painting

Are you learning anything new this autumn? Or returning to a practice? Maybe with kids back in school you have an extra moment to do something that is just for you.
I'm doing all three. And reading books like crazy. Autumn makes me want to be a better person with regular schedules and healthy habits and growth. Even more than New Year's. I'm nerdy like that. But Back to school isn't always new denim and cute lunchboxes.

Back to school can be terrifying, like when my family moved to a new town just before 7th grade. awkward.
And back to school can be so inspiring, like the first semester I took a course on Sustainable Living and made awesome friends while planting garlic.
Back to school is just a moment that keeps returning, even when we aren't in school. We can choose what to do with that energy each autumn.

So Franklin had three days of preschool this week and I've been painting in my studio again for an upcoming group art show. About superheroes.

I decided to just do a regular old painting. No fabric on boards, no stitched portraits, no sewing a doll or a quilt for a gallery. No gimmicks. Just paint on wood. I was so nervous about my idea that I didn't even tell Steeb (who is organizing the whole show and my best friend even!) what I was working on until I had it started.

But you know, it's fall and back to school and return to learning, so I went for it. I realized that even as A Creative, I have huge creative blocks. I have sewn myself into a craft corner and a profitability mindset. I have a good time in my little corner mind you, but still...

Sometimes I need to just push paint around on wood and make something that is personal and a little vulnerable and maybe even awesome.

Come to Make.Shift gallery October 4 to see the rest of this painting. And another one with a chicken. Because I also remembered I really like painting chickens. And you will see how this boy with binoculars and a chicken have anything to do with comic book superheroes.

application out take

Working on my Urban Craft Uprising application always means roping the guys into some back yard photo shoots. Franklin's rates have gone up from a handful of cheddar bunnies to 14 mini peanut butter cups in the past 3 years. Totally worth it though to get some images of the new Ralph Superstar hat. It is always a challenge to look at the pictures and decide what is actually a good photo of the product regardless of how much I like the people wearing it. So I thought I would put up one I like, but honestly doesn't show the details of the hat in a way that will win me any prizes.

I'm back at the farmer's market after a weekend with my family. Hope you are having some lovely summer adventures as well.

friends and family

It's here, the weekend when I am NOT at the Farmer's Market. It's sort of like a vacation. I might take a rest on the sand with these guys:

In the next three weeks I will be visiting friends and family, here and on the peninsula, back and forth squeezing in as much summer as possible around our day jobs.

So, No Gallery Walk tonight
No Farmer's Market August 3
Yes! back at the market August 10-Christmas.

I will be checking emails and sewing sporadically in the next three weeks. Seriously, everyone I say I will drop everything for to visit is coming through the northwest this month. Such love, such scheduling.