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Apple blossom time

Apple blossom photo by Chandler O'Leary

I took this photo of one of our apple trees a couple of weeks ago, when the blossoms were at their peak.

Apple blossom photo by Chandler O'Leary

Now the tree just has a couple of blooms still hanging on—

Apple blossom and bird photo by Chandler O'Leary

—but if you look closely, it has other surprises in store.

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My crafty Valentine

"Love Birds" illustrations by Chandler O'Leary

Painted Bunting illustration by Chandler O'Leary

Here they are! My new line of bird illustrations has arrived, just in (the nick of) time for Valentine’s Day.

Detail of "Love Birds" illustration by Chandler O'Leary

In the shop you’ll find snazzy new postcards…

"Love Birds" gift tags by Chandler O'Leary

…gift tags (I’m particularly excited about these)…

Painted Bunting temporary tattoo by Chandler O'Leary

…and even fun temporary tattoos! This is all just a taste of what I’ve got planned for this year—look for more soon.

In the meantime, head on over and see if something catches your fancy. Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Cold studio, warm palette

Detail of "Love Birds" illustration by Chandler O'Leary

For the past few days I’ve been painting while wrapped in a thick wool shawl and wearing fingerless gloves—but howl as it might, no polar vortex can dim my bright tropical paints.

Detail of "Love Birds" illustration by Chandler O'Leary

I’m putting the finishing touches on a few new goodies,

Detail of Painted Bunting illustration by Chandler O'Leary

just in time for Valentine’s Day. If you’re local, you can find them at my table at the craft fair this weekend! Here’s the skinny:

Tacoma is for Lovers Valentine Craft Fair
Saturday & Sunday, February 8 & 9
11 am to 4 pm both days, free!
King’s Books
218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, WA

Detail of "Love Birds" illustration by Chandler O'Leary

If you’re not local, they’ll go online in the Etsy shop this weekend, too. I’ll be back with an announcement post when they’re up. In the meantime, stop by the fair and say hello!

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Painted wings

Process photo of "Love Birds" illustration by Chandler O'Leary

My acrylic inks and black paper are getting a lot of use these days. This guy is part of a new series that’ll be leaving the nest in the next few days.

More soon…

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Ch-ch-changes

"Flock" letterpress printed and hand-painted bird illustrations by Chandler O'Leary

I’m working on something huge (and secret!) that I’ll be launching very soon. In the meantime, I’m going through the studio and doing some housekeeping (both literally and online). As happens with any big shift, it’s time to take a good hard look at anything that doesn’t quite fit the puzzle going forward.

So at noon PST on July 1, I’m going to be making some changes to the shop in preparation for the big thing to come. And while they’ve had a good run, I’ll be removing a few things permanently—including the last remaining hand-painted linocuts from the Flock series.

(Don’t worry, the bird cards aren’t going anywhere!)

Mt. Rainier and Apple Orchard letterpress illustration by Chandler O'Leary

Most of the rest of my hand-printed artwork (like the Mt. Rainier and Horse prints) will still be available, but the prices will go up on July 1—some by quite a bit. So if there’s anything you’ve had your eye on for awhile, now might just be the time for you to snag it.

Take your pick over at the shop!

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Fridge Flock

iPop "Clicks" magnets illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

These have been a long time in the making, and I’m practically chirping with glee to be able to share them with you! I’ve partnered with Seattle’s very own Madison Park Greetings to add some of my birds to their line of iPop Clicks magnets!

iPop "Clicks" magnets illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

iPop "Clicks" magnets illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

iPop "Clicks" magnets illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

There are three different sets available, and each set contains four different birds—I decided to do a motley mix of my favorites, rather than segregate them by “type” (like a set of songbirds, a set of ducks, etc.)

These little guys are about one inch in diameter, and super well-made of sturdy metal and glass. And the best part is that they’re ridiculously strong—the “click” sound they make when you stick them to your fridge is where the name of the product comes from.

iPop "Clicks" magnets illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

I’ve got all three sets up in the shop—or if you’re a retailer, you can order them wholesale directly from iPop!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be tacking a million little pieces of paper to my refrigerator…

iPop "Clicks" magnets illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

iPop "Clicks" magnets illustrated by Chandler O'Leary

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Snow falling on cedars

Forest in snow photo by Chandler O'Leary

I love it when a journey is required to bring Christmas home.

Hood Canal photo by Chandler O'LearyHood Canal photo by Chandler O'LearyOlympic Peninsula photo by Chandler O'LearyOlympic Peninsula photo by Chandler O'LearyForest in snow photo by Chandler O'LearyChristmas tree photo by Chandler O'LearyChristmas tree photo by Chandler O'LearyOlympic Peninsula photo by Chandler O'LearyChristmas tree photo by Chandler O'LearyChristmas tree photo by Chandler O'Leary

Hoping yours is holly-jolly, merry and bright.

"Mini Flock" holiday ornament illustrated and letterpress printed by Chandler O'Leary

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Festive flock

"Mini Flock" holiday ornaments illustrated and letterpress printed by Chandler O'Leary

Hot off the press and just in time for this year’s holiday season, I’m proud to present a mini flock of letterpress bird ornaments!

Hand-carved linoleum block for "Mini Flock" holiday ornaments illustrated and letterpress printed by Chandler O'Leary

Just like the larger prints in my Flock series, each one of these is printed from a hand-carved linoleum block.

"Mini Flock" holiday ornament illustrated and letterpress printed by Chandler O'Leary

Then each was individually hand-painted with watercolor (which, I’m not afraid to tell you, is painstaking in the extreme!),

"Mini Flock" holiday ornament illustrated and letterpress printed by Chandler O'Leary

and then hand-cut, hand-assembled, and signed/dated.

There are six songbirds in the set—a northern cardinal,

"Mini Flock" holiday ornament illustrated and letterpress printed by Chandler O'Leary

a black-capped chickadee (you might recognize him from our Thanksgiving table!),

"Mini Flock" holiday ornament illustrated and letterpress printed by Chandler O'Leary

a chipping sparrow,

"Mini Flock" holiday ornament illustrated and letterpress printed by Chandler O'Leary

a common yellowthroat,

"Mini Flock" holiday ornament illustrated and letterpress printed by Chandler O'Leary

a dark-eyed junco,

"Mini Flock" holiday ornament illustrated and letterpress printed by Chandler O'Leary

and a mountain bluebird.

Here’s the catch: they are extremely limited-edition. I only printed 100 sets, so once they’re gone, they’re gone. So flap on over to the shop and pick up your set before they fly away for good.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to deck some halls!

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In print

Uppercase Magazine

Every three months my all-time favorite magazine, Uppercase, arrives in my mailbox, and productivity in the studio comes to a screeching halt while I drool over each gorgeous page. I’ve been a subscriber since almost the very beginning (if only I could get my paws on those first two sold-out issues!), and impossibly, every new issue is even lovelier than the one before.

Uppercase Magazine article featuring illustrations by Chandler O'Leary

So you can imagine my giddy delight to be included in the latest installment. They had a submissions call for a feature on “labor-intensive illustration,” which was so squarely up my alley that I had to laugh at myself. But I never imagined my little birds would actually be accepted—let alone given a full page. A letterpress colleague received her copy a day or two ahead of me and tipped me off, and I swear I did a little dance around the room.

Uppercase Magazine

UPPERCASE is the brainchild of a gallery by the same name in Calgary, Alberta. The magazine is tailor-made for anyone with a creative soul; every page is devoted to sharing visual inspiration, shedding light on obscure or vintage art and design work, and detailing the work lives and creative spaces of people who do what they love for a living.

The whole thing is a perfect mix of vintage nostalgia and cutting-edge design, all wrapped up in a sumptuously printed package. If only everything in the world had this much thought and craft behind it.

Uppercase Magazine

But my favorite—I mean, favourite—parts of the magazine are the recurring features. There’s an abecedary in every issue, each with a different theme (which does my bookish heart good), as well as a series of collections of vintage objects: bottle caps, cereal boxes, even alarm clocks and fishing lures.

This magazine is truly a thing of beauty, and I hope it’s around for me to keep my subscription going for many years—and issues—to come.

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Flock

Detail of "Flock" artist book by Chandler O'Leary

I’ve been sitting on this post for months now—it’s just that after spending so much time hunched over this project, I needed some time off from even thinking about it. But now I’m ready to talk birds again.

"Flock" hand-painted bird linocut prints by Chandler O'Leary

From left: Cedar Waxwing; Steller’s Jay; American Avocet; Purple Martin; Tufted Puffin

Eighteen months, twenty-five birds, six hundred twenty-five individual prints and ten box sets later, my little Flock is finished.

"Flock" hand-painted bird linocut prints by Chandler O'Leary

Mountain Quail; American Bittern; Long-billed Curlew; Hooded Merganser; Laysan Albatross

"Flock" hand-painted bird linocut prints by Chandler O'Leary

Barn Owl; American Kestrel; Eurasian Coot; Anna’s Hummingbird; Herring Gull

It’s a little crazy to see these all together, like, well, birds on a wire. Each one has been broken down into its own little assembly line for so long that I forget sometimes to see them as a set.

"Flock" hand-painted bird linocut prints by Chandler O'Leary

Western Tanager; Lazuli Bunting; Northern Flicker; Bullock’s Oriole; Belted Kingfisher

"Flock" hand-painted bird linocut prints by Chandler O'Leary

Common Loon; Marbled Murrelet; Northern Shoveler; Harlequin Duck; Brown Pelican

As you can see, what’s represented here is a pretty broad cross-section of Washington birds. There are so many bird species ’round these parts, in fact, that I almost didn’t know where to start—and narrowing the choices down to twenty-five was by far the most difficult task.

Process photo of "Flock" artist book by Chandler O'Leary

Wait. I take that back. The hardest part was keeping the glue off of the pricey imported Japanese book cloth (glue plus cloth equals death—or at least wailing, gnashing of teeth, and starting all over from the beginning).

"Flock" artist book and hand-painted bird linocut print by Chandler O'Leary

You see, it seemed silly to have a set of prints with nothing to house it. My inner book artist took over (thanks to Jessica’s tricksy enabling), and insisted on encasing the first ten sets of the edition in handmade clamshell boxes.

Colophon page for "Flock" artist book by Chandler O'Leary

Even though the results are always worth it, I don’t have much love for making boxes—what I do love is printing the colophon. A colophon (or in today’s hardbound novels, the “note on the text”) is an essential element in any artist’s book; this is where the artist steps outside the book’s content and talks about the making of the book itself. For this I decided to go back to my letterpress roots, and hand-set the text in metal type.

Process photo of "Flock" artist book by Chandler O'Leary

While I’m rarely able to fit hand-setting into my projects these days (a drawback to all the lettering I’ve been doing), it’s still my favorite method of getting a block of text onto a page. And this beloved Bembo, cast locally at Stern & Faye, is so beautifully spaced and balanced that it’s a dream to set and a pleasure to read.

Detail of colophon page for "Flock" artist book by Chandler O'LearyProcess photo of "Flock" artist book by Chandler O'Leary

Here’s what it says:

The sheer variety of avian species here in the Pacific Northwest is staggering. Nurturing a fledgling love of birding was easy; the hard part was winnowing my list of favorites down to a couple dozen portraits. Here, then, is Flock, a motley kettle of songbirds, waterfowl, raptors, and shorebirds. While they’re not exactly birds of a feather, every member of this brood can be found either as a permanent resident or a passing traveler in Washington state—with just a wingtip of artistic license, that is.

Printed from October 2008 to December 2009 on a gaggle of presses, including Vandercook models SP15 and Universal One, a Craftsman 6.5 x 10 platen, and my little Kelsey 3 x 5—at the School of Visual Concepts in Seattle, Springtide Press in Tacoma, the University of Puget Sound, and here at Anagram Press, respectively. The colophon is hand-set in Bembo, and each hand-carved linocut print is hand-painted with Pelikan watercolor (no pun intended). Of a covey of 25 birds, a tweet of 25 prints each, and a parliament of ten box nests, this is number [2].

"Flock" artist book and hand-painted bird linocut prints by Chandler O'Leary

Okay, so maybe I went a bit overboard on the avian puns. It’s just that the thought of getting my hands dirty on type drawers again had me all twitterpated.

And I have a fluttering feeling that there might be even more birds in my future—one of these days, anyway.

Detail of "Flock" artist book by Chandler O'Leary