This week I am sending out 5 months worth of Happy Mail perks to Patreon subscribers at the $100 level. These patrons also received an exclusive monthly art print ($50 level) and a monthly curiosity ($12 level). Here is a look inside their extra special goodie box packages! (more…)
I’m a children’s illustrator and I illustrated my Clemmy and Phoebe foxes to join in the kidlit4climate campaign. I stand with the young people striking for urgent climate change!
Raising awareness is just one small step in the direction of change, and no step is too small. If you’d like to take part with your own expression of creativity, but you feel limited by an inability to draw, I created a free coloring sheet. You can download the KidLit4Climate coloring sheet on my Patreon and post your own colored version to instagram along with hundreds of others from around the world to take part in displaying your support for kids against climate change. (more…)
For the month of March, my art is being featured at the Portage Bay Goods curiosities shop located in the hip Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. On March 1st, I left my kids with a babysitter and hopped the bus up to Seattle for the First Fridays Fremont Art Walk. Assured that my kids were well loved and well cared for in my absence, I let my mind relax, enjoying the relative intimacy of sharing space with a group of strangers as we made our way up the interstate and into the city. (more…)
“You gotta stop watering dead plants.”
– Glennon Doyle
When my girlfriend broke up with me in December, I grabbed all the things that reminded me of her and shoved them into a box. There were Lucifer DVD’s, her bag of toiletries, the vintage Frances Burney books I’d never give her for Christmas…
One thing made me pause: a Kalanchoe plant she’d sent through a local florist on one of our anniversaries. It had since bloomed with deep red flowers which withered and returned several times. Staying alive against the cold winter light, this plant felt so innocent to me. I set it back on the windowsill thinking, “It’s not the plant’s fault that we broke up.” (more…)
I was supposed to rest today; but, when I awoke, I emerged from fitful sleep.
In my dreams I had been painting. (more…)
I use vintage photos as the source images for my annual Affectionate Animal series. I believe the vintage photos add a bit of nostalgia that blends well with my contemporary animal characters. Here are my source images for this year’s series of characters. (more…)
When I was eight years old, I wrote my first poem. I remember the moment the words came to me. I was lying in bed at night, the lines rattling through my brain, startling sleep away. I turned on my pencil-shaped bedside lamp, grabbed my pink diary and huddled up underneath the little roses on my wallpaper to scribble the words down before they were lost to me forever. I re-read them over and over, letting them seep into my mind as I drifted off to sleep, so full of mystery and fascination at this new craft that had opened up to me.
The next day, I showed the poem to my mother. It was a love poem, and the only thing she said was, “Why is this written to a woman?”
I didn’t know. (more…)
People often want to know the stories behind my paintings, but this time I’m going to let the series speak for itself. What does it mean to you? (more…)
I’ve been painting a new series of Affectionate Animal couples for the past few years. My goal with this series was always to portray queer couples, including 3 lesbian w/w pairings, 3 homosexual m/m pairings, and 3 heterosexual m/w pairings. (more…)
The day Matt told me he was done with our marriage, I took myself out of the house. I bought a dress from a thrift store and sat alone in a booth at a pizza restaurant, eating my favorite toppings and feeling numb about the uncertainty that lay ahead.
Sitting in my car, unsure what to do next, words by Mary Oliver that I’d read ages ago came to me: “I was a bride married to amazement… I was a bride married to amazement… I was a bride married to amazement…” Hungry for more, I googled the line to find the entire poem: (more…)