bittersugar

dress shop/double decker bus

2011-01-03T11:31:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

I should be putting my new work into frames but then I keep looking at my vacation pictures.

Did you know that a lovely woman has opened a dress shop in a double decker bus in Portland on North Williams almost across the street from beloved Lark Press?

Inside I not only found the perfect dress for my trip to Mexico City ($13) but I also met a handsome stranger named Joseph, from San Francisco, who let me take his picture and thus demonstrate the close quarters inside the bus, if you are tall.

He bought a weather radio.

Upstairs, shoes overlooking the Hub Building on North Williams.

Here's the view from the top of the stairs. The dressing room part is behind a curtain in the back. Due to the good lighting, it's a really great place to try on clothes.

Here's the view coming down the windy stairs.

And here's dear Erin, the proprietress.

home again or something like this

2011-01-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I hope it's everything you wish for as long as nobody gets hurt.

I should tell you that I've returned to Seattle after nearly three weeks away in three cities, or more honestly, two cities and a town.

I will be returning to Portland next weekend for the real opening of Sarah Landwehr's and my show at Ristretto Roasters of state-based work. The opening is Saturday, January 8th at 7pm on North Williams and promises to be a nice time. I hope to see you there.

I visited Mexico City last week with two dear old friends. I haven't been for three years and all the recent changes were like a gift. The photo above is from Paseo de la Reforma. It is closed to cars every Sunday! Had you suggested such a thing three years ago, I wouldn't have believed you. As much as I love to ride bikes in cities, Mexico City traffic has always terrified me, and yet this time, I couldn't resist going on a ride. There are new bike lanes. Already the hip Condesa neighborhood can boast having more bike racks than there are in downtown Seattle. Admittedly, Seattle desperately needs more bike parking downtown.

I won't deny that riding around in regular traffic was a little scary (okay more than a little scary, cars don't stop for people) but it gave me so much hope. Mexico City has a fantastic climate where it is about 70 degrees every day and it's flat. With twenty million inhabitants, a good bike infrastructure could turn one of the world's biggest and most polluted cities into a healthy place to live, a paradise even, if only the economic disparities weren't so great but that is another issue.

This is an ecobici kiosk in La Condesa. For 300 pesos or about $25 a year, citizens can borrow ecobicis from different kiosks across the city and then drop them off later at a different kiosk, just like in many european cities. Awesome. I wish Seattle, San Francisco or Portland had ecobici, it would be a gateway drug for so many aspiring bike commuters.

This is another picture from Sunday morning, on another street closed to automobile traffic. Look what happened!

Tourists and just about anyone with identification can borrow beat up mountain bikes from different kiosks downtown. As weird as it felt to hand over my passport, as collateral, to a teenager working outside, I did it and got to ride around for three hours.

Both Mateos on one bike from the Prestamo Gratuito de Bicicletas kiosk

I really need to show you these beautiful butcher blocks from one of the many markets where we ate.

Such a sturdy design. I was ecstatic to see some of these at my new favorite bar, La Bipo, in Coyoacán.

I loved this place. Refranes are hand painted on the walls.

"In a long distance relationship, all four are happy"

"Everything good in this life kills, makes you fat or pregnant"

The menu is like an old Lucha Libre poster. This is a terrible picture but you to get the idea.

Oh and ladies, there are two unisex bathrooms and one bathroom for us, damas. Perhaps this is how bathrooms are in a fantasy country I've never visited. It's such a simple and ingenious design solution, how come it's not like this everywhere?

Sorry for the poor quality of my picture skills. With any luck I'll finally have the four-week camera course starting this Friday. School starts on Tuesday and now that I've had some sun and some time away, I feel so much better.

If you're lucky, I'll soon post the pictures of Matthew Iba's birthday wish that the three of us be electrocuted together, holding hands, in one of the cantinas off the plaza Garibaldi. Don't worry, it's not a scary as it sounds.

going places and making things

2010-12-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

hi,

I should go to sleep but I thought I'd say hello first. Tonight I met with my new friend, Bill Brown, the illustrator. If you want to see what I mean, go to the http://billbrown500.com/ His work is fantastic.
In the process of making a photo essay about him for one of my classes, he showed me some collages he's made out of the cut up pieces of his black and white pen drawings. The collages are amazing, tonight I talked to him about printing some of them on the letterpress in limited editions. I'm excited and I can't wait to show you the results, in january, when I get back from going places and getting away.

This is one I really like http://billbrown500.com/wedding_cake.html

In other news, I was getting really anxious about the holidays. Then this afternoon I bought a plane ticket. Finally I can focus on the important stuff like a reunion with flor de calabaza quesadillas and cokes in glass bottles sold on the street in the entryway of the hotel buenos aires in a certain city.

bitters

2010-11-11T10:47:00.000-08:00

how + why

2010-11-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

free

2010-11-11T09:14:00.001-08:00

another world + upcoming events

2010-11-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hello November,

I can now officially write that I live in Seattle. I sold my house and moved away.

This is an assignment. After allowing this page to sit unattended for a spell, I have returned. I will be writing you more often.

In the kitchen of my dear friend, Sarah, the words "There is another world and it is in this one," are tacked on the wall. It's true. There seem to be at least as many worlds as there are people and by leaving my world of Portland, Oregon, I've stumbled into another life. Yes, I am still me. I still have dinner parties, drink fantasy lattes at the Stumptowns (and now the Victrolas) and talk to strangers, but my life has a new geography and different faces. It's a tiny bit colder here but the coffee is still good and who doesn't enjoy a bit of anonymity from time to time. Yes, it's funny to leave a place after fifteen years of getting to know what sometimes felt like everyone, but it's also nice to make friends with a new city.

Lark Press and Print Club are further away but I can still visit. And I will be visiting. In December, Print Club, also know as Jean Sammis, Sarah Landwehr and I, are having a show of new prints at Ristretto Roasters on North Williams. The opening will be Saturday, December 5th. If you live anywhere near Portland, write down the date. The snacks alone will be fantastic. The theme is states. I'll tell you more as the date nears.

I am here in Seattle to study design and illustration. Every day I get up early and walk to school. My new life has a singular focus, all conveniently located within walking distance. There are eighteen of us in one studio, together all week long. Quickly, we are becoming a mismatched family, helping each other out and getting along better than I ever imagined.

house pics

2010-09-05T23:38:00.000-07:00

The house is looking so nice now that I am about to leave for Seattle. I've really been enjoying the light. It's been such an interesting 6 years of knowing this particular patch of land and this sturdy old house. I've met so many people and lead so many lives.

Now I hope that the right person or people will find this house and be very happy here. In the meantime, my friend Michele will be staying and keeping the house company. Good luck!

thank you one thousand and one

2010-08-30T23:34:00.000-07:00

This last month has been tricky. I haven't been making anything except for progress. I lost my camera so I can't show you what that means but if you came over here you would understand. You would see all the pretty rooms, the clean corners, the fresh paint and grout. It is so nice to be here now that I am nearly gone. Such a pretty house, now that it's done I can go on.

I wanted to say hello and thank you. Thank you for reading this and thank you to all the friends that have pushed and pulled me through this month of housework. Thank you Jean, Sarah, Kate, Justin, Leif, Michele, Rachel, Robyn and Thom. I hope I didn't forget anyone. Thank you for your physical assistance and for keeping me afloat when I was overwhelmed or scared. My to-do list ended up being longer and more daunting than I had expected. Thank you, I'm all done for a spell and this is all because of you.

I wish you luck,

How to be both a bridge and an island

2010-08-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I spent an evening with two friends who had never met. Happily, I watched as their commonalities forged a bond. I thought about my life as a bridge. How many times have I sat back quietly after the introductions and the leading sentences as two lovely friends of mine became friends. This is something that I love. I want to be a bridge always but then I also admire islands.

The last few weeks have been crazy. I moved back into my house where I haven't been living. It was dirty and tired and it needed love. I've been painting and working on things. I've been out of my mind with the kitchen torn apart and without any soft places to sit and to be. Sleeping has been a challenge. But somehow, things are working out. I've had so much help from so many friends and I know that when I look back at this era of my life, I will be amazed. Even right now, I am in awe, sitting here with my naked feet touching the clean wood floors. I can just be here, like my own little island at peace.

listening and seeing

2010-07-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

This morning, I had the honor of drinking coffee and going on a walk with former Portland resident, Tuey Burns. She has been in Italy doing an internship at the Guggenheim and now she is on the way to Taipei, Taiwan for a spell.

You might know of her via her cake parties. She has an ongoing project in which she bakes enormous cakes and invites all sorts of people by postcard or telephone. It is all about connecting, thus no one will ever be invited via text message or email. Those forms of communication are too impersonal. Cake is very personal. Cake is about getting to know each other and there is a cake party every month wherever Tuey is. It is a lovely experience which I would highly recommend. If you will be in Taipei in the coming months, check the link below for more information.

see it for yourself: http://www.youmecake.com/

While we meandered down the sidewalk, trading life lessons and experience, Tuey spotted a yard full of kittens! 3 are pictured above.

I don't know if you know this but...

2010-07-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

I am not a man.

A friend just pointed out that someone called referred to me as a him on their really pretty blog. I am always happy to have someone post a shout out to a print of mine. I love this - but it is funny that I am now Nik Brenswick and I am a man.

look for yourself: http://charlotterivers.blogspot.com/2010/07/bittersugar_06.html

What would you do? I find myself a little timid in situations like this. Maybe it will help me. Being a man has certain advantages. But then this particular writer has a page about my prints in her book - The Little Book of Letterpress Printing that will be coming out in August via Chronicle Books and I was excited to see my page and then this Nik Brenswick gentleman swoops in and steals my 5 minutes...

known states

2010-07-14T00:52:00.001-07:00

lower forty-eight detail.

I'm concerned this photograph is going to look like crap when it is small. Do make it bigger. Since I took this picture, I went ahead and tinted Tennessee, having remembered spending a couple of weeks in Memphis, the first time I thought I would move away from here. I should probably keep my geographical white holes to myself but now you can see what I've missed.

inane postcards

2010-07-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

It is late. I probably should just shut the computer's face and continue reading a certain nearly destroyed paperback. Having already thoroughly enjoyed The French Lieutenent's Woman, My dear friend, Jean, has passed it on to me. Now it is my turn and I admit there is something really wonderful about reading a tattered mass-market paperback from the seventies or eighties. The pages are crumbly and yellow, the spine broken, and the cover has a picture of Meryl Streep from the movie. The story remains compelling and if you want to have it when I am done, do say so- you won't have to worry about keeping it nice.

Oh, and then I was going to tell you about the postcards I've been making. I've been enclosing them with print orders and tomorrow I'll put them for sale on etsy. This morning I was making fun of my postcards to my roommate, Ethan and then he wanted a pack. nice.

The best part is the back, I am pleased with how it turned out but you can't see that here just yet.

little otsu!

2010-07-09T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I am just finishing up a prints order for little otsu in San Francisco - you know, the adorable little shop at 849 Valencia. I am so happy to have my prints in such a lovely place. The little otsu team produces wonderful paper goods, spectacular planners and even a Simon Evans* bookmark. There is the store and then up north here in Portland, Yvonne and her sweetheart, Jeremy make and distribute their line of cards, books and ephemera.

Seeing as I am not fully equipped with boxes at my house, I made a liner box for the alphabet prints to travel in and it was really fun. I do have to thank my wonderful roommate, industrial designer Kari Merkl, for making cardboard boxes in my proximity. My cardboard vessel is not all that amazing but at least all the letters will be safe and flat on their journey.

notes: *Simon Evans is my favorite. He is a British born artist who works with white out, pens, paint and collage. If you can, peer closely at his map of The World. Luckily, it lives inside of the Vitamin D book which Jean and I bought for Lark Press. Sometimes I get it out and leave it on the counter next to the cash register for a visual vacation. Or, on those days when all the gawkers*** make me feel like a monkey in the zoo operating a press, I can sit down and look at the pictures.

***I should go to sleep rather than proceeding but I have been thinking about the silver miners in Pótosi - in Bolivia. My brother Ryan went to visit the mines a few months ago which involved bringing gifts like rot-gut whiskey, dynamite and coca cola for the miners. In Portland, sometimes people like to come to the press and stare at us while we try to work. (Yes, our lives are worlds easier than the lives of Bolivian silver miners.) Yes, we are operating old presses, but really the door is open because we have a small shop. I don't always feel like explaining, as I want to get my work done. If people want to get up in my area, gawk, stare and ask questions-token gifts such as chocolate or bacon croissants (readily available next door at Pix) would really encourage cooperation from us monkeys.

kitchenaise

2010-07-02T00:57:00.000-07:00

finally a map

2010-06-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Dear friend,

It's been too long again. I've missed you, but at least I have a few things to show for my absence. My first map is finished, I made some new bicycles and a kitchen print is nearly complete. It's been a bit crazy over here with some big changes on the way.

In September, I will be moving to Seattle. As much as I have never had strong feelings for our northern neighbor, I have been getting to know it better and this is changing. Whoever coined that expression "familiarity breeds contempt" is crazy as far I am concerned. I've had the opposite experience in life and as I get to know Seattle and a small number of its residents, I like it better and better. I will probably miss Portland more than I can currently imagine but I am excited for change and new neighborhoods.

In the meantime, I am overwhelmed by all the details to which I must attend. Moving is so complicated. As much as I want to savor every moment of my last summer (which due to cold rainy weather still feels more like winter) I am anxious to get a few hurdles out of the way and be done with it.

I hope you are well.

three cameras and so pretty!

2010-05-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

It has been such an exciting month. I went away for 10 days and managed to be mostly silent. The days were so slow.

All of this quiet time and I was so thrilled to return to my life. I came back with new appreciation for my kitchen, the neighborhood and all the people I am so fond of here. It seems like someone is always having a get-together or making a fire and we are free to wander comfortably out of doors in the softness of springtime. I love this.

I could tell you more about where I was but I would rather tell you that my little brother visited, having at last returned from a long sojourn in South America. My friends from Hawaii are still here and now their boat has arrived too. I may write more of this but in the meantime, it is so nice to have loved ones visit. I've been cooking a lot and trying to share the results.

Oh, I am supposed to tell you about these cameras. This print turned out so pretty, such nice colors. I have spent a fair amount of time staring at leaves and lichens this month while dreaming of the sea, and certain colors have been calling to me. Here it is, an edition of 45, 14 by 10 inches on such nice paper, a print of my drawing of Clay's camera.

a new print and a note before going away

2010-04-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, after spending a really long time searching and hoping for the return of my camera charger, I bought a new one. Perhaps, it was so happy in Hawaii that it stayed there, hidden away and enjoying a life of warmth closer to the ocean. I can now share with you, dear reader, a photograph of my latest print.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for 10 days. I'm going to have to be quiet for almost the whole time. It will be difficult. I won't even have a telephone nor the solace of writing my thoughts on a piece of paper. It will be strange and I will miss you. When I get back, I'll share the interview with Erin Debenport and you will too be amazed at her rare genius and charm. I can't wait...

The promise of an interview

2010-04-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

Today, I am still under the spell of a long dormant friend crush. Dear reader, haven't you ever met someone, liked them instantly, felt amazed, comfortable and super curious to know more? I hope the answer is yes. It is an intoxicating sensation. It could even lead to a lifelong friendship.

You may wonder to whom I am referring. Or if, in this world that feels alternately tiny and overwhelming, you have crossed paths with this person. It is possible that you have. Maybe she taught you a class on linguistics in Chicago or maybe you are interested in the fading, native languages of this continent and you read an article about her work? Maybe you met her at a smarty-pants conference, a show or a rock star wedding? I really can't answer for you, but I am pondering which questions I should ask in an interview with the remarkable, (Dr.) Erin Debenport. I know, she may not be an international celebrity yet but she is sharp, funny and an excellent story teller. Erin's done a great deal of work with languages that would otherwise fall silent, lost to us forever. Plus, she has friends everywhere. I had not seen her for over a year and then this week I had the good luck of spending time with her two days in a row.

What questions would you ask such a wise and well rounded person? I am working on this...

yes to springtime + mysteries

2010-04-13T15:59:00.001-07:00

Hello sun,

I have so much affection for the light and then it evades me. I struggle with what I can only accept. Nonetheless, today there is a softness to the air. The bright pink cherry blossoms on Commercial street are somehow still with us after what seems like weeks of foul weather.

I was searching for something in the basement the other day and I found this funny piece of paper. I received it in the mail over one year ago in a very strange package. It is still a mystery. The blacked out letters are very intriguing. I can't quite surmise who wrote it but it pops up from time to time. About an hour ago I was leafing through Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman and I remembered that this very piece of paper was residing in my pocket. It felt fitting and who knows, perhaps a mystery reader will have some insight that I lack. One can almost see some wording regarding an embarrassment of sorts in the blacked out region. Owing to those curious crossed out parts, I have perhaps now spent more time studying this fragment of paper than most serious works in museums.

Mostly I have been trying to focus on getting work done lately. I have been wrestling with sloths and their characteristics and then of course, pens and pencils. On the back of the focus sheet pictured above were pleas for help in a fit of distraction. Tomorrow I'll be printing and by Thursday I hope to have completed a leica print.

dear springtime and last week's obsessions

2010-03-07T15:46:00.001-08:00

Hello again,

I didn't post anything for a month because I bought a plane ticket to visit a friend and became so excited for warmth, sunlight and salt water that I was dull.

Here are some sketchbook drawings from my holiday which is sadly now over.

how to get started...

2010-02-05T17:52:00.000-08:00

hello again,

I took some pictures of the sky for you as we had an unobstructed visit from the sun today. I rode around on my bicycle, running errands and eating. When I stopped somewhere for lunch or for coffee, I ran into friends and we talked about the light. It opens you up, said one friend, it makes everything easier.

Then the sun set and I fell asleep. Now I can't seem to get started on anything. I'm sitting at the dining room table of my home for three weeks, listening to the hum of the refridgerator and wishing I felt like drawing sloths for a sloth belt on a map of the americas. It's so hard to get started and so slow going.

Today may be the first day of the false spring. This is my title for a span of days in February when the sky opens up and everything radiates in the light. Everything is easier. We forget to bring our raincoats. We smile at each other on the street and walk further to bask in the light.

another valentine

2010-01-30T17:53:00.000-08:00

Seeing as I have had several days to slowly make something, I ended up making another better valentine for the invitational. This is all so silly, I have so many projects I need to work on and I have practically devoted two days to making a valentine for someone to buy at a charity auction.

Speaking of love, I did pick up Belle Hook's book All About Love, last night at Powells as well as Jane Jacob's; The Life and Death of Great American Cities. I am pretty sure I love both books already having read parts of library copies. I went to Powell's with my dear friend, Rashel Peddersen, to a reading by Nick Flynn. As I am not familiar with his work, it initially seemed like he would read two pages of a story, get us hooked and then nervously and abruptly stop and start another from a different section of the book. Actually, his chapters are really short and they just end and another begins. Oh... you might be wondering-what book? The book is called The Ticking is the Bomb, I eventually want to read all of it, his words were breaking my heart, the subject matter is not light but eventually I'll get my hands on a copy. If last night had not been his last reading of a three-week book tour, I would encourage you to go. It was a really good one.

watercolor noodling + the valentines invitational

2010-01-30T13:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, not the best pictures, but pictures nonetheless.

It appears my valentine for the Reading Frenzy Valentines Invitational would encourage breaking this tenuous bond so apt to erupt in flames. Hmmm...

lunch time

2010-01-29T12:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of things that I was lucky enough to eat last week.

Above is the damn house from Trouble a coffee shop near the beach in San Francisco. Unfortunately the coffee was very weak, a shockingly midwestern-style state of affairs for a coffee roaster on the west coast. I loved the coconut so much and the cinnamon toast, they were perfect. If you ever order a damn house - get an espresso drink, well, unless you like your coffee watery. A friend who lives in that city gave me this advice when it was already too late.

Below are Jorge's huevos rancheros- the best I've even seen or consumed. He even made salsas to accompany that were creamy and hot from pistachios and chiles. This might have been the best breakfast of my life or at least in the top five.

still alive

2010-01-20T18:30:00.000-08:00

oh hello,

I just wanted to quickly write as yesterday's very long drive involved snowstorms and torrential rain. Getting here to where I'm sitting in another rainy city involved a somewhat harrowing 14 hour drive. I almost got a hotel room in Weed, California for all the buckets of snow falling on I-5 and me being an Oregonian - I'm afraid of driving in snow. I don't know what I would have done without the voice of my little brother on the phone while traffic stalled for an hour in the mountains. He checked all the radars and let me know the situation so I didn't need to have a heart attack. Then somehow I made it down to where it there were only buckets of rainfall falling from the depths of darkness stretching out around me and I drove further again and I somehow made it to Jen's house before she did and half surprised her.

I'm happy we're all still here.

And if you're ever in Sonoma, the Fremont Diner is adorable. We ate breakfast and watched the kitchen cut up beautiful pork fat in preparation for making lard and then we ordered some pie. It's so great to be alive.

surprise and I'm leaving

2010-01-18T22:36:00.000-08:00

hello,

so... tomorrow morning I'm going to drive to the bay area. actually, I'm driving to napa to surprise a friend who never reads this thing anyway, so she'll still be surprised even if I wrote my top secret plan down here.

and I'm so sleepy, I don't know why I'm not already trolling around in the basement for cds and printing out driving instructions. I'm leaving really really early. Then Thursday I'm going to San Francisco to visit my little brother and attend a "surprise" party for him. He's going to travel around the Southern Cone of South America for 3 months so we have to celebrate.

Meanwhile, my friend Mikey claims that the weather is going to be terrible throughout the entire state of California this week. There's going to be a flood of biblical proportions, it's the beginning of the end. His father thinks that the earthquake in Haiti is just the beginning of what will culminate in 2012 at the end of the Mayan Calendar and the end of the world as we know it. I haven't met Mikey's father but for the time being I will continue to hope for the best for all of us.

I do, however, have a week off of work and a real desire for distance and perspective. Thus I will continue to wish you well and cross my fingers that you'll do the same. With a little luck and a lot of trying, we will keep it together for another week at least.

Thank you Ryan!

2010-01-16T20:25:00.000-08:00

meandering statements

2010-01-15T08:53:00.000-08:00

Well hello,

I just realized that I haven't really explained this alphabet project properly so I am going to quickly write a statement in the way that that I have thus failed to do - I never got around to putting up an artist statement and I probably should today.

This alphabet is phonetic. You could use it to teach someone to read through the sounds of letters. My little sister, Angela, is a Kindergarten teacher in Kansas. One day last summer she complained to me about her ugly phonetic alphabet while I was brainstorming for a new project. We decided that I should make one by drawing all the pictures and then print it on the letterpress. She would help by approving all the objects phonetically. Meanwhile, I read an article about bats. Bats eat an absurd amount of bugs and are flying mammals. They sleep upside down, bite people only when rabid and look neat flying around at dusk. At present they are threatened by white fungus disease and the demise of habitat. I started drawing bats and the alphabet started with the letter b.

Slowly, flora and fauna for each letter materialized. Ever so slowly I made drawings for each letter and talked to my sister. I printed every letter on Smoky- our big old Chandler and Price Press at Lark Press and rounded the corners by hand.

FIN

a goat and then the rest of the letters coming soon

2010-01-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

2010-01-10T16:46:00.000-08:00

pictures tomorrow, words today

2010-01-06T23:22:00.000-08:00

I am done with my biggest ever drawing and printing project. 26 letters are drawn, phonetically approved, letterpress-printed and and ready to go in a lovely edition of 75.

This morning, I tried to make it to a yoga class and upon arriving realized I couldn't see straight-a la migraine headache. I couldn't properly formulate sentences either. I wanted to give a hand printed invitation to my favorite teacher. And I did, but only in a jarring, quasi-non verbal fashion, at which point I decided it best to forego the class and the challenges of balance and poise. Instead I wandered around the grocery store down the street in my yoga pants with a pastry and some coffee, examining face creams and bath salts. Somehow this did the trick and I recovered enough to spend the day in the press, finishing all the type in a rich butterscotch hued ink.

Tomorrow my little brother is flying in from San Francisco and I am thrilled. I'm going to pick him up at the airport and he's going to help me laugh while we hang everything on the wall.

Then I've got my fingers crossed we'll have time to have dinner at Pok Pok in the whiskey soda lounge, where I am enamored with the the khao soi (Yes, I probably spelled it wrong) and the fish sauce chicken wings and about everything else. Oh, and we'll have to have whiskey too.

Wish me luck and I'll wish you the same.

5 letters left to go

2010-01-05T23:57:00.000-08:00

Hello,

I am half asleep and the only thing that kept me going tonight was Lola Beltrán - la Tequilyera (I'm not quite certain how the second part is spelled as I believe she's long dead and I bought her greatest hits, in that part of Mexico City where you buy the pirated music that you heard in the old man bar, drinking with the old men. Excuse me as I fumble to recall specific words that I will know again tomorrow.

I have good news and I have a confession.

The good news is that the remaining red alphabet letters printed be-you-ti-fully this evening. I somehow got our hulking old man of a press to spell out words in big saturated color. I have 5 letters left to finish off and a really painful amount of hand rounding to parcel out over time- just as it will take time for the alphabet to find its way into other lives and leave me. I'll just get started this week but I won't finish.

Oh and the confession- I am nearing the end of this project and I'll admit I don't always handle obstacles as calmly as I might. Upon arriving at the press this evening for another lovely rainy 15 or so hour day of working after work, I discovered that the red ink I had hand-mixed and put away in a drawer was missing. Its neighbors, our other left-over hand-mixed inks, were missing too. I had even ascertained the location of said red ink just last night, and suddenly it's gone and buried deep in a dumpster in the wet dark. I was devastated and I must admit in these sort of situations, especially when I am alone and it is a late I find unleashing a great stream of obscenities to be quite comforting. When I was finished, the ink formula came back to me and I made such a nice red all over again.

Alright, I hope you are well and better rested...

deadlines

2010-01-03T21:33:00.000-08:00

A quick word about deadlines.

Yes, I feel like an old shoe, all worn out and running but simultaneously I can't believe how much has been accomplished in the last 6 weeks since this terror has descended upon my shoulders. (My shoulders are full of knots but that's not the issue.) I am almost finished. I am still shocked. Yes, there is still always the potential for public humiliation. Yes, the thieves who've been crowbarring their way into small local businesses could ransack the press in search of the cash we've been taking home; they could throw all of my neat stacks paper on the ground and stomp on them...but then, they probably won't even bother coming in at all.

I'll see you on Friday.

almost there

2010-01-02T20:47:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's an even number sort of year.

Yesterday was one of those really bad printing days. It was just me, the machines and all the rain on the roof chattering away and eating up our meager allotment of sunlight. I had been hoping to sail through my day, finish printing enough letters to relax into this final countdown of days before all 26 letters must be complete and make it to a yoga class too, stretch and embrace this brand new year. Instead, just getting the make-ready (this means print set-up) right to print the type on letter U, took nearly an hour. I started to get cross-eyed peering so often at the alignment of one sentence on one print and suddenly the 17 remaining letters weighed heavily upon not only my spirits but also upon my sense of possibility. This project requires good alignment and it always takes a long time. And there is never as much time in a day as I expect. I am not quite slow, but easily distracted and standing there feeding sheet after sheet of paper into Smokey the press, is tiresome. He requires so much ink and attention. He could eat my hand.

Today was so much better. I am more than half way done. Cross your fingers all the black ink is finished by tomorrow and that Smokey behaves himself for another week.

lista

2009-12-26T12:55:00.001-08:00

The powerful effects of sunlight in winter.

2009-12-26T00:48:00.000-08:00

yes it is winter but I feel okay.

2009-12-25T23:57:00.000-08:00

Do you see the sunlight on these barren branches?

Alright, the holiday is over and we can settle back into our lives again. I am happy to report that it is my birthday week and I am enjoying it. I celebrated this fine day off with a 6 mile hike accompanied by a dear friend and then a light meal and sparkly conversations at the home of some new friends that I'm super excited about.

The other night I went on a birthday shopping spree at Powell's City of Books. While the rest of the book city focused frantically on the crapshoot that is buying books for others, I perused and purchased whatever my heart desired. All of my holiday-slash-birthday anxieties melted and swam away next to my new (mostly used) stack of reading materials. (I even bought My Life in Heavy Metal by Steve Almond again, and it broke my heart, again. If you want a good short story, yes, the title story wins the prize in my book of books.)

We've had the sun in our eyes the last couple of days. Somehow everything is easier. I still have 3 drawings to go and an absurd amount of printing and paper cutting to go but it's alright. Tomorrow I will be at the press all day. I will battle it out with a stern stack of paper and take as many coffee breaks as I can stomach. With any luck you, or someone we both like, will stop by and say hello.

2009-12-19T00:31:00.000-08:00

So, here's a preliminary version of the invite for the opening. Yes, the letter s + a yak drawing doesn't make sense but the letter s isn't done yet and I am completely in love with the way this yak turned out. I want to give this yak a hug. He's so furry and warm and it's been so cold. I'm going to finish the s tomorrow I hope and then order all the plates to print all the pieces, cut the mountains of beautiful cotton paper with the guillotine cutter, then superglue myself to the press and try not to spend so long talking to all the people that I adore in the neighborhood.

It's called focusing and nearly impossible for me without a deadline. Do you have any idea how many intriguing people live in this part of the world? I could take pictures of their heads with byline paragraphs of dramatic life highlights for hours. I can't seem to go a week without meeting someone that I just have to know better. Thank you, Portland.

What no picture?

2009-12-18T00:15:00.000-08:00

dear friend,

My suspicion that writing on this thing is like writing one's name alone with a sparkler was completely negated today. The words of two friends and the addition of comments has me convinced that I ought to make some announcements and double check spelling and grammar.

At any rate, before you step away to look at someone else's pretty pictures, I have an announcement. The phonetic alphabet of plants, animals and the mystery of the letter x, will be on the walls at Ristretto on Friday, January 8th. Mark your calendars, the opening is at 7pm, complete with wine, pistachios; and ladies, maybe even a cameo appearance by my little brother, who is not very little at all at 6'1'', but pretty silly on a good day and really good at livening up about any event. Not to imply that boredom will be possible on such an auspicious evening. I am getting super excited or perhaps super ready to be done drawing and then subsequently printing the remaining letters and thinking (and talking) about it all the time.

Oh and n is for narwhal, thank you Molly and Mara. I haven't figured out how to reply to comments yet, but that's what 2010 is for.

The s is acting up. Seeds are boring and my salamanders have been very unappealing, I'm contemplating succulents but that's a bit of a weird one to explain to the kids. What would you do? There are still the letters x, u, z and a walrus. Suggestions...

prettiest no-knead bread yet

2009-12-11T08:52:00.001-08:00

Yes, I know it's just a loaf of bread but I made it and it turned out so pretty I had to show you. I've been making no-knead bread for over a year now and the beauty of it still astounds me.

I've been drawing like crazy to complete the phonetic alphabet project I started many months ago. In January, it needs to be done, framed and on the wall at Ristretto. Yesterday, I worked all day on a raccoon, coral and an otter. What should the letter n be?

fantasy breakfasts

2009-12-05T11:10:00.001-08:00

I love farm eggs fried in coconut oil on buttered wheat toast (note the robust color of the yolks). It is always satisfying and takes no time at all. I seem to pay a fortune on good eggs but how can I not? The supermarket can't compete with real eggs from real chickens that run around and eat bugs and dirt. Even the organic, cage free variety are from chickens in unhappy conditions and thus their corn and soybean fed yolks are a far wimpier shade of yellow.

new print - the letter m

2009-12-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

Hey, I finished m and e, Mushrooms and elk. Mushrooms were tricky because there are so many and they are amazing. I ended up choosing a lovely gnarled winter chantrelle for the print. You could describe about any flora or fauna in this world as amazing, even if you just learn a little bit about it. There are so many ferns and fishes, organisms of every size and shape. This phonetic alphabet project has been really fun in the sense that I end up learning about so many aspects of the natural world that I normally wouldn't think about. It's like being in kindergarten and suddenly noticing all sorts of phenomena that were there all along only I didn't notice.

I have been feeling a little overwhelmed too. I am going to put the whole damn alphabet on the wall at the lovely Ristretto Roasters across the way on Williams in January - and I still have way too many letters to go. I just finished drawing a deer, a goat and a jellyfish, so I'm feeling slightly more optimistic...but still I have a lot to do. As such, I had best get back to my pens, dear reader. Still I wish you well and that the sun is shining where you are, just like it has been here, quite unexpectedly for December.

splendor in the grass

2009-12-03T14:48:00.001-08:00

2009-12-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

L is for leaves

2009-11-30T21:50:00.000-08:00

the never ending saga of printing and drawing

2009-11-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

so much to be thankful for

2009-11-28T10:00:00.001-08:00

but more than anything I am so thankful that we're friends and that we eat so well together.

drinking and drawing

2009-11-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

JEAN'S CALENDAR

2009-11-01T21:50:00.000-08:00

Why hello again,

I have been really really busy. It's been great, I've been working enough to be able to eat really well every day. My refrigerator is full of really great cheese and the cupboard has plenty of nice dark chocolate - nice enough to be free that trashy soy lecithin garbage and full of cacao. I am doing alright.

Jean, my dear friend of Lark Press has finished her calendar and I am in love with it. I have already hung mine on the wall where it is patiently waiting for January. She made only 100 and is selling them on etsy : www.larkpress.etsy.com . I am so proud of her dilligence and I love her drawings. September is my favorite. This is the month when mobs of Portlanders gather up a picnic and a blanket and head over to NW Raleigh to the yard of the Chapman school to watch an army of vaux swifts (some perhaps 200,000) create a swirling vortex of flapping wings in the sky and dive into what was once a chimney.

I did finish 2 more letters of my phonetic alphabet and 3 more are drawn up and ready to print. Pictures and etsy posting are coming soon. If I somehow get some seed money when the project is all designed, it would be nice to have them offset printed and widely distributed. In the meantime, I have quite a bit of drawing ahead of me. Luckily it's coffee season and I have sworn off coffee bans. I am dreaming of a creamy cup of coffee right now, even as I about to fall asleep, it sounds so nice. Living in this occasionally grey and colorless bubble that is Portland, Oregon and having access to some of the best coffee in this country- it's nearly impossible for me to avoid it. When Stumptown coffee and Ristretto concoct warm mugs of nearly perfect milky heaven for $3, what is the point in fighting?

Hello again

2009-10-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

I wrote this list when I was cranky to feel better. The previous page in my sketchbook I had devoted to my edges and all those big and little things that make me want to run away. I was drawing with Michael from Tinymeat and he suggested this vastly more enjoyable list. It's really not even finished, there are so many people, things, places and activities that I love - this is only a small sample. If you are ever feeling weird and frustrated, I would highly recommend this exercise.

mr owl just needs to talk it out.

2009-08-18T13:49:00.000-07:00

hello again,

Today I'm finally going to post the logo slash companion animal I drew for a really fantastic local psychiatrist. This owl is just a teeny bit insecure but it's nothing a little time on the couch can't fix.

Sonic Youth hearts Lark Press

2009-08-15T10:55:00.001-07:00

I stole this from Jean's blog because having grown up loving Sonic Youth, I was so excited to see Lark Press listed as being loved by Lee Renaldo. This is from a cute little pamphlet created by the charming Ace Hotel here in town, where Sonic Youth evidently stayed when they were last in town.

dear Kate

2009-08-13T20:37:00.003-07:00

Hello,

I am now writing because a couple of hours ago I found myself instant messaging with this amazing Canadian woman, Kate, who I met while I was in Spain during the winter. This afternoon we were writing these little notes and it was alternately wonderful - to connect openly with a near stranger, and terrible, as there was so much more to say and we couldn't type quickly enough. I barely met her in a hostel in Madrid, yet she was so likable I wished she would visit the Northwest immediately so that we could become better friends. She is even a veterinarian.

When I started writing on this thing to probably no one, I couldn't even bring myself to tell no one that the earliest pictures, they are from Spain. I took them during a month away in desperate need of light. The dull drab gray winters of the northwest aren't especially cold but they are dreary. Leaving for a spell helps immeasurably.

Yes, I should be regaling this page with anecdotes about Smoky the press and his weird smells this afternoon but I'd rather talk about friends because friends are wonderful. Also I hope Kate starts to write a blog because it's fun and she probably has amazing animal and human stories to share and then I hope she comes to Portland, borrows one of my bicycles and learns the city by heart.

la bicicleta en aqua

2009-07-31T17:21:00.001-07:00

places to go + eat san francisco

2009-07-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

hello again,

I'm still not exactly sure how much to reveal on this thing but I would like to share a few of the terrific places I was lucky enough to visit the other weekend in San Francisco.

As I love to eat and eat well, quite of few of my happiest memories are of meals and snacks shared with dear friends. SF is bursting at the seams with both great food and more recently great friends, so it is the perfect place to go and eat.

Here are my brand new favorites:

Mission Street Foods. Look this place up. It's located on Mission Street between 18th and 19th. It is a restaurant that takes over another restaurant. I know, none of what I just said seems to make sense but let me explain. On Thursday and Saturday nights the Mission Street Food team takes over a little Chinese restaurant (which I believe is called Lung Chen). As I understand it, there is a different menu every time, created by different chefs and sous chefs of the city. The wait staff are all volunteers (from other restaurants) and the proceeds go to charity.

I was instructed by a friend that only groups of 2 or 4 are accepted and to show up early. We did, arriving at 5:45 to get in the line outside (It opens at 6). As a result we had a fantastic and inexpensive meal. Menu wise, it was favorite dishes night and the waiter instructed us to order one of everything of the 6 (or was it 8?) savory dishes, so we did that too, ordering additional plates of our favorites - the duck fat fried rice and the steak with transcendental shell beans. It was so much fun. One of my dining companions brought a terrifically huge red zinfandel and we received little tea cups with which to drink our inky-red wine. The dishes aren't huge but they are decent sized and for San Francisco it is a really good value. Plus, the proceeds of our meal went to the food pantry! To see what the menu will be when you go, look at their handy blog: blog.missionstreetfood.com/

Trouble. Trouble is actually a teeny coffee shop located on Judah in the Sunset District near the beach. It's called Trouble but it's more like a lifesaver remedy. They have a special called the damn house($7). The damn house consists of : a cup of their fine coffee, a fat slice of buttery cinnamon toast and here's the best part, a chilled coconut with a straw and a spoon. I went the day after a dinner party that was a little bit too much fun with my friend Matthew and our achy hangovers. Afterwards, we felt worlds better; better enough to enjoy a walk on the beach. Now I find myself thinking about the damn house everyday and how nice it would be to revisit.

I also visited Four Barrel for the first time which is gorgeous but it's been there quite a while so you probably already know about it. It's a coffeeshop / roaster on 14th + Valencia. It's a wonderful place to sit and draw.

The friends I visited just moved into a beautiful new place in the Haight, so we cooked a lot in their big sunny fantasy kitchen. They made terrific fish tacos the first night, dredging talapia with flour and then battering it in beer whisked with flour, salt and pepper and deep frying it. There were several homemade salsas, a simmering pot of black beans, a beet salad and guacamole. It was all phenomenal.

Another night I rubbed salt, pepper, cayenne and chili powder into thick neiman ranch pork chops and made the Korean style slaw that Jean and I invented (cabbage, garlic,sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds and green onion- I'll explain it better some other day). We cut the pork into long strips and browned it in olive oil. Then we fried up leftover corn tortillas and made Korean pork tostadas in homage to the recent Korean taco craze.

Meanwhile, I'm hungry. More on prints next time...

f is for ferns, three varieties of this favorite flora

2009-07-22T23:28:00.000-07:00

I need to get out of here but first...

2009-07-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

After an exhilarating weekend away, I have returned to my fair city and this desk in the back of Lark press. Mondays or Tuesdays are my printing days. The shop would be closed, but I often open it up and ink up Smoky, our big old gray Chandler and Press letterpress. I named this big press Smoky for his color as well as the precarious state of his geriatric motor. He has a smaller neighbor, Red. Red's motor has a tendency to spark when he's in a bad mood and since he has a generally poor disposition, he sparks most of the time.

I should get out of here but I wanted to write something down while there's still time.

I spent the weekend in the lovely city of San Francisco, staying with even lovelier friends who have moved into a beautiful new place. Sometimes I forget how there are people who live in other cities who I dearly love. I remember now. I had the pleasure of attending not only a dinner party but a blueberry pancake breakfast too and cooking Korean tostadas with Matthew Iba. I ate so much good food that I should probably take a break.

my new sketchbook

2009-07-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

flying mammals

2009-07-20T01:15:00.001-07:00

the continuation of the alphabet

2009-07-20T00:54:00.000-07:00

It's been too long

2009-07-16T17:43:00.001-07:00

Hello,

How have you been? It seems the longer I go without posting anything here, the harder it is to imagine what I should tell you. It's the most wonderful time of the year- summer, and so much has been going on it's hard to keep track.

At present, I am sitting in the beautiful Ristretto roasters on williams with my dirty knees and the evidence of sun slowly reddening my skin. I went blueberry picking this afternoon on Sauvie's Island. I now have 10 pounds of blueberries in plastic bags hanging up on the coat rack at the press. Next week Lucy and I are having a giant dinner party and the blueberries will become a crisp. (In the interim they will take a week off in the freezer).

In about 15 minutes, a friend of a friend with a fancy camera and skills is coming over to Lark Press to take some half decent pictures of my prints. My camera and I have been in a fight, this is part of my excuse for not posting-who wants to look at a blog without pictures? It's like a poorly illustrated children's book. You pick it up, you put it down. In this case you travel somewhere else in screen nowhere land. Nonetheless, I will have new pictures soon. In the meantime, a few words and tomorrow I'm off to San Francisco for the weekend.

housesitting

2009-06-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

First off, I finished a print run of kelly green bicycles, 8 by 10 inches and perfect for framing. Unfortunately, taking a good picture of the little tiny crisp lettering often eludes me.

I am housesitting. It feels like being on vacation somewhere really pretty and a little fraught with peril in the sense that I don't know where anything is.

The dining room table (pictured) is wonderful for drawing and looking out the window. The garden is unspeakably lovely. Last night I took a bath and read essays from It Must Have Been Something I Ate by my new most favorite food writer, Jeffrey Steingarten. He is or was, the Vogue food editor and travels all over eating very well. He's funny and when I least expect it he sneaks in snide little comments about vegetables and picky eaters. Plus he defends my dear friends, salt and fat. I love him.

bike summer

2009-06-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

The sign you see belongs or belonged to my friend Jen.

hello summer,

Now that it's warm, I am completely enamored with my bike rides again.

I just finished making 8 by 10 inch kelly green bicycle prints but my camera is not working so well, so you'll just have to believe me.

top 5

2009-06-02T14:56:00.001-07:00

Okay, I admit it. There is grass green ink on the press and I am 90% done with a new run of space needles but I just can't seem to stick with it today. I keep walking around the shop and getting distracted.

I've been working on a new plant series of drawings and a phonetic alphabet series with my little sister's help- she's a kindergarten teacher. So far there is a bat and a page of beetles. The bat is winning for me but I need to see what Angela thinks.

And I am almost falling over with excitement over some maps I've been working on. They are educational and going to take a very long time. I suspect they will look incredible in kitchens. I am really going to talk to a screen printer soon about doing the oceans in a saturated color and then the little stuff will be pressed. I have to draw about 100 things for it and I'm doing research. It's really fun.

On an unrelated note-

I have a question: what 5 spices can you not live without?

at present mine are:

1. cayenne - I sneak it in everything even biscotti and blame it for my good digestion.

2. chili flakes - also great in so many foods and great for sauteing vegetables.

3. cumin - good in beans, nice toasty flavor and a little spicy.

4. fennel seeds - sometimes I toast them and eat them, however I hate caraway seeds.

5. bay leaves - just because.

philodendron black cardinal

2009-06-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

visual aids

2009-05-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

fantasy breakfasts

2009-05-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

This morning I am cat/housesitting for a dear friend who incidentally has my favorite kitchen. When she and her sweetheart leave town, I often have the good fortune of staying here with the cats. She's gone and left me my favorite coffee beans (Stumptown Hairbender) and a giant half and half! It's finally spring in Portland and the sunlight spilling in through all these windows is intoxicating. I just made one of my favorite breakfasts/anytime meals and it's so simple I think you should know about it.

chard + eggs

one bunch of chard is enough for 2 people but I am happily one today, thus I used half a bunch, washed it and cut out the course center stalks with a sharp knife. (If you are especially resourceful you can dice these up and cook them longer but I didn't feel like it today). I bought my chard at the Hollywood neighborhood farmers' market, lovely with big shiny leaves that haven't traveled far.

Okay, back to the recipe: I usually tear up the leaves if they are gigantic. Once this is done or even while you are cutting out and tearing, put a cast iron pan on medium-low heat and get it fairly hot, but not so hot that it will burn butter -which is a lower heat cooking fat. Once this pan is sufficiently hot, throw in about a teaspoon wallop of butter, let it melt and add the chard leaves. I have sometimes added chicken broth, but it's not really necessary as butter, salt and the water from the leaves do a good job steaming and flavoring the chard. If the leaves are big, fluffy and sticking out of the pan at first, it's fine, put a lid on everything then take the lid off and stir everything up after about a minute, soon enough everything will fit. Add a decent pinch of salt and then when the leaves are tasting done to you (it won't take very long) and looking smaller and bright green, put them on a plate or a bowl and set aside.

Now fry or poach an egg, but be sure to leave the yolk runny. Plop the cooked egg on top of the chard. For the most enjoyment, I recommend eating chard and eggs with buttered toast (if you live in Portland, "Dave's Killer" seed breads make wonderful hearty toast and are really addictive).

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures, it disappeared too fast.

Now to clean the kitchen and draw the plants in the breakfast nook.

a new print about hands

2009-05-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

I finally put a new print on etsy this morning. It stems from my obsession with drawing hands and bony vowels.

Mostly I draw my own left hand while often admiring the hands of others and wishing to draw them too. My hand is always available and rarely gets impatient. The older it gets the more interesting it is and I wonder if the lines deviate more than I know from choices made and changes of fate.

While attempting to draw everyday, I end up drawing a lot of letters. I love vowels. Have you ever heard the old Gal Costa song from the early 1970's where she sings A,E,I,O,U? Of course I don't remember the name of it. It's in Portuguese as Gal Costa is Brazilian and if you listen to it, it will help your word formation. The vowel sounds are glue, learning them is a vital first step to language learning and reading.

I hope you are well and that the sun is shining where you are too. I have to get off of this evil machine and out of this pretty coffee shop where I've been sitting too long.

2009-05-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

hello,

I bought a new sketchbook yesterday and then I spent all evening drawing. This is the cover I drew on it. See, I bought 3 colored pencils and some new fancy pens and just having them all together in a brown paper bag was inspiring.

It's Tuesday afternoon and I am again sitting at the back desk at Lark Press working on drawings and getting distracted by the hugeness of the world wide web.

closed mondays

2009-05-04T15:17:00.001-07:00

Starting is always the hardest part. Even starting this new post feels confusing. It would be easier to begin:

Dear Reader,

Another colorless drippy day. Most the things I wanted to get done can't be done today because it is Monday. On Mondays all sorts of Portland businesses are closed.

I was going to make a cassoulet, which is basically a French hearty stew with beans and meat. Mark Bittman has a very simple sounding recipe on his website. If I were more professional, I would put a link here but I trust you to google his name and find his website. It has lots of easy, everyday recipes. (P.S. I tested out and can highly recommend the fennel and celery salad).

But before making the cassoulet, I first I wanted to visit Gartner's Country Meat Market, which allegedly has the largest meat counter in the continental U.S. I have been meaning to visit this place for quite some time and now that I live fairly close, I am dying to see it. I bought everything else for the recipe at New Seasons - and could have bought the meat too; except a day like today, with a low muddy sky and very little going for it, needed the excitement of a field trip. I drove all the way to 75th and Colombia, only to find that Gartner's is closed on Monday. Mission thwarted, looks like the recipe will have to wait for better weather, a bike ride and another day.

I did manage to visit the awesome Vietnamese sandwich shop hidden away on northeast 68th and Broadway. It's a little tiny shop and I wanted to post a picture of it here, only it's not working. The sandwiches are $2.50 and amazing and the iced coffee lifted my spirits considerably. Which makes me think- why don't I ever think to buy condensed milk for at home? It is the greatest with strong coffee, it would make my little bialetti so happy.

sunlight + warmth

2009-04-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

I was just sitting in the backyard at the wooden picnic table, drawing my hands and feet and trying to be calm. It feels amazing to be alive today. We have sun.

I was able to have coffee with the amazing Tuey Burns this morning. In Portland she is best known for having thrown a year of delicious cake parties. The cake parties were once a month events with the underlying intention of fostering community and friendship. For one year, Tuey baked giant cakes and invited any number of people by postcard or by mouth but never by email or text message as these forms of communication are too impersonal. Over cake and coffee or tea, all sorts of connections were made. She is one of those people who is also a bridge. We spent all morning discussing our favorite cookbooks, and then food and relationships. What else is there to talk about?

here is a list of her recent favorite cooking blogs.

1. 101 cookbooks

2. http://clumbsycookie.blogspot.com

3. www.cakespy.com (She's having a cake party with this woman in Seattle this weekend.

4. http://whipped the blog.com

5. http://bread-and-honey.blogspot.com

6. http://sassyradish.com

procrastination station

2009-04-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

Why hello,

It's been too long again. I forgot about writing on this thing which is perfect as I'm moving. No one likes moving but I like the way it forces one to evaluate all the things we carry. It helps trim down possessions. I have so many boxes of books that stay in the boxes and seem quite fascinating as I attempt to rid myself of things. I can't help but buy quirky old books, momentarily forgetting how heavy they will be to lug about. I am keeping these books as a charm to ward off future purchases and additional heavy boxes. I'll tell you how it goes if I remember to write.

I am moving in with my best friend, Sarah, for the summer. She has been living alone in a cute mid-century house for a couple of years with her kitty. It's a bit further out than I am used to but the additional blocks will force me to ride further on my bikes and stay less out of shape. And we can have dinner parties too. There are already several in the works as well as a hot and heavy discussion about getting some chickens. I love chickens but mostly I love fresh eggs. The eggs available for purchase in the grocery store can't compete with their timid pale yellow corn-and-soybean-fed yolks. The best eggs are from chickens that eat bugs and kitchen scraps and actually go outside. Hopefully we will be able to jimmy-rig some sort of a coop and a run in the next couple of weeks.

As far as prints go. I just finished a run of revolvers with a luminous orange heart. My camera is packed away at my new house so I can't take a picture or post anything to etsy yet, but it's on the agenda.

is it spring?

2009-03-24T12:54:00.001-07:00

hello,

I am sitting in Lark Press at the desk in the back, scanning in drawings. It's nice to be here as I have positioned the little speakers to our stereo on each side of me and I am falling in love with Andrew Bird's weather systems album. It is wonderful and I had no idea. Yes, yes, in a minute I will print brown birds on bigger bridges and get to work on new plates for new prints. In the meantime I need a little time to meander with my thoughts. Another colorless sky out the big glass garage doors has me longing for the warm stimulating cheer of coffee or tea. When will it feel like spring again? I long for warmth and light. Before long, I will have some exciting new prints to show. promise.

bones

2009-03-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

2009-03-12T08:56:00.000-07:00

I finally have the red bikes and the brown bikes in Spanish up on etsy now.

2009-03-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

secrets and pizza

2009-02-23T18:25:00.000-08:00

Seeing as I can't much bear to tell anyone about writing here, this is like a little secret. I did tell Rashel, but no one else.

I found out how incredibly easy it is to make pizza this week. Yes, you probably knew that, but I had never tried before. I even used the dough recipe on the side of my new bag of bob's red mill flour. You simply mix up 2.5 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar and then in a separate bowl you combine 1 cup of warm water (105-115 degrees) and a tablespoon of yeast. You add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the water and yeast bowl and then dump it into the sweet and salty flour, mixing everything with a wooden spoon until it becomes too irresistable to the hands or too hard to stir. You can then grab the dough and knead it until elastic.

Then you make the dough into a ball and drop it into a greased bowl and cover it for an hour or two while it doubles in size. I made the dough a day early and crammed it into the freezer at my best friend Sarah's house after it had risen. The next day, she let it thaw and we had a pizza party.

Each doughball, as described above, makes 2 smaller pizzas. Through trial and error we realized it works better if you make the dough thin by doing the sort of fist moves we've seen in pizza places. Simply rolling or smooshing the dough out on a baking sheet didn't neccesarily make it thin or round enough. And it's fun to work with dough, slowly stretching it out on the hands in fists and then lying it down on a baking sheet or pizza stone and sticking it in the oven. Then you cover up the disks with sauce and cheese and stick it back in the oven. If I'm not mistaken, we baked the pizzas at 375, first alone for about 5 minutes and then with a blanket of cheese and toppings for maybe 10 minutes longer. It was a group effort, and I admit I wasn't paying as much attention to temperature and timing as I would when cooking alone.

I was also making cilantro pesto, which involved a lot of stem removal and blender button pushing. It turned out great and I would highly recommend it for anyone with an extra bunch of cilantro on hand. I merely plucked the leaves, crammed them into the blender and added some decent olive oil, a nice pinch of salt, a handful of walnut pieces, a small clove of peeled garlic and a little parmesan, then pushed the blender buttons until it was all minced up and adjusted the ingredients too taste. In the end it tasted far better smeared fresh on the pizza rather than baked. It is wonderful stuff, and really quite easy to make. I've thought of making it for years but somehow needed the impetus of a pizza party to make it a reality.

2009-02-15T14:24:00.000-08:00

al volver: a postcard from portland oregon

2009-02-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

Hello,

I am back in Portland after a very quick month away. While I was gone, I decided that I ought to start writing one of these things as a companion piece to my etsy store (www.bittersugar.etsy.com).

It's hard to get started.

I may as well tell you that I just spent the last of my Powell's bookstore credit buying an old weathered illustrated Spanish Dictionary (rances diccionario illustrado de la lengua española) and a slutty sale cookbook about Mexican Cantina Cooking. The dictionary has nearly crumbling cheap brown pages and excellent line drawings. The cookbook is sleazy. I say this because of the big shiny saturated food pictures and awkward writing in the beginning about the Mexicans and how they eat. I was flipping through it just now and, maybe I am tired, but it reads a little like kitchy 1960's touristy books about exotic far-away places. The recipes however, are gorgeous. If I actually continue to write on this thing, I may even post one if it is well received.

I hope you are well. That's all for today.