Blog
October 10th, 2013
I just got back from a glorious trip to the Canadian Maritimes with my best friend. We got to spend lots of time catching up,
live our childhood Anne of Green Gables fantasies,
eat our weight in lobster (and sport the latest bib fashions),
contemplate hilarious souvenirs (I don’t think the polar bears are for sale, dude)—
—as well as the inexplicable—
—and of course, have plenty of time for sketching. I’ll be posting the occasional sketchbook drawing from the trip over at my Drawn the Road Again blog, so feel free to follow along!
September 8th, 2013
Jessica and I (and our friend Caitlyn) were invited to have a table at this yesterday’s Wayzgoose at the School of Visual Concepts in Seattle. We didn’t contribute a steamroller print this time, so it was fun to just be part of the audience outside, and enjoy the show! I love the sort of mischief that happens when a bunch of letterpress printers get together for a day.
August 2nd, 2013
I just got back from a return trip to Victoria—this time with the Tailor in tow.
We were only there for a couple of days, but long enough for me to see the Gardens—and sketch them—
—in their summer colors.
This was the Tailor’s first trip to Victoria, so I got to relive some favorite experiences with him.
Others, on the other hand, were new to both of us—
—and some were complete surprises.
Best of all, I think we had a chance to see the city in its best light.
July 12th, 2013
The other day I received the most peculiar thing in the post, from a couple who had recently purchased my Local Conditions artist book.
I opened it up, and inside was their own version of the book, made out of vintage postcards!
I’m pretty sure this is, hands down, the best thing anyone has ever sent me in the mail.
June 23rd, 2013
I’m usually terrible about attending organized sketch crawls, but today I made an extra effort and joined the local Urban Sketchers group up north in Edmonds, WA. My friend Gabi Campanario (who founded the group) was there, and while most of the rest of the group camped out to sketch around the downtown core, we set out for the shoreline. There, Gabi let me in on the best sketching secret ever: that the best place to be was under the ferry landing.
You can only walk under there (without waders) when the tide is lower than normal; today we had a boatload of sheer dumb luck, as it happened to be an exceptionally extreme spring tide. Today was not only a full moon, but a so-called “supermoon,” where the moon is the closest to Earth that it will be for the next year. We arrived on the scene about an hour before low tide, and found the place absolutely teeming with marine life.
I’ve seen tide pools before, but nothing like this. There were literally hundreds of sea stars, crabs, anemones and clams in lurid colors. And I got to make a few discoveries—like just how bizarre an anemone looks when it’s completely exposed and left hanging from a rock like a gob of soupy ABC gum. Or that if you stand in place long enough, sooner or later a clam will squirt a jet of water at you from two feet away, and hit you with uncanny accuracy.
The place was also teeming with beachcombers, who provided a good exercise in speed-sketching an ever-changing crowd (as if the seriously challenging perspective of all those pilings weren’t enough…). Gabi, on the other hand, was super easy to draw: he plonked himself down on a rock to paint, and became almost as motionless as the sea stars clinging to his perch.
So thanks, Gabi, for a great sketch outing today. And a big shout-out to the moon, for providing the perfect opportunity!
June 19th, 2013
It’s a little hard to believe that Old Town Dock is finally open, and up-and-running for good.
Photo by Naomi Strom-Avila
Technically, we had a little ribbon-cutting and “soft opening” (in which Deputy Mayor Campbell hilariously appeared to be attacking me with the giant ceremonial scissors—oh, heck yes, we used giant ceremonial scissors!)—
—but Sunday was the big party for everybody.
The Dock is still technically a work in progress, as Phase II of the project (including a restroom and permanent wayfinding signage) won’t be completed until late fall. So for the next few months we’ve got snazzy banners up instead—big thanks to the City and Metro Parks for letting me be a total control freak and design the banners and signage.
And even more big thanks to Jessica, who whipped up these fabulous fluorescent letterpress coasters to give out at the event. It was fun to see a hundred people walking around carrying neon octopi with them.
Photos by Walter Smith
And even though I had to speak right after our lovely Mayor (left), having the audience packed with hollering friends made me forget how nervous I was. Thanks, guys.
The best part, though, was the people-watching. I can’t tell you how good it feels to see people responding to and interacting with your own artwork—
—and looking excited to do so.
In the two months since we installed the work, I’ve already lost count of the number of people (including the construction guys!) who have told me their own memories about Old Town Dock. Knowing that my little illustrations are triggering these stories is an incredible feeling.
I especially love catching folks in quiet moments, just exploring the Dock and discovering each Droplet for themselves.
Photo by Sheree Trefry
It’s all I can do not to run up to total strangers and say, “I made that!”
Thank you to everyone to came to the dedication on Sunday; to everyone who’s spent a lunch hour or coffee break counting medallions (Ric, I’m looking at you; a bucket of gold stars for finding all 24 first!); to everyone who’s got a story to share about Old Town Dock. I’m still listening.
May 28th, 2013
I had no idea we’d get here so quickly, but here we are. It’s been just under a year since we first launched the Tacoma Playing Cards project, and I’m happy to report that we’ve nearly sold out our initial print run of 5,000 decks! And we’ve had so many requests from Bridge players (and other folks who love multi-deck games) that we’re now working on a second deck—this time in red. (No worries if you haven’t snagged your Blue Deck yet; we’re printing a second run of those, as well.)
The overall design will be largely the same, with a few little exceptions (can you spot the difference in the box above?), and I’ll be contributing illustrations for another suite of face cards. But other than that, we’re reshuffling the deck completely—we’ve got 13 new artists on board, and a whole new batch of Tacoma icons to highlight.
Sales from the Blue Deck are funding the new Red Deck, so we won’t be doing a Kickstarter project this time. Instead, we’re taking pre-orders (at a discount!), and the Red Deck will be available in mid-October of this year. And you can already snag archival giclée prints of the Blue Deck artwork—as well as the one-of-a-kind originals.
Look for more sneak peeks later, as I finish my illustrations for the decks. In the meantime…go fish!
May 7th, 2013
If you’ve read about the squash in our attic, our crazy food-shopping habits, and my illustrated political rants—you probably already know that the Tailor and I are freakishly into sustainability. So you can imagine how happy I was when our lovely new local food co-op asked me to design a reusable water bottle for them. I’m honored to be the first Tacoma artist in what we hope will become a series of limited-edition artist-designed bottles.
What I love most about this is that the bottles are manufactured by the kind folks at Liberty Bottle Works—right across the mountains in Yakima, WA. Thus far, at least, Liberty is the only U.S. manufacturer of metal water bottles. So being able to support an industry right in my own state was a big deal for me.
The hitch is that there are only 200 of these—once they’re gone, that’s it. So visit the Tacoma Food Coop, grab your bottle and fill ‘er up.
April 30th, 2013
Wayzgoose worked like a well-oiled machine this year—and that’s the way we like it.
(Even if we were just a little extra tired afterward.)
We were finally able to have the event in the parking lot next door, which allowed way more people to gather ’round the steamroller—and gave the artists more elbow room for spreading ink and chatting it up.
Steamroller prints by Ric Matthies (left) and Charles Wright Academy students (right)
The usual suspects were up to all kindsa good on Sunday—
Our print (left), Beautiful Angle (center), Maggie Roberts (right)
—and it was fun for Jessica and me to come back after a year off.
Photo by Victoria Bjorklund
This year, we added something a little different to the mix—just like we did in 2011 in San Francisco. After Jessica inked up the block…
Photo by Victoria Bjorklund
…and the steamroller packed its punch…
Photo by Victoria Bjorklund
…I set up shop across the parking lot, adding a few hand-colored touches to the piece.
Here’s the finished product—and for those of you who don’t happen to live in T-town, I’ll need to provide a little back-story. You probably recognize the reference to Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, but there’s a second tribute to pop artist Andy Warhol, as well. And I’m not just talking about Venus herself—to whom Warhol did pay homage in 1984.
You see, over thirty years ago now, Warhol was one of several artists to propose a permanent public artwork to adorn the roof of the Tacoma Dome. Not only was his proposal rejected at the time, but the whole project resulted in an enormous backlash of public opinion, insurance nightmares and political in-fighting—which literally derailed the city’s entire public art program for nearly two decades afterward. Fast-forward to today: not only is our public art program back in the saddle and going strong, but now there’s a growing movement to put Warhol’s flower on the Dome after all—which, in fact, would be the world’s largest Warhol original.
Whom do we have to thank for both the…uh…Renaissance of our public art program, and the push to bring Warhol back? Our wonderful City Arts Administrator, Amy McBride (click to see her talk about the Warhol story)—who, incidentally, drove the steamroller that printed our Venus linocut on Sunday.
How’s that for coming full-circle, huh?
Many thanks to everyone who stopped by on Sunday, and to Amy and the Tacoma Arts Commission for continuing to make art happen—both for Wayzgoose and for Tacoma.
April 24th, 2013
Yesterday was such a beautiful day, and my hands so badly needed a break from carving, that I took a day off and headed upstate to bask in the tulip fields.
And then, when I got home, there was a postcard waiting for me from my friend Jen—from her own tulip tour in the Netherlands.
I’m taking that as a sign that playing hooky yesterday was the right idea.
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