Chef Kim Mahan

Author of the month because of a cow fart and other books

A Creative Life, Alphapets Too, art gallery, art prints, art supplies, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, cat portrait, dog portrait, drawing as thinking, humor in art, illustrated recipe, Kim Cooks Sue Draws, published art, recipe illustration, sketchbook, Storyberries, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

Turns out I’m author of the month at Storyberries! Wahoo! And all because of a farting cow and a bird who says “F”!! Actually it’s thanks to my readers!! And thanks to Storyberries itself of course!

Here’s a link to the cow on Storyberries

https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-how-the-cow-went-over-the-moon-sue-clancy-wordless-no-words-picture-books/

The printed book is available via the Storyberries bookstore or via mail from this link https://www.blurb.com/user/sueclancy

It’s also available in person at the Aurora Gallery

BTW besides the cow with digestive issues there’s a forgetful bird in the same printed book.

Another popular book on Storyberries is Alphapets Too at over 66,000 readers!

My pet portraits as holiday gifts project is still happening. Another person got an art print of their dogs portrait for themselves and generously let me share about it! Here’s the dog…

…below is the finished art …

…and here’s a link to the art print. (From that link my other art prints and etc can be found)

https://society6.com/product/jake7757579_print?sku=s6-25878334p4a1v45

The cookbook I illustrated for Chef Kim Mahan is featured in the Blurb holiday gift guide!!!

https://www.blurb.com/gift-guide

I love the word “wacky” as a description!! 🤣🤣

BTW: The window for getting prints or books mailed from my Society 6 or Blurb shops and having them arrive in time for the holidays is narrowing. Same too with my Zazzle shop. This next week I’ll be finishing up portraits for pickup at the various Galleries and I’ll be talking on social media about my books and cards being there for last minute gifts too.

It may be hard to tell from my recent posts, the gifting season and all that entails, but I think of art making as much more than a product to buy – it’s also a mental health service to oneself, to ones family or friends and to the community. I’m looking forward to creating some things during these holidays that will fit this whimsical lighthearted just for fun category.

The advent calendar of art supplies is still being unboxed on my social media. Soon I’ll begin using these supplies in a project…which I’ll show too.

Here’s a summary of what’s been unboxed so far…

Speaking of art supplies and projects: in past years my holiday pet portraits project has been 60/40 dogs/cats or vice versa. Some years it’s been 50/50. So far this year I haven’t done a single cat portrait. All dogs. I’ve lost count but I think I’ve done about 14 dog portraits and it’s still mid December. When the art print and artist book delivery windows narrow sometimes the get-it-in-person at the Gallery aspect increases. Sometimes not.

Anyhoo, I drew a cat in my sketchbook just to keep in cat-drawing practice.

I’ve also been enjoying doing sketchbook pages that include windows, landscapes, coffee cups and books… besides the animals…just to switch things up and relax. Subsequently that means new things are brewing over on my email newsletter. Please subscribe if you haven’t already because Jolabokaflod is coming and I can give my subscribers gifts there more easily than I can here… I won’t say more lest I spoil the surprise.

If you’re not familiar with Jolabokaflod here’s a link. And here’s our way of celebrating written out in my sketchbook.

Happy art and book buying season!! Thank you all for the gift you give me of letting me share my art and life with you!

BTW Here’s a wonderful book list I found of 99 children’s books!

And it’s sweater wearing season at last!

See you next Monday!

Finishing art projects, the Bradbury reading program and creativity

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, artist book, artistic inspirations, books, creative thinking, Kim Cooks Sue Draws, life of the mind, Patchwork Poems, poetry, published art, reading, shelfies, sketchbook, Storyberries, Sustainable creativity, whimsical art, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

This week was about completing projects that have been in progress for the last few months. Now my focus turns towards feeding my creativity via my Bradbury Reading Program – more on that in a sec.

First, here’s a review, by BonnieReads of the cookbook I illustrated for Chef Kim Mahan titled “Kim Cooks  Sue Draws”. The review is here https://bonniereadsandwrites.com/2022/11/05/indie-weekend-kim-cooks-sue-draws-limitededition-cookbook-art-indieart/comment-page-1/#comment-4744

https://bonniereadsandwrites.com/2022/11/05/indie-weekend-kim-cooks-sue-draws-limitededition-cookbook-art-indieart/comment-page-1/#comment-4744

I so appreciate Bonnie for helping get the word out about the cookbook. And a deep heartfelt thank you to all the other people who have shared about it too!

https://www.blurb.com/b/11301105-kim-cooks-sue-draws

Here’s a video flip-through look at the cookbook  Kim Cooks Sue Draws https://youtube.com/shorts/qc-enaNkPqY?feature=share

This week I delivered the finished 3D box I’ve titled “Dogs On The Block” to the Caplan Art Designs Gallery for the upcoming  holiday exhibit.

It has come to my attention that I’ve not explicitly shown that in the mornings I use two small books, both referred to as “sketchbooks”, one for writing and thinking in words: my efforts at poetry, stories, and plans about my artist books and art exhibits. The other book is art, drawing and painting focused. From either sketchbook I work on more finished versions of the art, poems and stories. Here’s a few photos of what I mean and there are more details on my email newsletter.

The writing sketchbook has lighter weight pages which are nice to write on with fountain pens and suit light pen drawings. When I want to really explore an image idea I redraw it in my art sketchbook which has thicker paper that can deal with heavy pen drawings or whatever other art materials I want to use. Here’s an example of that. The writing book is on the left, the art book on the right.

Anyway, the little poem book for children that I’ve been working on for Storyberries is finished now, titled Patchwork Poems and will be released as an ebook on Storyberries.com this week on Nov 12!! Because you follow this blog here’s advance access and a full preview of the entire book along with a look at the cover!

https://www.blurb.com/b/11318282-patchwork-poems

There are promotional things still to do about Patchwork Poems but the active creation part is done.

Whenever I’ve finished most of my current art projects to refuel my creativity I turn my attention to what I call my “Bradbury Reading Program For a More Creative Life”. I’ve practiced this program fairly constantly for more than a decade by now and firmly believe it has helped me be as creative and prolific as I am. Here’s the “Bradbury Reading Program” in a nutshell: for the next 1000 days read one poem, one short story and one essay on any topic. Even if I don’t actually manage 1000 consecutive days I aim for as many in a row as possible. If life happens and I miss a day I forgive myself and get back to it asap. Here is a video of Ray Bradbury himself talking about this reading program.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkdkDiuvNrR/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

In the mornings I play in my writing or art sketchbooks in response to whatever is on my mind in the mornings while I’m still in that groggy half asleep state. I am *not* a morning person and this is my superpower: dawdling, doodling and dream-noodling over coffee and breakfast.

The poetry and short stories I read each day are seriously short. Towards evening I randomly pull a book from my shelves, read the poem or story within a few minutes, replace the book on the shelf and go on with making dinner. To show you what I mean… here’s a bookshelf with poetry books on it…

…the book I chose is titled Comic Poems – Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets…

… I open it randomly and read the 4 line poem by Ogden Nash. I replace the book on the shelf and the poem section of today’s Bradbury Reading Program is done.

Now from part of my short story bookshelves…

… I select Tales of the Dervishes by Idries Shah and open it at random…

… to a half page sized story titled The Oath. I read the story and replace the book on my shelf. Now the short story part of the Bradbury Reading Program is done. And possibly dinner is ready too – or will be shortly.

I shared this photo below in my last post but I’m still happily reading these books each day after dinner. The top most book, The Book of Delights by Ross Gay, is a book of short essays that fits with my “Bradbury Reading Program”. The essays generally are two pages long, sometimes a bit shorter or longer. It doesn’t take long to read an essay after dinner prior to clearing the table and doing dishes. I’ve been reading these essays aloud to my wife just so I can keep my voice in practice while I’m basically without hearing aids.

The titles by Salman Rushdie were chosen because I enjoy reading biographies of artists alongside one or more of their creative works. In this way I learn so much about living the creative life. These Rushdie books are what I’m reading each night for about an hour before bedtime. Usually with a mug of hot chocolate.

Details about the books in the above photos are available on my public bookshelves on @bookshop_org – and book sales from this link benefit indiebookstores
https://bookshop.org/shop/clancy

The only book pictured in this post but not listed on my public bookshelves is Comic Poems by the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets. Sadly it seems well and truly out of print however they offer many other small books with short poems https://knopfdoubleday.com/imprint/everymans-library/

I hope your week is pleasant and full of creativity! See you next Monday.

A hearing book and the cookbook is out!

A Creative Life, art gallery, art techniques, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, book design and layout, books, collage, creative thinking, drawing as thinking, handmade books, illustrated poem, illustrated recipe, illustrated shorts, illustration, Kim Cooks Sue Draws, mental health, poetry, publications - publishing, recipe illustration, sketchbook, visual thinking, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

Recently a friend asked if I had made a book about my hearing experiences. Yes! In 2003 I made a one-of-a-kind book titled “Book Of Days And Ears”. It measures 3 inches tall 6 inches wide and is one inch thick. When fully opened it is a smidge more than 12 inches wide. The leather covers and the pages are hand sewn together with a Coptic stitch. This book binding style allows for page expansion, letting me sew additional elements into the binding and do thick collage applications on the pages themselves while still enabling the book to close.

Book of Days and Ears begins July 31 2003 and ends Oct 10 2003. It is a diary or journal style book with the date stamped on each entry. The entire book took place when we lived in Oklahoma and the main content, the overall “plot”, of the book is dealing with my hearing aid issues over the span of 3 months, trying to contact the hearing aid company and fussing with the mean dragon lady who worked there. The other staff were nice (nicer than others I’d encountered in Oklahoma) but during visits I had to get past dragon lady first. Here are just some of those pages.

Part of how I dealt with the hearing issue saga was through various art projects which I recorded in my book: paper marbleling sessions of which I sewed samples into the binding, letterpress and block printing project samples were glued onto the pages, art exhibits were documented by collaging parts of the event announcement on a page or actually sewing the event flyer into the binding. Here are a few of the art project related pages.

Of course in and amongst the pages shared above there are visits with friends, the death of a mentor/friend (the book artist and author Shereen LaPlantz), visits to bookstores and restaurants. And board games like backgammon which are ways to interconnect with people that don’t rely solely on the spoken/heard word. Here are a very few examples of this kind of page entry.

Here’s a video flip through of Book of Days and Ears https://youtu.be/2It3Vjl_Eao and me talking about it. You can see some book pages not pictured above. Did I mention that I talk about the book in the video? No, I couldn’t hear myself talking. I showed the video to my wife for sound checking prior to putting it on YouTube. Brave and cheeky of me eh? 😆😁

Fast forward away from 2003 Oklahoma to present day 2022 in Washington state and as I wrote last post… my current hearing aids stopped working and I visited a local hearing aid center, Vancouver Hearing Aid Center. Things are vastly better now: there is a button and a window in the hearing testing area, there are zero dragon ladies to deal with (Wow! An absence of mean dragons!!!), my supportive spouse is allowed to be with me and clear time tables, contact information etc details are given in written form! It’s almost as if they recognize that their clients might not hear well! Imagine that?! Anyway, I am still profoundly deaf just as I was in 2003 and as I was at age 8 see the hearing test chart below.

Very loud drum roll please!! The cookbook I’ve been illustrating is now available! It is titled Kim Cooks Sue Draws and can be gotten in person at Chef Kim Mahan’s culinary Class Cooking which is part of the winery Burnt Bridge Cellars. It is also available for shipping or as a downloadable pdf file from this link https://www.blurb.com/b/11301105-kim-cooks-sue-draws

Progress has happened on my upcoming illustrated poetry book for Storyberries! Here are a few of those original pages.

I have finished the 3D block now and titled it “Dogs On The Block”. More photos will be taken, it will be varnished and delivery to the Caplan Art Designs gallery arranged. So more still to do.

This current hearing aid repair season (Ha!) we’re playing dominoes as well as reading books each evening. So I’ll leave you with the action packed photos below and see you next Monday!

Odditerrarium opens this week and other projects

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, artist book, author illustrator, books, fine art, handmade books, illustrated poem, illustrated recipe, Kim Cooks Sue Draws, Odditerrarium, pet portraits, poetry, printed books, sketchbook, whimsical art, words and pictures

My Odditerrarium fine art exhibit opens this Thursday Oct 6 from 6 to 8 pm at Caplan Art Designs! It’s been fun to think so much about what dogs and cats might think about! I hope others are amused too.

I’ve enjoyed titling paintings in ways that refer to aspects of mental life. Sometimes, like this painting below, I’ve been rather straightforward. This painting is titled “Intellect”.

Here’s a look at the exhibit in the process of going up on the wall at Caplan Art Designs. The gallery kindly sent me these photos. You can see more about my entire series here on my portfolio and I’m still very proud of the nonsense poem book related to my exhibit! Yes, copies of my book will be available at the Gallery and also available online here – with a full preview of the entire book too.

On another gallery wall there are 3 of my other paintings from other series.

Here’s a kid looking at one of my paintings before it got moved to a different place in the Gallery.

On my email newsletter recently I shared a few of the sketchbook pages where I’d thought, with a pen in hand, about thinking.

Over on NIL-TECH they wrote a really nice thing about my currently in progress drawing marathon…please click here to see it for yourself. It’s so nice! <blushing>

https://shop.nil-tech.com/blogs/news/drawing-marathon-with-sue-clancy

Progress has also been happening steadily on my 3d 8 inch cube that I mentioned in my last post.

Progress too this week on the illustrations I’m doing for a cookbook by Chef Kim Mahan. I propped a spoon on a small bowl so I could draw it properly.

For my fans at Storyberries.com this week I filmed a peek at my illustrated poetry book in progress – just in case any kids wonder how a book like this gets made. Here’s a link…https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjDxgGoJ6jN/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

If you saw the above Reel then you’ll recognize the progress I’ve made in the photos below.

If you’re wondering how I’m managing so many projects at one time: I have 3 work stations in my studio. Each project has it’s own area with an art supply taboret between them with my color palettes and brushes sorted for each project. This way the projects and the supplies I’m using for each one are always ready. I’ll take turns working in short bursts almost daily on each project until they’re finished.

My sketchbooks and the art supplies I use for them are much more portable and roam with me from the coffee pot to the breakfast table or outside to our patio.

And here’s hoping the rest of this week goes smoothly for us all. See you next Monday.

Kim Cooks Sue Draws cookbook update

A Creative Life, artist book, artistic inspirations, food for thought, functional art, Kim Cooks Sue Draws, kitchen art, published art

Chef Kim Mahan now has the printed cookbooks now available for ordering (and shipping) via the Class-Cooking website.  http://www.class-cooking.com/classes-shop/kim-cooks-sue-draws  – The Chef even has a few signed copies (signed by both of us) available just ask for a signed copy when you order.

Each cookbook page is unbound and on paper suitable either for cooking from or for framing – or both.

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It was adventurous but the cookbook is here

A Creative Life, artist book, ebook, illustration, Kim Cooks Sue Draws, kitchen art, visual story

When I last wrote I was waiting impatiently for the short-print-run of the unconventional cookbook “Kim Cooks Sue Draws” to get here. That was just the beginning.

It was Thanksgiving weekend, a cold rainy night, and Sweetie and I were on our way out the door to a party. We’d just opened the door to leave and there stood the delivery guy with a huge box. A big brown truck was parked at the curb. He plunked the box down and left in a hurry. The box was partly open, with stuff spilling out, and because of  that Sweetie and I struggled to get it in out of the rain.

The box looked like this.

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Fortunately the company I used for the book printing double boxes things. Even so. The inner boxes looked like this.

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Hurriedly I looked inside the box to see if things were still useable. They appeared to be. I breathed a sigh of relief. We flung ourselves in the car. I was texting the Chef about the arrival as we backed out of our driveway and we made it to the party only 10 minutes late.

After our party I looked more closely at our cookbook elements – and things really did seem okay. I was relieved.

The next day Sweetie and I gathered all the cookbook production elements and we went to Chef Kim’s place where, along with Chef Kim’s spouse, Dearest, we sorted and put together 90 cookbooks.

Here is Chef Kim deciding the order of things.

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Here’s a look at a few of the recipe cards spread out so you can see them.

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There are 15 recipes total and they were slipped into a vellum envelope with a sticker-label on the front and back to serve as the “title” and “back-matter”.  In the process of putting the title labels on we discovered that we only had half of our label order. Oh no!

Panic! I said lots of things like “Sh#$” and “Da#@ it!”

Chef Kim looked at my Sweetie and said, with a grin, “I didn’t know she knew Blue Words like this.”

Sweetie replied “In certain situations she can be fluent.”

We speculated that the labels must have slid out of the gaping hole in the box. I got myself together. We finished sorting all of the books and put labels on what books we could.  Back at my studio I immediately contacted the printing company. Long story short – they are replacing what was missing and all is right with my cookbook-production world.

Here’s the 3 of us in the middle of hand-sorting the cookbook. (Dearest took the photo)

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Here’s a stack of cookbooks that are ready to go!

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This coming Saturday Chef Kim Mahan and I will be signing copies of “Kim Cooks Sue Draws” at Burnt Bridge Cellars in Vancouver WA.  It’ll be fun for me to see how people react!

Here’s a look at the front and the back of the cookbook so you can see the labels on the vellum envelopes with the recipe cards inside.

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And here is access to an ebook version (best viewed on a tablet or laptop) of this same cookbook: https://www.patreon.com/posts/ebook-version-of-15599644

 

unconventional cookbook progress

A Creative Life, artistic inspirations, business of art, functional art, illustration, Kim Cooks Sue Draws, kitchen art, published art, Sustainable creativity, words and pictures

We are nearing the dessert stage of the unconventional cookbook “Kim Cooks Sue Draws”; meaning that all of the recipes have been illustrated, a short-cookbook-run has been sent to the printers and we’re waiting for delivery. I’m a mite nervous that it will arrive okay, that the printing will look good, that Chef Kim will be happy with it… but all I can do at this point is breathe and hope. 

Both Chef Kim Mahan and I have shown the work-in-progress to friends and each of us have heard that people enjoy the “playful and practical” qualities of it, that it’s not intimidating like some cookbooks can be, that it makes people want to cook. So overall I’m hopeful for the reception of this artist book and that it will be a useful helpful thing for Chef Kim to have in her classroom and available on her website http://www.class-cooking.com for her far-flung fans.

Personally I feel good about the artwork I’ve done and I feel that this project concept fits well with my general artistic thoughts (I dislike the word “mission”): that artwork can be both playful and practical, that “fine art” can be helpful to living life well, that the ability to cook is an essential survival skill for artists and other creative people.

Anyway, our “dessert stage” progress also means that all of the  unconventional cookbook recipe illustrations are now available as art prints and greeting cards and can be seen here: https://society6.com/sueclancy/collection/unconventional-cookbook

I know the prints and cards look good. I’ve seen them in person.

The short-cookbook-print run (the delivery I’m waiting somewhat impatiently for and slightly worrying over) that will be sold as a full “cookbook”, is a collection of 15 recipes,  as single cards that will be slipped into one envelope with these labels on the outside:

When we get the print run then Chef Kim and I will sort the books by hand and we’ll probably ask our loving, tolerant, patient and wonderful spouses to help us. There’s only 90 of the books on this first print run so we’ll be able to quickly to get them ready for an event the Chef is doing.  Some of the cookbooks will also be available via the Chef’s website www.class-cooking.com – and I’ll put a link here too when the books are ready.

As you may know from my previous posts this cookbook is not a traditional bound along one edge kind of book – it’s a collection of recipe cards; you can put one of the recipe cards under a magnet on the fridge while cooking from it, you could loan one to a friend, you can frame a recipe-card as “kitchen art” or mail one via snail mail. (This book design is also why the cards will need the hand-sorting mentioned above.)

My hope is also that people will smile and laugh when they see some of the recipe illustrations, that they will collect them and display them for a continued boost of humor.  I really like laughter and firmly believe that laughter belongs in kitchens and dining rooms.

Here is a link to a post from the “appetizer days” of this project – which describes more about my ideas and intentions behind this project: https://sueclancy.com/2017/10/18/an-unconventional-cookbook-artist-book/

I’ll let you know when the delivery finally happens and I’m breathing easier….

peppers and burgers oh my and artist books too

A Creative Life, art techniques, artist book, books, functional art, handmade books, Kim Cooks Sue Draws, kitchen art, visual thinking

Chef Kim Mahan came to my studio for a visit and made some decisions about recipes. We are cooking with real butter now! Meaning major progress towards having a real live published cookbook has occurred.

It is an artist book. Which means it’s an unconventional cookbook. It’s not bound in the traditional sense. It’s artwork – that you can cook with. Part of the reason for not-binding this book is that as separate pages one can be placed under a refrigerator magnet while in use.

Also the Chef will be able to mix and match sets of recipes according to themes (yes, we already plan to do more illustrated recipes!).

Here’s an example of mix-and-match:

from “Kim Cooks Sue Draws” https://sueclancy.com/artist-books/kim-cooks-sue-draws/
from “Kim Cooks Sue Draws” https://sueclancy.com/artist-books/kim-cooks-sue-draws/

There’s a kitchen-skill being taught (“how to roast a pepper”) and then there’s a recipe that applies that skill.  (The “Please-ya Burger” recipe also uses the kitchen-skill “How to peel and roast garlic” that I’d illustrated and shared on my last blog post here.)

Incase enquiring minds want to know – here’s my general definition of what an “artist book” is:

Artists’ books are works of art that utilize the form of the book – a set of sequential “pages” that unfold/display in a way that utilizes time like a printed book does. The reader sets the pace of the viewing/reading. Artist books are intended as works of fine art they just happen to be “book-like” as that format helps convey the artist’s concept. Artist books are often published in small editions and they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind art objects. Often they are produced for a specific audience or purpose. Artists’ books utilize a wide range of forms, including scrolls, fold-outs, concertinas or loose items contained in a box, portfolio or envelope. Artist books are often intended for art gallery, library or collectors display.

With that definition you can begin to see, I’m sure, the “artist book” aspects of this cookbook project with Chef Mahan.  The slight difference between the artist book definition above and this project is that this artist-book-cookbook will also be practical. You can use it to make dinner.

More about this project here and here.

 

Garlic tricks to scare vampires

A Creative Life, artistic inspirations, illustration, Kim Cooks Sue Draws, kitchen art

One of the first illustrations I did for the unconventional cookbook “Kim Cooks Sue Draws” was called “How to Cut Onion” – and it has been very popular. People have written in to tell me how helpful it was. I told Chef Kim Mahan about this response and she said “Great! How about illustrating roasting garlic?”

Since this cookbook is still “in progress” and I am a garlic loving fiend, naturally I agreed.  Up until now my method has been to take fresh garlic, pull off a clove, smash it and use a knife edge to peel the skin off. Pain in the you-know-where. Fortunately my Sweetie doesn’t mind the peeling-garlic job so we have garlic often despite my garlic-peeling laziness.

Here’s the chef’s garlic-y instructions as I’ve illustrated them. I loved the way the Chef talked about “eating more garlic so as to keep vampires away”!

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And to think Sweetie and I’ve been doing it the hard way all these years! Lol! I’ve now learned a new kitchen trick. Scary!  Once again I realize how much I learn about the world during my process of making art.

You can see the “How to Cut Onion” illustration here: https://sueclancy.com/artist-books/kim-cooks-sue-draws/

art of Hawaiian Macaroni Salad

A Creative Life, art techniques, artistic inspirations, illustration, Kim Cooks Sue Draws, kitchen art

I’ve been very busy working on illustrations for the cookbook “Kim Cooks Sue Draws” and have not had much time for posting here but I had to take a sec today to share my progress on this one.  It’s been a challenge to draw a flower doing a hula-dance while wearing a macaroni lei – and try to honor the Aloha spirit at the same time. But I’m pleased with what I’ve done – and Chef Kim Mahan says she is too. Whew!

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https://sueclancy.com/artist-books/kim-cooks-sue-draws/