(Inside A Black Apple)

I Saw Her in the Library

I Saw Her in the Library    11"x14"x1"    Acrylic on wood

I really liked painting all those tiny books. It was kind of meditative, stripe after stripe after stripe. I love the way bookshelves become ribbons of color.

This is new painting from a new (mini-ish) series of work I'm working on concerning two solitary girls, lots of books, and a siamese cat.

More of this, hopefully soon!

Rose Hypnosis

1. I put almost every kind of rose I have in a jar and brought it to a friend.
2. Jude the Obscure is one of my favorite novels & also the name of a floppy, faded peachy English rose.
3. Josiah called them Power, Corruption & Lies flowers and that made me happy.

(I am working on some new paintings I'll share soon - in the meantime, The Flower Channel!)

In June

June is so gracious. I go out into the garden every day and usually come back with a jar of something. Then I marvel to Josiah (who listens for the hundredth time) about how it all happens, about how it feels like Aladdin's cave out there, about the delicate and temporary riches of flowers.

I can't ever get over it - they're just out there, with almost no help at all, working their magic. Somewhere underground, something says ABRACADABRA and the garden makes things so beautiful and voluptuous and fleeting your eyes turn into hypnotic spirals.

The roses are blooming their hearts out and it's the last of the foxgloves and the beginning of the bellflowers. 

 

Flutter

Sometimes you will find you need a Thomas Hardy paperback, an old tea tin, some military die-cuts, a piece of sari silk printed with elephants, and cat stickers. Maybe you also need some notecards printed with hundred-year-old images of Multnomah Falls.

If you need these things (or a tin wind-up toy or a 1960's beaded sweater or a book of photobooth photographs or some previously-unknown-to-you perfume from Imaginary Authors) there is only one place I know of to go, my favorite store:
Flutter.

There are lots of places I love here, but this place is special, the best-possible version your imagination's dress-up box. I remember the first time I visited, maybe seven or eight years ago. One look & I was done-for (you can watch a video on their website that gives you a tour of the shop, although it is a restless creature & always changing its feathers and colors and finery.)

If you visit Portland, you should wander into this giant jewel-box -- just know you will almost certainly leave with a collection of strange & beautiful clutter.

Dragons are Coming

I realized that my next picture book, Day Dreamers (the companion for Dream Animals) comes out in just two months!

Soon it will be in the world, this adventure of wandering minds & hearts into the land of mythical creatures & waking dreams. In the meantime, you can preorder via Powell's, B&N & Amazon.

A Celestial Globe

I had been wishing for a nice celestial globe for a while, and this gem finally came to me.

They are much more scarce than their terrestrial cousins, and the nice ones (the really, really, really nice ones, illustrated in color & centuries old) are hugely rare & cost a corresponding amount of pennies. This one is from the early mid-century, so no very old, but very beautiful & within my reach.

You probably won't be surprised by the constellation highlighted in the picture -- it is my favorite -- but they are all equally beautifully illustrated. And I've learned some new ones, too, like Lacerta, (the lizard).