Here... and gone.... and then back!

I arrived home late last night– twenty hours, two planes, a shuttle, a truck, and a car after I left Maine. Not a case in which getting there was half the fun. And of course I'm blowing out again day after tomorrow to exhibit at the Crested Butte Arts Festival. (Come on up!)

As always, my time in Maine was spectacular. Our Educator's Week workshop at Hog Island Audubon Camp was great fun, although the first two days we had uncharacteristically hot and humid weather. This arid interior dweller thought she was gonna die. Or at least melt.

But I survived... we all did. No, I take that back. I didn't survive, I flourished. And I think our campers did, too. One of them made this video of the experience... Thanks, Paul... I love it.



Sharing Nature: An Educator's Week from Paul Stoutenburgh on Vimeo.

In other news... I came home to the announcement that "Wave Runners" was selected for the traveling exhibition of the Society of Animal Artists' Art and the Animal, which means it will be on the road through 2014. Yay!

 

The Shy Rabbit Print International opened last weekend in Pagosa Springs. But, hey! Look whose piece ended up on the invitation! Another nice surprise.

But for now it's laundry and email triage, so I'm going to get back to it. 

Fieldwork Friday: Alpine Meadow, Valley Floor, Island Bound

I wish I could say it's been a week of highs and lows... and I guess it has, if you count some time spent at timberline on Monday as the high. The rest of the week, indeed all of July so far, has been personally challenging. Hence the quiet at Brush and Baren.

But the brand-new journal got a little exercise... here's a page from timberline and an unfinished page from the edge of Sands Lake here on the valley floor.

This weekend I begin my journey eastward to Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine, where I'll spend a week as a staffer for Educators' Week and then a few additional days collecting reference sketches and photos to help keep my lino tools in motion this coming winter.

Home away from home, here I come!

When I return I'll have a scant three days to pack up my goods and head over the Continental Divide to participate in the Crested Butte Arts Festival. After that? Well. Let's just say there's nothing so constant as change... and I'll be right back in the thick of it.

Island web access can be sketchy, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to post, but I'll try to get at least something up during the next two weeks. In the meantime, carry on everyone! I'll catch up with you in August.

Still here... sort of

I see that my last post had to do with being somewhat overwhelmed. Clearly I haven't gotten past that sensation, since two weeks have somehow evaporated. Poof.

A few items have been ticked off my list, a few new ones have been added. I had to change my mind about hand delivering work to the Shy Rabbit Print International in Pagosa Springs because until yesterday the road between here and there was closed by the West Fork wildfires. That piece went into a crate and out the door on Friday. Today my piece for Birds in Art headed the opposite direction, towards Wisconsin. Tomorrow a box of materials will head out to Maine for imminent adventures in teaching at Hog Island Audubon Camp.

I'm getting to know my local shipping agent pretty well this week.

Needless to say, there isn't much printing going on. This past weekend we enjoyed our annual Salida ArtWalk... I talked to lots of linocut admirers and am pleased to report that a couple of pieces have gone on to new homes. (No shipper involved THIS time.)

But a girl has to do SOMETHING besides admin or she'll go a bit bonkers, so last night I set about making a new journal.

And WHY did I have to make a new journal? Because the one I had more than half filled with sketches and travel notes went on walkabout at O'Hare Airport in May. Yep. Lost.

On my way home from my residency at the Woodson Art Museum I had to change planes in the madhouse that is Chicago. In the hour I was there our gate assignment changed FOUR times, and it was during the last migration that I stopped by the restroom and apparently set down my book. When I returned to the gate the plane was boarding, and it wasn't until I was in my seat that I discovered my journal missing. The flight attendant overheard my dismay and astonishingly encouraged me to get off the plane and run back to find it... but in those few minutes it had disappeared.

I filed a lost item report when I got home, but of course nothing ever came of it. I was fairly certain my email address, at least, was written in the book... but... it's off having adventures without me now.

It took me a while to drum up the courage to build a new one... but here it is. All ready to see what happens next. I'm thinking of chaining it to my backpack while I'm in transit, though. Or maybe I should wear it around my neck...