la cas de la valise

rancho guacamole

2012-02-15T07:31:00.000-08:00

gouache on illustration board

thanks to a recommendation from audria, i have had the pleasure of working with a farm in Goleta, Ca. named "rancho guacamole" to create a fruit box label for their fine avos and lemons.

much, much prayer went into this little piece and i'm super stoked about it!

(and if you've never asked God for help with the work or tasks in your life, i highly recommend it. He really does care about the small things in our world and wants us to talk to Him about them! i learned this in art school after realizing that all the projects i prayed over came out better than i imagined and got better grades :)

love never fails

2012-01-26T09:50:00.000-08:00

got this here

here's one thing i love:

fact.
absolute-ness.
the stable, unvarying, fixed.

why?

because fixed and faithful and sturdy is exactly what i am NOT and exactly what this world fails to deliver as well.

honestly, it was one of the things that God used to make me His: inimitable, absolute truth.

something, FINALLY, to really trust in and stand on. a rock my wandering wave-self could crash and be broken on. relief from the paralyzing, painted hoax of myself and the world around me.

so for those of us who crave what is certain, God gives us this little gem:

love never fails

this word fails, in greek, means "to fall powerless, to fall to the ground, to be without effect." the definition gives the picture of a withering flower.

i never took a physics class so forgive me for an oversimplification, but the way i understand "energy" in this universe, is that it "never dies." it just takes on new forms. the sun feeds the grass, the grass feeds the cow, the cow feeds man, when man dies, he feeds the ground i.e. the grass and it keeps going.

this is a perfect metaphor for love
and it NEEDS to encourage us
and this is how:

your relative that you have a hard time with who treats you awfully.
the checker at the store who's always in a bad mood.
a rebellious child making destructive decisions.
your coworkers who think you're crazy for being a christian.
the unstable ground of any relationship:

they are not above this truth. they do not have more power than the way God set up his universe. you cannot stop energy and you cannot stop God's agape love. it may FEEL like people around you don't listen and don't care and don't respond to the love you give... but keep giving it. keep it up DEFIANTLY. "Do not be overcome by evil, " writes Paul, "but overcome evil with good" (romans 12:21).

no, the effect of love may not be seen right now. sometimes it can be seen immediately, but most of the time love takes years to change us. God was not intimidated by the years it would take for us to come to Him and we need to have that same patience for others.

don't ever think you're wasting your life when God has moved His love out and through you. Because even if that love seems like it's not affecting the calloused hearts around you, it will AT LEAST be changing yours. God never works on just one level.

Martin Luther wrote as part of his 95 theses:

"by works of love, love grows and a man becomes a better man."

so take heart, little pilgrim :) you will not fail if love flows out from you.

you may not see the results you desire, but you WILL see your God's heart clearer and brighter and you will be living a life based on rock-solid fact... a most refreshing thing, indeed, no matter what transpires around us.

epic snow

2012-01-25T16:20:00.000-08:00

well, i survived my first washington snow storm. gotta say, it was pretty breathtaking... and near the end, annoying :)

my favorite part was watching the flakes fall: HUGE flakes- like some one was in the cloud pulling apart cotton balls and letting them ride the soft wind currents all the way down.

[seriously... sun or snow, my husband is just good-lookin' :)]

my portly cat and i did start to get a little cabin-fevery... he usually doesnt sit and look out the window, but the last day we were cooped he sat like this for hours... longing, probably, for snowless ground. i drew him over my bible study notes with a ball point pen, so forgive the choppiness. drawing from real life is always a little funny :)

how to be invincible, part 3

2012-01-21T15:35:00.000-08:00

don't let anything make you anxious.

instead, pray.

Christ is your only need.

anytime you DONT feel invincible, remember that when you are in Him, you DO have all you need.

this is a new linocut print i made for the new year. i made it mostly for my own sake from a post it note i had written to myself after reading philippians 4.

i'll have these up in the shop pretty soon if you want one on good paper with fancy archival ink.

BUT

if you want a free print on regular paper with water based ink (pictured) then just let me know by convo-ing me on etsy and i'll send one out to you :) it's a small image: 3" by 4".

let's hear it for our amazing, invincible God who IS all we are not!

how to be unstoppable, part 2

2012-01-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has it's place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over and I've seen the promised land... So I'm happy tonite. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man."

--"I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, April 3, 1968 (the day before his assassination)

Happy Birthday to an inspiring man.

got this pic here

how to be unstoppable, part 1

2012-01-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

from BLB-

God is God. I dethrone Him in my heart if I demand that He act in ways that satisfy my idea of justice. It is the same spirit that taunted, “If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross.” There is unbelief, there is even rebellion, in the attitude that says, “God has no right to do this to fine men unless…”

Those men had long since given themselves without reservation to do the will of God…

For us widows the question as to why the men who had trusted God to be both shield and defender should be allowed to be speared to death was not one that could be smoothly or finally answered in 1956, nor yet silenced in 1996. God did not answer Job’s questions either. Job was living in a mystery—the mystery of the sovereign purpose of God—and the questions that rose out of the depths of that mystery were answered only by a deeper mystery, that of God Himself.

—Elisabeth Elliot, Through Gates of Splendor (Tyndale, 1981)

good words for the new year

2012-01-04T15:28:00.000-08:00

"don't let anything make you anxious. instead, pray. Christ is your only need."

(my paraphrase of certain parts of philippians 4 :)

fun with tagboard

2011-12-29T16:09:00.000-08:00

newest editions to the shop! i discovered reproduction paintings printed on heavy tagboard make excellent book covers...

like so:

the Decant journal

the Sylvan journal

the Apples & Oranges journal

a print called "Fellowship" on half a book cover

this year

2011-12-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

i know it's not even christmas yet, but while i was cutting up chip board for a bookcover, i realized just how many lovely things have happened this year-

this year i have...

moved two states away
gave up wheat AND dairy due to bodily protest (yes, it can be done :)
lost like 5 pounds because of it
got to know God more
got to know ian and his fam more
had a car stolen
went from renting to thinking about buying (so stoked!!!)
went from baker to full time artist
experienced a miraculous healed relationship with my dad and his wife
slept on a boat for the first time
started my own business (however small ;)
got a hand-me-down drooly, lovey cat
got real health insurance thanks to ian
saw a fledgling bald eagle take its first flight
lost my only two wisdom teeth

overcame my fear of...

cloudy and rainy weather
precision in art (like using razor blades and rulers... refer to first sentence of post)
cities
piano (kinda)
forgiveness
people (ok. not fully. i'm getting better though... not all the way there yet...)
failing in art
music
giving up dairy and wheat

what a wonderful, morphing life my wonderful God gives!

leave a comment! what has happened in this last year that you are super stoked or blessed by! list as many as you can! :)

new journals and vintage hymnals

2011-12-07T15:49:00.001-08:00

busy busy busy time of year!

here's what i've been up too THIS week:

The Groundswell Journal

The Yorker 1830 Journal

Vintage Sunday School Hymn Book

The Othello Journal

The Step Verdantly Journal

stay tuned for a free give away comin' up! :)

(p.s.... want a tip? you can get 20% off in my shop all through December by using the code HIPPOPOTAMUS :)

christmas craft time :)

2011-12-05T07:16:00.001-08:00

alright, i admit. i love nerdy christmas crafts.

behold the mini snowflakes drying from their dip in the polymer bath:

80's stationary and stolen cars

2011-12-02T09:44:00.001-08:00

how could you not love this little number:

the top of it reads "wish we could share this day together."

UNOPENED 80's stationary- gotta love it!

Also, our poor honda randomly got stolen last weekend... such an odd thing. you never think something like that would happen to you (and to an old, ugly honda) and then all of a sudden you get off the foot ferry from a couple hours of looking at museums in the next town over and

*POOF*

car is gone. just like that. broad daylight.

i lived all my life in crime laden California, but had to move up to Washington to get a car stolen. ay yay yay.

they recovered it on wednesday and the inside was totally thrashed- the entire contents of the glove box strewn everywhere... the dashboard literally imploded on itself from them forcing the stereo out of it... it was vehicular rape. so sad.

people think the God of the Bible is so harsh when He gives people commands to live by, but if you've ever had anything taken from you and abused, you realize just how LOVING those simple commands are-

"You shall not steal."

but God uses everything for the good (literally "advantage") of those who love Him and are called to His purpose. Pretty comforting. so we didnt fall apart over it. i love serving a God who is so rock solid when everything around me is hologram and/or hurtful.

new upcycled journals in the shop!

2011-12-01T08:53:00.001-08:00

a hybrid watercolor/sketch journal...

a life and laughter watercolor/sketch journal...

a girl who looks kinda stressed out journal...

and a blue zephyr journal.

Nummy.

birds and wee books

2011-11-18T18:34:00.001-08:00

eagle (cool, huh?)

honkers

(practice from pics off the internet)

my mum in law has written a kid's book about geese, so i am working on some illustrations for it.

little signatures for little books

sketches and advice

life is quiet and simple these days, and i quite prefer it :)

garbage goose

2011-11-16T10:48:00.001-08:00

i have made a lovely etsy friend who has let me trade me some stationary sets for a pair of lovely earrings:

thank you garbage goose! :)

paint and potatoes

2011-11-14T15:21:00.001-08:00

in art, even cleaning up is fun:

ah, pigment.

last night ian dug up this potato from his mummy's garden patch:

(he's got such a fantastic grin, doesnt he?)

one time at sally loo's, danielle took a red potato and attached some carrot pieces to it with toothpicks and made it look like an alien baby and then went around scaring people with it... good memories :)

we weighed that puppy. 3 pounds of spud.

washington has a knack for producing huge, big, healthy plants from it's frigid soils

a nativity of notebooks

2011-10-31T14:31:00.000-07:00

new journals in the shop. handmade like the dickens.

felted blazer and grocery bags

used book and sealed envelopes

70's acrylic painting and little kid's "learn how to cursive" paper

brown grocery bags, coptic stitched.

wool and metals

2011-10-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

made these little numbers while listening to Feist's new album, "Metals" (genius album, by the way. her best work yet).

(ha ha...good 'ol indoor/outdoor carpet :)

the sweater i felted to make these was a cool old Gap sweater from Goodwill

these boots look so funky, but they are warm as all get up and shout!

as you know or can imagine, Washington does NOT mess around with how cold it gets. it just jumps straight to business and starts to freeze you out at night starting october... and we LOVE it :D

ele-prints are up!

2011-10-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

bernice, that rebel elephant, is up for sale in the shop! woohoo!

a traditional prayer

2011-10-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

found this here

amazing. just amazing. how come no one did this sooner?

p.s. ele-prints are ready to go (in turquoise...arent you EXCITED??). just waiting for cellophane bags to get here. booya! they'll be in the shop next week!

ele-stilts

2011-10-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

tomorrow i'll be printing all three of the "escaping elephants" series (i actually havent figured out what to name them yet...)

look for them in the shop next week!

this is so much fun i cant even stand it :)

pretty bird

2011-10-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

gotta do a print of this...

do you think people will buy it?

and if you don't remember who 'pretty bird' is, ask your neighbor :) here's a hint: that's not a scarf.

flying elephants and sampson in a drawer

2011-09-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

another elephant lino print on the way. they'll go up in the shop as soon as my harder ink roller comes in.

do you ever feel like these elephants (and the one in the boat)? kinda in between... and kinda alone for it... but deep down you're glad for a different route and a different destination?

in other news, our friends sara and evan gave us their cat due to moving circumstances. we're pretty stoked about it! his name is Sampson.

i thought i had lost him this morning until i found him like this, the little goon:

how does he make that look so comfortable? i love how cats are total hedonists.

soon in the store...

2011-09-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

linocut prints... like this one:

3" by 4"

word to the wise journal

2011-09-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

whipped this out yesterday morning, seemingly from outta nowhere:

this journal is composed of a handful of vintage vacuum bags

i love when the creativity comes out so crisp and unruly,

and for a couple sublime hours i am very much with God.

see the journal here.

i want erika's crochet skills

2011-09-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

she made us mason jars cozies.

there is nothing cooler than that.

because of this, we had to model them very dramatically.

ian is so cool to take funny photos with me :)

conclusion? erika rocks the house.

messy

2011-09-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

sign of fun.

sweet lorna sue

2011-09-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

just published a few of these stationary sets today.

named after one of my favorite women :)

Leeside studio is up and running!

2011-09-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

well, FINALLY got my etsy site up....

it took a lot longer than i thought. very exciting though.

here's the link!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/leesidestudio

do you know what this photo means?

2011-08-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

it means two things:

1. i finally got a card reader for my mac. they're like 8 dollars at office max. yep, i'm finally stepping into the 21st century (sheeeesh). no joke, 98% of the photos on my blog were taken by my mac's photo booth...

yeeah. you learn how to get creative :) ian caught me more than once holding my poor little mac book up at awkward angles.

2. it is proof that the etsy store is extremely close to going up. the above photo is a little, how you say, hors d'oeuvre :)

so now that i have unmitigated access to the photos off ian's camera, lemme show ya some:

snow in july near glacier, WA. we were so blown out when we took these... we had been in town for like a day or two and then drove up to glacier to go to a family bday party.

ian's hair is never not amazing.

what the heck is that outfit?

ian coming to get us on blake island last weekend. his mum and stepdad are boaters and they took us along. we were staying on the boat and had to get to land by dinghy. he's so cute in his boat :D

natalie

2011-08-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

ian and i were eating at The Kells restaurant in seattle a couple weeks ago and as we were sitting at our table outside a young woman approached us.

"hey, i know this is kinda weird, but i saw you guys come in and i just wanted to come over and tell you that you totally look like the quintessential northwest couple to me," she said. maybe it was my beanie or ians patagonia sweater that did it...

i had noticed before she came over that she was eating alone, so we asked her name and begged her to come and have lunch at out table. anyone bold enough to just come up and say something like that is someone i want to have lunch with :)

shortly into the conversation we found out she was a christian and we became instant friends. i liked her before she said she was a christian, but once you find out you are talking to someone who worships the same God as you, the relation switches to family.

she was from ohio, had an unexpected layover in seattle and was just killing time in until her flight.

she was lovely... just lovely. a true blessing to our day.

she said something that i'll never forget and that really encouraged me.

i asked her what she thought we would say to her for coming up to us so abruptly.

"i DIDNT think about it. i just did it. i'm glad i didnt hesitate!"

i think there's a lot in that response. i think that's what is missing from my faith-walk with God most of the time. i think ahead to the consequences of the momentary and risky obediences He desires from me.

i become paralyzed by fear. not willing to create any type of awkwardness or have any sort of uncomfortable interaction with anyone. it's ridiculous when we serve a God who tells us NOT TO FEAR. we never would have become friends with her if she was not so bold.

acgh! I believe. Lord, help me to believe.

gathering herbs and couches

2011-08-16T17:02:00.000-07:00

today has been spent with the herbs growing around our house-

lavendar, clover, nettle, raspberry leaf

all cut and washed today for use in tea when winter comes.

i *hug and kiss* washington.

we've also been picking the local couches that grow along the side of the road. we were very surprised to find this AMAZING designer-esque couch hanging out on the roadside with a "free" sign on it:

(ian is a ham.)

when we figured out how to make the couch lie flat into a bed (a superb design feature in these modern-retro couches), we realized from looking in the crevices that hadnt been exposed to the sun that the couch was actually BLACK at one time. BLACK. not grey.

i ended up bleaching the crevices with straight bleach and it made the black look less glaring.

the only drawback to this radsauce couch is that is smells like dog (*shudder*), but that's something i can work on.

for those of you who know my deal shark nature, it should not surprise you that i think this couch is a blessing from God. i LOVE this style but i would never pay full price for even a cheap knock off of a couch like this.

the conclusion?

there IS a God and He loves me. :D

practice

2011-08-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

i've been busy busy busy trying to get my etsy site up and running- ETA on that sucker is one or two weeks maybe?

exciting!

here's some practice in the meantime...

view from the tiny manchester state park (actually, this is what the whole puget sound looks like: staggered islands brimming with trees).

did this with a 2H pencil, so i had to darken it up quite a bit... sorry for the poor quality.

here's a man i drew who was sleeping on the ferry. he was the perfect subject because as soon as i was done drawing him as resting his head on his right hand, he shifted to his left.

red huckle, thimble and black cap

2011-07-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

those are the names of the berries ian and i picked last night off the side of the road. this place is so full of bounty.

livin' by the beach

2011-07-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

soooo, dont hate me, but this my view when i wash dishes now:

behold the glorious puget sound.

never thought i'd ever get the chance to live so close to the ocean, but thanks to God's sweet love and ians awesome mom and stepdad, these photos are the view from our deck. unbelievable. i love this state so much already. we'll be here with ians family until he gets a job.

as soon as we hit oregon ian and i were like, "what the HECK have we been doing in california for so long?!" the trees, the green, the lack of absentminded drivers... coming into WA was even more beautiful. i feel at home already.

we had some drama on the way up here, though. we were somewhere on the I-5 near Gustine, went over a bump and all of a sudden the trailer popped off the ball, hit the asphalt and started melting off part of the tongue going 60 miles an hour. i was the last in line and it looked like i was driving over bits of flare.

i thought, "that's funny, why did someone set off a fl... uh oh..." and that's when we pulled over.

we surveyed the damage, prayed, stepdad got on the phone with AAA and ian took off for the next town to get a new trailer ball. we were on the road with a better ball in an hour and a half, cruisin' as if nothing ever happened. God is so good... seriously, people could have gotten killed... i dont even want to think about it. apparently the nut on the bottom that was holding the ball on had just worked itself off... sheesh.

so we were going along fine and dandy, getting up past sacramento a few hours later and while we were going over a long bridge i noticed i was suddenly driving over broken glass and the camper shell top on the truck was up. we had to wait to pull over because the bridge had no shoulder, and once we stopped and looked at the truck we realized the tailgate had fallen down as well. something from the inside of the camper shell had fallen and hit the top and tailgate open. we still dont know exactly what it was we lost on the highway... i think a small box of ball jars fell... a few other things.

but it's all behind us now, including any movers remorse. ian and i are so stoked to be here, we cant even see straight. there are baby bald eagles chirping for food in a nearby tree and the weather is as mild as can be. a ferry just sailed by. it's wake will soon hit our close-by beach. we found berries on our run yesterday. need i say more?

fun with fam

2011-07-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

i got these great pictures from my granny last night as we had a good bye dinner:

rob and i in hawaii. i think we were 5 and 7 in this shot.

everyone needs an awkward 90's dinner shot. i'm pretty sure rob is 4 and i'm 6- both of rosy cheeked, eh? :) my folks on are the left of me.

my beautiful, classy granny (dad's mom)... love that lady and love this photo.

my 'supermodel aunts,' as i call them (dad's sisters). these women are amazing- j is the sweetest lady ever, and yv is probably the most talented artist i will ever have the pleasure of personally knowing. check out her art here.

today, between 3 and 4pm

2011-06-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

i drew this:

no joke, this is the base of a magnolia tree growing on the corner of osos and marsh st. it's HUGE and majestic and writhing... i adore it. and this is pretty much what it looks like to the best of my ability.

can you see the body shapes in it? so weird. i didnt make it up though!

wa-wa-wa-washington!

2011-06-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

got this pic here

well, it seems our time in cali has come to an end. we'll be moving to washington state (near seattle) mid july due to ian's work situation.

it is lovely, lovely, lovely up there and we are so excited! art and etsy and all these irons in my internet fire are gonna be put on hold for a while, unless i get a wild hair and want to post stuff.

here are some things we will not miss about california:

-deserts (aka, heat)
-bad driving
-people with a specifically californian sense of entitlement
-high rent
-high cost of living, in general
-transitory nature of a college town
-poly dollys
-ians own words, "the bureaucratic republic of california"

here are some things we WILL miss:

-deserts (aka, heat)
-our buddies :(
-fresh year round produce (although washington has things like...o, i dont know, bounties of fish and blackberries... huckleberries... *drool* nettles to make nettle top soup...
-orange trees
-lemon trees
-avocado trees
-going on runs during the winter in 70 degree weather
-montana de oro
-our church
-good mexican food

here is what we look forward to:

-family nearby (for once in our adult life)
-blackberries, huckleberries, salmon, crab, nettles
-bald eagles
-coziness!!!
-luscious views of the puget sound
-the sexy city of seattle
-reasonable rent
-people who are a little more real about things... there are just less distractions up there. it's honesty, i suppose. the cold and dark winters will do that you.
-good coffee on cold days
-TREES! holy crap, there are no trees in slo... not like how ian and i were raised, anyway.
-the fresh scent of a pacific northwest morning.
-room to grow
-long rides on ferry boats

dont you want to move up there too now? :)

soon soon soon!

2011-05-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

i've been scheming and creating...

stay tuned for the leeside studio to open on etsy!

"safety is priority number two...

2011-05-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

next to aesthetics."

-marke johnson, the made shop

prototype? hand bound, wee notebook made up of brown paper grocery bag within and sewn thrift store wallpaper without

stringcheeseallergieeeeees

2011-05-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

using this piece of string cheese, i am now demonstrating one* aspect of allergy season that has been of particular concern to my mucous-membrane-inflammation-prone body:

*the other aspect of allergic concern is the issue of my newly asthmatic lungs, but i found it hard to fill my bronchial tubes up with string cheese, thus it unfortunately could not be portrayed in this format

**also, i realize i should not be eating cheese whilst experiencing allergies, but sacrifices must be made for the sake of science.

screen prints

2011-05-11T16:59:00.000-07:00

so in case you've been wondering where i've BEEN all this time, this is my answer to you:

my first successful screen prints since the print class i took way back at Chico state. i want to do more with this medium, including but not limited to opening up an etsy shop, so i've been tinkering away at developing the space and materials and ideas that i need for such a thing. my sweet friend Jen Ken (through God's good grace) is to blame for most of the blessing the past few weeks has been in this area.

the top print was supposed to clearly show four matroyshka dolls, but the screen kinda screwed me (aka: a flagrant system error) and just opened up a huge area right on momma matroyshka's face, so i just went with it. i kinda like it though- there's some deep meanings in it i think.

the second print is a drawing i did of a path off a picture i took with my cell phone up on terrace hill.

both printed on brown paper bag :D

so anyway, stay tuned and dont give up on 'ol cas :)

shirt:

2011-04-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

made this shirt today... epic thrift store fabric...

...besotted with cowl necks.

i might make more of this exact shirt just so i can wear cowl neck shirts all the time.

can i be a hippy for just a second-

2011-04-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

seriously...?

photo from NY Times

this stuff makes me sick. why cant people just be normal?

read here about how pesticide exposure to babies in the womb through veggies/fruits the mum eats lowers the IQ of the children affected.

our food industry needs some drastic change. how is mixing humans and chemicals ever a good idea?

this makes me want a garden even more.

also, here's a list of the "dirty dozen" or worst contaminated fruits and veggies... good to know.

first and second woodcut

2011-04-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

this is the actual wood plate that i carved. it's pine plywood so it's super grainy... there's a certain beauty in it though.

here is the print from the plate (and poorly printed at that, but you get the idea).

and here is herman the goose developing on a plate of poplar wood, which is a hardwood. can you see the difference in the grain?

if anyone wants a free black and white print of the swan or herman (when he's done, that is) just let me know and i'll mail one to you. watch out, though... i might decide to print it on brown paper bag paper! :)

herman?

2011-04-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

(and no, that's not a face tumor. it's rice cake.)

isnt that lovely wood?

i'm going to carve a goose into it with some very crude tools without cutting the fingers of my opposing hand off.

promise.

i've had too much jello

2011-03-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

because i got my wisdom teeth taken out yesterday.

this is the official "i've had too much jello" face

apparently i was only born with two wisdom teeth on the top (rad...seriously, THANK YOU GOD).

apparently top wisdom teeth are the easiest to take out (double rad).

and the fastest to heal (triple rad).

they came out so well even the dentist was surprised. they dont even hurt today! i still have to eat like a baby though :( but there's a lot to be thankful for.

stay tuned for my first (albeit, CRUDE) woodcut print...

impact

2011-03-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

impact

linocut

made this little number during the downpour storm last week. a lovely, lovely storm it was.

i am by no means a printing master (this is the 3rd one i've tried since college) but it sure is fun to play around with!

quick practice

2011-03-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

drew this last night waiting for ian to get home.

it's from a book called This Fabulous Century, 1910-1920 and the caption under the picture reads, "Dolores--The Girl Who Never Smiled."

if you sense Mucha influence, you are right. i love his style of sketching and the photo itself was so art nouveau, i couldn't resist.

sketch of ian

2011-03-10T19:58:00.000-08:00

he doesnt usually make this face- it's drawn from a picture of him holding a crab he had caught while he was boatin' along with his folks in the san juan islands (washington).

it was two summers ago. he asked me to be his girlfriend on a saturday and literally a week later was in a car driving up to WA to be gone for 3 or 4 weeks. i was sad until he called me everyday, even from random dockings on the puget sound, and sent me 4 postcards. he texted me a picture of the sunset he was watching from the boat once or twice.

love that guy.

odd plant linocut

2011-03-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

a scan of the carved linoleum block...

...a print from that block..

...the addition of water to water soluble ink.

fun.

variation on bench print

2011-03-03T12:51:00.000-08:00

here's a variation on the last piece i posted- i printed it and then rubbed the ink around with a wet paintbrush. i like it way more than the straight print!

dont forget to drop by the art reception at sally's tomorrow night from 6-8 if you're around. if you need more than one reason to come, think of good cheeses, whole wheat cookies and pepper jelly over cream cheese (an andersen specialty, thanks to ians's dad!)

see you there!

linocut practice

2011-03-01T15:31:00.000-08:00

bench and shadows

a "linocut" is a print made from a block of linoleum (i'm sure it's similar to the floor stuff, but i'm not sure how...). the positive (white) areas are carved away and the black is whatever is left: a relief print.

this is a practice one i've been working on for the last week.

more to come... i'm becoming addicted :)

Yesterday Silas was tired

2011-02-28T11:11:00.000-08:00

and needed a nap (he's almost 2 years old),

so he cried and cried and would not be consoled.

Nate (his dad), took Silas out of the coffee shop we were at while we were still getting coffee and sat down in a grassy area with him across the street.

When we found them, Nate was sitting cross-legged with Silas draped over his shoulder. The subsequent close proximity of Silas' screaming mouth to Nate's hearing meant his cries rose and rushed unhindered into his dad's ear (it amazes me how parents can do that).

Nate just sat there and held him tight and let him cry it out, so patient and quiet, even though people were staring and the volume of his cries swelled in immense emotion.

I have days like that sometimes, except instead of Nate and Silas, it's God and I.

And He'll sit and wait till I'm done, even though my overwhelmed spirit doesn't recognize the comfort He Himself is.

But soon enough, I'll find myself carried on His frame, lulled to sleep by love and tiredness,

one day closer to growing up.

when danielle came into work today

2011-02-24T08:43:00.000-08:00

she asked, "did you see what happened? one of your drawings sold!"

and there it was.

an envelope with a check in it from a person i didn't know.

seriously, it's the biggest honor ever to have someone buy your art who doesn't know you- who is buying it solely for the pleasure or meaning it has brought them.

this doesn't happen to me very often, so forgive my childish wonder... i'm still just so amazed and blessed!

i havent been posting any art due to being busy, but more is to come. i'm playing around with relief printing these days, so stay tuned (that's yummy stuff, relief printing... to see some genius relief prints check out this page or this page. these two women have made some very sublime and moving prints)

the art is hung.

2011-02-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

well, the art is up, so come out to sally loo's to take a look-see!

only took me 6 or something hours to hang it... i had no idea it would take that long, but it was fun and satisfying to look around the room at the end and see the culmination of a few months worth of work.

i hung art, drank tea, snitched two day-old cookies and listened to iron and wine and gillian welch really loud. afterwards ian took me out to thai classic. hard life :)

and now that i have no show to do art for, i am boiling chestnuts, making vegetable broth and folding laundry. susy homemaker and i are bff, for sure ;)

and just for good measure, here's a picture that we all need to see of ian getting pissed at his '65 ranchero for not starting and me taking a glam shot:

and here's us laughing about it:

i'm trying not to be shy but it's still awkward.

2011-02-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

pen and ink.

can you relate?

sketching at the Getty

2011-02-07T08:43:00.000-08:00

sketch from a painting called, "orpheus and eurydice" by jean raoux

ian and i went to the Getty on friday to sketch and be inspired. we tried to sketch some busts in the wing that the impressionist paintings are in and found that due to distraction and subject matter, the drawings we were producing were CRAP.

then we wandered into a more quiet wing of the museum and found our mental drawing "zone."

the painting i drew this picture from is huge- like 8 feet tall or something. it was amazing.

my favorite part of a museum are always the drawings and the ones we saw at the Getty shamed every drawing i've ever done. drawings used to be just a pit-stop on the way to a painting, so there is a raw, non-glorious element to them that attracts me. i love thinking of the artist's hand resting on the blank edge of the page as they drew... i'm such a history nerd.

what struck me this time around, though, was the level of insane workmanship in the drawings that were mere plans and studies for paintings. not a line or color out of place. the drawings would have been amazing enough themselves, but then these artists went on to turn them into oil paintings. i was challenged and inspired, for sure.

(if you've never gone to the Getty, please do. it's free except for parking and it is a lovely museum. the only drawback is you have to deal with LA to get there. ian and i were in so many near accidents this time around, it was staggering... so good luck :)

practice sketches

2011-02-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

drew these today at sally's looking at a picture of henry ford.

i've not been drawing too much in the last week. sometimes i get discouraged with it, which is why i chose just to do some practice sketches today. pen and ink is such a fun challenge :)

art show!

2011-01-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

drop by sally loo's from february 15th to march 15th and see my "by it's cover " book cover art show!

i'll have a reception for it on friday, march 4th, from 6-8.

sally loo's is at 1804 osos st, in SLO.

i'm having these postcards printed up pretty soon, so if you want one (and you're not already a friend i see a lot) let me know!

thanks to all you guys who read deese leetle blog of mine :)

smoked paprika is good on roasted yam.

2011-01-27T20:07:00.001-08:00

tell your friends.

i love you, matryoshka

2011-01-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

pen and ink

light of life

2011-01-25T08:15:00.000-08:00

last month i painted this huge piece of painters canvas for my church's christmas service. all the words are crammed at the top because they had a table there against it with lamps on it. i was pretty happy with how it came out and super stoked to paint for my church! quite an honor.

painting this thing was one of those "skin of my teeth" situations though. it was so huge i took it home and wanted to work on it outside (this canvas is bigger than the walking space in my living room! :) but it had rained and rained for a whole week. it finally came down to a wednesday when ian and i were gonna leave that night to travel up to his mums for christmas and i still hadnt done finished it. i drove all the way up to morro bay and finished it in one of the spare church rooms about a half hour before the church closed. crazy!

p.s. the font that i based the letters off of is called "texas hero"... seriously one of my favorite fonts. you can download it for free off certain font sites in case you fall in love with it too. :)

and in case you cant read it, the verse is, "I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." spoken by Jesus in john 8:19. a wonderful verse that pretty much says it all.

2011-01-21T13:36:00.000-08:00

vine charcoal, conte, acrylic

not sure how i feel about this one yet. it's hard to put a lot of work into something only to be marginally satisfied with it, but what can you do? art is like that sometimes: a monster of its own.

i like the portrayal of the concept i had in my mind which was one of doing something by faith and how you may get discouraged or tired of doing it, but that doesn't mean it is for nothing or not bearing any result.

i think a lot of people i know have felt like this and have wondered whether what they are doing is fruitful or not, only to look back and realize the trail of beauty left behind them. it's hard when you're in the moment though, for sure.

"and let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not"

galatians 6:9

storytime with ian

2011-01-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

One time in third or fourth grade I was in the little boys room and in a moment of inspiration from the movie “Ghostbusters” a buddy and I were “crossing our streams” between the urinals. The janitor walked in and yelled at us, and in my nervousness I spun around and accidentally peed on his foot. He yelled, “your recess is mine!!!”

Sure enough I spent every single recess for the next week or two in the office staring at a wall.

The end

you decide

2011-01-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

pen and ink

drew this at sallys talking to jules.

this is from a real tree growing out of a rock up on terrace hill where (6 months ago today, actually) we got married...

only a little crazier :-o

boy and music

2011-01-15T21:36:00.000-08:00

pen and ink, watercolor

dont have a name for this one yet.

any ideas?

path: sketchbook fun from sallys

2011-01-12T15:23:00.000-08:00

pen and ink drawing done outside sally loo's while talking to 'ol julie-pants.

i think the secret behind pen and ink is the secret behind learning a musical instrument: you have to love one well played note and be content with it before going on to the next, slowly developing more and more appreciation as you go (at least as i understand it). with this medium, you have to be willing to just breathe, draw, relax and enjoy every line one at a time.

a friend recently reminded/encouraged me to be stoked about the fact that every drawing i do with and for God is worship... a sweet thought indeed. it takes the pressure out of it and brings art back to something enjoyable, filled with liberty and worth something, even if it only has value in His eyes.

i've always wondered how all these hours i've spent doing this type of thing could ever amount to anything. so what if i can draw this or that? the world is a place of great need and suffering and here i am sitting in my comfy house drawing pictures like a little kid. when it's worship though... when love of God is involved, it all starts to make more sense. i dont know what the point of it all is, but that's alright. that's His job as God, not mine :)

pen and ink at the cafe

2011-01-10T17:09:00.000-08:00

this drawing is based off ian as he was sitting across from me reading. i'm not sure the resemblance is 100%.

playing around with my favorite mantra.

i was drawing with a round nib i found in ian's art supplies (a nib i dont usually use). very fun :)

sketching with peppermint tea and ian in the freezing cold is an excellent way to spend saturday.

ian sketch

2011-01-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

this is a sketch of my ian when he was a boy. it is from a picture i found while i was snooping through his mum's photo albums. his pose is perfect... you want to go to him and let him alone to think at the same time... he is neither happy nor sad...

it's gonna make it onto a book cover, just you watch ;)

resemble

2011-01-02T16:46:00.000-08:00

paint and pen 7"x4.5"

(click on the image for a better view)

ok i lied. one more post!

2010-12-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

acrylic on canvas 5x7

ian worked 67 hours last week on a major project (can anyone say "gnarly?"), so needless to say there was an abundance of lonely hours as my best friend faithfully plodded along for us. i sat down to paint out of sheer boredom and had finished the tree (from a picture taken off my phone of a tree near Cuesta) and the yellow part when jeff pyle called and wanted to see if he could buy a small painting for his mum for christmas.

"i want it to have nature in it"

"how 'bout this one?" as i texted him a picture of what i had so far, the paint not even dry on it.

he ended up buying it for his mum! i love God's perfect choreography :)

merry christmas, see you next year!

see you soon

2010-12-17T10:47:00.000-08:00

the time for art has diminished this month- big surprise right? this is a busy season FOR SURE.

stay tuned though. ian and i are going up to washington for christmas, so this will be my last post till the beginning of the year-

after that?

mas pintando. :)

in other news, i've been listening to a guy named J. Tillman recently (he plays in the band Fleet Foxes normally). un-bloody-believable songwriting. very much like iron and wine in cadence. i highly recommend for those of you who, like me, like their music to be about the pace of a heartbeat. sloooow and oh so meaningful and lonesome :)

peace out.

pics from the jen m's.

2010-12-15T18:56:00.000-08:00

how do we begin to comprehend cuteness like Mateos?

beautiful sisters. some people have all the gene-pool luck :)

old, old friends.

caught me eating again. sheesh. is that all she does?

that guy is HOT. arent you jealous?

see. he likes me. :)

cas andersen= best 5 months ever (so far)

;)

one of them might hit me in the heart

2010-12-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

gouache on bookcover

dear Lord, help us to feel.

letters to God

2010-12-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

this is a photo from LIFE magazine by David Silverman. the caption reads:

"Avi Yaniv of the Israeli Postal Authority sorts letters to God to be placed later in the day between the ancient stones of the Western Wall June 15, 2005 in Jerusalem, Israel. Every year hundreds of letters addressed to God, The Messiah, Jesus Christ, The Almighty, and other similar names are collected at a Jerusalem post office and are once a year given to the rabbi of the holy site to be placed in the Wall when, according to Jewish tradition, they will be read by God."

there's something very tender in this. i'm imagining every one of those letters being held by needy or hurting or joyful or imploring hands. each one with a signed name, as if God didnt know already who had written it. a touchable manifestation of our childlike desire to talk with God.

i wonder if they realize He already knows what they say.

He knew the pain that led to the thought that led to the words to describe it that led to the motion of the hand writing it.

He already knows what they say.

you can't assume.

2010-12-03T09:50:00.000-08:00

gouache, watercolor and acrylic varnish on book cover

"the meek shall inherit the earth"

2010-12-02T12:00:00.000-08:00

gouache on book cover

quail

2010-11-30T09:23:00.000-08:00

gouache on book page

this little ditty is for my friend, naomi (sorry if you see this before i send it, na :). i ripped it out of an old book- the pencil part was written by the first owner of the book and it says: Bertha W. Clausen, Winter 1933.

i think quail are amazing and graceful birds. that embellishment on the top of their head kills me.

speaking of killing me, after 2 and a half weeks of sick sick sick, i am starting to bounce back. this was one of those illnesses that just amazed me with how crazy it was. i'm usual never sick over 5 days or so (and even then, not that often), but this thing TOOK IT'S TIME. the slightest excitement would send me into it's throes again.

i have come to believe that viruses are evil. when you have a virus, there's not a single thing you can do about it. not a single bloody thing. whereas if you get a cold, you can hit it hard with vitamin C and water and whatever green healthy hippy juice you want and you'll actually get somewhere. you can actually have the thrill of a fight with a cold. with a flu? tuck you head between your legs because the plane is going down wether you like it or not.

the GOOD thing about all this is i havent had sugar except from whatever is in fruit and dried plums for over a week... a miracle of God that i'm gonna milk for all it's worth!

anyway, it's good to be back. i havent gone on a run for forever... havent walked around outside in forever... havent blogged in forever...time to get busy!

yuck yuck.

2010-11-22T19:32:00.000-08:00

oh, i am sick sick sick.

achy muscles... short of breath... slight fever...seriously, i cant do anything except watch movies. the worst part is i think it is a relapse...bleheeeh.

what i have learned during this sick time:

*i have the best husband in the world, who brings me movies and juice and cooks me dinner
*i am more inspired to cut out sugar and other immune suppressing things in my diet
*i remember again what it must be like for people like my mom who have lived years and years like this with chronic disease. how do you not kill yourself if this is your life?
*i heart tylenol pm

yep. profound huh? :)

from the sketchbook vault: treeman

2010-11-21T12:51:00.000-08:00

he runs and he has tea.

and he wears mittens, apparently.

from the sketchbook vault: tree and shadow

2010-11-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

sycamore tree portion in pencil.

bidwell park, chico, ca.

sycamores are so elegant! bidwell park is redolent with them. i used to look at them and wish they could come to life like c.s. lewis' trees in the chronicles of narnia.

sway

2010-11-18T14:12:00.000-08:00

this picture is about influence.

how God becomes our example and how we in turn become examples (and SEE examples) in the world around us.

"...be imitators of God as dear children. and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us..." -ephesians 5:1

too sexy for my shirt

2010-11-15T15:39:00.000-08:00

these pictures are inspired by Anthropologie.

this is what happens when fro becomes mod:

(ps, i'm so proud at how my hair really rose to the occasion. it was so huge...)

from the sketchbook vault: sally's light

2010-11-15T08:10:00.000-08:00

there's a little history behind this drawing...

i drew it sitting across from ian outside sally loo's, all nervous wondering when he was gonna ask me out :)

from the sketchbook vault: the dancer

2010-11-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

this is a full page drawing in my sketchbook from my first semester at Chico State. it's very roald dahl, i agree. drawing with pen is like that. behind it are notes from printmaking class that i let show through intentionally. it looks like he's stepping down off the notes :)

you do funny stuff when you move somewhere new and don't have friends... like climb into the ribs of the multi-story university library until you find the art book section... and you'll do stuff like spend an hour or two drawing a figure from someone else's two hundred year old painting. it's strange what we'll do for comfort.

in other news, sally loo's loos is open again (can i get a holla!)

and i woke up at 4:30 this morning for the first time in a while to bake for them

(i dont care what anyone says, midday naps are gross.)

and my aunt is moving tomorrow :(

and my friend wren just had a baby :)

and my friend mo is getting married in a week :)

it all happens at once.

keys to the kingdom

2010-11-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

pen and ink, watercolor on book cover

had to scan the two sides of the book cover separately to fit it.

banner

2010-11-10T07:53:00.000-08:00

"i smile at my enemies because i rejoice in Your salvation."

1 samuel 2:1

i drew this during bible study last night (shhhhh.... dont tell anyone)

will not return void

2010-11-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

acetone transfer, watercolor, ink on bookcover.

"So shall my word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

isaiah 55:11

recommend

2010-11-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

i found a lovely, lovely blog-

it's about knitting and crocheting. probably the coolest knit/crochet blog ever...
they have free patterns and sell yarn off their blog.

http://www.pickles.no/

feast your eyes. i'm not much of a knitter, but i'm inspired.

yum.

making the cowl FOR SURE.

from the sketchbook: 1

2010-11-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

for some reason i am alway interested in drawing long, narrow, tall things.

these are elegant, oniony type plants drawn from sara's backyard

miss robin was very brave

2010-11-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

pencil, conte, ink and acrylic paint on book cover

it was too big for the scanner, so i had to use photo booth to get a picture of it.

hey. it works, right? :)

real and boy

2010-11-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

ink, acrylic, varnish, hymnal bit on bookcover

(the scan kinda cut off the left side of the drawing)

light shade

2010-11-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

acrylic on bookcover

time flower painted

2010-10-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

acrylic on bookcover

light rain

2010-10-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

i cant remember if i've posted this one or not. i painted it last year for ian.

8x10 acrylic

found you

2010-10-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

pencil, ink and watercolor on book cover

redheads are starting to influence my art!

(janelle and ian know what's up)

(the scanner sometimes doesn't do so well with delicate lines and tones in pictures, so it's just an idea of what it looks like)

night

2010-10-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

acrylic on panel

bday card

2010-10-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

birthday card for nancy.

watercolor resist.

the lee

2010-10-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

you shall hide them in the secret place of your presence... you shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

ps 31:20