An Engagement in Portland

Before

After

Before (wah!) and After (yay!).  Congratulations, Spencer and Sally!

Cain's Lake

I am almost finished with this one. Just a lot of tidying up to do.  I understand why artists hire assistants now!  And I keep thinking that I need to add a labyrinth or arabesque to the lime green. Who knows?

The official title of this is:  "Cain's Lake:  The Mystery of the Lost Lagoon (Eason and Papa John Discover the Fabled Flower of Pure Gold."

!!!!

Great News: Lori is Back in the Saddle!

This was me on Hotwire yesterday up in Everson. Out first official show in I dont know how long. Hot but fun.  Hotwire loved it but I wouldn't let him go as fast as he wanted.  If I did I think I would have been a human lawn dart.   Now I have to get back in shape so we can go faster!

Charles New Book is a Wonderful Thing

Charles's latest book, Lucca & Malphi, is now available on Amazon and it is a stunning work of imagination.

Here's how he describes it:

 "Lucca & Malphi is a story about true love, the re-emergence of the gods in our daily lives, the re-birth of the oracles and the re-affirmation of our collective belief in the mystery of discovery.
The cause and effect of Lucca and Malphi is that when we listen to this story we hope to live our lives as if we are always falling in love and truly falling in love is the best effect we can cause or least it seems that way to the author."

You can find it here. 


(EDITOR:  p.s.  Just in case, don't let the introduction put you off.)

Amir and Inela's Anniversary

Inela writes: 

Ah, that Amir's job, this is just another special day stolen from us because of super ideas by owner of that company, huh.

How are you? How is everyone? Grandchildren?

Parenting? Amir goes to work, and I am the everything else in the house :).  In the fall Amir start with school again and me my accounting agency :).

...and I have one news..Mak speaks english a lot, so you will understand him probably better then me :), go to sport and swimming too.

Kisses and hugs

At the Impromptu Solstice Picnic

OR
Happy Solstice from the Multiverse!

Sally and Spencer get a new pup at the Puppy Fair.

Solstice

Happy Solstice from the Cosmos

(and the mint)

Muse

I kinda like the flat, minimal look of this.  Kyra says it looks like my old style . . .

Spencer's Shelf

Spencer and I hung up a new shelf in his Fremont townhouse entryway.  He salvaged the thick wood plank from a burn pile in Winthrop, then sanded and sanded it.  We visited Stoneway Hardware and came up with the "industrial style" coat hangars below it.  First to go on it was that dog!

i.e.

Last Saturday, I went to the inaugural opening of the new "i.e." gallery in Edison.  It is located in the smaller gallery room of the old Edison Eye, tastefully renovated by none-other-than "Eliot and co."!  Good food, a fair crowd,  som interesting work on the walls.  We shall see....

Winthrop

Another cross-post from Lynne's site haiku

Phew

Lashing thunderstorm,
stinky tree of heaven smell,
close all the windows.

--Lynne


(Click here.)

Sunny Afternoon on the Lake

Heading out in the canoe

Eason wears a water lily pad as a stylish hat

This is JUST GORGEOUS:  the Lost Lagoon!

Lori Writes: Johnny build it

John built the first fish friendly floating irrigation pump for the Skagit River. It has been a dream of John Roozen for over 27 years. They launched it yesterday and it functions better than they ever expected. Pretty cool! John has built some fish friendly irrigation pumps that sink with an approach velocity that doesn't build sediment or hurt the fry. This is the first floating and it will irrigate from west MV to laconner.

(Ed.  That's John Wolden, Lori's hubbie!!. . . .What a great idea, great job!!!)

A Couple More Small Pieces

Orphee

Untitled Arabesque (Me)

Just for fun.

New Skills

Eason learns paddle-boarding on Lake Pearrygin in Winthrop

Journeys

The Edison Granary

Setting up before the talks

Julia, starting introductions and talk

Anna, showing a timeline on Haiti

Christine

Food, before, during, after . . .

We had a great time at the "Journeys" slideshow yesterday.   Julia's talk about Bosnia was especially fantastic. She was followed by Anna, speaking about Haiti, and Christine, presenting her two-month pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago.  Both very enjoyable presentations.   About 60 people or so showed up.  When restoration is complete, the Granary will be a great resource for the arty town of Edison.

Journey's: Today is the Day

In Edison this afternoon, Julia and two other ladies will be giving slideshow presentations at the Granary, an old structure under renovation into a public space. The Camino, a pilgrimage across Northern Spain: Christine Wardenburg-Skinner Haiti, development in rural Haiti: Anna Ferdinand Srebrenica, peace march in Bosnia: Julia Hurd This event has had some good publicity and should be pretty well-attended and fun!

In Bellingham at the Naked Bicycle Ride and Art Walk

Charles is Writing a New Story

Johnie Blue and the Bee Lolita's

Part One:  Caper in downtown Tokyo

1.        Detective story set in present day inner city Tokyo and Johnie Blue is a woman detective and she is a voluptuous girl who is all business and Johnie Blue has a lot of experience in the detective business and no kidding she is some kind of woman detective and she is very selective with her clients and Johnie Blue knows how to bring the deal home.''

2.        Johnie's last case involved a retired Japanese Mafiosi Who was caught up in some sobering details and Johnie is congratulating herself after solving this case and she goes into some detail about the case in her mind and she elaborately tells the story of the case back to herself from memory while sitting in her apartment on very expensive furniture and Johnie finds this very satisfying and she checks her bank account and the money from the Mafiosi is in her bank account and Johnie is feeling delicious about Johnie's family were once proud samurai knights and I forgot to tell you that Johnie is very skilled in samurai fighting skills and really you wouldn't want to start a fight with Johnie because she will more than likely take you down with some hold or another.  And Johnie can make a drunk man sober when she waves her samurai sword through the air and Johnie's real good with numchucks as well.

3.        And Johnie Blue came to Tokyo and she became a Beautiful Woman Detective and she learned to use her samurai skills as a detective and she gained skills to be the next generation master samurai in her family tradition.

4.        In the downtown Toyko train station there is a situation where the Bee Lolita's and Johnie Blue join forces and they vanquish some bad people and Johnie Blue and the Bee Lolita's are constantly fighting off trouble while defending the rights of the young people to meet together and share their ideas and believe in something

Lynne Writes: Homage to Issa's Cuckoo

This is cross-posted from Lynne's blog (without her permission, I might add).  She has been writing a haiku a day for some time now.  Check it out, click on Uli Day Quintessential Quilting


Homage to Issa's Cuckoo

Cardinal's sharp call,
Repeats, repeats, repeats, - then
comes a great, long, pause.

Maroon

This year I have rediscovered some Napthamide Maroon that I had on my paint table, a delightful color that makes gorgeous washes and is strong and bold in masstone also.  I fell in love. 

Unfortunately, my jar of paint was pretty old and the acrylic had kinda tarred up and it was difficult to get it in paintable condition, despite adding flow agent, water, and medium and mooshing it all about with my palette knife.

So I decided to buy some more . . .

EXCEPT I couldn't find it anywhere.  On the web, I looked at Blick Art supplies and Amazon and did a general search.  I called local stores, Dakota Arts, Tri-Dee, Michaels.  I even double-checked the pronunciation of "Napthamide."  Nobody had any. 

I kept searching the web and found the answer: 

it hasn't been made since 1997
when the single supplier went out of business!!! 

My poor, poor, old paint!!

My Maroon was a single-pigment color but I found advice on a mixture that was supposed to approximate the color:

"11 parts Quinacridone Violet
12 parts Quinacridone Burnt Orange
2.0 parts Dioxazine Purple

This makes a great replacement for the undertone and washes. Reduce the Quinacridone Burnt. Orange to 11 parts and add 0.7 parts Carbon Black to create the masstone."

OK........

Lately, I found a "permanent maroon," also a mixture of pigments, that is somewhat similar.

But it's just not the same,
you know?

Charles and Melanie

Just a shot of Charles and Melanie looking great this past Memorial Day at an "ABC farm to table in a cool hip Chelsea neighborhood kind of way"