Was I There?

The Golden Hippo of Easter

So last year Theo caught me hiding the eggs outside and asked, "Mom, are you the Easter Bunny?"  To which I could tell no lie.  This year, when Theo told Josephine that the Easter Bunny was really "just Mom," I said, "Ah, but you don't know the Golden Hippo of Easter."  

They perked up.  

"The Golden Hippo comes on Easter night and lays eggs in the woods filled with prizes for you to find."

Easter morning, needless to say, they were up at the crack of dawn.

Want to make your small kids go on a brisk hike, uphill?  Just tell them that the golden hippo's nest is up there somewhere, and they just have to persevere.  

And bring along the Meyer Lemon Pastry you made the night before, just in case you want to stop at the neighboor's brunch on the way back home.

"Put A Bird On It" : A Tribute to Portlandia

"In Portland, you can put a bird on anything and call it art!" says one character to another in the new TV series Portlandia.  

Watch them make fun of the City of Roses (and etsy) here.

I doff my hat and bird to Portlandia with my new series of plates.

It might not be art, but at least it's funny...

Bunny Quasimodo...and some links

On Saturday, we went down to see the bunnies at the Northwest Nature Shop here in Ashland.  And Josephine was, well, a bit dubious about it.  So she sat on my lap. I held the beasts and she shyly petted them.

Guinea Pigs...not so scary but still not the type of animals you want to hold yourself.

I had a great day planned: all of us meet friends Fred and Fiona and Baby Benjamin for the bunnies, have lunch, go meet some teenager dressed as the Easter Bunny at another store and decorate some cookies.  What could go wrong?  Well, me apparently, for when we started down the street, my face started swelling up with an allergic reaction. (I must have rubbed my eye with a bunny infested hand.)  I was just about on par with this.

May I add that I was brave venturing out at all given the horrific cold sore that had popped up on my lower lip the previous Friday.  My bad back which made me shuffle along the sidewalk, the cold sore, and then the allergic reaction which colored the left side of my face a terrible red and swelled my left eye completely shut-- was it any wonder (and I am NOT kidding) that people looked at me as I walked down the street, and then looked quickly away?  And that a waitress, when I dashed into a local cafe to use the restroom, actually did a sharp, horrified intake of breath as she looked into my face?

Anyhow.  I made an emergency stop at the pharmacy and went home to wash all the bunny karma off of me.  

In other news, here are some cool Easter things to check out:

• the paper German eggs I ordered and intend to paint gold and use instead of Easter baskets
• Aunt Peaches' tutorial on how to dye eggs using tissue paper 
• chocolates from Maison Bouche-- not only delicious but I love their vintage illustrations.  Last year, if you recall, I did these little dishes with chicks in red polka dotted kerchiefs.  They had been inspired by a vintage cupcake topper.  This year, I'm quite interested in the chick with the veiled hat...

 or the bunnies dueling. Hmmm....

 

 

Do you know Jack?

Here are my new plates, which would be good for any time of the year, but which are great easter gifts for your pals with a sense of humor.  It all started with a drawing I made of a jackrabbit, which has the same gleeket look as my dog Hamish.

I know I shouldn't laugh at my own jokes.

Anyway.  I made these plates and other work because I was gearing up for the Oregon Potter's Association show, which is the last weekend in April, up in Portland.  Alas, I'm not going.  Why?  Because last Saturday I stood on one leg, sneezed, and threw my back out.

So here I am again-- bad back, pots all dressed up and no where to go except my etsy store.

I've been to the osteopath three times this week and have PT next week.  And FINE, FINE I'll admit the IRONY of it: I was showing my 5 year old son this thing called "moonwalking" via the first time MJ did it.  We watched it on youtube, we went back into the kitchen, I did a little moonwalk, just a little one....and that's when I sneezed.

 

 

"The ember is in the canoe..."

This started out as three red dots.  I know because the artist, Denise Kester, was doing a demo of her monoprint method at a two-day workshop I went to at her studio a couple months ago.  Denise is a printmaker here in Ashland, Oregon.  And she not only is an amazing artist, but an insightful teacher as well.

I am going to save my ravings about Denise and printmaking for another post.  In the meantime I wanted to share her perspective of the class (and creativity and printmaking.)  This is from her monthly email newsletter, Monthly Musings:

Last weekend I had a wonderful experience with my monoprinting workshop. It was a full class and they kept me very busy. I began the monoprint above as a demonstration in the class but put it in a drawer to work on later as I had no time during class to give it my full attention. It wasn't until the next day when I was ready to print that I remembered a dream that I had on January 13th. 

work in progress on the light table before printing 

In this dream I am in a crowd of people and I hear a telephone ringing. Someone answers the phone and hands it to me and says "Its for you". I say "hello" and the person on the other end is a woman and she says. "I am calling from the Hopi nation. The ember is in the canoe. The time is now."   

work in progress without the light

I printed the monoprint by running it through my press. I then hung the print on my art wall. I began to dialog with the art to see what I could find out. This monoprint and the writing is still a work in progress but, this is what I have so far:

The canoe travels as the crow flies carrying the friends through flood high waters.

They are guided by helpers who send clues ahead.

It is a feeling of resonance that they follow.  

The friends are guardians of the precious  

ember that glows and is growing.

What is the ember? 

It is the ember that will spark the imagination, allowing the slow burn of ideas to ignite and become clear harbingers of creative solutions.

It is part of my process with all of my work to sit down and dialog or write down what the art is has to say to me.  This is how the titles and the stories come about in all my work.

work in progress just before printing

I am always fascinated by the connection between my dreams and my art. It is amazing to me that while attempting a demonstration in a class that the shape of a canoe will suddenly appear with a random stroke of an inked palette knife. I have enough experience with my process to trust the things that come through my art and my dreams. I know enough to pay attention.