my own little world

Last night after Jim went to bed & I paged through a cool calendar I got for him- antique maps from c. 1565, give or take. I lost myself in the oddly shaped coastlines, out of date country and territory lines, strange sea monsters that populate the oceans, old English, German, French and Italian place names, funny little bumps for great mountain ranges, and churches to denote towns. The scale is so far off in some of these, I thought it would be fun to draw my own. There's no wrong way, and the funkier & more untrained things look, the more authentic. I got out my colored pencils and drew a map of a large island nation with rivers, lakes, coastal islands, mountains, farmland, castles, churches, and fancy swoopy letters for place names. It was fun to create my own world. I think it came out pretty well, too.

feelin' the love in February

Yee-haw! While at the Holiday Ale Fest on Thursday, we ran into a friend of Jim's (not surprising) who owns a coffee house. I'd left my card for him but I hadn't heard from him- didn't think much of it. BUT at the Ale Fest he told us that he gave all his artists' submission info to the guy who was curating for him, and he up & disappeared. He left a wake of uncontacted artists and blank walls. I said- shoot! I could hang a show for you in January. He has a Jan show, but needed February. Done! I went in today and had a damn tasty latte and showed him some cityscapes large and small. He knew before that he liked my work, but this confirmed that it would be a good fit at Grendel's (9th and Burnside- eastside). Woohoo! He's pleased that he has stuff he likes for another month, and I'm glad I've got some wallspace in my future! It's a cool little place- all the funky charm and coziness you'd expect of an old building in an up & coming neighborhood with down-to-earth & highly intelligent clientelle. And hot shit comestibles.