National Aquarium

During my spring visit to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland, I was so amazingly glad to have a sketchbook on hand. So many amazing critters to admire!

Even paused to draw one of the many historic ships on the harbor. Really interesting town, soaked in history and culture. Would love to explore more of Baltimore.

Evening Watercolors

Our baby tends to need a feeding in the middle of the night--3 am or thereabouts. I've done a few experiments with sketching her in watercolor during these times. At first I was going about it in a more realistic way...

(That adorable moment when she's done eating but her mouth is still gaping open for a while...)

 ...but it has been much more fun to let the low light and the sleepy brain take the sketches in more abstract directions.

I may not do a lot more of these at this juncture, since it squiggs me out a bit to have the paint supplies out in the same time and space as feeding time. Rule #1--don't eat paint. We learned that quite clearly from Van Gogh already.

 But this has been a lovely excuse to bust out the beautiful travel sketchbook that my aunt Lois made for me. (Parenthood is a type of voyage, isn't it?) If you're reading this, Lois, I think the choice of watercolor palette is dead-on awesome and the whole unit works like a charm!

The Belly

A co-worker at the water cooler yesterday suddenly blurted out, "Wait--are you expecting?" And yes indeed, this little baby girl's due date is just one month away now. Every time I get out of bed or stand up from a chair, I have to re-learn how my body is moving nowadays; and every time I pass by a mirror, I try to wrap my head around how differently-shaped I am as well.

About a month ago, I started doing quick sketches of myself. You can see that in the first sketch, I am completely flabbergasted and confused by what I look like. As the series continues, I think I've been getting a better grip on these big rounded shapes...

It's an amusing exercise, and since the camera is packed somewhere in the go-to-hospital bags, these sketches might end up being the most convenient way to document these last few weeks!

4-T Trail Hike

Way back at the beginning of August, my friend Gretchin threw a birthday party which involved inviting all of her friends to go for a hike! The 4-T Trail uses a combination of public transportation and hiking paths to make a loop from downtown Portland up through the west hills and then back via the south waterfront. * A principios de agosto, mi amiga Gretchin organizó una excursión por el sendero 4-T. Pasamos por el centro de la ciudad hasta la cima de las colinas del oeste, usando una combinación de transporte público y senderos rústicos en el bosque. 

Most of my time was spent walking and chatting with the wonderful people at the party, but I did get in a few sketches at the main rest stops. * Pasé la mayoría de mi tiempo caminando y charlando con la gente en la fiesta, pero también dibujé en algunos lugares donde nos paramos para descansar. 

When we returned home after the hike, I thought I was headed straight for a nap. But--surprise!--there was a block party going on that had a live band in the street. We ended up hanging out with more nice people and enjoying the music to finish off the day. * Al regresar a la casa, yo intentaba descansar. Pero--¡que sorpresa!--había una fiesta en nuestro vecindario, incluso una banda tocando en vivo en la calle. Pasemos un rato charlando y escuchando la música antes de terminar el día.

Alton Baker Park

Last weekend I stopped by to visit the annual picnic of the Philippine American Association in Eugene, Oregon. The picnic was in lovely Alton Baker Park, with a stunning view of the river. Since I was running early, I paused to sketch the river flowing behind the fountain at EWEB Plaza.

I was initially quite focused on getting the angles of all those jets of water without drawing anything out in pencil first. But when I reached the end of the sketch, I realized I had forgotten to add the segment of the watery cascade where each of the parabolas meets in the middle and falls back down to earth. Whoops! It should probably have looked something like this instead:

Ah well. I hiked across the pedestrian bridge and plugged myself into the picnic, and had a lovely time sketching the pig roasting on the spit! Tricky timing challenge to throw down more paint every time the pig rotated to this angle, but it was a fun challenge.

I had some lovely conversations about art and art education with folks at the picnic while I sketched. One fellow, who had been a professor of art before retirement, introduced me to a very insightful quote from James Johnson Sweeney:

"Creativity, in both science and art, is the ability to find new relationships between things that hadn't previously existed. It's the relationships, not the things, that are interesting." 

Lazy Vacation

The trick with going on vacation is that it's darned hard to sketch while socializing with family and friends! Despite a whole week in California, I only got a chance to pick up the sketchbook twice. * ¡Lo difícil de ir de vacaciones es que es muy difícil dibujar cuando estoy enfocada en socilizar con familia y amigos! Pasé una semana entera en California, y solo tuve la oportunidad de dibujar dos veces. 

The first chance was when we stopped at my parent's house. Their kitties are not offended when I skip the conversation in favor of the paints! * La primera vez fue cuando nos paramos en la casa de mis padres. ¡Los gatos no son ofendidos si agarro las acuarelas en vez de conversar!

Later, I took a few quiet moments to sketch while I watched my husband and his mom play a strategy game. * Después, encontré algunos momentos pacificos para dibujar mientras observaba un juego de estrategia entre mi esposo y su mamá.

But I don't mean to complain--I had a lovely time seeing folks, and it was very relaxing all around. Plus, my little 3-year-old niece got a chance to do some serious painting with my watercolors while we waited for dinner! It's a delight to see how much she seemed to learn with each stroke of the brush. Inspiring. * Pero no debo quejarme--era un gran placer visitar con todos, y me relajé mucho. Ademas, ¡mi nieta de 3 años tuvo la oportunidad de hacer un serie de pinturas con mis acuarelas mientras esperamos la cena en un restaurante! Me encanta ver cuánto ella aprendió con cada paso del pincel--qué inspiración.

Fossil Bed Flowers

I spent the weekend exploring the John Day Fossil Beds area of eastern Oregon with some friends. Our first day, I was obsessed with photographing the numerous wildflowers as we hiked around. But on the second day, I slowed down and let the surroundings soak in by sketching them in watercolor. * Pasé el fin de semana explorando el área del este de Oregon que se llama los John Day Fossil Beds. En nuestro primer día, use la cámara para documentar el gran numero de flores silvestres que vimos al andar por los senderos. Pero en el segundo día, reducí mi velocidad y me dejé observar el paisaje en más detalle por pintarlo con acuarelas. 

My notes in the margins are largely about the birds and other animals that we saw and heard. One thing that I love about camping is the freedom to spend a lot of time flopped in the dirt, listening to the meadowlarks and watching tiny bugs go about their business. * Los apuntes en los bordes de las páginas documentan las aves y otros animales que vimos y oimos en el viaje. Me encanta la libertad que hay, cuando vamos de camping, de pasar el día acostada en el suelo, escuchando los pájaros cantando y mirando los insectitos haciendo sus trabajos rutinas.

Mobile Cannery, Tall Lungwort

Spent last weekend in lovely Eugene, Oregon. We stopped by the Center for Appropriate Transport on Saturday to check out their 20th Anniversary Party; had a great time watching folks test-ride ingenious bikes.

Sunday was the Wildflower Festival out at Mount Pisgah Arboretum. As usual, there were so many old friends to catch up with that I didn't end up having a lot of time to sketch the amazing display of flowers; but I did jot down a few doodles of some especially pretty and interesting specimens. 

Had a great chat with a friend who is studying environmental education about how sketching is such a good way to slow down and be present in the moment, and to really spend time observing--even if the final drawing is not especially great, the act of having been there LOOKING is rewarding. She called this "finding a sit-spot," and I like that concept quite a bit! 

It's all happening in Eugene

May is Wildflower Month in Eugene, Oregon! I'm delighted to announce that the Wildflowers of Oregon show that I'm participating in will be on exhibit at the Art Annex all through May. (I'm also really jazzed to be heading to that fine, funky town for the reception, on Friday, May 3--join me?)

In other wildflower news, the poster for the Mount Pisgah Arboretum Wildflower Festival is gearing up for a crazy-fun day on Sunday, May 19. The poster, featuring my oversized Nemophila flowers with the happy dance flies, is probably sprouting up all over Eugene and Springfield right about now...Fun times!

Wildflower Festival Update

When I last updated, it was with watercolor in progress on the first layers of watercolor being laid down for the Wildflower Festival poster. Here's how that turned out:

I then returned to the digital version that we're using for the t-shirt and modified those colors to match the watercolor palette more closely.

An exciting addition to the regular festivities this year is that the Karin Clarke Gallery in Eugene, Oregon is hosting an art show devoted to native wildflower paintings, as a way to get even more Wildflower Month activities happening this May. Yesterday I got to work on framing my early sketches and the final painting for this exhibit.

Baby blue-eyes and dance flies as far as the eye can see! If you're in the Eugene area, do stop by the art show--grand opening will be Fri, May 3, 5:30pm – 7:30pm.

Paint to Pixels to Paint

A quick recap: The art for this year's Wildflower Festival poster started off as ideas that I sketched in watercolor, then was adapted to digital art that will work well on the t-shirt for the event. * Una breve recapitulación: El arte para el cartel del Wildflower Festival empezó como ideas explorada en acuarelas, y entonces fue adaptado a arte digital para el camiseta del evento.

Now, I'm doing the final art for the poster in watercolors. * Ahora, estoy pintando el arte final para el cartel, otra vez usando acuarelas.

Oh my goodness. After staring at pixels on the screen for half the weekend, I am really delighted by using real paint this afternoon. It flows! The pigment drifts around in its tiny puddle of water in the most delightful way! Even just "plain green" has a whole universe of color hidden inside of every wash. * Hijole. Me he enfocado en píxeles por la mitad del fin de semana, y ahora usar pintura verdadera es como una revelación. ¡Fluye! Los pigmentos flotan por ahí y por allá en sus charcos dimunitos de agua, y me encanta verlo. Hay un universo de color escondido en cada lavado de un verde simple. 

More updates as the paint dries! * Mas noticias cuando la pintura se seca!

Wildflower Studies

The Wildflower Festival at Mount Pisgah Arboretum in Eugene, Oregon is coming up this spring. I've been invited to do the poster again!

The featured plant is a tiny white flower called  Nemophila menziesii var. atomaria. I've been playing with different possible approaches to the composition-first with digital scribbles, then working out those ideas more in watercolor.

Not sure which view wins yet...I think it will partly depend on how it all interacts with the pollinator! More sketches to come.

Splat. Ow.

Fell off my bike Wed morning, and landed rather badly.

Left-handed self portait. A rough scab-map, if you will.

Broken wrist, broken elbow, cracked tooth, face full of scabs. I am quite certainly OK--but it's a distinctly uncomfortable and awkward version of OK.)

(And typing one-handed, as well as painting with the non-dominant hand, is slow work--so expect a bit of reduction in internetting from me over the next little bit!)

The End of the World as We Know It

Tonight the Maya Long-Count calendar rolls 13.0.0.0.0. Happy new baktun! Excited by the idea of this ancient calendar rolling over all those zeros like an odometer, and also vaguely amused by the "end of the world" notion that popular culture has absurdly layered over this calendar event, I have stayed up kind of late to crank out an art project that's been brewing in my head for a while.

See, I was reading about the mechanics of vision at my museum job, and found myself very impressed by the complexity of the eye structures of trilobites. When I carved the linoleum block of this critter (very loosely modeled after the genus Dalmanites, but I totally didn't count the body segments so it's not accurate in the slightest), it was originally intended as a statement about vision: the role of vision in the creative process, and the importance of being able to communicate one's vision in order to nudge a project into motion. 

But of course, as I was printing this linoleum block and watching all the internet chitchat about the end of the world, I couldn't help thinking of trilobites in the context of their mass extinction, 250 million years ago. 96% of all marine species were wiped out, and 2/3 of all terrestrial vertebrates went extinct. That would surely qualify as a variant on the end of the world, no?

A note about my printmaking process: I'm not sure if it's some change in the printing ink I've been using, or a factor of the microclimate here in Portland, but my "legitimate" printmaking ink has been taking about 250 million years to dry of late. Nothing so frustrating as a perpetually sticky print! Tonight I experimented with using a paintbrush to apply dilute acrylic paint, and then fairly thick watercolor paint, to my blocks. I am totally digging the resulting effect (as well as the much more reasonable drying speed.)

I've also discovered that the risers of the stairs that lead in and out of our apartment are a great location for tucking small prints to dry. Which, of course, reminds my silly brain of the amazing hieroglypic-decorated stairways at the Maya ruins in Copan, Honduras. 

And yes, that's a younger incarnation of me, clambering up the side of an ancient temple in a balam-print dress. Has it really been 14 years since I visited Copan Ruinas? Time is a funny thing. In some ways, there's no reason to not call tonight the end of the world...Because really, isn't every single day the end of an era, and the start of a new one?

Happy 13.0.0.0.0, everyone. May we all breathe calmly as the new cycle rolls around.

Baby Elephant

I am happy to report that the 16-day-old baby elephant at the Oregon Zoo is exactly as cute as you would expect. * Tengo placer en declarar que el elefante que se nació hace 16 dias en el Oregon Zoo es increíblemente precioso.

She runs around a lot but also trips over her own feet sometimes. * Ella corre con alegría, pero es muy joven y por supuesto se caye de vez en cuando.

And when she had explored for a little while, she runs back to tuck herself in the safe shelter of her massive mom. * Despues de explorar un poco, suele correr a la albergarse cerca de su mamá enorme.

The difference in shape between a full-grown adult (above) and a baby elephant (below) is very interesting! * ¡La diferencia del forma de un elefante adulto (arriba) y un elefante bebé (abajo) es muy interesante!