August?

I've been very much in the mood for doing and being over showing and telling lately, hence the deserted blog. Sorry! I'm going to attempt to catch us all up here, but I have to say, sometimes it feels really good to forget about all this internet business. Anyway, I haven't posted anything since July and now it's September, and in between it was August - month of endless funtimes and also my birthday month! You can see why I might be preoccupied. Besides, it's summer - who isn't preoccupied?

First thing I have for you are pics from my birthday camping trip to the Wilson River. Johnnie and I met Mike and Kari there for some free camping and splendid swimming. Kari fished while Mike and Johnnie constructed a bow and arrow from river sticks and fishing line (it actually worked!). I observed and failed to thoroughly document. Birthday girl's privilege. We stayed one night during which it rained, and so we constructed an impromptu shelter from one 5' x 7' tarp, two lengths of twine, one tie-down and a bungee net. Well done us! We then proceeded to feast under it like true camping champs.

Earlier in the month I finished watching Battlestar Galactica, reading The Return of the King, and got a new ID - all in the same day! Mundane events, yes - but together like that it really felt like the beginning of a new age. Here's the cover of ROTK to complete the set:

This cover lets us know that in this, the final chapter of the saga, shit's really gonna hit the fan. Raging volcano, BEASTS, banners and more BEASTS?? Methinks perhaps a war is on. I love the scratchy texture and line work we see on all three covers, it makes me think maybe there was some scratchboard or at least scratchboard technique in the making of the illustrations. If I can manage to find more work by this mystery artist I'll definitely share it here. 

In the realm of art projects, I rode the wave of my make-ation and experimented with block printing on fabric and started on some portraits of crystals from my personal collection.

I still need to test wash the horse patches to see if my inks will set properly on fabric. The crystal portraits I haven't been able to work on lately but I'm really excited about them. I was hyper critical of them right after I started, but since I've had a break from them I really like what I'm seeing!

I bought myself a new sketchbook as a birthday gift and it seems really huge! Like 300 pages huge! I was fretting over what sort of commitment I'd got myself into after purchasing it when I found my horoscope in The Stranger which read:

"Science writer K.C. Cole asks this question: 'How would you hold 100 tons of water in thin air with no visible means of support?' Here's her answer: 'Build a cloud.' What you have before you right now, Leo, is a comparable scenario. Your assignment is to materialize a phenomenon that from a certain viewpoint may appear to be laughably impossible. And yet, with the proper attitude on your part and nature's help, the project at hand is eminently achievable. It won't necessarily be fast and easy, mind you - but you wouldn't want it to be, because then it wouldn't be able to teach you all the precious wisdom it has to impart."

Quite applicable to small specific goals, like my sketchbook, and to larger more abstract endeavors!

Hmm, what else? More recently I went blackberry picking with my friend Elliot --

YUM -- and in a failed attempt at fostering, adopted this troublesome troublemaker, Miss Ralphie Starbuck.

More on her later, when she calms down a bit.

I still need to photograph and list much of what I accomplished during my make-ation, I also have supplies and packaging to find and purchase, but I'm still very much in the mood for art projects pure and simple and experimenting with new inspirations and ideas. Maybe as fall begins to roll in I'll catch the spirit of the new season and begin tying up loose ends and preparing my stores for winter. We'll see!

make-ation

I was supposed to be camping on the Oregon Coast this week but when I got started on a couple projects this weekend I just couldn't stop... so I stayed! Call me crazy, but I think it's the best decision I've made for myself lately. I'm having a great time, look at the mess I've made:

All that productivity means new goods to be listed soon, that is if a little Battlestar Galactica doesn't get in the way. After recommendations from several good pals I dove in, and guess what? It's awesome! I think I'm going to sacrifice the next couple hours to finishing up the first season, and then I'll get back to work... probably. Stay tuned!

wynoochee

More camping! This time at Lake Wynoochee in the Olympic foothills.

Our walk-in campsite was super close to the lake, but as you can probably guess we didn't see much swimming weather. Instead of swimming Johnnie tended the fire while I read and we both ate hot dogs with salmon cream cheese and pickled okra. Strange I know, but we were both too mystified by the music in the Monte Thriftway to buy proper groceries. We didn't even buy beer! Whaaa?

I've made it to The Two Towers and as I promised here's the cover art, presumably by the same mystery artist as the first:

Again, you won't regret clicking to enlarge this guy. Look at that color scheme! Totally kick-ass.

I spent much time on the Wynoochee River growing up and it came to be a sort of sacred place for me. I never felt very at home in Aberdeen, but I always felt at home on the river. It was interesting to go back again after many years away. The trip was only one night but as we drove back to Seattle I had a moment of clarity where I saw Seattle and my life here from outside myself and I fell in love all over again! Before I came to Seattle it felt like I was living life through some smothering protective cocoon, now I'm thriving and I feel so free. Here I've found friends like none other - real, real good peeps. It's good to fall in love with this city and my life here again. Thanks you guys. 

SUMMER

It's that time again! It's that time of year when I sit inside wearing my bathing suit watching Van Morrison videos after sunning myself in the park; it's that time of year when I get sick because it went from cool to hot a little too fast for my body's liking; and it's that time of year when my blog posting and productivity drop dramatically because my brain matter's been scrambled by sunny fun times. Right on.

In preparation for this summer I got a new bike (pretty!) and stocked up on sci-fi and fantasy novels, which is what I've come here to share with you today. In the summer I like to park + read, or park + ride + read, that's good too. (Invariably these both turn into park + nap, lets just be honest.) I'm revisiting a classic to start my summer off and break up the sunbathe/nap rotation. I finally found a super rad matching paper back edition of this trilogy and I'm so effing excited about it. Look how cool:

Click to see it bigger, you won't be sorry. Super cool, right? Sadly I can't find the name of the artist printed anywhere in the book. There's a signature in the bottom right hand corner that might read "Brea" but it's hard to say. Anyway, I love it, and the three all have equally radical cover art. I'll share the others as I get to them, as well as my other sweet sci-fi/fantasy finds.

I want to tell you all about my summer plans but seriously, my sun-addled brain can barely piece together a sentence right now. I'll just send you out with a little'a this: