Queen Anne’s Lace

queenanneslace

“Queen Anne’s Lace,” 5 x 5 inches, pen and ink, prints available in my shop

I saw some of these when I was out hiking last weekend, and I thought they would be the perfect addition to my natural patterns alphabet. In looking for pictures of Queen Anne’s Lace, I learned something I didn’t know—this plant is also known as a wild carrot, and the root can be eaten like a normal carrot. Actually, now that I read the wikipedia page more closely, I wonder if I saw the Deadly Water Hemlock instead, which it says looks very similar. Hmmm? Well, at least I didn’t try to eat it!

It felt really good to get down to drawing today—so many ideas have been buzzing in my head this week, many of them more business related, that it was nice to lose myself in lines and letters. It reminds me why I’m doing all of this—for the love of art, not business or money, even though it would be nice to be able to support myself financially with this business—hopefully soon!

So here’s to the pure love of drawing—that meditative conjuring, building lines into things and losing yourself in the process. Oh drawing, I love you so!

The Ghost of Vacations Past

I know I just got back from vacation, two mini-vacations in fact, but still I keep traveling in my mind all day long. I’m glad to be home, glad to be getting back to my routine and my art, but there’s something about summer that makes my mind wander. Maybe it was all those years of a school schedule, or two summers studying abroad, but it feels like summer should be different—like maybe it’s not meant to be spent at home, at least not all of it.

vacationspast

I’m dreaming of long vacations by the coast—Italy, England, Sea Ranch (on the Northern California coast). I’m dreaming of lazy days with a cool breeze and lingering lunches, followed by naps in the sun.

Summer smells like vacation to me, especially at night when the air is just cooling down, but there’s this buttery sweet feeling to it. Oh, how I wish I could be off for a month or two to somewhere blue, but I will have to settle for dreaming, at least until the end of September when I go on my honeymoon.

High Mountain Adventures

OK, so I lied. In the last post, I said I was going to Kings Canyon National Park, but I was actually in the neighboring Sequoia National Park. I feel silly for making this mistake, but in my defense, they are right next to each other and often referred to together. Anyway, I got back late last night, full of high mountain goodness, from visiting our friend Pat who is working on a trail crew in Sequoia. Here are some of the things I saw on this adventure:

sequoia_throughtrees

Looking out from the beginning of the trail

sequioa_flowers

Wildflowers graced our walk!

Our friend Pat said these are called Yellow-Throated Gillia

sequoia_mtns

Our destination in the distance

There’s a trail crew camp nestled in those mountains, just below Hamilton Lake!

sequioa_swimming

Swimming in Hamilton Lake

(my Mike in the foreground and our friend Pat on the Waterpillar)

sequioa_pierogies

Pat loves to cook, and he’s part Polish, so he thought that our coming to visit was the perfect opportunity to make some pierogies from scratch. So we made them in his fully outfitted trail crew kitchen, and they were scrumptious!

sequoia_ninelakes

The view from the Kiwea Gap

sequoia_us

Me and Mike—lookin’ good!

On the Road Again

Well, I’m headed off on another mini-vacation! We’re hiking out to visit a friend who is working on a trail crew in Kings Canyon National Park. I’m looking forward to cooler temperatures, walking in the mountains, and spending some relaxing time with Mike and our friend Pat.

I feel like I just got back from the East Coast, so it’s surprising that we’re off again so soon, but this is not a bad thing! See you all again next week—I should be back on the blog next Monday or Tuesday, hopefully with pictures. FYI, any orders placed my shop between now and July 6 will be shipped on Tuesday, July 7.

Happy 4th of July to all of my fellow countrymen!

Mushroom

A new addition to my natural patterns alphabet:

mushroom

“Mushroom,” 5 x 5 inches, pen and ink, prints available in my shop

I do love mushrooms (the dinner kind, not the hallucinogenic kind)—they are scrumptious—in a risotto, on top of something grilled, or just by themselves (I’ve been known to love a good portobella sandwich!), but they’re also pretty odd and interesting to look at. Every once in a while, out on a hike or walk, I’ll see one and it will seem like a freak of nature.

I’ve wanted to learn about foraging for mushrooms, but I’m afraid it may be a little too life or death for me—one bad mushroom, and . . . but I would jump on the chance to go with an expert!

On a side note, for those of you who love hand drawn type, check out this post over at The Daily Etsian. Hannah so kindly mentioned me in her write-up, leading me to her beautiful blog! Thanks Hannah!

Another Scorcher

It’s hot here . . . really hot! It’s been up above 100 degrees for three days now! How do we deal with these dog days of Summer? The same way we deal with everything else—we eat! Seriously, one of the main consolations I have for putting up with the hot Summer in Davis is the produce. Tomatoes, squash, plums, peaches, peppers—you name it, we got it here!

I just picked the first red tomato from my garden today, along with zucchini and cucumbers, which I’ve been picking for a while now:

firstpick

After a long, hot bike ride home, you know I couldn’t pass up a snack with my first picked tomato, especially since tomatoes are one of my favorite foods on this earth:

firsttomatosnack

And to herald the coming of the stone fruits, I made a pluot crisp last night. A pluot is a cross between a plum and an apricot, and this one was a beautiful substitute in a recipe that called for plums. This fruit was just too lovely to pass up—it tastes as amazing as it looks!

pluotcrispmaking1

pluotcrisp2

Of course, we got too excited to eat it, and I forgot to take a picture when it came out of the oven, but here is what was left of it after we dug in:

pluotcrisp3

It may not look like much, but it was oh so fine over some vanilla ice cream. I’m not a huge fruit pie fan, but this one is now topping my list in taste! I won’t type the whole recipe here, but feel free to leave a comment, and I can send it to you—otherwise just look for a plum crisp recipe. It was really simple, just plums (or pluots) with sugar (brown and white) and lemon, and the topping was walnuts (I used some almonds too), sugar (brown and white), flour, and butter.

Summer may not be my favorite season (I’m more of a cool weather type), but it has several redeeming qualities, as enumerated above.

Weekly Inspiration Digest: action

This happens every time I start something completely new: there is the exciting honeymoon period when I fantasize about how wonderful it will turn out, followed by the reality that I actually have to do the work, followed by images of all the things that could go wrong or why I can’t do it, which most often ends up in a moment where I try to rationalize not doing this new thing at all. Writer’s block fits neatly into this pattern—it’s called psyching yourself out. It’s called perfectionism. It’s called a fear of failure. It’s called inertia.

When this happens, I often start talking to myself. I start trying to understand why I don’t want to do the work—I might journal about it, whine about it, and commiserate with myself. In general, I throw a pity party, even though I know that none of this helps. The truth is, there’s only one solution: action.

chainsaw

It’s not pretty, and all of those nay-sayers inside and outside of you will argue, but action is the only medicine. Something happens when you throw the junk thoughts aside and actually make a move on things: your brain stops running like a chainsaw, chittering and chattering about how much you suck, and you actually start to produce.

It doesn’t always happen right away, but trust me, it happens. Usually, when I’m in a funk, the last thing I want to do is get to work, but I’ve come to discover that the only way to get out of the bad mood is to get to work.

donotdisturb2

Now I’m not saying that I sit down to my desk, and suddenly angels start singing. Often, it’s like walking through mud. The self-deprecating voices keep talking away, but after a while, you learn to ignore them, and eventually they shut up.

People often want to believe that being creative is some stroke of genius, when in reality, it boils down to one thing: taking the time to create. That’s it. Maybe some people enjoy that process more than others, which makes them more prone to practicing it, but people don’t usually think about it that way. They think, “he’s creative, I’m not.”

moviesandchocolate

I’m not saying this doesn’t take courage—it takes a lot of courage to act—it’s much easier to sit by and watch movies in the dark while eating several candy bars (I have a particular weakness for romantic comedies and milk chocolate), but in the end, we will all be happier people if we actually do something.

This works for all things—I’m not just talking about making art or writing. Beginning anything you want to do starts with one action, one step. It does not mean doing everything today—it means doing one thing today and every day, no matter how small. Once you get the ball rolling, it will be hard to stop. So hop to it, and get to work!

Loose Lips

This expression has always cracked me up:

looselips

“Loose Lips,” 4 x 6 inches, pen and ink, available in my shop

It’s just so threatening, yet indirect and poetic! Can’t you imagine being in some dark smoky bar in the 1940s wearing a trench coat, when a man in another trench coat comes by and whispers this in your ear, in a quiet yet threatening manner? Nowadays we would just say “shut your mouth.” I think the original phrase was “loose ships might sink ships,” but that silly little middle word kind of messes with the rhyme.

This is the third drawing in my series of body related idiomatic expressions. Click the link above to see all three in a flickr set.

In other news: I will be selling at Music Fest tomorrow, Saturday June 27 from 3-9 pm in Cesar Chavez Plaza, Sacramento. Should be fun, although hot hot hot—it’s supposed to get up to 104 degrees, and I’m trying to will it not to get that hot by complaining to everyone I know.

Interview on Alchemist Art

A while back, Denise from Alchemist Art asked if she could do an interview with me about my art and process. Of course, I said yes, and she has now posted a great interview over at her blog. She had great questions—questions I had not been asked before and really made me think about what I do. Thanks Denise!

alchemistart_interview

An Abstract Return

Just messing around today to get back in the groove—it’s hard to be serious (not that any of my art is really serious) after getting back from a vacation.

neighborhood

“Neighborhood,” 5 x 5 inches, pen and ink, available in my shop

As has probably become apparent to you regular readers, I like schedules and planning. So while I love vacations (who doesn’t?), changing my schedule really throws me for a loop sometimes. I guess maybe I’m kind of a strange artist—the stereotype of an artist as a free-flowing, fly by the seat of your pants type just doesn’t fit me.

I find the most freedom in schedules—allotting a specific planned time for something gives me the freedom to focus on that thing and let my imagination run around it, without worrying that I should be doing something else. Boring? Maybe. But knowing what I’m doing ahead of time makes me happy and calm. Being happy and calm makes art.

Next Page »


Hello there! Thank you for visiting my blog. Many of the designs you see here are for sale both in original and print form. If you see something you like, but it's not listed in my Etsy Shop, leave me a comment about it!

Some Thoughts

"I took away, in sufficient-sized packets, courage to be an artist, an artist now, amid the gritty crushed grays of this desperately living city, a bringer of light and order and color, a singer of existence."

--John Updike (on visiting New York City's MOMA in the afternoons), from the essay "What MOMA Done Tole Me" in the book Just Looking: Essays on Art

—-My work is now available at—-

n e s t w a r e

204 G St.

Davis, California

Flickr Photos

Queen Anne's Lace

Mushroom

More Photos

THIS WORK IS COPYRIGHTED!

This work is the sole property of its creator. Any reproduction of this work other than that discussed directly with the artist is unlawful. Please contact me with any questions you have by commenting on your post of interest. Thanks!

Pages

 

July 2009
M T W T F S S
« Jun    
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031