so, you know how hindus have their spring holi festival, which, as wiki says “culminates with a bonfire, throwing colored powder at each other, and going absolutely crazy”?

well, i love the colored powder idea but i teach in march so it’s hard to get to india, nepal or pakistan, or anywhere really, to properly participate.

enter the color run, a colored powder running tour hitting u.s. cities this year. you wear a white shirt and run three miles hitting different colored powder stations along the way. could be hokey, could also be tons of fun. i’d love to see/hear from anyone that’s participated in one of the other cities before it hits portland in august! thanks plenty of color for the head’s up!

thanks to catherine and her eagle eyes for spotting this!

This is apparently a short of a longer 3D documentary feature, the first in a collaboration of Louie Schwartzberg of Blacklight films (Movingart.tv) and Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti (fungi.com). omg, where can i go see it?! thanks bioneers for the head’s up!

featuring a marmot & a grouse!

…man, i have GOT to get a newer phone/camera!

aka: fox tail. this was my afternoon today!

a blurry photo of just-arrived press check sheets from my upcoming journal set with chronicle books. [it's really dark and dreary today].

commemorating last summer’s oregon coast camping tour with my friend kati and her girls. coincidentally it’s kati’s birthday today. press check sheets make excellent wrapping paper. and a good excuse to have fun with washi tape!

finally! a rainy dreary day here in portland so i can sit inside and draw mr. fox! a quick snap from a few hours ago.. he’s farther along now.

written by tove jansson, she of moomin fame. apparently she became a novelist later in life, which intrigues me. this understated story follows a few characters through a winter season in a small scandinavian village, including a hermit elderly well-to-do children’s book illustrator and her protagonist, a young woman without prospects determined to become her charge.

translated to english, the language and tone of the book is still very scandinavian. it was a good bedtime book to snuggle up with under the warm blankets in the dead of winter. there’s a fair amount of human-centered intrigue, but, no surprise, the nature-describing passages were my favorites:

“anna aemelin could render the ground in a forest so faithfully and in such minute detail that she missed not the tiniest needle. her watercolors were small and implacably naturalistic, and they were as pretty as the springy blanket of mosses and delicate plants that a person walks across in a dense forest but seldom really observes. anna aemelin made people see. they saw and recalled the essence of the forest, and, for a moment, experienced a vague yearning that felt pleasant and hopeful.”

and

“spring came closer. during the day, the soil under the trees steamed blue in the sun; the nights were ice cold and deep blue. it was a brilliantly beautiful time… one night, the wind began blowing in from the sea. katri lay listening, remembering the spring nights when she used to go down to the water to wait for the ice to break up. she’d been very young. and when it came time for the first seagulls, she used to go out and wait for them. they almost always came the same night every year. yes, they always came at night.”

morning project completed: the made-to-order & offset poster sections in the shop have now been reorganized by category. now it’s even easier to find a favorite!

hey, what are you doing july 13 – 15? come hang out with me and your other new best friends and draw and eat and drink with us!

sign up for my art+drawing+eating vacation & retreat today!

we’ll spend the mornings enjoying localvore breakfasts and endless cups of coffee and tea while drawing in my studio [above], take a mid-day break for an amazing home-cooked vegetarian localvore buffet lunch, then spend the afternoons drawing or exploring my studio garden and neighborhood. happy hours start at 5pm. the evenings will be your own to spend exploring the town – i have many walkable bar, cafe and restaurant suggestions for you! the catered food alone is worth the cost of the workshop [because i love food!], and july is a fabulous month to visit portland – dusk is around 9:30 pm!

there’s still one room left in my guesthouse, or i can make arrangements for you to stay close by. sign up for my art+drawing+eating vacation & retreat today, or let me know if you have further questions!

only 149 days until this workshop begins! i’m so looking forward to this! join us, won’t you?