Back from nowhere

It's official, sports fans: The aforementioned July monsoon brought us our wettest month since May 2001. (The start of a desperate drought that went on for a couple of years.) Almost 3.5 inches of precip for the month. For us, outrageous.

And speaking of outrageous, it's been about that length of time since I've checked in here. Still trying to tie up some contract-related loose ends, and who knows what else. Lest you think I'm all work and no... er.... work, here's proof-in-progress that a linocut will be forthcoming. I actually pulled a small black-and-white one last week, but I'm not convinced that it's going to see the light of day. Verdict is still out.

Anyway... this is the half-carved plate for a little image of blanketflowers. Three colors are down, this is the carve for the fourth, but I need to give the prints another day to dry before stacking more ink them. If I get TOO impatient, I'll have a mess on my hands.

In other news, stuff coming up:

"Winging It" show at Cultureclash Gallery in Salida opens this Saturday. Party 5-7. Be there.

"Starting a Nature Journal" booklet goes to press for Audubon Adventures end of next week. (Hoorah!) It's the first time I've been designer, illustrator, AND writer for a project for Audubon, so I'm pretty tickled about it. Usually I just get to draw the pictures and do some design work. :-)

Next week I've got a meeting with Rocky Mountain Land Library folks. Potential secret project getting some air during this meeting. Don't dare say more, but keep your fingers crossed.

Coming up August 17-18 in Our Fair City: The Going Green 100 and Expo. I'll be helping out at the Greater Arkansas River Nature Association table on Saturday and maybe hawking some sketchbooks while I'm at it.

The next Colorado Art Ranch Artposium will be September 7-9 in Durango, Colorado. The line-up looks great. I'm particularly enjoying reading keynote speaker Peter Turchi's book, "Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer." This is another one of those Be There events. It's going to be incredible.

I'm also pleased that Colorado Art Ranch has asked me to be the featured artist at their event in conjunction with the Land Trust Alliance in October. Details as they come available.

So, yeah. I'll be off the street for a while longer. Probably it's best that way.

Wallflowers and such

Once upon a time I painted with a group of watercolorists in Denver. One of our usual haunts was the Denver Botanic Gardens, but no matter where we went it always took me a long time to settle down and choose my subject.

I was lamenting this fact one day to another woman in the group, and she promptly informed me that the problem was my approach. "First I decide where I want to SIT," she declared. "THEN once I'm settled I decide what to paint." It always seemed a little backward to me, but then she never got sunburned as I did.

Day Three of The Great Eastern Expedition we were at the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Audubon's first home in America. It was sunny, but cold and windy and once again I wasn't sure what I wanted to paint. Suddenly the ghost of that woman (whose name I have sadly forgotten) was standing beside me again, speaking words I now knew to be wisdom. I plunked myself down on the sheltered side of the house, looked around, and was happily surprised to find the interesting textures of winter vines clinging stubbornly to the wall.

The next day I discovered that an equally good option was to sit indoors and look out the window of a nearby home towards JJA's house on the hill. Comfy chair and tea. Not exactly field work, but some days it doesn't pay to be a purist.