Month: August 2016

I hope your summer is going well and that you have something or someone to feel grateful for. In 2008 I experienced a super cool splurge of abstractness.  Not sure that’s a word. I created about ten abstracts over the course of a few months.Yesterday in my studio I was revisiting a few abstracts and taking apart frames to freshen up the mats and clean the glass on both sides. Here are a few of those abstracts I am so grateful for because they make me happy in a way that only art can which means there are no adjectives to describe this feeling. None. These are watercolor with powdered chalk pastel.

Have you had the pleasure of being part of a Canoe Journey? In my community we get to observe and participate, somewhat, by sharing amazing meals, making new friends, and getting close and personal to the beautiful canoes from our region.  This year there were around 72 canoes on display in front of the House of Awakened Culture in Suquamish, WA.  I am in the process of painting a series from the images I took of these lovely canoes both during the welcoming on our beach and as they set on the grass in the sunshine.  This year I learned that buckets of water may be splashed on the canoe if it is hot outside so that the wood stays in tact.  I had the pleasure of meeting the man who crafted their canoe from a cedar tree 780 years old.  So beautiful. I enjoyed meeting and chatting with a woman named Shannon with the Cowlitz, shortly before the canoes headed to Alki Beach. Her daughter is wanting to attend Tacoma School of the Arts, which is where I have worked for the last 3 years so I got to tell her how wonderful it.  Talk about kismet.

Below you can see some of the spectacular canoes and a painting that I finished yesterday.