bookstore

Seeds, hope keepers and family

A Creative Life, art techniques, artistic inspirations, books, creative thinking, food for thought, graphic design, hopepunk, life of the mind, mental health, reading, sketchbook, travel art and writing, travelog, travelogue

Over a long weekend we had a family gathering to celebrate a graduation! Before traveling to spend several days together with everyone, my wife and I spent time in the Portland Japanese Garden. Here’s one of  the photos my wife took of me in the act of drawing some of the 300 year old bonsai trees that had been cared for by multiple generations. I shared the finished sketches here. We’ll visit this garden again soon. It was satisfying to see so much caring there!

Then the next day we drove 2 hours to Olympia Washington to be in town for our great nephew’s graduation from Evergreen State College. Since we were a day early we found a bookstore… Turtleman Used Books!

It is a tiny bookstore with a carefully curated selection by a wizard named Murlin! He was fun to talk to. And the store size was perfect as we were tired from driving and found the store refreshing. Here we are with Murlin.

When I was in the nonfiction art book section I met a young actress aged 9. The actress said hello to me first and said she liked the arts, was currently acting in a play at school and wanted to learn more about coloring with color pencils. There were several books on the topic on the shelf a bit too high for her to reach. I got the books down, handed them to her and we discussed the merits of each book. One book on colored pencil techniques was one that I have a copy of at home. I told her that and details about what I liked about the book. She decided to buy that title. I asked about what play she’s in and she replied “Pippi Longstocking”. She asked what I did in the arts. I said that I liked to draw and paint and that I currently have a one-person art exhibit on display. She tilted her head, looked puzzled, and said “Oh. Well, I’d better go pay for this. Bye”. I said goodbye and nice talking to you. Later I drew her portrait in my sketchbook.

These are the books that we got at Turtleman Used Books. 👇

The next morning at the hotel I drew in my sketchbook again…

Here’s us later in the day with our graduate! We’re so very proud of him!!!

We were a family of 20 people taking up two whole rows in the audience! (Our 21st family member was in the grad class of 2023!) Our niece, the graduate’s mom, said we were one of the largest families there!!

The headline speaker at commencement was the comedian Josh Blue who was hysterically funny, witty, kind, encouraging and delightful!! Another speaker spoke about how there have always been groups that abuse the climate, abuse people, abuse truth, etc. so we focus on how we respond, how we repair and how we keep hope alive. The speaker talked of how constantly, in every era, we need hope keepers, artists, writers, all kinds of people with the imagination and vision to see us through the hard times. We are all seeds…. This quote was referred to by all speakers. 👇

Heres a look at the neatly designed (I majored in graphic design when I was in college) 2023 commencement program with our graduates name in it. The font was easy to read and all the ceremony details were direct and straightforward. The college campus was beautiful, too, and it was also easy to navigate with walkways and lots of towering evergreen trees. The ceremony itself was warmhearted, encouraging and best of all there was closed captioning and a sign language interpreter! In every way the college showed that they really did want to include everyone! Anyhoo, here’s the program…

….and they had the most awesome “fight song” ever!! The song is printed on the back of the program! When it was time to sing they all sang loud and proud!!! 👇

In case you don’t know what a geoduck is…

After the commencement was finished we went to a local restaurant Basilico Ristorante where the 21 of us had a 7 course Italian meal together!! The food and wine were incredible!! Family members stood and made toasts and speeches and shared stories! The graduate stood and gave a great speech in response! All evening long there was conversation and so much laughter!

Here’s the toast I wrote and illustrated on the spot.

It’s wonderful to be with caring family and to remember that indeed we are seeds and all of us can keep hope alive and growing in ourselves and each other! We’re in this life together.

See you next Monday.

New ink, new books and the importance of mucking about

A Creative Life, art commission, art gallery, art supplies, books, life of the mind, mental health, Sustainable creativity

I finished my commission for the Caplan Art Designs Gallery and delivered it. Still can’t talk about it yet but I’m pleased and the Gallery was pleased… enough said!

With the leftover paint from the commission I began working on this painting currently in progress…

As a reward for finishing the commission my wife and I took a day to visit a few of our favorite places in Portland Oregon to play and generally muck about. The first place was Powell’s City of Books where we explored many of their 5 floors of spectacular book reading goodness and other fun things…

We each came home with small book hauls. Here’s mine…

Our other favorite place is Oblation Papers and Press. We got 3 bottles of ink: two are coffee colored and named “Caffe Creama” and “Espresso”. The third ink is named “Portland Rain” and it is a grey-purple-blue color like the, um, rainy Pacific Northwest sky this time of year! I also got two dip pens because…they’re dip pens.

I wrote about using sketchbooks as time capsules in my email newsletter. Here’s a repeat of the photo of a stack of new sketchbooks I’d shared earlier when I’d just gotten them…

…and I wrote on my email newsletter about a new bent pen recently. Here’s a photo of it…

…and here below is some mucking about that I did with the new pen in one of the larger new sketchbooks.

I’ll play around with my new inks later this week! I cannot stress enough the importance of play – aka mucking about – to creativity and mental health. Wahoo!!

I hope you have fun doing your own mucking about this week. See you next Monday-ish.

My adopted Mom’s quilt and a searcher

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, art prints, art supplies, art techniques, author illustrator, books, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, household surrealism, illustration, mental health, Odditerrarium, publications - publishing, published art, reading, sketchbook, whimsical art, words and pictures

This week the Aurora Gallery finished framing my adopted Mom’s quilt that I told you about in a prior post. Doesn’t the frame look great? We went right home and hung it in a special place!

Elizabeth Steinbaugh at the Aurora Gallery
Mom Penny Hoke’s quilt on our wall at home

As you see in the photo above – included in the frame is a piece of handmade paper on which I hand wrote Mom’s name and a bit about the quilt.

I also remembered a story related to the quilt theme of “knowing what it is when you pick it up” (details in this post). The story I remembered goes like this: A man holding a lit candle went looking for fire with which to cook his rice. It was a long search. If he had known what fire was or asked some questions when he began searching he could have cooked his rice a lot sooner.

Below is one of my Odditerrarium series paintings for the upcoming exhibit at the Caplan Art Designs Gallery. It’s titled “A Searcher”

This week we went for a browse at Vintage Books an independent bookstore a few miles from where we live. As I browsed I came across the local author shelves and was delighted to see a book I illustrated, “Dr. Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit”, right there on the shelf where I was browsing! What a fun surprise! It’s available via the bookstore website too!

Below is the book haul we came home with!

Below is a sketchbook drawing I did of two books I’m currently enjoying reading! I’ve added both of these titles to my public books to cheer up by book list here.

I enjoyed seeing this photo of a happy person with their dog with my artwork in the background at Canal District Wines this week and thought you’d enjoy it too. I’m thinking I want to do more art like this … I like the boldness and simplicity.

https://www.canaldistrictwines.com/

This project in progress below is a 3d cube 8 inches square that I’m doing for a holiday exhibit at Caplan Art Designs! I’m aiming for the used wooden toy block look – but with a dog theme.

My drawing marathon for NIL-TECH will start on Monday and run for a number of weeks! If you’ve followed my blog you’ve seen me working towards this… and now here it is! Drum roll please! Actually please follow NIL-TECH on their Instagram or Facebook pages so you can see the end results of all the practice you watched me do here on my blog! And thank you for cheering me on! Here’s the link to the 54 piece watercolor pencil set I’ll be using in my marathon. Wish me luck!

I hope your week is pleasant. See you next Monday.

Sweet peppers, prose, poetry and pens

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art supplies, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, creative thinking, drawing as thinking, ebook, illustrated poem, Patch La Belle, poetry, publications - publishing, reading, sketchbook, Storyberries, words and pictures, writing, writing and illustrating

My spouse’s sweet pepper plants are doing well in the heat! I stuffed the just picked peppers with cheese and roasted them with black beans, corn, zucchini and red onion. Tasted yummy!

The heat inspired me, as I’ve illustrated recently with a drawing demo, to stay in a cool place and finish reading a wonderful novel.

A Gentleman In Moscow by Towles was so good that when I finished reading I added it to my books-to-cheer-up-by shelf for rereading whenever I need a pick-me-up.

I got wonderful news from Storyberries this week – they’ve started a bookstore! (Here’s a direct link to some of my books https://www.bookstore.storyberries.com/product-tag/sue-clancy/  ) When I looked at the new store I discovered that of the 18 books by me on Storyberries 12 of my titles are spread between 3 categories: art books, poetry, ABC123!! What a fun surprise!!

When someone clicks on a bookstore link the viewer can sample the book, read about the book, click a button to read the book for free and now there’s an option to buy a print copy too! Below is a screenshot example of what it looks like, this is a screenshot and not operational, click this link if you want lights and action about my poetry book below.

Since we’re just having fun today here’s one of my illustrated poems from Patch La Belle so you can see how I’ve hand written all of the poem text for the book. I wrote with a felt tip pen. I went through lots of felt tip pens while working on this book. I already had a fountain pen so I was missing the ability to refill a pen but the fountain pen nib I had at the time of this project wasn’t bold enough. (This is how I knew what to request as a birthday gift! 😁 ) Anyway, here’s a poem.

This week the rest of my birthday present came in to our local pen and stationary store Oblation Papers and Press ! The extra fine nib fountain pen that I got the actual day of my birthday is now joined by a broad nib and a stub nib!

I love fountain pens for the ease of use that a good quality pen, like these TWSBI kind. They write and draw super smoothly have a built in converter which allows me to fill them with my preferred ink (Heart of Darkness by Noodlers Ink). Now there’s even fewer plastic bits of disposable felt tip pens to go into a land fill from my studio!

Right away I practiced writing an alphabet and drawing with each pen.

Here’s a single drawing I did with all 3 fountain pens. Yes, I totally see more handwritten illustrated poetry books in my future!

Over on my email newsletter A.M. Sketching I shared my favorite book about fountain pens and I’m sharing it here too just in case you’re curious.

To test how my new pens write over my gouache colors I wrote a poetic kind of phrase on a scrap of paper.

Then I painted an Earth in Space inspired by the “plaid” striations in my breakfast orange.

When the painting was dry I wrote my phrase as neatly as I could.

So you can see the page better…

…it worked fairly well! So, yes, I’ll definitely be doing more illustrated poetry!

The above mentioned novel by Towles is a hard act to follow but here’s what I’m reading and enjoying now. I’m thinking there may be some drawings of foxes and hedgehogs soon.

I also made some progress this week on a new painting for an upcoming fine art exhibit, there’s my current art exhibit to promote, there progress I could share on a new ABC123 category book (I have a category! Wahoo!! 🙌❤) but it’s early days in these projects and I’m tired of typing now.

I hope your week is sweetly filled with peppers, prose, poetry and pens just as you like them. See you next Monday.

Popup shop success

A Creative Life, animals in art, artistic inspirations, books, Books In Art, Cats in art, Dogs in Art, fine art, functional art, games in art, reading in art, small things

Yesterday was the popup shop day at Vintage Books and I was non-stop busy creating miniature pet portraits from before noon to after 4! It was fun!! Sold other holiday stocking stuffer gifts with my art on them too. My “Reading All Year” calendar was a hit …. if you weren’t able to come yesterday here is the link where you can get my calendar, puzzles, playing cards, bookmarks, prints, coasters and socks. What fun I had hearing people laugh when they saw the visual puns ….

https://www.zazzle.com/s/sueclancy

Here’s a photo of me (wearing green and black) at my popup event. You can see my portable art set up in front of me.

Most of the pet portraits I did are intended as holiday gifts -so no pictures- but here are some comments: “Wow, it looks like a Saturday Evening Post cover art!” “This makes me so happy!” “Oh my (—) is just going to love this!”

The excellent event was capped by comments from the Vintage Books store staff “I never heard so many people say ‘this gives me so much joy'”

Pet portrait project

A Creative Life, animals in art, art techniques, artistic inspirations, business of art, cat portrait, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, small things

Most years near the holiday I do a miniature pet portrait project -creating small pet paintings people often give as gifts. This year I am doing this project as part of my popup shop at Vintage Books, http://www.vintage-books.net Dec 7th from 12 to 4 – and using people’s phone photos as inspiration.

This year I am also teaming up with a local frame shop, Aurora Gallery, http://www.auroragallery.com …. yes, Virginia, it is possible you could walk out of the bookstore Dec 7th with a small framed work of art!

As I have worked on this years version of this project I have been adjusting my portable art kit. .. I will be creating some of the pet portraits at the busy bustling bookstore. The main adjustment to my portable art kit has been the addition of the Pentel Water Brush. It is the blueish colored “pen” in this photo. The water brush stores water inside itself and allows me to work without a pan of water at my elbow. It works well and hopefully the “less potential mess” of it will be welcomed by bookstore staff

Bookstores are sacred places you know.

    stocking local love

    A Creative Life, animals in art, Art Licensing, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, Books In Art, business of art, Dogs in Art, fine art, graphic design, mental health, pattern design, product design, publications - publishing, reading in art, small things, Sustainable creativity

    My local bookstore Vintage Books https://www.vintage-books.com/ is the first bookstore to carry my newest book “Dr. Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit” – and in advance of the Nov 1st release day too!!  When I was at the bookstore talking with the manager she asked me if I did my art on “stocking stuffer items” and if I would consider doing a pop-up shop for the holiday season – in late November or early December.

    Well, I’m a firm believer in the philosophy “take tarts when tarts are passed” so I said “Yes!” and have been busy doing product designs since then!  Nice to dust off my old graphic design/product design skills (what I got a college degree in!).  Here’s a pic of my new book and a few of the stocking stuffer gift items I’ve gotten so far…

    DrBobAndGiftsSM

    As you can see in the photo I’ve put one of my artworks onto a 252 piece jigsaw puzzle – the finished puzzle size is 11 x 14 but the box containing the puzzle is small enough to fit into a large Holiday stocking. Another painting I’ve put onto the backs of playing cards and … oh, there are many more items still in production.

    I’ve been thinking non-stop about what fans of my artwork and my fellow book readers might enjoy finding as gifts in their holiday stocking; bookmarks, drink coasters, art prints, playing cards, calendars… Is there anything I’m forgetting??

    Please let me know and I’ll keep busy working on items that may help spread a little love and joy to my fellow literary fans.

    And I’ll update you with my progress here first… btw I’m using Zazzle to produce most (but not all) of my designs and have also created a “store” there.

    First Aid in the bathroom

    A Creative Life, artist book, author illustrator, books, mental health, publications - publishing, published art, words and pictures

    As I did the layout and design for “Dr. Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit” I was thinking about the bathroom. There’s even a part in the book that talks about the use of self-care phrases on the bathroom mirror.

    SmFirstAidToothBrush2

    sample text from “Dr. Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit”

    When it came to printing I chose a slick cover-stock and slick, thick pages for the inside of the book too. I was thinking of the wet, steamy conditions a bathroom can have.  I also took care to select a font that would be easy to read without ones reading glasses. It’s a font that will be easier for dyslexics to read too.

    I forgot to think about the requests I’d get to sign the book. As I’ve visited with people about carrying my book in bookstores I’ve been asked to autograph some books. The slick pages that allow for fairly easy wipe-off of toothpaste etc. don’t allow ink.

    Whoops.

    So I autograph them on the inside front cover. No biggie in the scheme of things. I think it’s far more important that the book be able to reside in a bathroom where self-care is regularly practiced!

    Direct link to my new print version of “Dr. Bob’s Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit” here.

    color books and drinks

    A Creative Life, artistic inspirations, Sustainable creativity

    In the quest of keeping artistically inspired I like to haunt bookstores and libraries. Then I make time to sit and read the books – often with a beverage at hand. Recently in a local independent bookstore called Ampersand, http://www.ampersandgallerypdx.com/ – I found several inspiring tomes. Specifically a book in Japanese that I can’t read.

    The book is in Japanese but has occasional bits in English. For example the books English subtitle says “A Dictionary of Color Combinations” by Sanzo Wada (b 1883 d. 1967) and this book was published in 1933. (its the book to the left in the photo) It was well worth my time to look at deeply and dreamily for several hours. I think it’s helped my color-game in my recent fine art pieces – at any rate I’m having fun with new color schemes and that’s what counts! Now to practice them in my sketchbooks and more fine art….

    DSC_0027

     

    memory music mountains and living rooms

    A Creative Life, artistic inspirations, food for thought, music in art, sketchbook, travel art and writing, travelog, travelogue, words and pictures

    Sweetie and I did a short road trip to Mount St. Helens in Washington. We hiked around, saw a lot of birds. Sweetie heard the birds singing and said they were quite a musical chorus.  At the visitor’s center people “danced” about getting photos in front of the mountain. I drew this in my sketchbook using ink and watercolor:

    MtStHelens72

    Sketchbook page by Sue Clancy

    Then at the visitor’s center we went into the Mount. St. Helens gift shop. From past experience we’ve learned that their collection of books for sale on the topics of botany, zoology and biology is a gold mine. Several books come home with us each trip. This time was no exception. One of the titles that came home with us is “Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains.” by Daniel Mathews.

    On page 429 I read (about birds caching food) “Phenomenal ability to remember precise locations evolved separately in the chickadees and the jays that cache food for winter, and in many migrating species. Some of these species have nonmigratory or noncaching relatives whose powers of recall don’t amount to diddley squat.  Another kind of memory that must be worth holding on to is a male warbler’s memory of conspecific males’ songs.  As long as each singer remembers his neighbor’s song from the year before, and stays on his own territory, both are spared a fight. They remember songs from year to year as they return from Central America to reclaim their old haunts.”

    That got me to thinking about the traveling troubadours of ancient times.  And from that thought I migrated (pun intended) to thinking of how, here in the Pacific Northwest, there is a “new” tradition of traveling musicians who give what is called “living room concerts” in private homes.  The home-owner hosts the musicians, putting them up for a night or two, and invites a number of family and friends to come to a concert. A certain amount of money is collected per attendee and most of that money goes to the musician.  The musician also sells their CD’s and what not during the evening.

    I’m quite addicted to this ‘living room concert’ tradition. I find that even though I’m deaf I can “hear” the music better in a small intimate setting. There are also several local small independent theatres – and there’s fairly good hearing there too. My point being that the music I’ve heard since we’ve lived here in the Pacific Northwest has inspired a lot of my recent artwork. And I suspect this trend will continue.

    The concept of a birds ability to remember where they put their food also made me think about the seasonal offerings at the local Pacific Northwest restaurants.  When I say “seasonal offering” I mean it. There’s a short time when a certain fruit or veg is available at the local farms so the pubs and restaurants will offer special dishes that use that fruit/veg and then when it’s gone. It’s gone.

    We’ve lived here long enough now that I’m beginning to remember, for example, what pubs will offer the “fresh asparagus ‘fries’ ” during peak asparagus season. I’m also remembering which farmers market stands sell the freshest berries and apples. I love the seasonal randomness it’s like a perpetual surprise party but the ability to remember what is ripe during what season is helpful to know.

    Needless to say I’ve been artistically inspired by the food. And that’ll prolly (as they say here) continue too.

    There’s something about memory and food and music…. something that I just itch to make fine art about. So stay tuned. (pun intended again)