Some of my good friends recently got married in Baja and post-wedding spontaneously hopped a ride north from Pescadero with another friend. I love the impulsiveness of these adventurers, so I took a portrait I drew of them from the beach volleyball court and Photoshopped it on some of their road-trip photos. These are the results:
A few weeks ago I landed myself at the incredible Runnymede Sculpture Farm, a private collection of more than 150 contemporary art sculptures over a hundred or so acres in Woodside, California. I ended up sleeping under Charles Ginnever’s Kitsune, pictured in the top left image, and was so inspired that I devoted my art column to the place (and getting closer to art). Read it on page 41 in the April edition of Moonshine Ink. Pictured above, clockwise from the top left are: Charles Ginnever’s Kitsune, Celeste Roberge’s Rising Cairn, Mia Westerlund Roosen’s American Beauties, and Ilan Averbuch’s Horse Head. For more information on Runnymede, read about it in SF Gate and Nihonsuki.com.
My Moonshine Ink art column is out! Follow my adventures in duct tape and button- and candle-making in the current issue on stands, or online here: They’re Hunky, They’re Dory.
I did some very small-scale yarn bombing the past couple months, one for Christmas in Tahoe and then the other down in Santa Monica. Anarchy!
Got sawdusty last month for my art column… check it out on stands and online in Moonshine Ink.
My Moonshine Ink art column is out today! I covered the graffiti on the abandoned Donner Summit trains tunnels, and the petroglyphs I found en route. This was a fun one to muse about. Happy reading! You can pick up or download the print edition (page 44) or read the online version.
For my latest art column in Moonshine Ink I covered the topic of travel journaling. Local artist Eva S. Nichols provided some great advice & I put it into practice on my Galapagos trip. Read it here: Seeing What You See.
My latest block print design is the outline of Lake Tahoe filled with a Christmas sweater pattern. I drew it all by hand, and carved it on a linoleum block. I printed the green trees separately from a free carve quick-cut on Speedball EasyCut rubber. Due to the detail in the design, this takes much longer to print successfully, but I love the result! Pick this design up in postcard form at Riverside Studios in downtown Truckee.
I am very excited to announce an event I’m organizing for Bona Fide Books: Three Ways to Look at a Landscape, a benefit for Adventure Risk Challenge on Sunday, September 23. Located at the Sagehen Creek Field Station north of Truckee, the workshop is all about observation, from three different points of view. We’ve paired a poet (Janet Smith), a biologist (Sue Kloss), and an artist (Michelle Murdock) up to walk participants through the woods to share knowledge and identification keys. Please help me spread the word, or better yet, ATTEND this amazing event! You’ll be supporting the great cause that is Adventure Risk Challenge (youth literacy and leadership) and learning a ton.
Cost is $60; sack lunch and snacks provided. RSVP at bonafidebooks.com, 530-573-1513.
Images (above, from left) by Gogoloopie/Flickr, Gregor_y/Flickr, and Michelle Murdock
It’s been exciting to see the energy and press around Mary Robinette Kowal’s A Month of Letters initiative. As a devoted postcard writer myself (evidenced by my postcard blog) I hold USPS-fueled communication near and dear. A Month of Letters is a challenge for the month of February, to write and send a piece of postal mail every day USPS is open (24 days). And, of course, I’m doing it.
Here are the rules if you want to join me:
*Mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
*Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.
If you use Twitter, tag your posts with #LetterMo. You can follow my daily mailings at my postcard blog, 28cents.
_____smith 