Nestling for delight

Lily for the Clearing # 2

2011-03-24T14:07:00.000-07:00

Here is the second, which now graces the walls of treatment room #1. They go very nicely with the light blue of the walls.

Lily for the Clearing-#1

2011-03-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I did for my office; I believe in reality it is the 17th or 18th lily that I have painted. It is similar in appearance to Lily # 3, which was the first painting that ever sold for more than $200. As I was going to put it into my first business, I wanted to steal some of that good energy. And as with my third lily, I used only 4 colors of paint in creating it: White, orange, purple and green. I feel limiting the palette can add to the cohesion of a painting and it's always a good exercise for me to darken paints with their triad rather than using brown or blue.

Boynnbourbluebonberry Cheesecake

2010-03-18T23:28:00.000-07:00

The Lady and I have been refining our cheesecake for a year or so. It is made entirely from goat dairy, and without wheat or refined sugar. Here's the recipe, and let me know if you make it!

Boynnbourbluebonberry Cheesecake

Crust:
2 cups almond meal
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup palm oil shortening or butter
Sprinkle of cinnamon

Filling:
33 oz. of goat chevre
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. honey
3 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup bourbon
3 eggs
2 egg yolks

Topping:
2 cups goat yogurt (strained)
1 Tbsp honey
4 tsp bourbon
4 tbsp blueberry jam

Topping Topping:
1 splash bourbon
1 Tbsp goat cream cheese
3 Tbsp goat yogurt
1 tsp. honey

Instructions:

1. Start the topping: Line a colander with a coffee filter and place the goat yogurt in it to strain for several hours. Collect the whey underneath and drink, discard or give to grateful hounds.
2. Leave the Chevre at room temperature to warm for at least 2 hours.
3. Make the crust:
a. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
b. Combine ingredients until mixed. It should stick together when pressed between two fingers, and the flavor should be slightly sweet.
c. Press into a spring-form pan (line the bottom only, not the walls) and bake for approx. ten minutes, until golden brown.
d. Allow to cool.
4. Make the filling
a. While the crust is in the oven, beat the chevre until smooth (we use a cuisinart with the blade attachment) and then add in the honey, vanilla, and bourbon. Add honey to taste. Then add the eggs, and blend again until just mixed.
b. Pour the filling on top of the cooled crust, breaking the stream with a spatula to prevent disastrous crust erosion.
5. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until set in the middle, and slightly golden on the sides.
6. Meanwhile, make the topping-combine the ingredients in the cuisinart or blender and try not to eat too much of it while the cake is baking.
7. The topping topping can be made in a small bowl and then transferred to a sandwich baggie. (or an icing bag if you are fancy)
8. Pour the topping on the cake, spreading with a spatula.
9. Cut a corner from the baggie and decorate as desired.
10. Return the cake to the oven for an additional 10 minutes.
11. Refrigerate overnight, and enjoy!

Painting for a friend

2010-03-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

My friend recently had a birthday--and asked for a painting. I wanted to give him an animal, and one that would pay tribute to his ferocious and yet irresistibly cute nature. Beyond that, I wanted to integrate his family crest into the painting. The background is white mixed with interference red, blue and green; the iridescence doesn't photograph well. And yes, the cranky and adorable animal is a Tasmanian devil.

Passionflower # 2

2010-03-18T22:52:00.001-07:00

My father requested a painting for his christmas present, to go with the Iris that I gave to my mother. The ants were my favorite part.

The epic fable of stress intoxication

2009-07-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there were two friends who got really wasted after a huge, stressful exam and brawled on the lawn at a school sponsored party. This painting can be flipped depending on your mood--and can be reversed as readily as the affections of drunk women.

K is for Kangaroo Rat

2009-07-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

It's mostly because I love their kidneys. They can concentrate urine down to a powder!!

WOP and FO

2009-06-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

I **FINALLY** finished the Alpaca, and am thoroughly energized to continue with the alphabet series. Today I began the next two in the series, the kangaroo rat and the urchin. Also, here is my first lily of the year. Its a couple hours away from being finished.

Modified Group Painting

2009-06-02T20:12:00.001-07:00

A couple of friends and I did this painting in shifts--I wasn't happy with the painting after three passes, so I did another one. (I did layers two and four.) A little off my usual style, but I am pleased with it. I was contemplating adding something to the foreground, but I didn't want to ruin the crisp simplicity. Thoughts?

And now for something completely different

2009-01-19T11:22:00.000-08:00

My friend Jeff brought me a book on tibetan painting, which he purchased while traveling in Nepal. It described all the techniques required to paint in this style, and had many templates for backgrounds and foregrounds. After months of gazing longingly at the book and planning my first piece, I finally settled down to it yesterday.
The book advised starting with a simple seated buddha--and I picked my favorite background elements, throne and halo design and started tracing/drawing. I made things a little harder on myself by putting it on such a small medium (8x8"), it meant that I couldn't paint black lines but had to ink them. This is what it looked like at about 5pm yesterday:This is just ink on wood. As of 11:30 Today, I have painted the throne, landscape and halo, and re-inked most of it. I am about to start on the Buddha.

Hawkshund

2008-12-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

This is why I love birds of prey. They can do what I only dream about. Sorry, Grandma.

What happens when it snows in Portland

2008-12-24T16:33:00.000-08:00

We have been snowed in for more than a week here. The farthest I have gone from my house was about 2 miles...and that was on cross-country skis. The country dwelling, winter-loving part of me--the part I thought i left behind when I moved to Portland--is beyond thrilled. I think if this happened every year or so I could handle living in the city long term. I can't handle the damp, dreary winters, I need the snow to make things dry and bright.

I painted these both in one day, I wish I could muster the energy to do this everyday, but there are beers to drink and kung-fu movies to watch. Coming soon: a butterfly, a hawk, more flowers, and something guaranteed to piss off your grandma.

Winter Wacation!

2008-12-15T12:05:00.000-08:00

Finals are finally over. I am done with 5/12 terms at OCOM. Phew. I now have the pleasure of preparing for a show at the academy theater, which opens January 1st. It's lovely to have time for painting again. As I have another show still up at Roots Organic Brewery, the vast majority must be new material. Here's the first piece, I am aiming to have around 15 by the end of the month. If anyone knows what kind of insect this is, please let me know. I found it at the beach and took a picture....

Flower of Passion.

2008-10-26T21:30:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again, and these lovely beauties from an alien realm are blooming right next to my mailbox. Seriously though, where are they from? This is not how a normal flower should behave.

Urban Homesteading

2008-08-07T12:10:00.001-07:00

Being unable to eat corn and soy, meat is an inevitable part of my diet. I was vegetarian for several years before being diagnosed with crohn's disease, purely on the basis of my objections to factory farming. I have little difficulty with the concept of killing animals for food. However I feel very strongly that animals should have a good life and avoid unnecessary suffering. I also feel that it is better to look your food in the face and connect with meat--It makes me feel far more guilty to look at meat in a Styrofoam tray than to think of raising it and eating it myself. My goal in the next years is to shift entirely to eating meat grown either by me or people I have met personally. My household recently purchased a side of beef--we met the steer and watched the slaughter, and although a little sad, it was an experience I am determined to repeat the next time I need to buy a large amount of meat.
Raising meat birds is not feasible in the city, as we can't have a rooster and any chicks we purchased would inevitably from factory farms, and any purchased from local farms would not be cost effective. The answer was rabbits--they share a coop with the chickens and are elevated, and thus take no surface area from the chicken coop, and are very feed efficient. And, well, they breed like rabbits. A breeding doe produces about 1000% of her body weight in meat per year, somewhere around 35-40 fryers of 3lbs dressed weight. Rabbit feed contains no corn, and is mostly grain waste products. All in all, efficient enough to overlook having to kill them, even with their cuteness and calm dispositions. My two partners and I have invested in cages and rabbits, and this weekend are going to assemble an automatic watering system (as we are all getting tired of changing bottles three times a day).

We settled on Champagne D'argents as our primary breed--We have two sibling does and an unrelated buck (Named Atlas). They are an old french breed (around 400 years old) raised for meat and their silver pelts. They are born jet black and turn silver as they age. We also have a Californian doe, who is extremely hardy and will produce fantastic hybrids. She, however, is considerably meaner than the Champagnes, who my roommate claims have the temperament of furry bricks. Behold their cuteness! And help me name these does. We're going for mythological themes. And please note that we will not be eating these ones--they will be pets--their young will be for breeding stock, pets and meat.

Lily #13

2008-07-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

My printer isn't working. So I painted an old picture, the same one as lily#2. They look surprisingly similar. I guess I expected my technique to change more in the two years since i painted it...

I didn't want to study

2008-07-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

so instead I painted this. A classmate, Danube, told me I should paint a pear with wings. The pear was from life, and the wing belonged to a dead cormorant photographed by Bill Wood.

Part three: Humps.

2008-02-13T16:14:00.000-08:00

The Lady and I spent some time at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival last summer. She went for the yarn, I went for the ungulates. I took a lot of pictures. There was a particularly handsome 9 month old Bactrian camel there, and I spent several minutes trying to capture his cavalier attitude. The title of this painting is "He can hear your cell phone before it rings." Seconds before my cell phone rang, as I was standing in front of him, he turned to look at me, and bellowed the most disturbing noise. Sorry, dude. I'll turn it off next time.

Part Two. The letter "b".

2008-02-13T15:57:00.000-08:00

Remember this? No, i haven't forgotten. And just to make sure I keep working on what is sure to be a many-years long project, I have written all of the animals on my kitchen wall so I can check them off when I finish each of them. But the Beeeee hee eeez done.
Green Sweat bee: 16x20" acrylic on canvas.

Thump. The last month. Here you go. (part one)

2008-02-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

Almost every entry in my journal for the last ten years begins with: "It's been a long time since I wrote, and I will be better from now on...promise..." I don't think you believe me when I say it either, but nonetheless I must dump on you "2008 thus far!!".

There is one missing, my beloved Octopus. He will appear later this year as he is in LA for the season. (And who can blame him?) But first, this is the piece (there's one for every show I do) that was completed within 2 hours of the hang. I usually don't have quite enough pieces for a show so I flurry near the end to get them done. However, even when I do, for some reason I always decide to get ONE LAST piece painted. It's a common affliction, based on a love for deadline-based stress. So what does any self-respecting artist do to fill a gallery space within 24 hours? Take pictures of yourself naked and paint it on a big canvas, of course!!
Its 2x3' acrylic on canvas. The shiny things are pieces of gold cardboard sealed to the background with paint. My plan is to run over the whole thing with lacquer now that it's been photographed.

Next up are two paintings on either side of the same wood block. They were inspired by not wanting to paint something serious. After a while, the detail that I paint can get pretty aggravating. You have to be pretty calm to paint eyelashes and delicate nuances of fur and skin, you know? The first side is a study that I did of a realistic painting. I gave myself five minutes to meditate, five minutes to pencil it out, and 45 minutes (one episode of BSG) to paint it. Then i had to stop. On the back is the fly, an experiment with gloss gel. It's fun to play with.

Message in a Bottle

2008-02-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

The sun came out today for a few moments, like the friend you invited to your party but didn't anticipate coming. My classmate Mary and I took a trip to the zoo. It was soggy and 39 degrees--and the zoo was empty save a class of bilingual elementary kids. It was very placid, and turned out to be an ideal day for photography. The light was perfect and the animals were calm. Except for the meerkats, who were busily digging for worms in the damp soil.

I felt very fortunate to get so intimate with an Amur Leopard. There are only about 38 of these beauties left in the wild, making them far more common in zoos. As saddening as it is to see animals in captivity, I feel like its better to preserve them in some form rather than letting them go extinct. It's strange to think that some of the animals I have painted may only be in zoos within my lifetime. We're just not very good at sharing, are we?
I promise to update with my latest paintings soon. I have two nudes and two animals nearly completed.

FO:Iris#2 ; WIP:Vacation

2007-12-13T17:17:00.000-08:00

This is my second iris, I painted it for my grandfather, whom I am going to visit in San Diego tomorrow. He's 97, spry and doesn't act a day over 75.

WIP: Iris #2 and vacation

2007-12-13T14:27:00.000-08:00

Rain, existential crisis and another chicken.

2007-11-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

You know how if you have been writing or reading for too long the words stop making sense, and suddenly you look at the word "house" and it looks wrong and you wonder whether its actually spelled Haus or Hows or perhaps the letter "H" is all a crazy invention of your brain? That's how I have been feeling about everything lately. Am I really here in this cold, wet corner of the world where it never snows and the sun withholds favors for half the year? Am I really studying this 'medicine' that has a system--but it can't be explained by the system I know (and was raised to believe in more than religion), when it's sending me up to my ears in debt and I am not really enjoying my academic experience? I know, its winter in Oregon, its my first term, and I still have my painting. So here's Ginevra (Ginny). She's beautiful.

Mae West

2007-11-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

I am participating in a show at the Watershed next month, and they requested more chickens. I will also be showing my large pieces of human subjects, many of which I have never shown due to their large size. "Foreground the light" will be on display, a 4foot square painting I did over the course of 6 months in 2002. I will also be finishing Thoth (for really reals this time) and hopefully one more large portrait by the time of the show on Dec 7th. Everyone is welcome to attend, it should be a blast! DJs, fashion show, warehouse party! More information to follow...

Please help me name this beast.

2007-11-05T13:27:00.001-08:00

Beauty and the Beast

2007-11-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

Signs of impending winter:
1. The Pointy one refuses to linger outside longer than it takes him to empty his bladder.
2. I have made pumpkin soup twice in the past week.
3. We just killed our 9 foot tomato plant.
4. My painting has picked up again.

Here you have a FP and a WIP. I took a little extra time with Lily#11, I think it paid off. As for the new one, I really wanted to paint a person but I am running low on models. I typed 'hot guy' into google and used one of the pictures as a reference. Aficionados may recognize the bust of Mr. Fluffy Pants, our former rooster. There's going to be a sunrise in the top left corner. The feminist critics are going to have a field day with this one.

The head of a big fluffy cock.

2007-10-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

When our dear lambchop died (RIP) we sought to add another to our flock. I journeyed to Vancouver, Wa to find another hen. I ended up choosing Ginny, and bringing home one more, a bird with pants (buff silky). We were overjoyed at the bantam addition to the flock, and became alarmed when "she" tried to mount one of our hens. Being the owner of a dominant female dog with gender confusion (no doubt due to the lack of a solid male role model), I wasn't entirely sure how the story would end until the morning. I spent from 4-6 AM tossing sleeplessly, hopefully counting the silent minutes . But at 6AM (to the second) he started crowing. And he kept crowing. And crowing. Every 20 seconds until I put him in a box. Then he was silent for two hours until some light peeked through. Then I had a crowing cardboard box. In the afternoon, the woman who sold him to me finally returned my calls and I drove back to Vancouver and exchanged him for she-who-has-not-been-named. Happy ending (since she is our prettiest chicken anyway). So, long story short I did take a bunch of pictures of the ridiculous little guy, and I plan to make several of them into paintings. I did this one last night with the idea that it would decorate our new Poulet Chalet. Ray went nuts and built us a HUGE coop. Our biddies are soon to be featured on "Lifestyles of the rich and famous chickens".

Lily # 10

2007-10-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

My lilies keep selling like hotcakes, and I have a fresh supply of pictures, so there will be many more to come. Please let me know if you get sick of them. On a more personal note, I am in my third week of acupuncture school and am enjoying it. Quiz on the Lung channel tomorrow!

Put your hans together for....DJ PAN!

2007-09-28T23:01:00.000-07:00

I painted him almost a month ago while I was in San Francisco. Jeffery needed some more eye candy for his bedroom, so he purchased some supplies for me from a cute little shop on Haight. He insisted on the subject: a panda with a turntable. Twelve episodes of firefly later....
I have a couple more paintings to reveal, stay tuned.

Gifts from the House.

2007-08-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, when Ray and I were done thrashing down some walls, we experimentally ripped up some old planks in my 'super-secret behind the closet room'. Hidden in the cellulose insulation beneath were many treasures. First to emerge was a man's boot, probably turn of the last century based on the construction and boot nails poking through the sole. We had a brief moment of creepitude as we pictured the worst case scenario...next finding a tibia..femur..etc... But the next thing to emerge was another shoe, this time in miniature.

We also found a letter, which I will let you read for yourself. I know i am a history nerd, but there was something moving about reading the gossip of the first family to live in our house. I feel like after two months of working to restore it to its former glory, the house is giving me presents. It's starting to feel like home! Sorry about the formatting issues..you'll have to jump around--but at least the pages are numbered. And can you believe the nerve of that Mrs. Nassar?

The Snail

2007-08-12T00:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just need to let go to of representation and paint.
Me: Anna. Pick a color.
Anna: Green!
Me: Stella, pick a color.
Stella: Purple!
Me: Katie, pick a color. YELLOW!
Me: Stella, pick an object.
Stella: A snail!....Does it have to be inanimate?
Me: No.

The last third of "Under the Tuscan Sun" and the first half of "Corrina, Corrina" later, here he is. It is 70% muse, 15% Stella and 15% Anna. I am but a conduit for the psychadelic snail.

Acrylic on leftover trim.

Old Coast Guard Pier: Garibaldi, OR

2007-08-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Bill Wood and I left Portland at dusk and camped on Saddle Mountain. He taught me how to play cribbage by the kerosene lantern and we were on the road again before seven AM. By eight we had caught two keeper crabs off the 12th st. bridge in Seaside. He fished in the ocean while I napped-- we got lost along the Miami river--then we went to Garibaldi to crab and fish off the old coast guard pier. We soon ran out of bait and went to the Gourmet Fish Shack (pron. 'Gor-mett') where we found the store closed. On a whim we went behind the shack, to find a woman filleting fish for a man and his three sons. Her face was covered with red scars and her hands were equally ravaged looking. She couldn't have been older than 35, judging by her incongruously ample figure. She could fillet a large fish in under 20 seconds. We struck up conversation, hoping to use a couple of fish carcasses for bait. The enormous fish, missing only their flanks, seemed to fly from the table of their own accord several times a minute. It was dizzying watching her work. The man and his sons scurried away with their bags of fillets, leaving us to continue our discussion with her. She offered to let us take whatever we cleaned, but that was an empty threat. I joked that she would be driven crazy watching us fumble for several minutes to do what takes her a few heartbeats. She warmed up considerably after I placed a dollar into her tip jar, and told us that she had been there for more than 12 hours and did this 7 days a week. A couple of times as we had been standing there she had said "hey dirty bird!" over her shoulder. I didn't think anything of it until I finally noticed that there were half a dozen seagulls circling the water behind her, but there was one dutifully staring at her from the end of the table. She explained that "Dirty bird" was the name of the closest bird, a juvenile she had rescued from a blackberry bramble a year prior and had been following her around ever since. Apparently he flew from her house to the pier every day, and slept on her front porch at night. She had trained him to sit quietly on the end of the table while she worked. As I looked closer I noticed that although his plumage was of the sort that does look quite dirty, a mottled grey and white, his legs were very genteel--smooth and pale pink. He reminded me of a house cat, the way he distastefully regarded the other gulls circling in the bay. We gathered the large carcasses as she tossed them aside, and within minutes we had more than we could use. We took our garbage bag half filled with fish, gave our thanks and went to the pier to crab and fish for perch. I felt the need to paint, to capture some of that strange reality I glimpsed with that woman. I set myself a limit of 3 hours to finish this piece. It's acrylic, on a piece of extra trim from our downstairs (1x8 pine lumber).

Return on 2x4s and Chicken Feed.

2007-08-10T09:58:00.000-07:00

From the Rhode Island Red whose name is.... Scully? We still desperately need a name for this one:

WIP Pygora Goat

2007-07-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

I am planning to have a booth at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival to sell my wares, and here is the first piece specifically catering to the theme of adorable fibrous ungulates. I may push through tonight and finish him up....He's 8x10" acrylic on canvas (my first oval!). I think i may use only white paint, or break down and use a pale yellow for the eyes. I hope it's not too creepy.

Lily for Lara

2007-07-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

Behold, dear reader!! Lily number nine! (Numba 9, numba 9, numba 9...) I painted this for my dear friend Lara Michell, who had her birthday on sunday. It is 8x8", acrylic on deep-cradled canvas. I used my typical-when-I-am-not-super-lazy technique inspired by the PRB, which is to say that I primed the canvas about 11 times, sanding between coats. Smmmmooooooooth.

Poppy #1

2007-07-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

I am not exactly sure what it is, but all three paintings that i have done while at Barlow creek have something in common. (For those interested, Lily #2 and Iris #1 were done at the same campsite as this one. Anyone care to comment on their similarities?) The background was inspired by my love of red and light blue together, and my desire to break up the smooth fluffy edges of the poppy. I also felt that she needed a background more fitting her scandalous reputation. She's 6x6" on claybord, the yummiest of media.

Floor update.

2007-07-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

So I realize, dear reader, that you were on the edge of your office chair for the last 3 weeks waiting for pix of our shiny new floors. Refinishing was a very rewarding experience, and I have learned many things:
1. You can never vacuum too many times between sanding and varnish. Seriously.
2. Finishing floors with 10" of bare plaster showing (where the trim was before they ripped it out to put in 'wood' paneling) causes very much plaster and grit to be spread onto precious floor.
3. Re-sanding after the first coat with 220 grit paper on hands and knees takes a long time. (See #1 and 2)
4. Ignore patronizing males when they say things like "oh, boy, that machine is probably too much for you to handle" and "you gals might want to leave that to the professionals." Although the floors might be a little grittier than if we paid someone 3 grand to do it, we spent 200 dollars and a weekend of work. The machines weren't really that bad anyway, in fact they were really fun to use. Stella almost cried when the edger broke, she had grown so attached. She cradled the poor thing in her arms like a wounded lamb.
5. Doing something this big for yourself means very much confidence-boosting and chest-puffing like arrogant bluebird. We are officially "handy" now, and everyone coos over the beauty of our floors. Observe:

I return to the downy bosom of the internets...

2007-07-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

It was a long 2.5 weeks in our new house sans interweb, but I re-emerge, doubtless the better for avoiding my favorite time waster during the most crucial period of renovation. I even managed a show and a new painting in the interim, on top of new trim, unpacking and painting the walls. Here's the new piece, Lily #8. FYI, it has already sold...But there are many more to come, I just took dozens of pictures of this season's lilies... and as long as people keep buying them I will keep painting them...

Birthday post

2007-06-24T01:37:00.000-07:00

My mother asked me a few months ago what I wanted for my birthday. I snarkily replied: "A house." Be careful what you wish for, because you might end up spending 12 hours on your birthday refinishing floors. We took possession of our bungalow on the 9th of June, and since then we have:
-Built a chicken coop, complete with hound-resistant fencing buried 12 inches down and 12 inches out...
-Torn out all the carpet in the house, including about 400 sqft that was screwed (!!) down with 1" wood screws
-Ripped down all the "wood" paneling
-Coaxed out 2 bedrooms worth of linoleum (pry bar)
-Patched and painted the great room
-Patched and painted the 2 downstairs bedrooms
-Built a 6'x6'x4' garden bed
-Sanded through vinyl backing and mastic to reveal handsome wood floors. We started today with 18 grit sandpaper and are currently on 24...tomorrow, brace yourself as we do 38 through 100 and try to put finish down before the lady starts her insane 3 week class on Monday morning.

Check out some pictures, trust me I have more of them than eloquence after wrastlin' with that drum sander all day.

Eyes heart spring...

2007-05-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

Its visitor season again, and my college friend Robert just returned to Minneapolis after a delightful week-long visit to Portland. I admit, my bee is arrested in the inchoate stage and I have done no work on him/it. (I also admit that I openly discriminate against haploid individuals. I would caution you not to inform the bee but--come on, he's haploid..) I have been busy with traveling, packing, entertaining and a nasty flu. Its been more than a year since I was sick with a traditional ailment and I confess there's something comforting about being sick and knowing there's no danger of it spiraling into something uncontrollable, losing 30 pounds and my sanity in the process. Health is so precious and tenuous and moments like this one make me cherish it even more. So now seemed a perfect time to share a few photos taken on my various spring adventures.

Sheep are Sheep

2007-05-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

This stately dame is 2nd in my series of 26. Please, suggest other animals before it's too late. My tentative list, so far:
Alpaca
Bee (green sweat-In progress)
Cheetah
Dik Dik
Echidna (Eel?)
Flamingo
Goose
Hyena
Ibex
Jay (Completed)
Kangaroo Rat
Lamprey
Mongoose
Nautilus
Okapi
Pangolin
Quail
Rat
Sheep (Completed)
T (Tapir?)
U (Anyone?)
Vulture
Wolf
Xenopeltis Unicolor (Sunbeam snake)
Yakare Caiman
Zebra finch

Please welcome the new members of our flock!

2007-05-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

We picked up chicks in Boring, Oregon last night. Give a hearty welcome to our new family members! On the left is Lambchop, a Silver-Laced Wyandotte. Behind her is Starbuck, our blond warrior chick, who is at the top of the pecking order and very protective of the other two. She is a Buff Orpington. The one in front, my favorite, is a Araucana/Ameraucana named Isabella (She will be giving us blue eggs!). I have been told we are to expect 20 eggs a week from these ladies starting in September.

Forgotten Souls...

2007-05-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

I just took down that show in Hillsboro. I didn't sell anything, but all my business cards disappeared and many nibbled at the 3-piece tree. I forgot to post these two paintings when I completed them at the end of February. In fact, I had forgotten painting the butterfly at all. The one on the left is entitled "blood and lust"--I was trying to put those two things on the wood and do something abstract for a change. Both are quite small (4x4"), my attempt at marketing as I heard that "Small is the new big". The butterfly looks sinister even though I made an attempt at cuteness (again). Why does this always happen?

Catch-up

2007-04-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a painting I finished a while ago but didn't post. Mr. Flufferkins/Henri has inspired a series, watch for the hilarious results!

In a blue jay way

2007-04-25T19:20:00.000-07:00

This is a re-used canvas from a piece I started in 2002, while I was taking a class on the Pre-Raphaelites. The original idea was to have the gold border frame a transcription of one of D.G. Rossetti's sonnets from The House of Life, which is, of course, the best piece of literature ever to have been exhumed from a Victorian woman's grave. I painted the background over the old text with my leftover paint from a cock-fight piece I am hating right now, and then decided I needed a blue subject for the foreground. His fat little body and earnest expression inspired me. Please suggest names, he longs for an identity. But not Jay.

Before and After

2007-04-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

So we are trying to buy a house. It's been a tedious process the last few months--we are on our second realtor and this is the third house on which we have made an offer. Its a beautiful 1924 bungalow one mile from Mt. Tabor. I know what you are thinking--we can't afford it...and you're right, except for:
-It's close to the freeway (As Evan E. says, close to easy directions to our house)
-It's close to the Juvenile Detention Center ("kids, if you don't shut up you're goin' over the wall!")
-It has no heat
-The electrical panel is defective
-The Sewer line is trash (and runs through the neighbor's yard)
-The foundation needs help
That's just the big stuff. Picture mauve carpeting, windows that haven't been open in decades, enough wood panel to sink a battleship and...wait for it...the bedrooms have brown shag carpet over linoleum over linoleum over fir. You heard me. Two layers of linoleum under shag. The point of my story is that we love it--its like finding Tomatillo at the humane society, sniffling, skinny and matted. They were going to put him down. With a little time (and a few weeks of antibiotics and syringe feeding) he became the most fluffy, handsome, orange love-muffin around. And if they fix the big stuff, nothing will hold us back. Get ready for the before and after shots as I put painting on the small burner (not the back, that one has plastic melted to it) and attempt to turn our new house into a big, fluffy orange tabby.

Chicken Mit Nuggets

2007-04-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

I have been flurrying to prepare for my Earth Day booth tomorrow. As well as framing my very first prints (of winged victory), I completed a couple paintings today, including this portrait of Comandante Esther.

Lily #7

2007-04-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

The seventh lily in the series. Any thoughts?

Top of the Morning To you!

2007-03-31T09:54:00.000-07:00

We ladies stayed up way too late last night drinking wine and painting/knitting. Carrying on with the barnyard theme, here's the rooster!

KING ME!

2007-03-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

This is a portrait of Checkers, a lovely urban hen belonging to Abram Goldman-Armstrong. I have tasted her eggs, they are delicious.

Moon God Teaser Part 2

2007-03-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

I vow that Thoth will be ready for public consideration in one week. It's spring break, and now I have no excuses. Everyone can thank Jeffery Doten for my current good mood and total lack of artistic progress in the last two weeks. Here is thoth, the next time you see him he will be done. There, I said it again. Right now I am working on a chicken. Named Checkers.

"they never even asked to see my impaling stick"

2007-03-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

Things I learned last night at the Crystal ballroom:
-Smoosh is the greatest band ever. I have obviously wasted many years of my life.
-Not knowing who the Gang of Four is did not prevent me from letting Dave Allen escort me into the roomy VIP section and absorbing countless vicious glares from the sardines crowding against the barrier.
-Final Fantasy totally blew my mind. Brilliant combination of pretty-boy-choir-voiced violinist and unabashed low-tech overhead projector magic. Truly stunning.
-Having a fugly back up section makes a pretty lead singer way more captivating. (Bloc Party) Also, he was the first man ever to make a howling wolf T-shirt from Colorado seem acceptable. Almost. But we still left after the third song. Sorry, my ears hurt and their music is boring.
Coming soon: Another moon god teaser! If i can find my camera.

Flying Fox

2007-03-09T16:40:00.000-08:00

I had a very productive Art-Date today with my friend Sarah Johnson. Anyone have a name for him?

Friends: Long and Orange

2007-03-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

Its been a while. My show is up at Ritual Hair Design until may. 23 pieces. Here's my latest, entitled Long Orange Friend, a tribute to the most often consumed vegetable in my diet. Shortly after sitting for me, I felt it most fitting to steam my friend and serve him with peas and spinach under a cup of chicken soup. I felt only the slightest pang of guilt as i chopped away the contours I had studied for the previous 5 hours, cultivating an intimacy never before shared with a long orange friend.

.8 bulldog puppy

2007-02-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

another 8 or so hours in...

Burl in the Ruff

2007-02-08T14:51:00.000-08:00

Finally a new project--I have neglecting my work due to finding and making an offer on a house. Meggan Baumgartner sent a picture of this puppy yesterday. I can't resist a cranky squishy puppy face. His name is Burl, and apparently he's much bigger already...

Tulip #1

2007-02-03T17:47:00.000-08:00

I took the photo myself, I saw the flower, and still i have a hard time believing it's a tulip. I guess when you see something from the same angle often enough...
There's something reminiscent of Lily#2 in the colors and composition, and yet there's something unique and 'candid' about it, to quote Stella, like the flower was caught in an embarrassing pose.

A cold night on the prairie

2007-01-26T20:02:00.000-08:00

Interweb, meet PD. PD, the interweb. I painted him yesterday. My original plan was for him to be holding a bullhorn, but I changed my mind last minute. I was watching Will Farrell and Sacha Baron Cohen kiss in the background and PD got caught up in the torrid romantic passion. Next thing I knew my lap was wet from his tears, snot glistening on his tiny black nose. I offered him my handkerchief, and as so he is preserved for eternity. I think there should be a new rule: every NASCAR race should end with the top two racers kissing. Please?

Giraffe for Vaden

2007-01-23T13:34:00.000-08:00

Last summer I took a trip down to southern Oregon with some friends, where I first spent time with Vaden. He was 18 months old at the time, and already knew the difference between a rhododendron and a juniper. We spent some lovely times together walking along the river. Apparently since then he has been telling everyone who will listen about his friend Katie. He says "we held hands in the summertime and played. In the sunshine." I love this boy. His second birthday is in a few days, and he's getting a Giraffe...its about half done.

Oh Robster, My Lobster

2007-01-20T09:58:00.000-08:00

I had a fabulous winter day yesterday. A reunion with friends that haven't shared a space in 11 years, carrot-apple-coconut-ginger soup, lamb... And I finally turned in my application to OCOM. The afternoon was spent attending to my new favorite lobster: Robster. He is very close to being done. I might just let him go as he is, take the rubber bands off ...

Deprivation

2007-01-15T20:07:00.000-08:00

I am sleep-deprived and have been painting more than 10 hours a day for too many days in a row. It's like my own private vision quest. Here's the teaser for the moon god...I like him so far although i need to work on the brightness of the torso, and decide what goes in the top foot...perhaps a realistic moon?

Thoth

2007-01-14T22:58:00.000-08:00

A custom piece commissioned by a man in Chicago has been taking up my creative time--unfortunately the spiny lobster got pushed to the background. Here are the two kitties...In my frenzy I began another painting yesterday afternoon, a portrait of Thoth, but with more of a life-like feel. Lets just leave it at that for now. Coming soon: previews of the lobster and the egyptian stud...

Virgin Entry

2007-01-02T15:25:00.000-08:00

With these words, blogging maidenhead, I thee rupture.
My 30th and final painting of 2006 was ceremoniously completed shortly before the striking of midnight on the 31st. "My Green Thumb" was gently inspired by Salvador Dali and my left hand, an ever-patient model. Yesterday I began work on a giant lobster, continuing with the graded tan background theme. He's a handsome crustacean, and i hope to have him ready for dinner by tomorrow.