Alberta Street

The draw in moving to Portland was not just having my big sis to adventure with, or watching my twin nephews grow and explore their world, but also the promise of an abundant and thriving art community. I have the luck of working for a company that embodies old world artisan spirit and therefore work alongside numerous local artists, but have found this first year in Portland that the way you enter into the community of artists is not just by creating, or through work contacts, but with the support of friends.

local printmaker Emily Riley and our shared table outside at
Last Thursday on Alberta Street yesterday

One such friend is Emily Riley, a truly skilled print maker and painter. She is a member of the Talisman Gallery, a cooperative gallery on Alberta Street in NE, and one of my closest friends in town. I'm pretty familiar (and comfortable) with selling online; much of my business plan is still focused on the Internet as means of communication, networking and expression, but Emily has played a role in encouraging me to show my drawings around town, in person, despite my shyness, hesitations, scheduling conflicts... or all the other road blocks that have manifested since arriving in this arty town.

Yesterday I left the glow of the computer behind to set up shop at my first ever outside booth. Attending Alberta Street's Last Thursday was a complete blast, with the constant river of people flowing by, odd parades making their way down the street, and such pleasant weather after a day of overcast foreboding skies. I was surprised to find people were eager to talk about art, process, and other sellers out that night whom they had enjoyed pouring over. It was great fun.

ink drawing on woodblock print BELONGING
by Emily Riley

I was surprised, also, by just how inspiring spending a night out talking about drawing, printmaking, design and other local artists could be. It was very, very hard arriving home at 11:30 p.m. and not cracking open the sketchbook.

ouou shows off her wares; single cards,
stationary sets, journals and original drawings

I feel as though I'm entering into the weekend with bold exuberance for some fresh new drawing, as well as mindful that I've been posting about a new year with new experiences lately- only to stumble into one such experience! :D Find out more about Emily's art at her website here, or visit her Etsy shop here.

Monkey Makes Friends

At long last those Little Monkey gift tags finally have company! I may have already said that I have some larger Gocco projects on the burner, until I can get those together it was really satisfying to have time (and tags) to do a large run of smaller images.

Here is the Gocco printer while I was taking a break between print runs. This latest screen has a whopping total of 5 designs on it (!!!) as well as fancy new labels for the Moleskines and large cards. It was really exciting to try out some of the treasure trove of new colors, I had to really hold myself back from possibly wrecking a screen by switching colors around between sets.

This image is already a note card set, laser printed, in the shop and one of my favorite recent designs. I couldn't wait to see it with some delicious ink. I was so happy with this deep forest green on the white tags, that I printed a few Moleskines, too! There are some Gocco printed cards as well, but they are not in the shop yet.

These two were drawn in hopes to get into the shop for Christmas, but were lost in my stack of papers and never got scanned. Stumbling on them the other day when the Gocco screens came in, I excitedly went about photocopying until they were sized right then making minor changes to their clothes and hair.

Our Gocco is the bigger model, so though it can give you beautiful fine lines you must be careful with blocks of color being too thick. I tried the pink and avocado green inks, perfect compliments to each other, and they look so good on the white card stock of these large tags. The pink ink has a surprisingly pearlescent quality, increasing my curiosity about the other new colors! I haven't figured out what else to do with these two, but for now I am giddily enamored by the results of this latest printmaking project.

Last, I am still in the very beginning of this one, but a great way to kick off the New Year would be to pick up a copy of Michael Pollan's new book In Defense of Food. I was luckily home last week for this interview with Pollan by Marty Moss-Coane of Radio Times, and was stuck to the radio until it ended. Celeste also heard the interview, and picked up the book the other night.

Take some time and give his interview a listen (if my link won't work, here: http://www.whyy.org/tv12/radiotimestv.html)
It really was a very comforting perspective around food and eating in the midst of such issues as obesity, diabetes, and even poverty regarding the Western diet. The interview is terrific, and now that I am reading the book, I am transfixed and delighted page after page.