Forgotten/Remembered

I am whittling away at work. Carving prints and sketching for a picture book dummy, still chipping away at the longer book. And I am trying to get back into the habit of sketchbook keeping (above). Once finished, she looked like she needed some forgotten blooms. So I picked a few, then walked back to my studio, carrying a bouquet of dead flowers through town in February. I hope my neighbors enjoy the free entertainment…

Assorted things I liked this month:

• The Who Killed JFK podcast (because I have never met a Lee Harvey Oswald conspiracy that I could say no to).

• To say I am obsessed with this toy instrument cover of “Don’t Worry Baby” would be a vast understatement.

• Collingwood-Norris Mending is a terrific resource for visible mending techniques.

• I watched Elizabeth is Missing last weekend. A murder mystery told through the lens of memory, it’s a splendid story of loss and justice (with just enough humor to keep things from being too heavy). Glenda Jackson was pitch perfect in the part; if you’ve ever had a loved one with Alzheimers or dementia, her acting resonates deeply.

Back in ‘22 I said I wanted to turn this fellow into a block print and now here we are. I usually start carving the largest areas with the biggest blade, then work my way down to the smallest blade and the more detailed work. But I’ve learned that there’s nothing more maddening than spending hours on a block and then goofing up something fiddly, carving off a key element accidentally at the 11th hour. So now I do the stuff that makes me hold my breath first, then sit back and enjoy the easy parts. I’m working on this in small increments, when I need a break from other things. But I’m hoping to have this printed in the next month or two…

And I had every intention of doing Hourly Comic Day last week, but life happened. I did manage, however, the 6:00 hour and a very honest representation of my hair.

Seafolk

Never not painting mermaids. I love swimming and would give anything to stay submerged for far longer than a measly minute. I suspect the fellow above would like to do similar.

And I’ve popped this painting into the originals section of my shop. The print version is available over on Society6.

Scrappy

I spotted some modern, geometric quilts on Pinterest last year and after pinning a handful, decided to make one. I just finished up the last of the binding this past week and managed a few photos in the 35 minutes of the day when there’s actually sunlight. Ah, January…

For fabric, I used a mix of my own designs and remnants from other sewing projects. A handful of the blocks are Spoonflower test swatches (my designs Russian Alphabet, Zakopane and Penhallow Street). I’ve also used prints from my 2018 fabric collection Eloise’s Garden. Because I had some on hand, I used polar fleece in lieu of batting. It doesn’t have the same satisfying squish factor as batting, but in a pinch, worked. And since the idea of making mountains of bias binding had me losing the will to live, I opted to do a self-binding (here’s a tutorial). I quilted everything by hand with basic squares all over, some following the outlines of the blocks and others overlapping. I love hand quilting. It’s a slow, slow process, but if you add a binge-able podcast and cocoa to the mix, it’s delightful.

And I am looking forward to curling up with this quilt and a book at the soonest possible opportunity.

A Wander in the Woods

A new year calls for a new pattern. And a mockup. To be fair, I actually did make sea salt chocolate chip cookies last weekend, but they didn’t last long enough for a photoshoot…

Taking the Long Cut

After much hemming, hawing, researching and brain-picking, I finally decided to make the leap to a Cintiq. I’m still trying to get the hang of things, but working on the above drawing this week was a blast.

A few weeks back, I was talking to a kid who told me about having to, “take the long cut,” as in, “the road was closed, so we had to take the long cut.” I love this expression; I wish it was an actual part of the English lexicon. And it’s been rattling around in my head ever since. I hate being late. I abhor wasted time. But I keep wondering if there’s something to be said for meandering, for taking “the long cut” now and then, as opposed to “the short cut.” It seems like it might be a good idea for the new year ahead. And I’m trying to remind myself of this while attempting to learn new ways of making art.

And one last bit of 2023 below: this highly accurate portrait of me drawn by my five-year-old niece over the holidays. She drew me while I was drawing her (whoa).

* Before I hit publish, I did a quick search of the interwebs only to realize that “The Long Cut” is an Uncle Tupelo song. And it ain’t half bad…