "Fools Run In The Rain" on April Fools day, where you ran in costume. (tricky but fun.) And the toughest one, a 10k called the Butte to Butte on the Fourth of July. I have amazing memories of all of these races, and watching just about any race these days, makes me cry and cheer like a crazy lady.

There is a big race here in Oregon that happened this last weekend, called the Hood to Coast. Runners relay in a 195 mile course from Mt.Hood to..(you guessed it..) the coast. We just happened to be driving home late Friday night when some of the runners were making their way through Portland. Ahh! They were so inspirational in their reflective vests and head lamps, running along the dark streets. I cheered wildly out the car window, enough to spook some of them and make them twist around suspiciously.

I haven't ever done a real long distance run, and it breaks my heart. It's a big dream of mine to pull it together and train for the long haul. Inch by inch I'm making a little progress. I'm hoping to be ready for the Turkey Trot by Thanksgiving...

what's new monday August 28, 2006

Nellie Bly, images from a History Place.

Hello friends! Happy Monday!

A nice warm last-weekend-in-August here in Portland land. The usual awesome-ness..barbecues, listening to some music, painting, strumming on ye olde ukulele....etc. I have a lot of new paintings, but they are all in the in between stages and not quite finished yet.

I also spent the weekend searching out free audio books to entertain me while I was working. I decided on listening to "Ten Days in the Mad House" by Nellie Bly. I remember learning about her when I was a kid, and was pretty happy to find this particular story floating around in the public domain. What an amazing lady, only nineteen and one of the first stunt reporters, (a lady stunt reporter in 1887! Who knew?). She manages to get herself committed to Blackwell Island Insane Asylum for ten days before her lawyer comes to release her. Oh man, it is a rough story. The treatment of the patients and ease that a person could be committed and trapped forever on that island will make your guts turn inside out. You can listen to the story for free, right here.

august ch-ch-changes August 24, 2006

A hawk or falcon or some kind of large bird captured, killed, and flew off with a bluejay, right in our yard yesterday. This morning, a similar bluejay and hawk fight woke us up! I can't believe that last August we were in Brooklyn, dealing with entirely different kinds of scuffles, (burglars, people being shot in front of our apartment...).

It's strange how dramatically life changed because of the decision we made to move to Oregon, and the plans we put into motion, last August. It makes me think about all of the choices that I make everyday, and how they shape my whole life. What will I be up to a year from now? What will all of you be up to? It could be anything! Maybe I will start making August the, plans-in-motion-month, and check in next August to see how life has changed.

What's New Monday August 21, 2006

"Mummies CAN Dance" 10" x 10" available on etsy

Hello my little empanadas,

Happy Monday! I hope you're all having a nice summer. It's winding down I see. Our lawn has officially dried out into a warm shade of yellow. August is on the down slope, and I'm sad to see it go! It's been really full of all of my favorite things..barbecues, swimming in rivers and lakes, bike rides, and eating pie.

I'm back in the studio after a week of hanging out with family. We camped out, swam, picked a million blackberries and transformed them into jam (and pie!), and had a big party on Saturday for my brother and my new sister-in-law. It's been awesome, but I am more than ready to be back in the studio today, getting down to business. Renegade is only a few weeks away, and the pile of to-do's are mounting.

It's been a weird transition, being a freelancer again. There are so many little kinks that I still need to work out. Mostly I just want to shake this feeling that I'm not doing things the "right" way. That feeling is the worst. Sometimes working on my own feels like this giant ship that I just barely know how to steer. And if I don't steer, who will? Pirates? No chance! You can't trust those stinkin pirates!