oops! i had a sales event today, but didn’t have time to post about it beforehand! it’s that time of year, where there just aren’t enough hours in the day! i’ve added a complete listing of the sales events i’m doing this year here until i can make a proper sales events page on my site! hope to see you at one of them in the next six weeks!

this is the book i’ve had on my bedside table for the past month and read a chapter or so a night before going to sleep. there’s lots of dog-earred pages with inspiring passages such as:
“there is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature,” rachel carson wrote. “the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” …the bottom may drop out of my life, what i trusted may fall away completely, leaving me astonished and shaken. but still, sticky leaves emerge from bud scales that curl off the tree as the sun crosses the sky. darkness pools and drains away, and the curve of the new moon points to the place the sun will rise again. there is wild comfort in the cycles and the intersecting circles, the rotations and revolutions, the growing and ebbing of this beautiful and strangely trustworthy world.”

[my friend amy emailed me these beautiful east coast autumn nature photos last night to show me what she sees everyday near her new home. they match kathleen's words well.]

and:
“to be worthy of the astonishing world, a sense of wonder will be a way of life, in every place and time, no matter how familiar: to listen in the dark of every night, to praise the mystery of every returning day, to be astonished again and again, to be grateful with an intensity that cannot be distinguished from joy.”

and
“there are no edges in this world. the water, the snow, the bear, the memory of the blackbird, the urgent growth of the lily are all one beautiful, mysterious thing, and we are a part of that one thing. how, then, can we ever be alone?”

and
“failing to notice a gift dishonors it, and deflects the love of the giver. that’s what’s wrong with living a careless life, storing up sorrow, waking up regretful, walking unaware. but to turn the gift in your hands, to say, this is wonderful and beautiful, this is a great gift – this honors the gift and the giver of it.”

hey, i have a few new fabric choices available for the sewn goods i make!

one of the reasons the blog has been so quiet lately: last week i was rephotographing all the things i make in anticipation of newer, larger photos in my webshop today!

now i’m not the best photographer, and the larger photos definitely highlight that! but now you can see more details! it’s like hdtv!

yay! stickers! oh yeah, and paper and envelopes too! these slightly-mangled sets arrived in yesterday’s mail and i couldn’t wait til the light was better this morning to share them with you! [hence these badly-lit photos]

according to a quick search on amazon, these won’t be available for purchase until march. but of course i’ll try to get my hands on more copies before then for you!

while on amazon, i also spotted that they’re selling the $16 sea flowers eco-notecards sets for – whaaa! – $1.95! i’m not sure what that’s about, or how long it’ll last, but that’s a pretty sweet deal! just thought i’d let you know!

just added to my flickr account: i finally got pro photos taken of this mural project from last year!

one of the projects i’ve been working on and that caused me to skidaddle to the beach for a rest last week… a new book for march 2011, through chronicle books!

the drawing nature journal is both a monograph of my illustrated work, and a journal with a step-by-step recreation of the drawing workshops i’ve been leading here in portland for the past two summers. so for those of you who haven’t been able to make it here for the workshops, hopefully this book will help you recreate the experience for yourself!

yesterday i received the scatter proofs [a few sample pages printed on the actual paper to check for color accuracy] and the bluelines [a sample mock-up of the individual signatures that will make up the entire book]. this morning i’ll be pouring over each and every page for one last round of corrections. this is it – if a mistake gets through this round there’ll be about, oh, 10,000 copies of it in the world!

no pressure!

spotted last week in an alberta street building lobby: a free-form sculpture made from collected driftwood and neon rope.

love!

this time last week i turned in a mess of projects to my publisher and my printer and then realized i was totally exhausted in every way possible, and on my way to major health issues if i didn’t take a break from my daily ties and obligations. so my dog went to her favorite kennel, and i went to the coast!

i brought one book with me, bought two more at the local book store, and read them all for three days straight between longs walks on the beach and frequent naps. the weather was sunny but not hot, and the town and the beach were pretty deserted. perfect!

[a tricolor sage plant from the garden temporarily living in my studio while i draw it]

i’ve been wading through the secret teachings of plants for so long i should just buy my own copy rather than keep renewing this library copy! it’s definitely a crazy hippie type of book with lots of information to dig through, but if you also love the idea that plants are people too, there’s lots of gems, such as:

“spend a great deal of time with the plants you are drawn to, greet them with the seasons, see them in all manner of dress, come to know their moods and relations, and let your relationship grow with the years and close association. this takes time, as all worthwhile things do. you are establishing a deep intimacy with another living being. one that has a life as important to it as yours is to you. one that has a history, ancestors who have shaped the life you see now in this one moment of time. one that has hopes and dreams, a purposeful existence. one that has friends, offspring about whom it cares, troubles with which it must struggle each day.”

[a cluster of mini mushrooms spotted on a hike through the hoh rain forest]

the wild trees is much less esoteric, and an awesome read about a group of tree climbers/scientists who have devoted their lives to exploring the crowns of redwood trees. you may already know that redwoods are my favorite, and that a single redwood tree has it’s own ecosystem high up in it’s crown thanks to soil buildup. thickets of berry bushes, ferns, other trees and small animals can spend their entire lives in a single tree. a favorite quote from this book to complement the last one:

“there’s always a moment during a climb when you lose yourself, you don’t have a name anymore. when you find yourself in a place in nature where if you make a mistake you will die, you become open to what’s around you. you start feeling the limits of your perceptions as a human being. you perceive time more clearly in [the ancient] redwoods, and you see time’s illusory qualities.”

[another view of the tri-color sage plant, and the artwork i'm working on]

lastly, the shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains. this may seem an unlikely book to follow the previous two, but it’s also a study in different ways of thinking/perceiving – the author explores how different technologies through the ages have shaped our thinking and our world. in-depth analysis and effects of written language, the printing press and typewriters, books, radio, tv, and now the internet.

“we seem to have arrived at an important juncture in our intellectual and cultural history, a moment of transition between two very different modes of thinking. calm, focused, undistracted, the linear mind is being pushed aside by a new kind of mind that wants and needs to take in and dole out information in short, disjointed, often overlapping bursts – the faster, the better.”

[ack, not happy with this new process yet!]

as a professional artist, i’m very aware of how different technologies and tools can affect myself, my thinking and my work. i constantly toggle between the linear mind necessary for the business and practical side of things, and the free-spirited open mind necessary for creativity and growth.

as a small side example: the artwork i’m currently working on, shown above! as a result of my last collaboration, and also that my favorite pens are no longer made, i’m trying to incorporate paint in my work. after years of drawing with pens, drawing with a brush and paint is such a different experience! i’m still not entirely comfortable with the slowness involved and the amount of patience required while waiting for the paint to dry, or even the unexpected line quality! but i do love being able to create my own custom colors! i’ll keep at it, and it’ll get better.